A/N: A longer chapter than the new formatted ones, but there was no good place to split this into two, so hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 19: Hero

After watching all the other students go, Katori and Midoriya have no other choice but to join the others. Bakugo still refuses to speak with either of them, and she fears that they will lose against All Might if they don't come up with the simplest of plans.

As they approach the cityscape, Katori glances up at Bakugo to see him scowling ahead, not allowing his eyes to fixate on hers. She glances over at her right to see Midoriya looking forward as well, but with an entirely different look in his eyes that conveys worry. Katori looks forward, feeling herself shake with worry knowing that Midoriya is never wrong about these types of outcomes, and if he is worried, then there is not much hope of them passing.

The alarm blares, making Katori jump in her suit as Bakugo begins walking towards the center of the city where he believes All Might awaits. Midoriya begins chasing after the stiff boy while Katori stands there for a moment, trying to formulate how she will win this with the team she has been given.

She picks up her legs to join the two of them as Midoriya implores Bakugo to listen to him, "For this exam, the teachers are the villain and we're the heroes, so we need a solid plan. Normally I would suggest the villain's combat ability and choose to fight them or run away based on that. But in this case, the villain is All Might, so we don't need to think about it because combat is out of the question. It'd be impossible to beat him in a fight," Bakugo continues to walk from the muttering boy and he sees that his words are not getting to him. "It's a really bad idea, Kacchan!"

"Stop following me!" he growls at the young boy.

Katori frowns as she follows behind the two boys, knowing that her words won't mean much either.

"All Might is probably waiting for us on this main road," Midoriya tells him. "We should take another route."

"I'm not going to run away from this fight," Bakugo grunts at him. "It'll look better if we blast that smile off of his face."

"That's not how we are going to get the win," Katori speaks up behind him and she notices his shoulders tense at her voice. "Midoriya is right, we can't fight him if we hope to win."

"I am going to toy with him until the time is almost up, and then knock him unconscious for real!" he yells at her as he continues to walk away from them.

Midoriya stops following momentarily, but Katori continues to follow him at his heels. "That is not going to work and you know it!" she argues with him. "We need to strategize a better plan than relying on you to do everything! This is our exam too, ya know!"

"And you're just a side character looking to claw to the front!" he yells at her, finally turning back to look at her. "You're never going to be a hero if you rely on others to make your Quirk work!"

Katori blinks at him, mouth agape at his harsh words. He turns from her and Midoriya begins running towards him with his fists tightened at his sides, while Katori stands frozen in shock.

"Kacchan, we are a team!" he yells at the raging boy. "You need us both to win this! You know what All Might can do, even with those handicap weights, it's impossible for you to win in a fight against him!"

Bakugo turns around, quickly punching Midoriya in the face and knocking him to the ground. Midoriya clutches onto his bleeding nose as blood spills between his fingers.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Katori snarls as she runs towards Midoriya, kneeling down next to him to see if he is alright.

"I don't wanna hear another word," Bakugo looks down at them with hate spilling from his eyes. "Just because you two think you're getting stronger, doesn't mean you get to tell me what to do."

"Wait, Kacchan!" Midoriya calls out to him as he walks away from the two of them. "All I'm trying to do is get us to pass the final! This is for the both of us!"

"I told you I don't need your dumb power to pass! I could win it all by myself!" Bakugo erupts.

"Would you stop yelling? This is why we never have real conversations!" Midoriya returns in the same booming voice.

"There you go, back to shoving me into a corner and overlooking me!" Katori joins in on the yelling. "You want to know why I walked out at the sports festival?" she asks him, lifting herself to her feet as her eyes flash red. "It's because I saw the weak look on your face and I figured it wasn't a fair fight!"

Bakugo inhales at this, turning towards her and pointing his cannon at her as the whites of his eyes take over. She points her hands at him and a glimmer of explosion begins igniting in their palms as they prepare to launch an attack at one another.

"No! Wait!" Midoriya cries out, however before he can finish, a wave of debris and wind blast the three of them down the block and destroys the city around them.

