Warning: Some Graphic depictions of violence and blood ahead.


Location unknown


Nothing but the sounds of heavy rainfall could be heard from the outside of the cold hidden cave that Touya Todoroki was currently residing. Well, that and the sound of his raspy hoarse breathing and occasional random fits of laughter. The cave was just about exactly what one would expect when thinking of a last-minute hideout deep within the woods. Dark, immensely uncomfortable, just about no furniture, and dimly lit by few flood lights placed evenly around the space so one could at least see the outline of the entire room.

Dabi didn't care much for comfortability anyways. With the constant pains from the burns around his body it was virtually impossible to ever get cozy no matter how lavish or amazing the furniture he rested on could be. Throughout the years however he learned to cope with the pain and buzz it out of his mind. Now it was nothing more than a constant reminder of why he was doing what he was doing. A reminder of why the hate inside his heart burned fiercer than any flame the country's number one hero could ever produce. A reminder of the constant hell and abuse his damned father put him through all those years ago.

He loved nothing more than to reminisce back on the memories of how Enji Todoroki so easily replaced him with another son, a better son. No matter how hard he worked and trained his quirk he couldn't get his beloved father to notice him. But why? He had already planted the objective in his mind of growing strong enough to surpass All Might no matter what. He'd already made it clear that the only reason that he was created was so he could complete the dream that his father could not. So, why? Why was he no longer good enough for his father's attention? For his love?

Training was going great! His fire was even stronger than Endeavor's was! He just needed to train further so he could better control it and he could surpass anyone that would stand in his way to the top. But one day his mother and father randomly freaked out and completely shut him out of their world. Enji stopped training with him and hardly ever even gave him the time to speak with him. They said something a few times about apparently burning his own body? But that didn't matter! It was just proof that he was getting stronger just like Dad told him he needed to! Was he not just doing what he was born to do?

But that was all just a small setback. If he'd just continue to train more and more and focus every second of the day on figuring out new ways to become stronger, then he could earn Mom and Dad's love back! Although, Mom's love wasn't nearly as important to him as Dad's was. It was clear that the one who's attention he needed was Dad's. Mom never really did much for him other than make him his food. When he tried to talk to her about his training, she'd just shut him down and tell him to stop what he was doing. She'd even try to stir him to take another path! Go to school? College? Become a… doctor? What the hell was wrong with her! Who was she to tell him that Dad's dream he set out for him was wrong? She was no one, and she was nothing to him from then on.

One day however, he had a massive breakthrough. His flames had turned blue! Blue! With a little research he learned that his flames had burned so hot that they could even change colors. His fire was burning much hotter than Dad's ever could! Sure, it started to sting a lot more than it had before, but that didn't matter at all. All that was important was that he was getting stronger, much, much stronger. With this he could get Dad's attention back! He just had to rush back home and convince him to come out to the forest with him so they could have one of their old training sessions. Yeah, then everything could go back to the way it was! Dad wouldn't regret having him anymore and he wouldn't only focus on his annoying brother Shoto anymore!

Intense hope and anticipation burned through his young heart as he frantically ran home in desperation to talk with his father. Touya was so excited and overflowing with rare happiness that tears started pouring out of his eyes as he ran. It wasn't uncommon for him to cry those days, but he hardly ever paid attention to the tears when he did. However, as he continued on his mad dash, he noticed that the tears strangely started to steam away from his face. There was an unusual pain coming from his eyes, but he didn't have time to pay that any mind. At the time, all that he could think of was the upcoming talk.

Finally finding his dad standing in the living room with his typical angry impatient expression worn clearly, Touya felt another enormous amount of excitement soar throughout his body. "Dad, during the holiday break coming up…" this was it, the moment he could reclaim his father's love, "come to Sekoto hill!" he beamed brightly up at his father with the most genuine smile he'd produced in what felt like years. So, why did dad's expression only grow even more angry when he looked down at him?

Wordlessly rushing to stand right before him, Enji reached down to violently grab at the bottom of his shirt and proceeded to lift it. Touya felt the tears from earlier start to threaten to fall from his eyes once again, as fear gripped his heart. Was he… was he looking at his burn marks littered across his torso and stomach? But why? Dad would always freak out whenever he saw those ugly burns on his body, so he went through so much effort to hide them! Why did he still have to find them and look down on him with such irate hate filled eyes!?

There was no way he had failed right? This was his chance to get everything that had been taken from him back! If he failed now, then would there ever be another chance to prove himself to dad? NO! I didn't fail! I can still show you Dad! Just… just let me show you… I can… I can still show you… steeling his resolve once more, he held his smile tightly on his pained face, although it started to show signs of faltering as it wiggled weakly. "Something incredible happened! You have to come!" veins just started bulging from Endeavor's forehead as he continued his desperate pleas.

Feeling his head start to spin from the immense stress, he tried to steady himself by itching and grasping all over his head and chest. "I think Shoto's got some serious competition…!" the tears started pooling up, and dropping rhythmically, "But I'm not sure if it's enough against All Might yet, though! But it's something you have to see Dad…!" raising his gaze from the ground to look into his fathers' eyes, he started to feel the suffocating realization that he was losing. "And then you'll realize I WASN'T A MISTAKE!"

Time after that confrontation with his father passed by in a haze. He had a faint stinging in his cheek that might've felt as though someone had struck him, but he wasn't sure. Had his father struck him after he shouted about not being a mistake? He didn't know… or maybe he didn't care enough to remember as everything had faded from focus after it became clear that he had not regained his fathers love.

The only thing that he had recognized was the fact that he had somehow absentmindedly made his way back to the spot in the forest that he had spent all his time training. Perhaps the only place that he felt where he could truly be himself without the harsh judgmental eyes of his family. The place where he had begged his father to meet him so he could show off all of his hard work. He was pretty sure that Enji had seen him leave and the direction he had gone in, so maybe… just maybe he would actually show up? If for nothing else to just comfort his son and to make sure that he was safe? No, Dad never does anything like that.

He had hoped that the familiar sounds of water subtly running through the creek next to the rock that he sat upon, and leaves dancing along with the nights wind as it gently brushed by would bring him some form of comfort. Of course, however, it did not. There was only one thing in the whole world that could save him from the darkness that was consuming his heart and mind at that moment, and he continued to desperately wait for it despite the clear knowledge that it would never come to fruition. Touya, was alone.

For hours and hours, he waited. The night only grew darker, and the temperature got colder, evident by how he could now see his ragged breathes. But that didn't last long. As the time continued to pass with the promise of no one coming out to find him in all of his suffering and self-loathing, immense heat started subtly emitting from his body without even realizing it. After crying for so long he had managed to grow a pulsating migraine and what was now common coughing fits.

"…He didn't show up…! Stupid tears…" he pathetically muttered to himself while scratching at his eyes in a futile attempt to stop the impossible pain. "Dammit… Dad… where are you?"

He knew where he was of course. He was back at home at this very moment probably already forgotten the fact that his first-born son had ran away from home. Maybe he was spending more time with the greatest human to ever live, Shoto, training him to be the strongest hero there ever was, even though it was already so late into the night. Why, Dad? Why can't you love me the way that you love Shoto? So what if he can use ice along with fire! My fire can burn away any ice he could ever make like it was nothing! And what pathetic fire he could emit would be drowned out by mine! Why do you only look at him? What about the rest of us, Dad?! What about me!?

"Dad" he whispered one last time, before the fresh stream of tears glistening in his eyes violently erupted into spectacular blinding blue flames. The moment that would forever condemn him to an endless spiral into a bottomless hell that would become his life. "WAAAAAH!" he cried out in agony as the fire started spreading and encasing the rest of his small body.

If he had gotten used to the pain from the burns around his body from before in his life, then that had been completely forgotten as this agony was on a whole other universe. He screamed out animalistically as he felt the epidermis of his skin and beyond burning away. "ITS HOT! THEY WON'T STOP! MY FLAMES!" he tried and tried to get his fire to stop erupting and scorching everything around him, but as his pain worsened the hotter and stronger it got.

He never trained for anything like this, especially not with his father. The only thing that he was taught was how to turn up the heat. Anything else was looked at as weakness, and weakness had no place in the life of the boy who was supposed to one day surpass All Might.

As the unbearable experience worsened by the second, he just barely managed to notice that the forest around him had also managed to get set ablaze and was spreading at an unbelievable rate. At the speed in which it was spreading the entire forest would be burning down within minutes. What once was a beautiful night sky filled with clear numerous sparkling stars was now a sight straight out of a nightmare as ash spewed everyway along with what would look like limitless clouds of smoke. Within the dark clouds one would be able to see bright flashes of the blue of Touya's flames.

Somewhere deep within him he thought that the forest fire was actually a good thing. Maybe… ah… maybe Dad… maybe, no, he will see this fire… and maybe when he does… he'll come to help me! Ah, shit, it hurts, it really really hurts! Dad… please!

