Once both Midoriya and Todoroki had some time to rest and recover from the previous episode, they started the next one. Everyone felt either wary or excited, wondering what the fallout of such a match would be. All Might, still worried about his young charge, decided to sit by him for the episode. After a brief discussion, Iida ended up perching on the arm of their couch so All Might could sit in a proper seat, and he wouldn't move no matter how much All Might insisted it wasn't necessary.

The crowd was shown wondering and talking about Midoriya. They couldn't figure out what the boy's end goal had really been, but they agreed that his tendency to injure himself would be a big drawback no matter how much power he had.

Izuku swallowed anxiously, but tried not to let the words discourage him. He'd already seen himself get in a few more hits that didn't majorly damage himself or destroy others. That showed progress, right? He just had to use this time to try and figure out what made those hits different, so he could replicate consistently.

As though sensing his worry, All Might gave him a smile. "They can't see the progress you've made from the start of the school year, but it is there. I'm sure you'll continue to improve, my boy."

"Most kids take a couple years to really get their quirks under control, so you're not doing bad." Aizawa acknowledged.

Izuku felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. "Understood! I'll do my best to continue forward." he blinked then, a thought occurring to him. "They didn't say anything about Todoroki though. Isn't that weird? He was really impressive, especially at the end there."

"Perhaps they merely needed to get past the shock of the fight's end before they acknowledged his prowess." Iida suggested.

"Maybe." Izuku hoped it was that. He hated the idea of Todoroki not getting credit for his work just because people expected Endeavor's son to be impressive. He didn't notice how surprised Todoroki looked when he realized that Midoirya was genuinely concerned about his opponent not getting enough credit.

The next scene showed Todoroki exiting the area, only to be stopped by a far too pleased Endeavor. He went on about how Todoroki needed to learn control over his fire, but now that he'd given up his rebellion the boy could become a 'perfect upgrade' of himself.

The class and teachers muttered and grumbled angrily at Endeavor's appearance, until it was broken by Midoriya yelling: "Todoroki isn't an upgrade of anything! He's his own person!"

"Exactly!"

"I agree wholeheartedly!"

Uraraka and Iida's agreement sparked additional shouts from the class, either further agreeing or yelling insults at Endeavor.

Todoroki stared at Izuku, stunned by his words and how quickly they were followed up. He really wasn't used to this much positivity being directed at him, or such blatant disrespect for the number two hero. A part of him also hadn't expected the 'real life' Midoriya to take up the mantra the on-screen one had thrown at him, but it looked like this Midoriya had only stayed quiet during the fight due to the pain factor. That was...that was something he'd have to think about.

Todoroki corrected him, saying he hadn't given up anything. It wasn't something that could be changed so quickly.

Izuku nodded in acceptance, despite the small part of his mind that ached with disappointment. It was ridiculous to think that one fight, no matter how mentally and physically brutal, could make Todoroki do a complete 180 on something he'd struggled with for so long.

"That's completely understandable." Momo said softly, earning a few murmurs of agreement.

Todoroki then said that he only used his fire in that moment because, for once, he'd completely forgotten about Endeavor.

"Oooooo!" Mineta, Kaminari, and Sero all said at once.

"Oh my gosh the look on his face!" Hagakure crowed gleefully.

Todoroki walked away from Endeavor, saying he'd have to think about whether or not that was right or wrong.

The mood sobered once again, either out of respect or worry.

"If it were me, I'd keep forgetting about him because he's not worth the waste of head space." Jirou said.

"I don't think I can just forget him, not completely, or all the time." Todoroki said slowly. "That wouldn't be...it wouldn't be a good idea."

Jirou wondered if he'd been about to say 'it wouldn't be safe' and winced. "Yeah, that...that's a fair point."

Momo rested a hand on the arm of Todoroki's chair. "Remember what I said during the break."

Todoroki nodded to her. He hadn't forgotten the offer.

The scene changed to the temporary nurse's office, where Recovery Girl was delivering some bad news to Midoriya and All Might.

Izuku braced himself when he saw the sign for the nurse's office, as did Uraraka and Iida. They collectively relaxed when they saw that Izuku was still passed out from the fight.

Midoriya had broken his arm so badly in the last fight that there would be lasting damage.

"Seriously? Even with your quirk?" Sato asked in wide-eyed surprise.

"There are some things even my quirk can't fix, not without risking the patient even more." Recovery Girl said with a shake of her head.

Izuku swallowed dryly, anxiety building in his gut. 'Just what does 'never be the same' mean?' Iida pushed a glass of water into his hands, but Izuku couldn't quite find the energy to drink it.

Yagi's throat had also gone dry, and his hand subconsciously moved to cover his old injury.

Recovery Girl explained that she'd need to do surgery to get the bone fragments out of his joints before she could use her quirk.

Nearly the entire room cringed at the idea of bone fragments in finger joints.

"But, after the surgery is done and Recovery Girl uses her quirk, shouldn't everything be back to normal then?" Kirishima asked.

"Not if she has to take the bone fragments out Shitty Hair, he'd be missing those then."

"Bakugo is correct, our esteemed nurse's quirk can speed healing but it cannot regrow what has been lost." Iida explained further.

"Oh man, I didn't think about that." Kirishima rubbed his knee anxiously.

Recovery Girl was solemn as she bemoaned how far Izuku was pushing himself for his goal. She told All Might that they were both going too far, and instructed All Might not to praise the boy for it.

"It, it wasn't just me and my ambitions, I was trying to help Todoroki, and live up to all the faith put into me and-" The anxiety swirling in Izuku's stomach was condensing into a hard lump. "I have to go farther because I'm already so far behind and-"

"Deku! Deku take a breath!"

