Izuku felt his life flash before his eyes as Bakugou Katsuki rushed him, murder in those familiar crimson eyes as every explitive known to man poured from his mouth. This was it, this was how Izuku was going to die.

His entire life had trained Izuku to fear this moment, to submit in hopes of coming out of this encounter alive. But he had never been good at listening to his common sense. Even though he was faced with the culmination of all of Kacchan's anger, Izuku found himself oddly calm. He knew Kacchan, and his fighting style. Izuku noticed immediately when he started pulling back his right arm before Kacchan was even anywhere near his target. He had a killer right hook, but only if it connected.

With a move he'd practiced again and again with Ojiro, milliseconds before Kacchan's fist connected, Izuku sidestepped and latched onto his arm, fingers digging in before judo-flipping him over his shoulder.

There was the smallest audible grunt when Kacchan's back hit the ground. It was this noise that brought Izuku to reality, confronting Izuku with the fact that Bakugou Katsuki was most definitely going to kill him now. His mind had shut down his emotions and his body had simply reacted, thanks to Valiant's merciless drilling.

Izuku scrambled away as Kacchan lunged to his feet, practically feeling the other boy breathing down his neck. His heart pounded in his chest - he didn't dare look back, he already knew that Kacchan loomed. A strangled cry forced its way out of him when he felt a hand grip the collar of his shirt, pulling back harshly.

He raised his arms to shield the back of his head, hoping to at least lessen the injuries from the coming explosion. Izuku struggled to get away still, knowing how futile it was. U.A. would have just made Kacchan that more amazing, which meant-

Then the pull on his shirt was gone with a resounding smack! and Izuku collapsed to the ground, coughing from the sudden release of pressure on his windpipe. When he struggled to his feet, Izuku turned to find Ojiro standing between them, his normal smile strangely absent. There was a dangerous edge to his normally calm temperament, and Bakugou had stumbled back a few steps, wheezing.

"I don't know why you would attack Midoriya, but I would leave him alone," Ojiro said in a measured voice.

"I'll kill you if you ever attack me from behind like that again, Tail. Get out of the way, this is between me and Deku," Bakugou growled, his eyes never leaving Izuku. "What do you think you're doing here, you useless nerd? Think you're better than me? HUH?"

Izuku couldn't help but notice how dazed Bakugou seemed, his red eyes hazy with pain. Against his better judgement, he pushed past Ojiro. "Are you okay, Kacchan? It seems like you've been training really hard, and those hits wouldn't be very good for you. I can go get my medical pack if-"

"SHUT UP! I DON'T NEED YOU OR YOUR STUPID HELP!"

The forest itself seemed silent as Bakugou grasped the front of Izuku's shirt in both hands, the taller boy breathing heavily. When he spoke again, it was a low, deadly growl.

"You think you're so much better than me, Deku, just like you always have. Well YOU'RE NOT! I don't care that you just disappeared, or that you took down Stain. You may have found some people that pity you enough to make you think you're good at something, but don't fool yourself. You're still the same useless, quirkless kid I grew up with. You're still Deku."

Izuku's heart dropped as Kacchan's hands began to smoke. He was well and truly frozen by fear now, trained by years of pain and torment, and those words.

Useless. Quirkless.

Deku.

He visibly sank into himself - things really hadn't changed, just like Kacchan said. Without realizing, Izuku lowered his eyes and began muttering. "I don't think I'm better than you, Kacchan. I've always known I've never been-"

A flurry of footsteps interrupted Izuku and a fist blocked his sight for a moment before the tension and heat from Kacchan were gone, followed by a loud thud. He was almost afraid to look, but he found Kacchan splayed out on the ground while Uraraka stood over him, breathing heavily with her hand still clenched in a fist.

"I don't know why he was acting that way," she said quietly, but with intensity, "but there's no good reason to be mean like that."

He could only stare at the vision of beauty before him, slightly open-mouthed. He stammered out what he hoped was an acceptable response when Aizawa appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He glanced at the unconscious Bakugou impassively. "I don't want to know. Go to bed, tomorrow the real work begins."

There were a chorus of groans before the students bid Izuku goodnight. They departed, Kirishima with the unconscious Bakugou in tow. As he watched Uraraka leave, Izuku felt his heart beat erratically in his chest. Uraraka was here. After the mall fiasco, he didn't ever think he would have the chance to see her, or even the courage to text her again.

But she had saved him! With that in mind, for all he knew Izuku floated back to his room. While he was here he might be able to talk to her briefly. He could ask her to lunch after the training camp, or even the movies. After a few dates they might even hold hands.

The thought was too much - Izuku felt himself blushing at this own forwardness. After checking on Kouta one last time, Izuku had some trouble falling asleep that night, his mind racing far too much.

