The next episode started right where the last one left off, with the shipwreck zone trio leaving the area now that the villains were immobile. As they waded, Mineta mentioned how he knew that the villains would be stuck for a while.

"Oh man, I so did not need to know that." Sero said, dramatically cringing away from Mineta.

"Hey, it's not like I thought I was gonna be saying that to the whole class!" Mineta whined.

"Fair point." Tsuyu conceded. "We didn't really need to know that either though."

"We'll just add 'instances of TMI' to the list of things you need to keep to yourself." Kaminari said teasingly. The tone seemed to lessen the amount of red in Mineta's face, so Kaminari counted that as a win.

Midoriya started muttering again, thinking about how they were lucky the villains hadn't kept anyone in reserve.

Bakugo scoffed. "Lucky? You're giving those guys way too much credit. Those grunts could barely hold their own."

"You do have a point..." Midoriya conceded slowly, cautious of replying to Bakugo. "I suppose it would be more accurate to say we're lucky that Shigaraki and Kurogiri didn't give them better instructions."

Bakugo grunted, which Midoriya interpreted as grudging agreement.

Tsuyu broke Midoriya out of his muttering and reminded him they needed to focus on getting out. Midoriya agreed, but was briefly distracted by how much his two fingers were hurting.

"I'd almost forgotten how much you had gotten hurt from that move." Iida commented. Though he would be hard pressed to do so now, as Izuku was once again gritting his teeth. It seemed that having the camera's focus caused the 'pain factor' to come back in full force.

"I remember this, it passes in a sec. I just gotta let my mind, er, my past self has to get his mind focused on other things." he explained tightly.

Izuku covered his injured hand with a cloth, and he and Tsuyu started discussing how best to proceed.

Izuku relaxed a bit as his past self stopped focusing on his injury and started looking ahead to the next task.

They planned to take the route that would let them avoid the plaza as much as possible, since that's where Aizawa was fighting the crowd of villains. Thinking about this made Midoriya worry about how well his teacher was faring, and he suggested they go see how things were going and try to help a little if they could.

Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. He was now sitting on the floor, anticipating his own pain response to the show. "Midoriya, do I need to add your name to the list of students who need to be taught not to get into the teachers' way?"

"I, I wasn't planning to just jump right into the middle of things." Izuku protested. "We would get good view of the plaza if we followed the shoreline anyway, so I just figured, if we had the opportunity...like, Tsu could use her tongue to snatch away a villain on the edge of the group, or we could use Mineta's quirk to stick someone to the floor. I figured any small thing might help at that point."

'No wonder All Might picked him. The two are entirely too similar.' Aizawa thought to himself. "Be that as it may, you should have focused on escaping. It's my job to protect you, and it makes it harder when I have to worry about whether or not you'll actually follow my instructions."

"Yes sir, I'm sorry." Izuku answered miserably. What made it worse was that they hadn't been able to help Aizawa at all; they just created more targets for Shigaraki.

"Focus on doing better next time, not apologizing or regrets." Aizawa counseled.

Izuku's voice over commented on how the trio's first victory had made them over confident.

Aizawa felt a bit relieved after hearing that. It likely meant that, had Midoriya been allowed to process the events of the USJ incident instead of ending up here almost immediately afterward, he likely would have realized what they were just talking about on his own. That was a good sign.

The scene switched to the landslide zone. Todoroki insulted the captured villains one more time before casually walking around them to leave the area. He thought about the villains' plans as he did, and concluded that the numbers they had brought were just a bunch of thugs. He thought all this as he froze two more attackers.

Students stared at the screen with their mouths open, and Ashido let out a low whistle. "Dang, Todoroki's got his intimidation shtick down pat!"

"You're telling me." Sato agreed.

"The fluid grace of your moves is a sight to behold!" Aoyama declared.

Aizawa nodded again, impressed. "It's a good sign that your situational awareness is that high, even while thinking about the larger attack plan. Keep honing that and it will serve you well in the future."

