"Ah, that was really frustrating; we were so close to winning!"

Katsuki didn't even flinch as Toru abruptly plopped down in the seat beside him. She couldn't tell if it was because he just didn't care or that he'd seen her coming, the invisible girl having donned her gym uniform now that she was done with combat for the day. She waited a few moments for him to say anything, but it seemed he wasn't in a talkative mood.

"How are your injuries, Bakugo-kun?" Well, she could at least make sure he was alright before re-joining the girls on the other side of the room; he could barely walk a few minutes ago, after all.

"I'm fine. You don't need to pretend to care, Invisalign." His rumbling voice was surprisingly quiet. Katsuki had been pointedly looking away from her ever since she'd helped Izuku drag him out of the building. Toru wondered why that bothered her.

"I'm not pretending! We're partners—or at least we were for a little bit. Of course I'd worry."

"You called me crazy."

"Heat of the moment! You almost blew me up"

"I wouldn't have let that happen."

Toru chanced his ire to lean forward and inspect Katsuki's face. With his eyes downcast and less narrowed than usual, he almost looked apologetic. She barely knew him, but Toru couldn't help but feel that the sight was wrong somehow.

"I know." The her of thirty minutes ago wouldn't have believed him, but that wasn't the point. The Katsuki that was in front of her right now looked like the furthest thing from someone who disregarded his comrades enough to catch them in his attacks. He looked a little haunted, honestly, and she knew that it was because of the things Izuku had said during their fight; the history that he and Katsuki shared. "And weren't you supposed to call me by my name? We had a deal."

Katsuki didn't say anything for a minute; Toru was left wondering if her attempt at changing the subject had only pushed him further into this new shell he'd created for himself.

"Sorry. Y-You don't actually have to-"

"You fought well. Good job, Toru." It felt like Katsuki was staring directly into her eyes. This new, soft look… she didn't know what to do with it. And the sound of his raspy voice practically whispering her name…

"R-Right You did, too, Bakugo-kun!" She slapped her hands to her cheeks, willing away the warmth that was rapidly rising to her face. She felt more thankful than ever for her invisibility, which hid her reactions from Katsuki's discerning gaze.

"You don't have to butter me up, Invisalign; I know I'm the greatest."

Moment over.

Katsuki turned and leaned back, closing his eyes and resting his hands behind his head with the ghost of a smile across his lips. It looked like he was about to take a nap. Well, she'd managed to improve his mood, at least.

"Wh-B-Y-You…" She couldn't form words, a mix of indignance and embarrassment twisting her tongue beyond reason.

"The deal was that I call you by your name, not that I do it forever. You're going to have to work harder for that one… Toru." Gods, but if that shit-eating smirk of his wasn't the most aggravating thing she'd ever seen. What's worse was that her name out of his mouth caused the same reaction as last time, and she still couldn't string together a proper sentence. Toru stood stiffly, walking back towards the girls with her hands planted firmly on her flaming cheeks.

Maybe the nickname was for the best, for now.


"-zuku-"

"Izu-"

"Izukun?"

"Hm?"

Manami was smiling brightly when he opened his eyes, looking down at him with a mirthful expression. He felt her hands running gently through his hair, playing with the wavy ends and curling them around her fingers. It felt nice.

"The next fight's about to start."

"O-Oh… thanks." Izuku's face flushed red as he was reminded where they were. He chanced a glance to the left, catching a group of their classmates watching them. The crowd was mostly composed of class 1-A's girls with varying expressions of giddiness and mirth, though Minoru and Kaminari peeked out from behind, throwing thumbs-up signs his way when their eyes met. He quickly sat up straight, doing his best to ignore his classmates until they finally decided to return their attention to Tenya, Ochako, Yuga, and Rikido, whose fight was about to begin on-screen.

"Do you feel better?"

Manami's question reminded him why he'd been asleep in the first place. Izuku took a quick inventory of his physical condition, noticing the soreness already creeping into his muscles and the tender areas where he'd been bruised. That said, he felt much less fatigued than before and his headache had all but dissipated.

"Yeah, I do. Thank you, Manami-chan." He matched his verbal gratitude with an appreciative smile, fingers twitching unsurely. Was he supposed to hug her in this situation? Give her a pat on the shoulder? They'd been so close moments ago, but he still felt unsure of how much contact was appropriate for their situation at any given time. Manami, evidently the bolder of the two, giggled quietly at his quiet rambling, leaning into his shoulder with one arm wrapped around his.

