5: Round Two, Clues!

As much as Izuku had been grateful to not have his love life become the topic of the meeting, he was starting to wish they would go back to it, because the information being thrown at them was incredibly… depressing.

The Eight Bullets were stirring the pot in a lot of bad ways. The Quirk boosting drug was the most overt in terms of frightening, but there was evidence of something else that sounded good on paper but had too many nefarious undertones: they were also dealing in Quirk suppression drugs.

Hawks went over the findings from his team, showing the newly circulating market of temporary Quirk suppression drugs. Mutants were the biggest buyers - eager to have a semblance of normalcy even if the effect only lasted a few hours.

Tsukuyomi's assignment was getting as much information on those drugs as possible. As someone who fit the profile of the ideal buyer, he had been working to get samples of the drug back for analysis. There was concern about side effects, addiction, and most importantly, the promise that something better was being developed.

Permanent Quirk removal sounded like a dream for many people sick of discrimination and with nowhere to hide, but with it also coming from the same people working on Quirk boosting drugs, it spoke of an ulterior motive that was likely to end in bloodshed.

"And, finally, that brings us… to the aftermath of yesterday." Hawks sighed, turning to the screen as he brought up the news. Articles, social media posts, and viral shaky videos of the fight between Shouto and the drug enhanced Quirk user painted the picture none of them wanted to see.

Multiple anti-Quirk protests in front of key government buildings. Demands for curfews and restrictions. Fear-mongering about how the Quirkless were going to be attacked. Speculations about the incidents at the festival. Even some wild stories that the Safety Commission was involved.

Hawks turned the screen off, turning back to the two teams in front of him. Everyone sat silently, soaking in the gravity of the damage done by yesterday's event. It wasn't like they weren't aware of it until now, but now was the moment they really needed to let it seep in.

"We need to do everything we can to stop them," Toshi stated, clasping his hands together on the table. "What have you got for us, Hawks?"

The winged man sighed, folding his arms. "Well, not a lot. Nemoto has not proven to be very forthcoming with information, and a lot of what we do know isn't enough for us to take action yet. So right now, we have the research team analyzing the Quirk suppression drugs that Tsukuyomi acquired. But, we do have a lead we can follow."

"What's that?" Aizawa asked.

"We've gotten word that something new on the black market called 'Trigger' is available. Sounds very likely that it's our Quirk enhancement drug. I've assigned Froppy and Invisible Girl to investigate the lead and find out what they can about the drug. They're heading out after this meeting ends. Tsukuyomi will also continue his mission in getting more information about the Quirk suppression drug development. Any chance we can get to get closer to the Eight Bullets we should take."

"What can we do?" Shouto asked, glancing at his team before turning back to Hawks. "The other Hero teams are covering our patrols as needed so that we can be available to assist you."

"Which we're grateful for," Hawks replied. "But the reality is, none of you can really do investigation work in any meaningful capacity. Shouto and Dynamight's faces are known, and I've been informed Determination can't lie his way out of a paper bag, despite somehow successfully keeping a secret identity."

"...Ouch."

"He's right though."

"Fucking useless twerp."

Hawks continued, "However, once we're ready to make a move, we'll need you. In the meantime, I think we should do our best to prepare for two possible, but likely, scenarios. The first one is more encounters with people influenced by the Quirk enhancement drug. Because let's face it, those who would use it are not going to use it in good ways. And two…" He hesitated, looking around the room. "If they weaponize the Quirk suppression drugs, then you better believe they're going to fire them at the Heroes first. Temporary or not, it won't be pretty."

There was a heavy silence in the room as everyone considered that possibility.

"How do we even prepare for that?" Shouto asked, brow furrowing.

Toshinori looked over at the team of three. "How else? Training, my young Heroes." He paused, coughing into his hand before continuing. "Hand to hand combat. Weapons and equipment training. You should use everything in your power to be prepared for what they could throw at us, including being able to fight without your Quirks."

"Yes, but…" Determination started.

"I'd say start with being able to take out Uravity in hand to hand combat," Hawks offered with some amusement. "From what I understand, she wiped the floor with you, Determination."

Determination's response was to bury his head in his hands. "Ugh… does everyone know about that?"