Todoroki nodded in acknowledgment. Meanwhile, Present Mic looked back and forth between the real Todoroki and the one on screen. 'Am I the only one concerned about how Todoroki is reacting here? I mean, the others were pretty level headed, but Todoroki's vibe is a lot more intense. Like he's already faced down scarier stuff and isn't phased by these guys at all...'

Todoroki concluded that only a few members were truly dangerous, and then proceeded to do the intimidation scene from the previous episode.

"Todoroki, pro tip, if you ever plan to do that kind of thing in the future, do it away from cameras. The media could accuse you of torture otherwise, even if you don't really mean it." Present Mic said. When Todorki stared at him, he continued, "I mean, that was just a bluff right? You didn't actually plan to torture them?"

"That's correct." Todoroki said with a nod. "Since they were just street thugs, I didn't anticipate them holding out long enough for it, and I was right. I'll keep the advice in mind though."

"Good to know."

Todoroki looked back at the screen. He probably wouldn't need to keep it in mind much though. Endeavor had already given him a few lectures on how best to avoid media scrutiny when doing things that the public might find 'objectionable'.

The scene moved again, this time to the Mountain Zone, where Kaminari was freaking out and running away from a villain. He soon joined Momo and Jirou, who were armed but completely surrounded.

"There's so many!" Hagakure said, fidgeting with worry. "I know you guys didn't get badly hurt, but it's hard to remember when we're seeing all this!"

"Well, define badly hurt? Because physically I'm fine but I wasn't feeling so hot by the end." Kaminari admitted. Mineta looked over in worry.

"What happened?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll see." he deflected.

Jirou snickered, remembering the way Kaminari was acting by the end. Momo's face had gone blank though, as she suddenly remembered what happened at that same time. She hoped Truth had some modicum of decorum.

Kaminari asked for a weapon too, and Jirou told him to just use his quirk. Kaminari argued back that if he did that he ran the risk of hurting them too, because he didn't have a good way to direct it. So the girls would have to do the heavy lifting in the fighting. Jirou responded to this by kicking Kaminari toward a villain, who he then shocked easily without hurting anyone else. Much to his own surprise.

"Jirou, that was dangerous and unprofessional!" Iida shouted.

"But it worked." She shot back. "We needed all our firepower at our disposal if we wanted to get out of there. He just needed a kick to get him going."

"Still, we could have found a better way to help direct his quirk." Momo said. "Had I known just a bit more of his quirk back then, I would have made him a staff like mine right away."

"Covering himself with electricity would cover the rod too. So that would help him choose targets without having to throw himself at them, plus it would increase his range, right?" Midoriya questioned. Momo nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

"That would have been nice." Kaminari agreed.

A villain then leaped at Jirou, who she managed to redirect toward Kaminari. The villain's fist hit him in the face, which meant Kaminari was now shocking two villains at once. Momo did the same thing a moment later.

Students whooped and laughed as each villain in turn was shocked by Kaminari.

"Nice teamwork!" Uraraka said through her laughter.

"I suppose it was, in a round about way." Iida admitted.

"Ow! My nose!" Kaminari yelped when the on-screen villain hit him, covering his nose with one hand.

"You know that's not gonna help right?" Sero pointed out.

"Shut up, it makes me feel better. Emotionally."

Mineta laughed.

Another villain attacked, and Jirou stopped him by using her quirk, the sounds from her speakers blasting him away. She got her own close up quirk explanation, then chided Kaminari for not ordering something to help him aim from the support department.

"A little late for that, but I'll add it to the to-do list." Kaminari said.

"Make sure it's at the top of the list." Jirou grumbled.

"A collapsible metal staff would be a good idea. That would make it portable and not get in the way if you weren't using it." Midoriya pointed out.

"Hey, that's a good idea! Thanks!" Kaminari grinned at Midoriya, who blushed slightly at the praise. "It'd be nice to have even more range though."

"I'm not sure how you'd do that yet, but we could maybe brainstorm during one of the breaks. Knowing more about your quirk would help."

"Sounds like a plan, man."

More villains were closing in, but just then, Momo hunched down. A light appeared across her back and a huge sheet sprang into being.

"Oh! Is that an insulation sheet?" Midoriya asked eagerly, Momo smiled proudly.

