The students of Class 1-A watched the video monitors with bated breath.

All Might activated the microphone. "Young Midoriya, are you okay?"

Todoroki noticed the panicked tone to All Might's voice, beyond what was expected for a teacher.

The monitors swapped to an angle from inside the building, behind where Bakugo was standing, his outline visible through the smoke and debris filled air.

"Bakugo, stand down, the match is paused." All Might had gripped the microphone so tightly it had bent.

This did not escape Todoroki's attention either.

The dust slowly settled, allowing the class to see Bakugo properly, standing at the edge of the building, Izuku nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Deki?"

Momo and Kirishima had stopped their fight before All Might's announcement, the massive explosion worrying both of them.

"Do you think Midoriya is okay?" Kirishima rubbed his forearm awkwardly.

Momo gave a worried sigh. "I do not know, I hope he is safe."

"Bakugo doesn't do things by halves, does he?"

Raising her eyebrows, Momo turned her head towards Kirishima.

Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck. "R-Right, but he is pretty strong."

"Strength doesn't make a hero."

Back in the surveillance room, All Might made a decision. "Young Iida, please run and get Recovery Girl."

Iida charged up his engines. "Yes, Mr. All Might!"

"I-I'm fine, I can go on."

All Might activated the microphone. "Young Midoriya, are you okay?"

"I got out of the way."

Grunting with exertion, Izuku pulled himself up a rope, the same rope he'd tied around his body ten minutes earlier.

Izuku gave a small smile, muttering to himself. "Thank you, Yaoyorozu."

Reaching the top of the rope, Izuku gripped the mirror the rope was tied to, buried deep into the concrete of the wall.

The concrete around the mirror suddenly crumbled, forcing Izuku to pull on the building with Attraction, lifting himself up to grab the edge of the building, the rope falling to the ground below. Releasing a sigh of relief, Izuku clambered up and into the building, revealing his burnt and ruined costume.

The elbow guards were completely gone, blown off, along with the torso of the jumpsuit, the material hanging around his waist, revealing Izuku's bare chest.

"Young Midoriya, are you safe?"

Izuku nodded, before realising All Might was speaking over the tannoy. "I-I mean yes, I am."

Bakugo growled.

"Young Bakugo, if you use that attack again I will be forced to disqualify your team and declare Team A the winners."

"Sure. Whatever."

Izuku sighed, that wasn't encouraging.

"Well then, the match shall recommence. GO!"

"Come at me, shitty Deku!"

Pulling to one side, Izuku moved behind Bakugo, launching a kick.

"I'm not falling for that!" Bakugo ignited an explosion in his left palm, spinning his body out of the way of Izuku's kick, before delivering one of his own.

Izuku rolled away, forcing himself to a stop.

"Get up and fight me!"

Tightening his fist, Izuku pulled himself towards the wall, reaching out with both hands. With a mix of his natural strength and twin explosions from his palms, at the right angle, Izuku launched a powerful kick at Bakugo.

Firing off an explosion, Bakugo tried to move out of the way, but was too late, getting clipped in the shoulder.

Dropping to one knee, Bakugo glared at Izuku.

"Stop fucking looking down at me!"

Igniting both palms, Bakugo shot at Izuku.

Izuku pulled on the wall behind Bakugo, surging towards the other boy.

Kirishima smashed his hardened fists together.

"Let's get back to this!"

Momo nodded. "Let's."

Racing at Kirishima, Momo swung a baton to meet Kirishima's fist, before jabbing him in the gut with her other baton.

Kirishima stumbled back, closer to the bomb.

"You won't get the bomb." Kirishima hardened his cheek as a baton smashed into it, bending as it did.

Looking at her now useless baton, Momo tossed it aside and attacked with its remaining counterpart.

It bent over Kirishima's shoulder.

Sending the last baton to join its twin, Momo dodged a hardened punch from Kirishima, creating a pair of thick rubber gloves around her hands, stretching up to her elbows.