Izuku pulled in a breath, as Uraraka instructed, and it nearly started a coughing fit.

"Midoriya, my boy."

Izuku looked up and saw that, at some point during his mutterings, All Might had move to kneel in front of him.

"My boy, I understand how you feel, and I do commend you for having such a strong desire to help those around you. However, Recovery Girl is also correct; the sports festival should not have resulted in you getting so drastically hurt."

"It wasn't just about the festival." Izuku insisted.

"I know, but..." All Might sighed. "I know I'm the last one who should lecture anyone about this, but you must also learn when such sacrifices are needed and when they are not. You must choose your battles, at least until you gain some real control over One for All."

"It's just like the first day, Problem Child. You can't help others if you break yourself too much to be of use, and that's what will happen if you keep breaking your bones like this." Aizawa added. Present Mic nodded vigorously.

"You gotta remember Listener, setting yourself on fire to keep others warm doesn't work in the end. Not unless you're Todoroki over there."

The mentioned boy gave his teacher a flat look. All Might took the opportunity to regain control of the conversation.

"It's important to rely on others; that's something we both need to work on, I think. In the future, if a classmate truly needs help, you don't have to try and tackle it on your own. I will be here to help, as will the other teachers here." The other teachers voiced their confirmation of this.

"We can help too!" Uraraka piped up.

"You help us enough, after all." Iida agreed.

Izuku's eyes shimmered, and tears began to spill. He could guess why the other him hadn't been shown trying to tell anyone yet, and it wasn't just because Todoroki had said everything to him in private. Izuku had grown used to taking care of things on his own; he was used to classmates that mocked and teachers that didn't listen or care. But as he looked at his friends, and at All Might and the other teachers, he was reminded that things were different at UA. Maybe here, he really could trust others to help, one day.

So Izuku swallowed a sob, and gave All Might a wobbly smile. "Okay, I'll try. Can't make any promises for him though." he gestured at the screen.

All Might chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Well, we can work on it once we're out of here."

The moment was interrupted by Iida, Tsuyu, Uraraka, and Mineta all bursting into the room. Yagi was so surprised that he coughed up some blood.

Izuku's mouth fell open. "You ALL came to visit me?"

"Of course we did Deku! That fight was brutal!" Uraraka said, scandalized at the idea that they'd just ignore him during such a time.

"Yeah, after a fight like that I'd want to make sure you were still around!" Mineta agreed.

"Same here, kero."

"But Iida has a fight coming up..." Izuku tried to reason.

"I see no reason why that should prevent me from ensuring my friend's well-being when you yourself visited Uraraka after her own fight."

"Well...I mean..."

"Just accept the care, Midoriya." Tsuyu instructed. Izuku obediently swallowed any further objections and just gave them all grateful smiles instead.

"We probably should apologize for making All Might bleed again though..." Mineta pointed out. This resulted in several chagrined apologies from the group while Yagi insisted that it hadn't actually hurt that much and it was fine.

Uraraka said hello to the unrecognizable All Might, and Recovery Girl complained about the noise. That noise must have been enough to rouse Izuku, because he opened his eyes and asked about what was going on with the upcoming match.

Izuku made a strangled noise and sort of jolted in his seat. Within a moment he had Uraraka and Iida offering him a notebook and a towel respectively. He managed a strained smile and waved them off. "It's okay, really, it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would."

"Well, having the injuries tended to and made still probably helped, and it's possible you've got some painkillers in you at this point." Recover Girl shook her head. "Still, you go through all that and the first thing you ask about is the upcoming fights. You've got to learn some priorities, boy."

Iida explained that the stadium was still being repaired after the last fight. Mineta said that Midoriya's fight was scary and that pros wouldn't want to deal with all that. Tsuyu took issue with that and stuck him with her tongue.

"Okay, that just feels weird." Mineta muttered, rubbing his ear.

"Really dude?" Sero raised an eyebrow at the shorter boy.

"Well it's true isn't it? We just heard people in the audience talking about it."

"Even if it is true that doesn't mean you should say it in someone's hospital room." Kirishima said. Kaminari frowned.

"It's not a hospital room, it's a makeshift nurse's office."

"Close enough."

Recovery Girl shooed everyone out, stating she needed to get ready for surgery. This just caused everyone to freak out more and she had to push everyone out. When she did, Izuku apologized to All Might for not being able to announce himself to the world.

Aizawa let out an exasperated sigh. 'The problem child goes through all of that and he's still apologizing for it not being enough. What are we gonna do with this kid?'' He made another mark in his notebook about Izuku's self sacrificing tendencies. He hoped Midoriya would agree to going to therapy, because he could really use some additional help in that area. Maybe he could have a session on accepting mental health assistance for the whole class...

For once, Uraraka and Iida were silent. Both had the urge to tell Izuku that he'd done plenty and to stop apologizing, but both also knew they weren't much better in this regard. Uraraka had fought Bakugo to the point of exhaustion to make an impression and Iida knew he'd be willing to go much further than normal in order to impress his brother. So they each lay a comforting hand on Izuku instead.

Midoriya said that he should have let the issue with Todoroki drop so that he could do what All Might had asked. All Might asked if he'd been trying to get Todoroki to realize something, and Izuku admitted that Todoroki's sadness had made him meddle in the other boy's affairs when it wasn't needed.

Todoroki felt...something when Midoriya made that admission. He wasn't sure what it was, just that it made his stomach feel strange. 'I wouldn't be so sure that it wasn't needed just yet.'

Izuku admitted that he'd lost perspective during the fight, and become too focused on his own frustration.