"Indeed it is."

"That's perfect! That was a great plan!"

"How is a sheet going to help?" Ojiro wondered.

"Just watch and see."

Momo told Kaminari what the sheet was and the boy grinned. As soon as the girls were covered he sent out a huge blast of electricity, and the area went silent. Villains all around the area were shown, either down and out or burnt and shaking.

"Awesome!" Ashido shouted. "You really showed them."

"Giving it your all to protect your classmates, so manly!"

Momo lifted up the sheet, expressing her worry about the others. Doing so also revealed what had happened to her outfit after the sheet was created.

Momo sighed, and resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest. Well, she had asked for a modicum of decency, and apparently that's what she was going to get, a modicum. Better that the dust cloud was there than not she supposed.

Meanwhile, Jirou was staring down everyone in the room. "I swear if any one of you says a single goddamn word..."

She was met with a hasty chorus of denials, insisting that they would never. Mineta was silent, but that was because he was using all of his willpower not to say anything at all.

"You can do it, dude." Kaminari patted his shoulder encouragingly.

Jirou was worried about Momo's state of undress, but Momo just declared that she could make more clothes with her quirk. This earned her a close up quirk explanation as well.

"Is that why you have that book on you? You need to know every detail about the thing you're creating?" Midoriya asked.

"That is correct."

"I can barely imagine how much you must have memorized to be able to make such a wide variety of materials and devices. That's really impressive Yaoyorozu!"

"No kidding! You're super smart on top of having a great quirk!" Uraraka said, bouncing in her seat a little.

"Oh, it's not that impressive really." Momo said, blushing a bit. "Most materials I use are made of the same basic things, so it's not as much to remember as you might think."

"Don't sell yourself short. You must have worked really hard to get all that figured out, especially since you can use it so well today." Hagakure argued.

"Yeah, I wish I could remember that much stuff." Kirishima agreed.

"Thank you." Momo gave them a soft smile.

Jirou caught sight of Kaminari, and quickly moved to cover Momo, but it turned out to be a moot point. Kaminari's quirk overuse had muddled his brain.

"Saying that seeing Yaoyorozu is what short-circuited him would be...too much right?" Mineta asked quietly.

Kaminari snorted, his brain was feeling almost as fuzzy as his on-screen counterpart.

"It would be, yes." Aoyama confirmed, since Kaminari was out of sorts.

"Yeah, if you think something might get you slapped chances are it will." Sero added.

"I'm going to schedule a proper check up for that boy." Recovery Girl declared. "I highly doubt this is the first time he's done this to himself, and it can't be good for his health. I'll have to speak to his parents, see if he's already seeing anyone about this..."

"I'll add it to my list." Nedzu agreed.

Aizawa nodded along to their conversation. They'd need to find some way to keep the kid from frying himself if he hoped to make it as a pro. He couldn't get taken out like this every time he needed to do a big attack.

The scene stayed on them just long enough to show a hand bursting up from the ground behind them.

The sudden appearance made some jump. Others looked worriedly at the three classmates just shown, hoping they wouldn't have to hear them in pain soon.

The scene switched back to Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta, who were sneaking along the shoreline. The kids confirmed among themselves that they were just looking and would run if things seemed dangerous.

"They should just keep going." Aizawa muttered to himself. He knew he already lectured them, or at least Midoriya, about this and repeating himself would be redundant, but a part of him still wanted to.

"Think of it this way Aizawa, their desire to help despite the danger shows they have a true heroic spirit!" Yagi said, trying to sound positive. The look he received from Aizawa made him wilt.

The camera shifted to show Aizawa still fighting, and now Shigaraki was running at him.

The kids looked at each other in confusion when they heard Shigaraki whispering to himself. Why was he counting down? Based on what he remembered, Izuku had an inkling, and over with the teachers, it was clear Present Mic was thinking the same thing.

"He figured it out that quickly?" Mic whispered incredulously. He was now sitting on the floor next to Aizawa, ready to support his coworker and long time friend. Aizawa nodded back stiffly.

Aizawa rushed at Shigaraki and elbowed the villain in the gut. The watching kids smiled.