"I… may have given a detailed recount of our fight to the team, yeah," Uravity replied, and although it was hard to tell from her helmet, she sounded a touch embarrassed. "In my defense, Invisible Girl was insistent on details after Froppy mentioned it."

"I mean yeah, who wouldn't be? You got to fight a Hero–Determination, no less, take him down, and pin him like some sort of feisty dominatri-ack!" Toru cried out as the pencil Uravity threw at her bounced off of her invisible head. "Rude!"

"Says the one accusing me of domming Determination," Uravity replied dryly, grateful that her helmet was effectively hiding heat she could feel spreading across her face. "You're about to give the poor guy an aneurysm."

The hero in question had only further tried to hide under his arms, strictly refusing to even let his brain process what those words meant.

"Quirkless training, eh?" Bakugou leaned around his mortified teammate and leveled a look at Uravity's helmet. "How about we have a go, Princess? Let's finish our fight and see who comes out on top." He grinned, cracking his knuckles for emphasis.

Although no one could see her expression, the angle of her helmet and the tone of voice implied she was giving Dynamight the most exasperated look. "Seriously? Did you really have to word it that way after all that?"

"Oh, for the love of…" Aizawa squeezed his eyes shut, clearly at the limit of his patience. "Get out. All of you, get out."

XX

At Aizawa's orders, the two teams left the seniors behind to continue discussing the situation at a higher level. As the Investigation team broke off to their separate assignments, Uravity turned to the three Heroes who remained standing in front of her. "All right. If Dynamight wants to duke it out that bad, we should make use of the training rooms. C'mon."

She led them back to the observation room and stopped in front of a large touch screen, pressing a few buttons. Behind her, the lights turned on in the rooms connected to the observation room, giving the heroes a view of their options.

Turning, she gestured to the training hall she had been using when they arrived. It was a large, open space, containing several obstacles that could be moved, but generally provided little coverage. "So! We have three training rooms on our floor. We use this one for open spaces combat. I'm sure you're aware, these rooms are reinforced for some measure of Quirk usage, but not like the Commission's external arenas, so don't blow it up."

In response to the last part, Dynamight curled his lip up slightly in amusement, knowing that her comment was directed at him.

"Ours are the same way," Determination replied. "We use rooms like these to simulate fighting in places we shouldn't cause collateral damage. If we want to go all out, we schedule an arena."

"Exactly," Uravity replied. She jerked her thumb to the room directly across from the first. "This one is for close quarters combat training, hence the walls and pillars. It's even got programs that simulate security systems to avoid, if you're interested in that kind of thing."

Finally, she gestured to the room in the middle, smaller than the first two, with padded floors and rows of equipment racks. "This room is more for weapon and equipment training, as you can see. In the event you can't use your Quirks, it's good to have other skills as a backup. Everyone on our floor is adept in at least two weapons and one form of martial arts."

"Tch," Dynamight scoffed, tone jeering. "Sounds like you're overcompensating for weak Quirks."

"It's got nothing to do with our Quirks, Dynamight," Uravity replied, a touch of frustration bleeding into her words.

The hero gave her a feral grin in response, his teeth a white contrast to the black of his uniform. "Touched a nerve, didn't I?"

Behind her helmet, Ochako closed her eyes and worked her jaw, trying to make sure she reigned in her frustration before it blew up completely. Finally, she responded, an edge to her words that she was doing her best to keep measured. "You did, but not for the reason you think. So let me lay it out for you, so I can make sure we're all on the same page."

She made sure to turn her helmet to Shouto and Determination. They may not have the same attitude as Dynamight, but they were complicit in his behavior, and she didn't care for it.

"You guys are the only part of the Commission who can use your Quirks openly without consequences. We aren't part of the Hero Department. Our faces aren't known; we're not public. The moment we use our Quirks on our assignments, we put ourselves at risk and the Commission at risk. We could be arrested and have our cover blown, we could end up in altercations with well-intentioned civilians, or we could end up ruining the limited trust the public has placed in the Commission. You guys literally have a free pass to go around acting flashy as you perform heroics. And don't even get me started on passing privilege. At least two of you aren't mutants, and even if your faces are known, you still get a lot of social slack because you look normal. Everyone on my team except me can't even pretend to have a normal day outside of the office because of their Quirks. Hell, Toru and Tsukuyomi live here because it's safer. So maybe, just maybe, before you keep spouting off that kind of shit, you should take a step back and look at yourself with a critical lens. Okay?"