He woke up early the next morning, collecting his medical pack to go check on the boy again. Mandalay waited for him, explaining that the students would be finished with making breakfast soon, and Eraserhead had requested he join them.

Kouta was already awake, glaring at him the moment he entered the room. "Who are you, a dumb hero student with a dumb healing quirk?"

"No, I'm a field medic, actually. Can you sit up, Kouta? I want to make sure you don't have a concussion."

Thankfully Kouta complied with Izuku's requests, begrudgingly following directions. Mandalay was relieved to hear that the boy was fine, and she accompanied him to the dining area. There was already a clamor, the students busily eating and chatting. He suspected now would be the only part of the day that they would have the energy to do so.

Unfortunately Bakugou was the first person to spot him. His shout of "DEKU!" broke across the group. Everyone fell silent, a few people visibly tensing, readying themselves for whatever may come.

"Good, you know each other. This is Midoriya Izuku, a field medic on loan to us from the nearest police station. Treat him well, he's your only source of pain reliever," Aizawa said flatly.

"That little kitten is going to come sit by me," Pixie Bob asserted, grabbing Izuku by the arm. Kouta trailed behind, all but pushing Tiger out of the way when he almost sat on Izuku's other side.

"So tell me kitten, what's your story? How did you come to be so accomplished at such a young age?" Pixie Bob gushed, sliding just a bit closer to him.

"Yeah, why not become a hero with all your talent?" Ragdoll asked.

"I wanted to when I was younger," Izuku explained. "But I don't have a quirk. I was determined to find a way to be a hero without a quirk, but then the hero I looked up to most told me it was impossible. I had to set my sights on something else."

Tiger looked enraged. "What manner of hero would say such a thing to a child? Tell me now and I'll give him a talking-to!"

Aizawa settled into one of the nearby seats with no food, only a cup of black coffee. "It's no use, the problem child refuses to tell anyone who told him such a thing."

Izuku became acutely aware of Kouta staring up at him, a variety of thoughts clearly cycling through his mind. They finished the remainder of breakfast with some idle chatter, and afterwards Izuku and Kouta went back into the building, both for Izuku to keep observing Kouta, and for them to keep one another company.

Silence prevailed in the heroes' absence until Kouta huffed. "I don't need a babysitter."

"Well it's a good thing that I'm not a babysitter, then. I'm Midoriya Izuku, by the way. I don't know if we got introduced earlier. It's nice to meet you, Kouta."

Kouta was still slightly glaring at Izuku. "You're kind of young to be a field medic, aren't you? Are you some kind of suck-up?"

"Oh no, I just want to be able to help people so I took some medical classes. I'm also the first person to participate in the Provisional Police Academy program," Izuku said with a hint of pride.

The boy snorted, a sharpness coming into his gaze. "It figures, you couldn't be a hero so you decided the next best thing was to be a cop."

"No, not really," Izuku said, determined not to be offended by the boy's brash personality. He had a theory of who his parents were, which would explain a lot. "I mean, maybe at first. But heroes are too deeply tied with the entertainment industry. Yeah, they save people, but they also go to press conferences and compete with hero rankings. Police officers are kind of looked down on, but they are authorized to deal with villains just like heroes are. Plus they do all kinds of important little stuff. Imagine if there was no one enforcing the speed limit, or other driving rules. The streets would be really dangerous. They keep everyone safe in the most basic ways."

As he spoke he couldn't help but think of Kimiko, who had become like a little cousin to him. She and her mother had essentially been adopted by Inko, and the four had dinner together at least once a month. The heroes had given up on her after the first day or so, but the police never did.

"I probably rambled there, but yeah. I don't think being a police officer is any better or worse than being a hero. They serve the same purpose in different ways."

Kouta stared a while longer. "So you don't have a quirk, but you're already trying to be like a police officer?"

"Kind of," Izuku nodded.

"Do you have any cool stories?"

With a smile, Izuku animatedly told whatever stories he could think of, and this continued until nearly lunchtime. He occasionally went out to check on the hero students. He couldn't help most of them, because he had nothing to combat exhaustion, especially quirk exhaustion. He gave Kouda some honey tea for his throat and brought Iida orange juice by the gallon, but that appeared to be the extent of his current usefulness. (Bakugou was struggling with his wrists because of his quirk's recoil. It would have been simple for Izuku to wrap his wrists for him, but he would never ask for help, especially from Izuku.)

Just before lunch, however, the dupli-arms boy brought Izuku a shivering Todoroki. His skin was completely covered by a thin layer of frost, his lips a concerning shade of blue.

"Thanks, I'll take care of him," Izuku said, already bustling. "Just lay him down there."

"Hey, that's my spot," Kouta protested.

