Jpx0999 - Yeah, they are a good (and lengthy) summary of human deliberations about 'how much we can f_k up if superpowers show up.

Fencer29 - Premature, this fic ends at 100 chapters :P But we're almost there.

The Cocoa Puffer - We still have to deal with AFO, and... well, let's just say that final two chapters are an epilogue, showing how much Midoriya managed to actually achieve.

Shahryar - That's me, the provider of rare feels lmao

(***)

"That was… incredible." Destro announces after a few seconds of silence following Overhaul's head coming in contact with the asphalt road.

He is in the present MLA headquarters in Deika Valley, together with what can be considered his inner circle.

No way any of them would miss out on seeing their (second) greatest enemy as of now in action. To say that they got more than they expected would be an understatement. Because while Nedzu described Defiant's quirk to them, this was…

… still a lot.

"How could he be this powerful?" Trumpet asks. He joined relatively recently, but with the MLA being in desperate need of someone with proper political experience, he was enlisted into the Inner Circle right off the bat. "His quirk is supposed to be the second-gen one, right?"

Koku Hanabata himself was among the more stable first gen quirk holders. The fact that he immediately started using his quirk to improve his political standing in the party said volumes about it. But when he found out that his quirk was influencing him, he at least tried to tone it down a little.

"Nedzu." Destro asks. "Care to elaborate?"

"Absolutely!" The rat replies through the computer screen. "While Defiant's quirk, Force I believe, is a Second Gen one, One for All is a Zero Gen one, working under a completely different paradigm."

"I thought…" Destro replies, leaning back in his seat. "That it wasn't supposed to be this powerful so quickly."

"Because it wasn't." Nedzu replies, sounding almost cheerful. "Witnessing this battle invalidated my old models of One for All power growth completely. And I think I already have the explanation for that."

"Share it with us, then." Destro urges the rat a little.

"You see, Force appears to be, in short, the ability to 'pull' objects." Nedzu replies. "To this day I assumed that Force was a second gen quirk that was born from a stabilized and highly mutated form of Yoichi Shigaraki's 'stockpiling' quirk. After all, what is stockpiling if not 'pulling' energy into your body?"

"Ahh." Destro lets out, the supervillain realizing it the fastest from everyone present in the room. "Force isn't related to Yoichi's quirk, it's related to Defiant's mother's latent quirk."

"Precisely!" Nedzu replies, his mechanical voice coated in fake cheerfulness. "She must have some sort of pull-themed quirk that was too weak to manifest itself visibly. There has never before been a One for All Holder with a latent quirk, so it's possible that it was too weak for One for All to 'latch' onto, so it remained invisible despite the stockpile being there. However…" He pauses, probably to give Destro an occasion to prove that their wits are in roughly the same league.

"Her quirk must have influenced One for All." Destro takes over. "Amplifying its power-stockpiling mechanism. 'Pulling' more energy into her body. How much did it stockpile?"

"By my calculations, Defiant's display on the Esuha Bridge is roughly comparable to what I would expect from a fifty-years worth of stockpile." Nedzu replies. "Give or take a few years, depending on how strong his original quirk was."

"That's… bad." Destro decides. "If it's going to keep growing at that speed, it'll be…"

"Unlikely." Nedzu cuts in. "I believe that the growth is going to plateau now, both due to Defiant's weak physique and the fact that the growth was too steep. Frankly, I think that there was a large chance that if his mother kept the quirk for a decade or two more, it would either self-destruct due to growing too fast to adapt to the excess energy or break her body and mind under the strain. One For All falling into the hands of a person that won't be able to contribute a lot to it is going to be beneficial to it, allowing it to stabilize a little."

It also explained why the quirk kept knocking Defiant out, in Nedzu's opinion. It was too much energy in the container that probably began to leak each time the superhero tapped too much into it.

His quirk exhaustion was much faster and more severe because not only did he use ten mana points per minute (while most other quirks used three to five), he also leaked further twenty points into his body and even outside of it (resulting in the energy discharges).

