Hello, hello - this chapter begins the point of view switches. I wanted to give some insight into other points of view, since this is based on the manga/anime. I won't always do it, I know that much, but sometimes it'll occur so I'll just put the name of the POV in bold/italic.

Purge:

80% of the world's population consisted of people that developed their quirks at a young age. 20% would never get one.

I always figured the quirkless were pointless. Why were any even still in society? They were merely in the way of an ever-evolving world, and might as well be as extinct as cavemen. No one cared about their well-being anyway.

So then why did the long, illustrious career that I'd built get so easily destroyed by one of them? One variable that shouldn't have happened.

Quirkless humans had no business being outspoken, or acting like they were just as important as anyone else. Kisaski Kirita obviously never taught his daughter the truth about the world they were in. She deserved to die as much as he did.

At least, I thought with a sly grin as I watched my orange-headed prey walk down the school steps with her head bent down staring at the ground, I was always careful about leaving behind evidence.

Without any evidence about my past transgressions, my jail sentence was not as long as I feared it'd be. The detectives also couldn't be too sure about what really killed Mr. Kirita, for his body had been burned beyond any attempt to find out. The fire was set as an accident, and all I was charged with was attempted manslaughter… the jail sentence easily shortened by my 'sincere' guilt for my actions.

I quietly followed the brat as she walked, hopping behind bushes and around corners any time she slowly turned her head to see if someone was following. She would get what was coming to her soon.

I paused the next time I checked around a bush to see if she'd continued walking… she'd disappeared from view next to the opening of an alleyway at the center of two, run-down apartment buildings.

Is she living on the streets then…? Heh, serves her right… I thought, giddily walking over to peer around the corner.

The sight I was met with came most unexpectedly.

The end of a sword pointed at the center of my face that I automatically crossed my eyes to nervously look at. Only after a moment of that did I dare to look across into those same, cold blue orbs that haunted my nightmares during my time in prison.

How…? How?! I thought furiously. How is it that even now, she dares to look at me without fear? How did she guess that I was following her?

One corner of her lips twitched as she eyed me challengingly, "Ready for our rematch, Purge?"

Chise Kirita:

After I asked him that question I took a few steps back, luring him into the shadows of the alley. Surely he didn't want to be caught fighting a young quirkless girl so soon after getting out of prison, right? I was only giving him what he so desired — innocent imaginary shrug intended.

I had known, as soon as I received the text from the old geezer, that Purge would want an immediate confrontation. I'd been training for this moment of truth for a while now, and I intended on proving my capability — both to that scum and, honestly, to myself.

The old geezer dropped off my sword — and the black, hooded cloak I wore at night when doing vigilante work with Koichi and Kazuho — in this preselected alleyway. It was the perfect setting; away from prying eyes, and an area where both Purge and myself can fight comfortably.

I loved the hooded cloak because it was easy to put on, already fastened at my neck a mere moment before he poked his head around the corner.

Purge followed me easily into the shade, his hand already forming into a thick sword as he grinned maniacally at me. "You really want to finish where we left off? You only got away last time because you caught me off guard, and those vigilantes interrupted."

"Whether that's true or not doesn't matter," I replied with a smirk, slowly sliding my sword along the side of the nearby garbage bin with a high-pitched scraaaaape before brandishing it toward him. "Not when I did you a hell of a lot more damage than you did me."

I wasn't kidding when I mentioned the damage — there were a lot of burn scars that mottled his body. Patches of thick, wrinkly skin on his chest and cheeks were prominent against skin that was pale from the years behind bars.

"Really?" he sneered. "We'll see about that, you brat!"

The battle was commenced as Purge lunged at me. I blocked his first hit, and came back at him with one of my own that he quickly formed a shield with his other hand to block me. The moment he pushed me back, the shield was retracted and he formed a sword again. From there, we traded blows back and forth, his footing rather sloppy — from years of no practice or from never having that level of expertise, I did not know.

"This is child's play," he said, his facial expression the same sneer that he started fighting me with.

"If it is, then why do you still look so upset?" I taunted. "If it was truly child's play," I continued, swiping down at his feet only for his hand sword to unform and a shield to morph out of his bare foot as he kicked my blade away. "Then wouldn't you be smiling? If you're having so much fun losing to me, then you should at least learn to smile more don't you think?"