Katori groans as she lifts herself to her hands and knees, looking around in the cloud of debris for Midoriya who's sitting down, and Bakugo who's lifted himself to his feet. She looks up at Bakugo who watches her with wide and worried eyes, a stark contradiction to the look he was giving her moments ago.

"Are you alright?" Midoriya asks what Bakugo is too cowardly to say.

Before Katori can answer, they hear All Might speak over them, "Who really cares if I destroy this city?" he menacingly approaches the three of them with another wave of debris coating their eyes. Katori's eyes water as he focuses on saturating them and clearing her vision. "If you think of this as an exam and not a real fight, you'll be sorry. I'm a villain now, Heroes. Remember that," he says in a chilling voice that makes Katori shiver.

"It's over if we fight him head on, let's run!" Midoriya says getting up and fleeing.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Bakugo snaps as Katori lifts herself to her feet, tugging on his arm when he lifts it up for an attack. "How about a stun grenade!" he calls out, stunning the blonde hero with his attack. "You want everything I got, All Might? Like that wasn't my plan! I never—" however, before Bakugo can finish his declaration, All Might grabs the boy by the face and holds him in place above the ground.

Bakugo begins launching rapid fire attacks at All Might as he is more concerned with taking down the man rather than getting out of his grip and fleeing. However, the attacks do nothing to the powerful foe. He launches the boy to the ground, pinning him down by his face as he smiles down at him, "Your rapid-fire blasts were weak—hardly more than a sting!"

He goes in for a punch when Katori launches herself into the fight. She grabs Bakugo's Quirk and calls out to the blonde hero. He looks back at her and she blasts him in the face, stunning him momentarily. "Get out of here!" she looks back at Bakugo who lifts himself into a seated position.

All Might grabs her by the face and launches her away from him and into a building nearby. Bakugo's eyes widen at his vicious move against her and turns his attention towards her to make sure that she is ok. She begins lifting herself from the debris when All Might moves towards Midoriya.

Once he confirms she is moving, Bakugo figures he can join the fight without helping her. Midoriya jumps out of the way from All Might's reach for him while Bakugo cries out to him as they collide in the air and fall to the ground with a loud thud.

Katori puts her goggles on and runs into the fight as the two are struggling to lift themselves up. She takes Bakugo's Quirk and quickly shoots off an attack at All Might, that sends her flying back into Bakugo who attempts to lift himself to his feet. She collides into him and knocks him back into the ground as she lays her back on top of his chest.

He pushes her off of him forcefully and growls at her, "Stop draining my Quirk damnit!" he erupts at her as he lifts himself to his feet. "I can win this if you would stop constantly relying on me!" He begins walking towards All Might as Midoriya tries to speak with him. "That's what it means to be a hero!"

Midoriya tries to speak some sense into him when All Might comes launching towards them, kicking a piece of a fencing into Midoriya and trapping him into the ground. He then moves to Bakugo before the boy can retaliate with an attack and punches him straight in the gut, sending him flying as he retches the contents in his stomach.

Katori lifts herself to her feet and runs to Midoriya as his eyes are fixated on Bakugo who shakes from the pain of the attack. "I know why you're so angry, young Bakugo," All Might says, approaching the trembling boy. "Because of young Midoriya's sudden improvement, right?" Bakugo lifts himself to his knee as he shakily attempts to continue the fight. "But you have to consider your rankings when the year first began. It's much easier to level up when you're a novice. You're wasting your full potential. Do you see that? Do you understand me?" he asks as the boy continues to tremble below him. "You have so much room to grow stronger, boy, and I don't just mean your Quirk."

"Shut up, All Might!" Bakugo returns with a shaking voice. "If I'm so bad that I have to get help from a weakling like him, then I'd rather lose this! Do you hear me?"

Katori uses Midoriya's Quirk to lift the gate off of him and releasing him from his imprisonment. She watches as he begins powering up, and she notices the tightness in his stance. She knows he is going to make a move against All Might before he can hit Bakugo and end this battle and she powers up herself, preparing to coordinate the attack with him.

