Author's Note: I honestly forgot that it was Saturday until recently. So that means that y'all get an update! With arc 2 decently underway now, it's relatively clear what some of the issues that the group can face are. Hope y'all enjoy!

Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:

/eFtmT8cTbY

We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.

The next few days went by in a blur, if Izuku was being honest. Kyouka was gone most of the day due to her volunteering at the music shop. Hitoshi, Fumikage, and Izuku all finished organizing Izuku's hero notes into more manilla folders. They had finished all of the folders on the second day, and the two days after that, they helped Mei make and fill a database with this newly organized information.

While Kyouka didn't really help with the database, the fact that she was out volunteering was enough for him, though he did miss her. A lot. Thankfully, the TV that Inko had provided the group was getting some good use, especially between the two of them. They watched several different shows and movies, and that was where the two were when Mei approached them.

"Hey, boss." Mei said from behind Izuku.

"What's up, Mei?" Izuku turned to look at her, his arm around Kyouka's shoulders.

"I was thinking about patrols. Did you have any plans for those?"

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking that we do alternate shifts every few days. We could swap out partners and work on our respective teamwork."

"Who's first?" Mei asked.

Izuku thought for a few seconds. "I was thinking that I could go with Hitoshi for the first one, and Kyouka can go with Fumikage."

"And I'll be?" Mei raised her eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, you're kind of our eyes, right? So you can either monitor from here or be a driver." Izuku suggested.

"Hmmm…" Mei trailed off. "Okay. Sounds good to me!" She walked back to her computer terminal without another word.

Izuku turned back towards the TV only to be met with Kyouka pouting at him.

"What's that face for?"

"You wanted to go with Hitoshi more than me?" She asked softly.

"Come on, Kyo. You know it's not like that. I still have to talk to him about everything."

"You still haven't talked to him?" Kyouka's demeanor changed almost instantly. "It's been a few days, Izu."

Izuku sighed. "I've been waiting for the right moment. But he's been around Mei a lot recently, so it's hard to catch him alone. Granted, I understand why he's spending that time with her, but it's still hard to talk to him alone."

Kyouka smiled at him. "Well, I'm happy that it'll be happening soon."

"About that, actually… Hitoshi!" Izuku yelled at him. "You wanna go out on patrol soon?"

"Just the two of us?" Hitoshi yelled back at Izuku from across the warehouse.

"Yeah, just the two of us. Whenever you're ready."

"I'm ready now. We can suit up and head out.

"Alright. Let's get going, then." Izuku stood up from the couch.

Kyouka grabbed Izuku's arm as he stood up to leave. "I didn't mean for you to go now, you asshole."

"We'll be back in a few hours, don't worry." Izuku consoled her.

"Be safe, okay?" Kyouka looked at him with concern.

"I will, Kyo. It'll be fine. Watch over the others and enjoy your day off." Izuku pulled gently on Kyouka's arm to pull her up to standing. He pulls her close into a hug, which she returns almost immediately. Izuku kissed the top of Kyouka's head, making the shorter girl smile into his chest.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"Of course." Izuku smiled. "I'll be back. Make sure Mei doesn't burn the warehouse down, okay?"

"I heard that, you dick!" Mei yelled from her terminal.

"I'm aware!" Izuku yelled back. The two were hesitant to part from the hug, but eventually separated. Izuku grabbed his costume and walked over to Hitoshi. He gently put his hand on Hitoshi's back and smiled. "You ready?"

"Oh yeah. Let's get out there!" Hitoshi grinned widely.

"Do we have an Egg?"

"I grabbed several." Hitoshi opened his coat to show at least four Eggs. "I wasn't sure how many things we'd have to do or people we'd have to stop."

"Awesome." Izuku nodded. "Hey Mei. You might want to make more Eggs. We're taking a few, and I'm not sure how many there are left."

Mei spun around in her chair to look at the two of them. "Great! Do you want me to do your laundry and cook your meals, too?" She yelled back, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"That would be great, thanks!" Izuku said, laughing.

"Piss off!"

"Oh, come on now, Mei. You know you love us."

"I'm not honoring that with a response. Get on out of here." Mei grumbled as she turned back around and began to work on her computer.

Izuku and Hitoshi laughed as they left. They got on a train headed for Akihabara. Something about Hitoshi wanting to see if he could learn more about technology from the "Electric Town" of Tokyo. A 'personal study' he said. "Yeah right." Izuku thought to himself as the train ran down the tracks. "He wants to impress Mei. Which I don't blame him for. It's just funny."

The two sat in silence for most of the trip. Granted, it wasn't too long of a trip in the first place. Near the end, however, Hitoshi asked Izuku, "So what's with patrol tonight? And why with me? Wouldn't you rather be patrolling with Kyouka?"

