A/N- sorry for the delay folks, been travelling a lot and not writing as much as I should.

ETA- Thanks to the user readme-silly for correcting my brain bork

"Himiko Toga?" Midoriya felt like his jaw was going to dislocate if his mouth opened any further, so he closed it. He swallowed. "You think Himiko Toga was impersonating my neighbour? Himiko Toga, one of the seven Divisional commanders of the Liberation Army?"

Of course he'd heard of her- who hadn't? The Liberation movement had even released a documentary about her, and how she'd been isolated because of her quirk. She'd been on the television too, when the government had ordered its ill-fated crackdown on the militant wing of the Liberation movement. She'd been there before the TV news cut the live broadcast, covered in blood and laughing as she switched from form to form.

Todoroki nodded slowly, brushing a little of his two-toned hair from his forehead. "That's what I said."

From what the doctors had told them, Hanako Fuchigawa, the girl currently in intensive care, hadn't left the wardrobe in her apartment next to Midoriya's for the last few weeks. Someone had been impersonating her. Who that was, they didn't know for sure, but Todoroki seemed fairly certain that it had been Toga. There weren't many other people with a quirk that could do something like that, and Fuchigawa had been missing blood, which Toga needed for her transformations. That much made sense.

"Why would she tell me her real first name?" Midoriya shook his head, struggling to reconcile the girl he'd spent the last few weeks with and his image of the homicidal Toga. "Did she want us to know who she was?"

"I've read her psych profile," said Todoroki. "She often goes off-mission on a whim, chasing objectives of her own making rather than following orders from the head office."

"You think she did this- nearly killed Fuchigawa- on a whim?"

"It's a working theory," said Todoroki, his voice flat. He rolled his shoulders, as if easing a cramp from his neck. "She might have seen your fight with the Liberation soldiers who were attacking my house somehow, and decided she was interested in you."

"It's too callous," Midoriya said. "Locking someone up, drugging them, taking their face, for what? For fun?" It was too evil.

Todoroki's eyebrows quirked. "Did you sleep with her?"

Midoriya stared at him. "Huh?"

"I mean-" Todoroki made a motion with his hands. "Did you have se-"

"No!" Midoriya rubbed his forehead. "I get you, but she was young- I mean, she was impersonating someone young, and I'm still married-" he groaned. "No, I didn't have sex with her."

"You were on first-name terms, though," said Todoroki, bluntly.

Midoriya looked away, embarrassed. "She just turned up at my apartment. I made her dinner a few times, we sparred a bit, she bought me snacks. I figured she was a bored college student on break." Midoriya stared at the display of informational leaflets across from him in the waiting room, not taking in the writing. That whole time, when he'd been cavorting with Himiko, his poor neighbour had been trapped in that closet, tied up, maybe drugged. And he hadn't done a thing to save her. He was an idiot. A gullible idiot. "I should have noticed. Been more alert. Maybe then there wouldn't be a girl in intensive care right now."

"And maybe there would. Maybe she'd be at the bottom of a river somewhere." Todoroki shrugged. "She'll be okay. We saved her."

Midoriya stared at him. "Yeah," he allowed. "I guess." If they had really saved Fuchigawa, why did he feel so bad about it?

"Did the impostor try to recruit you? Try to indoctrinate you?"

"No. If anything, she was more interested in what I had to say," said Midoriya. "I didn't get the impression she was trying to change my mind, more like she was trying to get to know me. I don't know why she would do that, though."

"You're Bakugou's childhood friend, and you were at my house. Maybe she saw you as a way to get to one of us."

"Maybe," Midoriya agreed, slumping in his chair. "But I hadn't seen Kacchan in years. He must have closer friends that she could target."

"I wouldn't count on it," said Todoroki, his eyes narrowing. "Being a hero is a lonely business."

They stayed in the hospital waiting room, Todoroki sleeping seated in his chair and Midoriya too agitated to sleep, until a nurse came with news- Fuchigawa was stable, but unconscious. Todoroki's police detective contact arrived, a grizzled old man by the name of Tsukauchi, and posted police constables as guards outside her room. It seemed like there was nothing more they could do.

Midoriya stood and stretched, brushing crumbs of vending machine food from himself before reaching into his pocket for his wallet. He had enough cash for a train ride home.