She stopped her rant, feeling a touch of satisfaction at the not so subtle change of expression on Dynamight's face. He had the decency to look ashamed. Good, so he wasn't completely unreasonable.

"This isn't about compensating for weak Quirks. We are capable without our Quirks, because we can't afford not to be." She sighed, letting the fire in her simmer down before slapping on a layer of false cheer. "Anyway, let's play a game!"

Dynamight lifted a brow, glancing over to his teammates then back to her. "What game," He asked gruffly, but at least his tone was a little less abrasive.

Uravity turned, pressing a few keys on the touch screen. "Quirkless training! Except, let's make it realistic. Let's see how you handle fighting me with my Quirk… while you can't use yours."

"Uh… like, one on one?" Determination asked, confusion in his voice evident. She was already more than capable in Quirkless one to one combat, so with her Quirk, it was a guaranteed win…

Inside her helmet, Ochako smiled slyly. "No, no. Three on one. After all, if my Quirk is weak, it won't be a problem, right?"

She turned her head to look back at Dynamight, who scowled, but just a moment too late to hide the flicker of uncertainty on his features. "Fine; you're on. It'd be the only way you have a chance, anyway."

Shouto blinked, glancing between his peers. "We don't even know what the extent of her Quirk is. We've seen she can teleport and maybe has telekinesis. She wouldn't propose this if she didn't think she had a good chance of winning… Determination?"

The masked man looked between his two teammates before reaching up to scratch the back of his head. "I mean… sure, we're at a disadvantage, but it'd be such a cool way to learn about her Quirk!"

"...I suppose…"

"Useless nerd."

"Great!" Uravity chirped, pressing one final button on the screen. "So, the rules are simple. You three can come at me however you see fit, and the match is over when either side concedes or is completely incapacitated."

She waved for them to follow her into the middle training room where she opened a locker, pulling out three sets of Quirk-canceling wrist cuffs. She tossed a pair to each of them. "So no Quirks accidentally activate," she explained. "After all, I've heard Dynamight's Quirk is temper-activated."

The hero in question scowled as he caught the cuffs, slapping them onto his wrists aggressively. Shouto and Determination slipped theirs on as well, albeit more civilly. Uravity waved a hand towards the equipment racks. "You're welcome to use any weapons here if you'd like, but you may do better with empty handed combat if you've never taken up any weapon combat training before. Anyway, I'll be waiting in Training Room One."

And with that she walked out.

Dynamight looked over at the shortest team member, eyes narrowing. "All right, you dweeb. What have you got for us?"

"Huh?" Determination looked up from fiddling with the cuffs on his wrist. "O-oh! Um. Let's see. Her teleportation requires her to be able to see or envision her destination. The less visible her destination is, the more effort it takes for her to make that hop. She's able to do it in quick succession, at least a few times, because she teleported three times in our fight against Nemoto and I didn't notice any visible strain or after effects."

He paused, thinking. "The objects floating in the room with her and Hawks… I don't know how that's activated, but I think it might be through touch. When they were done, she pressed her hands together to drop everything, and the tips of her fingers were exposed. So it seems likely her Quirk is touch-based, so we should avoid her hands, especially if we see she removes her gloves for the fight."

"You said she teleported with you during the fight with Nemoto," Shouto commented. "Did she have gloves then, too?"

Determination paused, thinking hard. "I… don't actually remember that specific moment, but she had gloves on during the rest of the fight. It's possible the means to activate her teleportation are not contact-based."

"Dek…Determination," Dynamight interrupted, glancing back towards the exit. "You've done all that Quirk analysis shit." He hesitated, as if begrudged to ask for the other man's advice. "What's your thought on her Quirk?"

Behind his mask, Izuku frowned. "Honestly? I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think it's telekinesis. That's what I wanna find out in this fight."

From her place by the speaker in the observation room, Ochako let her lips pull into a smile before disappearing into the next training room.

XX

"Can we do something about this terrible choice in music," Dynamight drawled over the upbeat sound coming from the training room's speakers.

Uravity tilted her head. "Beat me, and you can choose the music. But if I win, you have to buy me some mochi."