He didn't know how much longer he could survive under these conditions. He was sure at this point his skin had to of been scorched beyond recognition and he might not even look anything like what he once did. Would his family even be able to recognize that this body of fire was even him? His cries and screams never stopped, as he fell to his knees with no more strength to continue standing. He rolled around aimlessly, until the thought of the once peaceful creek of water came to his mind. Maybe he could put himself out with the stream! Rolling around a bit more to try to find where he had ended up, horror and hopelessness gripped his heart.

He was already in the creek. Or, at least, what had once been the creek. All traces of water bad been completely evaporated from existence in the chaos. And with it, any hope that he would make it out of this hell.

The daunting acceptance of his fate gave birth to a much darker side of young Touya's mind. The realization that no one was coming to save him produced thoughts that he'd never even come close to having even in his most distressing moments of feeling unwanted and unloved by his family. The realization that he wasn't coming to save him from the hell that HE had condemned him to.

Hey, hey, Dad…? Why don't you come and try to save me…? Yeah, just enter these woods that you neglected me in for all these years… that way you can… burn and suffer just like I have… just like I am right now. Come on, Dad, what do ya say? I want to see you BURN. JUST. LIKE. ME!

At the conclusion of the recollection of how everything in his life had gone wrong so fast, Dabi couldn't help but burst out into hoarse laughter once again while bringing a hand up to rest upon his forehead. Looking back on everything was nothing but cynical comedy for the cremation wielder. The way that he'd wanted nothing more than to please his abusive father who never gave a damn for him? That's pure gold. Oh, what a fool he was back then. A complete polar opposite of what he was today.

To go from an idiotic child who wanted nothing more than Daddy's love to a murderous villain who wanted nothing more than to burn Endeavor alive along with everything and everyone else that he loved? It put a crazed smile on his lips to say the least.

This was how he'd liked to spend most of his time these days since society had fallen. Sitting on his poorly conditioned partially torn leather chair while basking in reminiscent thoughts and desires about what he'd like to do to his family. That and actually planning what would be his next move to make Enji Todoroki's life a living hell. What could he do next that would make him suffer the most? He didn't just want to kill his father. No, that would be far too easy for someone who deserved so much more like him. No, he wanted to torment the man physically, emotionally, and psychologically. He wanted to see him absolutely broken at his feet before he ended things. He wanted to look into his eyes and see Enji lose the will to live after everything had been taken away from him. Then, and only then, would he kill him with his very own flames, with his very own move.

Oh, dear old Dad, I wonder how proud of me you'd be if you knew just how much I've perfected your very own moves. I have the exact attack that I know I'll use to finish you. You love your old reliable 'Prominence Burn' so much. What kind of look on your face will you have when you hear those words spoken as I unleash flames like this world has never seen before to burn you to cinders? Oh, Dad… I can't wait.

Eventually his mind turned from his father to the rest of the family. The people that he could use to hurt Enji even more. For a long time at the beginning of his villain journey, he had an internal debate as to whether or not he should exclude his siblings and mother form his need for revenge.

He held just about nothing against his sister Fuyumi, as she was just about the most innocent thing he'd ever seen in the entire world. He tried and tried to find a reason to hate her, but no matter what he couldn't find anything that could fuel his anger. Then there was Natsuo. Natsuo, he didn't particularly hate, despite all the times that he'd just ignore Touya when he'd go to him to rant about the mistreatments of their father.

Rei? His mother? He absolutely despised that woman. Throughout his childhood she'd do nothing but discourage him from pursuing his dreams and act like she'd never done anything wrong. As if she wasn't part of the plan of conceiving him just so they could use him as a tool for Endeavor's goal of creating the perfect child to surpass All Might. As far as he was concerned, she was a despicable woman who also deserved his revenge, but lucky enough for her he had more hatred for his father. Much more hatred.

Shoto? Oh, dear old Shoto. His feelings towards his youngest brother couldn't be explained as anything other than indescribably complex. He was the son who was produced to be the final nail in the coffin of Touya's madness. Once he was born the colors faded from the world and everything was left in a grey hue. For those last years he remained with his family he wanted nothing more than to kill Shoto. Hell, he even actually tried to kill him! By all accounts Shoto should be the second person on his list of people that he wanted to kill the most. But ever since the last encounter he had with Endeavor and the other heroes back at the battle with Shigaraki and Gigantomachia, his view of the half and half hero had shifted. He'd displayed actual concern for his safety when he attempted to use Prominence Burn… and he genuinely seemed to care about him rather than be disturbed of what he'd become. That damned bastard was actually making it difficult to hate him with the burning passion he'd held for years!

So, what would he do concerning his family when it came to his revenge against their father? What could he do when he couldn't muster enough hatred for every single one of them? For Fuyumi? For Shoto?

Well… I'm sorry I have to drag you into this… Fuyumi… Shoto… but how much I hate Endeavor outweighs how little I might care about you two by unbelievable amounts. Yeah, that's right. I'd burn you two alive right in front of him if it meant making that fucker suffer. There are no depths I won't go to for my revenge. Shoto, maybe you'll be able to stop me? Though, I doubt it. You'll have to kill me. I won't stop until someone puts me six feet under. And I know that you don't have it in you to take someone's life. Especially not your own blood. Which is why you're going to end up dead by my hands.

Looking up at the darkened ceiling of the cave he was residing in, blood slowly started leaking out from his burned stapled right eye socket, streaking down his face towards his ear in his laid-back position. Wiping the blood away with a more tamed and a bit slightly saddened sounding laugh, Dabi resigned himself to rest, and attempted to get some sleep while listening to the heavy rainfall echoing throughout the hidden cave. Some of the best white noise a guy can ask for… I suppose.

With the constant pained state he was in falling asleep took forever every night. Even when using medication to induce slumber it could still take several hours before he could get some desperately needed shuteye. Just one of the many things that'd fuel him and his bloodlust.

After what he assumed to be about two hours of tossing and turning endlessly, he finally felt the blissful feeling of sleep begin to overtake his mind and dull his senses. With the world around him blurring and fading from existence, he closed his eyes with the ever so faint traces of a content smile on his lips. Moments like these were the only times he managed to feel some semblance of peace.

Right as everything was going right however, his senses came roaring back into focus as he heard the dreadful bubbly sound of something from the opposite side of the room. He didn't even need to open his eyes to identify what was the cause. The sound was all too familiar to him, in a very uncomfortable way. You gotta be fucking kidding me. I just know you were just waiting for the moment I was about to fall asleep to do this, you fucking dickhead.

Dabi let out a rather exaggerated pained groan to voice his incredible irritation at the entrance that the bubbling sound was making. He didn't even want to open his eyes to greet who was about to make themselves known to him. He already knew who it was of course. There was only one person who could create such an annoying sound and sudden entrance out of nowhere. He just elected to continue to lay down on his couch for a few more moments resting his eyes until his respective attention was actually needed.

Two footsteps, or rather, very audible thuds could be heard once the bubbly sound subsided. Whatever had caused the thumps on the ground must've carried immense weight, not only evident by the sound but by the fact that Dabi's resting chair actually vibrated a bit despite the distance between the two. The heavy footsteps approached him in his resting position, and he could swear he could practically hear the smug smile on the man's face that was looking down at him.

Most people would most likely be shaking and pissing themselves out of sheer fear from being in such a menacing presence as the man standing before him. But Dabi? He didn't feel threatened in the slightest bit. Sure, he feared his impossible power that no one could ever hope to match, well, maybe except for that Izuku Midoriya guy… but he's an outlier. But Dabi mostly just felt at home with such a cynical person. More than anything he felt respect and even enjoyed his presence because of how damn useful he could be to building the world that he wanted to create.

"Before you say anything about why you're here… did you seriously have to wait until I was on the verge of falling asleep?" he questioned, voicing his annoyance but also taking care to not come off as too disrespectful. He may not be afraid of the guy, but he didn't exactly want to meet an untimely gruesome end for some stupid smartass remark.

The titan of a man let out an entertained chuckle at the comment, and it genuinely sent a chill down his spine. Okay, maybe I am a little fucking scared of this guy. Please, never chuckle around me again. "Oh, my friend, Dabi. I may be the overlord of evil around the world, but do you really take me for someone to be as petty and twisted to do something like that?" All for One humored him. At that point, Dabi decided to finally open his eyes, and look up at the towering figure of his master, who was indeed smiling down at him in his prone form. So basically, yes, you did wait.

"Well looking at how you've literally taken quirks from babies and killed their parents for the fun of it, I wouldn't exactly put it above you." Dabi said as he sat up, feeling his muscles protest from the unappreciated ending to their rest.

The only attire that he'd been wearing for the past couple days within the cave were a pair of regular baggy black sweatpants with no special designs or anything on them. He was reminded of his lack of clothing by the cold feeling of the stone floor beneath his feat as he returned them to the ground from the chair. Though no amount of cold could ever really bother him, as his body was constantly emitting immense heat at all times, so he never stayed cool for long.

