Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

The Hero Commission had been reluctant at first to give Izuku his license. They pointed out that the exam got interrupted. When Aizawa wondered aloud what would happen if footage of Izuku saving Hawks from Stain leaked to the press, the commissioners flinched and hastily agreed that he had done more than enough to pass. He walked out an hour later with a shiny new license in his wallet.

Mina had stopped trying to talk to him after the first couple days. Izuku could tell, since he wasn't spontaneously leaving the cafeteria mid-meal. Through the perpetual numbness of precognition, it still left a painful twinge in his chest.

This is the way it's supposed to be, he firmly reminded himself. No more straying outside his Quirk's path. That always had consequences. If he let up on it for even a second, he knew he would be a quivering mess on the floor.

Ojiro, Koda, and Iida, and Agoyamato sat at lunch with him that day. They threw the occasional glance at Mina, who had taken to sitting with Kirishima and Bakugo.

"Did something happen between you two?" Ojiro asked.

Iida glanced sharply at Ojiro and said in a reproachful tone, "Ojiro-san, it's rude to pry into other people's personal affairs."

"No, it's fine. We just broke up."

The guys around him winced. Agoyamato gave him a sharp look and said, "Do you plan on keeping that out of your social media accounts?"

"Yeah."

"Good. If word leaks out, let me handle damage control."

Agoyamato dove straight into his hamburger, while the rest of Izuku's friends picked at their food. Koda signed at Izuku, "What do you plan to do?"

For a precarious second, Izuku's sense of the future wobbled, as though it couldn't tell which way it wanted to go. He firmly pulled it back into its original path before he could start panicking.

"Nothing. It's over."

At the finality in Izuku's words, everyone else grimaced and went back to their food. Izuku barely tasted his own. In his head, he was turning over the strange turn of events that had happened while he was fighting Stain. Clearly, it was a lingering side-effect from the breakup, but how did his emotional state tie into his Quirk when his Quirk stopped him from feeling anything? No matter how much he analyzed his Quirk, Izuku came away with more questions than answers.

As Izuku left the cafeteria, Iida pulled him aside. He waited until the crowd left and looked around to make sure they were alone before he started speaking.

"I never got a chance to thank you for what you did this summer," he said. "I let my anger get the better of me, and it nearly got us both killed."

"It's okay. That's what heroes do, Iida-san."

"Tenya will be fine." Iida gave Izuku a short bow. "I owe you a lot. I strayed from my path as a hero, and I nearly allowed someone else to die for my petty anger. I should have never allowed my emotions to get the better of me like that. Thank you for saving me."

"Don't worry about it. You'll know next time to keep your emotions under control."

If experience had taught Izuku anything, it was that acting on your emotions leads only to pain.

Iida nodded resolutely. "You believed I could be a hero, even when I was starting to doubt it. I will endeavor to live up to your faith in me. Next time, I will make sure not to let my emotions cloud my judgement!"

"Glad to hear it. So, how's your brother doing?"

Iida grimaced and quickly regained his exposure. "He's starting physical therapy so he can move around in a wheelchair. I've been visiting him once a week to tell him about school. I… told him about Stain, and all that. He was very impressed with you and… less impressed with me."

"Could I come visit him sometime?"

"Absolutely! I would be honored to invite you along next time I visit him, assuming, of course, it works with your schedule."

Already knowing the time and date and having set time aside for it, Izuku said, "I can make it work."

"Excellent. Now, if you'll excuse me, I promised to visit Tensei today. See you tomorrow."

Once Iida was gone, Todoroki came out from around the corner. "I was waiting to ask you something. Do you have time?"

"Of course. What is it?"

Todoroki gave him a wary stare and said, "First off, I want to know what's going on between you and Endeavor."

"I interned under him and trained with his sidekicks."

"Why? Why him? You had All Might make an offer, and you chose him instead."

Izuku took a deep breath and leaned against a wall. His first inclination was to give his usual answer, but his precognition showed him doing otherwise. "He threatened to have me blacklisted from every Hero Agency if I didn't let you win the Sports Festival."

Todoroki's eyes went wide. "Wait, but you-"

"I made him a counter-offer. If I won the festival, he would take me on as an intern. If I didn't, I would drop out of the Hero Course."