"My pleasure, Izukun. Now, what do you think of this matchup?" She cut off whatever he'd been mumbling by bringing his attention back to the screens. The battle had already begun, Rikido and Yuga charging their way through the building they'd been assigned in search of the objective Ochako and Tenya were guarding. Izuku took a few moments to recall the quirks of his classmates that they'd shown off during the previous day's tests.

"Sato-san's strength-enhancing quirk would be very effective for blitz attacks, especially if it has some sort of long-term drawback for how much sugar he eats." Izuku began his analysis with the leader of the two assigned to the hero role for this exercise, "That said, Aoyama-san might need more time to position himself for an accurate shot with his laser, and I don't know how effective he'd be if Ida-san were able to use his speed to force Aoyama-san into close combat. Uraraka-san could probably take either of them out of the fight just by touching them, unless they found a way to work their lack of gravity to their advantage, but I don't think either of their quirks are suited for it."

"Aoyama-kun can use his laser to propel his body; he could probably cross the room pretty fast if Uraraka-chan took his gravity away. All he has to do is touch the weapon, so he wouldn't have to worry about running into the others." Manami pointed out, remembering how their flamboyant classmate had utilized his quirk to effectively bypass the long jump and fifty-meter dash tests the day before. Izuku lit up at the idea, pulling a notebook from somewhere on his person and beginning to jot down notes.

"I didn't even think about the laser having some sort of recoil! I wonder how much force it generates? Is it proportional to its relative power? If that's the case, can Aoyama-san train it to output more energy or is it a fixed amount..." His thoughts grew in complexity and speed until it was almost impossible to tell what he was saying. Izuku's hand flew across the page, creating on-the-fly graphs, diagrams, and other visual aids to accompany his notes.

"'Hero Analysis for the Future: Volume Fourteen?'"

Manami's voice startled Izuku, as if he'd forgotten she was there, still leaning against him.

"A-Ah, yeah. They-um… they're my hero notebooks. I keep information about quirks in here. Battle strategies, fighting styles, that sort of thing. Wh-When I was young and everyone was telling me I could never be a hero… I refused to give up. Probably the one thing I would never budge on. I just thought it'd be hard work. So I started taking notes. At first, it was 'what kind of quirk do you need to be a hero,' but eventually it turned into 'how do they use those quirks?' It sort of… all spiraled from there." His face grew progressively red as Manami gently snatched the volume from him, flipping through its pages and intensely inspecting their contents until she finally landed on a specific entry.

"Izukun~! What is this?" she teased, pointing to a comparatively well-drawn picture of herself. He'd obviously labored over the aesthetics more than he had for others, judging by the myriad eraser marks surrounding the page. The picture was of her the night they'd met, the first few lines of text making note of her more distinguishing features and speculating about their relation to her quirk. He'd obviously made some guesses before actually finding out what it was. The circled 'Hypnotism?' floating above an arrow that pointed to her eyes earned a laugh from her.

"I-I don't—I didn't… S-Sorry!" Izuku's first instinct was to panic and apologize, evidently. He bowed his head and threw his hands together as if expecting a reprimanding.

"What are you apologizing for, Izukun?" She raised his head with a few fingers under his chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "I'm flattered that you think so highly of me as to put me in your notebook about heroes. It's very sweet."

"I…"

"We get it, you're into each other. Go get a room and suck face or something; some of us are trying to watch the fights."

Izuku and Manami sprung apart at Katsuki's reprimand. Luckily, the rest of the class hadn't seemed to notice what was going on until he pointed it out, but Izuku ducked his head at the amused and congratulatory looks their peers were giving them. All Might himself had even turned around, although there was a reprimand behind his eyes that he seemed to wonder about dishing out.

"S-Sorry. Won't happen again."

Izuku's words appeased him, even if the smug and somewhat giddy look on Manami's face did not. Their teacher turned back around, along with the rest of the class, focusing on the fight that was currently going almost exactly as Izuku had described earlier.

"Spoilsport." Manami rolled her eyes at the interaction, gave Katsuki a quick glare which he pointedly ignored, and then returned to her position leaning against Izuku. "Looks like you were right about Ida-kun and Uraraka-chan having the upper hand…"


Izuku and Manami spent the majority of the next few fights guessing who would win and filling out Hero Analysis for the Future: Volume Fourteen with thoughts and information about their classmates' quirks and fighting styles. Manami was surprisingly interested in the activity, providing Izuku with another person to bounce his ideas off of and to give a second perspective for the first time since he'd started the series of notes, and the quality was definitely going up as a result.