As for All for One, he could see that he still carried that weird big ass machine from when he was freed from Tartarus. He wasn't sure exactly what the purpose of it was, but if he had to guess it had to be for the terrible medical condition that AFO had been in, since he could see a tube connecting to his mouth from the machine. Aside from that, he had changed out of his inmate attire into an outfit reminiscent of the Kamino ward incident days. He wore a black single breasted button notch lapel over a simple white button-down shirt with a red tie, along with fancy black dress shoes on his feet. You really like to dress fancy for a villain, don't ya? Not that I can really judge.

"How've you been, Dabi? Are the plans of your revenge against Enji Todoroki going smoothly? I can always loan you a helping hand if you need anything. All you need to do is ask." All for One stated with his typical deceptive kindness, while lifting up a hand over his heart to emphasize his "caring" nature. I know you'd help me kill the number one hero of Japan if I needed anything. But only because he's a nuisance to your plans, not because you care in any twisted way. But that's okay, I'll gladly accept your help if the time comes.

"I've been just peachy. Good old burns have been stinging me to hell and back while Endeavor and Hawks run around aimlessly looking for us. It's really amusing watching them try so hard and getting nothing in return for their efforts." Dabi had placed numerous discrete cameras around the cities of Japan so that he could observe the actions of his father and better organize his plans against him by tracking the patterns of places he most often patrolled. And so far, it had been mostly entertaining watching the top heroes get frustrated at finding nothing in their searches. Although, it did get boring after watching for too long.

A few days ago, there had been an interesting development where a building had exploded, and Hawks had seemingly been caught in it. Unfortunately, the angles of his cameras weren't positioned well enough to actually figure out what had been going on. But from what he could see, he was able to decipher that Hawks survived the explosion with a few injuries and burns. Other than that, it was all a mystery. Heh, you just can't seem to catch a break from burning alive, can you, Hawks?

"As for my plans against my beloved father… well they're at a bit of a standstill for now. After an incident that happened a few days ago in Kamino he's stopped all his patrols and hasn't appeared in any of the cities that I've placed cameras around to observe. I know that Hawks was injured that day, but from what I could see there didn't seem to be anything too deadly for them. So, being left in the dark as I am I have no other option but to wait it out until he shows his ugly ass again." All for One's smile seemed to grow as his explanation continued, almost as if what he already knew what he was hearing. You just know about the happenings of everything everywhere, don't you?

"So, you don't know what happened in Kamino?" AFO sought out confirmation, only proving Dabi right in his head that he did already know everything. "You don't know why Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and the entirety of the students from class A were all gathered in that plaza?" he raised his eyebrow in somewhat surprise at hearing the rest of the participants in the action, as he'd only known of Hawks and Endeavor before then. What could have gathered that much hero presence? That's just about the entirety of the forces that they have remaining. Why risk so much gathering in one place like that?

"I'm guessing that this is the part where you explain the dramatic events to me. Alright, I'll bite. What happened back there? I didn't even know Jeanist, or those kids were there. I know you wouldn't have casually strolled on out there and paid those assholes a visit. So, what could've warranted that kind of response?" He hated playing into AFO's stupid dramatic way of explaining things, but at the same time he found it somewhat fascinating. The titan of a man was by all accounts an absolute genius whose intellect went well above everyone else just about as much as his power did. And hearing him talk about such things was like looking into a window of his complex mind and being overloaded with the knowledge that he possessed. It was one of the many, many things that made him so imposing.

"It all starts with Himiko Toga." Dabi's eyes shot wide open at the revelation of just who had stood at the epicenter of the events, "And Izuku Midoriya, of course. You already know about how the wielder of One for All set out and left UA behind to search for Tomura and myself by his lonesome. The poor boy is too selfless to even let his precious friends come anywhere near our final battle, and thus, he wouldn't allow them anywhere near him." All for One explained, while pausing to scan the room for something Dabi did not know.

Within seconds, me made a satisfied "Aha" and reached out towards a random direction of the cave with an extended hand. Out of nowhere one of his other poorly conditioned cushioned chairs was yanked by an invisible force and came careening to AFO's grasp. Palming the chair effortlessly, he placed it to face Dabi and took a relaxed seat with his right leg resting over the other and sitting back. I didn't know he could fucking do that. I guess you can add telekinesis to what I can only assume to be the thousands of quirks this fucker holds…

"Anyways, as I was saying. For the last week or so, young Midoriya has been relentlessly defeating villains left and right while catering to the endless needs of the citizens that he'd stumbled across. No matter how many assassins I'd send after him to bring him to me, he'd just about effortlessly defeated them all." AFO rubbed his chin in exasperation at what Dabi assumed to be the failure of his pawns, but truly there was no way to tell. "I knew they'd all be defeated, however, of course. He's far too powerful for some nobody villain to ever hope to best. The goal was never actually to defeat him with those insignificant pawns, but to wear him down. To break his spirit bit by bit. The more hopeless darkness and evil he sees in the world, the more his heart will become damaged. Taking away one's hope is a very powerful tool, my friend. And Midoriya's hope is one of his strongest weapons. Without it, he will be much, much easier to defeat."

Yeah, I was wondering why you kept sending out those pathetic losers to attack someone like Midoriya. Hell, I doubt I could even beat him in a straight up fight. And I'm just about your strongest soldier you have besides Shigaraki and that… thing you're creating. But hearing your reasoning now as for why you've been doing it, it makes sense. But damn, you're somehow even more cynical than I am. I can tell you're not going into full detail about the psychological torture you have planned out for the guy. But aside from that, can you get on with it?

As if AFO was reading his mind, he grinned widely once again at him and continued, sending yet another chill down his spine, "As for how that connects to Kamino? Well in summary Midoriya went to that plaza to confront another one of the assassins that I sent out for him. At that point however he was completely spent on energy as he hadn't been giving himself time to properly rest. The heroes capitalized on his weakened state and attempted to subdue Midoriya to either convince him to return to UA so he could heal, or they'd simply force him. In the end he stayed defiant and passed out before he could escape, leaving him completely vulnerable to the heroes wishes to take him into their custody."

"So, how does that connect to the psycho, and Endeavor? You gonna go into another backstory about Toga too?" Dabi emotionlessly inquired, though his curiosity for answers clearly sept through his monotone voice, while resting his head carelessly in his right hand.

"Patience my friend, patience. Everything has an explanation. Himiko Toga… was a bit of a mystery to me since my liberation from Tartarus. It was obvious to me that she was intensely upset by the death of Mr. Bubaigawara, and I was as well!" AFO proclaimed while flailing his arms out to mock his apparent emotional turmoil over Twice's death, before resuming his grin and resting his chin in both hands and proceeding, "He had an immeasurably valuable quirk! Honestly, I had thought about numerous times of just taking it from him so I could use it to its truest potential. And now that it's gone, I'm left here sitting with regrets for my hesitation. Such a waste… If I would've taken it then it would've been what people call, well, game over!" Tch, I can't say I feel any more torn about the death of Twice than you, but you're digressing. Drop the façade.

"Anyhow, back to Toga. Originally, she would have been one of my most useful assets for the upcoming conflict against the heroes. Her quirk and skillset make her unparalleled to any assassin when it comes to deceit and stealth. I had a mission I was going to place her on, but a little while ago I lost contact with her entirely. To evade communication from me? My friend that is not an easy thing to do." Despite the fact that All for One was just about the hardest person in the world to read the expression of, Dabi could still pick up on slight signs of displeasure, anger, or perhaps just plain dissatisfaction. So, Toga disappeared a bit ago? Huh… I guess she was actually serious.

"At the same time of her sudden disappearance, I noticed that a rather alarming number of sensitive files about my troops and other pieces of equipment went missing. This is no coincidence. It would seem that not only has she set out on her own path, but she's also given herself more than enough power to do considerable damage to our cause." That caused Dabi to raise his eyebrows and fully pull away from any tiredness that remained.

"Hold on hold on I need to make sure I got this straight. You're telling me that Himiko Toga… the fucking deranged psychopath that wanted nothing else than to suck that Midoriya guy dry of all his blood… poses a threat to us? How the fuck?" Dabi questioned with his exasperation clearly laced in his tone, sitting up perfectly straight and at attention.

"The files that she possesses not only hold a wide list of some of my most powerful soldiers, but also detailed information about how their quirks work. They were documents created by the scientists of Tartarus from decades of studies that they conducted on their prisoners. Not only does such information make her alone a threat to any of you serving me, but if she were to possibly leak it the heroes? It would spell disaster and a hindrance that I quite frankly don't want to deal with."

"So, what do we do about her? If you say that you can't locate her then what do you suggest?" he actually was starting to feel a little concerned about how much of a wrench Toga could possibly throw in his plans for revenge against Endeavor. Out of all the possibilities of things to go wrong and set him back, that damn lunatic was just about the last thing that he expected.