The kids in the audience cheered Aizawa's move, but it quickly died down alongside the smiles on screen.

Shigaraki whispered in Aizawa's ear how he'd noticed what his hair did each time he used his quirk, and how he'd been counting each time Aizawa was forced to blink. The camera panned out to show that the skin on Aizawa's elbow was gone, exposing red muscle.

Aizawa had been ready. He already had the towel Hisashi had offered between his teeth, and he was glad for it as pain seared through his elbow. He bit down on it hard, and did his best to focus on that sensation rather than the pain. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep quiet through the whole thing, but he'd do what he could to save his voice and keep his students from getting worked up over him.

Despite the injury, Aizawa pushed Shigaraki away and kept fighting with only one arm. Shigaraki talked as he did, noting how fighting a big group was so different from what he usually did, and wondering if he did all this for his students.

"The way he keeps going even after that injury is so manly." Kirishima said, the phrase much quieter and more solemn than he usually said it. No one disagreed. They were all amazed by their teacher and what he was doing for them.

Izuku once again felt unease start to creep through him. Once again, Shigaraki's words sounded similar to what he himself had said to Aizawa before the hero had jumped into the fray.

Shigaraki gleefully declared how cool Eraserhead was.

"Uh, did one of the main villains just have a fanboy moment about our teacher?" Sato asked incredulously.

"Kinda sounded like it, creepy." Shoji commented.

"He almost sounded like Midoriya there, kero."

Something curdled in Izuku's gut.

"What?! Deku's nothing like that guy!" Uraraka yelled indignantly.

"Indeed, it is most inappropriate to compare a classmate to such a heinous villain." Iida said, chopping his hand through the air.

"I didn't mean I thought Midoriya was bad." Tsuyu clarified. "Just that the way they talk is kinda similar."

"He has some similar talents too, like how he was able to figure out Aizawa's weakness so fast." Mineta noted.

"C-can we just get this over with?" Midoriya begged. Hearing his discomfort, they all went back to watching.

Shigaraki said he wasn't the final boss, and pointed behind Aizawa. The hero turned and saw the Nomu behind him. The creature attacked.

"Urk!" Aizawa doubled over, his torso almost parallel with the floor. Present Mic and Recovery Girl carefully guided him into laying down, his head resting on Present Mic's legs.

"No shame in showing pain right now, Shouta. Just ride it out as best you can." Hisashi murmured.

The students glanced over in worry, but kept it short. The more they paid attention to the screen, the quicker this would go.

Several disturbing noises followed, but the camera stayed focused on Midoriya as he watched in horror.

Several students cringed. Hands pressed to stomachs and lips pressed together to try an control the wave of nausea the sounds produced.

Izuku felt bad now, that he'd moved this along from earlier. But this had to happen eventually, and at least it seemed like Aizawa wouldn't be in full pain until he was actually shown on screen rather than just heard. The scene was changing back to the entrance, so hopefully the short respite would help.

Back at the entrance, 13 was fighting Kurogiri, but the villain turned the tables on her. He opened a warp gate directly behind the hero, and her suit was ripped apart as she collapsed.

Gasps and cries of alarm went up throughout the students. Many of them hadn't seen 13 injured, only been told she'd been taken away by the medics.

"That shitty villain bastard!" Bakugo yelled.

"Such an underhanded move, I should've expected that from a villain." Kirishima growled.

Yagi once again felt guilt twist like the blade of a knife inside him. 13 was down, and Aizawa was even now in extreme pain beside him, all because of him. Because the villains wanted to destroy what he had created, a Symbol of Peace.

The students urged Iida to run, and with 13's words on his mind, he did just that. Kurogiri moved to intercept, but was tackled by Shoji. He moved to do so again, and scene shifted to show others still fighting in their own areas. Until it settled on the kids from the shipwreck zone. The camera panned to show Eraserhead face down on the ground, being held down by one of Nomu's hands and the other hand held his arm, which was clearly broken.

A choked scream was heard throughout the room. The pain made Aizawa jack-knife again, and Hisashi quickly moved to support him.