Lashing out with her left fist, Momo winced as it struck Kirishima's hardened chest, the thick rubber covering her hand protecting it from serious harm. Creating a new, stronger staff covered in purple crystalline powder from her left inner upper arm, Momo grabbed it with her right hand and pulled it clean from her skin.

"HEROES, YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES LEFT!"

"I'm sorry about this, Kirishima."

A flurry of blows struck Kirishima, who met each with her hardened skin until he eventually managed to chop it in two, taking one of the halves in the process.

Both Momo and Kirishima threw the staff half they were holding away.

Momo rushed at Kirishima with her fist.

Kirishima raised his arms in an x-block, activating his quirk.

It hurt.

Making distance between himself and Momo, Kirishima looked down at his arms, finding them covered in red chemical burns. Checking the rest of his body, he found his bare torso covered in burns.

"I coated the second staff with potassium permanganate, in the right quantities it burns the skin." Momo turned her left arm to reveal a burn where the staff had been created from. "I guessed your quirk would not work if your skin was damaged, it paid off."

Rushing at Kirishima, Momo swung at him, her fist slamming into the red-haired boy's forearm, his instincts betraying him.

Crying out in pain at both the force of the punch and the burnt skin, Kirishima stumbled back.

Dropping onto one knee again, Kirishima wasn't cheering this time.

He was losing, his quirk, as weak as it was, was beyond his reach.

Unless…

...he went beyond!

Instead of focusing his quirk on the largest possible area, Kirishima focused instead just on the small area of his knuckles, managing to harden them slightly beyond his normal level.

Surging to his feet, Kirishima struck out at Yaoyorozu, hitting her rubber armored forearms, knocking her clean off her feet.

Momo stared up at her opponent. "Your quirk, it's pretty strong."

Kirishima was taken aback, all he'd ever been told was that his quirk was weak, not when common quirks like Steel or Shield could do what his did better.

"But you need better situational awareness."

Momo pushed herself up, onto her knees, reaching out to touch the bomb.

"THE HEROES HAVE SECURED THE BOMB! TEAM A WINS!"

Izuku gave a sigh of relief as he came to halt, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Phew, at least I didn't break anything this time!"

Bakugo stared blankly ahead, unable to process All Might's announcement.

"I lost?"

Izuku took a step backwards, he knew that tone.

"I fucking lost?"

"All Might, I think we might have a problem."

"WE FUCKING LOST?!"

"Young Bakugo, please calm down!"

Bakugo growled, his eyes boring into Izuku. "Stop looking down at me! You hid your quirk, you mocked me! Was I not worth using your quirk on?!"

Explosions danced in the palms of Bakugo's hands.

"You wouldn't use your quirk then, and now you won't acknowledge me with your full power!"

Bakugo raised his gauntlet, lifting the handle.

"YOUNG BAKUGO, NO!"

"SO I'LL MAKE YOU USE IT!"

A supercharged explosion blossomed from Bakugo's gauntlet, surging towards Izuku.

Izuku entered his quirkspace. Time slowed.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku stared at his quirks. He had three minutes to find a solution, preferably one that avoided falling three stories.

"Zero Gravity is a no-go. Even if I weighed 15kg less the drop would still be potentially fatal."

"Explosion is the same, even with both palms the explosions won't be strong enough to counteract the force of Bakugo's explosion."

Izuku scratched his chin, supercharging them with One For All at his maximum would break both his arms immediately, he needed a sustained force.

Attraction was too weak for it to be able to pull him back into the building, but it might be able to get him to the building at the opposite side of the road.

Doing the calculations, factoring the force of Bakugo's supercharged explosion, an estimated weight of the building and the width of the average road, Izuku sighed.

Izuku sighed. "Even with Zero Gravity as well I would hit the ground before I could cross the distance."

That left Izuku with two options.

Use One For All in his legs, breaking them, and jump to the opposite building. Use Attraction to pull a nearby piece of rubble into the path of the explosion to shield himself.

Putting the first option on the back burner, Izuku began to troubleshoot the second.