"I'm getting there Dabi, I'm getting there. I spent quite some time looking for her, and when I finally did find a trace of our dear Toga it was in the last place that I expected to find it. While I was observing the events down at Kamino, she made a surprise appearance. She planted a bomb in one of the plazas buildings, and lured Hawks into entering it. Then, she detonated the explosive to cause a distraction for the rest of the pro heroes in the area. Amidst the carnage, she timed her attack to perfection and snatched Midoriya away from the students and made a rather impressive escape. I would have attempted to intercept her, but the hero presence in the city after her appearance skyrocketed and I had to make my leave myself." AFO uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, bringing himself in what was a rather uncomfortable proximity to Dabi.

What the fuck? You can't be serious. You're telling me that Toga put together an actual intelligently scoped out plan all on her own and succeeded against the top three heroes? ALONE?! This has to be some sort of sick joke that you're playing on me, All for One.

Leaning back a bit as far as his cushioned chair would allow to give himself some breathing room from the super villains' closeness, Dabi gathered his thoughts. "…so, Toga kidnapped Midoriya. Wouldn't that be a good thing? I mean I can't really say that I understand a thing that goes through her mind or what she could be planning, but from my past experiences with her I'd say she's most likely torturing the poor guy for his blood until he finally just dies from it all. Wouldn't his death take away the heroes only hope they have against us?" From what I've gathered you have your own plans for how you want to kill the guy, but is it really that big if someone else does it?

"The death of Izuku Midoriya would be the biggest slap in the face to my plans than anything I've suffered through in the hundreds of years that I've lived. I do eventually plan to kill him, yes. But there are a great many things that need to happen before then. Tomura's body still needs to finish its ascension, so that we can then take Midoriya's quirk from him. The quirk that he possesses is something that I must acquire before his death. So, Toga having him is something that I simply cannot allow to continue." AFO spoke with a deadly seriousness at the end of his statement. And even though he didn't have any eyes to actually stare at Dabi, he could still feel the dead coldness of his gaze weighing down on him. But oddly enough, the menacing murderous aura excited him.

"What will you do?" he questioned, causing All for One to grin again, while raising his right hand to point squarely at Dabi's chest with his index finger.

"I think you mean what will you do?"

"Heh, alright, I guess I should've seen that coming. You don't exactly come around here often just to talk to me." He replied, earning another disturbing laugh out of AFO.

"I want you to find Himiko Toga and burn her alive. I want you to make her suffer for defying my plans and stealing from my arsenal. Betrayal is not something that I take lightly. And after her final moments of turning to nothing but a pathetic pile of ashes to be blown away into the wind like the nothingness that she is, I want you to bring me Izuku Midoriya, alive." He made sure to put a lot of emphasis on the 'alive' part, as if he didn't then Dabi would've ended up including Midoriya in that whole burning alive stuff. Who… me? What? Cremate someone you didn't specifically tell me to?! I would never.

The very idea of hunting down Toga and slowly killing her got his blood pumping. He couldn't help the stupid grin from forming on his face as if he was a kid on Christmas waiting to open up a bunch of gifts that he'd been waiting forever on. He never liked Toga, hell he didn't like anyone in the league other than Shigaraki, but even then, he didn't actually care about the guy. But Toga specifically always annoyed the hell out of him. He couldn't stand having to listen to her constant dreamy rants about how much she loved that fucker Izuku Midoriya, and everything that she wanted to do with him. He could still perfectly recreate her voice inside his head just squealing his name.

There were multiple times that he had to had to restrain himself from burning their entire old base to the ground and killing everyone inside just out of sheer irritation. But the league was still useful to him for his plans of revenge, so he'd always hold back.

"Alright, All for One, but I gotta give you a fair warning; if you haven't been able to find her then I'm going to have an even harder time doing so. My cremation quirk isn't exactly usually used for search and rescue." Dabi casually responded while rising from his seat, taking a step aside from AFO to then stretch his muscles and let out a tired yawn. He walked to the opposite side of the cave to retrieve his normal outfit that'd been lazily tossed haphazardly on the cold somewhat damp stone ground.

All for One too rose from his seat to better face the Todoroki. "Don't worry, Dabi, you won't be alone on this mission. I'm going to provide you a rather large arsenal of powerful soldiers to deploy, as well as a partner." AFO clasped his hands together as he waited for him to finish getting changed and give him his full attention.

"A partner, you say. Well, I'm fine with it, so long as it isn't anyone who's gonna slow me down. Hope they're strong in case we run into any heroes along the way. Who is it?" he answered in his typical raspy voice, not showing any care for the revelation, after finishing pulling on the last sleeve of his long dark coat.

AFO grinned in what he could only assume to be anticipation at the big reveal, "You've met him a few times before. I believe you and the rest of the league became rather acquainted with him a little while ago. But before that, I wanted to offer you something else." More thunderous footsteps echoed throughout the cave as he walked towards the opening to the outside world to run his hands through the soaked vines that concealed the entrance, "How would you like a healing quirk to treat those terrible wounds of yours? Not only would it ease the constant pain you must be in, but it would also work as a constant healing factor that would allow you to use your quirk more freely without having to worry about damaging yourself."

Dabi's tensed shoulders drooped from the sheer surprise at what had been offered to him. He felt his mouth hang open somewhat, but he didn't even notice; he was too lost in flashbacks from how he'd ended up in such a scarred state to realize. You mean… you could end this pain? For a very long moment he continued to ponder over it. It'd be so easy to just reach out his hand and accept an escape from years and years of torment. And not only would the pain stop, and he would actually look like a normal person again, but he'd also grow impossibly powerful from not having to worry about killing himself from going all out with his flames.

While he continued to immerse himself deeper and deeper into his thoughts, All for One did not turn to face him to see his reaction to his words. He just stayed rooted where he was and ever so slightly parted the vines to gaze out into the forest. You already have idea made up for what my answers gonna be, don't you? No matter how much I contemplate, you know what it's gonna be. Heh, fucking maniac.

"Listen… I appreciate your offer, I really do, but quite frankly… this pain is what drives me. These scars are a constant reminder of why I'm doing what I'm doing, and what that fucker did to me back when I was just a kid" he felt disappointment fill his chest as continued on with his conclusion. Not immediately accepting a healing quirk felt like he was throwing away what was possibly the greatest escape he could've ever asked for, "As much as this pain drives my soul deeper into madness, it also gives me just as much focus for what I need to do. It tells me who I need to burn alive next, who I need to torment and bend to my will to get what I want. So, thank you for the offer, All for One, but I need to hold onto who I am."

At that, All for One turned around to gauge at his expression and examine the resolve in his eyes. Of course, what he saw was nothing but fierce blue eyes shining with unbridled hatred and anger. Which must've been exactly what the super villain was wanting to see, as he gave him an all too happy tooth filled grin, that caused his face to wrinkle from how far it stretched.

"Very well said, my friend, very well said indeed. Truthfully, I was hoping that you would decline for the exact reasons that you gave me. Perhaps it was a test if you will. I wanted to see just how deep the hatred in your heart burned for this world and all it's done to you. And I am most pleased with what you've shown me. Honestly, I've only seen that specific glint in your eyes in one other person, and that's Tomura Shigaraki." AFO stated proudly as he approached closer to him, bringing his hands together behind his back while doing so.

"I can see now that even if Tomura hadn't come around and shown me how special he was, you too would've made an excellent successor to me. I apologize for appraising you like that, but I needed to know if you were worthy." AFO explained, stopping just several feet away from him, while Dabi raised an eyebrow quizzically at the ending of his statement.

"Huh? Worthy? To see if I'm worthy of what exactly?" I'd assume you're talking about something different than being your successor, seeing as how good ole' Shiggy's already taken that spot like you said.

"Worthy of being my second in command when my plans come into fruition of course! Many years ago, when I was at my most powerful and dominated the world, I had many lieutenants to stand by my side. But I only had one second in command. When we create this new world we're aiming to achieve, I want you there standing by my side." AFO proclaimed, unclasping his hands from his back and extending one out to Dabi in an offered handshake.

Dabi felt one of the smuggest grins of his life make its way onto his face as he looked down onto the hand that was most definitely much larger than his own. Although he hadn't accepted the healing quirk, this was an offer he wouldn't even dream of passing up. To be the right-hand man of All for One in a world that he conquered would be the equivalent of being much more than any king throughout history. He'd have a position at the top of the world that the people who'd grovel at his feet would only dream of. Imagining the millions or even billions of people that would envy him and his power was something that filled him to the brim with ecstatic excitement. And strangely enough got him into the mood of going out and burning some people alive. Hmm, I wonder if he has a quirk somewhere tucked in him that could fix my fucked up mental state?

"You crazy son of a bitch, you know how to inspire some loyalty out of a guy!" Dabi exclaimed, not wasting another moment as he impatiently extended his own hand and fiercely accepted the one that was offered to him. At first all he'd noticed was that AFO's grip was universally stronger than any he'd felt before, and if he wanted to, he could definitely crush his significantly smaller hand with ease. There was also the way that the titans grin seemed to have something else behind it now, something much more menacing, as if he'd just achieved something that he'd been plotting for a long while, but he couldn't quite figure out what it could be.