"You can do it Shouta, you can make it, you can ride this out." He continued to murmur encouragements in Aizawa's ear as the scene went on. He knew that Shouta didn't like getting much attention, especially when he was in pain. But he also knew that it would help Aizawa to have something other than the pain to focus on, even if it was just annoyance at Mic's voice.

The kids looked on in horror. Some had seen Aizawa before he was taken away by the medics, while others hadn't. Even some of the ones who had seen him were shocked. Seeing their teacher helpless, and his arm twisted in that unnatural angle, it was a far cry from seeing him being carried away while injured.

Shigaraki told Aizawa that the creature was bioengineered to be the anti-symbol of peace.

Suspicions stirred in All Might's mind. He could think of one person who would have enough knowledge to so perfectly match One for All's abilities, as well as the savvy to find a way to secretly create such a thing without being caught. The obsession with himself factored perfectly into it too. But no, that wasn't possible! That man was dead, Yagi had killed him. Still...

The scene switched to the collapse zone.

Aizawa's whole body relaxed at once, and Hizashi and Recovery Girl helped him shift into a more comfortable position.

"I don't know if I should feel relieved or not." Hizashi said quietly. "If he gets hit by all that pain again after it went away for a while, won't it be worse than if he was feeling it the whole time? At least he could zone out more if it was constant."

"Well deary, hopefully that first time gave his brain enough time to get it's act together and release something helpful before the next time roles around."

Bakugo and Kirishima were shown fighting villains back to back.

"We look so awesome!" Kirishima gushed.

"Hell yeah." Bakugo said with a grin.

After the villains were subdued, Kirishima said they should go help the other students, and revealed that he felt they needed to do something to make up for getting in 13's way earlier.

Present Mic smiled. "You hear that Shouta? The crazy red head really did learn his lesson. Maybe you won't have to make him write anything after all." That earned him a soft grunt from Aizawa.

"Maybe."

Bakugo said Kirishima could do all that if he wanted, but that he was going after the warp gate. Kirishima accused him of acting childish, and Bakugo yelled at him about the importance of taking away the enemy's exit plan.

"Impressive." Iida said. "After the battle trial I had assumed Bakugo's strength lay in coming up with plans in the moment, thinking on his feet as it were, and in mastery of his own quirk. But this shows he is capable of thinking ahead and planning things with a longer term end goal in mind.

"I'm sure the fact that he has a vendetta against Kurogiri helps." Uraraka pointed out. Internally, she wondered if he had come up with the plan first, or if he just really wanted to get Kurogiri and had come up with justification for it afterwards.

"That does say something about Bakugo's goals compared to the goals of most others in the building." Momo interjected.

"What do you mean?" Iida asked, but it was Midoriya who answered.

"Everyone else we've seen, aside from Todoroki, all had the main goal of just defending their group and then escaping. Todoroki and Kaachan though, they both prioritized the villains."

Momo nodded. "Indeed. Todoroki on figuring out their plan and Bakugo on making sure they couldn't escape."

"What are you trying to say?" Bakugo growled. She shrugged.

"Nothing in particular. I just found it interesting to see how different members of the class approached the same problem."

Bakugo huffed and looked away, but Todoroki had gone stiff. Focusing on villain capture over rescuing civilians is something he expected from his old man, and from his rowdy classmate, but the analysis had lumped him into the category too. At the time he'd been thinking that since he had no one else in the area to protect, as far as he knew, that it would be more prudent to get more information about the group's plans so he could decide how best to deal with them. But did that make him more like his father? Was he giving into his father's influence by focusing so much on the villains rather than being like Kirishima and wanting to make sure all his classmates were safe first? But even Kirishima went with Bakugo to confront the villains in the end...he'd have to give this more thought.

While the two boys talked a camouflaged villain was shown sneaking up on them.

Bakugo noticed a number of students getting anxious, and rolled his eyes. "I took care of it, calm your asses down."

The villain leaped at them, but Bakugo easily grabbed the villains and knocked him out with his quirk. He pointed out that the other students would likely be fine if all of the villains sent to fight them were as easily taken down.

Ashido whistled. "Not gonna lie, that was pretty cool."