The first, and largest, problem was the weight of the rubble. By Izuku's calculations, factoring in the average density of concrete and an estimated volume, any piece large enough to shield him was so close to his own weight it would require multiple pulls and time he didn't have.

The second problem was that a single piece of rubble would not be able to shield Izuku entirely, he'd have to use Attraction to pull himself back into the building, and even then that might not be enough.

This plan would require unlikely amounts of luck to work.

An amount of luck Izuku wasn't comfortable with.

Izuku's eyes drifted to the representation of One For All, its structure was far more complex than any other quirk he had, even Quirksmith.

It was almost like it was two quirks in one.

Izuku's eyes widened.

"It is two quirks."

That meant that merging quirks was possible.

"This changes everything we know about quirks."

But Izuku didn't have time to think about that.

Expanding Attraction and Zero Gravity, Izuku took a deep breath and pinched the node that represented Attraction's weight limit, equal to the holder's own weight.

Pulling, a strand of light appeared from the node, leading to Izuku's fingers. Reaching out with his other hand, Izuku snapped the strand within Zero Gravity that led to its own weight limit node.

Plucking the loose end of the strand, Izuku moved the two strands, one green, one pink, towards each other.

The two strands bonded together, glowing with silver light at the joint.

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief, he had been worried that the quirks would-

Attraction and Zero Gravity began to denature.

"No, no, this has to work!"

Panic surged through Izuku's veins as the nodes began to fade, the strands between them loosening.

With one last desperate idea, Izuku called on One For All through the mental representation of his arms and plunged one into each quirk.

Light blue lightning surged down Izuku's arms, and into the quirks, crackling all around them.

A flash of bright light forced Izuku to look away, only dimming after a full ten seconds.

Blinking the spots in his eyes away, Izuku turned his head back to Attraction and Zero Gravity.

The two quirks were gone.

In their place was a single quirk, larger than any of his other copied quirks, coloured silver

"I did it."

Izuku smiled.

Reaching out with one of his aching arms, Izuku activated Tokusei's quirk.

"Slingshot, created by Izuku Midoriya, aged 15, on April 12th 2179. Type, Emitter. Compound of Attraction and Zero Gravity, allows the holder to manipulate a maximum of four objects below their weight limit with their mind."

That was unexpected, the merged quirk had mutated, more into a moderately powerful form of telekinesis than attraction of small objects and minor gravity manipulation.

More than the sum of its parts.

Izuku smiled.

Returning to the real world, Izuku activated Slingshot for the first time, pulling on the four largest pieces that were below his weight limit, 116kg.

It was higher than Izuku expected for the composite of the two quirks, as Attraction had used his weight, 81kg, and the limit he had cultivated with Zero Gravity had been 15kg.

Izuku moved the four blocks of concrete between himself and the explosion, creating a shield.

The fireball struck Izuku's shield, shattering the concrete and forcing him back.

As the dust settled, Izuku glanced over his shoulder to see he was at the absolute edge of the building, the heel of his back foot overhanging.

"You'll have to try harder than that." Izuku levelled a stare at an enraged Bakugo.

Bakugo roared with rage, his hands popping with explosions, rushing at Izuku.

Izuku's feet moved, he didn't even think, the sound of Bakugo's raving and All Might's shouts fading to muffled noise.

Racing to meet Bakugo, two more explosions were fired at Izuku in quick succession, each one intercepted by a piece of rubble.

"Fucking die already!" Bakugo lurched forwards, releasing the strongest explosion he could at his former friend.

Reaching out to points on opposite walls, Izuku pulled on the much heavier objects, slingshotting over the explosion with ease and landing behind Bakugo.

Reaching out with one hand, Izuku pulled a piece of rubble directly at himself, while attracting the far wall with his other, tugging his body out of the way.

The rubble slammed into Bakugo as he turned towards Izuku, knocking him off his feet and sliding close to the edge of the building on his front. Bakugo gasped, sucking air back into his lungs, his arms under him.

Before Bakugo could react, Izuku placed his sneakered foot on his chest, using his foot as the anchor point to gently pull on the floor below, trapping his former friend's arms under himself, negating the use of his quirk without injuring himself.

