Story starts between chapters 320-322. Manga Spoilers ahead.
Living nightmare would be the way most people would describe the outside world. It was practically turning into a real-life depiction of some sort of apocalypse movie. Multiple cities throughout Japan ran lawless and mostly abandoned. Citizens everywhere had to flee their homes to the closest designated shelter just to escape the threat of the multiple criminals running freely across the country, reigning chaos everywhere they went. And there was no end to how many of them there were.
The damage caused by Gigantomachia when he drove his way through dozens of cities to reach Tomura Shigaraki was just the beginning. Similar damage had crept its way just about everywhere else, thanks to villains like Muscular who would bring entire buildings down just for the pleasure of seeing the destruction their power could cause.
One would think that this should be impossible because of the massive surplus of heroes that society had spent years producing. However, after the collective effort of multiple top heroes to stop the Paranormal Liberation Front failed, the heroes' numbers started dropping like flies. People were hanging up their costumes for good in the face of their failures. Hardly anyone had the will to go on with the villains gaining so much momentum. And it wasn't just small-time heroes that not many people knew about. No even pros like the NO. 9 hero, Yoroi Musha, announced their sudden end to their careers.
It certainly didn't help that society itself was turning their backs on the heroes. The people were allowing their fear and anger to get the better of them and they'd scrutinize and attack their protectors at any opportunity they got. Like anytime a hero would dare show their face in public, even if what they were doing was saving people. The world really was turning into a villain's dream come true.
However, the villain's side was not left as unscathed as they seemed on the exterior. They too had lost a lot to get to the point they were at now. Sure, they had successfully defeated Tartarus, and freed All for Ones original body along with countless others of the worlds most dangerous criminals. But they had also lost many valuable assets as well. Assets like Re-Destro, Geten, Gigantomachia, Kyudai Garaki, Compress, multiple high-end Nomu, 16,929 PLA soldiers, and… Twice.
The loss of Jin Bubaigawara was certainly a heavy hit for the villains. He possibly had the most dangerous power outside of All for One himself, as he had the capability to potentially take down the entire nation by himself had he not been killed. His death however… hit some harder than others.
Inside the top floor of one of the countless abandoned damaged buildings of an undisclosed city, sat a lone girl in front of a buzzing computer screen, the only the thing providing light in the somewhat large bedroom other than the weak moonlight peering through wall of partially cracked windows.
The girl sat in the center of on overly large bed, hugging her knees to her chest as she watched a video that had been going on loop. For how long? She didn't even know at this point. She didn't care as she continued to watch with a numb expression while it played on and on.
"But I guess this kind of trait runs rampant in the industry!" A voice from the video played out. "I present to you, NO. 2 Hero, Hawks!" The computer screen then displayed footage of the winged hero, burned bruised and bloody chasing after a crying Twice, who was crawling away desperately.
"I still gotta protect their happiness!" Jin cried hysterically, reaching out to something unknown, right as Hawks jumped up from behind him and brought his feather blade down, stabbing Twice through the back. "AHHHH!"
"Without any hesitation whatsoever, Hawks stabbed a villain with his feather blade as he was crying and running away. Right in front of me as I tried to protect him" The voice of Dabi rang out one last time before the video feed switched to another recording entirely, this one showing the nations top three heroes all standing in suits and ties in front of their own respective podiums as they held a press conference.
"For hiding my connection with my father, I deeply apologize." The suited Hawks stated as he took a deep bow to the reporters. "As for the death of Bubaigawara… there was no other course of action I felt was appropriate at that moment." The girl watching grit her teeth violently and held back the urge to attack the computer screen, despite this being far from the first time she had heard the recording. It hadn't gotten any easier to listen to since the first playback.
"His duplication quirk, if left unchecked, would have caused far more harm to society now than anything else." The urge to hit something was growing close to boiling over now.
"I wasn't able to avoid violence…" Her fingers started digging into the skin of her knees as she held them even tighter to her chest.
"Once again, I deeply apologize."
The girl let out an uncontrolled scream of rage and kicked out one of her legs at the computer, causing it to flip over and fly off the bed and onto the sheepskin rug that the bed was placed on top of, which surprisingly managed to peacefully cushion the fall of the device that would have otherwise broke if the rug wasn't there. That lone kick and scream was far from enough to ease the girl's anger, however.
She stood atop the bed, somewhat unbalanced due to softness of it causing it to be difficult to stand on and drew a knife that was strapped to her thigh.
"You deeply apologize?! You think that actually means anything?!" the girl screamed towards the upside-down computer, where she could partially see the frozen face of the winged hero. Just seeing that damned uncaring expression of his caused her rage to grow even further.
"Was Jin not a person to you, did he not deserve to be saved too?!" she questioned. Her grip on her knife tightened as she then threw it aimlessly with an impressive amount of strength, burying it deep within the wall just inches away from one of the rooms many windows. "Is that all you heroes really want to do with us? Remove the people who don't fit into your perfect society by either locking us up and pretending we don't exist, or by killing? Isn't it your duty to save people…"
At the end of her questioning, she fell back to her knees onto the bed, losing the strength and the will to stand any longer. "I'm Himiko Toga… I'm a person too. Will you kill me too?" Toga weakly muttered in a shaky voice. "Are… all you heroes like that?" At that her mind wondered back to her most recent encounter she had with Ochaco, one of the few people she had hope for.
She had wanted so desperately to question Ochaco about what she would like to do to her, hoping that she would be different from other heroes, that she would be better. Toga needed to hear someone to tell her that she was worth saving too, that they didn't want to just kill her, or throw her in somewhere like Tartarus to spend the rest of her days while the rest of the world just forgot that she ever existed. So back when Compress told her that he had spotted the gravity quirk wielder she was filled to the brim with hope and excitement and rushed out to meet her as quick as she could.
This was her chance, the perfect opportunity for her dream to finally come true. Ochaco would definitely be better than heroes like Hawks. She would tell her that she too was a life worth saving. She too was a person. Someone would finally look at her and tell her that her life mattered too. Something that she'd been denied her entire life by people like her parents, schoolmates, and pro heroes alike. But that didn't matter. Because Ochaco was about to be the first to tell her otherwise.
"Toga Himiko! If you get in the way of my goal, then I will arrest you right here and now!"
Toga winced at the recollection of what Uraraka had told her. Her goal? She said that her goal was to save as many people as she could, so what about her? It had to be some sort of misunderstanding.
