SNAP

Just like that, another pencil shattered in Izuku's hands. He was so close this time. The only thing he needed to do was make it go forward. Momo stood up from her seat and walked over.

"You can't rush this kinda thing, you know." She smiled as she inspected the boy's hands. His hands felt rough and had faded cuts and bruises as she held them in hers. She felt a heat rise across her cheeks. Momo had done this so many times before, why was she blushing now?

"It looks like this time all the pencil fragments flew away from your hands. You're good." She had kind of become his nurse in these years spent together. He could always heal fast for some reason but it just felt right to bandage his hands up after a failed attempt. Though it had been a while since she'd last held his hands like this. He just didn't make many mistakes anymore.

"Yeah, but we have less than 6 months before the exam and unless I can do this by then I'm just stuck with regular old reinforcement," he complained. She gave a small giggle at seeing him so determined. These past four years had done that to Izuku. He had been practicing even more and it seemed to be paying off. His quirk had advanced to a point where Momo was unsure if reinforcement was even his quirk with how easy it became. He was reinforcing his arms and legs to work more efficiently, still with the occasional mishap, though it was getting increasingly rare to see something go wrong.

Momo realized she had been thinking for a while and stepped away from the hand she had been inspecting for suspiciously long. Izuku had recently started to work on a new method of using his reinforcement to combine his body and a weapon but he refused to tell her. He joked about Momo being his competition but she had a feeling he just wanted her to see him do it for the first time.

"Alright hand me a… large spoon," Izuku asked with a smirk. Momo laughed for a moment before making Izuku turn around. She lifted her shirt just below her bra as she began to materialize the stupidly large spoon. Izuku had always asked for dumb creations as a way to help her practice and for Izuku to get a bit creative with his quirk. The tip of the spoon came out of her abdomen as she gave it a solid metal knock against the ground.

"Alright it's done," she smiled as she stood the spoon up. It was about as tall as Momo herself, and currently, that meant it was a few inches taller than Izuku. It was like a sword from those RPG games.

"Holy hell," he responded, amazed at her ability. It didn't matter how many times she made something, nor how complicated the object: Izuku always had that look that made her stomach feel funny. She handed the boy the spoon as he looked over it. As expected, he couldn't lift it up with just his regular strength. He closed his eyes and within moments lines of blue extended from his hands onto the spoon making the shed glow brightly. In almost an instant the spoon had morphed into the general shape of a greatsword. Lines were running down Izuku's arms to show they were being reinforced to help carry the weight of the dense sword as he finished altering it. He gently placed it in the corner with all the others before taking a breath.

"Wow, you didn't make that easy," he laughed, doing a small stretch as he took a seat.

"If I made it easy you would never learn," she said as she did her own stretches. "You wanna get anything to eat? I'm feeling a little light-headed." She felt a little guilty lying, but it was so hard to get him outside of the shed, and she didn't want to seem too forward. He mentioned he was learning piano from a tutor, and for some reason that ate a large amount of time out of his day. She could see him looking for an excuse not to come. It hurt a bit.

"Actually… Sure, but I'm picking where we go; also, there might be some friends there."

What?

He wasn't lying. Sitting opposite Momo was a pissed off boy about a year older than her and Izuku and beside him was a child that looked far too cute for this world. The introduction was fine but she got the feeling that they wanted to talk about things with just Izuku in private. When he described them both they sounded a bit nicer then they turned out to be. Well, Eri was about as cute as Izuku described.

"So how's everything like at home," Izuku asked with a desperate look in his eyes towards Shindo. He really seemed to be doing everything he could to have a normal conversation. Shindo gave a tired sigh.

"Life at home is great! My parents have been helping us out with planning for our future and Eri is actually going to start her first day of regular school soon." It was like a switch. Was this the same person 5 seconds ago? He seemed to be glowing, full of niceness and respect for everyone here. Momo was a bit scared. "I know Izuku has been working as hard as he can so I suppose that just leaves you." His mask was slipping a little. "So what have you been doing?" Just like that, it was back on.

