Authors Note: The flowers described here are auriculas. I still own nothing.

Back To School

The pros did their best to keep Izumi, Shoto and Iida out of the media spotlight and for the most part they were successful. But it seemed that despite that everyone in school at least knew that Izumi had been present from the footage the news had managed to get ahold of and air before the pros found out about it. It wasn't a very long clip, it had been when stain had made his ultimatum that All Might was the only one who was worthy of killing him, but Izumi had been obvious, her green hair and costume standing out against the concrete. She opened her locker and blinked. There were several things inside it that she knew hadn't been there last time she'd opened her locker. There was a small carefully wrapped box and on top of the box was a small bouquet of flowers she'd never seen before.

The blooms were tiny, delicate things, barely bigger than her thumb. The edges of the small petals were green. A jagged line of purple edged the green fading into white before the petals dipped to a center that was a bright happy looking yellow. Uraraka bounced up to her and stopped, noticing she was just staring at her locker.

"Deku! Are you ok?" Izumi blinked at her friend. Then she spotted the box and the flowers on top of it. "Oh my gosh! Someone left you flowers!" That got Iida's attention. He had just arrived behind Uraraka. He was taller than either of them and could see over Izumi's head into her locker.

"That sounds like some has feelings for you." Uraraka bounced excitedly.

"Oh my gosh! Is there a note?! Do you know who it's from?" Then she spotted Izumi's face and stopped almost mid bounce. "Why are you crying?" Iida looked down slightly concerned. There were tears leaking out of Izumi's eyes.

"No one's ever done something like this for me." Uraraka pulled her into a hug so tight she winced slightly.

"Aw! I really kind of hate your old school! I know that sounds stupid but you're such a good person and it sounds like they were awful to you!" Izumi stayed quiet as she wiped her eyes with the handkerchief Todoroki had given her and finally retrieved the gift from inside her locker. Before she could open it though a loud voice came from around the corner.

"I am here!" She almost dropped the package in surprise. All Might grinned at them, eyeing the package in her hands for a moment. Then he spoke again. "Sorry for interrupting but I need to borrow Midoriya for a minute! I got a message from Grand Torino to pass on to you!" Izumi perked up and waved a farewell to her friends as she followed All Might into the empty lounge. He shut the door behind them and let out a breath, releasing his muscular form as he did. He put both hands on her shoulders.

"It's good to see you in one piece young Midoriya. When Grand Torino told me what happened with the Hero Killer…" He trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging for a moment before he pulled her into an actual hug. "You're lucky to be alive young Midoriya." She frowned and shook her head.

"Grand Torino wasn't there for all of it. Stain wasn't going to kill me." All Might raised an eyebrow. The bell rang over their heads, the first signal for students to head to class.

"Tell me after school. I need to talk to you anyway." She nodded to him and left the lounge heading off to Aizawa's classroom. Toshinori shook his head after her. One of the petals had fallen from the flowers in her hands. He picked it up and shook his head again. "Young Midoriya."

Lunch rolled around and Izumi brought the box with her. She hadn't had a chance to open it before class started. Uraraka was bouncing in her seat. Iida looked amused. She opened it and blinked at the contents. There were three things in the box along with a note. She picked it up and read it as Uraraka bounced.

'I hope you find these useful. Though one of them simply reminded me of your smile.' It wasn't signed. She gasped at the items under the note. The first thing was a red white and blue scrunchie, it had two yellow pieces coming off of it, reminiscent of All Might's hair.

"Oh my gosh! They only made three hundred of these!" And she was off babbling about how hard she had tried to get ahold of this limited edition color set and how it had been sold out within seconds of going on sale. She grinned and had Uraraka help her pull her hair up into a ponytail with the scrunchie. The two yellow pieces stuck up just above her head and she grinned. "How does it look?" Uraraka smiled wide.

"You look so cute Deku!" She grinned, absolutely glowing with excitement as she turned back to the box. The next thing in it was a second scrunchie. This one though was green like her costume, with a band of red like her belt through it. She blinked. Iida regarded the hair tie with interest.

"This one looks custom made to match your hero costume." Izumi blushed bright red. She slipped that one around her wrist. The last thing in the box was a necklace. It was on a delicate gold chain, the pendant was a small sun made of what looked like crystal. She blinked at it, it was beautiful, catching light and refracting it into tiny rainbows. Uraraka gushed.

"Oh my gosh Deku that is so pretty!" Izumi nodded and held the necklace up to the light admiring it as someone sat down across from her.

"Sorry I'm late Izumi." She grinned at Todoroki as she unclasped the chain and put the necklace on.

"Hi Shoto!" He smiled softly at her. Uraraka's eyes went wide. Iida shot Todoroki a knowing look. He slurped his soba in silence.