Too much pressure in the bottle. Too much energy throughout his body, resulting in said body waving a white flag way too often.

"That's reassuring… if we had two or three generations to wait for quirks to catch-up to him." Destro replies dryly. "I assume that the Prime Minister will make the Hero Association official now, Trumpet?"

"Absolutely." The politician replies. "She would have to be an idiot not to. And of all the things she is, an idiot isn't on the list."

"Brilliant." Destro sighs. To be honest, things weren't going all that stellar for the MLA nowadays. In terms of firepower, it surpassed the heroes, and by far. However, the army was still there, and unless the Hero Association and the JSDF were going to come to blows…

MLA couldn't win.

It was going to have to continue recruiting while maintaining maximum secrecy. If things escalated in the wrong direction for the metahumans, it would be flooded with supporters. If not, well.

If it wasn't going to go wrong for the metahumans, Defiant was going to succeed in Destro's goal in his stead. And while that would sting a lot, he wasn't petty enough to try to throw a society-destroying tantrum over this.

That was for the future to consider, though.

For now, he had All for One to deal with. And, perhaps, Defiant, because that kid was going to become his enemy the moment the Council was going to stop being a threat to them both.

What were the chances of Nedzu backstabbing them at that moment?

Great.

"I assume that you have at least a few options as to how to deal with Defiant, if we had to." Destro asks. He might as well milk Nedzu for all that the rat's worth before the inevitable betrayal.

He is almost certain that Nedzu will avoid creating himself a mortal enemy just in case, and won't sell them to the heroes. But he will probably leave the MLA with some variant of 'I know where you live and if you go after me so will the heroes' ultimatum.

"Poison his food, choke him with a poison gas, attack from outside of his effective range with something powerful enough to pierce the invisible telekinetic shields that he's probably covering himself with at all time to avoid being sniped…" Nedzu lists. "... the options are there. However I strongly advise you against engaging him in a shorter range. He is clearly reluctant to use lethal force on all but the most hated enemies, so you might be able to tire him out with numbers without anyone being critically injured, but it's a big risk."

Yeah. Even Geten, their unofficial wonderboy, would struggle keeping the new Number One Hero at bay for a longer period of time. Physical attackers in general were almost uniformly countered by Force. Almost instantly, if they had to get close.

"I see." Destro nods. It more or less lines up with his opinion on the subject. If there was something he would add it would probably be 'and try to do that when his friends and co-workers aren't there because the same person reacts differently to himself being threatened and the people he cares for being threatened'. "Time for the final review of the Deika Valley defenses. We do not know when All for One is going to show up, and we're going to have only one shot at this. We can't fail."

(***)

Mari and Kimiko Hatsume don't say that aloud, but they are extremely anxious to meet their soon-to-be son in law.

Because, yeah, they still didn't meet him.

They were actually growing worried, despite Shino Sosaki's reassurances that it's not some dastardly plan of anyone involved. Just an extreme case of social anxiety combined with waging a literal war.

It apparently made Izuku Midoriya quite busy.

They realized how much in the dark they were kept when Overhaul made his announcement.

Discovery that your very socially oblivious daughter somehow joined the Mortal Enemy team of such a monster was like being sprayed with ice-cold water, really. And that's before the discovery that Overhaul apparently murdered Midoriya's mother.

It explained why Izuku tried to keep them as separate as possible from the whole mess in Musutafu. Or why Mei was unceremoniously booted back to Kyoto right before the Esuha Bridge started.

Apparently he was against having her anywhere near the splash zone, especially due to her being pregnant.

That's another plus mark next to his name, in the opinion of Mei's parents.

They were still going to have a Very Serious Talk with their daughter and Shino Sosaki about being kept out of the loop on things, but that's going to happen later. Because in the meantime, they are sitting on both sides of their daughter on the couch, watching the battle and trying to calm her down.

It's not working awfully well.