"For the most part, I've been working on my own quirk alongside Izuku." She took a sip from her cup as the food arrived. Izuku was giving Shindo a death glare.

"Oh, so you're his training partner," he said with a wicked smile on his face. Momo was unsure whether this was another fake face or genuine but the smile sold it. "Izuku has told me so much about you; I've never heard a man gush about—"

"Foods here," Izuku said, almost in a panic. "Shindo, why don't you tell Momo about our Piano lessons?" His face was bright red.

Wait what did he mean by gush—

"Piano lessons?" Shindo said with a face that asked if Izuku was serious. A moment of silence. "Yeah, he's doing pretty great actually. We're pretty close to finishing the last part of the lesson book he needs before he can go on and make his own music. He does struggle with musical theory though,"

"That's great to hear then, Oh, Shindo where do you go for university?"

"Oh, I go to UA general courses, it's not by choice, it's mainly because my parents want me to socialize with this girl there. They want me to marry her for her… quirk" He seemed reluctant to say that last part. Momo knew quirk marriages were a thing but to see one happening in the modern-day felt blatantly wrong.

"Oh, well I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Is she nice at least?" She looked over to see Izuku and Eri whispering something to each other. He- uh, they were pretty adorable.

"No, I hate her, round-faced bitch." He muttered that last part as he took a bite of his steak.

This was going to be a long night.

Neutral POV

'What a shitshow,' Izuku thought to himself as he sat in the taxi with Momo. The night had gone well for the most part until Eri choked food again. Izuku had dealt with this a ton over the last few years so like usual he wrapped his hand around her neck and used alteration on her throat to open her windpipe temporarily. As it turns out when you do that in a restaurant people start to panic a bit more. Choking children is not something considered 'socially acceptable.' Izuku soon learned. Shindo and Momo were able to stop most of the people but one guy got through. He yelled that he was a hero and brushed past Shindo before he smashed his fist into Izuku's temple right after he finished saving Eri.

If Izuku hadn't reinforced his skull at the sight and sound of the fist he would have been dead. It certainly looked that way with his limp body on the ground. Laying there for a few seconds. The "hero" even left after he realized his mistake, not even paying his bill. Momo managed to get his name from someone in the crowd but Izuku didn't really want to deal with the legal system considering how heroes were protected. Izuku wasn't a vengeful person but let's just say 'Death arms' is a bit less of a hero in his eyes.

An Icepack on his head was better than a shattered skull though.

They pulled up to a massive house. Izuku realized this would be his first time seeing Momo's home. He assumed this was her father's house considering how far away it was from the area. He assumed that after her parents split the father got the better end of the deal considering how much time she spent with him and small bits of information he was able to get about her family.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked as the car came to a halt.

"Yeah, it's not like that could have messed me up anyways." He was lying and she knew it. She placed her hand on his temple for a moment to inspect it.

"You know, Izuku, my school is doing an American-style prom soon. The school got a large amount of American students so they wanted to make it feel like home for them; it's gonna be like a festival but the main focus is going with a partner and dancing with them. At least that's what the American students said. We could get a ticket and go if you want. It's about a week from now." Momo's face was the entire spectrum of red as she finished speaking and found herself unable to look him in the eyes. She didn't know it, but she'd just said his first name for the first time, Izuku noticed. She stared at his knuckles. Izuku was holding back the urge to hold her hands.

"I… don't think I can make it then." He couldn't look at her as he spoke. "I'm doing something important that day." He punched himself for picking that day. After that Eri was going to be gone for analysis for about a month, and that would leave him and Shindo without the window to transplant the final part of his crest. He hated this. He had to get the transplant done that day or all this work would have been for nothing.

"It's alright," She said as she left the car.

And that was that.

"Do we really have to do this here?" Shindo asked, looking around the shed. He pointed at the massive amount of altered objects in the corner.