Todoroki looked at him with narrowed eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Going home," Midoriya replied simply.

"You can't go back there." Todoroki looked at Midoriya as if he were stupid. "The Liberation Army know your location."

"What are they going to do? Kill me?" Midoriya's response came out more sarcastic than he intended. Deep down he knew Todoroki had a point.

"If you died in that apartment you could set the entire block ablaze. Fire spreads… easily in places like that." Todoroki looked pained. "And you're not immune to getting kidnapped."

An agency car took them to Todoroki's mansion, Todoroki holding a block of ice to his forehead as they drove. Midoriya felt a spike of anxiety as the hospital slid out of view, though he knew rationally that there wasn't anything else they could do to help Fuchigawa. The police were there. The doctors were there.

"You want one of the bedrooms, or the gym again?" Todoroki asked, snapping Midoriya to the present. The flush had mostly left his cheeks, and his voice was gruff.

"I've not caught fire in my sleep yet."

"Okay." Todoroki's eyes flashed amusement briefly, despite the circumstances. "Just so you know, this house is over a hundred years old. My sister would be very upset if it burned down."

"I'll do my best," said Midoriya, with a slight bow, and Todoroki smiled.

Midoriya woke on a futon in one of Todoroki's guest rooms, the panels on the walls and the tatami beneath him mercifully unscorched, though the smell of incense within the house was strong. Though he'd not drunk too much, the morning still had the dizzying quality of having had only an hour or two of sleep as he made small talk with Todoroki's mother over breakfast, refusing the natto she repeatedly offered him. Midoriya dreaded explaining the events of the previous night, but Todoroki's mother, Rei, seemed expert at avoiding the topic of heroics, instead asking about Midoriya's time at university and talking about her daughter's job as a headteacher. Todoroki himself didn't seem in the mood for talking, dark crescents under his eyes as he took long sips of his tea, so Midoriya found himself filling the silence until finally it was time for them to go. He followed Todoroki outside, down the winding path to the gates, where another van was waiting, Permafrost's fractured snowflake emblazoned on the side.

"Uravity Agency is on our route to Permafrost," said Todoroki, as they got into the back. He'd changed into his costume, adding a blue-tinted visor to hide the bloodshot in his eyes. "We'll drop you at the door."

"Thanks," Midoriya breathed. "Does Uravity know what happened? With my neighbour?"

Todoroki nodded. "I thought she should know, in case Toga decides to come after you while you're working." He glanced up, his eyes unreadable behind the tinted glass. "I'll tell you if I hear anything from the hospital, but Tsukauchi said Fuchigawa's condition is unlikely to change for a few days."

"So don't expect anything. Got it." Midoriya closed his eyes for a second, until the motion of the van started to make him feel nauseous. "Hey, Todoroki-"

"Yes?"

Midoriya took a deep breath, the question threatening to catch in his throat. "How do you know I'm not Toga?"

Todoroki gave him an unimpressed stare. "Because," he said, with a gesture to his chest. "There's no knife sticking out of me right now. You had me in a-" he took a breath, breaking eye contact. "-a vulnerable state last night. There's no way a divisional commander of the Liberation Army wouldn't take advantage of that somehow."

Uravity's building was only slightly bigger than Can't Stop Sparkling, where Midoriya had worked for years. Both were about the size of a large department store, but the difference in status between the two heroes was evident from the moment Midoriya stepped through the door. Aoyama's staff had done the best they could with his limited budget, but the result had been frayed carpets and ageing paintwork, mirrors mounted on the walls to cover up peeling paint. Uravity's agency, by comparison, looked like it was straight out of some kind of lifestyle magazine. Tinted glass windows towered from every side of the entrance hall, a futuristic metal sculpture of a tree at the centre and low slung white couches at the periphery. Looking up, Midoriya could see that all the upper levels seemed to look out onto the space, a corridor of empty air all the way to the top, where a tiny square of sky was visible.

"Sir?" the receptionist, a young man, called. "Can I help you?"

"Ah, yeah-" Midoriya smiled as he approached the desk. "I'm the new intern. Uravity asked me to come by."

"Aren't you a bit old to be an intern?" The receptionist checked his screen, glancing from his monitor to Midoriya, and tilting his head as he confirmed his identity. "You're early," he said, finally. "Take a seat."

