Guest 1: Nope, the dojo hunter is clearly Muscular ;) He is really looking for a fight.

Guest 2: Yay!

Guest 3: Yep, the only saving grace of MHA when it comes to this (I mean, the girls are kinda outnumbered) is that they have a bit more screentime than some of the boys. I mean, Sero? Satou? Koji? Does someone even remember them? When compared to them, the few girls that did make it to 1-A actually gets some screentime.

(***)

Izuku felt it again. The sudden explosion of power, the sudden change to the way he perceived the world. For a few seconds, he didn't see, instead he felt the contours of everything in the building. Every single human being, furniture pieces, even something as small as the unwashed dishes in someone's kitchen. He could pull everything.

This time, he had control. Well, vestiges of it. He propelled himself away from the gas. He passed by the two metahumans, pulling them behind him (damn, the golem-guy was heavy). He passed by the two shocked policemen, pulling them as well.

There was a wall in front of him. The one at the opposite end of the corridor. His telekinesis was strong enough in this state to make it tear a hole in it.

It took a lot of him. He flew out into the night, pulling four people behind him (each of them shouting something), only to crash land on a rooftop of some apartment building two streets away.

The golem-guy landed with enough impact to make a dent in the concrete. Wowie. Izuku would have fun with that if his head wasn't splitted by a horrible headache and if he didn't feel like he was about to faint. Or vomit. Or both.

"Izuku!" He heard Mei shouts in his helmet. He sighs internally. He was supposed to be a Defiant, you never know when someone is overhearing you. The line SHOULD be secure, but...

He forced himself to stand up. He needed to do at least that much.

"Where are they?" He doesn't specify, but Mei knows him well enough.

"Singularity can be there in five minutes." Mei calmed down a bit after hearing him speaking. She issued a combat alert when she spotted the thugs heading into the building. "Kappa is in the river."

Tsuyu was probably closer then. He could see the river from the rooftop. If the worst comes to show, he will try to run in that direction - she will drag him through the river back to the hideout.

"Alright, what the hell just happened?!" It's the policeman again. "What… who are you people?!"

Izuku isn't surprised. He would react like that as well. But this proves to him at least the local police have absolutely no knowledge of the meta-abilities, as otherwise he wouldn't react like that. That's not good at all.

He is still clutching his gun, but at least he is pointing it towards the floor. Good. Golem-guy is bulletproof, but Izuku certainly isn't. Not in this state.

"You just witnessed a brief fight between a superhero and a supervillain." Izuku promptly replies. He wants to lie down and go to sleep, but at least the nausea he reigned in. "Congratulations."

Technically it was more like a superhero fighting supervillain lackeys, only to retreat when the main dish showed up. But those were details.

"Wh… what?" The policeman blinks at him a few times. "Are you kidding me?" Suddenly he looks exhausted. "If I didn't see all of… that, I'd send you to a mental asylum. Now I think that I should go there as well." He seems to be speaking mostly to himself.

"You should first call the precinct and tell them that someone just detonated a chemical bomb in that building." Izuku replies and the policemen freeze in horror. If he had a tiny bit of telekinesis left in him, he would rush back to the building to float people out of their flats, but… he can barely keep himself standing with what's left. "It's the same guy that gassed that high school in Shizuoka."

Izuku turns his head towards the two meta-human, leaving the policemen to their devices for a moment. They stood up already, with the pinky girl slightly hidden behind the golem. Who stopped being golem. His skin turned back to normal. The cracks changed into bruises and scratches.

"You two are alright?" He asks. The golem and Ashido nod scarcely. She looks traumatized and scared. He looks beaten up but also high on adrenaline.

"Y...yes." The golem says. "Uhm, Mina, are you alright?" He decides to backtrack on his statement. She hugs his back closer but nods. "Yeah, we're alright. Who are you?"

"I'm Defiant." He replies. "An aspiring superhero and a leader of a small community of people with superpowers here in Musutafu. Someone snapped Ashido-san's photo with something resembling horns on her forehead and put it on the internet. I came to investigate and extend an invitation to join us if she truly was a metahuman, but it seems that Overhaul beat me to it. You're both invited, by the way."

"Both?" The golem blinks at him a few times and Izuku suddenly realizes something.

"Wait, that was your first time using your meta-ability?" Izuku almost gawks at him. Hell, he does gawk at him, but it's not visible through his mask. "Wow, way to debut."