Izuku chuckled softly to himself. "As much as I would love to patrol with Kyouka, I feel like we would get nothing really done if we patrolled together."

"Yeah, probably be too busy staring into each other's eyes." Hitoshi laughed.

"We don't do that very much at all. But I think we would distract each other one way or another." Izuku admitted.

"So why me?"

"I… I actually wanted to talk to you alone." Izuku admitted. "And we kind of needed to do a patrol. So two birds with one stone and all that."

"Alright, well, what's up?"

Izuku took a deep breath in before starting. "It has to do with going after Stain. I know you wanted to do it as soon as possible, but… I didn't think it would be good for us then. I still don't think so. I want to take him down. I think we need to take him down. But we need to get better. We've had two missions before this, and… I just don't think it's been enough. Stain has killed trained heroes. And we're just us. I just… I don't want anyone to get hurt." Izuku rambled. His breath was shaky at the end of his little speech.

Hitoshi put his hand on Izuku's shoulders. "I get it. I do. I… I think you're right. And I realized that you were right almost immediately. Ultimately, you're our leader. We have to trust your judgement. And so I'll follow what you decide." Hitoshi said.

"Wow…" Izuku said. "That was remarkably easier than I thought it was going to be. Was that really it?"

"Yeah, that was it." Hitoshi agreed.

"I thought you were mad at me this whole time, and I was freaking out about having this conversation for days. And that was it."

"Yeah, that was it." Hitoshi agreed again.

"I'm so stupid." Izuku sighed, a smile on his face.

"Let the record indicate that I didn't say it, you did." Hitoshi smiled.

Before Izuku could say anything, the train lurched to a halt. "Akihabara. This is Akihabara. Please watch your step."

"Well, this is our stop. Let's go." Hitoshi said, pulling Izuku up to standing. "Lead the way, boss."

Izuku and Hitoshi got off of the train and began to disperse into the city. They found a relatively secluded alley, and like the first time they performed their work as Societas Requiem, changed into their costumes. They stealthily exited the alleyway and began to climb up on top of buildings. With how late in the afternoon it was by the time they were done, the shadows were long enough to hide in as they moved from rooftop to rooftop.

Eventually, the two of them stopped moving as they came to a stop on top of a small arcade. The rooftop was cast entirely in shadow, allowing the two of them to blend in rather well.

"Well, Mastermind, this should get you a good viewpoint on any kind of tech you might want to see. There's a decently sized tech building across the street. If we're not doing something, you can always just watch in there."

"Heard. If that's okay with you, boss, I'd like to."

"Of course. I'll keep a watch out for the rest of our surroundings." Izuku said.

For Izuku, he found a sort of solace as he watched the people around him going about their lives. He was happy that not everyone was subject to some of the things he went through. Even though most of the things he had to deal with wouldn't have had much of an impact if his dream hadn't been to be a hero. But seeing people walking through the streets with their newly purchased electronics, happy smiles on their faces, or in some parents' cases, reluctant smiles as their kids were the ones that had the beaming smiles.

It was peaceful. For a time. About half an hour into Izuku's people watching, Hitoshi tapped his shoulder. Izuku turned around to look at what was happening, and he saw a man sprinting out of the tech store that Hitoshi was watching. The man seemed to have several arms, each one of them gripping some kind of electronic. Three of the arms were carrying a large TV.

"Are you ready for this, Mastermind?" Izuku asked.

"Sure thing, Snake Eyes." Hitoshi replied.

"I'll cut him off. You get behind him." Izuku said before jumping off of the roof and immediately rolling up to standing as he made contact with the road. He pressed the button on the side of his mask, allowing the lights on his mask to turn on. Several people in the crowd gasped. "Hey there, I don't think those belong to you." Izuku said, his voice changer active.

"Who the hell are you? I'm kinda busy, here!" The man yelled.

Hitoshi landed right behind the man. "I'm Mastermind, and he's Snake Eyes. We're here to stop people from being stupid. Unfortunately for you, you're making us work."

"You little punks think that you can just fight me and win? You think you can stop me? I'll show you!" The man used one of his arms to throw a bluetooth speaker at Izuku. Izuku immediately moved out of its intended path. He activated Luck and his mind grabbed hold of the speaker. He saw 'lands safely: 10%' and immediately tried to increase it. As he did so, his vision flashed grey for just the briefest of seconds, and he felt a brief twinge of pain in his brain. Enough to throw Izuku for a loop. The speaker sailed past him, smashing into the ground and breaking.

"Mastermind, something's going on. I'm going to be basically quirkless for the rest of the fight." Izuku yelled.

"Heard. I've got this." Hitoshi said, stepping forward. "Hey big guy, you want us to let you go?"

"Of course I-" The man started, but immediately fell under Hitoshi's Brainwashing.

