AN: I'm still here! I still can't believe how much attention this fic is getting! I keep coming up with ideas whenever I'm bored. This is pretty much becoming a prequel fic, but I do plan to get to UA eventually. I love expanding on events and characters we don't see much of. Shade1998, if you're still reading, this one is for you.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Flashback

Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia.

Chapter 7

The city was in ruins.

Everywhere you looked buildings had collapsed, were on fire, or both. There were cars busted up and on fire as well. Broken glass, chunks of metal, and concrete littered the streets. The origin of this destruction was unknown. Oddly enough, there weren't any people panicking. There was no one in sight save for two people.

A man and a woman were walking down the middle of the street towards each other. Once about twenty feet was separating them, they stopped and appeared to be sizing each other up.

The man looked to be in his early 30s and had an average muscular build, tan skin, and short black hair. He was wearing what appeared to be a black, long-sleeved wetsuit with wavy blue lines going along the arms and legs. It was an outfit similar to what a scuba diver would wear. It wasn't a normal wetsuit though. There were black, circular, plastic objects placed all over the suit with little nozzles attached to the ends of them. Lastly, he had pair of swimming goggles worn over his head.

The woman across from him was more eye-catching. She also looked to be in her early 30s, was even more muscular than the man, and had light skin, and long light purple hair. She wore a short-sleeved white shirt and black shorts that went down to her mid-thigh. Her outfit was simple, but that's because the rest of her body wasn't. There were chunks of crystal on her shoulders, elbows, and knees. Her shoes, if you could call them that, were made out of crystal as well. The crystals on her body varied in color such as purple, red, blue, and yellow. The crystals did more to make her stand out than her clothes.

The man made a surprising display by shooting water out of the nozzles of his suit. The water stopped in mid-air and took on the shape of orbs, which surrounded the man like a barrier.

"I'm not much a brawler, but I'll still come out victorious." The man spoke in a robotic tone like he's said this many times before.

More crystals grew precisely on top of the lady's fingers into the shape of knuckle dusters. Then, she took on a boxing stance and started bouncing lightly on her feet

She grinned maniacally at the man. "You really don't want to hit this girl. You'll break more than a nail."

As if an invisible referee gave the go-ahead, both combatants made their moves at the same time. Instead of charging head-on, the water wielder swiftly launched his levitating water balls at his opponent. As they launched, he was able to generate more from those nozzles on his suit and kept firing them continuously.

Despite her eagerness, the woman had also forgone charging blindly. Instead, she lurched her right crystal-clad foot forward and large jagged crystals began jutting out of the ground in front of her. The crystals continued to pop out continuously in a barrage heading straight toward the man ahead.

Both attacks had been able to hit their mark. The crystal brawler was pummeled by the water bullets and the crystals rammed into the scuba diver. This caused both of them to be sent tumbling onto their backs. They quickly regained their footing though as if their respective attacks had hardly phased each other.

The man pushed his arms out forward and the nozzle on his arms turned to point straight ahead. Jets of water fired from the nozzles with high pressured force.

The lady quickly pressed her forearms together with her fists pointed up in a guard position. A mass of crystals grew out of her arms to form a shield. The water splashed around harmlessly on the sturdy crystal shield.

The water jets ceased and the man quickly changed tactics. He thrust his arms forward and spread his fingers apart as he made a quick lifting motion. The water that had accumulated on the ground shot up like a waterspout. The woman screamed as she was sent soaring straight up. The water stopped shortly and came crashing back down along with the woman. She grunted as she hit the pavement hard.

Again, she robotically stood right back up as if that didn't deter her. With her hands still armed with her crystal knuckle dusters, she charged at the man. More water sprayed out to form a couple of water tendrils around the man's arms. He tried to trip her up, but a crystal pillar shot out of the ground beneath her feet giving her a boost. Ironically, it was a similar move to what the man just did to her.

She slammed down on top of the man and began the pummeling. She fired off punch after punch to the man's chest. Then, her lower leg was quickly encased in crystal and she did a spinning kick to his stomach. He landed hard on his back. He got back up but the woman was already back on him. She started pummeling him again giving him no time to block. This time, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and tossed him behind her. He crashed into a crystal wall that formed behind him.