Midoriya apologised and headed for the couches.

He watched as the metal tree appeared to flower, pink-white buds forming along its smooth curving branches. The receptionist picked up the phone and talked to someone about a schedule as the flowers folded outwards until they fell, scattering to the ground and vanishing. Midoriya wondered if they were holograms as the cycle started again, the flowers white pinpoints.

"You look like shit," said Uraraka, from above him. "I like the stubble, though. Makes you look like you're acting in some sort of apocalypse movie."

Midoriya looked up to see the number two hero hanging upside down in the air a foot or so over his head. She smiled, and reflexively he returned the expression.

Uraraka raised a finger to her lips. "I was going to suggest we try your debut today, but no-one's going to want to see you looking like that." She rotated slowly, angling her feet towards the ground. "Though I suppose it's hardly surprising, given what happened."

"Am I in trouble?"

"No." Uraraka's feet hit the ground without a noise, and she raised her chin from her chest, clearing her hair from her face. "We'll just need to be careful."

"You've dealt with Toga before," Midoriya guessed.

"At UA," Uraraka said, her brown eyes fixing on the middle distance for a second, as if she was remembering something. "Though we've not had solid intelligence on her location for a long time now."

It was understandable, given that Toga could look like anyone.

"I'm sending you up the road to Lemillion," said Uraraka, making a fist and pressing it decisively into her palm. "You need to see Melissa anyway, and I promised her she could have you for the day when I didn't have a use for you. And I don't have a use for you, not looking like that."

"I'm sorry." Midoriya hung his head.

Uraraka wrinkled her nose. "You're lucky your ass is cute," she said. "Otherwise I'd have fired it already. Now get going." She left before Midoriya could get flustered, calling over a sidekick to escort him.

If anything, Lemillion agency was less flashy than the number two hero's, though the lobby contained a large machine, the purpose of which seemed to be to count up every time Lemillion saved somebody. An assistant came up to collect Midoriya, and he found himself descending in a lift, further than a basement level should be, and was escorted through three sets of security doors before he found himself in a large, white and grey space, its lighting panels reminiscent of those in the hospital. Melissa was there, working at an overcrowded desk, her stacks of papers a stark contrast to the clinical feel of the rest of the lab. Midoriya called a greeting as he approached.

Of the top heroes' inner circle, Melissa was the least likely to be an informant for the Liberation movement. She was quirkless, after all. The Liberation movement considered her the lowest of the low. Would someone like Melissa work for a movement that clearly despised her?

"Have a seat," she said, idly. She was dressed much like she had been the night Midoriya had first met her, with the addition of a knee-length white lab coat and pocket protector, her glasses swapped out for a version with flanges for eye protection. "I've got an assistant joining me today, but I wasn't expecting Ochako to let me have you so early."

"Assistant?" Midoriya echoed, and Melissa glanced at her wristwatch.

"She should be arriving now, in fact."

A girl, in her late teens or early twenties, burst from the door behind Midoriya, red faced and out of breath, and Midoriya spun to face her, half expecting an attack.

Like Melissa, the girl wore a lab coat over her clothes, but she had accented it with a pastel pink scarf. Her white hair was tied up in a messy bun, and a large golden horn curled from the right side of her forehead. Her face lit up when she saw Melissa, and the two women embraced tightly.

Melissa cleared her throat, releasing the white-haired girl. "Midoriya, please meet Eri Aizawa, also known as Rewind Girl. Eri, this is Izuku Midoriya, obviously."

"Aizawa? Like the old pro hero Eraserhead?" Midoriya asked. The man had been a teacher at UA when Midoriya had looked at attending.

Eri gave a sideways smile. "Yeah, that's my dad."

"How's he doing?" Melissa asked.

Eri shrugged. "Still insisting people call him No-eyes-awa. Other than that, he's getting on with things. He won't let me try fixing him until I've got my full medical license, though."

"You're training as a doctor?" Midoriya asked. "I thought you were a pro hero."

"I'm a pro hero, but I'm also a medical student." The girl smiled, and Midoriya felt as if the room was a little brighter for it.

"She's doing both. Like Recovery Girl did," Melissa explained.

"That's amazing," said Midoriya, staring at Eri. The pressure involved with of either set of training was enough to crush a lot of young people, let alone both.