His nostrils flared angrily, "Shut the hell up!" His hand sword came out again to try to slash me.

I quickly held up my blade to block it, gritting my teeth as our blades clashed and scraped in a tight lock against each other. Our weights were uneven, so his body pushed a lot more heavily against me. On the bright side, I wasn't as weak as he expected me to be when I pushed some of my strength into it.

"How…?" he gritted out, also pushing more than just his weight into my blade. "How are… you… doing this?"

I let out a deep breath before mustering all my strength into pushing him back, catching him off guard as he lost his balance for a brief moment. "I trained for this," I said, reaching my hand out to snag him by the shirt.

I didn't anticipate how soon he'd regain his composure, or how quick he'd be to retaliate.

I realized my mistake when he grinned, a blade protruding from his foot as he did the same trick from when I was a kid. He put one hand to the ground to push himself upside-down and spin his legs in a wide circle.

Damnit.. I thought as I jumped back… I need to work on my reflexes, I realized as blood dripped down from my left eyebrow. "Really? You resort to the same old trick to win?"

"You ask that as if it didn't just get you again," he noted with a wide grin.

I swung at him, stopped only by a shield being formed in my way before his sword hand returned and we traded blows again. I was humored when I noticed the sweat beading off his forehead, his eyes shifting nervously as he attempted to put more force in his swings to push me back.

I smirked, stepping aside during one of his more sporadic lunges to watch him fall on his face with the extreme motion. He lay there for a moment, clenching his fists as he stood and glared at nowhere in particular for a few moments.

"So…" I said, "does this mean you're at your limit? There's a sturdy wall there, or a nice garbage bin you can —"

In the next moment, he rushed toward the garbage bin I had just mentioned… opening his mouth wide, revealing sharp metal teeth, and sinking them into the side of it. The crunch of metal against metal was deafening as he pulled away, a sizable chunk taken out of the bin as he chewed loudly and glared at me.

"— bite…" I finished my sentence half-heartedly.

When he finally swallowed his… snack?… he swung an instantaneous sword formation at me that I easily parried as he asked, "How did you know I would do that?"

Despite his mid-fight snack giving him an extra boost of strength, Purge was still significantly more weakened than when our fight started. To be fair, so was I, but I didn't have the drawback of the downsides of a quirk to weigh me down as much as someone of his caliber — I was just hot and tired.

And I was enjoying every moment of it.

"You claim that quirkless people have no place in this world, but look at how easily I just forced you to use your quirk past your limit!" I exclaimed, pushing him backwards until he was leaning against the garbage bin. "How much do you use it, do you think? Maybe just a little bit with two sword hands, scraping them against each other to induce a bit of fear into your victims? Then, it seems you only use one when you're ready to stab the life out of someone as — really — it's all you need for mere quirkless nobodies, right? However, it's because of that that you never fully prepared for when you might need to use your quirk a little longer in any given situation. You haven't practiced enough —"

Purge gave a battle cry, forming a larger shield with spikes sticking out of the front of it as he charged at me. This I also sidestepped, openly laughing as he collided with the brick building.

I continued, tsking as I walked around, "It leads me to believe that you used those tactics on someone else before looking for me today, and that's why you can't seem to form two body parts at the same time…. Shame, really, because I wanted to fight you at full strength. But it's understandable I guess — you wanted to have one last win before I send you back to jail with another loss."

He spun toward me in a hot fury, "Shut the hell up, brat! You haven't won a damn thing! Answer my question — how did you know?" He stumbled then, falling to his knees with only his shield keeping him upright.

I shrugged, "Easy. Now that you have a criminal record, there's a whole description of your quirk in the database. Your strengths… your drawbacks… the main one being that using it too much lowers your iron levels, and it causes you to crave non-regular items for food. Your teeth are strong enough to chew anything — hence why I chose this alley. It was funny waiting to see if you'd eat the building or the garbage bin.

"Anyway," I raised one hand in slight defeat as he growled, and I sheathed my sword. "I wanted a long fight with you but, since you had to ruin my comeback like that, I guess I'm done here."