They are also acutely aware of just how much did Mei achieve during the past few months, because what leaves her mouth is a steady stream of engineering terms, describing all the ways in which she could make the equipment of the heroes battling it out even better.

Despite them already being marvels of engineering, if the performance of the heroes on the screen was anything to go by.

Her anxiety was a thing to behold, alright.

Then Overhaul detonates his bomb and…

They don't want to see Mei like this ever again.

She goes pale on the instant, her hands covering her mouth, looking as if she was an inch away from a heart attack.

"No-nononono…" She lets out, staring at the screen in shock. "I-It's my f-fault, if I m-made the s-suit better he would…"

They just hug her from both sides, because honestly, they might have just saw the death of their soon-to-be son in law, and she saw it too, and… no amount of genius engineering could save someone from that and…

Nevermind.

Midoriya lives, even if he looks like he went through a meatgrinder, his uniform badly tattered but still holding together, a testament to Mei cutting no corners in its development and production.

Mei's face goes blank before she starts to cry tears of happiness.

They wouldn't have let her watch it at all, but she was an adult technically, and she kept making THAT face whenever they suggested she not watch it and …

They should have put their foot down on this, especially seeing the tears being choked out of her when rather than retreating, Izuku lunges forward.

Mari and Kimiko Hatsume feel like they age a few years during those few seconds between the start of the charge and Overhaul - now armless - being slammed into the asphalt, clearly unconscious or dead, Izuku raising his hand in a victorious gesture.

Mei goes practically limp on the couch, exhaling deeply.

"And he even used the blades I made for him." She says quietly. "I love him sooo much. But I'm also going to kick his ass for worrying me so much."

That, her parents decide, is a perfectly valid reaction to what just happened.

"I think that I need to rest for a moment." Mei then announces loudly. "Yes. A nap sounds alright."

"Uhm, don't you want to rush to the hospital to make sure everything's alright with him?" Her mother asks. To her that's logical, but Mei is, well, herself, and that makes things a bit odd at times, so…

"Oh, no, there is no need." Mei sighs. "He would complain about me not taking care of myself well enough, he got super protective of me ever since he heard the news." Oh, that makes an awful lot of sense. "Besides he has his other girlfriends to rush to the hospital for him right now."

Silence.

"His what?" Her father manages to speak first.

(***)

To be honest, it's a bit surprising to Izuku that he actually wakes up.

He isn't sure what he expected, really. Guess it was the high time to discover that he isn't excluded from spending time in what seems to be the UA hospital.

He is still rather exhausted with the whole ordeal, and it's clear that Eri wasn't involved (yet, probably), so he can truly feel all of his injuries.

His right hand is slightly upward, kept in some metal framework that was partially hanging off the ceiling. It hurts probably the most, but to be honest, his entire body feels like it was very, very done with everything.

He tried to shift his position a tiny little bit, but it was enough for him to let out a pained moan.

It brought someone's attention.

"D-Deku-kun, are you awake?" Uraraka appears in his line of sight, leaning over him. Izuku blinks at her, clearing his view a little.

"Y-yeah." He replies. She doesn't cry, but it's clear that she gets pretty close to that, and in a happy way. "It h-hurts just a little."

At least he admits that it hurts, even if he still massively downplays his injuries. It's a clear progress. Unfortunately for him, Uraraka Ochaco can read him easily, so she immediately tells him to wait and runs off.

She returns a moment later with Chiyo Shuzenji and some nurses. What follows are some basic tests (like questions to find out how cognizant he was) and the likes, before he gets some additional painkillers into the drip.

Yes, it was suddenly much more livable, nice.

Chiyo was very focused on the medical procedures, enough to tell him to ask the questions to Uraraka later and let her do her job properly. Izuku might be a superhero, but he considers listening to doctors a good idea, and so that's what he does.

Half an hour later Shuzenji is gone (after telling him that he's going to make a full recovery, even without Eri's quirk, which is kind of an odd thing to say, but). Uraraka promptly returns, pulls the chair right next to his bed and holds his healthy hand.