"I see," All Might continues in a low tone as he pulls back him arm for a final punch. "Just remember that's what you said, Hero!"

Katori and Midoriya fling themselves into the battle, flying in unison as they approach the fight. They simultaneously pull back their fists preparing for a punch and at the same time their fists make contact, however, to Katori's surprise, Midoriya's target was not All Might's face like hers, but Bakugo.

She looks down with shocked eyes as the green-haired boy fumes at his blonde friend. "Don't you dare say that you'd rather lose!" he yells at the boy. "Let's win this, Kacchan!" he cries out to him as he grabs his body and runs off into the alleyways.

Katori lifts her goggles to her forehead and looks up at All Might as they are left alone in the street with a scuff on his face that she caused him. She scratches at the back of her head, "Sorry," she mumbles as she runs after the boys.

"Drop me, you bastard!" she hears Bakugo and she turns down the alleyway that they are in. "I said put me down, damnit!" he yells as he elbows Midoriya in the back of the head and he lets go of the boy.

She runs up to the two of them with labored breaths. Bakugo turns to her and before he can process her face, she punches him square in the nose. He lets out a yelp as she huffs above him. "You're such a loser!" she yells down at him. "You'd rather lose this battle and flunk out of UA because someone is better than you?" she yells in disbelief. "That's not the Bakugo I knew at the sports festival! That kid would fight until every last person was vaporized in his dust!" she says shaking her head. "You're not the Number One hero, Bakugo because you have a lot to learn! But that doesn't mean you won't be one day!" she encourages him and he looks up at her with pressed brows and confliction in his eyes. "I believe in you, and I know you will be the top hero one day. But that won't happen if you don't swallow your damn pride and work with us!"

"You're you because you never give in, Kacchan," Midoriya continues her sentiments in a calmer tone. "You're always fighting. " 'The most amazing hero always wins'. You've been saying those words since we were kids, why give up now?"

Bakugo lifts himself to his feet, roaring in hatred as he pushes Katori away from him, throwing her to the ground and launches an attack right next to Midoriya's head, narrowly missing his face. "Kacchan," he breathes out unsteadily.

"I am only going to say this once, so listen up nerds," he growls at them with a tight stance. "All Might's speed is insane. No matter where you try to run and hide, there's nowhere you'll avoid fighting him."

"Yeah, but we don't stand a chance in combat, I mean you saw him back there," Midoriya whines.

"Shut the hell up before I kill you!" he erupts and Midoriya gasps at his harsh tone. "He won't be stopped by anything less than a full-power attack; I learned that earlier with my mini blasts. So, this is the plan," Katori lifts herself back to her feet and looks at him as he begins explaining.

"We use my gauntlets in conjunction with our Quirks. Copy-Paste, you can take on two at a time, but you never do. You don't think that was on Aizawa's mind when he put you up against All Might?" he glares at her and she swallows hard. "You need to take both of our Quirks and use them past your exertion point," she opens her mouth to retaliate but he yells over her, "I believe in you too damnit, now believe in yourself!" she shuts her mouth at his outburst, feeling a blush overtake her cheeks at his idea of a compliment.

"So, we give him everything we got at point blank range," he continues. "Our only option is to inflict damage, and then put some distance between us. So, I will act as a diversion and blast him in the face. Then Deku takes my other gauntlet and does the same. From there, Copy-Paste comes down from above with a combination of our Quirks and blows him up with an atomic blast. That will give us enough time to flee," he says stripping one of his gauntlets and handing it to Midoriya with a hard pass to his chest. "Don't mess this up!" he warns him.

They split up and Katori climbs atop the building that they will ambush All Might at. It is a great plan considering their opponent, but she is worried about her part in the matter. She can handle up to three Quirks at once, but she has to be doing a small task like throwing the baseball. Anything that requires more movement and strength often leads to her overexerting herself and causing her headaches and bloody noses, not to mention the turning of her hair color.