"If your lifestyle of hurting others is irresistible to you… I'll have you take responsibility for your actions."
"So cruel… Ochaco-chan…" Togas eyes filled with tears as she quietly wept to herself, alone, as she has always done. Urarakas words felt like some sort of death sentence on any semblance of hope she once carried for someone to care about her enough to try and rescue her from the despair she had been drowning in all her life. Why did things turn out this way? Was she just a cursed being? Her parents had called her a 'demon child' when she was growing up, but that didn't bother her too much as they were always cruel to her anyway. Why did no one care? Would anyone ever? It certainly didn't seem like it now.
She was about to just fall over and cry herself to sleep, but was interrupted by a sudden subtle beeping sound coming from the computer which was sprawled out beneath her on the rug. Slightly confused, she contemplated just ignoring it and continue to cry away her sorrows, but when the computer beeped again, she decided against it. Making her way off the bed, she picked up the laptop to see what was causing the sound.
"What could it be… at this time, it's 4am." Toga muttered, slight irritation laced in her voice as she exited the paused video of Hawks' press conference to search for what was causing the beeping notification sound. It took a few moments to find what she was looking for, but when she did what she was greeted with was the symbol of a bouncing heart at the top right of her home screen. Her eyes widened, remembering what the heart meant. She quickly dragged the mouse over the alert and impatiently clicked on it countless times rapidly trying to open it as quickly as possible.
Once the computer finally loaded, it revealed a black digital map which was centered around a small green dot, which was moving rather quickly through the area it was currently in. The bottom right corner of the map read "16.8 mi Away" which caused Toga's eyes to flutter with pure joy and excitement. She balled her hands up and brought them up to her cheeks trying to hide her blush even though she was more than alone inside her large bedroom.
The hope that Uraraka had killed was suddenly reignited with a passion as Toga's love filled eyes continued to watch the green dot soar towards a destination that was completely unknown to her, but that didn't matter. He was close, and so that meant that she'd have her chance to ask him what she'd asked Uraraka. But this time would be different, because he was different. She knew he was different. Everything about him just screamed hero in its purest form and she loved it. He was a true hero, unlike everyone else. She just knew it.
With a few more clicks she pinned the dots' location, and gleefully rose to her feet and skipped towards the knife that was sticking out of the wall that she had thrown earlier, pulling it out with ease. Giggling to herself, she continued skipping towards the walk-in closet at the end of the room to equip the rest of her gear and prepare for her next mission. She'd already started mentally putting together a plan for how she'd go about things, and it only got her more and more excited.
Once she finished suiting up, she stood in front of a mirror in the closet, and smiled at herself, or at least what she could barely see of herself since it was still the middle of the night and completely dark out. Sighing contently, she placed a hand on her cheek and tilted her head ever so slightly, her mind filled with loving thoughts.
"Please, wait for me, Izuku."
About five hours later
"Hey, Endeavor, do you really think it's a good idea to let the kids just keep going like this?" Hawks questioned into his earpiece, as he watched a rather sad struggle take place from beneath the building the winged hero was currently standing atop of.
"I remember you agreeing that Deku needed his classmates to knock some sense into him before he got himself captured or killed." Endeavors voice called back, sounding as displeased as ever. "In fact, you wanted this plan much more than I did. So, why the sudden apprehension?"
Hawks rubbed the back of his neck, trying to soothe an unease that had settled on him from the moment he woke up this morning. "Midoriya's just about exhausted the last bits of strength that he has left just to stay away from his classmates. If Shigaraki, Dabi, or even any of the league members were to show up now he'd be completely defenseless against them. And I don't think the other kids would be able to protect him while also having to worry about themselves."
There was a pause after that, causing an uncomfortable silence to temporarily take over their communications. Truth be told Endeavor didn't like the plan at all either. They had avoided all contact with the young heroes for days just to avoid this type of scenario. The Hellflame wielder even went as far as to ignore the texts and calls from his beloved son, Shoto. Unfortunately, they eventually used Principal Nezu to trick the top hero and back him into a corner, basically giving him no choice but to cooperate with them.
"You know just as well as I do that if we step in and force Deku to return to UA then he'll just leave the moment he wakes up, and there won't be anyone who can stop him. It has to be his classmates that get through to him, or else it's all pointless." Endeavor stated, causing Hawks to grimace in frustration. He knew what he was saying was true, but that didn't do anything to ease the dread he was feeling. There had to be another way. "Besides, that's why we're here. If the villains make a move on Deku in his weakened state, then we'll be around to provide backup so the kids can escape back to UA safely. Jeanist is also on his way, so we're prepared. However, none of that is actually true until we finish our sweep of the area for anyone that could've been working with Dictator, so we'd best hurry and finish with that. Have you finished the search at your building?"
"Yeah yeah, there's nothing here. You know I can't search as efficiently as I normally would cause of my wings not being healed yet, so cut me some slack." Hawks answered in his typical carefree tone this time, trying to mask his continued apprehension of the situation. Endeavor merely grunted in response over the phone.
Hawks took the pause in conversation as an opportunity to look back over the battle with class 1A. Midoryia was currently stuck inside of one of Shoto's giant ice walls and looked to be giving the youngest Todoroki a death glare. Or at least that's what Hawks perceived it as. He quickly observed the area around the group of young heroes for any signs of possible villain activity. Every possible corner, every alley, every shadow, but ultimately saw nothing.
Just as he was about to turn around to make his way back down the building, he could've sworn he saw the slightest of movement out of his peripheral vision, and violently yanked his head back around to focus on the exact spot that caught his eye. All he saw however, were little pieces of rubble falling from the second story of one of the heavily damaged buildings, presumably caused by the tremors created by the battle taking place just outside the building.
Frowning deeply, Hawks felt shaken to his very core at the seemingly insignificant pieces of rock falling. He told himself over and over that it's just his paranoia making him think the worst of every little thing, but he couldn't afford to take chances. Not when there was so much at stake.
"Endeavor, change of plans. I'm diverging from my set of buildings to check another one out." Hawks reported as he descended the building he was in as swiftly as he could.
"What, why? You're just going to make things take even longer." Endeavor questioned, not masking his irritation at all. "Did you see something?!"