Later, on their way to the training ground Iida spoke to Todoroki, keeping their voices low so the others didn't hear them.

"Why didn't you sign it?" Todoroki shrugged.

"I wasn't ready to tell her." Iida rolled his eyes. "Thank you for the help though. I do appreciate it."

"You are both my friends and I would like to see you both happy." Todoroki looked ahead of them to where Izumi was talking to Ashido, a giant grin on her face, the custom made scrunchie in her hair, visible in the green only due to the bright red stripe.

"You think I could make her happy?" Iida nodded.

"I truly think you are both good for each other." Todoroki smiled at him.

This shouldn't have been possible. The nerd hadn't had this much control of her quirk before. Bakugou watched the screen in disbelief as Izumi zipped through the air. Green lightning sparked and swirled around her and she hadn't broken any bones. Instead she was dodging and flipping through the industrial complex that made up the training ground. And she was using his moves to do it! He growled. She was in first, ahead of Sero, who most of their classmates had pegged as coming first. How could she have gotten so good in a week? While he wasted his time getting lectured by Best Jeanist. He could practically hear his teeth grinding.

Then she lost her footing, and slipped. She just managed to catch herself before she would have face planted on the concrete below, but taking the time to do that lost her the lead. She ended up coming in fourth, after Sero, Iida, and Ashido. That set Bakugou's world back on a somewhat even keel. He sighed and grumbled to himself as he went to his starting point. He ended up coming in first which he made sure to state loudly in front of Deku but she wasn't paying attention to him. She was congratulating Todoroki on coming in second. He frowned slightly.

Toshinori couldn't do it. Looking into those big green eyes, he couldn't tell her. He couldn't tell her the truth about One for All. The admiration shining in her eyes was too bright. He couldn't put that light out now. He just couldn't.

"That's all I had to tell you. You will need to train even harder now, but you're doing well. So who were the flowers from?" Midoriya went bright red.

"W… well. There was a note, but it wasn't signed." Toshinori smiled slightly, glad that his change of subject had worked so well.

"Is there someone you want it to be from?" She was fidgeting with a small crystal sun on a gold chain around her neck. He was sure that hadn't been there before. And the All Might Scrunchie was new. He didn't think it was possible for her face to get redder.

"Well yeah there… there is somebody." He let out a short laugh.

"Well I wont pry Young Midoriya. You should be heading home, we don't want your mother worrying about you." She nodded and grabbed her bag before setting off down the hall with a wave over her shoulder. Once she was gone he dropped back onto the couch his head in his hands. "You should have told her. She needs to know." He felt himself shaking as he pictured her smile. "Who are you kidding? She wouldn't understand. She's too… too young." Too good. Too pure. She had too much faith in him. He could already feel the reserve of One For all draining every time he used it. The transformation itself didn't take too much, which was why he was still able to use it for classes. But if he had to face All for One.

He knew how it would go. It had gone that way for Nana after all. He just had to make sure she was ready when that time eventually came. Maybe she could finally put an end to the evil. He could only hope.

That night the dreams came back. They had been absent while she was in the hospital. But this time there was something different. She was back in the void with the eight pinpricks of light but this time the gold one moved past her faster than she could touch it. She came to a halt in front of the silver one. A voice echoed in her mind.

'No matter how scary things get, give 'em a smile!' Izumi blinked there was a shape in the light in front of her. It was a person, they were so hard to see, the light was so bright. It was a woman. She wore her hair just like Izumi's mother did. She was tall a cape flowing out behind her. But Izumi couldn't make out her face.

'You're doing so well! Little Toshi picked a good one! I knew he would when the time came!' Izumi shielded her eyes from the light.

"Who are you?"

'You'll figure it out. I know you will.' She sounded a little sad like she was hoping Izumi would know who she was already. 'He needs to tell you the rest of the story. You don't know everything, but you will need to.'

"What are you talking about?!" Izumi was desperate to figure out who this woman was. It seemed so important. She'd seen someone who looked like her before. No not someone. A specter standing in the doorway of the stadium when she'd broken her finger to break out of Shinso's control. "I need to know who you are!" The figure nodded.

'Yes, you do!' But she was turning away. Izumi tried to race after her and woke with a crash as she fell out bed. Rubbing her head she scrambled in the dark for the switch on her lamp and the dream journal she kept by her bed. The sketch was quick, sitting there on the floor her blankets tangled around her legs. She was fully awake though, the slight ache in her head from where she'd hit the floor saw to that.

In the light of her single lamp she looked down at the page. It was just the rough outline of the woman, she had no face, Izumi hadn't seen her face. But if she put the eyes from the specter at the sports festival, well it was a start. She scribbled down the little that the woman had said. Next to it all she drew a large question mark. She sighed in frustration as she ran both hands through her hair. Why could nothing about any of this be straightforward?