Present Mic nodded sagely. "Tunnel vision, it can happen to the best of us."

All Might admitted that, for the match, it had been a poor decision to make. But that meddling when you don't need to is the essence of being a hero.

All Might nodded and gave Midoriya a soft look. "Perhaps, in this future, you did not succeed in the goal I placed for you, but you did continue to demonstrate that you have the heart of a hero. That's why I chose you in the first place, so I could never be angry with you for that."

Tears flowed and Izuku buried his face in All Might's shoulder. All Might patted his back as the boy cried.

The other students looked at each other with varying degrees of confusion and curiosity. Was 'meddling when it wasn't needed' really such a big part of being a hero? It must be if the #1 pro said it, but what exactly did that mean? The show continued before any of them could voice these thoughts though, so it would have to wait until later.

The scene switched back to a now repaired stadium, where Iida was facing off against Shiozaki. The match was very short, as Iida was able to use his speed to dodge her vines and then just push her out of bounds.

"That was awesome!" "Great job Iida!" Izuku and Uraraka immediately praised. The impressed murmur sounding from the rest of the room showed they weren't the only ones who felt that way.

Jirou let out a low whistle of appreciation. "That may have been the fastest match yet. Except for Kaminari's."

Kaminari groaned. "Man, you did so good against her that it makes me look even worse."

"I'm sorry...?" Iida said uncertainly. Kaminari waved him off.

"Nah, you're fine, I get it, I'm just feeling bummed about my match all over again."

"I'm more impressed that she stayed on her feet that whole time. Shoes aren't exactly meant for that you know? You think she needs new shoes now?" Hagakure wondered. Ashido laughed.

"Yeah Iida! You ever pull this move in the future you better be prepared to go shoe shopping!"

"I would naturally pay back any damages!"

The next match was Tokoyami vs Ashido. This also ended very quickly with Ashido getting pushed out of bounds.

"Ow! My butt!" Ashido complained.

"My apologies." Tokoyami muttered, looking away awkwardly. Ashido smirked.

"Will you take me shopping as an apology?"

"Why are we all going shopping all of a sudden?" he asked, bewildered. Ashido laughed again.

In the stands, Tsuyu and Mineta talked about how great Dark Shadow was.

Tokoyami could feel his companion's proud preening in his mind, and he gave his friend a mental pat on the head.

Meanwhile, Momo was now feeling just a little bit better about her own loss against Tokoyami. As unsportsmanlike as it was, it helped to see she wasn't the only one to be quickly thwarted by Dark Shadow's power.

Tsuyu noticed how tense Uraraka was, and asked her about it. Uraraka was worried about the fact that Midoriya needed surgery, but Tsuyu and Mineta were both quick to reassure her.

Uraraka smiled warmly at her two classmates. "That was really sweet of you guys, thank you!"

"No problem, kero."

"Y-yeah! No problem!" Mineta said just a little too loudly. A cute girl like Uraraka was smiling at him...even though he was pretty sure she was more into Midoriya it still felt pretty good. He wrote down what just happened in his own notes. He'd like to get more smiles like that, if he could.

The scene switched back to the nurse's office. Recovery Girl was just finishing using her quirk on Izuku, who was now very tired but healed enough to be able to get around.

"Ugh..." Izuku sank back into the couch as the quirk too affect on screen. "It's probably a bad sign that I'm starting to get used to this, huh?"

There was a buzz of general agreement that, yes, yes it was.

Over with the teachers, Present Mic nudged Aizawa and asked "Does anyone know why she makes that face every single time she uses her quirk?"

"Don't think so, but you could ask."

"No way, I'm not risking getting on her bad side!"

Izuku's hand was shown to be scarred and a little crooked. Recovery Girl said that was to be expected after all the abuse Izuku had put his arms through.

Several students winced at the sight of Izuku's hands. It said something about how much damage there had been if there was scarring like that even after Recovery Girl used her quirk.

"Hey! Now we match!" Kirishima declared. "Well, kinda anyway. We both have scars from our own quirks now."

This successfully distracted Izuku from the shock of the permanent damage. "Oh! Is that where the scar on your eyebrow came from?"

"Yeah, I tried to rub my eye just as my quirk really came in. It taught me really quick that if I'm gonna use my quirk I should try to harden my whole body rather than just one part, since I'm still vulnerable to it, you know?"

Izuku nodded along, fragments of ideas going through his mind to later be written in his journals. Meanwhile, Bakugo suddenly wished he'd gotten a scar from his quirk earlier in life. Which confused him because he usually thought of that sort of thing as a sign you don't know what you're doing.

That was why she was going to refuse to heal him from here on out. So they'd have to figure out how to use Izuku's quirk without breaking anything.

"W-what?!" Izuku squeaked. "I can't just, just, figure it out like that!"

Nedzu laughed "Well, not with that attitude you can't!"

"Sir please..."

"Are you really able to do that? I thought as one in a healing position you had a duty to help anyone who needed it." Momo asked worriedly. Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm hardly saying that I plan to leave the boy laying on the ground if he gets hurt again. I'm sure I just mean that I'll treat his wounds in the same way a doctor or nurse without a healing quirk would. Withholding my quirk is never a decision I make lightly, and I'm sure I have a good reason for it." she tapped her cane against the ground, thinking for a few moments before continuing. "I have not seen the x-rays Midoriya would have had after the fight, so I can't know for sure what my future self's reasoning is, but I can take a good guess. I've seen the damage that can happen when someone breaks the same bones over and over, and that's when it happens over years rather than months. If things continue on like this then it could lead to some very bad consequences." she sighed "Plus, it's important to remember that, as far as the other me, all those bones were broken for the sake of a single competition. She" Recovery Gestured pointed at the screen "probably sees this as a way of discouraging a student from pulling moves that will badly hurt him for 'frivolous' reasons."