"Could be something… could be nothing. But I'm not willing to risk ignoring the possibility of danger in this situation. I'll be quick, don't worry." Hawks answered as he sprinted his way out of the building while making sure to stay out of sight of the battle as he didn't want to cause any distractions. It was times like these that he really missed his fully healthy wings. Normally he'd be over to where he spotted the movement in seconds, but now he'd been reduced to having to run between places like anyone else would. It was rather demoralizing for the hero that people called "the man who's too fast for his own good." But he didn't falter. For the sake of everyone he had to learn to adapt to working without his wings, at least for a little while.
"…Alright but be careful, Hawks. You're not exactly in the best fighting shape. The moment you think you've found something relating to villain activity, report it to me immediately. I won't have you dying out here, understand?"
"Awe, I didn't know you cared so much Number One." Hawks replied with a smug grin plastered on his face. The irritated growl from Endeavor almost actually made him laugh, but he held back. "Yeah, I got it. Hawks out."
With that the two top heroes were left to carry out their individual tasks once again.
On Endeavors side he was left with the task of ensuring that the villain Dictator had been properly restrained with the appropriate quirk suppressors. He was pleased to find that Kirishima, Hagakure, and Aoyama had in fact done more than a good enough job with said restraints. He wouldn't be going anywhere or be using his quirk anytime soon.
Looking down at the ugly sight of the villain made his stomach turn and his temper grow. Just how many more of these sick bastards were they going to have to deal with? Everyday Deku had encounters with numerous assassins sent after him, all of which being highly dangerous villains that had been previously held in the deepest cells of Tartarus. It made the fire hero enraged to think that someone as young as Midoriya had to deal with so much danger every single day.
Even the top heroes would struggle with villains like these, not to mention the pros that had fallen at the hands of these people. Even if Izuku had immeasurable power thanks to becoming the successor of One for All, he was still young. These encounters were clearly taking a toll on the boy's heart and mind. You could just feel it by standing in his presence. It was a painful sight to see.
"All for One, you sick bastard… you'll pay for what you're doing to Midoriya. That, I promise you." Endeavor growled, clinching his fists and emitting dangerous flames from his hands. Suddenly the villain laying at the feet of Endeavor sprung to consciousness and started cackling sickly at hearing the top hero's threat, somewhat unsettling the hero.
"You really think you can do anything to him?! You're all nothing to the great All for One!" Dictator stated uproariously as he temporarily paused his laughter. Endeavor was about to just knock him out once again to shut him up, but the villain continued before he could do so. "That boy has no idea what awaits him. My master is a true genius you see, he does his research very thoroughly. He knows just what to do for the boy!"
Endeavors fire roared off his body in anger, as he grabbed the disgusting villain by his chest and raised him with one arm into the air. "What do you mean, you disgusting insect?! Where is All for One? What does he have planned for Deku?!" he demanded while pointed a palm of fire straight at the villains face. This did nothing to intimidate Dictator however, as his smile simply grew from ear to ear.
"What does he have planned? Let's just call it… a gift from the past, no that's not right… more like gifts from the past. I'm sure the boy will love them all!" Endeavor was growing tired of the villains play with words, not to mention his disgusting laughter, so he brought his palm closer to Dictator's face, the unbearable heat causing the villain to sweat profusely.
"Ahaha! You know what? I'll be so kind as to leave you a hint for one of the many presents my master has planned for the boy. Though, I don't expect someone as dull minded as you to be able to figure it out." Dictator's insult did nothing to rattle the hero, and he just continued to stare intensely into the fiends eyes.
"Nothing, huh? No matter. Alright, one could that you of all people are very familiar with it. Except it's much more perfected this time around. That's it! That's all you get! You may now grovel at my feet and thank me for my kindn-" Endeavor didn't care to let him finish, interrupting him with a fierce punch straight to the villains jaw, brutally knocking him out and dropping him to the ground.
"That'll shut you up for a good while." Endeavor stated coldly looking down at the sprawled-out form of Dictator. Although he didn't show it at all, the hint he was given had unsettled him deeply. It wasn't very hard to come up with a few ideas by what it could mean. But he didn't want to believe it.
"It's much more perfected this time…?" Endeavor pondered, raising a hand to his chin while memories played through his mind. Flashes of one of the most brutal fights he'd ever gone through surfaced, bringing about a dreadful unease at the possibility of just what Dictator could have been implying. "I won't let that come to pass. I will not allow Deku to have to face that… monster." He vowed as he looked up to the sky, where Izuku was currently flying wildly through it with Ida desperately holding onto him.
The young hero already had way too much he had to worry about. He had All for One, Shigaraki and all their unbelievable power threatening him in every waking moment. He wouldn't allow that monster from his past to come after him too. Endeavor would stop it by any means, even if it killed him.
"Jeanist come in, I believe we may have a future problem developing."
"Ingenium is a hero who will run anywhere to grab the hand of a lost child!" Ida desperately shouted at Izuku as he clung tightly to his friend's frail and beaten hand. "Sticking your nose into other people's business is… what makes a true hero right?!"
Izuku wailed animalistically, exhausted to the point that he wasn't even able to properly form words while they continued to soar through the air. Tears streamed freely from his eyes and were carried away by the wind only to be mixed in and lost with the heavy rainfall that covered the city. He didn't even know what he would say at this point. His classmates just weren't listening to him despite all his efforts to escape and his begging for them to just leave him alone. Why couldn't they understand? He's doing this for them to keep them safe. Yet here they are, denying his every wish and refusing to let him go.
It's not like he didn't appreciate their efforts and their emotions, no in fact it meant the world to him. Seeing that his classmates were willing to go so far to bring him home brought some joy to his heart, but that's not what mattered right now. No, what matters is that Shigaraki and All for One are out there somewhere gearing up to attack him at any point in time, and he wasn't willing to lose anyone else to this battle against this impossible evil.
He'd seen too much bloodshed. Images of Gran Torino, Aizawa, Nejire, Bakugo, Shoto, Ryuko, Endeavor, and Midnight all flashed through his mind. All of them bloody, and terribly injured sprawled out on the ground. And in Midnights case… dead. He wouldn't let that happen again.
"Even though… I need to let go… I can't muster the strength." Izuku thought, desperately trying to escape Ida's grasp but to no avail. Suddenly, they started plummeting to the ground as the force of gravity took hold over them once again. "Heh… guess Uraraka released us, huh?"