"Deal," He grinned, eyes glinting. It seemed some of the tension between the two was starting to unravel now that Dynamight was getting the chance to finally have a shot at fighting her.

Izuku was both excited and nervous as his team stood in a loose circle around Uravity. Excited, because he really wanted to know more about her Quirk. Nervous, because there had to be something special about if she was inviting all three of them to attack her. Sure, they wouldn't be able to use their Quirks, but he and Kacchan were both very good pugilists and Shouto was pretty good at defensive maneuvers, and even without One for All, he was very fast. She had to know this so… what was the catch?

He watched her touch each of her gloves, the material retracting to expose her hands. He looked between Shouto and Dynamight, noting both of them flicked their eyes to her hands as well. Good. Satisfied her actions matched his predictions, he took his stance, waiting for her to call the start of the match.

"All right. Come at me, you Quirkless Heroes!"

The sheer déjà vu of that statement threw him off, and he mentally stuttered. Uraraka had called him a Quirkless Hero affectionately yesterday, and so that was all his mind could think of when Uravity said the same thing. It even almost sounded like her, if she had the same accent. Except this was not affection, she was not Uraraka, and he needed to move.

Forcing his brain to think, he snapped out of his brief reverie to see Kacchan and Todoroki were already on her.

In a pop, she had disappeared from the center, and it was only because he didn't see her appear anywhere else did he realize she was behind him. He spun low, lashing his leg out, only to meet air as she cleared his sweeping kick with a jump.

Katsuki soared over his head, slamming a fist into her. Or would have, had she not disappeared mid-jump. As he dodged her follow-up strike from behind, he had to admit she really knew how to use that short hop teleportation in combat.

He twisted, watching as she advanced on Shouto. She must have understood that out of the three, he was at the biggest disadvantage, being a long range fighter with no ability to do anything long range. So of course, it made sense she would target him, but Izuku also knew she was aware he and Dynamight wouldn't let her get far.

Izuku dashed forward to aid his teammate with Katsuki arcing around to attack from the other direction. Uravity had set the stage for this being a game of tag. Her ability to evade them was top-tier, and without their Quirks, it meant that they had to figure out how to catch her if they wanted to win. It was also only a matter of time before she managed to land a strike on one of them, and when she did, it would likely tip the odds in her favor.

That moment came sooner rather than later when Shouto was just a fraction too slow. Her fingers landed on his arm, and then suddenly they were both across the training room with a pop, and Uravity was twisting, tossing Shouto up to the ceiling like he weighed nothing.

Izuku skidded to a stop to watch the hero fly up, his back hitting the ceiling with a solid thud. However, instead of falling down, he hovered there like a helium balloon someone had casually let go.

"The fuck," Katsuki said beside him, red eyes considering the situation. They both watched Shouto shake his head and push off the ceiling, weightlessly bounding down to the floor. He landed, only to lose his footing and slowly began floating back up into the air.

Okay, so, this wasn't exactly telekinesis. Izuku wondered if it required her concentration to keep up, but seeing the aftermath of her training with Hawks implied that may not be the case.

Uravity walked over and patted the floating Shouto's cheek with a hand before she gently pushed him away. Turning, she began to walk towards the other two Heroes, her helmet bobbing with the beat of the music. "One down… two to go," She called cheerfully.

"Pretty sure it's touch-based now, Ka-Dynamight!" Izuku warned, barely managing to avoid calling Katsuki by his childhood name in front of their opponent.

"Duh, that much is obvious, you useless nerd! Not letting her damn fingers get near me!"

Izuku moved to circle around her, trying to figure out how they could gain the upper hand in this game of tag. She was quick, but so were they, and as long as they could avoid letting her palms touch them, they would not be subjected to floating like parade balloons. But how could they gain an advantage?

Of course, what Izuku did not realize was that Kacchan had his own ideas for disrupting her. He feinted a move, making her dodge so that he could move past her, and shouted to their teammate floating by the ceiling. "Push off!"

Shouto shifted, getting his feet under him to kick off the ceiling. Dynamight jumped up, clasping his hand and pulled down, throwing Shouto at Uravity. She teleported to avoid him flying towards her, and Izuku responded by grabbing his incoming teammate and twisted, throwing him back at the blur of black and pink that reappeared.

"Can you please stop throwing me?" Shouto called out with exasperation as Uravity disappeared from his trajectory again.