"And he kept his end of the bargain?" Todoroki thought about it and reluctantly nodded. "If there's one good thing I can say about him, it's that he always keeps his promises." More bitterly, he added, "No matter what it takes."

Todoroki stared down at the floor, in deep concentration. Izuku stayed where he was, knowing that the conversation wasn't done yet.

"You interned with him, even after he threatened you? Why didn't you ditch his offer?"

"Because I keep my promises too."

"And the whole thing about telling me to use his - use my fire, he didn't put you up to that?"

"Nope."

Todoroki pushed his bi-colored bangs out of his eyes. "I thought this whole time that you were in his pocket. Sorry about that."

"It's fine, though I don't understand what's going on between you two. He was furious when he learned you weren't interning with him, but otherwise, I don't know anything."

Prompted by Izuku's unspoken question, Todoroki laid out his family's situation, his mother in a mental hospital after having scarred him, his brother committing suicide by Quirk overuse after being cast aside, and the years of strenuous training to form Shoto into Endeavor's perfect hero.

Izuku had known all this, though his Quirk only had a clear sight of this conversation after Stain nearly took his head off. It made his stomach twist itself in knots, learning everything that the hero he had interned under had done to his family. Endeavor threatening Izuku barely registered, plenty of people had done worse to him, but to what he put his family through horrified Izuku.

As Izuku listened to it all, he wished there was something he could do to help Shoto, maybe get him placed in protective custody, or invite him to stay at his place, or maybe even use his funds to move him out into an apartment until the U.A. dorms are done. His Quirk showed him nothing.

"I don't know what you could do about that," Izuku admitted.

Todoroki shrugged. "He yelled at me for going off with Selkie-sensei, but when I showed him that I had trained with my fire, he cooled off. For now, it's fine, and once I move out, I won't have to deal with him anymore."

The clocks ticked along the wall as the conversation stalled. Izuku asked, "Is there anything else?"

Todoroki, startled out of his silent thoughts, sheepishly looked at him. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something else. We got sidetracked. I asked Ojiro and Iida earlier, and they both suggested that I asked you, since you have actual experience in the matter. I didn't want to ask you at first, since I thought Endeavor would try to stop it if he found out."

"I won't tell him."

"Thank you. So, I'm dating Tsu-chan. I don't know how to date someone."

"I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask, considering what happened between me and Ashido-san."

Shoto looked thoughtful at that. "Then tell me to do the opposite of what you did, and that should work."

While Izuku would ordinarily be skeptical of such logic, he had seen exactly what he needed to do to win over Mina, and he foresaw the Tsuyu and Todoroki sticking together, at least until the summer training session, where his foresight got a lot fuzzier.

"You have to be confident," Izuku said. "Calm, collected, and not showing any emotion."

"People tell me I have the last one down," Todoroki said.

"You also have to be suave and romantic. Tell her she's beautiful. Bring flowers or chocolates, maybe both. Kiss her at the first opportunity."

"You think that will work?"

"It's what would have worked for me."

Todoroki nodded. "Thank you for the advice. And congratulations on the provisional license. Endeavor mentioned it over dinner."

Todoroki lingered at the school, having taken Selkie's suggestion to speak with the school counselor. Izuku, on the other hand, went straight home, just as his Quirk showed him.

All he could do was follow his Quirk as perfectly as he could, and hope it cleared itself up with time.

Iida had walked past Musutafu General's reception area and up to the receptionist's desk when an amused Tensei cleared his throat from the other side of the room. With a nurse hovering over him, Tensei rolled his wheelchair over to his younger brother.

"Tensei, you're moving yourself around?"

"Just got approval from the docs this morning." Tensei leaned awkwardly out of his chair, arms outstretched, and Iida leaned down to hug him.

"That's great news! Is there any word on how much longer you'll be here?"

"They want to keep me another week to make sure I don't get any sores from this blasted thing." Tensei thumped the side of his wheelchair. "But enough about me. How was your first week back at school?"

Iida rolled his brother over to one of the hospital's break areas on the lower floor. He helped himself to an apple as he glossed over the training activities the class went through. Before he could stop himself, he mentioned Izuku's breakup.

"I apologize, I should not have mentioned that."