"You're what?" he sneered in dismay.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you didn't hear me?" I mocked. "I'm. Done. Here. Good day."

"Our fight's… not over.. yet…" he struggled to stand up, still using the shield as leverage to push himself to his feet. I chuckled lightly as he made it to his feet, ready to step toward me except for the fact that his legs began to wobble… and, in the next few seconds, he was on his knees again with a groan of frustration.

With a derisive snort, I turned to walk away, "Luckily for you, I want to be a hero, otherwise you would be dead right now. The police will be here to pick you up for the attempted murder of the quirkless woman around the block."

"H-how do you —"

"— know about that?" I finished his sentence with a smirk over my shoulder before facing forward again. "I'm more capable than you and the rest of the world want to give me credit for —"

The distinct sound of metal being flung through the air made me pause my speech as I quickly turned around, taken aback by the sight of my old geezer in his vigilante outfit with his back facing me. In his hand was a knife, noticeably pointed in my direction, that he must've caught. I glanced over his shoulder to see Purge, visibly distressed with one arm still outstretched.

The geezer's outfit was mainly black, but with a green detective-like jacket. A black bandana with holes cut out for his eyes stretched over his head, and was neatly knotted in the back. He was technically retired from vigilante work, but he'd donned his outfit just to keep a close eye on me as he told me he'd do. Obviously he ignored my explicit instructions not to, but when did anyone ever trust me to take care of things on my own?

He turned to me with a grin on his face, "You did great! But, remember, I told you never to turn your back on an opponent."

"He was down — and there was never anything in the reports about him being able to detach the metal from his body!" I retorted, glaring pointedly at the Quirkless Killer.

He glanced at Purge with a scowl before seriously turning back to me. "That's because there's not. The scoundrel pulled this out of his back pocket when you weren't paying attention. I thought the Crawler told you to stop doing that. You may have won the fight, but your arrogance can cause you to lose your life. You're lucky I was here."

I waved a hand with a sigh, "I would've been fine. I could've caught it myself." I really couldn't have, but I was not about to admit that.

He wasn't nearly as fooled as I could've hoped as he responded sarcastically, "Sure you could. Now…" he tossed the knife in the garbage and pounded his thick fists together. "Time to pound his face in."

The Quirkless Killer's face blanched immediately, and he fell backwards on his butt. The shield retracted back into a hand.

"I told you 'no,' KD!" I said, grabbing the old geezer's arm to keep him from following through with his threat. "It's bad enough that you just interfered! I don't want your grubby hands laying even a finger on him!"

KD was also a nickname, but it was for his vigilante name: Knuckleduster. Why was that his vigilante name? Here's the main reason… because in the next moment, he had his signature brass knuckles on his hands as he stood in front of Purge with a nasty grin on his face.

"I'll refrain from punching him if you admit you needed my help."

"KD," I said sternly. "I said 'no.' Besides, when you start punching someone, you don't know when to stop."

"I'm putting my foot down, kid. You either admit you would've been dead without me, or I'm going to do what I want with the scum that killed your father and other quirkless people in cold blood. You don't get to have it all your way, you have to choose."

I frowned, realizing where he was getting at. Koichi and Makoto were frustrated by the fact that I didn't express gratefulness, and they made sure everyone knew it. They had to force me, half the time, to thank someone for helping me because otherwise I didn't do it on my own. In my defense, why would I say thank you if I didn't ask for help? After everything I'd gone through, all I wanted to do was prove to myself and everyone around me that I could handle anything and everything everyone else could on their own.

That's not to say that I didn't know when to ask for help because, like I mentioned before, I knew I had to ask my adopted family in order to spruce up my abilities thus far. It's also not the same to say I couldn't work with anyone, because I joined Koichi and Kazuho on nightly investigations and included the old geezer on my plan to get payback on the Quirkless Killer…. It is just weird to say thank you.

So get off my back, reader.

"You do know the police will be here soon enough, right?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow, noticing with some quiet satisfaction that Purge was shaking his head nervously. Hoping and praying for me to admit I needed KD so he wouldn't get more injured than he already was.