Figuring that their handshake was nearing the point of sheer awkwardness from being held for too long, Dabi prepared to pull his hand back and ask about who his partner was going to be. But right before he could, every nerve in his body started screaming. "AGH!" his mouth shot open from shock while his eyes practically rolled to the back of his head. He felt like he continued screaming from the tormenting pain spiking throughout his body, but he couldn't tell as he couldn't hear anything. No, that wasn't all… all of his senses were being completely blocked out! The only thing he could feel was the indescribable pain of what he thought was every single cell in his body being destroyed and reconstructed in an entirely new way.

He couldn't even tell if his hand was still being held by All for One, or if he was even still there with him at all! The world around him had turned into nothing but a terrifying void of blackness, as if everything had ceased to exist. He couldn't control or feel his limbs anymore, but whatever was causing the pain hadn't stopped despite not even being able to tell if he still had a body. The only thing that he'd retained were his thoughts which were becoming increasingly difficult to form. He felt as though they too would soon disappear, and he'd truly become nothing.

Am… am I fucking dying?! What the fuck is going on! No, no, no no no NO! this can't be how it ends! I still have so much that I have to do! Holy fuck it hurts! I still have to torture Endeavor! I have to make his life a living fucking hell until he fucking tears himself apart! I have to make him bleed, cry, beg, break, I HAVE TO FUCKING KILL HIM! FUCK IT HURTS! Make it.. stop… make it stop… MAKE IT STOOOOP!

Just as he yelled into the void that'd been consuming him, the world came screaming back into focus as all of his senses abruptly returned out of nowhere. The way too swift drastic change of scenery and return of control nearly made him bend over and vomit, while he also picked up on the feeling of cold sweat coating his entire body. The only thing that grounded him, preventing him from falling over into a sick mess, was the powerful feeling of a continued grip holding him up by the hand.

With widened eyes, Dabi violently yanked his head up and returned his gaze to the surviving smile of All for One. Only when their eyes met, or rather eyes and skin covered eye sockets, did he realize that he was heavily panting in rhythm with his rapidly beating heart. "What just… what… what just fucking happened?!" he barely managed to breath his question out due to his heart refusing to calm down from its unhealthy rate.

"Are you alright, Dabi? You seem a bit troubled there… have you not been getting enough sleep?" AFO questioned in return, dropping his smile and feigning a concerned expression, which only served to increase Dabi's confusion tenfold. He couldn't make sense of what was happening around him, his thoughts were jumbled, and he could've sworn that he must've been in shock.

"What… what are you talking about? What happ…nd… what did… you…" he attempted to question once again but was stopped by AFO taking a step closer and placing an ominous hand onto his back. He expected a violent shiver of revulsion to get sent down his spine from the sheer terror of the gesture, but very strangely, he felt incredible soothing warmth spread throughout his body at the touch. His muscles relaxed, and his heartrate slowed down returning to its normal healthy rate. What… is this…?

He tried recollecting just exactly what had happened, and how All for One must've done something to him to cause such excruciating pain, but the memories were leaving his mind, leaving him unable to remember. What...? NO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO ME! Dabi desperately tried to rouse his body and escape the warmth of AFO's palm, but he couldn't. He muscles just relaxed more and more into a blissful comfortable serenity, and his thoughts of defiance slowly left him altogether. He made one final desperate attempt to break free, to break the hold, to kick and punch, to unleash an unholy attack of prominence burn, but he failed, and he forgot. He forgot everything about the unimaginable pain and was left in a warm feeling of welcomed confusion.

"I'm so very glad that you agreed to be my second in command, Dabi! Together, we're going to make the world bend to our whims, and all will bow to our strength." AFO proclaimed proudly, giving him one last pat on the back, before breaking his hold and walking back towards the covered entrance of the cave.

Once his hand had left him, the amazing warmth that'd been coursing through him settled down and returned him to his normal pained state. But Dabi was also puzzled at how AFO had managed to get so close to him. One moment he was shaking his hand and contemplating how oversized it was, and the next they were standing side by side. Am I going crazy? Okay, well… crazier. Could've sworn he was… the more he tried to put the pieces together the more he got a strange sensation telling him to stop. He found it strange, but the continued contemplation was starting to give him a rather painful headache, so he relented.

"Yeah… happy to be your right-hand man, boss. Let's raise some hell." Said Dabi, before he recalled something that AFO had previously mentioned, "now that we've gotten that out of the way, how about you introduce me to my partner already. You said I've met him before?" he questioned, while wiping away the last traces of sweat from his forehead with his hand.

"Oh yes, you're quite familiar with this man. Back when I was being liberated in Tartarus, I stumbled across him alongside a woman that I was seeking to assign to be an assassin for Midoriya. He was in a rather injured and useless state, but his quirk is quite powerful, so I decided to give him a… helping hand and… restore him." AFO smirked as he explained, while extending his right hand to his side, erupting a rather disgusting familiar gray bubbling phenomenon.

Dabi cringed at the display, as uncomfortable memories flashed in his mind. I feel bad for the fucker that has to get transported here with that teleportation method… that shit tastes fucking disgusting… but oh well, better whoever the hell this guy is than me.

It didn't take long for the grotesque transportation quirk to finish its process, as out emerged a man that caused Dabi's eyes to nearly bugle out of his head. Not for the simple reason of who it was that he was looking at, but because the last time that he'd seen the man he'd been sprawled out on the unforgiving radiating concrete heat of a random highway, very much without hands. He checked his memory and could vividly paint the scene of Compress using his quirk brutally to remove the man's wrist from the elbow down, as compensation for what had happened to his own arm. And then Shigaraki using his decay to do the same to the other arm. But here in the present, standing before him now, Dabi could clearly see two very healthy and very much intact full arms and hands displayed before him.

Looking beyond the new set of arms, he could see that the man was staring right back at him with fierce almost glowing golden eyes emanating hatred, determination for a goal that he did not know, malice, but most of all, power. He wore a perfectly snug fitted black dress shirt and matching dress pants to compliment. He also had on a pale gray tie along with a belt with a long, thin buckle around his waist. At his feet he had on a pair of very plain white laced up sneakers with… no socks?

Overall, he looked just about the same as the last time he'd seem him. With just a few pieces of clothing missing from his original attire; like that dumbass ugly green bomber jacket with the weird purple fur collar, and the weird plague themed looking mask he insisted on wearing just about everywhere he went. Fucking germ freak. How about I put some dirt in your eye? Bet you'd freak out like a little fucking kid. Yakuza asshole…

The animosity had been brewing to an absolute unbearable tension in the air that was getting the point of almost guaranteeing a violent fight breaking out. Dead blue eyes met the dreadful gold ones in a wordless exchange, communicating with the other that the desire to kill was very much mutual. If someone didn't break the silence soon, then three-thousand-degree Celsius fire was most definitely going to clash head on with whatever reconstructed weapon Overhaul would use. Luckily enough for them both, they had a rather imposing mediator to settle things.

"I trust that the both of you will be able to work together, yes?" All for One interjected, and for the first time today, Dabi could tell that he wasn't attempting to mask the sheer malice in his words in the slightest bit. What he was saying was absolute, and he didn't plan to leave even the smallest chance of question in his authority. "Although your personal end goals may not exactly be the same; you are united by an unbridled common desire." He took a commanding step between them, "Your desire for revenge. Your lust to kill those who have wronged you. The need you feel coursing through your veins to gruesomely tear apart those who would ever stand in the way of you want." He paused to look at them both individually with two side glances, effectively sending terrifying chills down their spines.

"I'm not asking you to like each other because quite frankly, I don't care if you do. No, I am ordering the two of you to work together to annihilate a common foe that threatens you both. Dabi, you are taking the lead in this operation, and you will work with Kai Chisaki as your partner in command. I will loan to you an unfathomable arsenal in the likes of which you have never seen." Dabi could feel what he could only describe as ripples in the air protruding from All for One's body as he started to conclude his list of commands, indicating to him that their master was preparing to leave them to their own devices.

AFO gave the two of them one last glance, aiming to find if there'd been any questions or doubts shown on their faces. The hatred between them had not been alleviated in the slightest bit, that much was obvious. But the violent murderous aura in the room that promised a fight to the death between the two had vanished altogether. With the titans' gaze lingering on Dabi, he decided to just give him a light nod to communicate his obedience. Yeah, I'll work with this Yakuza douchebag, whatever.

Smiling one last time, All for One radiated satisfaction with his work. "Go now, find Himiko Toga and kill her without mercy. Once you're finished with her, bring me Izuku Midoriya. Bring me One for All." And with one final usage of the commonly despised teleportation quirk, AFO was gone. Leaving Dabi and Overhaul by themselves with a rather unexpected assassination mission.

The two looked at each other once more, and this time, Dabi couldn't help the devilish smirk from forming on his face.