Tensei chuckled and patted his brother on the shoulder. "A little gossip never hurt anyone. So, how's he taking it?"

"Very well! He has shown no decline in his usual class performance, and his behavior is the same as ever. He has excellent control over his emotions."

Tensei frowned at that. "There's nothing wrong with feeling upset about something."

"But, what happened with this summer, wouldn't it have been better if I-"

"You're saying you would have rather not felt anything when you heard I got injured?"

Iida stopped short at his brother's raised eyebrow. "I, no, I don't mean to disrespect you, brother, it's just that…"

"Going after him was a mistake," Tensei said firmly, "But feeling the way you did? That's okay. What's important is finding a constructive outlet for those emotions, whether it's crying on someone's shoulder, or talking with a therapist. You've been seeing Hound Dog, right?"

Iida nodded. "It's hard, talking about it. You were such a great hero, I don't understand why… it should have been me, I was the one that-"

Tensei reached across the table and took Iida's hand. "Never say that. What happened to me shouldn't happen to anyone, especially if it's only because they're a little human. If I count as a fake hero in Stain's book, then I doubt that there's a hero in Japan that can measure up to his ideals." He pretended to think for a moment with a mock serious expression and added, "Well, maybe except All Might. He might be a bit better than me."

Iida chuckled at Tensei's antics and said, "No, you're way better than All Might." The smile vanished from Iida's face. "At least, you were…"

Tensei wheeled around the table and put an arm around Iida's shoulder. "It's not the end of the world, Iida. I'll still run the Ingenium Agency, the sidekicks can handle things until you take over."

"Me? But... but I-"

"Unless you don't want to. It's your choice how you want to-"

"No, I'll do it!" Tears streamed down Iida's face. "I - I'll do my best to live up to the Ingenium name."

"You'll do better than that," Tensei said with a smile as he patted his brother's back. "I know you will."

Tsuyu knew she was in for an awkward date the moment she saw the flowers. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was a small bouquet, but Todoroki was not known for his subtlety. Half of the table stood piled high with roses of all colors, except red. Green was the most common by far. If Tsuyu had to guess, he bought all the green ones first, before deciding they weren't enough and adding the rest.

The restaurant was sparsely populated, but the few people eating there gave the pile of roses curious glances, and in turn, gave her glances as she sat down. She heard one woman mutter how lucky she was from a few tables over.

"What's all this?" Tsuyu asked as she shoved enough roses aside to make room for her plate.

"Flowers."

With no further explanation forthcoming, Tsuyu asked, "Why did you bring all these flowers?"

"I asked Midoriya-san for advice on how to date someone."

"And he suggested bringing a mountain of flowers?"

"I didn't know how many to get, so I got as many as I could carry." He reached under the table and pulled out a big box. "I also have chocolates."

"Let me guess, Midoriya's idea?"

"I didn't know which kind to get, so I got the biggest box."

Tsuyu checked the price sticker still stuck on the bottom of the box. It was marked at 20,000 yen.

"Shoto, this is a bit too much, you don't need to-"

Todoroki abruptly closed his eyes and leaned forward. Startled by his sudden movement, Tsuyu flung her tongue out and stopped him short of her face.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from trying to kiss her. Tsuyu was all too aware of how his lips felt on her tongue.

Todoroki opened his eyes and looked down at the tongue in front of him. "This is called french kissing, right? When it's with the tongue?"

Tsuyu felt her face burning up as everyone in the restaurant stared at them. She withdrew her tongue and asked, "What exactly did Midoriya-kun tell you to do?"

As she listened to Todoroki recount Midoriya's advice, she inwardly groaned. She thought that perhaps Mina wasn't as much to blame for the break-up as she had first imagined.

"Look," Tsuyu said, "Everyone's different. What might appeal to one person could be a huge turn-off for another."

"You're saying I should have asked you what your preferences were before doing anything?" Todoroki asked.

"There's that, but I think it's better to just be yourself. If it works out that way, then you aren't struggling to act a different way to keep your partner happy, and if it doesn't work out, then you know you're not a good match for each other.

"Oh." Todoroki studied the giant pile of roses between them. "So I definitely shouldn't have done this."

"It's a bit intimidating," Tsuyu admitted. "Especially with everyone watching."