"I dunno. It's kinda fun. We could make this a drinking game," Kacchan replied casually, though his grin betrayed him. "Shouto Tossing. For every time we miss Uravity with a Shouto, we drink."

"I don't want to die of alcohol poisoning!" Izuku blurted out with horror. He was surprised to hear a laugh from behind him as Uravity reappeared. He dodged to the side, flipping away from the attack he knew was coming.

"Okay, but that is funny," She admitted as Determination dove away from her hands. "But if Shouto has to drink too, he'll probably get motion sickness pretty fast."

"No th-thanks!" Shouto replied, his speech broken up by Dynamight grabbing him and dragging him back down to the floor. Keeping a hand on his shoulder, Dynamight was able to keep him from floating away.

Izuku took a step back, falling back to Shouto's other side. Uravity tilted her head at the three, chuckling within her helmet. "Having fun?"

Dynamight scoffed, but there was a faint smirk on his lips as he wiped a bead of sweat from his face. "It's a versatile Quirk, I'll give you that. Hell, if you were on my team I don't even think you'd slow me down like these two."

Inside her helmet, Ochako lifted a brow, seeing the peace offering for what it was. This was probably the closest Dynamight got to giving apologies. Despite herself, she felt her lips pull up into an amused smirk. Her anger from earlier had been soothed away and replaced by a tempered understanding. These guys, privileged or not, wanted to help. They did want to be heroes, and they were here fighting her without their Quirks because they knew they needed to be prepared. She appreciated that humility, and it went a long way in soothing a lot of the simmering emotions deep inside her.

The blond looked between his team then back to her. "But honestly, this is a fucking battle of attrition. We're gonna be here all day until either we get smacked or you wear down."

"Hm, that's probably true if we keep going this way," Uravity agreed, glancing down at her hands thoughtfully. "Does that mean you give up?"

"Hardly," Dynamight sneered. "Don't think so little of me, or I'll take back every nice thing I just said."

"You said one thing…" Shouto responded, giving him an annoyed look.

"Shut up, you worthless weather balloon," Katsuki replied, punctuating his insult by tossing Shouto back up to the ceiling.

"You are a terrible friend."

"I'm not your friend!"

As they bickered, Ochako reached under her gauntlet, fingers finding one of the three suppressors latched to her wrist. Certainly, she was holding back, but there were real, dangerous reasons for her to do so. Although she could be competitive, she had no interest in showing off in this situation. Her Quirk was too unstable, and people could get seriously hurt.

She could get seriously hurt.

But, maybe a little demonstration was a good idea. If she went about this carefully, they would be familiar with more of her Quirk, but not so alarmed that she would need to explain everything.

And maybe… just maybe, them having some small glimmer into her situation would help later if…

She sighed, shaking her head away from the what-if's and making up her mind. She just had to remember to keep it contained.

Tightly. Contained.

With that thought, she found one of the three Quirk suppressors on her wrist and pressed the buttons to deactivate the first one. Just the first one. Faintly, she heard the slight beep that indicated it had gone inactive.

"All right, Heroes. Are you ready to finish this?"

In response, Shouto kicked down from the ceiling, catching Determination's hand and letting the latter pull him to the floor between the two grounded heroes. Dynamight cracked his knuckles. "I'll try not to hit you too hard, Princess."

"You're such a flirt, Sparkles," She responded all too sweetly.

She charged towards them, diving under a flying Shouto as Dynamight threw him at her without reservation and much to Shouto's frustration. He followed right in his teammate's shadow, foot coming down in a sharp ax kick aiming for her helmet. His shoe met air, and Izuku had a split second to assess where she might appear before he took the gamble and spun.

She reappeared in his field of vision, elbow raised to crack down on him, and he felt his lips pull into a grin as he rushed into her personal space, taking the risk. Moving at the last possible second, he felt her elbow grazed down his chest. Adrenaline soaring through him, he lashed out, fingers grabbing her arm. Not stopping his momentum, he twisted and yanked her towards him, exposing her back to him as he dragged her to his chest, latching his free hand onto her other arm and pinned both limbs against her sides, trapping her against him.

"Got ya!" He shouted, unable to keep the glee from his voice.

Just barely, through her helmet, he heard her chuckling. "You're kinda cute when you're excited."