"Young Midoriya."

Izuku looked up, All Might had appeared at the doorway to the destroyed room, Yaoyorozu and Kirishima standing a few steps behind him.

"A-All Might-"

"You can let him go, kid."

Aizawa dropped down, landing on the edge of the building, his eyes glowing, his hair floating around his face.

"M-Mr. Aizawa."

All Might gestured to Izuku as the boy released Bakugo. "Young Midoriya, your arms."

Izuku looked down, finally seeing that his arms were purple and bruised, aching like they'd been run over.

At least they weren't broken.

All Might wrapped a blanket around Izuku's shoulders. "Young Yaoyorozu, would you please accompany your teammate to see Recovery Girl."

Yaoyorozu nodded, leading Izuku away.

"Young Kirishima, we shall rejoin your classmates in the surveillance room."

Now, Aizawa was left alone with a fuming Bakugo, the cameras used to monitor the building disabled at the underground hero's command.

Bakugo stared at his palms.

"I'm erasing your quirk." Aizawa sighed. "Are you going to calm down now or do I need to make my dry eye even worse?"

"Whatever."

Aizawa's scarf lashed out, binding Bakugo's hands against his chest.

"What the fuck?!"

"You didn't give me a straight answer."

Bakugo growled, before calming down. "Fine, I won't use my quirk."

Aizawa cancelled his quirk and recalled his scarf.

"That's a start at least." Aizawa moisten his eyes with drops. "Let me say this, if you do anything like this again, you will be expelled. Immediately."

Bakugo didn't respond.

"Understood?"

"Yeah, sure, I understand." Bakugo fumed quietly. "Fucking Deku."

"You're going to stop calling him that as well." Aizawa made his eyes briefly glow for emphasis. "Call him by his actual name or not at all."

Bakugo growled. "I'll do what I goddamn want!"

"No, you won't. As I said, this is your final warning, with your current behaviour you have no potential as a hero."

Bakugo didn't react.

"You clearly have issues you need to sort out."

Aizawa sat down on the edge of the blown out wall.

"Hound Dog provides counselling at U.A., if you talk to him I'm sure he can find a slot for you, you should give it a try."

"Or what, you'll expel me?"

Aizawa sighed. "No, I can't and won't force you to go to counselling. The only person who can improve you is yourself. No one else can do it for you."

"Tch."

"Fine, it's up to you. If you're not going to talk to a counsellor, at least talk to someone, anyone you trust."

With that, Aizawa dropped out the side of the building, using his scarf as a grapple to swing away.

Landing on the top of the building opposite, Aizawa rested on the edge, watching as Bakugo slowly climbed to his feet, rage pouring off him in waves.

It was a shame, after he got Midoriya to stop holding back the day before, Aizawa had thought that class may finally be the class where he didn't have to expel any of them.

And then Bakugo had gone and proved him wrong.

The boy was self-destructing, ironic considering his quirk. Aizawa doubted he'd be able to overcome his pride and ask for help.

He wouldn't last the week.

Katsuki lashed out, punching a wall, pain blossoming through his fist despite his rubberised gloves. He'd waited until he knew Aizawa could no longer see him to do it.

"Fuck!"

He swung with his other fist.

"Shit!"

"You okay, Bakugo?"

Katsuki turned his head, it was Kirishima, with a fucking dopey-as-shit smile on his face.

"Fuck off, Shitty Hair!"

Kirishima chuckled. "That's not a nice thing to say to your teammate! Anyway, All Might dismissed us for the day, I came to let you know."

The sharp barb on the tip of Katsuki's tongue died before he could speak it. The two boys set off back for the changing room.

The red-haired boy was watching him with an unguarded look, nothing to hide, nothing to gain.

An open book.

Is this what that fucking scarf weirdo meant? Someone he could trust?

"Can I talk to you?"

Kirishima beamed. "Aren't you already?"

"Don't get mouthy with me, you Crimson Riot knockoff."