As Todoroki looked around the room, he startled everyone back into eating their food. With a pensive frown, he asked, "Is the violin a bad idea too?"

Tsuyu panicked and looked around for a violinist to pop out from a back room. "Yes, very bad. Please tell me you didn't get one."

Without a slightest twitch of facial expression, he said, "That was a joke."

Tsuyu let out a relieved sigh. "You had me worried for a second. I don't think I've ever heard you make a joke before."

"I don't think I've made a joke before either. Was it any good?"

"The delivery was terrible, but it was still funny."

Tsuyu's stomach grumbled, reminding them both why they were there. A couple minutes after they called over a waiter, they got their soba dishes. The taste of the chili flakes was muted on her tongue, but the oils and the flavor of the shrimp were delectable to her.

When the bill came, Todoroki opened his wallet. "I ran out of money," he said. "Sorry."

Tsuyu grimaced and dug out enough yen to cover the bill. "Cover next time and we'll be even."

She left the roses behind. The thought of coming home with them and instantly being hounded by her parents and siblings was enough to send a shiver down her spine. A pitying thought went out to the wait staff that would have to clean up all the flowers.

As they walked out of the restaurant, hand in hand, Tsuyu kept the chocolates.

Of all the places that Chizome was expecting his former vigilante peer to lead him, a secret bunker squirreled away underneath the city's sewer system was not on the list. The metal hatch set into a walkway in the abandoned piping was coated with centuries of grime.

"What the hell is this place?" he asked, grateful he no longer had a nose to smell the pervasive stench he could taste in the air.

A pre-Quirk nuclear bomb shelter." Snipe grabbed the crank with gloved hands. On closer inspection, the filth had been coated in resin, so it didn't rub off on him and leave smudges. It slid open easily, its hinges well-oiled and free of rust. "The old government built them to protect them from a nuclear war, only for a different disaster to do them in. Buildings like these were forgotten when Quirks shook things up."

"Making them the perfect place to hide," Chizome said with grudging respect.

Inside, the air was tangibly fresher. The concrete floors were free of dust, and shelf after shelf of food had been restocked with fresh provisions.

"The vigilante network isn't behind this," Chizome remarked. "So who is? Nezu?"

"Nezu got a knife through the chest," Snipe answered bitterly. "This was one of his back-up plans."

"He's dead? I haven't heard anything."

"It's being kept quiet. With the dorms being set up, now's a terrible time to tell the public that our security got compromised. Again."

"If they keep getting in, then maybe you shouldn't be keeping the students there."

Snipe snorted and said, "What's safer, a walled-off school patrolled by experienced heroes, or random homes and apartments scattered across the city? If the villains are really determined to come after our students, keeping them at home is as good as killing them."

Chizome stopped in his tracks and waited, arms crossed, for Snipe to face him. "You called them your students. You're really done, aren't you? Gave up on helping people for a cushy pension?"

"I won't deny the pension, but I've hardly given up. I simply found a new way to help."

"By raising more fakes to replace the ones I cleanse from the world."

Snipe drew a pistol. Chizome pulled a knife out of his sleeve. Within the blink of an eye, they were face to face, Chizome's blade pressing against Snipe's neck, and his pistol aimed between Chizome's eyes.

"Touch any of my students, and I will kill you."

"I don't go after kids." He thought back to the Ingenium wannabe and added, "Except the really stupid ones. Once they call themselves heroes, however, they either live up to that title or they die."

Over the intercom, a digitally distorted voice said, "Come now, is that any way for old friends to treat each other?"

Chizome held his knife poised to throw. He glanced back at the closed hatch and wondered if a trap had been sprung.

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" Chizome snapped.

"Just be patient, I would prefer not to explain myself more than once. Help yourselves to refreshments and have a seat in the war room."

Refreshments consisted of a jug of bottled water, a pot of piping hot tea, and plates of dry, crumbly cookies. Snipe took some tea, while Chizome took a swig of water to wash the sewer stench off his tongue.

The war room, the heart of the bunker, had its own set of reinforced and lead-lined walls. Inside, an antiquated, peeling map of Japan hung on one wall. The table, whose entire surface was a touch-screen interface, had been refurbished and powered on. Hero files were floating on display across the table's surface.