Another barrage of crystals was heading toward him, but he got up in time to propel himself up with a waterspout. He landed harmlessly and quickly used the leftover water to form a sphere around the woman. She thrashed around trying to escape the water prison. Before she could think of a way out, the man raised the water sphere up further and slammed it back down to the ground.

The fight continued on for about another minute or so. Now both combatants were showing signs of damage. Both of them had pieces of their suits torn off. They also had cuts here and there on their bodies. The man looked slightly worse though. In fact, he couldn't stand straight, and his body was swaying like he was dazed.

The woman took this opportunity to trap his limbs with some crystal shards she grew from the ground. She smiled maliciously as she sauntered up to him slowly. It was already over. Once she was right in front of the delirious man, she encased her right forearm in a crystal gauntlet. She took a step back and reeled her arm into position. After a few seconds of concentrating her strength into her arm, her shining fist rocketed into the man's chest, breaking the crystals holding him. Time seemed to slow down as a shower of crystal chunks rained down as was flung back with his chest caved in. Though before he could hit the ground, the woman was somehow able to run around and catch him. That sudden stop in momentum seemed to give him whiplash.

She wasn't down though. She mercilessly pulled him up to his feet and pushed him so he landed face down on the street. This time her lower right leg was encased in a crystal boot. She raised that foot high into the air above him. The heel of her boot came down hard on the man's back in an axe kick. The asphalt cracked a little from the impact. The man's head shot up in a jolt with his mouth wide open, but no sound came out. His head came right back down and his body didn't move any further.

"Aw, man! I hate losing, but that final attack was so cool!"

"I know! No hard feelings, right?"

"You kidding? I'm having a blast!"

Izuku set his controller down on his lap and watched Mirio's, Gemflash stand over his defeated, Aquapulse on the tv. The words "Player 2 Wins" appeared above the characters in big red letters. A popup appeared prompting the players to select "rematch" or "Character Selection".

"You want to choose someone else?" Mirio asked Izuku. The two boys were sitting next to each other on the couch in the living room of Izuku's apartment.

"Sure. I love Aquapulse, but there's a bunch of other cool heroes to try out."

Mirio smiled and pressed the button to go back to the character menu.

It was the day after the two boys had met Nejire. That was also the day the two officially became friends and Izuku asked Mirio to come over to his place to play videogames. Mirio went home after school that day and asked his parents. They were more than happy to say yes as long it wasn't until tomorrow. Izuku was thrilled to hear it and the two boys walked over to Izuku's apartment after school. Luckily, he didn't live too far away.

"Boys? How about you take a break and have some snacks?!" Inko Midoriya called from the kitchen in a sing-song voice. You could say she was quite pleased that her little baby was having a playdate after so many years.

"Thanks, mom!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Midoriya!"

The two boys set their controllers down and made their way to the kitchen. Inko made sure the boys washed their hands after touching those dirty controllers for so long. The boys sat down at the kitchen table and looked at the spread before them. There was a thin pitcher of lemonade, a bowl of potato chips, and a bowl of popcorn.

"Don't fill up too much, boys. Dinner will be ready in three hours."

Izuku made a grab for the chips but suddenly looked worried.

Mirio noticed and had an idea of what he was thinking. "Don't worry Izuku, my parents said, I could stay for dinner. They'll be here around eight tonight to pick me up."

"Ok great! I just wanted to make sure you don't get in trouble."

"Yeah. I figured I should ask that since I was coming over here anyway." Mirio said as he reached for a cup on the table and poured himself some lemonade.

"You're welcome here anytime Togata! I'm so happy Izuku brought a nice friend home!

Izuku's face was blushing up a storm. Mirio smiled and tried not to laugh so as not to embarrass Izuku further. Of course, Izuku had been expecting this. He had forgotten to tell her that he invited Mirio over, but he figured she wouldn't mind. On the contrary, she jumped when she noticed the boy walk in with her son and quickly looked herself over as if she had to impress this eight-year-old boy. She proceeded to fuss over him and ask him a bunch of questions. Some answers she already knew since Izuku had told her about him. She just felt like asking him herself anyway. Perhaps she wanted to confirm his answers so she knew that Izuku hadn't been making him up.

"Thanks so much for having me Mrs. Midoriya! I'm glad you and Izuku moved here. He's a great kid!"