"I swear, some people are so stupid." Hitoshi sighed. "Alright, go ahead and put those things down gently right at your feet." Hitoshi instructed. The man bent down and gently placed the rest of the electronics on the ground without breaking them. "Good. Now, turn around and put your hands behind your back for my good friend Snake Eyes there." After the man did as he said. "Alright, you're good to cuff him."

Izuku stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Right. You're gonna just wait here for the police. Have fun waiting inside of your headspace for a few minutes. I do not envy you." He put the handcuffs on one set of hands. And then another. And then another. With all six arms cuffed behind his back, the man did not look comfortable. But that wasn't Izuku's problem.

"Go ahead and walk back over to the store that you came from and sit down right outside. People will be with you shortly, I'm sure." Hitoshi commanded. The man did as he was told. Hitoshi and Izuku grabbed the equipment and moved it directly next to the man as he sat down.

The entire time, the crowd was looking at them fearfully. Probably because of the fight that had taken place in front of them. If they could even call that a fight. The last thing that Hitoshi did before leaving the scene was place an Egg directly next to the man. Such a shock would take him out of Brainwashing, but it would probably be the funniest way to do so, getting splashed with paint. That would be five minutes away, anyway. Plenty of time for the two of them to get out of the area.

And get out of the area they did. They were well out of visual distance by the time that the Egg went off. The great thing was that they were still able to hear the screams from when it sprayed paint absolutely everywhere. Including onto the crowd that had gathered around the Egg.

"I'd say that was successful." Hitoshi nodded to himself. Izuku said nothing as he continued jumping from rooftop to rooftop. "Is something up, Snake Eyes?"

"We're leaving." Izuku said abruptly.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Something is going on with my quirk. I'm not sure what it is. I don't want to get into any more fights until whatever problem I'm having is dealt with and I know what's going on." Izuku explained.

"That's… that's fair." Hitoshi conceded. The two found another alleyway soon after dropping from the rooftops. They changed out of their costumes and found a train back to Sangen Jaya. They were only truly there for about an hour before they left, so the train wasn't even an issue. And of course, nobody would question two teenagers going to Akihabara after school hours for an hour and then leaving. It was really the perfect cover for the two of them.

The train ride back was silent. Hitoshi didn't want to ask any questions. Izuku was too busy having his mind racing a mile a minute with several questions. Eventually, his words were brought out through his mouth around five minutes before the train got to the station.

"What happened? I couldn't use my quirk, and my head hurt whenever I tried to. Does that mean something? What if I only had a certain amount of luck, and I wasted it on stupid things my entire life? Will I essentially be quirkless for the rest of my life? How can I lead the others if I don't have this power? What if-"

"Hey, Izuku. Calm down. It'll be okay." Hitoshi interrupted.

"W-was I mumbling again?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah, I didn't want you to say too much."

"Th-thanks, Hitoshi." Izuku said.

"And the stutter is back. Is this really affecting you this much?"

"I'm scared, Hitoshi."

"It's going to be okay, Izuku. We'll get you back to Kyouka soon. She'll make you feel better, yeah?"

"Y-Yeah…" Izuku mumbled.

Their train ride lasted just a few minutes longer. Hitoshi practically dragged Izuku out of the train and through the crowd that was on the other side of the doors. As they moved, he could hear Izuku begin to cry softly. He could feel it above all else, though. "This is worse than I thought." Hitoshi thought. "I have to get him back to Kyouka now."

He pulled Izuku through the backstreets to the warehouse, and once he got there, he burst through the doors. "Kyouka. You need to get over here!" Hitoshi yelled louder than he had meant to.

"What's up?" Kyouka asked, looking at the two of them. As soon as she saw Izuku's face, she gasped. "Izuku! What's going on?!"

"I think he should be the one to explain." Hitoshi said. He handed Izuku over to Kyouka, who then sped him away to his room. She sat him down on his bed. She placed his hand on her lap, grabbing it with her own. Her other hand moved to his hair and gently began stroking it, calming the crying boy down.

"What's going on, Izu? What happened?" Kyouka asked quietly.

"I… I'm scared, Kyouka." Izuku said. "M-My quirk… Something happened, and now I can't use it." Izuku said. His crying was dying down. He was only sniffling at this point.

"Shhhhh, it's gonna be okay." Kyouka comforted him. "What exactly happened?"

"Well…" Izuku inhaled deeply and then slowly exhaled. "Someone threw a speaker at me that they stole. I moved out of the way and tried to make it so the speaker didn't break. But I tried to increase the chances that the speaker would land safely, but it wouldn't move." Izuku took another deep breath. "And then my vision turned grey. And then there was a piercing pain in my head. I've had a headache ever since. And the crying hasn't made it better."