"I'm so happy you're alright, we were all so worried, and…" The words keep coming out and…

"How long?" Izuku manages to say.

"You were unconscious for four days." Uraraka replies. "We were all fearing the worst, but…" She sighs with relief. "Don't scare us like that anymore, you jerk!"

He wants to say something alongside 'but then Overhaul would escape!' but he gets a feeling that she is going to punch him in the face for this so… let's not push her any further. Besides, yeah, she has a point.

The final attack made much more sense BEFORE he actually attempted it.

"I'll do my best, Mocchan." Izuku replies with a pained smile. "I-is everyone alright?"

"Of course that's the first thing you ask for, not any variant of 'what about me'." Uraraka sighs. "No, what Shuzenji told you doesn't constitute the proper answer to that question. You don't have to worry though, everyone's alive. The only seriously injured one was Eclipse, and she's still in better shape than you are."

Phew.

"That's good, that's good." Izuku sighs. There are more things he has to know, that he has to know urgently. "What about Overhaul?"

Silence. A few seconds of it. Realization begins to dawn on Izuku, when Uraraka speaks again.

"It's over, Deku-kun." She says. "He is dead. Someone apparently tried to break him out, and he got hit by a stray bullet."

… what?

"That's…" Izuku tries to cut back. Even with Eclipse out of commission and Overhaul having to be transported with cars, Shie Hassaikai didn't have the manpower left to attack the convoy, if they even had a way of locating.

Wait, maybe the League? If Overhaul was being moved to some temporary detention facility to wait until Eclipse was operational again for a sneak warp to Tartarus, then maybe…

"... probably a lie." Uraraka doesn't let him, before sighing loudly. "Rabbit suspects that Aizawa had Torino execute him on arrival at Tartarus."

Ah.

"He probably did." Izuku replies calmly. "All for One certainly saw the quirk in action, and it sounds like something he would want. Even if not for himself, to avoid being influenced mentally by it, then to grant it to someone else. And since he controls the government, he could just order Overhaul to be sent to him."

"Yeah." Uraraka nods. "Rabbit explained in the same way. Before you ask, they had him cremated. Asa was present, in your stead, so we have a one hundred percent certainty that it was Chisaki. Overhaul is gone forever."

Yes, it was several months, but… to him, it was like a lifetime. A lifetime of fighting Overhaul. And he won. It was…

He had no idea how to process his emotions about it. He had successes in the past few months, but this was more than this. He put his back into achieving something great… and he did it.

It was so unlike his pre-superhero (but post-Bakugou Katsuki) self, that he just…

"Serves him right." Izuku sighs. "Eri can live safely now, errr, speaking of, where is she now?"

Uraraka looks like she suddenly developed a deep distaste for eye contact. Uh-oh.

"It turns out that she told her parents who you are." Uraraka replies. Yeah, as it was supposed to be. Izuku is tired of having to hide the truth from them. "And, well, the Bakugous appear to be significantly irritated by discovering that their daughter has a superpower after months of her being employed as a healer behind their backs."

Uh-oh.

"Good news is that they came to an accomodation with Aizawa and Sasaki already." Uraraka clearly hurries to improve his mood. "So she will be allowed to keep helping us, just with some, uhm, corrections to her security while at it. And she is supposed to be paid for using her quirk, in a form of payments to a bank account that she'll have access to once she becomes an adult."

Oh, smart Bakugous, smart. They were thinking about her future already. In times like these, it was a perfectly good idea. Izuku should have already thought about the same thing.

"And why am I still like this then?" Izuku asks, gesturing to his thoroughly mangled right hand.

"You're going to love this." Uraraka says, the tone suggesting that he was going to be anything but lovely. "It's because our victory over Overhaul was too one-sided."

"... say what?" Izuku blinks at her.

"Overhaul propped himself as a massive, unstoppable threat." Uraraka replies. "And then we practically bitchslapped him with no permanent casualties whatsoever. Governor Yagi decided to pretend before the world that you and Eclipse were more injured than you actually are, in case some idiots decided that the Esuha bridge was a government fake to prop up the Hero Association."