"Not really, I just want to," Izuku let out as he got a text. It was Momo. He felt a pit in his stomach. He hadn't seen her for the past week but he was also avoiding her. She was probably at the dance today. Anyone else would have avoided it after being rejected but Momo was in the student council and probably felt a responsibility to go.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"At the shed, I might be able to visit you in a few hours," he texted back before putting his phone away.

"This is perfect, actually. Compared to our lab, the air here is ripe with enough energy to sustain him. No waking up with a knife in your body this time." Eri laughed as she continued drawing the magic circle on the ground. She was using chalk, which felt wrong for something like this, but also fit the aesthetic. "Lay down and we'll start," she commanded as she unzipped the bag containing the last part of the crest off Izuku's dead dad. It was mostly a chunk of skin but it still felt unsightly to look at. Eri and Shindo spent so long repairing the various parts of the crest from the rotting skin.

He lay down and let the girl's words guide him into sleep as she activated the circle. It began to spin and pull mana from the air into his body to keep him in a form of stasis. She carefully guided her strings to wrap around her tools as she began cutting away skin with perfect precision. Shindo looked out the window.

Momo felt heartsick.

She was sitting in a chair in a new dress. The soft dark green material hugging her newly developed curves perfectly. She thought about Izuku pointing out the colour and asking if it was to match his hair.

She would lie and say it didn't.

She shouldn't be thinking about him but it felt like her entire purpose of being here was hollow. Why did Americans emphasize romance so much? Even the uptight kid "from an important honourable line of heroes" had a date. It was so tiresome.

"He couldn't come?" An orange-haired girl sat down beside Momo. "You shouldn't have turned me down," she chirped with a nervy voice.

"We're supposed to just be friends, Kendou," Momo sassed back. She wasn't in the mood to be lectured about men by a lesbian.

"Does he even know how you feel?" She whined. As much as Kendou enjoyed seeing her ex suffer, heartbreak just plain hurt to watch. "This 'will they-won't they' isn't sustainable," she joked.

"I haven't directly said it but it's not hard to tell."

"He's a guy Momo. It's always hard to tell for them to tell,"

She hated when Kendou was right, but the fact that she was right about men was worse.

"Tell him how you feel."

God damn it.

My mind gives in.

I won't feel compassion.

I won't feel compassion.

I won't feel compassion.

I won't feel compassion,

What I believed in.

What I believe in.

I'm shown that it is just a fantasy that is covered with lies, and still

You can become a hero

You will become a hero

His fingers are broken, his limbs are slashed, and his breathing has stopped without him even realizing it.

His speed is nothing, and his stance is mediocre.

An unskilled, frantic attack.

But still…

This blow is heavier than any that came before.

He's ready

Izuku woke up. He was standing. His tongue was numb and his ears were ringing. It felt like plugging in an audio cable and suddenly he could hear everything around him.

"WAKE UP, IZUKU!" Shindo yelled holding Eri in his arms. They seemed alright outside of the fear in their eyes. Izuku looked forward to see himself holding a sword. It wasn't like the others he had altered from usual objects. He stopped pushing mana into it and all of a sudden it faded into thin air. It looked like he used reinforcement and alteration on the air to create this. He'd never learned this kind of magic. The sword's design was intricate. He had never seen it before. He looked to his left to see Momo, jaw dropped.

"Izuku you made that!" she yelled out, "That's incredible!" He looked at her confused. 'How long had she been here?' he thought as his eyes changed from a grey colour to his usual watery green. Colour came back and he saw the deep green colour of her dress. Momo rushed forward and pulled him into a brief hug. He felt so disorientated that it just felt like she wasn't hugging his body. He didn't feel alone. His arms couldn't move.

It didn't feel like she stopped hugging him after she pulled away.

"Her dress is nice," a voice in his brain said.

He passed out into her arms.

Authors Note

Once again I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I had some fun writing this one. Next time there will be a bit more story so I hope you can get excited about that.

Comments/Reviews/Speculation, are always a treat. Until next time.