Ida scanned the fast-approaching ground beneath him frantically as he tried to think of some sort of way for them to stick this landing. It wasn't exactly very easy to see however, since the wind violently blew and whipped across his face while he continued to think. "Can I… land safely?!" the engine quirk user thought out loud. He started mentally berating himself for not coming up with a plan for landing before launching he and Izuku into this dangerous situation.
He was pulled from his thoughts however when he spotted a certain red head below them waving his arms around erratically trying to catch his attention. "Kirishima!" Ida exclaimed ecstatically at the red blur. The class representative then proceeded to blast his engines at maximum output, going beyond any limitations he would have previously set on himself for his safety, all for the sake of trying to slow their fall as much as he could before they'd make contact with their friend below. If he didn't go all out right now, then they may not be able to land safely into Kirishimas waiting arms.
Ida let out a barbaric roar as he felt his engines start to scream for him to stop. His skin burned from the overheating his engines were going through, but he didn't care.
"KIRISHIMA!"
A deafening THOOM filled the area as Izuku's and Ida's bodies came crashing into Kirishima's waiting embrace. Their extreme momentum was enough to send the hardening hero sliding down the entire city block. Destroying the entire road in their wake.
"Ahhhhh! I won't… FALL OVER!" Kirishima shouted, mustering every fiber of his being into protecting his friends and staying planted firmly in the ground. He was ultimately successful, managing to keep them all up safely as he then gently released his friends back onto their feet, but making sure to keep a protective hand on Izuku's shoulder while he fell to one knee.
The red head saw this as his opportunity to say some of the things he'd been wanting to say to his green haired friend.
"Midoriya! Ya know, I remembered an old story on the news! A kid my age rushed in to save his friend from a villain… that was you, wasn't it?!" Kirishima questioned, with images of the time Izuku tried to save Bakugo from that slime villain back when he was quirkless flashed through his mind. "Being a hero has nothing to do with being special or strong! I think that your attitude from back then… Is the key to all that's happening right now!"
Izuku didn't bother to look up at the red head, and instead elected to continue to emotionlessly stare at the ground, trying to muster up what little crumbs of strength he had left.
Meanwhile, Ida looked down at his legs and frowned at the sight. He wouldn't be able to use his quirk again for a while after the overexertion he put himself through. "You were here just at the right time Kirishima! Without you we wouldn't have been able to land safely!" Ida praised, returning his focus to his two friends.
"Eh, I just happened to coincidentally be at the right place at the right time, it's no biggie!" The red head smiled brightly with a firm thumbs up.
Just then the rest of there class showed up instantly, and in an obvious rush. Some hitching a ride on Shoto's ice, some with Tokoyami's dark shadow, some with Uraraka, and more. Izuku just grit his teeth in frustration at their arrival, still not lifting his gaze.
"Midoriya! Enough with all this stuff about being alone." Ashido called out to her kneeling friend, wiping the pouring rain out of her eyes while trying to catch her breath. "Come back… to us. Let's all go back… to having classes together."
"Hey! Midoryia!" Kirishima shouted as Izuku shook his shoulder free from the red heads hand, and shakily got back on his feet. He'd heard enough, he was growing tired of this endless argument.
"I… would love to come back. But… it's too dangerous. There are a lot of people at U.A…. I don't want to cause them trouble anymore. I… can't go back to how I was before." Izuku stated defiantly. Although anyone could hear his clear exhaustion in his voice, his conviction was as strong as ever and unwavering. Tendrils of black whip started spreading from his body as he prepared to make an escape attempt once more. "Stay… out of my way…"
"Do you remember what I told you after Shigaraki stabbed me?" Bakugo questioned in a surprisingly peaceful tone as he stepped forward in front of Izuku, catching him off guard.
"I don't… remember…"
"'Don't even think about winning this alone!" after yelling that out… my body moved on its own, and I was impaled. Yet I knew that I had to tell you those words." Bakugo started. "I always looked down on you. Just because you were quirkless. You were always far away behind me, yet… I felt that you were somehow miles ahead of me. I hated that. I didn't want to feel like that. And I didn't want to recognize that. It's why I grew so distant from you and always tried to beat you down. I opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you… but I always lost."
"After entering U.A…. absolutely nothing went as I thought it would. I spent all my days trying to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. It probably doesn't mean anything telling you all this, but… that's what I really think. Izuku…" Bakugo stated in a soft tone while briefly glancing at the ground, mentally preparing to say to his childhood friend what he'd struggled to say for a long time. "…I'm sorry for everything I've done up until now." Izuku's mouth dropped in shock. He'd never heard Bakugo speak to him with so much respect, so much kindness… so much remorse. Had he really felt badly about how he treated him all this time? Hell, he didn't even remember the last time Bakugo legitimately apologized for anything.
"The path you took as successor of 'One for All' is exactly what All Might did. Your choices… weren't misguided at all. But as of now… you can barely stand on your own. Your ideals alone can only take you so far." Izuku felt the last bits of his strength leaving him as he continued to listen to his friend. He had to leave now, or else he'd faint before he even got the chance to try. But his feet wouldn't move.
"No… stop this… let me… go…" Izuku muttered weakly, his voice breaking, and his knees beginning to wobble.
"If you ever encounter a road bump, you can always count on us for help. To surpass All Might, your ideal hero, we would all have to protect U.A and the civilians in there together. It's the only way, Izuku." Bakugo finished, looking his injured friend dead in the eyes as he watched him hopelessly try to gather any power at all to escape. It hurt to see him like this, beaten and broken, but still refusing to stop fighting for even a moment. He needed to stop and come home before something terrible happened to him, and they were going to make sure he did.
"I already told you guys… you can't keep up… I'm sorry for saying such a terrible thing…" Izuku took a step forward and practically almost fell over the moment he did, but just barely managed to keep his footing. "But… I stand by it… this is a fight between One for All and All for One. I won't let you guys get caught up in it… I won't…" Izuku's strength finally left him completely, and he fell.
Kirishima and Ida tried their best to run forward to catch him, as did the rest of the class, but there was one splash in the puddled water on the ground they stood on that came before the rest. Bakugo shot forward with incredible speed from where he'd been standing and caught Izuku before he could faceplant into the soaked concrete.
"I won't… let you all die, Kachaan…"
"I know you won't, Izuku… I know."
With that, Izuku's eyes finally closed as he drifted into unconsciousness, bringing about a saddened silence to the large group of students. Slowly, everyone started surrounding Bakugo to get a closer look of their fallen friend and observe all of his wounds.
