Hello earthlings! I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.

The villain stared at All Might for a second. Then he grinned. "Well! I guess that all this wasn't a complete waste of time after all! Good of you to finally show up!"

"What?'

"Oh yeah, we've been waiting for you to come! You took such a long time!"

Izuku saw the moment All Might realized that this was a trap. The man raised his hands into a fighting position and said, "Let the kids go and I'll do whatever you want."

"No."

"No?"

"Well, maybe. See, I have nothing against these kids, or at least I didn't when I came here. But they are really annoying, and I can't control what the others are doing."

"Who are you?"

"Just a group of people with similar goals."

"You're villains!"

"Oh, so when kings and queens and normal humans take everything from us they're heroes, but when we do it, we're villains?" The boy's eyes seemed to literally glow with anger for a second before he calmed down. Or at least it looked like he calmed down. All Izuku could see of his face were his eyes, which made it kind of hard to read his moods.

"Shigaraki." The smoke-person appeared out of nowhere. "We need to summon it."

"Fine. Get started."

A black portal of swirling mist appeared in the air nearby. Before Izuku could do anything, some sort of… demon came out of it. It was vaguely humanoid- as in it had two muscled arms, a torso, two legs beneath it, and a head on top. But it was completely black, had a weird facial shape and a grotesque mouth and… an exposed brain. Or something like that? It was hard to know for sure, but that's what it looked like.

Why would any demon choose that appearance? And why hadn't it come over until now?

All Might gasped. "Is that…"

"A Nomu! One of the only ones that exist, for now!"

"But… why?"

"They're the best weapon to ever exist! And now I've made some adjustments so not even the Ruling Sword can get through its skin!" Shigaraki made a big show of looking around. "Speaking of which, where is the sword? Did you lose it after you abandoned the kingdom, or are you just hiding it?"

All Might handled the situation much better than Izuku would have. "I'll take it out when you give me a reason too. But why don't we just talk about this? You can tell me what you want and I can try to get it for you. No one has to-"

"No one has to get hurt? People have already gotten hurt. I'll take you out, and probably all of these brats too, here. And then I'll kill Endeavor and pave the way for a new king!" At a gesture from Shigaraki, the Nomu lunged forward.

Izuku pulled Shinso and Tsuyu even further back as All Might engaged the creature. The man was outmatched. He was strong, and the Ruling Sword just being in his presence made him even stronger, but without the Ruling Sword actually in his hands he was at a severe disadvantage. The Nomu had supernatural strength and speed that made it just a little bit better than All Might- almost as if it had been born just to fight the holders of the Ruling Sword. Izuku was pretty sure it wasn't a demon, but then what was it? Shigaraki was able to control it somehow, and he'd called it a weapon. Had someone actually created this monstrosity somehow?

"Both of you," Izuku said, turning to the other teenagers. "Run-"

"Oh but why, elfling?" Shigaraki loomed up behind them. It looked like he was grinning. "We need to have a talk-"

Aizawa jumped out of seemingly nowhere, hurling his scarf around the villain and taking him backwards. That didn't do much, however, as Shigaraki just turned the scarf to dust and moved on to touch the hero's elbow with his whole hand. Izuku screamed, grabbing the villain by the shirt and throwing him away as far as he could go, but it was too late. Aizawa grimaced, holding his cracked elbow with one hand. "All of you, get away! Find somewhere to hide while we sort this out!"

A huge man appeared from the general area of the lake zone. He moved superhumanly fast to where the hero and heroes-in-training were gathered. Without pausing, he shoved Shinso out of the way and started slamming Aizawa's head into the ground.

"What?" Shinso ran forward, trying to wrap his capture scarf around the villain but he was ignored. "Get away from him!"

"I was told to take out the most dangerous heroes before dealing with the kids," the villain said, calmly slamming Aizawa down again. Their teacher looked like he was in shock or something. His eyes were vacant and slowly closing, but he was still trying to throw the villain off of him, which meant he wasn't unconscious.

"What do you think you're going to do to us?"

"I can't tell you-"

Suddenly the villain stopped. He dropped Aizawa's head and slowly walked away. Towards where Shigaraki was lying, trying to stagger to his feet. As Izuku watched, horrified, the villain grabbed one of Shigarki's hands and lifted it towards his face.

Izuku screamed, "Stop!" and threw the Ruling Sword as hard as he could, hilt-first. It slammed into the villain, who fell sideways, thankfully away from the blue-haired boy. That was all very good, but now Izuku was weaponless. That was going to come back to bite him later unless he could get to it quickly.