So he fought against a group of armed thugs to defend that girl, despite not knowing that he is bulletproof? Huh. Even if they are together, that was still crazy heroic. And heroically crazy. Mei had serious doubts about whether Izuku is more suicidal or heroic, and that guy is objectively worse on that field.

"My meta...what?" He looks down on his hands. He stares at them intently for a few seconds, before they suddenly harden. Rough edges, tough surfaces. "Holy shit."

Holy shit indeed.

"Singularity is in position." He hears Mei's voice. "On the rooftop two buildings away from you. With her rifle." He can see an icon displaying itself on his HUD, at the edge of his view.

He loves Mei's Baby #2.

Well, if the policemen were going to try to apprehend him, he now had an exit strategy. Uraraka wouldn't shoot them, but if she shot the ground next to them, that should be enough to discourage them. Izuku is way too exhausted to fight.

"You do realize…" The older policeman finally turns his attention back to the metahumans. "... that I should take you in for interrogation after all of that?"

"Yes." Izuku replies. "But you should realize that my backup is already here. And I don't want to be interrogated." He gestures towards Uraraka. She is visible enough at the distance for the police officer to realize that she has a vantage point over them and a rifle.

Policeman clicks his tongue in irritation. Izuku pulls out a phone from his utility belt and throws it towards him.

"Huh?" He grabs it while looking at Izuku questioningly.

"If you find someone on the force who has some genuine influence at least in this city AND doesn't send you to a psychologist after hearing that a superhero saved you, give me a call." Izuku replies. The call will, of course, connect through Hatsume Industries' internal network. Mei set it like that. Good luck following on through that to find Izuku. "Metahuman Network is willing to work with the police to stop Overhaul."

He turns towards the two meta-humans again.

"So, are you willing to come with me?" He asks.

"I don't think that we have a lot of alternatives at this point." The red-haired guy sounds smart enough. Overhaul just gassed a building to get them. Police clearly don't even know that superpowers exist.

Two new recruits for the cost of one. Although the discovery that Overhaul recruited at least a single new supervillain and is clearly on the lookout for more (he did come to grab Ashido) ruined his mood. Such as the potential casualties of Mustard's gas attack.

Shit.

(***)

"How did it go?" Kurono asks when Mustard runs out of the building and enters the car. Without waiting for the answers, he starts driving away from the battlefield.

"I tied the loose ends." The kid replies. Kurono expected this from exactly ten gunshots he heard from his car right before Mustard returned.

Kurono is still slightly taken aback by how absolutely ruthless the high-schooler was. And that says a lot when it's a hardened criminal saying. He finished ten hired thugs to make sure they didn't tell the police that Chisaki hired them, and seemed completely unfazed by that.

"Defiant grabbed the girl and her boyfriend and fled, I didn't have the mobility to pursue them. I think the boyfriend has a superpower too." The villain finishes his report.

Well, that was pretty bad. Then again, it was almost exactly as Overhaul foresaw it.

Original plan was for the hired thugs to attack the girl, then for Mustard to 'rescue' her. He would tell her to go to Kurono's car, only to stay behind and gas the thugs to death to make sure that the police didn't find out about Shie Hasseikai's involvement in the murder and kidnapping.

Bonus points - they would take the brunt of whatever superpower she had. You can't be too careful with those.

Once in their hands, Overhaul would manipulate, brainwash or terrify her into obedience. They didn't expect her boyfriend to have a power as well, nor about Defiant rolling in with the worst possible timing.

Chisaki had a habit of killing his underlings who messed up really important missions. But he wasn't stupid about it. He recognized when the failure wasn't the underling's fault. Mustard acted accordingly to the intel he got. It wasn't his fault that the intel was completely wrong - and he fulfilled the objectives that he could fulfill in those circumstances.

In Kurono's mind, Mustard just proved to them how terrifyingly useful combat-oriented superpowers could be for a criminal syndicate. And that Overhaul's theory that Defiant can't do a thing to gasses was correct.

(***)

Izuku has just enough strength left to get back to the Network's headquarters, send his mom a message that he is staying for the night at the friend's house, take off his vigilante gear and fall asleep immediately. The bed has never felt so comfy before.