"Were you crying because your head is hurting?" Kyouka asked. "Is it that bad?"

"No, that's manageable. It's the fact that… You all gave up so much for me. And now I'm powerless. I can't lead you like this. I can't help if I'm like this. If my quirk gives out, then what good am I for you or this team?" There was silence in the room that was palpable.

"Izuku, stop being stupid." Kyouka finally spoke.

"What?" Izuku asked, confused.

"You're worried about your quirk or maybe lack of quirk being enough. That's literally what we're working to change the public opinion of. You're worth more than your quirk. Being a hero is about more than having a flashy and powerful quirk, right?" Kyouka asked. Izuku nodded. "It's about who you are. And you've got what it takes. If you're not a hero, then neither are any of us."

Izuku looked at her. "But-"

"Nope!" Kyouka interrupted. "No buts. You're fantastic and deserve to be a hero. And we're gonna find out whatever the hell happened with your quirk and work to fix it. Now, you said that when you tried to use your quirk to increase probabilities. Have you tried to decrease probabilities?" Kyouka asked.

Izuku's eyes widened. "Say that again?"

"Have you tried decreasing probabilities?" Kyouka repeated.

"Kyo, that's it! If I can't increase, then I can decrease!" Izuku said, hugging his girlfriend tightly. "I never would have thought of that."

"I don't know why you're a genius when it comes to everyone's quirks but your own. But if I can help you out, then that's what's important here." Kyouka teased.

"Well, that's just because I think your quirks are cooler than mine. I don't really think about it all that much." Izuku shrugged.

Kyouka lightly punched him in the arm. "That's bullshit and you know it. Your quirk is dope, and anyone would be lucky to have something like that."

"Did you just...?"

"I did. What are you gonna do about it?" Kyouka asked with a smirk on her face. Instead of saying anything, Izuku leaned forward and briefly brushed his lips against hers. Kyouka tensed for the slightest of seconds before she leaned into Izuku's lips and wrapped her arms around his neck. They stayed connected for a few seconds before parting. "Well I guess that was effective. Is that what's going to happen every time I make a pun?" Kyouka asked.

"If I say yes, you're just going to do it more. And if I say no, you're still going to do it more to spite me, aren't you?"

"That would be correct."

"Then no comment." Izuku said before kissing her again. "Come on, we should head back out into the living room."

"Five more minutes?" Kyouka asked.

"You just want to kiss more, don't you?"

"Please?"

Five minutes later, the two of them made their way into the living room hand in hand.

"What did you say… or do… to calm him down, Kyouka?" Mei winked at her.

"I just made him feel better and gave him a different view on things." Kyouka said.

"Okay, now it really sounds like you're trying to cover up what you did by being vague." Hitoshi said from the couch.

"Shut up. We didn't do anything bad. There were just words of affirmation and then I gave him an idea of why his quirk wasn't working." Kyouka explained.

"Oh?" Mei raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain what's going on, Kyouka?"

"Well, he said that his quirk wouldn't let him increase any probabilities. And then his vision went to grayscale for a little bit, and now he has a headache. So I suggested that he try to reduce probabilities instead." Kyouka said.

"And what did he say to that?" Fumikage asked.

"He said he didn't think of it."

Mei laughed. "Man, you're a genius when it comes to everyone's quirks but your own."

"So I've been told." Izuku said.

"Hmmm…" Mei said, stroking her chin. "Maybe you have to try and keep an equilibrium of what you affect? Like, you can't just rely on increasing probabilities or decreasing them. So that might be your quirk trying to keep things balanced." She theorized.

"Well, that's better than anything I have, so I'll accept that until the point where I maybe learn something different." Izuku said. "I still don't know everything about my quirk, unfortunately."

"And that is okay. I am sure that there are a myriad of ways each of us can improve in the future, both with and without our quirks." Fumikage said. He walked over to Izuku and patted his back gently, an action that none of the others expected. "What?" He asked. "I wished to support my friend."

"In any case, I think we should get to bed soon." Izuku said. "Kyouka and Fumikage have patrol tomorrow. Here's hoping that it'll go better than Hitoshi and I's patrol today." With that, Izuku turned to go to his room. The others dispersed soon after Izuku did, each going to their respective rooms. Each except one.

A few minutes after Izuku had laid down for the night, a figure emerged from the other side of his curtain. "Hey Izu." Kyouka said as she stepped into his room. "Can I sleep in here again tonight?"

"Of course, Kyo. Come here." Izuku scooted over in his bed, making plenty of room for her. She laid down next to him quickly. Izuku immediately wrapped his arms around her waist. "Goodnight, Kyo."

"Goodnight, Izu." She responded.

Izuku took a deep breath and instantly felt himself relax. "Lavender…"