First things first. Izuku turned to Shinso, who was staring at the villain in complete shock. "Are you ok?"

"I just… I just tried to kill him."

"You were trying to protect Mr. Aizawa."

"But-"

"Just don't think about that right now! Focus on something else. Get Mr. Aizawa to safety, and then deal with everything else. Tsuyu, can you handle Thirteen?"

"Yes."

"Try to find the other kids and make sure they're all safe. And please, keep yourselves safe."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to help All Might."

Tsuyu stared at him. "Midoriya, that's a terrible plan."

"Please just get the teachers to safety!"

"But what about you?"

"Please!"

After a few seconds, Tsuyu nodded slowly. "Be careful." She helped Aizawa get to his feet and half supported, half carried the mostly unconscious man away. Shinso looked at Izuku helplessly before running to Thirteen's side.

Izuku breathed out slowly and turned back to face Shigaraki. Now all he had to do was somehow get the Ruling Sword back and get it to All Might.

By then, Shigaraki was on his feet and limping back towards Izuku. "Good throw, kid," he muttered as he rubbed his right elbow with three fingers. "You're strong. Do you have something other than elf blood too?"

Izuku didn't respond. He was trying to figure out how quickly he could get to the Ruling Sword.

Shigaraki rushed at him, but he did not have Izuku's enhanced speed. The boy easily dodged out of the way and ran for the sword. He grabbed it and it glowed. It literally started glowing. A faint, tinny voice seemed to be coming from it.

Give me the Sword, Midoriya. Order it to go to me through the One for All path, and then get away from here as fast as you can. Iida is getting other heroes to help right now."

Was that All Might? Being able to communicate through the sword was a new one. Izuku didn't know how to give the Sword to anyone through… whatever the One for All connection was (obviously All Might had "forgotten" to explain that to him), but he needed to at least try it.

As he backed away to try and put more distance between himself and Shigaraki, Izuku desperately tried to send the Sword away. It was a sword. How would ordering it to do anything really… work? He ran a finger along the ornamental design in its hilt and desperately thought, can you go to All Might now? He felt something- a weird feeling, like he was being watched.

Yes. He needs us more than you do right now. There was a rushing sensation, and Izuku suddenly saw a pathway of green light that slowly faded into a light blue. It engulfed his entire vision, swallowing him until he could almost see far-off light trails in the distance, all of them different colors, and feel the pressure of invisible people watching him and taking something from him.

And the Sword vanished. Izuku stared at his suddenly empty hands, feeling a mixture of awe and confusion. Well… it seemed logical that All Might had it now? Or at least a very, very, very weird kind of logic?

Shigaraki looked about as taken back as Izuku himself. "Where did your Sword go?"

The half-elf boy continued to ignore him, mentally feeling out his abilities. He could still sense the giddy power rush that he'd learned to ignore since his first time picking up the Sword, but it was much less now that he wasn't as close to the Sword. Still much faster and stronger than the average human, or at least it felt that way, but not nearly as strong as he was when he was actually holding the Sword.

And more than that, he no longer actually had a weapon. And Shigaraki was walking straight toward him.

Izuku kept jumping away, but for some reason, he seemed to be getting weaker. Was that a side effect of All Might actually using the Sword and not just its power? He didn't know, but it was bad. Eventually he might get weak and slow enough for Shigaraki to actually land a hit. Or even just brush him with his fingers. Either way, it would be over for him.

A wall of ice slammed into Shigaraki from behind.

Todoroki ran up behind the villain from the direction of the mountain. He didn't even look out of breath. Unfair. "Are you ok?" he asked Izuku, looking at Shigaraki as he did.

"Yeah. Fine."

"Where's your sword?"

"I dropped it. Over in the water area."

"Ok, sure. You should go."

"Wha- no way! I'm not leaving until he's taken care of!

"It's going to be hard to protect you and fight."

"You don't have to protect me! I'll be fine!"

"No, you won't. Not if you don't have a weapon."

"I've done fine so far!"

"Um…" Shigaraki dissolved the ice wall and stared at the teens. "Are you busy?"

"No!"

"Oi, Deku, Half-and-Half!" Kacchan ran out of seemingly nowhere, followed closely by Kirishima.
"Stop arguing and start doing something useful for the first time in your lives!"

Todoroki just stared. "Half-and-Half…"

The blond boy released an explosion that Shigaraki was only just barely able to twist away from. "Shut up and fight!"