"Wh-" He stuttered, brain furiously working to determine if she was trying to get him to let his guard down when he saw Dynamight jerk out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see the other man's face contort into one of bewilderment as his posture became strained, like it was a struggle to stand. Within the span of a heartbeat, he dropped down to a knee and gritted his teeth, clearly warring with some invisible force trying to push him down.

Uravity tilted her head, helmet knocking gently against Determination's ventilator in a way that seemed almost friendly. "I feel kind of guilty, baiting you. I actually really admire your analytical skills, Determination. I read your Hero mission reports. You are damn brilliant, and hearing you earlier was further proof of that."

His eyes flickered to her helmet, then back to his teammate who was slowly trying to push himself back up onto both feet, inch by inch. "What…"

She sighed dramatically. "I don't need my hands to activate my Quirk. It's just a lot harder to control without them. But, I knew you'd pick up on the hints."

It wasn't exactly the truth, given he didn't know about the suppressors or her object limitation, but she also had no intention of telling him about those right now.

"No way…You tricked me!" He did not like how childish that sounded.

"I did," She agreed. "And right now, I can hit you with my Quirk despite you having me pinned. Shouto's stuck to the ceiling, and Dynamight is understanding what it feels like to weigh as much as an elephant. So… what are you going to do?"

He paused, considering the situation and what he knew. His fingers flexed, testing his grip. "It looks like you can either make me go weightless like Shouto, or make me weigh a ton like Dynamight. Both make it harder for me to keep my hold on you, but neither force me to let go of you. I could easily just pin you down with my extra gravity, or use you to root me from floating up to the ceiling. It's also possible you could teleport out of my hands, but that requires concentration, and you've admitted you're already exerting a lot to activate your Quirk remotely, so I don't think you're going to take that chance and risk losing your control over Dynamight."

She laughed, and it broke him out of his rambling. "That is… wow."

"What?" Izuku asked, a touch embarrassed. "Am I wrong?"

"Nah. It's pretty spot on, given what you've seen. And honestly, pretty impressive! If I didn't have a guy I was already interested in, I'd ask you out on a date."

Izuku's mask suddenly felt entirely too hot. "I… uh. What?"

Uravity laughed again. "Don't worry about it. But let's finish this before I'm serving Dynamight pancakes for lunch. Shall we call it a draw?"

"Uh…" He glanced back to Kacchan, who looked ready to murder him because–oh yeah they'd just been talking while he was trying maintain a shape in three dimensions. He glanced back up behind him to see Shouto still floating by the ceiling, arms crossed over his chest in resignation.

"Yeah… let's just call it a draw," He agreed wearily.

"Cool."

With a slight jerk of her head, the weight on Dynamight disappeared, although the sudden release of pressure made him fall back down with a gasp. Behind them, Shouto landed on the floor with a graceless thud and a grunt of pain.

Izuku let go of Uravity, stepping back as she turned around to face him, fiddling with her gauntlets. A soft beep-beep caught his attention, but before he could ask about it, she walked off, citing something about finding food.

XX

Lunch time was taken on their own floor so Izuku could take off his mask to eat. Sitting in their team's private break room, he munched quietly on a sandwich, reflecting on, well, everything.

"I don't see how teleportation and gravity manipulation overlap," Todoroki said thoughtfully, picking at his food.

"Two Quirks maybe? I mean, we know that can happen," Kacchan replied, waving his chopsticks.

Izuku blinked and looked up from his food. "You mean All for One?"

Katsuki shrugged, giving the freckled man a look. "Yeah, he's supposed to be able to give Quirks, right? And I mean, even if it's not him, you have seven, you damn cheater."

The One for All Successor grinned awkwardly. "Well… I can't give Quirks, and All for One's been silent for years. I mean, the only reason we know he's alive somewhere is because of the vestiges and my Quirks appearing."

It was, admittedly, not what Izuku had prepared for when he agreed to take All Might's Quirk years ago. Take on a powerful Quirk and become a Hero? Okay. He was ready for that. He wanted to save lives and make the world a better place.

Finding out a year after getting said Quirk that his mentor's arch nemesis was not actually dead, that he would need to prepare for his eventual come back by mastering six additional Quirks, and finding out because he more or less started hallucinating and talking to dead people?