That only seemed to make Izuku go even redder. Also, Inko sniffled a little and had to prevent a geyser of tears from erupting from her eyes. She was just so happy!

"I'm glad we moved here too. It's only been about two weeks, but I can tell we picked the right area."

"That's great!" Mirio grinned and started munching on some potato chips.

"Ok. You boys enjoy. I'll leave you alone for now (Izuku let out a breath). I'll just be in my bedroom. I'll get started on dinner soon and then we can talk some more later." As much as Inko was thrilled that her son was making friends again, she knew she couldn't keep hovering over him. After Inko had left the kitchen, the two boys enjoyed their snacks and made idle chitchat. They made sure not to stuff themselves as Inko had suggested. Once they had their fill, they returned to the couch to continue playing Hero Kombat.

The game was still on the character select menu. The screen was still showing the heroes from the last match on the left and right sides of the select menu. Mirio was about to change his selection but glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Izuku looking at the screen intently. Specifically, he was looking at Gemflash like he was analyzing her.

"Something on your mind, dude?"

"Do you think Gemflash could be Nejire's mom?" Yup. There it was.

Mirio sighed. "Are you still thinking about that?"

"How can I not?!"

Mirio lurched back a little from Izuku's response. He admired Izuku's enthusiasm, especially since this is the most lively the boy has been since they met. Though he was concerned about how obsessed he was becoming. It was clear the bomb Nejire had dropped on them had been living rent-free in Izuku's mind ever since.

Izuku turned to look at Mirio like he was the crazy one. "Oh, come on! You're constantly thinking about it too, aren't you?!"

Mirio opened his mouth to interject, but hesitated.

"Ok fine. You got me." Mirio let out a chuckle.

Izuku raised an eyebrow and started to look annoyed.

Mirio put his hand out to stop Izuku before he got the wrong idea. "I'm not mocking you Izuku. This situation is just hilarious to me. You and I just met like ten days ago and now we're talking like we're thick as thieves. It's crazy!"

Izuku relaxed his shoulders and smiled. He didn't blush or start stuttering as you'd expect. He was genuinely happy. He can't remember the last time he talked to someone like this. He also couldn't believe that he hadn't been nervous at all this whole time he was hanging out with Mirio.

"Huh? You're right. Maybe we've been BFFs for years and then we both somehow got amnesia at the same time?"

Mirio was really laughing now. Izuku soon joined him. Man. When was the last time Izuku let out a hearty laugh like this? Meanwhile, Inko was crying quietly in the bedroom.

"I think you're onto something Izuku! Maybe your detective skills can really find out which hero is Nejire's parent."

Their laughs began to slowly die down. Izuku was looking thoughtful again. "I know we probably shouldn't poke our noses into her business, but this is killing me. The daughter of a top 10 pro hero is going to our school. That's amazing!"

"I know what you mean. I don't why I was giving you a hard time before. I'm dying to know as well." Mirio looked back at the screen to look at Gemflash again. "I can see why you think it's her. The way she's so colorful and spunky is definitely similar to Nejire. I know we only met her yesterday, but I could already tell she loves bright, sparkly things and is super energetic.

Izuku nodded his head. "Right? That's what I was thinking too. She seems like a good candidate."

Mirio put on a serious look. "We probably shouldn't pester her though. She made it clear that it has to be kept a secret and she trusted us to keep it that way.

Izuku had calmed down. "You're right. We definitely shouldn't talk about this at school." Izuku came to a sudden realization and looked like he was about to freak out. "Oh my god, I hope my mom wasn't listening." He whispered sharply. "We can't tell anybody about this. Not even our parents."

Mirio looked unsure about keeping stuff from his parents but realized Izuku had a point. "You're right. It's probably for the best they don't know." He started to look nervous too. "I can't believe we were just talking about that so loudly. We need to be more careful."

"Yeah. Hopefully, my mom wasn't paying attention and just assumed we were goofing off."

Mirio couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Man. All this tension. We really do sound like thieves right now."

Izuku tried to keep his face serious, but Mirio's goofiness was just contagious. "Yeah. I guess we're criminals now. Looks like we can't be heroes. Aw, man."