(***)

Mei is notoriously bad at spending money. She would easily throw it all at some new parts, tools or research data that she fancied. Absolutely no filter when it came to that. Frankly, she was so used to having loads of money that she didn't really care about it.

But now? If Izuku just got two new recruits… yeah, her friends are going to run out of money. Those two can't just keep working wherever they work, Overhaul will certainly look for them. She could, technically, send them some valuable machine parts to sell, but… yeah, that was a stopgap measure at best.

She made a list of arguments (half of them fake, but hey, she's struggling here), slapped her cheeks as some odd way of self-motivation, and then came out of her workshop to confront her parents.

(***)

The girl with a gun apologizes to them. They only expected one potential new recruit, so there is only a single apartment cleaned up. Kiri shrugs it off (they are used to that much at least).

Frankly, so many things happened this evening that he… he just wants to lie down and sleep. They were attacked, he was almost killed, he discovered that he has a meta-ability (apparently the proper name for superpowers) just like Mina, that there are superheroes and supervillains around…

Yes. He is tired.

Then he discovers that the reason why the girl apologized to them was that there was only a single bed in the apartment.

He tried to look for an additional mattress or something, but Mina (so uncharacteristically silent thus far) suddenly hugged him from the back.

"Don't." He freezes. Does she mean… "I don't think I can fall asleep on my own after… all that."

One one hand, it's helping her when she asks for it. That's manly. On the other hand, that's sleeping in one bed with a girl you aren't in a relationship with. That's kinda… less manly? Not manly at all? Kirishima is conflicted about this designation.

"Mina…" He turns towards her. All that he can see is the top of her head pressed against his chest. But he can hear some faint sobbing. And feel the tears on his skin. "Mina, I…"

"Don't say anything, please." She tells him and he obediently stops talking. "What you did for me today? That was the most terrifying thing I ever saw. I thought they killed you for a second!" Yeah, he honestly thought so too. She raises her head and can see her face. The tears are flowing, but there is also a smile there. Even if slightly forced. "But it was also the manliest and most awesome thing I ever saw. And for that…"

Ejirou is taken by surprise. He didn't expect her hands landing on the sides of his head and pulling it closer - and their lips meeting.

"As…. Mi… Mina…" He can't see it, but he probably blushes furiously. Mina chuckles through the tears.

"You fought ten armed murderers to save me without a moment of hesitation, but you can't handle a little kiss?" She almost bursts into laughter. The tears still flow, but part of him isn't sure if they are still born exclusively from sorrow.

It's not that he can't handle it, it's just… it's Mina! His best friend, the person who motivated him to change himself for the better, the…

The first crush he ever had. One that he didn't expect to come to a conclusion. He had no courage back then to do anything. And after she turned up at his apartment, half a year after her supposed death… trying to do anything would feel like taking advantage of her. So he stayed silent.

She hugs him once again - and once again all that he sees is the top of her head.

"I love you, dumbass." She said quietly. "You were just too dense to notice it."

What's the manly way of answering a love confession like that?

"I love you too, Mina." He replies.

That will do.

(***)

Aizawa Shouta wanted to go home.

He just managed to arrive at his home, finally coming back from the long and exhausting shift. He greeted Emi, he greeted his son (who was too busy with crayons to notice, but Aizawa got used to that) and he was about to dig into a warm meal when he got a phone call.

Gas attack. Policemen from his precinct were involved. Two digit number of casualties.

Well, fuck.

Emi was understanding enough to quickly pack his food, give him a good luck kiss and send him away.

Two hours in (and after dealing with some press vultures AND a phone call from the city's mayor AND prefecture's governor) he is suddenly confronted by detective Naomasa. He was on the scene when shit hit the fan.

They are in Aizawa's office. Naomasa just barged in, with Tamakawa at his side. Aizawa's hopes for a quick nap (and perhaps eating Emi's homemade food) are quickly dashed aside. There is urgency on Naomasa's face.

"What's going on?" Aizawa asks. Tamakawa is closing the door behind them. Not a good sign.

"There is… a problem." Naomasa says while sitting in front of the desk. Tamakawa is standing behind him. Clearly worried about something.

"Define problem." Aizawa replies with a tiredness written on his face. He needs his coffee. A lot of coffee. But the coffee machine broke, there is no money to repair it AND everyone's protecting their liquid lifeforce as if it was molten gold. Truly, those are dire times.