Katsuki groaned both internally and externally as this only seemed to make Kirishima happier, if such a thing was even possible.

"Thanks, Bakubro, that's totally what I was aiming for, I know he's pretty retro, but Crimson Riot's my favourite hero! All Might is a pretty close second though."

Katsuki twitched at Kirishima's nickname. "Don't call me that!"

Kirishima shrugged. "You give everyone nicknames, I thought you might want one as well."

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose. "Those aren't nicknames, they're meant to be insul-"

Kirishima's innocent face stared back at Katsuki.

"You know what, fuck it, never mind."

Kirishima slung an arm around Katsuki's shoulder, ignoring the audible growl, as they walked down the tunnel towards the changing rooms.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about, Bakubro?"

Katsuki gave a reluctant sigh. "Goggles gave me a final warning."

Kirishima patted Katsuki on the shoulder. "I'm sure Mr. Aizawa was just tryna scare you so you don't go too far again."

"No. If I slip up, he'll expel me." Katsuki's palms fizzed with sparks. "He said I should be counselling, I don't fucking need therapy!"

"Can't hurt though, right?"

"What?!"

Kirishima shrugged. "It can't hurt, you just talk to someone for a while, you don't even need to talk if you don't want to, and it'll get Mr. Aizawa off your back as well."

Katsuki stopped in the doorway of the changing rooms, everyone else had long since changed and left, even Deku's bag and clothes were gone.

Shitty Hair was right, Katsuki begrudgingly admitted to himself, but it was more than that.

Katsuki knew he'd gone too far, he'd known it the first time he used his supercharged explosion, but he'd kept on going, he couldn't stop himself.

"See you tomorrow, Bakugo!"

Katsuki looked up, watching as Kirishima waved to him, changed back into his school uniform.

"Tch, whatever."

"T-Thanks for bringing me, Y-Yaoyorozu!"

Izuku bowed to Yaoyorozu, his bruised arms hanging limply at his sides.

"See you tomorrow, Midoriya."

With that, Izuku was left with a less than impressed Recovery Girl.

"Three times."

Izuku chuckled nervously as he sat down on the bed.

"This is only the first day of classes."

"Y-Yeah."

Recovery Girl sighed. "Well, at least you didn't break any bones this time."

"O-Oh, well, that something at least-"

"Your muscles are shredded, they're basically mush. I have no idea how you managed to do it or keep moving your arms."

Izuku shuffled slightly. "I used One For All in my quirkspace, I managed to merge two of my copied quirks into one, stronger quirk."

"SMOOCH!"

The purple faded from one of Izuku's arms, leaving it aching but functional, a wave of tiredness washing over him.

"So what you're telling me is that you and I are going to be doing this often."

Recovery Girl watched as Izuku spluttered a response.

"Fine, watch what I do when I heal your other arm carefully, you might as well learn how to use my quirk while you're here."

Recovery Girl's lips extended, kissing Izuku's still injured arm.

Slipping into his quirkspace, Izuku felt the energy emitted by Recovery Girl, comparing it to the ambient energy given off by his copy of Heal.

He could feel it draining his stamina, burning through it astounding speed. No wonder Recovery Girl had to heal her patients in individual sessions. Izuku wondered if there was some way he could make it more efficient, surely a more reliable power source than the target's stamina.

There was, of course there was.

And it was staring him in the face.

One For All, by its very nature it was a stockpile of power, just waiting to be tapped into. Reaching out, Izuku's turned the drain caused by Recovery Girl's quirk from his stamina to One For All.

Immediately, Izuku felt the stamina drain vanish, instead Heal was pulling on One For All's reserve of power, unable to use it faster than it replenished.

Opening his eyes, Izuku returned to the physical world to find Recovery Girl watching him, his arm fully healed, with no aching tiredness left in place of his former injury.

"I thought All Might made the right choice in you at the entrance exam." Recovery Girl paused. "Now I'm certain of it. All that musclebound oaf used One For All for was to point and smash, but can do so much more with it."

Izuku blushed, unused to praise coming from anywhere other than his mom and more recently, All Might.