Three others were present in the room, two kids that Chizome dismissed at a glance, and an old face that he was hoping not to run into again. The moment Knuckleduster saw him, his face reddened. He leapt from his seat and stormed over to Chizome.

"Stain," Knuckleduster sneered, "You have a lot of nerve, walking out the way you did. I should beat you to a pulp and leave you for the heroes to find."

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room," the distorted voice chided.

Knuckleduster glared at the table, the source of the voice. "There better be a good reason he's here or I'm walking."

"His services will, unfortunately, be necessary. Have a seat, and we will begin."

Knuckleduster and Chizome took seats on opposite sides of each other, and Snipe took the last open seat between them.

"For your safety as much as mine," the distorted voice began, "I won't be revealing who I am. You may call me Chimera."

"Well, Chimera?" Knuckleduster growled. "I'm waiting."

"Before his untimely run-in with an assassin's knife," Chimera said, "Nezu had been looking into a highly organized, well-funded Quirk supremacist terrorist cell. In other words, the Meta Liberation Army."

Knuckleduster bit back a string of curses. The two kids with him looked confused, and one said, "I haven't heard of them before."

"Well before your time, kid," Chizome said. "I can barely remember Destro getting dragged off to jail. So, you want us to deal with them? Why not go to the vaunted heroes with this information?"

"Two reasons. Nezu lacked tangible proof, and he had yet to uncover the full scale of their operations. What he did uncover, however, is concerning."

The table glowed, and a projection of a Trigger capsule appeared as a holographic projection. Knuckleduster leaned forward, eagerly studying the information.

"They're the bastards behind the drug trade."

"They don't handle distribution. However, they have heavily invested in its production and are working to make a more refined formula. They are also revamping production of Quirk-enhancing gear and gathering as many sympathetic people as they can find. In short, they're preparing a coup d'etat. Their intention is to unseat the Hero Public Safety Commission, remove the hero system altogether and legalize public Quirk usage. From there, they will flood the market with their supplies, and use the funds and public support to supplant the government as a whole."

"And you want us to stop them?" Knuckleduster asked. "Not sure if you noticed, but no-nose over there would be thrilled to have heroes gone."

"You mistake my cause," Chizome retorted. "I merely wish for righteous heroes. Removing them all defeats the purpose."

"Focus, please. You can settle your differences later. Anyways, this will be an infiltration mission. The first step is Stain's." Hero files grew larger on the screen, revealing the names and faces of a dozen heroes. "Nezu was able to confirm numerous heroes with ties to the MLA. Bribes taken, villains making miraculous getaways under their watch, confiscated drug shipments disappearing, and more."

Stain reviewed the documents in front of him. "They shall die."

"Excellent. Now, the presence of these heroes is critical to the MLA's media campaign. Without a voice among the heroes to legitimize them, it'll be harder to justify removing the HPSC, and it'll be rather difficult to recruit more when their sales pitch involves putting them out of a job. That is where the rest of you come in."

"You think they'll try to recruit us?" Knuckleduster asked.

"Of course. Who better to criticize the heroes than the people doing their job for free?"

"You're asking us to play a dangerous game."

"Very true, and I'm prepared to compensate you thoroughly for your efforts. Full pardons, employment or enrollment at U.A., along with whatever intel and assistance I can provide for your daughter, Oguro-san."

"Rescue her immediately or I walk."

"Would that I could, but it takes time to gather that kind of intel, and I only started yesterday. The best I can offer is footage of the men who took her off the street."

A file rose in front of Knuckleduster's table. He checked his phone and saw a file had been uploaded onto it. After watching a few seconds, he scowled and said, "Fine, I'm in."

To Chizome, Chimera said, "I'm afraid I can't pardon your crimes, Stain, but I believe intel on heroes, whatever supplies you need to kill them, and my blind eye to your crimes for the moment should be sufficient price for what I ask."

Chizome shrugged. "Figured as much. Not like I'd be doing anything different anyways."

"Actually, for the moment, kill only these heroes." He could practically hear the venom in Chimera's voice through the filter. "I want you to send the MLA a message."

A/N: a bit short on time today, so I'm keeping this quick. Thanks again for the reviews, faves, and follows, and I'll see you all next week!