"It's a lot of hard work," said Eri. "But at the end of it, I'll get to save people. And pay back everyone who ever saved me," she added, with a glance at Melissa.

"Alright," Melissa pushed her glasses up her nose, a little more businesslike than before. "Enough about my assistant's herculean workload. There's science to be done."

Melissa directed Midoriya to one of the pods that lined the walls of the room, and asked him to take off his shoes. The machines looked like something that had come straight off I-island, hardly surprising since Melissa had grown up there, the bundles of wires that sprouted from them as thick as Midoriya's arm.

"We're going to take some scans first," said Melissa. "This machine will measure height, weight, and give us some broadly accurate figures on your muscle mass and bone density."

"Do I need to undress?" Midoriya asked, with a nervous glance at the two women. The walls of the pod were transparent.

"The machine will account for your clothes," said Melissa, matter-of-factly, and Midoriya was grateful that she treated his question like a sensible one, rather than laughing at him or teasing him. "If anything goes wrong, there's a red button on the inside that will stop the measurement and let you out."

Midoriya stepped into the small chamber, and the glass door slid shut behind him, instantly muffling the background noises of the lab, the hum of coolant fans and the whirr of pumps all silenced. Midoriya could hear his heartbeat and his breath and nothing else, as Melissa gave him a thumbs up through the glass. Glancing down, he spotted the emergency release Melissa had mentioned, and it was some small comfort as the pressure in the chamber changed, enough to pop his ears. While he would survive any malfunction the chamber had, he had no desire to be trapped inside. The pressure reduced again, returning to normal, a green light shone as the glass slid open again.

Melissa and Eri were staring at the readout, Melissa scribbling frantically in her notebook. Midoriya joined them, peering over the top of Eri's head.

"That's not right-" Midoriya frowned at the number on the display, a good six centimetres more than the height listed on his driving license. The weight was more than he'd expected, too, by about ten kilos.

"I can measure you again," said Melissa. "But the result will be the same. My instruments are accurate."

Midoriya pressed his fingers together. "If you could?"

"No harm in a repeat measurement." Melissa shrugged, gesturing for Midoriya to get back in the chamber, and the process repeated, his ears taking less time to pop.

Midoriya stared at the result on the big screen, the same as before. Either Melissa's instruments were seriously out of calibration, or he was bigger than he remembered. "This is taller and heavier than I was before my quirk," he said. Melissa smiled beatifically, as if she had been expecting the question. Midoriya swallowed. "Is that… normal?"

"I have a theory," said Melissa, pushing her glasses up. "Since your quirk manifested, I've been looking at other cases where a quirk has a late onset. Pretty much all of these are still children, seven years old on average, but I pulled some strings and got their medical records sent to me." She waved to the stacks of paper on her desk, and Midoriya noticed that some of them were yellowed, significantly older than the others.

"Usually, when a quirk manifests, a child is still growing," said Melissa. "This allows the child's body to grow into and adapt to the quirk. For example, the bones of a young person with a power-type quirk will densify-"

"Like your husband's," Midoriya interjected. Though, he supposed Lemillion was a bad example- like Todoroki the number one hero had two quirks.

Melissa blinked, stealing a sideways glance to Eri, but then nodded. "Yes, like Mirio's," she agreed quickly. "In your case, your body is fully adult. It hasn't had the opportunity to adapt."

Midoriya frowned. "Then why am I ten kilos heavier?"

"I was getting to that." Melissa clicked her pointer, and the display on the screen behind her changed, to a rendered image of the street outside Todoroki's house. "Your body can't grow into its natural form like it would if your quirk had manifested in childhood. This is pretty common with late bloomers- we see the older children often developing medical problems from bodies that are unable to handle their quirks. But in your case your quirk itself seems to reformat your body. When you're rekindled, it's using not only matter from your body, but the environment around you. The craters here, and here," she said, gesturing to where Midoriya had rekindled. "Aren't merely melted from the heat of your quirk as I assumed at first. They're missing a substantial amount of matter. The crater you left in the memorial garden is similar."

Midoriya stared at the screen. "I'm changing? I'm what? Part tarmac now?"

"The, uh, villain Sinuous was also missing a chunk from his tail when I treated him," said Eri, with an apologetic smile to Melissa. "So maybe some of him too."

