"Equipment check, done."

He put the small leather pouch into his back pocket.

"Time check?"

"Twelvu…Fortee Too!"

"Great, we still have about an hour to spare."

"Hour!"

The time has come.

Midoriya Izuku may have failed the last time, but this time he would get it right no matter what.

He had planned to arrive at the deli across town that was having their mid-week sale, before heading straight back toward UA where there was a sale going on at the local supermart.

But while the miracles of god would never grace upon him, he had his very own good luck charm to bring along.

"Ready to go Eri?"

"Mhmm!" The girl excitedly nodded.

"Right then…"

[Mission start]

The coast was clear so far.

The UA halls while definitely less crowded had no shortage of evil lurking around the school for heroes.

Like the staircase which steps were just a little too narrow, that made him slip every so often.

Or that cruel vending machine by the lecture hall that always ate his money.

Or that one brick at the front gate that always tripped him up every time he walked by.

Evil truly did hide in plain sight.

Walking down toward the cafeteria, Izuku carefully skipped across the puddle that always formed from the faulty piping that he may have slipped on once. Or a few times, was 8 times a few? How much is a few?

As he made it across the smell of yesterdays food waste Izuku let out a sigh of relief.

Looks like everything coming up Mi-

*BOOM*

"EEP!" Eri was startled by the sudden explosion.

"…" Izuku slapped himself.

"NO! Don't say it Izuku! That noise came from the engineering labs. It it could have been just something the support course whipped up. There's no need to-"

"AHHHHHH!" There sounded like a guy screaming.

In his anxiety Izuku grabbed Eri and started to run toward the labs, following the smell of smoke and burnt… something.

Arriving at Engineering Workshop 1, Izuku carefully put Eri down. He couldn't actually tell whether it was Workshop 1 because of the numerous scorch marks, but for some reason he just knew. Or at least the previous Midoriya Izuku did.

Creaking the damaged metal doors open Izuku's eyes widened in horror at what he saw.

And the memory of a bloodied boy in white armour flooded back into his brain.

That very suit of armour was lying charred on the ground like a grenade had went off on top it.

"What the-"

"HATSUME!"

"H-FIL!?" Izuku caught himself before he swore in front of Eri.

Iida Tenya was still alive and standing, but looked like a complete mess. With soot covering his whole body, frazzled hair, and glasses that looked like they had seen better days.

Well at least he wasn't actually in the suit.

"Well that could have gone better." An even more dishevelled looking, pink haired girl with a manic smile appeared behind the smokey remains of what used to be Iida's hero costume.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE BETTER!? LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE BACK BY TOMORROW!"

"Well, at least now we know. Hydrogen fuel does not work well with citric based engine gas."

"T-Tomorow…" Iida sobbed for the loss of his costume.

"Eto, are you alright, Iida-san?"

The pair turned to meet the gaze of the newcomers.

"Mi-"

"MIDORIYA IZUKU!" Hatsume shouted in elation.

"Eh?" For some reason Izuku felt the overwhelming urge to run.

Hatsume ran over and slammed into Izuku, both of them falling onto the ground with Hatsume on Izuku's chest and Izuku on Hatsume's… chests.

"Mpmph!"

"Hatsume-kun! Be more careful! Midoriya-san had just recently returned from the hospital!"

"And no one was going to tell me!? You know how long it been since I've played with my favourite test subject!?"

'Played!?'

"Midoriya-san is not a toy!" Iida angrily swung his hands in a strange chopping fashion.

"He is to me!"

"How does that make it any better!?"

"It doesn't!"

"MPMPH!"

"Oh right." Hatsume finally realised.

Finally being released from his soft prison, Izuku tried to catch his breath.

"Oh! Who'd you got over there?"

"!" Oh no, Izuku realised. Eri was already bad with serious people like Iida, she was definitely going to freak out when faced with the second most explosive person Izuku had ever met.

"Mei-Mei!" Eri cheerfully ran over.

Or not?

"Ah! Cutie! You're here too!"

Eri giggled as she hugged Hatsume's charred body. "You smell like Ocha-ocha's kitchen."

Somewhere in Japan, Uraraka Ochako suddenly felt a blow pierce straight through her heart.

"Nah, that's just burnt kevlar."

"From my costume!"

"From Engine's costume!" Hatsume said with a smile on her face.

If you looked up annoyed, frustrated, angry and glasses, you'd probably find Iida Tenya's face on the first page.

"Umm, Hatsume-san. I think Iida-san really needs that costume for his internship."

Iida vehemently nodded. "Indeed! I had just been cleared for active duty again, and I do not wish to waste any more time!"

"If you didn't want to waste time, why did you come here?"

"Because you said you made some changes to it!"

"Did I?"

"YES! And without my consent mind you!"

"All I remember was fixing a pretty large gap."

"It was perfectly mended when I got it back!"

"I meant the gap in the design. I mean really, what kind of speedster doesn't use thrusters?"

"THEY ARE LITERALLY GROWING OFF MY BODY!"

"I mean sure, if you call those thrusters."

"Excuse you!?"

"OK!" Izuku intervened before the argument got any more heated.

"Hatsume-san, why don't you just get started on Iida-san's costume."