"…Can we really call this a success?" Shoto asked, kneeling beside Bakugo, drawing the attention of the entire group. "I mean, we didn't really get through to him. He's just going to make a run for it when he wakes up."
"This has to be a victory, once we hurry and get him back to U.A, we can say even more of the things we wanted to say to him! We can still get through to him!" Kaminari responded with a tone dripping with optimism, clenching his right hand in a display of determination. Ida simply shook his head and lowered his gaze.
"Once he sets his mind to something, I don't think there's any stopping him. I believe it's going to take something more than us to get through to him. Although I don't know what that is, I agree that going back to U.A is the best course of action. We can get the support of the other pro heroes and teachers to help Midoriya." Ida declared, hoping to give his classmates a sense of direction on what they need to do moving forward. The rest of the class simply nodded in affirmation at his words.
"We'll definitely get through to this bastard…" Bakugo vowed mostly to himself, as he slowly lifted himself and Izuku up along with him.
A few minutes prior
Hawks was currently observing the pieces of fallen rubble that he had noticed earlier from a rooftop vantage point. It definitely didn't look like much, and if someone like Endeavor were to be investigating it, he'd probably just conclude that it was nothing right then and there. But this was Hawks, he'd been in these types of situations before on missions given by the Hero Public Safety Commission. He'd been specially trained to not let the slightest thing go, and to take everything as a potential threat.
Picking up the small pieces of concrete, he lifted his gaze to look upon exactly where they fell from. "Second floor, huh?" he questioned to nobody. Dropping the rocks, he made his way into the building to continue his investigation further. The first floor was an absolute mess. Broken glass everywhere, broken walls, scattered chairs and papers, basically everything you'd expect from looking at the damaged exterior on the building.
He spotted the stairs and made his way over after concluding there was nothing suspicious with the first floor. Opening the door to the staircase brought out an irritated groan from the winged hero, as it revealed that the stairs themselves were not spared from the building's damages. There were major gaps in between steps that no normal person would even hope to possibly be able to cover. Luckily, Hawks was no normal person, even without his fully healthy wings.
He sprinted up what little steps were intact to build as much momentum as possible and jumped as high as he could against the right-side wall, where he proceeded to perform a wall jump to further his covered distance and grab hold of the damaged floor and pull himself up.
Stopping to catch his breath momentarily, he looked down at the jump he'd just performed. "…I really miss my wings…"
Rising to his feet, he was pleased to find that the rest of the way to the second floor was mostly intact and provided minimal difficulty. Opening the door to the second floor, he immediately noticed that this story was dedicated to desk jobs as it was filled with numerous cubicles that all had designated name tags attached to them. Scanning this floor for anything out of place would prove much more time consuming than the first, he realized.
Although the damage wasn't quite as bad as the first floor, the scattered papers and chairs were on a whole other level. Hawks had to move multiple fallen file cabinets, chairs, and even printers just to make his way around the room.
"I can't imagine living like this." Hawks muttered to himself while continuing to maneuver around the cramped space. Each cubical seemed disorderly, and it gave the impression that the workers here must've just dropped everything and evacuated all at once. There was definitely some kind of panic to cause this kind of mess.
"There must've been a villain attack in the city before these people could evacuate. I don't see why else they would've made such a panicked mess during their exit." Hawks frowned at the thought of all these innocent people being forced to go into such a frenzy. If only they hadn't lost their faith in hero society, maybe then they'd listen to them sooner about the necessity of moving to their designated shelters provided by places like U.A.
After finishing his inspection of the last unchecked cubical, he found that it was no different from the rest, and so he finally made his way towards the wall of windows that faced the plaza with an All Might statue in the center of it. Finding the exact spot of suspicion from earlier, a concrete pillar that was placed in the middle of the windows, the winged hero knelt down for a closer examination.
Running his gloved hand across the damaged pillar that the concrete had fallen from, he looked for any signs of foul play. It certainly didn't help that the entire pillar itself was already cracked and chipped in multiple other spots as well.
"Damn it, if someone did cause this, I'm not actually going to be able to tell." Hawks groaned as he narrowed his eyes in anger. He felt like he was being ridiculous, that he was wasting his time looking for something that never happened. He kept telling himself that it was nothing, that there was no one there. So why did the dread continue to plague his heart as if something terrible were about to happen?!
He sighed deeply and began to massage his temples in a feeble effort to alleviate his stress.
"Endeavor, come in. I've investigated the building, and I don't believe there's anything here. Sorry for the detour." Hawks called in, rising to his feet and giving the room one last look around.
"Don't apologize. It's far better to be safe than sorry in this world we live in. Come to the rendezvous if you're finished. Jeanist will be arriving soon, and I believe that the situation with Deku is finally wrapping up." Endeavors voice responded. At the mention of Midoriya, Hawks looked out the window to find that the wielder of One for All was in fact on his last leg and seemingly about to collapse while being completely surrounded by his classmates. Hawks frowned at the scene, knowing that if Midoriya simply passed out rather than his classmates breaking through to him, then there'd be no improvement with him at all.
"Alright, I'll meet you…" Hawks trailed off midsentence as he could've sworn, he heard something just then.
"Hawks? Hawks, what is it? Did you find something?!" Endeavor demanded in a panicked tone, clearly showing that he was on edge just as much as Hawks had been.
"Quiet, I need to listen!" Hawks quickly retorted to shut up his fellow hero, while he also impatiently took off his earpiece to better focus. He violently jerked his head every which way to find anything that could've created any noise, any disturbance, anything. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body as his heartrate skyrocketed. The room was so silent that all he could hear was his own breath, heartbeat, and the sound of his clothes rubbing against itself as he continued to rapidly turn.
"Come on damnit! Where are y-!"
beep beep beep
He heard it clear as day, a faint beeping sound coming from the other side of a closed door in the furthest corner of the room, near the door to the staircase he had entered from. Not wasting another moment, Hawks expertly started jumping over the cubicles that stood in his way and made his way to his target in mere seconds.
Without an ounce of hesitation or second thought he grabbed the door handle and flung it open with all his strength, while also drawing a combat knife with his free hand in case he found a villain on the other side.
The room turned out to be the floors custodial closet filled with a janitor's tools like a bucket and a mop, various bottles like Windex, and more. Confused, he slowly stepped inside to find what had made the beeping sound from just moments ago.
beep beep beep
His eyes shot downwards to the bottom of the black wire shelving unit that held most of the janitor's equipment. The winged hero got down on his knees and lowered his head to look underneath the bottom shelf. There was a faint glow of something under there, so he reached in and pulled out what was causing it. It was a laptop.