Momo nodded slowly, taking in Recovery Girl's reasoning. Izuku nodded too, though much more jerkily since he was still very nervous about the whole idea.

"I agree that the sudden cut off is daunting, however this may actually be the best time for it." All Might tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Internships are the next thing after the sport festival, so we could finally have some dedicated time to figuring out how to solve this problem."

Recovery Girl gave a sharp nod. "My thoughts exactly, I'm sure. So glad we're on the same page."

"I guess." Izuku said slowly. "Still, I've, er, the other me, has only gotten a few non-lethal hits in now, I'm not sure I can get it down to every time after just the internship..."

"You don't have to master it, just make enough progress so that you can have more consistency." Aizawa pointed out. "Besides, you're a fast learner."

Izuku's face went a bit red; he was emboldened by such a direct compliment from his homeroom teacher. "Okay, I'll do my best sir!"

Uraraka and Iida shared a look over their friend's head. They both hopped Izuku wouldn't get into too much trouble while the internships were going on.

All Might was thoughtful as he and Midoriya walked down the hall, away from the infirmary. Midoriya asked All Might about how he'd come to UA to look for potential successors, and talked about how he could feel how determined the other students were during the fights. All Might put two and two together and figured out that Midoriya was suggesting someone else at UA might be a more worthy successor than himself.

There were a few sighs and some rolled eyes in response to this, some fond and others exasperated. All Might and Aizawa thought about how their student too easily dismissed his own progress. They both made a note to look out for similar behavior, so it would continue to be addressed even after they left here.

Midoriya himself felt his heart sink. Maybe it really would be better if All Might had chosen one of his classmates, or even a worthy student from general studies. Someone who already had a quirk and knew how to use them better and maybe not break themselves so much...

All Might admitted that someone with a powerful quirk could use One for All to become a very powerful hero. Midoriya was crestfallen, until All Might revealed that he himself had been born quirkless.

Jaws dropped open. Some to loudly exclaim "What?!" or something similar, while others just stared dumbfounded. All Might, known far and wide as one of the greatest heroes ever and the number one pro in Japan, had been born quirkless.

Izuku stared at the screen. A budding warmth started to fill him, ebbing away the shock as he turned to stare at All Might instead. "You...you never said anything before now."

All Might scratched the back of his head self consciously. "Well, I received One for All at a fairly young age myself, so it has been quite a while since I've had to deal with anything that comes along with being quirkless. Honestly, it seems like such a far away time now that I hardly even think about it myself, so I guess it just didn't come up." There had been some things he wanted to forget of course. It may not have been as rare back then, but the quirkless still hadn't been treated very well. Still, that was something he and Midoriya could discuss later, if the boy wanted to. "You didn't ask about it either, which I was surprised by. With how much you write down about hero's quirks, I figured one day I'd have you falling over yourself to ask about my 'original' quirk."

While Izuku sputtered in shock at his own lapse of thought, Present Mic scratched his chin.

"Huh, have to admit, I didn't see that coming." he admitted. "Though, maybe I should have? I mean, he never mentioned having any other quirk beside One for All, but I guess a part of me always thought his 'bigger' form had something to do with it."

"It is interesting that Midoriay doesn't seem to do that size shift, despite having even more power." Aizawa said. 'This also makes his advice to Midoriya when they first met hold a certain amount of irony.' he thought. He decided not to say anything about it though; Midoriya had enough problems on his plate without making an issue of that one again.

"One for All is certainly a unique quirk, that is certain! I don't doubt we'll discover even more eccentricities as time passes." Nedzu mused.

Most of class 1A was slowly processing the information, and trying to figure out what to do with it. For many of them, quirk biases had never been much of a problem for them. A few had had issues with people making assumptions based of their quirks, but after seeing how people reacted to a quirkless Midoriya they now knew that wasn't quite the same as what their friend went through. Quirklessness was so rare in their generation that Midoriya, and now All Might, counted as the first quirkless people some of them had actually met. They didn't think they had thought poorly of quirkless people, especially not as poorly as Midoriya's former classmates and teachers had, but it now occurred to them they also hadn't thought much of quirkless people at all. While some would have encouraged Izuku to try to be a hero even if he were still quirkless, none of them had thought of the possibility that All Might may have been quirkless once upon a time. Maybe it would be a good idea for them to think about what exactly that meant for their own biases...

Then there was Bakugo, whose brain had gone into such a shock at this information that he wasn't processing much of anything. He'd already been having a hard time coming to terms with what All Might had said to him after they watched the USJ incident, about how real strength was about not giving up after losing. It just didn't make sense compared to everything he'd always seen and been taught. Everyone around him growing up had said that All Might never lost because he was strong, but then the man himself told him it wasn't like that. Now he'd learned that the same man he'd admired and strived to beat hadn't been born with any power at all. He'd learned that the number one pro hero had more similarities to Deku than to himself.

And he had no idea how to deal with that.

All Might admitted that quirklessness wasn't as rare when he was young, but it was still uncommon. Despite being quirkless, his master believed in him, and helped him become a hero by training him and giving him OfA

While talking about his master, the screen had shown an image of Nana from the back. Yagi's heart ached at the sight of his lost mentor, even though he couldn't see her face. He had some pictures of her, but not much in the way of video. It had been a long time since he'd seen an image of her that looked anything close to alive. A part of him wished Gran Torino was there, even though he was still afraid of the man. He'd been just as close to Nana, and he deserved to see her again too.