"I think I need a minute," said Midoriya, weakly, looking down at his hands. They looked the same as they had before he'd died, callused and scarred. No grains of tarmac embedded in the skin, or other signs of being made of anything other than himself.

"Take your time." Melissa nodded to the door, scribbling something down in her notebook. "We can do the other tests I'd planned when you get back."

Midoriya stepped out of Melissa's lab, to the corridor where he had come in by the lift. Emergency lighting indicated the way out in a pale yellow line.

He thought of Ingenium, his hands shaking. That lower body, a twisted mass of oil and chrome. Was that what his body was becoming? He'd grown larger, evidenced by the change in fit to his clothes and shoes, but he'd chosen to ignore it. Just like he'd chosen to ignore the fact that his pretty neighbour was suddenly paying attention to him for no reason. He'd sucked up matter during his rekindling. Bits of the road, bits of a person. It had been a villain that night at Todoroki's, but what about next time? What if he died carrying a civilian away from danger? His flames would consume them, and take their matter in like so much firewood. It was horrible to think about.

What would he become, by the time his body finally adapted to his quirk, as Melissa put it? Would he even be recognisably human at all? Or simply two eyes in a pillar of flaming construction material? Would it matter? He supposed not. Like Todoroki had said, being a hero was a lonely business. If he was prepared to give his life to save others, his body was only a small sacrifice. Midoriya rubbed his aching shoulders, turning to face the door to the lab.

No turning back. The dream was the dream, no matter the cost. Midoriya stuck out his jaw, pulling his shoulders back.

"Watcha doin'?" asked a face in the wall, a few feet to Midoriya's left.

Startled, Midoriya gave a yelp. "Lemillion? What are you doing here?"

"That's a funny question to ask, Midoriya. This is my agency, after all." Lemillion's face grinned. "I had a few minutes spare, thought I'd check on how you guys were doing."

"Ah. I'm sorry." Midoriya gave a small bow. "I was just heading back in."

"I'll come with you, then." Lemillion emerged beneficently from the wall. He wore his full hero regalia, sans his helmet, his red cape billowing behind him.

"Eri!" Lemillion cried as he strode into the lab. Eri gave a squeal of delight and jumped into his arms. Lemillion picked her up effortlessly, spinning her around. He put her down with a reproachful glance at his wife. "You didn't tell me Eri was visiting."

Melissa folded her arms over her chest. "Yes, because I knew you'd distract her. I need her focused in case we need to use her quirk."

Midoriya frowned. Much as it distressed him as a hero aficionado, he didn't know exactly what Rewind Girl's quirk was. She hadn't seen much active duty, or done much in the way of publicity- understandable, if she was juggling her hero career with medical school. If he had to guess, perhaps a temporal quirk of some kind, like Teebo's? But why would Melissa need to rewind time?

"Maybe we could get ramen afterwards?" Eri suggested.

"That sounds good." Lemillion grinned. "Hey, did you get to the costume reveal yet?"

"Mirio!" Melissa grumbled. "We were getting to that."

Eri laughed into her hand as Lemillion smiled playfully.

"What? Can't the number one hero take an interest in his wife's work?"

"You're a menace." Melissa swatted at Lemillion's head with her clipboard, and he slid out of the way, still grinning inanely. "If you want to support me so badly, you can help with the benchmarking."

She pressed a button, and a circular hole in the floor opened. A podium emerged, with a mannequin on top. In a costume. His costume, Midoriya realised, a lump in his throat.

"So?" Melissa looked at him expectantly. "What do you think?"

"It's-" Midoriya stared. It was black and green. Skintight, except where armour plating had been added. His vital organs would be left exposed, and the plating instead covering his spine, groin, arms and legs. A pair of dark goggles covered the eyes. Midoriya nodded. "It's perfect. Thank you."

"It should fit," said Melissa, looking between Midoriya and the mannequin. "For now, at least. I used the scan of you I took that night at Shouto's."

"I can put it on?" Midoriya asked.

Melissa nodded. "Actually, I was hoping you could give it a test run."

Midoriya changed in a side room that seemed to be set aside for that purpose, a mirror and a basin set against one wall. Whatever material Melissa had made the fabric from, it felt strange in his hands- slippery and cold. Something about quantum cooling, though Midoriya had barely understood half of it. He pulled it up over his legs, snapping the armour plates in place.