"…what the hell?" he cracked the device open out of curiosity, hoping that it would just have some weird crap the workplaces janitor would look at during his breaks, or something like that. But that wouldn't make any sense. The computer was already partially cracked open when he dragged it out, and it should have lost its battery life a while ago if it'd been here since the building's abandonment. Something wasn't right.
It was already powered up to with no passcode required to access it. He was greeted with the computers home screen with two opened apps that'd been minimized on its taskbar. One had the logo of a heart, and the other was just a note app. Frowning, Hawks dragged the mouse over to open the note app as he figured that that's where he'd find the most valuable information on the contents of what the device was being used for.
beep beep beep
He stopped right before clicking as the app with the heart logo started bouncing in rhythm with each beep that the laptop made. He decided to hold off on the note app and open the other one first instead.
Hawks' eyes widened in horror at what he saw. The app opened to reveal a black digitalized map centered around a green dot, while also displaying the distance the computer had from said green dot on the bottom right corner of the screen. It was the exact same program that he and Endeavor had been using to track Midoriya. On the exact same network.
Hawks nearly dropped the laptop out of shock and fear as to what this could mean. Whoever's been using this has had access to Midoriya's exact location ever since he left U.A, and they'd have all the time they needed to formulate a plan on how to get him. The winged heroes' worst fears were coming to life right before his eyes.
He was about to call Endeavor, before suddenly he remembered that there was a second app that'd been minimized, and with a shaky hand he dragged the mouse to open it. The note app opened a small window, with only a few words typed out on it.
"Hope this doesn't kill you, Hawks!"
beep beep beep
This time, there was something much darker and more ominous sounding with the computers beeping, sending a chill down the winged heroes spine. Hawks then noticed that there was a red light shining right next to the device's camera, and his heart jumped to his throat. Someone had been watching him the entire time.
Dropping the laptop and running out of the room as fast as he could, making his way towards the windows to make a jump for it, Hawks put his earpiece back in to desperately contact his fellow heroes before it was too late.
"ENDEAVOR! GET MID-!"
A massive explosion erupted throughout the entire second floor of the building, cutting Hawks off and threatening for the entire structure to collapse.
"Alright everyone, let's meet up with Endeavor and the others and get Midoriya back to U.A!" Ida ordered the class, as he had always done as class representative. Normally people would just shake off what he said, but this time they obeyed contently and started exiting the plaza they had just spent more than enough time in for their liking.
"Urgh! We gotta get this nerd to take a damn bath!" Bakugo shouted in his typical pissed off voice as he continued to carry Izuku. Shoji offered to take Midoriya instead, since he's basically the best suited hero out of all of them to carry someone, but Bakugo fervently declined, screaming about how he doesn't need anyone's help to carry someone.
"Hey man, you're the one who insisted on carrying him. I don't want to hear you complaining about anything." Kaminari retorted with a smug grin on his face, poking fun at the explosive blonde.
"Yeah dude. Who knew you actually cared so much about Midoriya all along, so much to the point of that emotional apology back there, talk about manly!" Kirishima joined, both making fun of Bakugo while praising him at the same time. It was an odd combo that he'd mastered in his year of friendship with him.
"Huh?! Who said I cared about any of you! You can go to hell for all I care!" Bakugo glared at his two friends, his eyes practically glowing with anger. His two friends just took a few steps back while pathetically trying to stifle their laughter, as did the rest of the class.
Ida simply smiled to himself at his classmates' antics. It was refreshing to hear after so many days they'd spent in stressful silence while they planned out their rescue of Izuku. Turning to Momo, he figured it was time they got the location of their meeting point with the pro heroes.
"Yaoyorozu, could you contact Endeavor and Hawks now?"
"Of course," Momo simply nodded as she used her quirk to create one of the earpieces the pro heroes had shown her earlier before they deployed on their mission. Taking the device from her palm and placing it on her ear, she waited for it to connect to the others before calling in. "Hawks, Endeavor? We're ready now. We've got Dek-"
"ENDEAVOR, GET MID-"
A massive explosion rang out from the distance, sending a shockwave throughout the area that shattered multiple windows of the surrounding buildings of the plaza. Including the ones the class had been walking by. Glass came careening towards them from above, but mostly everyone was caught too off guard by the explosion to do anything. Almost everyone at least; Shoto sprung to action and created a massive shield of ice above the class that stopped the broken glass in its descent from impaling everyone.
"Is everyone alright?" Shoto questioned, examining his classmates to ensure that he didn't fail to protect anyone. However, his worries fell on deaf ears. Everyone was too caught up in their shocked states to hear the youngest Todoroki.
They all started looking around in a panic at each other, trying to figure out what was going on.
"What's happening?!"
"An explosion?"
"Was anyone hurt?!"
"Is it a villain attack?!"
"HAAAAWKS!" the familiar voice of Endeavor cried out from above as class 1A looked up to see the hellflame hero soaring towards the explosion in a panic. The building was set into an inferno and looked as though it was on the verge of collapsing, but that didn't matter to the number one hero as he made his way to the destruction.
"Hawks is over there?! Was he caught in the explosion?!" Tokoyami questioned with fear clearly laced in his voice. Hawks was his mentor, and he'd already saved him before when he was on the brink of death in the fight against Dabi. He didn't even want to believe that the winged hero could've been in the chaos across the plaza. "This can't be happening again!" Fumikage then activated his dark shadow and started flying after the flamed trail of Endeavor without wasting another moment.
"We have to help them too!" Ashido declared, earning nods of agreement from several classmates, with most of them starting to sprint over to assist.
Momo stood frozen in place, thinking over what she had barely managed to hear from the voice of Hawks right before the explosion. "ENDEAVOR! GET MID-!" Mid? Get Mid? It wasn't exactly much of a challenge for the class vice president to put the pieces together as to what Hawks was trying to say. She started sweating intensely, her nervousness taking over. She desperately looked over to her classmates who were running towards the chaos and struggled to get her words out. "The explosion… if Hawks was trying to tell Endeavor to get Midoriya… the explosion has to be a distraction… Midoriya!"
"Wait, everyone! We have to protect Midoriya! The explosion is just a distraction!" Yaoyorozu found the courage to shout at her running classmates, who just turned to look at her with confused and conflicted expressions, except for Tokoyami who was already well out of earshot.