A murmur of interest swept through the room. Some of them had wondered about the holders that came before All Might when the nature of his quirk had first been revealed, and they were very interested in the new lead.

"Was your master a famous hero too?" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head at All Might. The man smiled and shook his head slightly.

"She had her fans, I know, but she didn't flaunt her abilities the way I did. It was my plan to become a symbol for the world, not hers." Thankfully the show continued before anyone could ask why that might be. He caught young Midoriya's gaze as he looked away from young Tsuyu though, and saw the boy was giving him a look similar to the one he gave his notebooks when writing down newly gained information. Yagi nodded at him, confident that young Midoriya had just put together why some of the previous holders might have decided not to draw attention to themselves.

All Might told Izuku that he'd seen something of himself in him, but that Izuku had gone beyond his expectations. There were things only Izuku could do with OfA, he was sure. Izuku was near tears by then, and apologized. All Might just cheerfully told him to take in the rest of the sports festival.

Izuku was having a hard time fighting his own tears as his mentor praised him so highly, and he let them spill over when All Might put an arm around his shoulder and brought the boy into side hug. Uraraka and Iida patted him on the head and shoulders, and hoped that one day their friend wouldn't have such troubles seeing his own worth.

"My, even a beautiful rainbow to top of the scene, my heart cannot handle such sweetness." Aoyama declared, collapsing against the back of his seat.

Kaminari, who tried to swipe at his own eyes without anyone noticing, laughed. "Yeah man, gotta stick to putting big speeches and reveals at the end of episodes so people can have a moment or whatever."

"Yeah, going back into the festival now's gonna be some kinda mood whiplash." Sero agreed.

The scene changed to one of the waiting rooms, where Iida was. He tried to call his brother, but it went to voicemail. Iida wished his brother well.

Iida felt a pang of hurt at that, but squashed it back down. It would be selfish to expect his brother to skip out on his work as a hero to watch Tenya perform live, especially when it could be recorded and watched later.

The scene suddenly changed to show Ingenium. He was running down the street in full costume, shouting orders into an ear piece while sirens went off somewhere.

Iida leaned forward with marked interest. He'd assumed that his brother had been saddled with his usual patrol, but this sounded much more involved than what his brother usually described for his shift. Izuku had his eyes glued to the screen of course. He was eager to see what the hero was up to, on top of being curious as to what his friend's brother might have gotten involved with.

Many of the other students were a bit confused though. They had nothing against seeing Iida's brother, but this seemed like a strange thing to jump to after staying with the sports festival for so long.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere among the teachers was tense. Nedzu had kept track enough to recognize that the show had only taken away focus from the 'main cast' when something relevant to major events was happening, and he couldn't help but wonder just what the Ingenium agency was working on. Aizawa and Yamada glanced at each other, having similar thoughts. They had both known Iida Tensei from school, and were wondering if it was a good thing for him to suddenly show up here.

Ingenium saw something in an alley he passed, and flipped himself into it. When he landed, he called out to his team that he'd found the Hero Killer.

Gasps of alarm mixed with noises of confusion.

"The Hero Killer? Who the heck is that?" Sato asked.

"I-I've heard about him, on the hero news apps I use." Midoriya stammered, much more nervous than excited now. "Only somewhat, but, that's the name that was given to a villain who has been, uh, well..."

"Killing heroes." Todoroki stated grimly.

"Um, yeah..." Izuku glanced nervously at his friend.

"Tensei will be fine, he's been a hero a long time and knows how to handle himself." Iida's voice did not shake, but his hands stayed on his knees gripping the fabric tightly.

"Of, of course! I'm sure he will be!"

"Plus he has back up coming, so he won't be fighting alone." Uraraka joined in.

"The Hero Killer must have gotten more active recently, if the Ingenium agency was asked to come in and help." Momo noted.

Iida nodded sharply. "True, and I'm sure they will be successful in catching him."

The scene changed back to the sports festival, where Bakugo and Kirishima were having their match.

The majority of the class allowed themselves to relax, glad to be back in familiar territory. Iida remained tense however. A part of him desperately wanted to know what was going to happen to his brother, another part of him was afraid of the answer. As confident as he was in his brother, he knew that even skilled heroes could be gravely injured in the line of duty. Some examples of that were sitting right in the room with them. Izuku lay a hand on top of Iida's clenched fist, and Uraraka reached across the back of the couch to lay a hand on his shoulder. He managed a small but grateful smile for them.

Bakugo was having a hard time fighting Kirishima, since his Hardening countered his explosions so well. Tetsutetsu cheered Kirishima on, much to his classmates' bemusement.

"Heh, looks like I made a friend." Kirishima grinned.

"Good, he can come help you hobble to the infirmary after I beat you." Bakugo said, resisting the urge to scratch at his face where the on-screen Kirishima had cut him. It was said in a surprisingly subdued way for Bakugo, more of a grumble than a growl.

Izuku came out to watch the match. He bemoaned the fact that he'd missed seeing Iida and Tokoyami advance to the next round.

"Well, at least you got to see them here." Uraraka pointed out.

"Not that there was much to see." Jirou said. Momo gave her a look. "What? Both of those match's happened really fast, it's no wonder he missed them."

Izuku started analyzing the fight, but was interrupted by the arrival of Iida. It was brought up that Iida would be fighting Todoroki, and he told Izuku that he would use Izuku's fight with Todoroki and learn from it.

Mineta made a show of turning to a new page of his notebook. "Lesson #1: Break fewer bones."

That earned him some giggles and a few surprised chuckles, including one from Izuku. "Yeah, you should try to avoid that if you can."

"I will try my best if you will." Iida promised.

"Sounds fair, I'll try."