Mirio put his hand over his mouth to try and control himself. "Ye-ah. I guess you're r-right." A lightbulb just went off above Mirio. "I guess we'll have to resort to being vigilantes. We'll be partners. Puddles and Fallout Boy. The Disappearing Duo.

Ok. All bets were off at this point. Both boys were on the floor clutching their stomachs. Izuku didn't think he'd ever laugh this hard in his life. He was laughing so uncontrollably that he didn't notice Mirio's laughing suddenly stop. He did hear a high-pitched shriek coming from the apartment below him though.

He sprang up and looked down becoming worried as to why the resident below him would scream like that. He froze when he noticed Mirio's clothes on the floor next to him…with no Mirio in them.

"Oh no." Izuku started to sweat.

He was hearing other noises coming from below now. It sounded like people running, jumping around, and things being thrown. That was a good sign, right? It means Mirio probably didn't break any part of his body...

At least not yet.

Now he heard what sounded like a door opening below him. He sprinted over to his own front door and opened it up. A few seconds later, he saw Mirio clambering up the stairs like his life depended on it. He turned the corner and Izuku saw pure terror sketched on Mirio's face. Izuku slammed the door shut as soon as Mirio made it in and locked it. Izuku looked at his terrified friend and then looked away.

"Put some clothes on!" Izuku shouted. He didn't know he could yell that loud.

"That's the least of our worries right now!" Mirio shouted back.

Izuku leaped away from the door as hard, violet knocks began banging against it.

"OPEN UP YOUR PERVERT! TAKE YOUR BEATING LIKE A MAN!"

Those were some powerful strikes, but the person throwing them sounded like a little girl! Inko finally came rushing out of her bedroom.

"Izuku what is that ban-T-T-T-Togata!" Inko slapped her hands over her eyes. "Togata! Why are you naked!"

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Mirio screamed and covered up his privates.

"I'M GONNA BEAT YOU BLACK AND BLUE!" Ok, the door hinges were seriously starting to creak now.

Izuku not being good with stressful situations did what he normally did and turned into a puddle.

"Oh, for goodness sake, whoever is banging on my door stop that this instant!" Normally Inko would have been scared of someone trying to break into her home. Though, the voice kind of convinced her that this wasn't a home invasion, but more of a childish tantrum.

Luckily, an adult's voice was just the thing to get the person on the other end to stop. Everything was silent for a moment.

"Can you please let me in?" The voice asked politely this time.

Well, that happened.

Izuku and Mirio were back in their solid and fully clothed states trying to play video games to forget what just transpired.

Inko had opened the door to see a young orange-haired girl about their age with extremely large fists. The boys had shuddered at the sight of her fists. As Inko was about to demand an explanation, the girl's parents also came rushing up the steps to see what the commotion was about. The adults interrogated the children and eventually came to an understanding that what happened was an accident. Mirio had bowed to all the parents anyway to show how sorry he was. Inko was mostly glad that Mirio didn't get hurt. Apparently, he had landed on the couch in the apartment below. The same couch that the girl was sitting on at the time of the incident. The girl now known as Itsuka Kendo gritted her teeth as she apologized for attacking Mirio and nearly breaking down the Midoriya's door. Both came to an agreement to let it go, but Kendo's father did warn Mirio to never 'flash' his daughter again. Mirio had gulped at that threat and nodded vigorously. Mrs. Kendo was kind enough to give Inko money for the dented door. After that, the family left.

Well, that was one way to meet the neighbors. Also, it turns out that Kendo goes to the same school as them but in another class. That didn't bode well.

Inko didn't scold the boys, but she strongly told Mirio that he had to be careful with his quirk. After that, she got to work making dinner.

Izuku stopped on one character and smiled.

Mirio's eyes lit up. "Hey, isn't that Pixie-Bob from that hero team you like?! I didn't know she was in this game."

"Yeah. I heard that she wasn't originally in the game when it first came out, but they added her and Tiger in an update later on. They've been climbing higher in the rankings. It's too bad they couldn't put Mandalay and Ragdoll in too. I get it though. There aren't as many special attacks they can perform like the other two.

"That makes sense. You should totally play as Pixie-bob. I wanna see what attacks she can do with her Earthflow.

Izuku did just that. "What do you think of the selection? Are there any heroes you wish they would add?"