"You do know that doesn't matter, right?" he replied, his eyes never leaving the mess of a man on the ground. "I'll be done before they get here. And he'll still be conscious while sporting two black eyes. Ready to admit it?"

"Hm.." I hummed shortly, turning to Purge with a short, "It was nice fighting ya," before walking away.

"Wait… no…" the villain panicked, stumbling to get up only to fall back down. "Don't leave me here! Hey! Come back!"

"What are you so worried about?" I asked as I pulled my cloak off my head and picked up my backpack that I'd mercilessly tossed to the side when reaching the alley in the first place.

All I could hear, even as I turned the corner while stowing my cloak away in my backpack, was Purge's shrieks of fear.

"You could have been killed," Naomasa said… for the billionth time.

I made it home not long before the old geezer did and, as I correctly guessed, snitched on me like a bird. Oh, but Naomasa wasn't there when he explained it — no, the old geezer told Koichi and Makoto. Amazingly enough, it was Makoto that told her brother what I'd done.

Sometimes I have to wonder what made my adopted parents knight him as the main punisher. Was it something I did? Perhaps I'll never know.

"I was fine, 'Masa," I said exasperatedly, sprawling out on the couch in the living room. "You see I'm still here in one piece, right?"

"I see a fresh cut over your eye," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"See? I didn't lose a limb, I just got a small cut. Nothing major."

"Don't brush it off like it's nothing, Chise. This is the most reckless thing you've ever done. I'd say it takes a certain privilege off, don't you?"

"Oh no," I carelessly waved my hands back and forth in front of me, sarcastically asking, "What are you going to take away?"

Naomasa's frown deepened and he held a hand out, "Your vigilante suit, Chise. If you can't be responsible about it, then you obviously don't need it."

I let out a heavy breath before smiling brightly, "I couldn't agree more."

There was a pregnant pause before he stuttered, "Wh-what?"

"Well…" I rummaged through my backpack, pulling out the hooded cloak and holding it out for him to take. "I've done all I can with it. Now that the Quirkless Killer is back behind bars, I'm done being a vigilante. So you don't have to worry about that anymore."

Naomasa took it out of my hand, eyeing me curiously. "Does that mean you're thinking of applying to the police force?"

I snorted derisively, "No, 'Masa. I applied for UA's Hero Course next year."

His face fell so fast, it was ridiculous. "Chise, what are you going to do if they don't let you in?"

My own eyes hardened as I stared back at him, "Okay, so I've got a lot of training to do. I'm stopping vigilante work so I can focus on getting into UA. I know I can't be a hero if I still have a vigilante's mindset, and I'm never giving the police force a chance."

Naomasa's lips tightened considerably, but he nodded his consent nonetheless. "All right. I support you, and I know everyone else will… but, one wrong move and I can take you right out. Understand?"

My lips tightened just as much as I stood to sidle away to my room, "Clear as day."

"Uh uh," he held up a finger, causing me to pause my slow action. "You're not off the hook, young lady. You gave up the vigilante outfit too easily. Next best thing is for your punishment to include making this house spotless."

"Oh, I figured," I replied with an adamant nod. "I was just going to get my workout outfit. Cleaning the penthouse is an exercise best done in shorts and a tank top."

Naomasa crossed his arms again in frustration, "Is there any form of work for you to do that would equate to punishment?"

Koichi picked just that moment to walk through the living room on the way to the kitchen with an instantaneous response, "Nope. Welcome to my world."

"What world? You don't punish her."

Taking a juice out of the refrigerator, he came back out on the way back to his and Makoto's bedroom, "Do you see now why we left punishments to you?"

I held a hand over my mouth to hide the humored smile I couldn't hold back.

A few days later, the old geezer walked into my room as I was doing my reflex exercise — a ten pound weight held tightly in each hand as I punched the air — my arms burning from the workout. He sat down on my bed, waiting a few minutes until I set the weights on their rack and dropped my numb arms down to my side with deep, heavy breaths.

"You're training hard," he remarked with a small smile.

"Yeah," I breathed, dabbing my sweaty face with my towel as I sat down next to him. "What is it?"

He handed me an envelope with UA's insignia on the front.

I quickly snatched it from him, forgetting my exhaustion for the time being as I ripped it open to read what they said.