All four boys formed a semicircle around the villain. Kacchan raised an explosion in his palm. Todoroki's right side turned cold- much colder than what was probably recommended. Kirishima rammed his fists together and… something that Izuku couldn't really describe happened to his skin. And Izuku held up his fists, hoping that he'd have enough strength to help his classmates.

Shigarki looked at them curiously. "You're a weird group. Why'd you come over here?"

"So we can kick your ass, creep!"

"I guess… so, the heir to the false king's throne. The 'Dragon King'. A… whatever the red haired kid is. And a half-elf boy." Shigaraki laughed for some reason. "What a special little group of brats!"

"Get out of here or we'll kill you."

"So violent! But then, I guess you got that from your father."

"I'm not like my father." For half a second, Todoroki's fire side seemed to heat up.

The blue-haired villain laughed again. "Man, all of you are hilarious! It's almost too bad that I have to kill you."

Before anyone (meaning Bakugo) could angrily retort and/or try to kill Shigaraki, they heard a screeching sound coming from the area where All Might had been fighting. The Nomu shot up in the air like it had been blasted by an explosion- or punched by someone really, really strong. As it came back down, All Might grabbed hold of it and slammed it into the ground so hard that the thing turned to dust.

Shigaraki stomped his foot. "No, no, no! You broke it!"

"Hell yeah, All Might! Let's go!" Bakugo yelled as loudly as he could.

All Might strolled up to the group of teenage heroes and villain, holding his sword high. "Are all of you ok?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now, for you, young man-" All Might turned to Shigaraki.

The villain stared at him with the most extreme expression of hatred Izuku had ever seen. "I hate you," he whispered, glaring at All Might. "I hate everything you stand for and one day I will kill you."

"I-"

"Shigaraki." The mist-person appeared out of a swirl of black mist. "Let's go."

"Fine!" he snapped. As the two walked back into the mist, Shigaraki turned and looked back at the teenagers. Right at Izuku. "See you guys around, brats." And, as All Might started running forward to grab them, they disappeared. The swirling black mist vanished.

Everyone just stared at each other. And that was when they heard Present Mic yelling. Of course the actually capable people would show up after the actual fight.

All Might started backing away. "Children, I will explain everything to you in your next class. For now, I can't let the heroes find me. Please ask the boy with purple hair and the nature spirit not to tell anyone about me yet. I will see you tomorrow." And he ran off at a supernatural speed.

Kirishima was the first one to break the slightly awkward silence. "So… was that really King All Might? Like, the one who disappeared twenty years ago?"

"Hell if I know!"

Izuku tried very hard not to make eye contact with Kacchan.

"If he's back, that means my father won't be king anymore." Todoroki frowned, like he wasn't quite sure how he felt about this idea. Quickly, he resumed his usual disinterested expression. None of them really knew what to say to that.

"Midoriya, are you going to get your sword?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Izuku sprinted off, yelling over his shoulder, "If any of the teachers ask where I am, tell them I'm in the lake area!" Of course, he couldn't use the excuse that he dropped his sword in that area with Tsuyu or Shinso, but hopefully they just… wouldn't think to ask about it. Yes, that seemed perfectly logical and not at all desperate.

Once he was a decent distance away from the others, he knelt down and tried to refind the One for All pathway that he'd used before. Um, All Might? Can you hear this? He had no idea if it would work for him when he wasn't actually touching the Sword, but he still tried to visualize the multi-colored pathways through his mind, connecting him to All Might somehow. He didn't know how, but somehow-

Midoriya?

Um, yeah, hi, can I have the Sword back?

Oh, of course, my boy! Sorry I forgot.

A few seconds later, Izuku was back inside the weird One for All pathway in his mind. The Sword seemed to fly along the blue and green path and into his waiting hand. And then he was back in the lake zone and holding the Sword. Um… thank you. Can you, um, explain One for All to me?

Yes, of course. I'm sorry I did not earlier. After your first day of classes, come to my office. I'm going to explain to your classmates who I am, though I won't tell them anything about your involvement. I feel like they are owed an explanation, especially if those villains come back.

Ok.

"Midoriya!" Iida and Uraraka appeared over the top of a hill, both of them running. Uraraka reached him first, surprisingly enough. "Are you ok? Where were you? What happened? Are you hurt?"

"No, no, I'm fine. What about you guys?"

"We're fine, we're ok!"

Iida reached them a few seconds later. "I apologize that I was not able to reach the teachers quickly enough. The main campus was further away than I anticipated."

"For the hundredth time," Uraraka said, sighing, "everyone is just impressed that you got to them within five minutes. That's pretty impressive."

"How're Shinso and Tsuyu? I know that they were gonna bring Aizawa and Thirteen to come find you."

