Author's Note: Hey everyone, posting it early tonight while I still remembered it because if I were to wait until tomorrow after the marching band thing with the football game, I would NOT remember. So enjoy the early post. After this one, we have a few more chapters remaining in arc 2, and then we'll be moving into arc 3 after another 2 week hiatus and Lost Tales! Not sure exactly how many chapters left (I just finished chapter 18 the other day, so that's fun), but just know that it is wrapping up. The end of the Stain fight is NOT the end of arc 2. There's still a little bit more that I have to do. That being said, enjoy a big ol' fight scene that takes up more than half of the chapter itself!

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.

"So, you're here to stop me? Good luck with that. This false hero will die here tonight. And so will the false hero in training." Stain stood up straight. He was, in short, intimidating. A staggering six and a half feet tall, a lean and muscular form, and piercing red eyes that seemed to stare into Izuku's very being.

Izuku swallowed his fear and spoke again. "False heroes?"

"Heroics as a profession has been ruined by people seeking fame and glory rather than those seeking to save people or change the world. The only one in this world who deserves to be called a true hero is All Might!" Stain said, gripping his sword tighter. Izuku scoffed before he could stop himself. "Is that funny?" Stain asked, raising an eyebrow.

Izuku shook his head. "All Might? He's not a hero." He stated bluntly.

"What did you say?" Stain growled, slowly walking towards the small kid in front of him.

"A hero wouldn't tell a young kid who almost died minutes before that his quirk wasn't suited to be a hero, so he should give up on the dream! A hero wouldn't tell him that things like courage and passion and drive weren't enough!" Izuku was practically yelling at that point.

Stain stopped moving. "What? All Might said that? Impossible! Who told you that that happened?"

"Nobody told me. I was that kid." Izuku said, taking a step forward. "And I'm here to show people that those that they deemed unworthy can still be heroes. For everyone who was told that they couldn't, I will take you down!"

"Well, then come at me!" Stain practically roared.

"Stop it! Get out of here! Save yourselves!" Iida yelled from the ground.

Ignoring him, Izuku, Kyouka, and Fumikage immediately began running at the man, but before they could get to him, Izuku felt a sharp pain in his side, and he was flung into the wall. Stain had kicked him before he even knew what happened.

"He's fast…" Izuku thought to himself.

While Stain stood over him, a small speaker box was thrown his way, exploding in a blast of sound right as it passed Stain's face. Staggered, Stain took a few steps back, right into the attack of a waiting Dark Shadow. A single claw slashed across Stain's back. The attack barely grazed its target, however, as Stain managed to contort his body out of the way of the brunt of the attack.

"Overwatch, take a shot when you can. He's fast! We have to slow him down!" Izuku said over the comms before coughing slightly.

Immediately, a gunshot could be heard from the rooftops alongside the alleyway. Stain leaned back quickly enough that Mei's adhesive round splattered on the concrete ground. The sound of a shell casing hitting the roof and a fresh round being chambered could be heard as the alley grew silent.

"So it's not just you three. Smart. Too bad she wasted her opportunity." Stain growled. He unsheathed one of his knives from his side and began to blitz up the wall to where the bullet came from.

"Overwatch, get out of there!" Kyouka yelled over comms. Mei stood up, pulled out one of her grappling hooks, and shot it at the wall across the alleyway. With the hook settled into the wall, she started to swing from the rooftop, barely managing to get out of the way as Stain swung a knife from below her. With his strike not landing, Stain jumped down from the wall, but not before throwing a dagger at Mei. As Mei swung over to the other side of the alley, she felt a sharp pain in her left thigh, grunting in pain. She braced her impact against the wall with her other leg as she looked down to see a dagger embedded in her.

She pulled the dagger out of her thigh and used it to cut the cord of her grappling hook, dropping to the ground. She threw the bloodsoaked dagger down and ducked around the backside of the alley as fast as she could.

Stain hit the ground shortly after Mei did, and he immediately dodged to the right as Izuku charged at him. Stain unsheathed another knife and swung at Izuku. Time seemed to slow as Izuku activated his quirk and lowered the chances of the attack hitting him to 0%. The knife flew past his face, not making contact. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kyouka setting out some of her speakers in a circle. A glint of metal caught his attention again, and he barely managed to duck out of the way of another attack from Stain. The dagger had been put away, and the sword that had initially been used was back out to play. The attack that Izuku had dodged slammed into the ground, and at that moment, Izuku had an idea.

Fumikage leaped into the conflict with Dark Shadow rushing towards Stain. Stain raised his sword and parried each of the strikes that Dark Shadow unleashed upon him. The attacks pushed him backwards towards the circle of small speakers that Kyouka had just finished setting up.