Izuku asked if Ingenium was watching, and Iida said he was working. Iida had decided that was for the best though, because he wanted to be able to tell his brother he was number one.

It was a testament to how out of sorts Bakugo was still feeling after earlier revelations that he didn't really register what the on-screen Iida had just said. That may have been for the best.

Their attention was drawn back to the fight below them. Bakugo figured out how and why Kirishima had weakened as the fight went on, and knocked Kirishima out with a bunch of quick and powerful blasts.

Kirishima had just enough time to comment "Damn man, you hit hard!" before is onsxreen self conked out and he was once again pain free.

"You still with us, Shitty Hair?" Bakugo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I think so...just really weird to get hit hard enough to make you pass out and then wake up fine a second later. Well, painful too, but just as weird."

Bakugo huffed. "At least the nerd's dumb conversation didn't keep us from seeing how it ended."

"Oh yeah, that would have been even worse!"

Izuku rejoined his friends, who were happy he was well but surprised he was up. Izuku wanted to be able to see everyone's efforts properly though. The next match was announced, and Iida and Todoroki took the stage.

"Good luck, I hope we'll both do our best." Iida said to Todoroki. As worried as he was about his own performance and his brother's well-being, he still felt sportsmanship was important.

"It's not really us." Todoroki pointed out. He frowned slightly after a moment. "But, um, thank you."

Iida thought about what do. He knew he couldn't counter like Midoriya could, and Todoroki would have more options if he was using his fire now.

Todoroki looked down at his left hand. 'I don't think he'll have to worry about that.'

Todoroki attacked with ice as soon as the match started. Iida tried to run and give himself more time, but soon found the rest of the field blocked off by another ice barrier. When the next attack was aimed at him, Iida did a standing long jump and used his special move to try and kick Todoroki. His first attempt missed, but his second didn't.

Todoroki wheezed as the breath was knocked out of him. 'Damn, I need more practice against fast opponents.'

Momo and Izuku looked over in concern, but kept their places for now.

Iida took advantage of his opponents winded state and grabbed him by the collar. He started to haul him to the edge to throw him out of bounds, but suddenly his engines stalled, the muffler was plugged with ice.

Iida shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Partly because he didn't like where this was going, and partly because it was very strange to feel his engines stutter when they weren't actually on.

Todoroki took advantage of his opponents surprise to freeze Iida in place. It was revealed that Todoroki had managed to ice over his engines when he got kicked. He said he'd tried to watch out for Iida's special move, but he'd still been hit by it.

'Well, maybe I don't need as much practice as I thought. Still something to look out for though.' Todoroki mused.

Iida chattered with the cold. "G-good g-game."

Todoroki nodded.

Tokoyami hummed thoughtfully. "There was some irony to the last two rounds. Both times the two opposing forces had earlier been a part of the same team, and were now pitted against each other."

"Guess there's something to be said for choosing your team based off of who you don't want knowing about your weaknesses or moves later." Sato said.

"Can't really tell who you'll be fighting ahead of time though." Shoji pointed out.

Todoroki was declared the winner, and Present Mic called attention to Todoroki not using his flames. Endeavor was clearly displeased with his son's 'foolish hesitance'.

Many glares were leveled at the screen.

"Maybe I really should put a little more thought into what goes into the commentary." Present Mic said thoughtfully.

Iida's friends were shown to be worried about him, and Iida also looked upset about the loss.

Iida frowned. He'd been trying not to dwell on it, since this was only a potential future now, but he was very disappointed in himself for not making it through one more round. The next scene completely dispelled such thoughts from his head though.

The scene changed to an alley once again. The camera panned to reveal Ingenium, lying in a pool of blood, while a menacing voice and shadow declared that all these heroes were fake and only All Might would be allowed to kill him.

Something seized in Iida's chest, and all the blood drained from his face. "No...no that, that can't be, he can't-"

"Iida! Iida breathe!"

"It, it's probably not as bad as it looks! And, and like I said! He had back up coming! His people will be there any second to get him help!"

If Iida were just a little calmer, his friends' words may have had an affect. But as it stood, all he could see was his brother's blood and his brothers broken armor and that villain still there and calling his brother unworthy and-

"Iida."

Aizawa's firm and steady voice finally drew Iida's attention away from the screen and to his teacher, who was kneeling in front of him.

"Good. Now I need you to breath with me."

Aizawa continued to give calm and straight forward instructions, and Iida was slowly able to calm down.

"You're still hearing me?"

Iida nodded.

"Good. I know this looks bad, and you have every right to worry. There's still a chance that he could get out of this though, and even if he doesn't, you need to remember we can change things."

"Change things?"

"It's why we're here isn't it? If we gain enough information here, then we can stop this from happening to Ingenium when we return."

"We can save him Iida." Uraraka added, quiet and earnest.

"We will save him." Izuku's tone left no room for argument.

Iida took a few more deep breaths. "You make an excellent point. I'll...I will try to focus on that."

Aizawa settled down on the floor next to their couch, just in case, and Uraraka and Midoriya both lent Iida a hand to help ground him as the episode continued.

The scene changed back to the sports festival, just as the match between Bakugo and Tokoyami began.

Tokoyami grimaced. He wasn't very confident that this match would end in his favor, given how directly Bakugo's powers countered his own. They'd managed to keep their distance from Bakugo for most of the cavalry battle, but a one on one fight would doubtless be much more troublesome. He felt Dark Shadow shiver a bit at the memory of Bakugo's explosion, and gave him a few mental pets.

Bakugo attacked over and over while Tokoyami and Dark Shadow did their best to fend him off. Present Mic noted how Tokoyami was completely focused on defense this time around. Bakugo made a comment about being annoyed with this 'thing'.