"They made it. The teachers came right as they reached where we were. I think they're all being taken back to campus, but we wanted to come check on you after Kirishima said that you'd run off to get your sword."

"Oh! Um, thank you! Do you know if any of the others are hurt?"

"Not all of them have been found, but so far only Ashido has been seriously injured. She got stabbed in the arm by a sword but should be fine by next week."

"Oh, I'm glad!"

"C'mon!" Uraraka began towing both boys up the hill. "We're supposed to come right back after we found you!"

"And I am curious about your interactions with All Might that Shinso mentioned your group had."

"Oh, um, he just punched down the wall and came in, I don't really know."

"That's so cool!"

"I find it hard to believe that the school's head of security is King All Might."

"I know, it's so weird."

Izuku almost grinned. They didn't know the half of it.

"... so then I arrived at the school so I could look into finding a new heir," All Might said, standing at the front of 1-A's classroom. He'd really just summed up the basics in his talk- rumors of new villains in the north, almost defeated by them, hid for a few years so he could try to recover from his injuries, no mention of the older brother of the first king or of Izuku. "Any questions?"

From the looks on Izuku's classmates' faces they all had many but were choosing not to ask them. All Might grinned. "Excellent! And before I leave, I would like to remind you not to tell anyone about any of this. I'd prefer for everyone besides your class and a few of the teachers to believe that I am dead or missing still."

"We will not betray your trust, sir!" Iida called. Everyone else nodded their agreement.

"Good. And, once again, thank you all for your bravery and heroism during the attack. All of you remained calm and rational and were able to defeat many villains. You will all make amazing heroes someday!" And with that, All Might walked out.

Present Mic, who was Aizawa's substitute home room teacher, quickly regained control of the class. "Well, that was something you don't hear every day! Now, back to history class. Does anyone know the name of the hero who infamously fought an entire tribe of demons single-handedly, killing all of them at once?"

It had been three days since the attack on the USJ. That time had mostly been spent sitting in the common room of the dorm building, telling stories with the other students of 1-A and trying not to freak out everytime the door opened and closed. All of the students had ended up with "slight" trauma from the event, which led to many of them not wanting to be left alone. Iida had somehow found a way to bring a therapist his family knew onto school grounds so he could help the kids deal with… everything. Why the school didn't provide a therapist Izuku didn't know, but maybe nothing like this had ever happened before?

No one besides Ashido and Koda had been seriously hurt physically, and the two of them were recovering well. The USJ had been trashed but already the school was working to repair it. Aizawa and Thirteen had survived and were expected to recover- well, not quickly, but they weren't dead. All the villains that the kids had defeated were rounded up and taken to prison.

Izuku hadn't seen All Might, but that could be because he only ever left the dorm building to get food with his friends. He also hadn't seen much of Todoroki. It seemed like he hadn't even left his room since the villain attack. Izuku wasn't sure why, but he kind of felt responsible for him. Maybe because when the public found out that All Might was back and he had an heir, that would screw up the prince's life. It was possible.

On the bright side, Izuku had seen way more of Kacchan than he was expecting to. Usually when anything remotely emotional happened the blond boy would withdraw from everyone, but he actually ended up in the common room sometimes. He left whenever any of them mentioned feelings, but he was actually there. Izuku thought it was probably because of Kirishima and Kaminari's influence. The two happy, positive boys were good for his old friend.

Of course, the two of them hadn't actually talked since the training exercise… but that was ok. Izuku knew that he'd screwed up.

Also, Tsuyu had started spending more time with Izuku, Uraraka, and Iida. She was a good friend, even if she was a little bit blunt sometimes. Izuku checked on Shinso too, but he was one of the ones who spent most of their time alone in their room. It sucked but Izuku didn't know how to help him. What he'd almost done to that villain… that seemed to really bother him.

Classes that day felt strange. It just felt… wrong to just resume regular life after everything that had happened. Regardless, as soon as classes were over, Izuku ran over to All Might's office, which was, of course, all the way across the campus. He'd asked Kacchan if he wanted to come too, but the blonde boy seemed to be ignoring him. Which shouldn't have been that surprising, but still.

All Might's office's only furniture was a desk, a table, a chair, and a sofa. Apparently his actual living area was in the back. The man himself was putting a pot of tea on the table as Izuku came in. "Ah, Midoriya! Would you like some tea?"

"Um, yes sir. Thank you!"

After they were settled- All Might in the chair, Izuku on the sofa- the man leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him. "First of all, I would like to congratulate you. You did a great job during the attack. According to reports, you took charge of your group easily and were able to hold off several villains."