Izuku, now having a moment to breathe, activated his quirk again. He started to watch Stain intently, paying attention to what probabilities he could affect. Then he saw it. 'Sword breaks: 5%'. Dark Shadow was not giving Stain a chance to breathe with attack after attack being sent. Stain was either deflecting all of them with his sword or dodging out of the way. After the first few successful blocks, Izuku saw what he wanted: the 5% probability for the sword breaking changed to 6%. He smiled and pulled out a few dice bombs from his coat.

As Stain kept blocking and dodging, he slowly was being pushed towards Kyouka's trap. Izuku saw another probability appear as Stain got closer: 'Stain trips: 30%'. Izuku grabbed that slider and shot it up to about 70% before it stopped going any further.

Izuku whispered into the comms channel. "Overwatch, are you okay? Can you provide some fire for us?"

"Yeah, I just wrapped my leg. I should be good for some kind of support. But I can't promise to be on top of my game. That knife hurt like a bitch." Mei replied over comms, her voice a bit strained.

"Heard. Heartquake, get ready for your little trap. I'm going to assist NightHawk. Try throwing a knife if you can."

Almost immediately, a knife glinted in the small amount of light and soared right along Stain's face, cutting his cheek as it sailed past. Stain flinched slightly, just enough for Dark Shadow to push the man fully into the speaker circle. Stain tripped backwards. He managed to stand up quickly, though.

"It's now!" Kyouka yelled before sending her heartbeat through the bluetooth speakers. Fumikage and Izuku had managed to cover their ears in just enough time. The sound that emanated from the speakers was loud enough to rattled the nearby windows and crumple the man they were fighting to his knees briefly. Mei used this time to come out from behind the corner of the alley that she had holed herself up in and fire a shot at Stain's knees. The bullet hit its mark, and the pink adhesive began to spread around his knees and to the concrete.

"Well…" Mei said, limping forward with the knife that had been in her leg not minutes before. "He's pretty good at throwing these…" She threw it to the ground next to her. "Oh well, time to cuff him." Mei walked around behind him and began to unlock a set of handcuffs. "Good work everyone."

She almost got the first cuff on when Stain's eyes shot open, and he burst from the glue. The four of them that were on the ground stumbled back as Stain rushed to the knife that Mei had discarded.

"What is he- Urgh!" Mei grunted as she fell to the ground. "I… I can't move!"

Stain stood up, his tongue still on the knife. He swallowed and stepped forward. "You're going to have to do better than that."

"Shit. NightHawk, get Overwatch and the others to safety if you can!" Izuku yelled. Fumikage grabbed Mei, and Dark Shadow grabbed Iida. They moved towards the corner where Mei had retreated before, but before they got there, Stain dashed in front of them, sword raised to strike. As Izuku was running to provide support, he saw this and activated his quirk, grabbing hold of 'Successful sword strike: 95%' and lowering that as much as he could. The chance bottomed out at 30%. It wasn't a 0% chance, but it was much less than before.

Stain brought his sword down with an impressive display of force, but Fumikage managed to step out of the way in just enough time to avoid the strike and continue to the safe place, his original goal. Blinking, Izuku reset his view on the probabilities he could affect, and he saw that the chance for Stain's sword to break had increased from 6% to 9% from the single attack. Izuku noted this and kept moving towards Stain. Stain once again raised his sword for a powerful downward slash, but Izuku was close enough to Stain to tackle him to the ground. Fumikage ducked around the corner of the alleyway, out of sight.

"Damn brats!" Stain punched Izuku in the jaw to disengage. He stood up quickly, and retreated from Izuku and Kyouka. Still a bit dazed, Izuku stood up. Kyouka took up a fighting stance next to him.

"Keep him busy so NightHawk can get the pro out of here too." Izuku looked at the pro for the first time this entire fight. "That's Native…"

"Working to save the innocents…" Stain said to himself. He looked at Izuku and Kyouka, addressing them. "You have a heroic spirit, I will give you that. What is your goal here?"

"We want to change things. Heroics are governed too much by what quirk you have, the strength of it." Izuku started. "Being a hero is more than raw power."

Stain lowered his sword slightly. "You speak as though you've been slighted."

"My quirk wasn't good enough for the current society." Izuku said. "I want to change society so that quirks aren't the only thing that matter."

"Hmmmm…" Stain though briefly. "You and I seem to be more similar than I thought."

"We are not the same." Kyouka countered.

"You may think that now, but what will you say when you're up against the wall of progress, and you're stopped by your ideals? I used to be like you. A vigilante wanting to change things for justice. And then I realized. Me just doing the work of heroes doesn't do anything. People are only threatened when their way of life is challenged. And so here I am. People only started listening once I started killing. When will people listen to you?" Stain asked. Izuku had watched as Fumikage slowly creeped around the corner of the alleyway with Mei's adhesive gun aimed at Stain. "If you can keep from falling as I have, then I could learn to see you as the true heroes that society needs. But it's a shame that you won't make it out of this alleyway alive for me to see that.