Tokoyami frowned as deeply as his beak would allow. "Do not refer to Dark Shadow as a thing, he is not an object."

"The hell am I supposed to say then? It's just your quirk right?" Bakugo challenged.

"Dark Shadow is indeed my quirk, but he has his own intelligence. I will not stand for him being referred to as something other than a living being."

"An excellent point." Nedzu cut in. "Dark Shadow is not the only quirk I've heard of that houses some level of sentience, it's truly a fascinating phenomenon. Tokoyami, Dark Shadow, would you be willing to speak to me about your experiences working together some time?" his black eyes shifted slightly to focus on Bakugo. The boy instinctively tensed. "We may even be able to commiserate a bit. It can be so frustrating to have others judge you based off your physical appearance after all."

Tokoyami looked at the floor for a few seconds, then looked back up to reply. "He seems amenable. Perhaps we can discuss details during the upcoming break."

"That would be most appreciated, thank you!"

Bakugo found himself having to shake off the strange pressure he'd felt under Nedzu's gaze as the story continued.

Momo and Ashido wondered about why Tokoyami might be doing so poorly. Izuku and Uraraka did the same, but they knew the exact reason why the match up was a bad one.

Momo had wondered if she might actually like to see Tokoyami lose after he'd beaten her so handily in the first round. She was happy to find this was not the case; him losing now wouldn't change her own performance after all. Plus, now that it was confirmed that Dark Shadow wasn't just a thing Tokoyami used, she disliked seeing the shadowy figure getting hit by something so detrimental to it.

Tokoyami's thoughts revealed that things weren't going well. He was running out of 'darkness' and didn't have time to recharge Dark Shadow.

Izuku's eyes widened a bit at what Tokoyami had said. He turned to look at Tokoyami, his curiosity and eagerness written clearly across his face. Tokoyami stared back for a moment, then let out an amused huff.

"You'll have to wait until I'm done speaking with the principle."

"I can do that! Thanks Tokoyami!" Izuku then started jotting down questions to ask during the break.

Tokoyami managed to fend off Bakugo for a bit longer, but then Bakugo got behind him. He used an attack that caused a lot of light and smoke, which was enough to get him past Dark Shadow to take down Tokoyami. He admitted that he'd figured out Dark Shadow's weakness after attacking for a while, and said he felt for him for the bad match up.

"That was awesome bro! So manly!" Kirishima cheered.

"Gotta agree with that one. I mean, you figured out the weakness and made up an attack to counter it all in one go!" Sero grinned.

"I never said that I only thought of that stun grenade move during the fight." Bakugo argued. The way he smiled while saying showed how pleased he was though.

"I was kinda hoping that Tokoyami would win since he beat me." Ashido admitted. "But oh well. You both put on a good show!"

"I'm weirdly impressed that Bakugo admitted it was a bad match up and didn't use the loss as an excuse to call Tokoyami an extra or something." Uraraka said.

Jirou snorted. "Maybe there's hope for him yet."

After Bakugo was proclaimed the winner, it was announced that the final match would be between Todoroki and Bakugo. The two stared each other down while the crowd discussed the fight.

All of Bakugo's attention was focused on the back of Todoroki's head. Half and Half had stuck to his ice fighting Glasses, but he better not pull that half-assed shit during the final round.

Todoroki was looking down at his left hand again, wondering if he'd end up resorting to using his fire again during the match. He suspected not. His other self said he'd managed it before due to forgetting his father for a bit, and Bakugo reminded him too much of the man for that to happen during their fight.

Iida rejoined his friends in the stands, saying they'd have to do better against the two leading students next time. Before he could sit down though, he got a phone call from his mother.

All the anxiety that Iida had been distracting himself from came back in full force. Whatever Tensei's fate, he was about to learn it. Izuku and Uraraka were there once again, and he repeated their words to himself. 'We can save him, we will save him.'

Iida wasn't the only tense one in the class of course. Even those who weren't especially close to him stared warily at the screen, bracing for whatever news was about to be revealed.

Iida found a private place to talk. He started to apologize about losing, but his mother brushed him off. She tried to break it gently that there was news about his brother, that 'a villain got him'.

Iida took in a sharp breath. His hands clenched into fists, and something heavy settled throughout his whole body.

"Iida, remember what Aizawa said." Uraraka urged.

Iida did his best to start up the breathing exercises Aizawa had done with him earlier. After a few steady breaths he'd stopped shaking, which was a weird thing to realize since he hadn't noticed he'd started shaking in the first place.

"Whatever she means by that Iida, we'll find a way to stop it." Izuku assured him, his voice steadier than Iida had ever heard it before.

After a few more breath's Iida nodded. "We will." 'I'll make sure of it.'

The rest of the class shifted or murmured in worry, either for their friend or over the fact that there was another villain out there that could take down such a well known hero.

"I wonder if he's affiliated with the League at all..." Momo muttered, looking over a few of her notes.

"I sure hope not." Jirou said.

The next scene was an extreme close up of the hero killer's face. He smiled far too wide at something off screen, and licked some blood off his blade.

The whole class physically recoiled at the sudden close up. Except for Iida, who stared intently at the screen with narrowed eyes.

"Okay, one, way to close! Two, stop smiling like that. Three, there are so many better things to do with your tongue!" Mineta wailed.

"Shigaraki was creepy enough! I don't need blood licking added to the creepiness we have to deal with." Hagakure complained.

"Everyone, look away now!"

Any further complaints were cut off by Present Mic's shout. A few students looked at him in surprise, but most everyone found a new direction to look right away.