"Definitely." Kaminari grinned.

"Kind of flattering in a way too, don't you think?" Sero pointed out slyly. "I mean, Bakugo actually admitted to having confidence in us."

Sato laughed. "He actually did! I didn't catch that!"

"If you guys couldn't take down thugs that weak you'd be even less than extras, that's all it meant!" Bakugo growled.

"No take backsies!" Ashido sang.

"Shut it Raccoon Eyes!"

Kirishima admitted that it was cool to see Bakugo acting so rational, since he didn't usually act like that. A thought bubble appeared over Kirishima's head. Bakugo yelled that he was always rational.

"You just disproved your own point." Tsuyu said along with the on screen Kirishima. The ones that had just talked to Bakugo were busy laughing over the thought bubble picture.

"Dammit I can yell AND be rational, frog face!"

As Bakugo started to leave, Kirishima declared that he was manly for believing in their classmates, so he would follow him.

Todoroki was thinking again. Kirishima had gone with Bakugo because they had both believed their classmates could take care of themselves. That was honestly similar to his own reasoning, but he hadn't thought about it as consciously. He'd just seen how easily the ones in his area had been dealt with and hadn't worried about anyone else...but should he have. He was at the top of their class as far as power went. Maybe he should have thought more about what the others could handle...

No, he couldn't think like that. He wasn't here to make friends, just to show off to his father that he could be a powerful hero without using his fire. He had to focus on that. The others were trying to be heroes too, so they should be able to take care of themselves.

The doubts about just how much he was truly deviating still lingered in the back of his mind though.

The scene switched to the Fire Zone, where Ojiro did a sneak attack on one of the villains.

"Nice shot!" Hagakure praised. Ojiro blushed slightly.

"Heh, thanks."

"Yeah, man, that was cool." Kirishima gave him a thumbs up.

"I thought sneak attacks weren't manly?"

"You were the only one there, right? Can't fault you finding away around not having anyone to watch your back."

"Are you saying there's a fine line between being manliness and stupidity?" Ojiro asked with a smirk.

"Hah! That's one way of putting it."

The scene switched to the Squall Zone, where Koda and Tokoyami were working together to take down villains.

"Good tactics." Aizawa said, startling several students. They expected him to still be out of it.

The scene switched back to the entrance. Kurogiri was gaining on Iida, but before he could do anything Uraraka jumped in and used her quirk.

"Nicely done, kero."

"Yeah, great going Uraraka!"

"Indeed, I never got a chance to thank you for your timely intervention.

The praise from Tsuyu, Midoriya, and Iida made Uraraka blush.

Iida finally reached the door and started to pry it open. Kurogiri tried to go after him again, but Sero and Sato worked together throw Kurogiri across the facility.

"That was an excellent example of teamwork, all of you." Nedzu said, smiling at the three who had helped Iida.

"Thank you sir!" They all said in unison.

"I'm sorry I wasn't more help." Ashido said glumly. She'd felt pretty useless during that part.

"Don't beat yourself up, you were keeping an eye on 13." Sero said.

"Yeah, I was only able to act so confidently because I knew you were with him, and that you were watching our backs." Sato agreed. The words made Ashido brighten considerably.

Aizawa's broken goggles were shown.

"Brace yourself." Recovery Girl warned Aizawa, who nodded tiredly.

The Nomu was shown crushing Aizawa arm even more.

Aizawa yelled in pain, the sound loud enough that the students could hear it around the gag. It was hard, but they continued to stare at the screen. They wanted their teacher's pain to be over as fast as possible, and hopefully never hear it again afterwards. So, with teeth gritted and muscles tensed, they made the show continue.

Shigaraki mocked Aizawa, saying his quirk was useful but not really all that impressive since it didn't help him fight.

"How can he say that?!" Izuku demanded, immediately latching onto a difference between himself and the villain. "Mr. Aizawa's quirk is amazing! He forces his opponents onto his playing field. He takes advantage of the fact that so many villains only think to train their quirks and not themselves by training himself so he can fight no matter what! How is that not amazing!"