My application was accepted for taking the exam.

The word 'accepted' alone made me ecstatic.

Maybe the world was becoming a little more open to people of all abilities. A little. To allow a quirkless girl like me to take the entrance exam was almost unthinkable before they changed their rules. Admittedly, though, it was almost as if they were desperate for as many new heroes as possible. It was a curious idea.

However… what is this…?

"'Recommendation Entrance Exam…?'" I read aloud off the page, glancing up at the old geezer in confusion. "I sent in a regular application. Who recommended me?"

He smiled, "I did."

Now I'm really confused… "How?"

Placing a warm hand on my shoulder, he explained, "I was a hero once. My word still holds some weight in an institution like UA."

My eyes widened. For a society of superheroes, here I'd been thinking I was going to be the first official quirkless hero. "You were a hero?… Then why did you become a vigilante?"

He already knew where my thoughts had been without me outright admitting it. "I wasn't always quirkless, kid. I had a quirk once, and I used it to bust a lot of underground villains… but I don't want to dampen your lucky day. You have less than a year before the entrance exam. What are you going to do?"

"There's a lot to prepare," I said thoughtfully. "I need to study to keep my grades up, and come up with more invention ideas for Mei that I may need, and do some more training…." I eyed his reaction as I said 'training,' letting out a chuckle as he gave the barest of nods. "Could you please help me train, ya generous old geezer?"

He grinned, "I'd love to, kid."

Naomasa Tsukauchi:

Where was he?

He said he was coming, didn't he?

Of course he did. He didn't want to let anyone down.

I sat at my desk, shuffling through the papers I'd been staring at all day with no sense of attention for the investigations they were about. All I could think about was Chise. Hard headed, reckless Chise training herself for UA immediately after almost getting herself killed fighting the villain that took away everything she once had.

It was maddening. I try to keep her safe, and she deliberately disobeys by going towards the danger. It was no wonder Makoto had come to me all those years ago to help keep her in line. The girl was defiant to the end.

A knock at the door broke me out of my thoughts. Could he finally be here?

"Come in!"

The door opened inward, the outside of the door revealing both my name printed on the gold plate and my guest. A thin man with sallow blue eyes and wild blond hair. He smiled brightly at me as he closed the door behind him.

"Toshinori," I said in relief, gesturing to the seat in front of my desk. "It's good to see you. Please, sit down. Don't mind the mess, I'll take care of it later."

My desk was a tornado of papers. Why? I wasn't particularly sure. I usually kept it immaculately organized.

"Good to see you, too, Tsukauchi. Is everything okay?" he asked, sitting down with a small groan as he eyed me curiously. "When you called me, it sounded so urgent."

"In all honesty, I should just get right to the point with you," I said, leaning forward on my elbows to keep my arms from shaking. Toshinori was a good friend, but what I was about to ask him would be the biggest favor yet. Out of all the favors I'd ever asked of him, there was no way I'd be able to pay him back for this. "I was hoping you'd consider giving your 'gift' to my niece."

Toshinori eyed me in silent shock.

I quickly attempted to elaborate, pulling a packet of papers I had printed out especially for this occasion. "To be technical, she's my adopted niece — my sister and her husband adopted her after she lost her father to a villain who went by the Quirkless Killer seven years ago. Her name is Chise Kirita. She's quirkless, but she has her heart set on getting into UA's hero course next year, and… I just don't want anything bad to happen to her."

He took the papers from me, eyeing them thoughtfully as I rambled on before he finally spoke. "It would definitely be difficult to get by as a hero without a quirk."

I felt a sense of relief that he understood where I was getting at. "That's precisely why I wanted to ask this of you, if you would only think about it. I'm not expecting an answer now —"

Toshinori was hesitant as he put her papers down in front of him, "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" I asked, my heart dropping rapidly.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he talked, "Tsukauchi.. the thing is.. I already found my successor."

"Y-you did?"

He nodded, "I've already promised it to a fine young man…. No offense to your niece, though, but when putting her history into account One for All is a liability."

I leaned heavily back into my chair, "No offense, believe me. I understand your reservations. It's just disappointing, you know."

Toshinori's eyes were regretful as he replied, "I'm so sorry."