"The 'ten people are dead and I still had to bullshit in my reports' level of problem." Naomasa replies and suddenly Aizawa is very, very conscious. If it's the always serious, prim and proper Naomasa who did that… they are privately friends, perhaps the reason why he is ready to come forward with whatever happened. "Shouta, I'll ask you directly. Do the upper ranks of the police have any knowledge about people with literal superpowers running around?"

Aizawa stares at him in complete silence. And shock. What the fuck is going on? Is this some form of prank? Is there a hidden camera somewhere in this office? Did Naomasa go insane enough to make such jokes when so many people died (sure, they were thugs, but many civilians had to be hospitalized)?

"I'll take that as a no." Naomasa sighs. "Well, that's just great. Because during the brief scuffle preceding the gas attack, I witnessed a kid turning his skin into stone hard enough to become effectively bulletproof, a self-proclaimed superhero using some form of telekinesis to knock guns from people's hands, trip them off and slam them into the wall AND an apparent supervillain dispersing a poison gas from his body despite not having any sort of equipment explaining that. Sansa saw all of that as well. And I need answers."

"What?" Aizawa manages to utter something. "You… what? Are you drunk?"

"I'm planning to, but not before I'm off duty." Naomasa shrugs it off. "I'm not joking, Shouta. That supposed superhero is apparently responsible for all those cases of criminals tripping off and losing their guns mid-scuffle. And he introduced himself as a leader of a community of metahumans, so apparently people with superpowers, in this prefecture. I really hoped that there is some sort of governmental conspiracy at play, and I'm too low in the ranks to know about it, but if you know nothing, then we have a problem. Especially as the perpetrator of the gas attack apparently worked for someone. Someone who is alright with his underlings gassing an entire apartment block to get what they want."

"I saw and heard all of that as well." Tamakawa adds. "Officer Kaniyashiki wasn't there, but she did see that superhero fly us all out of the building before the gas reached us."

"In case you don't believe us…" Naomasa pulls forward a pendrive. "This is the recording from Sansa's bodycam. The one that he wrote off as destroyed during the firefight in his report. We had no idea how to explain it on paper without being sent to a mental hospital. Or get suspected of tampering with the records." He sighs. "That superhero? Left me a way to contact him if we find someone in the police who is willing to work with him. You're my only superior whom I'm certain will at least watch the recording first before kicking me out of the force."

Aizawa stares at him with a mixture of suspicion and worry. But he takes the pendrive and plugs into his computer. Then he watches the recording.

He sees the stone-guy's rampage in the corridor. The green hoodie-guy arrival and his swift disposal of the thugs, despite him not even touching them. Then he sees the person in a gas mask emerging from the elevator, his brief introduction and the eruption of purple cloud engulfing him within a heartbeat.

The green guy erupts with lightning and blinks out of the screen. Aizawa's eyes are still good enough to see him 'blinking' past officer Tamakawa with enough speed to only be a blur. But then the officer is pulled back, for a second or two racing against death in the form of a rapidly expanding toxic cloud.

He is staring at the screen, slackjawed and in shock. His entire worldview gets tilted upside down during the last minute, and it's not even the end of it.

He watches the brief talk on the rooftop in silence. He learns some new words, like a metahuman and meta-ability. Or Metahuman Network.

Eventually both sides depart, deciding not to engage. Considering the powers displayed by those kids - and the existence of a sniper - Aizawa isn't surprised. He would retreat from that fight if he was there as well.

"What in the fuck?" He says when the recording ends.

"I have no idea, Shouta." Naomasa replies. "But I think we need to find out the answer to that as soon as possible."

(***)

Izuku wakes up in the morning, feeling thoroughly exhausted. This sudden power-up trick really took a lot out of him.

He checks his phone. He missed some calls from his mom. Oh he is so dead. But he also got a message from Mei furiously inquiring him about the powers the new recruits have. Apparently she needs to know immediately or else. So he is twice dead.

Izuku sighs. Why don't they understand that he wants to rest?

He calls his mom while changing his clothes to the ones he is using at the hideout. Just a pair of a simple T-Shirt and trousers, plus some comfy slippers made to resemble rabbits a bit.

He can feel her crying through the phone. He does his best to reassure her that everything's alright, he just fell asleep really hard after the sleepover and didn't hear the ringtone. He still has something to do (he has to help clean up after it), but he'll come back today.