"Indeed. If Shigaraki truly cannot see the value in that, then he is a fool." Iida agreed.

"He might have just been saying it to get on Mr. Aizawa's nerves." Uraraka pointed out.

"Kicking someone, even an opponent, while they are down. That just makes him even more despicable." Iida declared.

Aizawa managed to turn his head and used his quirk on the Nomu, but that didn't stop it from doing the teacher even more damage.

Aizawa tried so damn hard to keep himself quiet through this, but it just wasn't possible. He was glad for the presence of Recovery Girl and Hizashi, because focusing on them was better than thinking about anything else right now. Even from his place on the floor, if he looked hard enough, he could see his students squirming or cringing. He wasn't sure if it was due to the sounds he was making now, or seeing what was happening on screen. Either way, he hated the thought that they would be burdened by this.

The camera panned over to show that the trio from the Shipwreck zone was still watching the whole thing.

'Dammit, get out of there already!' Aizawa thought to himself. Those three should never have been in so much danger.

"I don't know if I was having second thoughts." Izuku responded to Mineta's on screen question. "I don't think I was really thinking at all at that point. Seeing all of that, it was like my brain just froze. I couldn't move, much less think of what to do."

"I was in the same boat, kero."

"Good to know it wasn't just me, I guess." Mineta said softly.

At this point, Kurogiri pulled himself back together enough to report to Shigaraki. When he heard Kurogiri's report, he started to freak out, viciously scratching at his own neck as he did so.

"He scratches much harder he's going to risk slicing his own jugular." Shoji said, rubbing the side of his own neck.

"That would be fortuitous for us, in a way." Tokoyami pointed out.

"That go dark fast." Jirou muttered.

Then he suddenly stopped, and said that so many pros coming meant game over and that they'd have to go. The Shipwreck trio overheard that part, and Mineta got so excited that he hugged Tsuyu. His hands ended up in an unfortunate position.

"Okay, I know I said I was gonna be less of a dick in the future, but I'm not letting you slap me for that one. I wasn't actually going for that, that just ended up happening because of the height difference." Mineta argued.

"I guess that's believable." Tsuyu said. "I'd ask for an apology anyway, but since I held you underwater for a bit, I'd say it already got balanced it out. Especially since you're probably about to feel that again in a moment."

"...aw crap."

On screen Tsuyu did exactly that. While that was going on, she and Izuku talked about how strange it was for them to just leave after all of this.

"Guys, don't say things like that! You'll jinx it!" Hagakure whined.

"On the contrary, I'd say that figuring things out and planning ahead is much more fruitful than wishful thinking." Momo argued.

"Can't we do both so we don't jinx it?"

"The wishful thinking was Mineta's job." Jirou interjected. Hagakure thought about that, then nodded.

"I can accept that."

Suddenly, Shigaraki turned and ran at Tsuyu. He was there in a matter of seconds, and the kids had no time to react before Shigaraki was reaching for Tsuyu's face.

The students who didn't know what a close call Tsuyu had jumped or gasped at the sudden charge.

"Tsu, I'm sorry." Izuku said miserably.

"Kero, what for?"

"He was attacking you and I just stood there. I should have done something sooner!"

"I could have been faster too, ducked to the side or into the water. He was too fast for either of us, there wasn't anything we could have done."

"But-"

"There's no point in regretting it."

Izuku silenced himself and nodded. Right, he shouldn't get caught up on things that were already over, he should focus on getting better.

When Shigaraki touched Tsuyu nothing happened. Shigaraki turned, and it was shown that Aizawa had pulled himself up just in time to activate his quirk.

Jaws dropped open as the students were once again blown away by the determination and strength their teacher showed.

"So manly..." Kirishima said in quiet awe.

The Nomu smashed Aizawa's head once again.

Aizawa gave a full body jerk and let out a strangled cry before suddenly slumping. This caused a great degree of distress until Nedzu reassured the students that this was likely the affect of Aizawa finally passing out and thus relieving him of further pain for now.

Midoriya jumped out of the water, thinking only of freeing Tsuyu and escaping. He activated One for All and punched at Shigaraki. When the dust settled, Izuku was shocked to see that his arm hadn't broken.