How did everything change so drastically in the short span of a week? Izuku had no idea. He didn't think things would turn out so complicated so quickly. The mission, although with difficulty amounting to near impossible, was supposed to be relatively straight forward. He and All Might were meant to team up with the top three heroes in order to form an unrivaled alliance and go out into the lawless world to do just a few things. Defeat any villains they came across, search for Shigaraki and All for One, and then defeat them. Simple, right?

It only took a few days for their plans to rapidly deteriorate. First the assassins that AFO was constantly sending after him was causing he and the rest of the heroes to not have a single moment to truly rest and feel safe, as any moment they could get caught off guard and killed if they weren't on top of their game.

Second, his relationship with All Might had become immeasurably strained when he had to leave him behind for his own protection. Leaving his mentor behind was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do before. He may have put on a stoic face to lead a cold front, but inside his heart was breaking at seeing how he was hurting the man. The desperation in All Might's eyes as he fell to the ground when reaching out for his hand with tears in his eyes was an image that had haunted him ever since. Just thinking about it made him want to breakdown and cry himself to sleep. But he couldn't allow himself to; he didn't have the time or luxury to be sad when there were so many things he had to do. So many people he had to protect, Toshinori included.

Thirdly, the top three heroes had betrayed his trust. The whole point of leaving UA had been so he could protect his former classmates from HIS battle against AFO. To protect them from the incredibly dangerous lawless world that Japan had become outside of the designated shelters like their schoolgrounds. He'd seen firsthand how outmatched they were when standing against an incomplete injured Shigaraki. Bakugo, who Izuku considered to be strongest amongst his peers, couldn't keep up with him at all. It took the combined efforts of Shoto, Endeavor, and Bakugo just to land a scratch on him. And even that just ended up healing nearly instantly!

So, the fact that the heroes that he agreed to team up with went behind his back and not only gave his former classmates his location, but also encouraged them to go after him, was the last straw that broke their alliance. What if Shigaraki or All for One had decided to make a surprise appearance when they were battling with him! In his weakened state there'd be no way he could both focus on fighting AFO and protecting his friends. Many, if not all of them, would end up dying brutal deaths if that happened! Endeavor, Jeanist, and Hawks putting them in danger like that was unforgivable, and he wouldn't be able to trust them after that.

And lastly… Toga. Izuku didn't know where to even start when thinking about the crazy blonde. Before waking up this morning he would've perceived her as nothing more than another enemy that just wanted to kill him. Another enemy that'd stand in his way in the war against AFO that he'd need to defeat. Sure, he knew that she had some strange infatuation with him, but he tried not to think about it most of the time. It'd always just cause him to get confused and flustered. So instead, he'd focus on the whole "she's a super deadly assassin" part of her. The part where she'd tried to kill him multiple times before and talk about how she wanted his blood.

Her whole obsession with people's blood never failed to creep him out and make him feel terrified of being in her presence. But as the year went on and he had more time to research and ponder the motivations behind each member of the league, he'd started developing his own theories about Toga's blood craving ways. Once he figured out that her quirk of being able to transform and disguise herself as other people was by drinking the blood of the person she wanted to turn into, he suspected that that could have a possible psychological effect on her mind.

He'd heard about quirks in the past that altered the brain functions of the holder. So maybe, just maybe, Toga had a love for blood because her quirk was basically demanding her to? If that were the case, then he felt as though there had to be some way to help the girl. Maybe after arresting her, he could make sure that she got the proper psychological help that she needed? As much as he wanted to believe that that'd be the best course of action, he knew deep down that once the government had her, they'd just throw her in one of the deepest cells in Tartarus and never even think about helping her, or just flat out give her the death penalty.

The living conditions of Tartarus were a dark stain on their society that no one liked to acknowledge. Sure, they did hold some of the most dangerous and evil individuals to walk the earth, and some of them didn't exactly deserve any better. But there were some prisoners held there that seriously needed help, and with the proper care they could genuinely be made into better people. Tartarus didn't care to give people those chances though. Once someone was locked in there, they'd be subjected to just about the worst living conditions imaginable, with as little human interaction that they could afford without killing them.

Izuku knew that if he wanted to help Toga then arresting her would essentially make that impossible, and he'd sentence her to a fate that probably would just make her condition even worse, and her hate for hero society even stronger. But at the same time, he knew that she was a villain who'd killed at least a few people in her past, and most likely didn't even know that she had some sort of condition. She still frightened him even when he theorized that she just needed help. Honestly, he doubted that she'd accept help even if he offered it.

So, he'd tried to bury his sympathetic thoughts of the villain and treat her like any other criminal who needed to face justice.

But now? Everything was different, everything had changed. When he initially woke up and discovered that he'd been kidnapped by Toga, he feared the worst. That she'd taken him so she could kill him for her own desires and drain him for his blood. However, just a few seconds of gazing into her eyes had shown that there was so much more to her than what the world accused her of, and he knew that she hadn't taken him for what he originally thought. He could feel that there was still some part of her that desired blood, but there were also so many more desires within her as well.

The desire to be loved and cared for by someone, so desperate that it seemed like she'd never known what it'd felt like before. The desire to be something more than what she was, as though there were heavy regrets weighing her down from a life full of mistakes. And a desire to find a hero, a true hero; not just someone who filled out the name of the profession and did the work for the fame and a fat check, but someone who genuinely embodied the values that a hero was supposed to carry and live by.

And by the way she'd looked at him earlier, he could tell that she'd thought that that hero was him. Although he'd attempted to suppress any feelings aside from the deadly seriousness he had to deal with the situation with, he couldn't help the warmth that spread in his chest at someone thinking of him that way. It hit home with his childhood dream of wanting to be a hero just like All Might someday and having someone like Toga looking at him in such a way reminded him of why he was doing what he was doing. It reminded him of where he came from, and how far he'd come from when he started.

She reminded him of how he'd proudly proclaimed to the world that he was going to be the hero who saved everyone, indiscriminately and with no exceptions. That included saving villains, especially those who were begging for someone to save them. If there was even the slightest chance that he could guide a lost soul away from the darkness that'd consumed them and towards a better way, then Izuku wouldn't hesitate to extend his hand out to them.

And that was exactly what he'd seen from Toga. Not only had she shown how vulnerable and desperate she was, but she'd even verbally told him what she wanted. And not only that, but she also showed sincere desire to even aide him in the fight against AFO! The documents on numerous villains that'd been allegedly recruited were extraordinarily invaluable. They'd make life easier by no longer having to live with not knowing what kinds of enemies would be coming after him, and he could form strategies beforehand for each of them.

It was all just an insane turn of events.

Despite having his doubts about going as far to form a partnership with the villain, or… former villain, I guess?, he couldn't deny the insurmountable advantages of such an alliance. Even when he looked at the situation from a perspective of ignoring the sheer strategic sense that it made, he still felt a moral obligation to help Toga, and more than that he just flat out wanted too as well.

So, with the assistance of Danger Sense he searched Himiko for even the faintest traces of deceit, and ultimately found that her resolve rang true in every sense. Her vows to not betray or harm him were genuine, and together they'd work to defeat any opponent that stood between them and defeating All for One.

Toga… I wonder… what happened to you to finally push you over the edge and leave the League of Villains…? It's more than obvious that Mr. Bubaigawara's death played a major factor in these changes you've been going through… but I can tell that there's something more. Something happened between you and the other members… didn't it?

Izuku continued to contemplate such thoughts as he once again laid back in the massive mattress that belonged to the penthouses master bedroom. The day had passed by rather quickly in his perception after he'd made the deal with Toga, and she tackled him to the ground in a stunned embrace. When he finally recovered from his dazed state, he managed to pry the lovestruck girl off him, though with tremendous struggle. He learned the hard way that she was a lot stronger than she let on, and he even had to partially call upon Full Cowling to finally escape.

Once he succeeded in calming Toga down, albeit not by much, they proceeded to talk a little bit more about what their partnership would look like, and then turned to the pinboard to get straight to studying their enemies. He'd been amazed by the number of files she'd procured, as with further observance he realized that there were a lot more documents than he'd noticed at first glance.

His first estimation was around twenty or so files, but after spending what he later realized was a breeze of four hours of analyzing villain after villain and not even scratching close to being halfway done, he figured there must be several dozens more than what he'd originally thought. He would've continued to spend much more time studying to forge battle strategies, but Toga's capacity for reading had seemed to exceed her limit majorly, if her begging to take a break was any indication.

Her way of begging had been rather… adorable… Izuku had to admit. He himself had been getting a bit tired at the time and let out a long yawn while stretching his arms out. Looking back on it he realized that he must've been making it seem as though he was going to put down the papers then and there and suggest doing something else. So, when he finished his stretching and started reaching for another paper, he could see why Toga would've fallen into despair. She protested his continuation by approaching him and giving his back punches with no strength behind them rather playfully, while saying pleadingly "pleeaaase!" and other statements to voice her wishes to do something else.