"Ah, an excellent idea, Yamada. If only some are paying attention to this we can make sure more than one of us has time to take in all the details of this villain's face. I'm sure that will be helpful later, even if it is partly covered in bandages now. This is the first time we've seen him and more than shadow after all, and I hear the police have yet to get a clear description of him in our timeline."

Once Nedzu was confident they had made note of enough details to be useful, everyone was allowed to look back and the episode continued.

The Hero Killer was shown to be looking down at the alley he'd attacked Ingenium in from a distance. He talked about how society was twisted, and that included the heroes that served it. He suddenly stopped and whipped a sword out when he heard something behind him. This something was Kurogiri, who seemed to be inviting him to talk to the League. The episode ended with Shigaraki staring hungrily a blurry picture of Hero Killer Stain.

"Oh dammit." Jirou muttered. Louder she said. "If he wasn't a member before it looks like he will be soon."

"Nooooo..." Hagakure groaned.

"He might not join them." Present Mic pointed out. "Villains can have very different reasons for doing what they do after all."

"He did seem to have a strange sort of respect for All Might when he talked about you." Recovery Girl said to Yagi. "He might end up taking issue with the idea of actually trying to kill you."

Yagi chuckled wryly. "Wouldn't that be nice."

"Either way, we'll deal with that as it comes. Let's have another break in the mean time." Nedzu declared.


Nearly every student came up to express their concern to Iida about him and his brother and some of them also promised to help prevent this from happening. Iida received each one with gratitude, but Uraraka and Midoriya couldn't help but feel there was something a bit off about how he was doing it. Neither could pin point what, and it would honestly be weirder for Iida to be completely fine after seeing those scenes. Still, they couldn't help but worry.

Tokoyami sat at a table with the principle, and drank tea while discussing how his relationship with Dark Shadow worked and how it was similar or different than other sentient quirks the principle had heard of. Tokoyami wasn't sure where he'd gotten this tea exactly, or how he'd made it so quickly. At first he was too busy talking and relaying the words of Dark Shadow to ask. Then once the principle started doling out possible methods they could use to work together even more efficiently, he decided it probably wasn't that important in the long run.

Bakugo stood against the wall, staring at it again. Most assumed he was psyching himself up for however his match with Todoroki would go in the next episode, but they would only partially be right. He was also trying to process the revelation that All Might had been born quirkless.

He wasn't the only one. After talking to Iida, the students ended up mulling over the idea either alone or in small groups. Looking back on it, it really was strange that none of them had even thought of the possibility that All Might may have been quirkless before the torch was passed to him. Those who had quirkless family members thought about their relationships with them. Some wondered if their distant relationship with that family member had anything to do with them being quirkless, while those who were closer tried to think if they'd ever acted dismissively toward them. Plus there were other issues that came up:

"I remember All Might telling Midoriya to try out for the police force. You think they would have accepted him?"

"It's hard to say. I mean, the police can't use their quirks in quite the same way pro heroes can, but they still use them sometimes right?"

"I think they have to get special permission or something, but yeah, some do. I wonder how open different precincts would be to an officer without a quirk..."


"Do you, do you think Midoriya would have been treated the same way at UA as he was in middle school if he still didn't have a quirk when he came?

"I'd like to think the teachers would step in more, but I don't know about the other kids. Maybe it would depend on what department he got into."

"You think Midoriya would have gotten transferred to the hero course if he got into Gen Ed instead?"

"If anyone could do it, he could."


"I wonder how common Midoriya's experience was. You think all quirkless kids go through stuff like that?"

"I don't know...at least some probably do."

"You ever think they try to find each other? Like, is there a quirkless support group out there somewhere?"

"It wouldn't surprise me."


"You think people would still look up to All Might as a whole if it was known he used to be quirkless."

"I'd like to think his actions would speak louder than any stereotypes, but after seeing what Midoriya went through..."


Nedzu may have overheard these discussion topics and extended his talk with Tokoyami longer than he'd originally planned. No need to cut those sorts of discussions off too quickly after all, and Tokoyami and Dark Shadow were a truly fascinating pair.


A.N.

I wondered for a while if pain meds affecting the pain factor would work given what Truth said about adrenaline in the last episode. I decided that pain meds being given to the on-screen person could still lessen the pain factor because, while adrenaline distracts you from pain, pain meds actually disrupt the chemical signal that tells the brain an area is in pain. At least, that's my understanding of how it works.

Continuing on the medical note, I've had a couple comments hoping for a scolding for Recovery Girl because of what she said to Izuku about not healing him, since that's her job and all. I think her decision is understandable though. It's not like she's not going to treat him AT ALL if he gets hurt, she's just not going to speed up the healing process so that Izuku if forced to take a break and try and get some things figured out rather than just breaking the bones as soon as he's gotten them healed, you know? Which I figure makes sense since we later find out that Izuku is at a high risk of his arms no longer functioning because they've been broken so darned much. Granted she could have explained that better, but that's how I interpreted her words.

Also sorry if the All Might quirkless reveal reaction got, idk, preachy or something. We don't get much context for quirkless prejudice in this world aside from what we see Midoriya go through, and a part of me sometimes wonders how that prejudice might manifest differently in people who were less jerkish than the people Izuku knew growing up. Because not all bigotry involves outward acts of violence and such, you know?

Also, also I wasn't sure how long Stain had been active before he shows up in canon, so I made some guesses about how much the others would have heard about him by the time they were taken in by Truth.

Also, also, also I've thought about the idea of a quirkless support group on several occasions. Does anyone know any fics that feature one? Especially one that Izuku joins and possible makes friends at? Because I'd love to read about that. Or even just ones that do a good job of exploring quirkless discrimination in general.