"You were just punching that dummy, you're fine," Izuku said. "Hand me that blanket."

Todoroki was well on his way to frostbite at the very least, and hypothermia was only a few snowflakes away. But as with most of the world, quirks changed the treatment. When either of these things were caused by a quirk, particularly by the patient's own quirk, there was a slightly different process to follow. It was a good thing Recovery Girl had drilled it into him.

"I'm fine," Todoroki said, barely managing to keep his jaw from chattering. "You can just leave me alone."

"When you can walk out of here at a normal speed, I'll believe you," Izuku said. "Now just sit still."

It was clear that Todoroki had some natural resistance to the cold, but it should have helped him more than this. One side of his body was distinctly warmer than the other, and that combined with his unusual hair most likely placed him in a rare category of quirks, which meant -

"Your quirk has a second part, doesn't it?" Izuku asked. "Something that counters the cold, probably similar to your father's flames."

If possible, Todoroki's eyes grew even icier. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I could give you a twenty-page quirk analysis about the probability of there being another component to your quirk, but I don't have a spare hour. I don't know why you're not using it, but I would suggest -"

"No," he said flatly. "I'm going to be a hero without his quirk. I won't give him the satisfaction."

Izuku paused. At the USJ he had seen signs of things being rapidly frozen and then thawed, and Todoroki hadn't been in danger of frostbite back then - something had gotten worse between then and now.

The more that Izuku learned of Endeavor, the less he liked the man. The man was legitimately talented, but he was a nightmare to work with, according to Kondo. He was petty enough to try and defame Izuku, which was absurd. He could only imagine what it might be like to be the man's son.

"It's not his quirk, not really," Izuku said before he could stop himself. Just based on what I can observe, your flames would manifest slightly differently. Although, even if your quirk was a carbon copy of his, it would still be your quirk to use however you decide. You just can't decide to turn into a popsicle whenever a fight drags on for too long. It will cost you lives."

Izuku felt the full weight of Todoroki's heterochromatic eyes resting on him. "You. Don't. Know. Anything."

"You can keep saying that, but I know that if you want to be a hero you probably want to save people. I understand that, but it's not fair to your classmates or the people you'll save one day for you not to give your all."

A spark of rage flared in the usually cool eyes. "You don't know why I won't, why I can't-"

"No, I don't know. But I do know if you're this amazing with half of your power, if your heart is in the right place, with both parts of your quirk you'll be unstoppable. And because life isn't kind, there will be a day where you will have to decide whether or not to use your quirk. On that day, it probably won't be you paying the price for your actions."

When the other boy said nothing, Izuku continued, "I understand you've probably gone through things I can't even fathom, but for everyone's sake, especially yours, I hope you work things out. You should be good to go back to training now."

As Izuku moved to stand up, a hand that was slightly colder than average stopped him, resting on his forearm.

"How…" For the first time, Izuku saw that Todoroki wasn't aloof and mysterious, he was an unsure teenager. "How do you 'work things out?'"

Doing his best to bring out his inner Inko, Iuzku said, "It just depends on what you think you need. For a lot of people, the first step is talking to someone about what's going on."

Todoroki sighed. "Midoriya, have you ever heard of quirk marriages?"

Excerpts from Izuku's Analysis

Name: Tsukauchi Naomasa

Age: 36

Height: 180 cm

Occupation: Police Detective

Physical Description: A very average, nondescript man. He is an average height with black hair and black eyes, usually wearing a nondescript suit with a tan overcoat and a tan hat. He claims that his "plainness" only aids him in his work, as he is not particularly remarkable in a crowd.

Personality: Seen as earnest, hardworking, and trustworthy by all that are close to him. He can also be overprotective to those who are closest to him*.

Quirk: Human Lie Detector - This quirk is always active, Tsukauchi simply knows instinctively whether someone is lying. To a degree he can also tell what the intentions behind a lie are. See further notes for full details.

Notes: *see accounts of 1) the Tanaka kidnapping, 2) the USJ incident, 3) the Hosu incident…

A/N: Hello, lovely readers. It is me, back with another chapter of the fanfiction that should have waited until I finished another chapter of Arson. Well. This is just proof that comments encourage me to write, because last chapter I got such wonderful comments that I couldn't stop myself. You'll also notice I started including an excerpt from Izuku's analysis. I intend to do one for each of the police officers, but naturally I had to start with Dad-tective Tsukauchi. (Yes, Kit disapproves of that pun. She says hi, by the way, also that she thinks I let Bakugou off too easily.) There's an action scene of sorts at the beginning of the chapter, and that's something I still want to improve my writing on, so let me know what you all think. You're always welcome to talk to me on Tumblr at Rogueptoridactyl!