They were about to question what she meant, but a grunt of pain caught everyone's attention instead, causing them to turn to see the horrific sight of Bakugo kneeling over with blood leaking profusely from his forehead. He held it tightly and groaned incoherently at the nauseating pain filling his head.
But what was more frightening, was seeing that Izuku was no longer with him.
"WHAT?!" the class screamed in unison at the disturbing scene. Kirishima and Ida rushed to Bakugo's side to aid the wound, while everyone else searched anxiously for their missing friend.
They had only turned away and started running for about thirty seconds! How could so much have possibly gone wrong in such a short amount of time! Not to mention that Momo and Shoto had been lacking behind, clearly not as in a rush to leave Midoriya's side, so how could they have missed what happened?! Where could he be?
"Over there!" Jiro cried out, pointing towards the entrance of an alleyway. Everyone looked over and multiple gasps could be heard at what was transpiring; there at the end of the alley, was Izuku being carried by a certain blonde-haired villain that the class had come to be all too familiar with over the course of the year.
"HIMIKO TOGA!" Uraraka exclaimed, being frozen in place.
At the sound of her name being called, the blond villain stopped momentarily to look back at the large group of heroes who're all giving her a mixture of either terrified faces, or death glares. Either way, all it did was make a toothy wide grin form across her face as she glared back at the gravity user. Multiple emotions swelled up within her at seeing Ochaco again after their previous encounter, but she paid them no mind. She had what she came for, and she didn't have time to waste. Endeavor wouldn't stay distracted forever, and the multiple other heroes before her were surely about to give chase to her.
"Bye bye, friends! I hope we never see each other again!" Himiko happily waved goodbye to the group, before resuming her getaway and turning the corner of the buildings that surrounded the alleyway she'd been running through. She let out a few huffs due to the significant added weight on her back, which made escaping a much more difficult task if it were just her on her own. "Jeez, Izuku. You're much heavier than I thought you'd be"
Izuku stirred in his sleep as he was carried roughly in piggyback style. His eyes groggily fluttered open to mere squints, as he tried to make out the world around him. He couldn't put together proper thoughts due to his exhaustion, but he could swear he recognized the two blond buns of hair bouncing around just mere inches from his face. He tried to figure out where he'd seen it before, but just as soon as he'd awoken, he started to drift back to sleep again, letting out a weak groan as he did, which didn't go unnoticed by the blonde.
"Izuku! Are you awake! Hiii!" Toga squealed with unrestrained excitement. She turned her head ever so slightly to get a glimpse of Izuku's face out of her peripheral vision and grew a major blush at seeing his eyes slowly close.
"Himi…ko… To…ga?" Izuku managed to whisper before completely fainting, making his head fall limp over Toga's shoulder as it had been before he'd awoken.
"Ahhh! You're just adorable!" the blonde villain purred at the green haired boy. She loved hearing him say her name, and to have him whisper it in such a sleepy voice was nothing short of euphoric. She tightened her grip on his legs to hold him more protectively and started giggling to herself over him. Everything was going perfectly! All she had to do now was make her escape, and then it'd just be her and Izuku!
"Oh, here… before I forget" she muttered, barely managing to calm herself down somewhat as she pulled out a small syringe. "I juuuust need a little bit"
Back with Class 1A
Bakugo just barely managed to hold onto consciousness. He didn't even know how it happened; he didn't sense anything! In the blink of an eye Himiko Toga appeared right in front of him as he was too distracted by the burning building in the distance, and she drove her knee right into his forehead, sending him careening back in pain, filling his eyes with light. He then was just barely able to notice the feeling of Izuku's weight leaving his back, when he fell to his knees.
He wasn't able to make sense of what was happening for the most part, he just managed to hear muffled shouts and cries all around him. He felt a set of hands doing something to his forehead, but just like everything else he couldn't tell what.
The only thing that was keeping him awake was the powerful urge telling him that he needed to do something, but what? He couldn't even think! There was someone that he needed to protect, someone he had to protect, but who was it? And why did it have to be him? Couldn't he just rest a little bit, until this agonizing pain in his head went away? Yeah, that sounded good. Just a little rest then he could do whatever it was his soul was screaming at him to do. Just a little…
The annoying image of Izuku Midoriya then popped into his mind, from back when they were kids when he fell into a river, and Izuku extended his hand to him offering to help him up.
"NO!" Bakugo roared with the color in his eyes returning while the world came screaming back into focus. He looked around in a crazed manner, before setting his eyes on the startled forms of Ida and Kirishima, who were about to ask if he was alright.
"WHERE IS HE?! WHERE'D SHE TAKE IZUKU?!" Bakugo demanded, setting off powerful explosions from his hands to rise to his feet. He noticed that the rest of the class wasn't with them, but he didn't care. That's not what mattered right now. He just needed to get pointed in the right direction and he'd take care of the rest.
Kirishima gulped, but then found his conviction and pointed towards the alleyway that the rest of the class had followed Toga down. Ida was about to try and stop Bakugo due to the injury on his head, but he was gone before he could get a word out.
Bakugo released a series of rapid explosions, stronger and faster than any he'd ever released before. The initial blast knocked his two friends that'd been aiding him over and into the dust, but he didn't even notice. Nothing mattered right now except catching Toga and saving Izuku.
Ida would have attempted to follow after him, since he's one of the fastest heroes out there, but he'd majorly overused his engine quirk back when he was trying to control his violent landing with Izuku and Kirishima, causing him to not be able to use it again at all. The class representative was forced to just sit back and desperately pray for his classmate's success, as he watched Bakugo soar away.
Bakugo flew through the alleyway in the blink of an eye and turned to look both ways for any signs of either his classmates or the villain herself. To his left is where he saw the disappearing Toga turn yet another corner with Izuku on her back, and his classmates a ways behind her. He growled violently at the sight, before launching himself again.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY YOU BASTARDS!" Bakugo ordered as he caught up to his classmates in seconds. He left them with no time to think, and they all barely managed to jump out of his way before he came blasting through. Many of them shouted after him, and many let out shrieks at the force from his explosions. But once again, he didn't care.
Once he caught up to the corner than Toga had turned, he saw their two forms about to enter another alleyway. Narrowing his eyes in unbridled hatred, he flexed his arms with such force it started causing his hands to shake uncontrollably. He was channeling as much power as his body could possibly allow. His arms and hands started getting coated in intense sweat, which was exactly what he wanted.