Tenya and Ochako won their fight handily, the former's speed and the latter's crowd control abilities working in tandem to hard counter their opponents' blitz tactic.

Manami's pick for the next fight, the team of Fumikage and Tsuyu as the heroes, worked in tandem to get Tsuyu across the room and over to the objective and win through that. Fumikage had used his living shadow to hold off their opponents, Hanta and Eijiro, while Tsuyu's mobility with her frog mutation quirk allowed her to bypass the network of tape traps that Hanta had set up using his quirk.

Izuku called the winners of the following fight, Kyoka and Denki as the heroes versus Mina and Mashirao as the villains. They used Kyoka's hearing quirk to outmaneuver their opponents while Denki's electricity stunned both of them for a 'capture' victory.

Once everyone had returned to the observation room, All Might called up the remaining five students who had yet to participate.

"Since we have an odd number of students this year, our last matchup will be a three-versus-two battle. That said, your grades are not affected by wins or losses, but by your participation, so don't worry if it feels a little unfair. Sometimes as heroes, you don't know exactly how many villains you will be up against! Just do your best!" The symbol of peace gave his students an encouraging thumbs-up, rolling the randomization program one last time. "Our villains will be Young Koda, Shoji, and Yaoyorozu. That leaves Young Todoroki and Aiba as our heroes!"

Koji, Mezo, and Momo nodded as their names were called, collecting their communication devices and leaving the room to make their way over to the building designated for their battle. That left Manami and Shoto, the latter of the two with a cold expression on his face—or at least the half of it that was visible with what appeared to be a solid sheet of ice encompassing his other side.

"Good luck, Manami-chan, Todoroki-san."

Izuku's words left Manami smiling as she and her partner approached their battle site. Sure, a three-versus-two wasn't exactly the best odds in the world, but her sort-of-boyfriend had pulled off a two-on-one, hadn't he? There was no reason to lose hope yet!

"You stay here."

Her smile faded once she registered the words that Shoto spoke, her partner not even looking at her as he kept his eyes trained on the building they would soon be expected to enter.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Her giddy expression swapped itself out for a challenging glare. Stay there? Did he expect to win on his own like Katsuki? How many arrogant jerks were in this class?

"It means you stay here. Not only will it be dangerous for you to be present while I'm using my quirk, but I witnessed your performance yesterday during the quirk apprehension tests. Your physical strength is below par. Your combat abilities will likely be similar. Even were I to assume your quirk could counteract those deficits, we barely know each other; if what Aizawa-sensei said is true, it would have little to know effect on me. Conclusion: it is better for you to remain here."

Every word stung like a bull whip. The worst part was that she couldn't even refute his points. Manami's strength was below all of her other classmates, even considering her stature. She'd never had any kind of formal or informal combat training. Her quirk wouldn't affect Shoto, who she'd only met the day previous, in any meaningful way. She was… useless.

Manami dropped her eyes to the ground, dark memories and feelings clawing their way out from inside her chest. She barely registered All Might announcing the start of the test, nor Shoto leaving her behind to enter the building. She only looked up when the cold hit her, finding the entire building encased in a solid block of ice. This was what she had to compete with? How?

'How?'

"Th-The h-h-heroes win!"


"M-Manami-chan…?"

"I'm fine, Izukun."

She didn't look fine, not really. She plopped into the seat beside Izuku without even looking at him, and the way she wrapped her arms around his bicep and hid her face in his shoulder was concerning. He hardly caught All Might congratulating them and ordering them back to the classroom before speeding away.

The rest of their class began to follow their teacher's instructions, but neither Izuku nor Manami moved. Momo and Ochako threw Izuku a questioning glance but he waved them off with a shaky smile; he had a feeling that Manami didn't really want anyone else around at the moment.

"D-Don't worry about us; we'll catch up."

Izuku waited patiently in the silence that was left once the last student had left.

"Izukun, a-am I… too weak for the hero course?"

It was like hearing the Manami from that first night they'd met: quiet, struggling, desperate to know the answer but so afraid to hear it. He wrapped his arms around her, knowing how hard it was to ask a question you really didn't want to be wrong about.

"I cannot simply tell you 'you can become a hero regardless of your power.'"

"No." His voice was smooth and confident, so unlike himself that it actually startled Manami into looking up into his eyes, shining with pride and determination "One of the most important things the man who trained me ever taught me was that it wasn't the physical abilities or the quirk that makes you a hero; it's your conviction. Every quirk has a use, and anyone can train themselves to be strong, but it takes a special kind of person to risk themselves for the sake of others. And you're so special Manami-chan. So kind and wonderful that I couldn't think even for a moment you won't make an amazing hero."