Most people would most likely find her antics flat out childish, and some others would deem her annoying, but Izuku had to fight himself from letting a smile creep its way onto his lips. His recent life to that point had been filled with nothing but constant fighting and pain, so Toga somehow finding a way to bring out the return of his humorous joyful side was a very welcomed surprise.

After they moved on from their study session they talked a bit more and decided to sort out what their living arrangements would be. All the penthouses' bedrooms had been assigned to what he learned to be the top floor of the home that they were currently on. Each bedroom's entrance was connected to the singular long hallway that they'd passed through when they ventured to the office, so if they ever needed anything from each other for any reason they'd always be close by.

Each bedroom had been an absolute luxurious wonder in their own respect, but the master bedroom had still taken the cake as the nicest by a fair margin. Having an entire balcony with a pool in the center of it certainly didn't hurt its case, but it also had the largest closet, the best view of the city, and the most overall space. So naturally, Izuku immediately insisted that Toga would take the master bedroom, as she was living there before him, and it was just his nature to put others before himself. There was also the fact that all of her clothes and equipment had been setup neatly in the closet, and he didn't want to put her through the hassle of having to move it all.

Unfortunately for him, however, Toga too had insisted rather fervently that he take the room, stating that he'd already spent four whole days sleeping in the bed and "claiming it as his own" by doing so. They'd argued for a good long while about who should take the room and why they didn't want it. It didn't seem like they were ever going to come to a compromise that they'd both agree on, until Toga had paused, visibly deep in thought, and then grew a mischievous grin with a feral glint in her eyes.

Izuku shuddered just remembering the way she'd looked at him. Whatever the idea that she'd come up with was, he was certain that it was going to end with a result of that'd suit Toga's desires. Eventually after she'd taken some strides and closed the distance between them to stand right in front of each other, she explained what she'd come up with.

"Alright, Izuku~, if we can't come up with a decision about who should have the room… then why don't we share it~?" once again the way that she sung his name did not fail to make his heart skip a beat and break his composure. At that point he had abandoned all manners and formalities and quickly proclaimed that he'd gladly accept claiming the room, by himself. With being unable to compose himself, he knew that he'd be entirely vulnerable to any teasing antics that Toga might partake in and judging by the way she continued smiling at the muttering mess that he was becoming he knew that she would. So, in a desperate moment of self-preservation, he announced to her that he was incredibly tired and needed to get some rest.

Although she seemed to pout at first at him deciding to end their first day together so abruptly, she reluctantly accepted his wishes wordlessly and made her way towards the door. Of course, however, Toga being Toga, she wouldn't let him off that easily without getting at him one last time. Taking deep breaths to steady his heartbeat while watching her make her leave, he dreadfully noticed her stop in the doorway and turn back towards him.

She looked as though she were about to say something, but instead she just puckered her lips and blew a kiss towards him with an audible smooching sound from her hand, and then finally closed the door behind her while throwing herself into a mischievous giggling fit, which he could hear slowly fade away through the door as she walked away.

And that left him where he was now, laying alone in the large room dimly lit by the moonlight shining faintly through the wall of windows. It'd been a couple hours since they parted ways for the night, but Izuku still hadn't managed to fall asleep. Or rather, he hadn't allowed himself to fall asleep. Fighting his exhausted urges and drooping heavy eyes was a difficult challenge which wasn't made any easier by the beds heavenly feeling of practically being a cloud lulling him to a deeper sleepy state. It was like the world itself was singing him lullabies and begging him to give in for the night.

The reason for his resistance wasn't anything like what one would expect for the environment he was in. It wasn't because he was concerned about a possible villain attack, or even a lack of feeling safe while sharing a home with Himiko Toga. No, for whatever reason he'd come to trust her enough throughout the day to feel secure that she wouldn't try anything in his sleep. He hadn't even gotten up to lock the door after she left either. And even if he wasn't sure of his safety Danger Sense still worked even while asleep, so he'd know about any harm coming his way and awaken well before it fell upon him.

The reason for his reluctance was because he knew what was waiting for him once he fell asleep. The predecessors of One for All were no doubt gathered in that weird floating room in an infinite space just waiting for him. He didn't particularly have any desire to sit through any more stern lectures that they held for his every decision. It grew more than tiring after the first few times they had their criticism prepared for his nightly rest.

They even had the power the appear before him and speak when he was awake as well, but recently he'd learned the ability to block their presence when he didn't want to deal with them. Which, he found himself doing more and more often recently.

He knew however that he couldn't avoid them forever, and that doing so was only going to make things between them worse and worse. They already didn't like the fact that he'd abandoned All Might and was basically accepting no help from the other heroes. But now that he'd gone so far as to pair up with someone that they'd most likely looked at as nothing more than a murderous villain who'd been serving AFO? Yeah, they definitely had some harsh words ready for him.

But he wouldn't back down from them. He'd stand firm in his beliefs and defend his decisions against all of them. I've already stood tall against them and proclaimed that I'd save Shigaraki even when they were all berating me and telling me that he needed to die… So… I can do this… yeah! I'm ready!

Mentally steeling himself in preparation for his dreams, he grabbed his fluffy wool blanket and pulled it closer to better tuck himself deep into the covers of the bed and basked in the incredible warmth it provided. In accordance with his will accepting the depths of slumber he felt his body begin to shut down, and his eyelids drifting closed to block out the moonlight.


Shooting his eyes open, he felt strangely… whole? It was an odd sensation, as he could immediately decipher that he was in fact asleep, but the state of his body felt complete, as though he actually possessed flesh and blood in this dream world. He tested this theory by tightly clenching his hands into fists to the point of his knuckles turning white and his nails threatening to draw blood from his palm if he didn't relent. Surprised to feel genuine pain from his hands, he stopped what he was doing and observed the rest of his body.

Upon doing so, he quickly realized that he must've been inside the dream world of One for All, since he noticed the familiar deep dark olive-green haze covering his lower body from the waist down. However, he was nearly ecstatic to discover that the rest of his body, specifically his mouth, had been left completely untouched, exposing the bare skin to the cool temperature of OFA's atmosphere. Which meant that he'd finally be able to move around freely and talk coherently! It was always embarrassing to have to mumble sounds when talking with the predecessors and making them have to guess and structure his sentences themselves. He was practically certain that there must've been numerous times where they'd misheard him, and just pretended that they understood. It was not an experience that he would miss.

He was also grateful that the haze had remained around his lower half, as he'd rather not have to present himself to the predecessors stark naked. Plus, I think this haze makes for a pretty cool pair of pants if I do say so myself.

Once he finished admiring his new dream form, he looked beyond himself to take in his environment. Much to his own surprise, he found that he was in fact not in what he liked to call the "OFA meeting room" but instead in what looked to be an endless stone grounded void. He recognized it from a few prior experiences he'd had like when he'd dreamt of the first user Yoirchi Shigaraki's past with All for One. And from when Tomura Shigaraki attempted to steal OFA, and they had a battle of wills in which Izuku had prevailed.

But why was he here now? From what he'd gathered the other users could pull his presence from his sleep into their meeting room whenever they pleased, and not once before had they taken him to this place to have a meeting instead. What was going on? Perhaps they weren't summoning him, and he was about to have another vision of a past experience from one of the other users? Possible, but that would imply that they weren't interested in speaking with me right now. And… that doesn't really make sense after all that's happened. No matter how displeased with me they might get they aren't the type of people to just… give the cold shoulder treatment and avoid an encounter.

"No, we're not those kinds of people, Izuku." A familiar feminine voice called out from behind him, causing him to react quickly, spinning around to look upon who'd approached him while also realizing that he must've been muttering his thoughts.

"Nana Shimura!" Izuku responded, letting off a little more relief than he intended to at seeing her, with a small smile. He noted that she was standing before him by herself, not accompanied by the other seven predecessors, which did well to alleviate a bit of the stress he'd been feeling.

While he was prepared to face them all, he had to admit that their combined force was quite imposing. And some of them were… less understanding than the others. Nana Shimura was perhaps the kindest of them all. She'd been the one to train All Might and taught him the way of his famous hero smile after all. Every experience he'd had with her made him think of her more and more of a motherly figure. She was just that caring towards him.

She did, however, have the potential to be an agonizingly stern and lecturing woman if she felt it necessary to. Izuku just hoped that she was in one of her more understanding moods, because truth be told he was struggling to hold himself together. All the rapid crazy chain of events had been weighing on his mind, and he didn't know if he could deal with one more person telling him everything he was doing was wrong.

"Hello, Izuku," she replied warmly, giving him a quick smile before crossing her arms and giving the complexion of a disappointed parent. Oh, great… so you're not in the nice Shimura mood… he thought as he felt his shoulders tense.

"I know you've been avoiding us and not exactly looking forward to having to speak with us again. But I'm glad that you acknowledged that this needs to happen. I figured a meeting with all of us would come across as a bit too stressful for you, so I convinced the others to just let me talk with you alone instead." She explained calmly. Probably a good idea, seeing as how I already don't know if I can deal with you alone.