"Hmmm. Hang on, let me double-check first." Mirio looked back at the screen and scrolled through each character again. He saw other heroes like Edgeshot, Best Jeanist, and Snipe. He couldn't find the one he was looking for though.

"Too bad. They don't have Shadowburst." Mirio sounded slightly disappointed.

"Shadowburst? Oh, I know him! His quirk, Shadewalker is really cool!"

Mirio lit him up at Izuku. "Isn't it?! He's actually my favorite hero of all time. His quirk lets him phase into shadows and reappear out of other shadows. It's like he can teleport. How cool is that?!"

"I know! I've seen some of the few videos of him in action. It's interesting seeing him just meld into his own shadow. It was funny how he popped out of that robber's shadow and the robber just freaked out. He never saw it coming.

"I saw that too. It looked like that robber peed himself. Hehe. Too bad there isn't more talk about him. His quirk is mainly used for surprise attacks. Also, the conditions have to be right. I think he can only phase through shadows big enough for him to fit in. That's probably why you don't see him in a fighting game like this.

"That makes sense," Izuku agreed. "He's still a great hero, even if he isn't ranked too high."

"I'm happy you think that. A lot of the other students haven't even heard of him. He means a lot to me though."

The sentimentality made Izuku curious. "You said he's your favorite hero. Why is that?"

Mirio smiled fondly at his friend. "He inspires me the most. His quirk, Shadewalker is kind of like mine. The way he can phase into the ground through his shadow. I can phase into the ground too. Sure. All I can do is fall and pop back up. But with practice, maybe I can be like Shadowburst someday. I could control how I phase through stuff and pop back out. Like I'm teleporting. He gave me the idea of how to use my quirk. He's proof that someone like me can be a hero."

Mirio looked like he was going to cry for a second. To be honest, so did Izuku. Hearing how his joyous friend found his inspiration really moved Izuku. Even someone as positive as Mirio has doubted himself. He found someone to look up to though. As much as Izuku loves Aquapulse since they're both water users, he has always looked up to All Might the most. Though after hearing Mirio's story, he couldn't help but notice the similarities between their two quirks. Everything passes through Mirio when he uses Permeation...Things can also pass through water.

"If that's the case, Mirio, then you must be proof that someone like me can be a hero." Izuku did let out a few tears after saying that. Mirio wasn't even thinking about the floor incident anymore. He started to blush and look at Izuku like he was goodness incarnate.

"I can't take all the credit. I say we inspire each other."

Izuku couldn't hold it anymore. Tears erupted out of him like two geysers. The same for Mama Midoriya who had been secretly listening in. Hopefully, they didn't flood the Kendos below them.

After the two Midoriyas had calmed down, Izuku recalled something about their previous conversation.

"Hey? Doesn't Shadowburst work at the hero agency under Spiral Surge?"

"Oh yeah! He's one of her many sidekicks. Man. She's another bold lady like Gemflash. In fact, she's even more fierce," Mirio replied.

"You're telling me." Izuku began scrolling with his controller to find her. "Did you hear she just took the number 2 spot away from Endeavor? You can tell he was trying hard to restrain his anger on camera."

"She did!" Mirio looked straight at Izuku. "Endeavor's been holding on to that spot for years. I guess All Might has someone else to look out for."

Izuku shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. Based on the interviews I've seen, she doesn't really care so much about the rankings, unlike Endeavor. She's just….Let's just say she's really effective at her job. She hates the media and any promotional stuff. She almost wasn't in this videogame because she kept scaring the developers off."

"I believe you man," Mirio shuddered a little. "Just look at her character on the screen."

Izuku turned his head back to the videogame. The character he had selected was a tall woman with dark hair going down to her shoulders and wearing an armored suit. Her metal gauntlets were thicker than the rest of the outfit. The parts of it that weren't covered in metal showed a thick black undersuit. She was actually levitating on screen due to the spiraling purple energy emanating from her metal boots. Her whole body seemed to exude purplish energy. Her face was definitely the most telling feature though. She almost looked feral. Her mouth was covered by a metallic mask and her eyes glowed purple. More than that, her gaze seemed to be fixed straight ahead like she was looking right at the player. The boys felt a little intimidated. It was a look that said, "I'm here for your soul."

This was the pro hero known as Spiral Surge.

AN: Thanks for the read!