"Th-That's really sweet of you to say, Izukun, but…" Manami found herself smiling in spite of herself, Izuku's confidence in her lifting her spirits a little.

"No buts, Manami-chan. If it's physical training you need, we can do that. We can spar, too, and experiment with your quirk to see if it has any other uses. Even if it doesn't, we can make up plans and battle strategies, so you always have something up your sleeve."

"Y-You'd do that for me?"

It wasn't even a question for Izuku.

"Of course! I didn't get to where I am now on my own, either. I had a teacher before U.A., and he prepped me for everything I would experience as a hero. We can do extra training outside of school to catch you up!"

He smiled brilliantly, holding out a hand. This had to be her decision, after all.

Manami looked at Izuku's proffered hand with a feeling of déjà vu. She wondered how it seemed like he was always comforting her in her darkest moments. How some way the conversation always turned into him being her source of strength. She wanted to be the one to inspire him, not the other way around! But there was something about him; something that made him different from everyone else. Something that made him someone she could trust with everything and she knew in her heart he would never let her fall.

"Why are you so amazing, Izukun?"

Izuku had barely understood the whispered words before Manami pulled him down by the collar of his hero costume and planted her lips firmly on his.

'I… She… How… What?'

Coherent thought was a distant memory. Time seemed to slow around them, even though at the same time it felt like things were progressing too fast. Then a voice in the back of his head chimed in saying this was just right. His eyes slid shut, his hands finding their way to Manami's face, gently cupping her cheeks. It was magical, amazing, wonder—

"Ugh, I wasn't being serious earlier."

Izuku jumped back with so much force he tripped over the seats behind him, flopping with little grace onto the other side. Manami had been luckier, bumping into the back of the seats she'd been standing in front of which caught her and stopped her momentum. Both were hyper-aware of their burning faces now that their moment had been interrupted.

"Christ, you're such a spaz, Deku." Katsuki leaned to the side to get a better look at his childhood friend in his crumpled position. He quickly turned his attention to Manami, looking somewhere between amused, annoyed, and disgusted. Typical Katsuki fare. "Suck face on your own damn time. Now get your asses in gear and get back to class before Aizawa-sensei has an aneurism. Tch." He licked his tongue before he walked out of the room, hands stuffed into his pockets.

"U-Uhm… that was…" Izuku nervously poked his head over the seats he'd fallen over, his cheeks dusted pink.

"Y-Yeah… sorry." Manami twirled her hair around one of her fingers, doing her best to hide her face with her hair. "I-I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"N-No! It was great! I…" Izuku cut himself off before he said anything stupid—more stupid than he already had.

"Great, yeah…"

They stared silently at each other for a few moments, finally allowing their adrenaline to subside.

"Pft." It started as a single chuckle from Manami, but soon became full-blown laughter. She doubled over, hands on her stomach, giggling like she'd been hit by the pro hero Ms. Joke's quirk. The comical contagion quickly spread to Izuku, who found himself in a similar position, one hand on the seat in front of him keeping him from falling over.

It was over as quickly as it started, the two sharing a meaningful look before Izuku hopped over the bleachers, proffering his hand to Manami just as he had a few minutes earlier.

She took it without hesitation.

"You've got yourself a deal, Izukun!"


For starters, I have 2 things to apologize for: One is the long time between chapters, the other is the extremely short chapter in comparison to the rest. Unfortunately, I've been struggling with a combination of writer's block and personal issues that kept me from having time to write. This is pretty much all I've been able to get out and it's honestly not as much as I'd want, but I really wanted you guys to know I wasn't abandoning this or you. With any luck, I should be able to get a normal-sized chapter nine out in 2-3 weeks as originally planned.

That taken care of, I'll not talk too much since I don't want to inflate this already short chapter with an author's note, so I'll just say that I'm so excited to finally let Izuku and Manami kiss (even if it wasn't planned), and I'm only a little sad that she didn't actually get to fight. Some of you probably realized that she'd never had any training, so she's actually kind of useless at the moment. A quick training arc before we move on to larger events will flesh out her abilities more and give her and Izuku more time to connect. I also get to stop bringing up the same heavy "I just want to make you proud" discussion every chapter and move on to way more exciting topics, like *redacted*, *redacted*, and *redacted*!

Next chapter: Mini-Manami-Muscle-Maturation-Montage (aka training arc) and the long-awaited date. Basically fluff-central.