She swallows down those worries and thinks about her training with Mr. Aizawa. He worked on building her body up and her confidence in her Quirk. She will have the perfect amount of control both in taking their Quirks, and using them against All Might. Her shaking hands take her goggles and lower them over her eyes as she gulps, waiting for the attack.

She watches from above as Bakugo lunges into the street that All Might searches for them, "You're going the wrong way!" he calls out to him menacingly.

"That's supposed to be a sneak attack?" All Might sneers back at him.

Bakugo blasts him in the face with his gauntlet, launching himself back from the trajectory temporarily before he regains his footing and continues to launch attacks at the blonde hero. After his fourth hit, he gives off the signal, "Deku!" he cries out as the green-haired boy launches himself into the street with the other gauntlet pointed at All Might. Bakugo shoots himself in the air, out of the line of sight as he cries out, "Shoot now!"

"I'm sorry, All Might!" Midoriya yells as he pulls the pin of the gauntlet and shoots at the blonde hero. After the blast, Midoriya and Bakugo look up to the sky where Katori waits for them. She instantly grabs their Quirks and jumps off of the building, feeling her body surge with energy from their powerful Quirks.

All Might looks up to see her coming down as electricity covers her body and an explosion builds in her fist. "Howitzer Smash!" she cries out as she uses Bakugo's explosion with Midoriya's sheer power to punch the mighty hero into the ground with an attack that detonates and rips up the area in a supermassive blast.

Bakugo and Midoriya watch with enlarged eyes at the absolute power of her attack on All Might; the combination of their Quirks creating an atomic bomb that she crashes into the mighty hero. For a moment, Bakugo is stunned at just how powerful she is, when the debris of the mushroom cloud begins settling and she's not hurt, or over exerted herself.

He quickly shoves the pride he feels for her out of his mind and focuses on winning this thing. "Run, you idiots!" Bakugo cries out as he launches himself with blasts in the air.

Katori lifts herself to her feet and begins running towards the gate since she lost both of their quirks in the blast. To her shock, she did not overexert herself and her hair remains its dark pigmentation, not to mention the goggles kept the debris out of her eyes.

She follows behind them as she runs towards the escape gate, glancing back to see a cloud of debris covering the impact zone, but she can't locate All Might.

"It doesn't look like All Might is chasing us, don't tell me we actually knocked him out back there?" Midoriya says glancing back.

"Of course not!" Bakugo growls at him. "You're the one who keeps crying about how it's impossible to actually beat him. There's no way that attack KO'd him. When he catches up to us, it will be my turn to blast him to hell with a gauntlet."

"Interesting," the hairs on the back of Katori's neck rise and before she can even turn to look behind her, All Might is right next to them. "Then what will you do?"

Bakugo reacts without thinking, powering up his gauntlet to strike the man in the face, with Katori is right behind him. Before Bakugo can even strike though, All Might smashes the gauntlet and shatters it. "Don't tell me you're surprised," he says as he pushes Katori back to punch and shatter Midoriya's gauntlet. "All right, Heroes, it's time for you all to die!" he cries out as he knees Bakugo in the chin and launches him into a building.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya calls out as he goes to run towards the boy, when All Might reaches out to him and grabs him by the wrist.

"That's my line!" Bakugo growls as he launches himself into the fight, only for All Might to toss Midoriya into the boy and force them to the ground.

All Might tosses Midoriya away while his boot stays on the back of Bakugo as he holds the boy down. He speaks of their plan and how it was good, but it should have gone without saying that cooperation was needed to complete the course.

Katori stands frozen as she looks onto the menacing face of All Might when she comes to the realization that he looks so villainous now. He is so powerful that he is practically power itself. He is an unshakable force, and if he liked, he would have the world crumbling at his feet.

She swallows at the realization that despite this power… he is not a villain and the idea stings her chest as understanding strikes through her like a blade. All Might is not a villain. He is a hero. If he truly wanted to kill her father or her mother, he would have done so with a simple flick of his wrist.