"We're not like you, Stain." Izuku said. "And you talk too much." At that moment, Fumikage fired two shots. The first adhesive round hit the ground at Stain's feet, covering them. The second shot hit his back, splattering around and covering his entire torso.

Stain grunted and fell to the ground. Fumikage took this opportunity to grab Native and take him around the corner as well.

"You're not going to beat me with cheap attacks like that!" Stain said as he once again burst out of the adhesive that covered him. Right as Fumikage came back into the alley, Stain leaped forward at Kyouka. Kyouka, having never left her stance, snaked her jack down to her gauntlet and threw a punch at the approaching man, amplifying its strength due to the sound waves. As her punch connected, Stain was flung back by the attack. Kyouka hissed in pain as Stain stood up from being prone, holding a small dagger in his right hand, the dagger shining a slight crimson. "I got you." He said before licking the blood off of the blade.

Kyouka immediately tensed up and collapsed onto the ground. "Damnit!" Izuku said. "Don't let him drink your blood!" He yelled to Fumikage. The two flanked their enemy, rushing him with attack after attack. Stain parried each attack with elbows and kicks of his own. His sword was the only thing that could stop Dark Shadow as the man learned while trying to block one of its attacks with a kick.

Izuku kept watching the probability of Stain's sword breaking every time the man parried with it. Its percent slowly increased over time from 9% to 25%. Eventually, Stain had had enough of this. He jumped backwards towards the wall, reaching into his combat vest and throwing out a volley of knives. Dark Shadow managed to block most of them, but a single knife managed to pass through and cut Izuku along his right arm. Stain then jumped from the wall and pulled his sword back out. He raised it above his head as he fell towards Izuku.

Izuku activated his quirk and grabbed the slider for the sword breaking. He cranked that up as high as he could, thankful that he and Fumikage had worn it down as much as they had in the fight previously. The probability jumped from 25% all the way up to 80%, and Izuku prepared to jump out of the way. He dove to his left in just enough time for the attack to miss him and crash into the ground. Izuku heard a crack, and when he looked back, he saw that the base of the sword was in fact cracked.

"NightHawk! Hit the sword!" Izuku yelled as he stood up. Dark Shadow lunged out at the sword and struck it hard. The sword's blade snapped under the pressure, and it slid across the alleyway. "Good job, NightHawk. We've got this now!" Izuku could feel some amount of pride welling up inside of him. No, they hadn't managed to keep him restrained for long, but they broke his sword, which seemed to be his primary means of attack and killing.

Stain stood up and looked at Izuku and Fumikage. The three of them were all breathing heavily. He threw his sword pommel to the ground and pulled more knives out. Then Stain looked at Kyouka. Izuku saw this and jumped into action before Stain started running at the prone girl. Stain raised up a dagger to strike the girl whose eyes were wide with fear, but Izuku jumped in front of the attack, kicking the knife out of the assailant's hand. His happiness at protecting his girlfriend was short-lived, however, as he felt a sharp pain along his arm as another dagger sliced through his jacket and into his flesh. Within a second, Izuku was prone on the ground, unable to move. He collapsed next to Kyouka, and as he fell, he saw that said girl's eyes were still filled with fear.

Stain stood tall and proud as he turned to face Fumikage. Fumikage began to talk over the comms quietly. "Mastermind, I am the only one still up. We're going to need you soon. Look for the opportunity. Until then, I will use it."

"It? What's 'it'?" Hitoshi asked from the rooftop as he began to look for a way down. He didn't get a response. Fumikage just turned back to Stain.

"Dark Shadow! It's time!" Fumikage yelled.

"Right!" Dark Shadow began to coalesce around Fumikage's body, growing bigger and bigger.

"NightHawk! No! It's too dangerous!" Izuku yelled. His complaints were cut off by a roar.

"Using your last big attack at the cost of a danger to yourself… A heroic choice, but it will still not take me down." Stain said.

"Maybe that's where I come in." Hitoshi said as he had finally climbed down the ladder that led to the roof.

"And who are y-" Stain started to say, but he immediately stopped moving.

Hitoshi chuckled to himself. "Fumikage, respond, and I'll get you out of that state."

"Alri-" Fumikage said, stopping almost immediately. Dark Shadow retracted back into Fumikage's body, and once that happened, Fumikage was released.

"We should have had me do that in the beginning of the fight." Hitoshi said.