He is running out of excuses, and he knows that. Just great.

He leaves the room (not before writing a message to Mei that he'll tell when he finds out details) and goes downstairs, to the former shop-turned common room. He is hungry AND seriously dehydrated. He needs tea (not necessarily a green one, his greeniness has limits) and food. And probably a nap.

Uraraka's in the common room, huddled over what looks like some design plans. They already have water, even if not in the taps. She is in the process of trying to figure out waste management.

"Hi there." Izuku greets her lethargically from the entrance. She raises her head a bit and blinks at him a few times.

"Damn, you look horrible." Izuku always felt that Tsuyu was the most blunt one, but Uraraka decided to threaten the frog girl's throne.

"I think I overused my meta-ability yesterday." He replies while heading towards the electric kettle. "I should get better soon." Then he yawns loudly. It's going to be a long day.

(***)

Kirishima has a more or less great day.

Sure, he lost his apartment, his life savings, his documents, his clothes, his workout tools, probably his job (he can't really return there, now can he?) and all hopes of a stable and simple life. But in exchange, he had the manliest moment of his life (he isn't budging on that, even if he will probably have nightmares about what would happen if his meta-ability didn't manifest when it did), he got himself a girlfriend (AND IT'S MINA) and he discovered that superheroes exist.

Honestly, Mina's bit alone makes everything pretty great. But that might not be his brain speaking. The rest makes him genuinely worried, but still positive.

Mina acts reasonably alright in the morning. It's clear that she is shaken, but also looking forward to living among others like her. Having more people that she could be herself in front of.

It's clear that her smile is forced. She wants to start all her new friendships properly. Then again, Kirishima isn't one to judge. His great change was a prime case of 'fake it till you make it'.

He is still going to make sure that the 'fake' part shrinks rather than grows as the time goes. No one should live through what Mina did. It's not like she can just shake it off and continue living.

Kirishima had a single, brief brush with death and he isn't going to lie. He is shaken by it. She spent months not knowing if she won't be disposed of tomorrow. After seeing her family killed in front of her.

She is, honestly, the manliest (heh) and strongest girl he ever met for making it out of it on her own. Despite her being shaken by it, she impressed him once again.

They don't really have any spare clothes. They go down to what seems to be a common living room, only to run into a rather peculiar scene.

The gun girl is throwing some cookies around from a package. Another girl - not only rather odd looking, but also completely naked (?!) is catching them with her incredibly long and dexterous tongue.

All of that while a green haired kid (he seems 15-16 years old) is sleeping, with his upper body on the table. There is a half-empty glass of something and half-eaten breakfast next to him, so it looks like he fell asleep while eating.

"Oh, hi!" The gun girl stops her game (?) and waves at them. The naked girl turns her head towards them and repeats the gesture with a rather expressionless face. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes!" Kirishima retorts with enthusiasm. They were both too tired and mentally exhausted to do anything other than embrace each other and fall asleep. But that was a surprisingly restful way to sleep. Mina chuckles menacingly, as if reading his mind. "So, uhm, introductions?"

"I'm Uraraka Ochaco, but I also go by the hero name of Singularity." The gun girl replies. "Everything I touch turns weightless. This is Tsuyu, or Kappa. She is half frog."

"Ribbit." Tsuyu comments. If that was a comment. Kirishima finds that oddly adorable. Besides, Mina officially isn't the strangest looking person around anymore. She is probably reassured to discover that.

"Well, I'm Kirishima Ejirou, and I apparently can make myself harder." He flexes his arms, which apparently is enough (with some mental focus) to turn them into stone. "Still no hero name, but I think I'm going to become one."

It's certainly super manly thing, about as much as becoming a police officer and stopping criminals the standard way. Or becoming a firefighter, paramedic and so on.

"And I'm Ashido Mina!" His girlfriend (he loves that fact) announces with a smile. "I can secrete and control acid." She seems to enjoy not needing to hide that fact on some deeper level.

"And, uhm…" Kirishima says, while gesturing towards the sleeping kid. His hair looks fluffy. But his body looks like Kirishima could bend him in half with his bare hands.

"Oh, that's Izuku Midoriya." Uraraka replies. "You know him as Defiant."

Oh. My. God.

(***)

Can someone explain to me why is this fic getting more attention than Ties that Bind on AO3? What is this magic.