"What?!"

"Seriously, he just figured it out now?"

"Go Deku!"

"Th-that's a little premature guys." Izuku argued hesitantly.

"I take it that you don't know how to replicate it." Aizawa asked tiredly, as Recovery Girl mopped the sweat off his face. She had refused to let him sit up, but he refused to let these events stop him in trying to help his students.

"No sir, I still got hurt when I used it later."

"Still, being able to hold back for the first time, especially when it was accomplished by facing a living opponent, is not small feat young Midoriya. I'm sure we can find a way to cultivate it." Yagi reassured his successor. Aizawa nodded, tired but confident.

When the dust settled more, Izuku saw that the Nomu had shielded Shigaraki, and that his smash had dealt no damage to the creature.

"Seriously? None at all?" Kaminari asked in amazement. He was suddenly glad he'd ended up in the landslide zone. It was way better than being anywhere near that thing.

"That thing was crazy tough, man." Kirishima said.

"They certainly weren't joking when they said it was designed to defeat All Might." Todoroki agreed.

"Yeah, even from a distance, we could see that Nomu gave All Might a hard time." Sato confirmed. The others who were by the entrance voiced their agreement.

Shigaraki sicced the Noumu on Midoriya. It grabbed Midoriya's arm and moved to crush him. Tsuyu tried to grab him with her tongue again, but Shigaraki was now reaching for both her and Mineta.

Izuku cried out in pain, and reflexively gripped his arm.

"Deku?"

"I'm okay, really, the Nomu just has a really strong grip." Izuku explained in a tight voice. "And that's all he gets to do now, so it's fine."

Uraraka had to resist the urge to sigh.

Suddenly there was a crash from the entrance, loud enough to even make the villains pause. A cloud of dust was settling around the door, and All Might stepped out of it. For once, he wasn't smiling.

The class cheered. Even now, the relief that All Might's entrance brought was palpable. His arrival meant that the replaying of these painful memories would soon be over.

Shigaraki noted they were getting a 'continue' and the episode ended.


Recovery Girl demanded a short break at the end of this episode. Even with wanting to get it done and over with, none of the students could deny their haggard teacher a break after all of the extreme on and off pain he had to deal with this episode. There wasn't as much milling around this time as other times, most people just stretching stiff muscles or doing a quick bathroom break. There was one student that took advantage of the time to talk though.

Izuku called All Might over into a side room and shut the door. He didn't want anyone else to hear this.

"What is on you mind young Midoriya?"

"Um, well, do you really think what I write in my journal is good?" Izuku asked, stumbling over the words a bit.

"I did indeed find your thoughts and insights to be impressive. It reminded me of an old friend actually, but why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that there were a couple of times where Shigaraki said something that sounded like it could have come from one of my notebooks, or something I say when I start muttering, and people always tell me that's creepy so..."

"Ah, I see where this is going." All Might lay a hand on his shoulder. "My boy, sharing a talent or skill set with a villain is nothing to be ashamed about. We are defined by our choices, not by our abilities. Plenty of villains could make amazing heroes if they applied themselves differently, and vice versa. So you have nothing to be ashamed about."

Izuku let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. All Might was right of course. It was silly to think that a quirk or skill automatically made someone villainous. Still, he kind of hoped that no one else had made that connection.


"So did anyone else notice that Shigaraki is kind of like the anti-Deku?" Kaminari said out of the blue to those around him. "You know, with the quick quirk breakdowns and the weird level of fanboying and all that."

"Oh yeah, I definitely picked up on a bit of that." Sero admitted.

"Me too." Shoji said. "Probably best not to say anything to him though."

"Yeah, poor guy's got enough anxiety issues without being compared to creepy villains."

Considering that no one mentioned it again, even as Izuku rejoined the group and the next episode started, this seemed to be an unspoken agreement throughout the class.


A.N.

Don't worry, I didn't forget Izuku's promise to talk support gear with Kaminari. This break was just meant to be a short one though, so I didn't feel they'd have time for that. Everyone in the room really wants the USJ out of the way you know? I'll try to work it into a later chapter.