"I want to facepalm so much but moving my arm feels like a pain right now." Izuku sighs. "Also, I hate the fact that this sounds like a reasonable fear. Couldn't they just have Eri heal me and then move me elsewhere?"

"You have no idea what sort of cluster…mess this hospital was for the last three days." Uraraka groans. "I swear, half of the Japanese' reporters were trying to get close to your room, despite the police force and the heroes garrisoning the entire floor telling them to, in polite terms, leave now or else. If someone somehow got close enough to discover that the room was empty…"

"... right, the government would announce that I was moved elsewhere for security, but with a lot of people distrusting it right now, the conspiracy theorists would have a field day." Izuku sighs painfully. "This sucks, but is probably the only way to proceed, especially if we want to keep Eri hidden from All for One."

Yagi didn't know about her. The rest of the whole affair was Aizawa and Sasaki running with the idea and including Eri into it.

"Looking forward to being officially moved elsewhere and healed." Izuku adds. "Because this sucks, but I understand the reasoning. Alright, anything else I need to know?" Silence. "Anything else I might want to know?"

"Paladin rushing to your position to make sure that none of the Overhaul's goons got a lucky shot on you had an… unexpected side-effect." Uraraka eventually replies. "We got Impaler, but we lacked heavy-hitters on the ground with Paladin away. So while Dictator and Kurogiri are both in Tartarus, Volcano and Necromancer manage to escape, together with some of the lesser villains. Inquisitor wasn't on the battlefield at all, and… it seems that what's left of the Shie Hassaikai swore fealty to the League of Villains."

"Mistakes were made." Izuku announces dryly. "I guess that the heroes' job is never done, and… I think I'm going to take a lengthy nap now."

He just doesn't want to think about what sort of hell Kuroiro was going to unleash. Aizawa was probably in depths of despair. Then again, for all his skills, Kuroiro had to spread his attention between two prefectures.

And the Shie Hassaikai was still collapsing. The day was won by the heroes, the world got significantly safer, but… it's not like they can make the organized crime pack their bags and leave overseas with a single battle, right?

"Sure you will." Uraraka replies. He closes his eyes, only for them to open wide when he feels her lips touch his. It was a very brief kiss, but…" M-Mocchan, you…"

"I'm very happy that you're alright, Deku-kun." She replies, leaning over him. Her smile… doesn't feel painfed at all. "I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but… I guess that coming forward with how broken I was and you just… accepting me, the whole me, did a lot."

"You were never broken, Mocchan." Izuku replies, giving her hand a squeeze. "A broken person would stay in that forest. But you, even after all that happened, still tried to get better. That's not what a broken person does."

"You look like you fought a meat grinder and lost, and you're still giving me that talk?" Uraraka sighs. "You're selfless to an unhealthy degree, and we're going to have to work on that."

"Is that why you're smiling so wide?" Izuku asks with a cheeky grin.

She sticks out her tongue on him, and promptly leaves. A few minutes later, Izuku dozes off again. He really needed to rest some more.

(***)

When he opens his eyes again, it's night outside. A rainy night, even stormy if the distant grumbles are the sounds of thunder.

Lights are clearly off in the room. Great.

He has a feeling that he lost at least a few days again. The pain subsided notably, aside from his still mangled arm that was clearly put in a cast now. He is still rather groggy, and he feels like he should take another nap, but…

… that's when he realizes that he isn't alone in the room, because someone was sitting in the chair right next to him.

Someone familiar.

Because after hearing that he used to be a politician (if a relatively minor one), he had Sasaki get them all a picture of him. He got older, but… even the black business suit is almost the same.

"How great that you've picked this very moment to wake up, Defiant." Hisashi Shigaraki asks, with a perfectly trained but still somewhat fake smile. "Because I've come all the way here to have a very important talk with you."

fuck.

(***)

Oopsie :v