"Give him back!" Katori cries out as she takes her fighter's stance. "Give Bakugo back!" she yells at him as her hands shake in front of her face while Bakugo looks up at her with wide trembling eyes.

"Young Satsuma," he turns to her. "You've allowed young Bakugo and young Midoriya to take the lead on this exercise because you lack the confidence in yourself. That is why I've pulled my punches with you, as you've shown no threat to me thus far. So, what will you do now that Bakugo is beneath my boot and Midoriya is worse for the wear?"

"Shut up!" she cries as her hair lifts to the sky and she takes All Might's Quirk, powering up as she launches herself towards him and sends the hero into the sky with an electric uppercut to the gut.

She quickly runs to Bakugo who lifts himself to his feet. He grabs her by the collar of her jumpsuit and drags her to Midoriya, grabbing him as well. "Get ready to fly!" he yells at them. "I don't like the idea of running, but with the crap-fest we're in right now, this is the only way to pass the practical!"

"What are you doing?" Katori shrieks as he prepares to launch her in the air.

"Aizawa said we needed at least two people to pass the gate, so fly!" he cries out as he launches her into the sky.

"Wah!" she cries out as she summersaults in the air towards the escape gate.

"Your turn, Deku!"

"Wait, hold on a minute," he panics with his hands up in surrender.

"Now die!" he flings Midoriya into the air.

Katori lands onto the ground with a painful thud, but doesn't allow her body to ache as she begins running towards the gate. She turns around when she sees that All Might crashes into Midoriya, causing him to smash into a bus and fall limp on the ground. Katori turns around and runs towards the green-haired boy as she surveys the damage to his body.

Their heads shoot up to the sky when they notice another maxed out blast coming from Bakugo as he fights off All Might. She watches to see him holding his arm in pain. "You idiots, go! Hurry up!" he demands with a desolate growl.

"I can't move… my back," Midoriya grunts and Katori snakes her arm under his armpits to support him. She takes him into her hands and drags him towards the gate as Bakugo continues to fight off All Might.

"Come on, we're almost there—" she stops when she looks up, seeing All Might pinning Bakugo down to the ground.

"No, not like this," Midoriya grumbles and she glances over at him. "He needs to win too," he says turning from her grip and heading towards the fight as he stumbles to walk.

"Midoriya, you're in no condition—" she watches as he powers up and she understands as well as Midoriya that Bakugo deserves to cross that line as much as they do. She snakes her hand around his waist, supporting him as they power up together. "I'm with you!" she cries out to him as Midoriya uses Katori as a crutch while they run to Bakugo's aid. In unison, they pull back their arms and punch the blonde hero in the face, launching him away from his grip on Bakugo.

She snakes her arm around Bakugo's left while Midoriya takes his right and they begin running towards the escape gate. "He's unconscious," she notices as she lifts him off of the ground and Midoriya follows her lead.

They push faster and Katori glances back at All Might who watches them with a proud smile on his face. She knows that he still has power to come after them and fight them, but he remains where he is, allowing them to have this win since they've learned how to be heroes themselves.

She thinks about his Quirk and the sheer power that it holds. He is constantly pulling his punches to ensure that he is not hurting or killing anyone that he is using his Quirk against. It's clear that All Might has the safety of everyone continuously on his mind as he uses his power, and it's in this moment that she realizes the he never truly rose his fists to her father. Even when he assumed All Might's Quirk in their battle all those years ago, he must have been holding back, else he would have undoubtedly been the death of her father. But he held back because he refused to kill him… because he's a hero.

Katori turns away from All Might, feeling a knot twisting in her chest as she sees him for the first time in all her life, as a hero.

A/N: Thank you all for reading the story so far! I would really appreciate it if you guys left a comment on what you think so far and where you'd like to see the story go, or how you like it. It would mean a lot to me. Your thoughts keep me inspired to write, so please feel free to leave a comment and let me now what you think! Thank you everyone for the favs and follows!