"Ah, thank you sir, but it was mostly Shinso and Tsuyu."

"You still did very well. I'm proud of you."

Izuku grinned. Even after the quest they'd gone on together, earning praise from All Might still felt like a huge accomplishment. "Thank you sir. So, has there been any update on Shigaraki and the others?"

"No. Apparently they were part of something called the League of Villains, but none of the ones we captured knew anything about Shigaraki, the person made out of mist, or anyone else related to them. They all said that one of the two just approached them one day and asked if they wanted to break into Uyay." All Might hesitated when he'd said 'League of Villains'. Izuku definitely noticed.

"Oh." After taking another sip of tea, Izuku said, "And what about One for All?"

"Oh, um, yes. Is Bakugo coming? I feel like he has a right to know this also"

"No. He's not really… talking to me right now." Izuku looked down.

Three awkward seconds later, All Might continued. "Well, I don't really know what One for All is. It has something to do with the first king to wield the Ruling Sword, but I'm not really sure what. The Seventh Ruler didn't have time to explain everything about where it came from to me, and I… I guess that I was hoping that I'd never have to teach you to use it."

"What does it do?"

"Essentially it is a pathway that connects the current users of the Sword until one officially gives it up. It allows them to give the Sword to each other when they're apart and to communicate telepathically. It only works as long as one person is holding the Sword."

"Oh. So can you teach me how to use it?"

"It's more of an intuitive thing, like using the other abilities of the Sword. I can, however, help you train to become faster at summoning and sending me the Sword."

"Thank you, sir!"

"I'm sure that this will become important in the future." All Might looked towards the window at the sun, which was slowly but surely getting lower. "I just…"

"Sir?"

"It's nothing. The involvement of a Nomu is… concerning. But I'm sure it was more of a one-time thing, and I was able to defeat it without too much difficulty, or at least once I got the full power of the Sword."

"I'm glad, sir."

"Though remember to be on alert, and tell me if anything remotely unusual happens. If the League finds out that you're my heir, I don't know what they'll do to you."

"Do you think they're going to keep trying to kill you?"

"Don't worry about it!" All Might's smile seemed very forced. "I'm sure it'll all be fine! For now, you should be getting back to your classmates. We can begin One for All training this weekend."

"Oh, yeah! I have cooking duty this week!" Izuku got out of his seat but looked back once he reached the door. "All Might?"

"Yes?"

Izuku wanted to ask why the man was getting weaker. It was pretty obvious, when he actually looked for it. Even when he was holding the Sword, All Might was slower and not as strong. That fight with the Nomu took much longer than it likely should have when compared to many of All Might and even Izuku's fights in the past, even if it was a weapon specifically designed to defeat the Sword's users.

And the fact that he hadn't forgotten what All Might had told him about the League of Villains, the shadowed group from the north that his mentor had been investigating when he was injured...

"Thank you for saving us."

"Your class could have handled it just fine."

"No, we couldn't have. So thank you."

"You are welcome, but I was being honest about your class being a remarkably talented group of potential heroes. All of you have incredibly bright futures ahead of you."

"Thank you, All Might." Izuku ran out before he could start crying. He was honestly surprised that he hadn't started yet.

He would master One for All. He would become the best king he could be. And, most of all, he would protect his friends and All Might from the League of Villains when they came back. And they would come back. If they really served All for One, as Izuku suspected, then they wouldn't give up until they got to the Ruling Sword.

Izuku would not let them.

Dear Mom,

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. It was really weird.

You may have already heard about this, but a group of villains attacked Uyay. Don't worry, no one was hurt and they didn't bother any of the students. All Might was able to get there quickly and take them out. The heroes here captured all but two of them. It was so cool to see them in action!

Anyway, I didn't write because I was so busy with schoolwork that I just forgot, but when I heard that they'd released news of the villain attack I remembered to make sure that you weren't too worried. I'm fine, and all of my friends are fine.

Life is pretty normal here. Lots of classes. I like getting your letters. I haven't been talking to him, but I'm sure Kacchan likes them too.

All of my friends say hi, but I have to stop writing now. I promise I'll send another letter tomorrow. I heard that we might start preparing for the Sports Festival soon!

I love you and I hope everything in the village is going well!

Love,

Izuku.

Look, I just could not be bothered to write out the full scene with All Might and the Nomu, I'm terrible with fight scenes. Which is gonna make the Sports Festival tricky… anyway, leave a review with plot suggestions, constructive criticism, and words of encouragement! Later, potaters!