"Well then, we're done here, I'll leave you to get changed. Just leave your costume behind, I'll have it sent down to Support for repair." Recovery Girl patted Izuku on the head and turned to leave. "Oh, and by the way, I'm afraid there's no gummies for you today, if I give you them every time you end up in here I'll end up rotting your teeth."

Izuku smiled.

Ryo was finishing up for the day, submitting the report Nedzu asked for just after lunch.

A knock sounded from his door.

Clicking send, Ryo minimized his email, leaving the desktop on screen.

"Come in."

The door slammed open with more force than was necessary, revealing Katsuki Bakugo.

Ryo didn't even blink, gesturing for Bakugo to take a seat on the couch.

"What would you like to talk to me about?"

Bakugo shrugged. "Aizawa told me I should see you about counselling or whatever."

"Did he, now?" Ryo scratched behind his ear. "Do you want counselling?"

Bakugo looked. "Tch, sure, I'll do it."

Despite his arrogant words, Ryo knew the teen was pushing his pride to one side to ask for help in his own way.

What kind of hero would he be if he didn't take the hand that was reaching out to him?

"I've got half an hour free, what do you want to talk about?"

Bakugo growled. "Aren't you supposed to be the one asking me questions?! About feelings and shit like that?"

Ryo shook his head. "We'll talk about what you're comfortable talking about, it can be about your day, interests, or nothing at all if you want."

"Huh, what about the whole lying on the couch shit?"

Ryo chuckled. "I mean, you can if you really want-"

"I DON'T FEEL LIKE I CAN BE A HERO!"

"So we're going to cut straight to chase, then?" Ryo paused. "Can you tell me why you feel that way?"

Bakugo seethed. "When I was growing up, all my teachers and classmates would tell me was that my quirk was perfect for being a hero."

"I was told it again and again until I believed it, I would be the perfect hero because I had the perfect hero quirk."

Ryo nodded. "And then something happened."

"Deku, the little shit went and saved me." Bakugo paused, he had heard what All Might had said that day, when the sludge villain had taken him hostage, that Deku had been the one who spurred him into action.

"Deku?"

"Midoriya." Bakugo grunted through clenched teeth.

"Ah, from Class 1-A, Aizawa was complaining about him yesterday, he doesn't usually warm up to a new student so fast."

"But you said he was complaining?!" Bakugo groused.

"That's how you know Aizawa likes you."

"Sounds like he needs therapy as well."

Ryo chuckled, he wasn't expecting the teen to actually have a sense of humor, no matter how sarcastic it in fact was.

"This Deku, Midoriya, how did he save you?"

Bakugo growled.

"Okay, we don't have to discuss that, how about what led you to come here today."

Clenching his fists, Bakugo forced himself to speak. "I went too far, I was just so angry, I couldn't stop myself."

Bakugo sighed, the tension melting from his body, his head falling.

"I lost control. What kind of hero can't control their temper?"

Ryo cracked his neck. "My quirk means that if I get too angry I lose the power of speech, all I can do then is bark."

Bakugo's head rose to look at Ryo.

"Anger isn't inherently a bad thing. Just so long as you control it, or it'll control you."

Ryo scratched his snout. "Anger can be a weapon, honed to perfection, to give you that drive to win when you're on your last legs."

Bakugo stilled. "How do I do that?"

"You need to know what is making you so angry."

"Its fucking Deku, looking down at me all the time!"

Ryo sighed. "I can assure you it isn't. That is a lie you tell yourself, you need to look deeper. What exact moment today made you realise you'd lost control?"

Bakugo paused. "The costume."

Silence hung heavy in the air, almost deafening.

"The costume that Auntie Inko made for Deku, the one my old hag said she worked so hard on, I destroyed it."

For the first time in years, shame filled Katsuki Bakugo, threatening to swallow him whole, with anger rising to meet it.

"Then fix it, I'm sure there is someone in the Support Department who can."

The shame in Bakugo didn't falter or diminish, but he didn't feel like he was drowning anymore.

He knew what he had to do now.