"We didn't know his quirk. It would have been a waste of an opportunity for surprise." Izuku said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But hindsight is 20/20. For both of us." Hitoshi walked behind Stain and took out a set of handcuffs. "You're going to cooperate with me when I try to put these on." Stain did exactly as he was told, and after the handcuffs were securely latched around his wrists, he sat down in the alley. A few minutes passed before the group was able to stand again. During all of that time, Hitoshi never released Stain from his quirk.

Mei walked up, clutching her thigh. "Son of a bitch, that guy hurts." The five of them sat down around Stain for a few more minutes, taking a breather.

"Well," Izuku started. "Guess we need to really restrain him. Can't have him getting out… again…"

"You think several adhesive rounds would do it?" Kyouka asked.

"If we absolutely coat him, then it might be possible. Plus, with his hands in handcuffs, it's more likely to stop him. We can try." Mei said. She picked up her adhesive gun from the ground and walked back over to Stain. "Hey, Mastermind. Tell him to sit against the wall."

"You heard her. Move over to the wall and sit down." Hitoshi commanded. Stain did as he said. Once he was up against the wall, Mei aimed her gun at him and loosed the remaining eight rounds in her gun, painting him against the wall with each of the rounds. After the shots were loosed, Stain was nothing more than a head coming out of a pile of what looked like bright pink bubble gum against the wall.

The impact from the shots snapped Stain out of Hitoshi's quirk. "You…" Stain said, looking at the group of five people in front of him. "You five have shown the resolve to change things. You have beaten me, and I can't really get out of here. I have seen your resolve, I have seen your priorities. You saved these false heroes when you did not have to. You will change the world. I know it. The world may not see you as heroes right now, but just know that I now see you as true heroes. And if what you tell me about All Might is true, you five are all more heroic than he. You have earned this victory, and I will be cheering for you in the future."

"Well, it's nice to know we have a supporter." Izuku shrugged.

Kyouka slapped Izuku on his shoulder. "Manners!" She looked back at Stain. "I'm sorry for him. He's still growing into himself. Man, it feels really weird to be apologizing to a serial killer and then be thanking him for his belief in us in the same stretch of time, but thank you."

"Now, we're going to have to apologize to you again, but this is an Egg." Mei pulled out her contraption.

"...Yes…" Stain said while looking at it.

"This is going to leave paint splatter everywhere, including on you. But it's to leave our name behind so people know that we're the ones who did things." Mei set the Egg down next to Stain and set the timer for 10 minutes. "You're going to be absolutely covered in paint in a few minutes. And we're going to use that time to get out of here."

The five of them turned to leave, but they were stopped by the Iida kid. Izuku rerolled his mask dice and looked at him. "What, are you here to turn us in or something?"

Iida bowed deeply. "I am sorry for the danger that you five had to put yourselves in because of me! I should not have rushed into this fight with vengeance on my mind. I have shamed myself and the name of my brother. I have no right to call myself a hero. You should-" Iida was interrupted by Kyouka shoving him so that he was standing up straight.

"Yeah, you don't need to apologize. We're here to take down Stain, and you were an idiot that fought him alone. Learn from your mistakes, be better. If you want to apologize, that's how you do it."

"Wow…" Izuku said, looking at Kyouka as she walked away from Iida and back next to him. She winked at Izuku, and he shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Anyway, Heartquake is right. You call the police, tell them we did this, that we saved you and Native, and then work on being a better hero."

With that, Izuku motioned for the group to move out. Iida went to help a still unconscious Native, and then he called the police. A few minutes later, they could hear the sound of the Egg going off. With that knowledge and a smirk on their faces, they made their way out of the area, past the center of the city and the now smoldering fires that populated it, and back to their van, unaware of the amber eyes that were following them since the fight began.

"Good work, everyone. We've earned a day off tomorrow!" Izuku said as soon as they got into the van. The cheers of the other four members were quite loud in the confined space. As Mei began the drive back to their base in Tokyo, the wave of adrenaline that was pumping through their system slowly faded, and each of them began to really feel the effects of what they just did. Mei's left thigh was throbbing in pain, and the cuts that Kyouka and Izuku had gotten were burning slightly. But none of them compared to just how tired the five of them were. Mei had to be shaken quite a few times by Hitoshi, who had decided to sit in the front next to her on the drive back.

Around 2 in the morning, the five of them slowly crawled out of the van at their base. Each of them took their costumes off in their own rooms before returning them to the hanging station that Mei had revealed the costumes in previously.

"When it comes to the masks, leave them by my computer, alright?" Mei asked as everyone was returning with their costumes. "I have some work that I need to do with them in the morning. After that, you're free to go to sleep. Repairs to costumes will happen in the coming days."

Izuku and Kyouka both trudged back to Izuku's room, not even trying to hide it anymore. They fell asleep once again in each other's arms, tired, but happy. They had done good work, and things were starting to look up for them.