Grinning madly when he got the amount that he wanted, he released an incredible series of explosions that sent killer shockwaves and blinding light throughout the entire block. Before anyone could even blink, he was right on top of Toga and Izuku, about twenty feet above them specifically. He knew he couldn't just straight up attack her, or else he'd hurt Izuku as well, and he wasn't willing to do that. But he could tackle them and separate the two. Then when he'd make sure that his friend was a safe distance away, he'd blast her to hell.
"I'll be taking him back now, you psychotic little bitch!" Bakugo fiercely proclaimed while making his descent, a crazed yet determined fire glowing in his eyes. But just before he made contact, he noticed something that sent a chill down his spine. Standing beneath him there was no blond hair to be seen, but instead two sets of moppy green.
A conversation Uraraka had with the entire class came to mind at the sight. Making his stomach turn in disgust and panic.
"During my last encounter with Himiko Toga, she revealed to me that during one of her past battles, she turned into me… and apparently was able to access my quirk. She said that she used it to drop her opponent to her death… I don't know if there's actually any truth to it, but when she said that she's able to use the quirks of the people she turns into… the look in her eyes… I don't think she was lying."
"No, don't you dare!"
Toga then turned to face Bakugo and smiled at him with the face of the very person he was trying to save, an image that would haunt him forever. "Sorry boom-man, but we have places to be." She then released her grip of one of Izuku's legs to raise a fist in the explosion quirk user's direction. Giving him no time to react, a powerful almost uncontrolled tendril of Blackwhip shot right at him and gripped him tightly.
Showing a manic grin at her successful use of one of Izuku's quirks, Toga proceeded to throw Bakugo as hard as she could back in the direction of the entrance of the alleyway from which he came. He tried to use his explosions to control his fall, but the strength of Blackwhip was too much, leading to him crashing into the concrete without the ability to brace.
Releasing Blackwhip, Toga returned her free hand to tightly grip Izuku's leg once again to hold him close. She could feel her quirk start to fadeaway as the goop of her disguise slowly started to run down her face, half exposing her real features. "Hmm, maybe I should've taken a little more blood… no matter, I still have enough time!"
Searching through the various powers she felt coursing through her veins thanks to her transformation into Izuku, she found the exact quirk she was looking for. Sucking in a deep breath of air, Toga focused all the power she had left from her transformation and flexed her entire body. Moments after doing so, a massive amount of smoke shot out from her body, obscuring the vision of multiple city blocks. It was perfect for her escape, maybe a little overkill, but still perfect for her. She'd have no trouble navigating despite the hindrance the smoke provided to her own vision.
Groaning in immense pain, Bakugo peered himself out from the concrete he had been practically buried in from where Toga had slammed him into. Sitting up, his body threw itself into a violent coughing fit, drawing a small amount of blood from doing so. He definitely had some broken ribs, and most likely other internal injuries. He heard his classmates shouting in the distance, trying to find each other in the smoke.
"…No… no… no no…no!" Bakugo uttered as he shakily got back to his feet. He almost stumbled right back on his ass as he did so, finding that it was almost impossible to maintain his balance. He most likely had a pretty bad concussion, he mentally figured. Looking around the smoke, fear gripped his heart.
"Storm Minefield!" using the same move he had earlier to clear Izuku's smokescreen, Bakugo slammed his fists into the ground to create a concentrated blast to blow most of the smoke away. It worked mostly efficiently, clearing the city block he was situated in, along with the alleyway Toga had been running through. The now cleared block revealed his classmates scattered around in disarray looking at each other in relief at their return to visibility, but there was no sign of the one person Bakugo wanted to see. An unbearable pain gripped his chest as the void of hopelessness began plaguing itself in his mind.
"Ah… ah… Dek…. Izu…ku…" the world around him started spinning. Everything fell out of focus. Had he failed? Surely there was no way this was happening. There's no way he'd lost Izuku, right? They had him. They were about to bring him home, back to U.A... They were there to bring him back to safety; they were there to save him. They hadn't actually put him in danger, right? Was this their fault? They forced Izuku to expend all his energy to the point of passing out, leaving him completely defenseless to someone like Toga. Did they do this to him?
Tears started to form in the corners of the explosive blondes' eyes at the thought of Izuku being taken away, and it being all his fault. "No… no…"
Shoto was the first to notice Bakugo, and started running to his side when he noticed the state he was in. "Bakugo! Are you alright? What happened, where is Midoriya?!"
Bakugo couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't bring himself to look at his fast-approaching classmate and admit his failure. He couldn't take it. It was all too much.
"NOOOOOO!" Bakugo cried out to the sky as he fell to his knees, slamming his fists into the ground wildly creating a giant explosion, destroying everything nearby.
A/N: I need to clear a couple things up about the specifics of this story for future chapters. But first, I'd like to say that I hope anyone who read this enjoyed it. Reading my own work… well It's hard to tell whether I'm doing a good job or not. I go through my writing a lot to check for spelling or grammatical errors, but I never know what the quality is like. So, I hope I did a good job for y'all. (Also, incase it somehow wasn't obvious by now, manga spoilers for this story lol.)
I randomly had the idea for this story while I was re-reading the war arc, and I just knew I had to write it.
Now for some of the specifics I was talking about. Let's start with Toga being able to copy Izuku's quirks. It hasn't actually been addressed in canon, but I feel as though most likely she wouldn't be able to access his quirks if she transformed into him. However, in this story I'm going to have it so she can access all of his quirks except for One for All. I apologize if that bothers you.
Another thing, in this story Overhaul wasn't with Lady Nagant in her fight with Izuku, so he was never recaptured. I'm also debating whether I want to make the Heroes Rising movie relevant in this story, for the sole purpose that I might want Nine to be alive down the road. I currently have it worked out that the story will work out either way, so it doesn't really matter.
Anyways, I'm not going to promise you any sort of update schedule, other than I will update eventually lol. This is because I don't want to set any sort of standard on myself. I feel as though If I give myself a time schedule like that, then writing this story will have the risk of feeling more like a chore rather than something I want to do because I enjoy it. I hope y'all can understand. I'll still try to update as frequently as possible though!
Please drop a review and let me know how I did this chapter! Good or bad, I appreciate any type of feedback! Thanks a lot for reading!
Ight, I'm out. See y'all next time!