"Hmm… Ok! But it'll take about 38 hours."

"38!?"

"Well, 23 if they let me stay overnight."

"That still isn't enough time! I have a patrol scheduled for tomorrow!"

"Really? Then why did you only collect it today?"

"I-YOU-AHHH-"

"Iida-san!" Izuku stopped him. "How about we look into replacements then? I'm pretty sure the support course has some spares lying around, right Hatsume-san?"

"Sure! There's a whole closet over there!" Hatsume pointed.

"I highly recommend the rocket man, that one has actual proper thrusters."

"G-Good to know!" Izuku dragged Iida away before he could go off on her again.

They began digging through what looked like a giant pile of gadgets and suitcases. Izuku picking out random suits for Iida while, Iida rejected them for not being Ingenium enough.

*Sigh* "I don't know how you do it Midoriya-san."

"Do what?"

"Hatsume-kun."

"I'm sorry what?" Do her?

"I just don't know how you handle her like that, I mean I know she's undeniably brilliant but just… Ughh…"

Izuku brushed the innuendo off. "I don't really know, I just… do it." And he brought it back.

Iida sighed once more. "I know a hero is supposed to be patient and understanding, but sometimes there are things that I just can't… tolerate. I don't know how you or my brother do it, every time I try to brush something off or be more lenient as a class rep, there's just this urge. There's something in my head that tells me that this-this shouldn't be, and with Hatsume-kun it seems like everything she does is going against that."

"And why is that a bad thing? Like you said you're a hero, that's the sort of thing that someone who enforces the law should think about."

"Then why do I feel like the… bad guy when I'm trying to get everyone to do the right thing? Hatsume-kun shouldn't be just going about doing what she wants, there are rules, safety guidelines, things that are put in place so something like, like this doesn't happen."

Izuku did understand where Iida was coming from. He had a strong sense of responsibility and that meant keeping everyone in check, but sometimes people just needed to let loose and have fun. Hatsume was simply the extreme of 'let loose' but that brought out the best in her through her inventions.

"I think people will just… Do what they will. In the end rules are just set up to keep people safe, but only the people can really decide if what they are doing would actually bring harm upon others."

Izuku smiled. "So as a hero-no, as a person what you need is judgement."

"Judgement?"

Izuku nodded. "Being able to know what the situation calls for, being able to know your limitations and being able to know if the decision you make will bring harm upon others or is simply just harmless fun."

"You say that like it's easy to tell."

"I'm not saying it is, but… That's why you above all were elected as the class rep, right?"

"I'll…I'll do what I can…" Iida said with uncertainty.

"That's the spirit!" Izuku said as he opened another box.

"Hey! This one doesn't look bad!" He remarked holding up the green fabric.

"NOT THAT ONE!"

The suitcase was immediately swiped away by Hatsume's prying hands.

"This one's off limits!" She held it close to her chest.

"Uhh… why?"

"This is strictly Midoriya Izuku only!"

Wait what?

"Why do I have a hero costume? Wait, why do I even need one?"

"You did! It's not my fault you got 4th place!"

"Hatsume-kun! We don't talk about that in front of Midoriya-san!"

"Hmph!" Hatsume walked away, cradling the suitcase in her arms.

Iida gave him a 90 degree bow. "I'm so sorry Midoriya-san, I didn't expect such a controversial topic to be brought up!"

Controversial? "I-It's fine Iida-san."

"Although… I would admit that this time, I would be inclined to agree with Hatsume-kun."

"What?"

"Indeed, it would be a first for me as well. But we all thought you were going to win the festival, e-xcept Bakugou-san but he's… Bakugou-san."

Oh yeah the sports festival, people do keep mentioning him beating Todoroki in it.

But wait, why do people keep calling him 'the strongest' if he lost the festival? He wasn't even in the top 3! Was it purely just from beating Todoroki?

"I… uhh…"

"It's quite alright, you don't have to acknowledge my crude observations! But sometimes I just wonder what it would have been like with you in our class instead of Shinsou-san."

Shinsou? The guy who was mad at him?

But despite all that…

"It's alright Iida-san, I already knew I wasn't meant to be in the hero course."

Midoriya Izuku wasn't fit to be any sort of hero.

"I already knew it from the start. You said that I was someone that was understanding, but the truth is I'm not even that good of a person."

He was a delinquent who skipped so many classes, he had to take a third trimester.

He was a childish boy who threw a tantrum after failing the entrance exam.

He was the weakest boy who would call his normal everyday life 'misfortune' when he knew there were girls that were suffering day by day.

Someone who wasn't even on the level of the average person could never reach the level of a hero.

"I just had to face the truth of it all, it wasn't the lack of a quirk that stopped me it was just me the whole time. I just had to-"

"You have to be realistic."

"be… realistic."

What was this sudden wave of sadness? Why did those words resonate so deeply in Izuku's heart? Who said those words to him? What couldn't he remember? What exactly did he forget?

Forget.

"WAIT WHAT TIME IS IT!?" Izuku suddenly screamed out.

"Eh!?" Iida was startled. "It's 2.15 pm."

"OH NO!" He completely forgot about the sale!

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

[Mission failed]