"Well?" Melissa called over the intercom. "How does it feel?"

"Cold," Midoriya answered.

There was the sound of a pen scratching. "Any burning sensations, sensations of torsion or stickiness?"

"No."

"Good. Okay, we're going to put you through some benchmarking exercises, see how your quirk is affecting your body's performance."

"Okay," Midoriya nodded. "What's the exercise?"

As if in answer, a door at the other end of the chamber slid open with a hiss. "I was going to put you up against some of my new robots," said Melissa. "But since my husband was kind enough to volunteer- no quirks, Mirio-"

"Hey again." Lemillion grinned. "Think fast."

Midoriya had time to register that Lemillion wasn't using his strength quirk- he lacked the lightning-like energy that ran over his skin- but the number one hero came in fast and hard. His fist caught Midoriya in the jaw, sending him sprawling. He really wasn't using either or his quirks, Midoriya realised stupidly as his body hit the hard material of the floor. Lemillion was just fast enough to blindside him without them.

Midoriya rolled to his feet, stars in his eyes, but Lemillion was on top of him already, striking again. Midoriya dodged the second punch, twisting out of the way and feeling the air compress as Lemillion's fist passed him. Heart hammering in his chest, he took a step inside the man's guard, blocking a second punch. The number one hero wasn't using either of his quirks, Midoriya realised with a sinking heart- Lemillion's permeation would have allowed his fist to pass through Midoriya's block and punch him anyway.

He threw a punch at the hero's stomach, expecting the block that came and moving out of the way of the counterblow. Midoriya shifted stance, bringing his elbow up in a strike that should have caught the underside of Lemillion's chin.

Lemillion grinned wide as he avoided the strike. "You're actually not bad!" he said, dancing back. "Sir's file on you said you had a couple of different blackbelts, but you're mixing it up, aren't you. It's like your own style!"

Midoriya felt himself return the smile, infected by the hero's good humour. "Thanks!" he gasped, watching the distance between them as the fight resumed.

Even with Midoriya's latest growth spurt, Lemillion still had weight and reach on him. Not to mention the man had been in a hundred times as many fights. He launched a barrage of blows, keeping Midoriya on the back foot, retreating and blocking. Bruises formed on Midoriya's forearms with each strike, and he thought of Himiko. She had kept up with Midoriya in their sparring matches whilst being much smaller and having shorter reach. What would she do in this situation?

She would look for a blind spot.

Lemillion hadn't shown any weakness so far in their sparring match, but that didn't mean he didn't have one. Midoriya thought back to all of the televised fights he'd seen Lemillion in. Lemillion's quirks gave him the strength to level buildings, to defeat foes with a punch, and the ability to phase through matter. It meant that most of his fights were good old-fashioned slug fests- pretty much no-one was stupid enough to try and hold or trap him. But Lemillion wasn't using his quirks.

Midoriya gritted his teeth, steeling himself for his approach. Again, he moved in, into Lemillion's reach, blocking an opportunistic punch before Lemillion raised his guard against a strike. But Midoriya didn't strike, instead pushing in for a grab. Lemillion's eyes flashed with surprise, but Midoriya found himself holding nothing as Lemillion phased into the ground.

There, the voice of Himiko seemed to whisper in his ear. There's the weak point. In a TV interview five years back, Lemillion had admitted he was blind when he used his phasing quirk. Whether it was true, or just a PR stunt to make the number one seem more human? Midoriya guessed he was about to find out.

Midoriya kicked off as hard as he could, launching himself backwards as Lemillion emerged from the floor, fist raised, where Midoriya would have been a fraction of a second before. Midoriya surged forwards with his fist, catching Lemillion from behind just as he became solid again. Lemillion flew forwards from the impact, grunting as he hit the floor.

"Stop." Melissa's voice came in over the intercom. There was a little worry to it. "We have enough data."

"You okay?" Midoriya held out his hand to the number one hero.

Lemillion rubbed the back of his head, his expression a little rueful. "That was a dirty trick."

Midoriya kept his hand where it was. "Melissa said you wouldn't use either of your quirks."

"She did, didn't she-" Lemillion smiled, closing his eyes. "Okay," he said, clasping Midoriya's wrist and accepting the hand up. "I guess that makes it even."