Yeah, that had been a wild ride. All for One had not yet returned, but when he did…

Izuku blinked out of his reverie as Kacchan continued, "Yeah, so, what if he did it years ago, before he went off radar. He's gotta have people working for him, right? Maybe she did and switched sides."

"I suspect she's around our age," Shouto replied. "So she would have been young if that were the case. But even still, I think we would have heard about it if we had someone previously working for All for One at the Commission."

"Yeah, it seems unlikely." Izuku agreed, running his tongue over his teeth to dislodge some food. "Besides, I still think it's one Quirk."

Kacchan rolled his shoulders, making a disgruntled face at the memory of feeling like his body would collapse under his weight. "Whatever it is, she tricked us good. Damn clever bitch."

"You sound… less angry than I would have expected," Shouto commented idly.

As the blond scowled and snapped back a response, Izuku turned his attention to his phone, noting he had a message. A jolt of electricity ran through him at seeing Uraraka's name flash up.

Was it a date?

Swallowing, he quickly unlocked his phone and read through the text.

"Hey, with all the protests and unrest out on the streets, I'm not feeling like going out for dinner. Are you comfortable coming over to mine and I'll cook? Same time tomorrow?"

He paused. Did that make it less of a date? More of a date? It was at her place, after all. But it felt similar to when she invited him over last night to give him company. Maybe this really was just to build a friendship? He was happy with that, of course, but it did mean his heart sank a little at the thought. He moved his fingers across the keyboard, typing out a reply.

"I don't mind! Are you sure? I feel bad with you cooking. Should I bring something?"

He noted the read receipt almost immediately. Maybe she was at lunch, too.

"I don't mind! If you wanna bring something, you can. Maybe a dessert? I love mochi if that helps!"

He paused, rereading the message. Hadn't mochi come up somewhere else today? He traced back through his thoughts, and then settled on what Uravity had said in response to Kacchan's criticism of her music.

"Beat me, and you can choose the music. But if I win, you have to buy me some mochi."

Huh. Maybe it was just a girl thing? Like pumpkin spice lattes.

"Deku, who the hell are you texting? Your mom?"

Izuku jumped, looking up with wide eyes to see both of his teammates staring at him. "Uh… my… neighbor?"

"Oh, the one you went on a date with?" Shouto replied, curiously.

"Wait, you were serious?" Katsuki asked, shooting Shouto a look before glancing back at Izuku. "Wait, wait, I forgot who I'm fucking sitting with. Neither of you know shit about women. Tell me about this 'date'."

XX

Katsuki stared at Izuku, who nervously played with the clasp on his bracer. "So… she found you at a park playing with brats, chatted with you for a while before Shouto's shitty street performance, and then dragged you out for bubble tea because she thought you were a wimp and took pity on you because the crowd sent Danger Sense into overdrive. And then she gave you her number, invited you to her place for dinner so you wouldn't be alone, but you declined, and now you're having dinner at her place tomorrow. And you want to know if it's a date."

The other man nodded furiously, face red and eyes wide. Beside him, Shouto added, "She also said she wanted to get to know him better, if that helps."

Katsuki dragged a hand over his face, eyes almost rolling back up into his head. "My fucking god I work with idiots."

"So…" Izuku asked meekly. "Is it a date?"

"It's a fucking charity case," Kacchan replied flatly. His brow twitched when he saw his teammate's face fall. After a moment of warring with himself, he gruffly added, "She wouldn't have invited you over if she didn't have some kind of interest in you, not that I know why. But it's not enough to say it's a date. Probably wants to see how much of a mess you are first. Or maybe she's brainless and is actually head over heels for you. Who knows?"

Izuku felt like Uravity had just taken away the weight of his stomach at the idea that Uraraka could fall for him.

"Get that dopey ass look off of your face, Deku, it's fucking disgusting."

- XX -

AN: That fight scene gave me so much trouble; you have no idea. It also turned out to be much longer than I anticipated, so the "Date-Not-Date" will take place in the next chapter.

I also want to remind that in this setting, instead of 80% of the population having Quirks, it's more like 10-20%, so it's easier for people to get surprised by seeing abilities they haven't seen before.

Also I like to think that since they're adults now, Katsuki has emotionally matured some and just hides underneath his shield of insults and bad temper.