"Okay… to start, thank you for coming to me alone… I really appreciate it, Miss Shimura." Izuku began, while letting out a tensed breath. He could easily tell that despite trying to sound as friendly as possible she too had held her own anger for his decisions. "But I don't really see what there is to talk about-"

Nana cut him off before he could finish his statement, "Oh, you don't see what there's to discuss? Izuku as disappointed that I am that you would shut me out and not even let me speak to you for all this time, I'm more upset by how you're handling yourself with no regard of your own life!" she shouted angrily, extending her arms in exasperation. "You say that you're a hero who wants to save everyone, but what about yourself, Izuku? You're taking unnecessary risks left and right and now look where you are! You've left yourself completely vulnerable to this girl!" Izuku grit his teeth. She's not dancing around the subject at all. Fine, we can get straight into it if you insist.

"Yeah, I am the hero who saves everyone, and that includes villains too! I've already told you that I'm going to save Shigaraki despite all the terrible things that he's done, so why is it that you're so upset about me also giving the same courtesy to someone who's literally asking for my help?" he retorted; feeling his own anger spike, balling his hands into fists. Calm down, Izuku. Calm down.

"Because you're not living with my grandson. I don't know how exactly you plan on saving Tenko, but I doubt that you'll be nearly as reckless as you're being with this girl. Izuku, you're allowing yourself to sleep with a villain just a room over from you! How can you not see how dangerous that is? You've essentially placed your life in her hands, and at any moment if she wanted it, she could easily end it." She clearly had no plans of backing down as she stood tall with narrowed eyes. But Izuku wouldn't either.

"Danger Sense would wake me up before any threat managed to make it to my room, and with my power I'd be more than fast enough to prepare for whatever was coming at me. Besides, I know that Toga wouldn't do anything; she's had countless opportunities to kill me if she wanted to when I was sleeping for four days." Izuku stated bluntly, as if what he was saying was the most obvious thing in the world, "And putting aside the moral argument for why I need to do this, do I really need to point out why strategically this is an opportunity that I can't let go to waste?" he questioned challengingly, practically daring Nana to refute him.

"There are better ways to go about gathering intel on your enemies than impulsively trusting one." Nana reprimanded, tightening her grip on her folded arms causing her yellow elbow high gloves to crease. Izuku absentmindedly noticed that her long dark hair suddenly started dancing alongside a sudden gust of wind, which was odd seeing as they were inside One for All and there shouldn't really be any sort of weather, but he didn't give it any thought; he was too focused on the argument at hand.

"Really? Could you then explain what some of those 'better ways' would be? Because I'm having a hard time thinking of anything more efficient than direct individual files dedicated to the villains that I'll eventually have to face." As Izuku continued on with his retort he found himself questioning why he'd felt such animosity towards her. He realized that Nana was just worried about him and afraid that he was putting himself in danger, but she also treated him in way that showed a massive lack of faith in his judgement. And that hurt. I understand being skeptical, but you don't believe in me in the slightest bit… do you?

Nana looked to be deep in thought thinking over her words for a long moment, and ultimately appeared to be frustrated at an inability to come up with an answer to Izuku's question. Eventually however, after a prolonged tense silence, she spoke, "Why wouldn't you just arrest her and take the information to the other heroes? Once she removed those quirk suppressors from you it'd be hardly a challenge." She countered. Her sternness reminded him all too much of Gran Torino, and how harsh he could be at times.

Izuku found himself hesitating with his answer, and even momentarily questioning himself. It was true, while Toga was a deadly fighter and probably faster than most people he'd faced; with how powerful he'd become with One for All and the other quirks he would've most likely been able to take her down pretty quickly if he fought smart. Then he just would've had to drop the apprehended Toga off at whatever fortified prison he could find then make his way to the nearest designated shelter with the documents. It would've been relatively simple, but to Izuku, it was never really an option.

He saw the future and the consequences of his actions if he were to go down that path. He saw what would happen to Toga and her potential to change. He saw the darkness that would await her, the despair, the hopelessness, the suffering, and he wouldn't allow it.

Raising his gaze with furrowed eyebrows to return Nana's heavy eye contact, he stayed firm in his stance, "If I would have turned my back on her the moment she gave me my quirks back and taken the information that she'd specifically gathered for me just like that, then any faint trace of faith she has left for hero society would be gone, and any part of her that wants to be saved would be crushed." He passionately explained. "I can't do that to her. I won't."

Nana took a step forward, "Izuku, you know how much I admire your optimistic way of always looking for the good in people. It's amazing and a testament to how good a person you really are. But this girl is not your responsibility, and she doesn't deserve your trust. Please, just listen to reason for once and go back to UA, back to your friends, and back to where you'll be safe." She approached him, placing her hands pleadingly on his shoulders, looking down into his eyes urging him to go back on his plans. Listen to reason? You really think that I haven't thought through my choices? That I'm just an impulsive child incapable of making my own decisions?

For a moment he looked as though he was considering her words, deep in thought, before narrowing his eyes and not hiding his anger in the slightest bit, "Nana, you and the other predecessors may be able to observe the events that I go through, but you can't see through my eyes, not really. You can't look into Toga's eyes the same way I do and see the things I see." He brushed his shoulders free of her grasp suddenly, while a resounding thunderclap rumbled in the distance at the same time, drawing the alarmed attention of Nana, but not Izuku.

"She wants to change, Nana, she really does. And I've decided that I'm going to help her do it." Izuku quietly but fiercely added on, taking a step away from her, signifying how he wanted to be finished with the conversation. You've made it clear that you won't listen to me, and I'm done arguing. My classmates wouldn't listen either, and I've just about ran out of patience.

"Izuku, wait just a momen-" she desperately attempted to draw Izuku's attention and direct his gaze to the ominous dark purple and black storm clouds forming overhead which were almost imperceptibly drizzling down light rain, but he wouldn't listen.

"No! dammit! I'm tired of all of you doubting my decisions left and right and drowning out my opinions with your own!" he bellowed, cutting her off and waving his right arm horizontally with cracks of Full Cowling sparking in response to his emotions. It's not the fact that you don't trust Toga, I can more than understand that. It's that you don't trust me… God, I just want to wake up… or at least be able to sleep peacefully without having to defend myself.

"Izuku…" Nana muttered looking almost defiant at first, but then confused, and then sad as she let go of her crossed arms and let them drop to her side. But whatever emotions were running through her were lost on Izuku, as the storm around them grew worse and worse until the rain was unbearably heavy, covering the both of them in unpleasant cold drenched coats of liquid.

Out of nowhere, Izuku felt a sudden strange tug on his entire body, feeling as though it were trying to pull him down through the now puddle covered rock ground he stood on. He let out surprised yelp when his haze covered right leg was forcefully dragged into the ground, only leaving his upper thigh and rest of his body above. With frightened eyes, he looked to where his leg had been pulled, and saw the unsettling sight of his limb phasing through the surface as though he had Togata's permeation quirk. What?! What the hell's happening to me?! It feels as though my body's being absorbed…

"Izuku!" he heard Nana shout in panic, but for some reason it sounded like she was far away now, like suddenly there was an entire football field between them. He attempted to lift his head and search for where she was, but before he could the invisible tug resumed its assault and started pulling his leg deeper into the ground.

He desperately tried to pull back against the unknown force to free his leg but found his efforts useless. He'd been brought down to an awkward kneeling over position with only his left leg and arms to fight back. Panic surged through his veins while his heartbeat rose to an unhealthy rate. He tried to calm himself, but his body refused. This… this isn't even my real body… calm down! Everything's fine. But… why do I feel as though something bad will happen if I get dragged down? My entire leg's been absorbed at this point… can I even get out of this?

Unfortunately, the moment he questioned his ability to escape the world around him seemed to respond; An ear-piercingly loud thunderclap boomed as though it were centered around him, causing him to flinch from the pain in his ears and break his composure for just a second. All it took was that instant of losing his focus however for his hands to slip out from under him and send him careening to the ground, slamming his face first into the rocks excruciatingly.

The sudden impact to his head caused the world to turn white and he just about lost hold of the rest of his senses as well. There was a distinct tormenting ringing in his ears which also served to make it difficult to regrasp his focus and control of the situation. It was only when the terrifying sensation of his stomach being absorbed into the ground that he overcame his dazed state.

"Cr…CRAP!" He shouted with the setting realization of powerlessness overcoming him. All he had left was his torso and arms. Everything else below had been completely overtaken and absorbed into the unknown. He tried to call upon One for All, but dreadfully felt nothing respond to his commands. He frantically turned and looked all around him for anything that could possibly help him escape; anything to grab onto, anything that could possibly be used pull himself out.

It occurred to him that he had not once thought of asking Nana for help, or if he even wanted it. It's not like she's even around… urgh… crap… damn this feels weird… whatever's happening it seems to have separated us. Guess I got my wish…

"IZUKU!" he heard Nana shout for him once again, only this time sounding a lot closer than before. Lifting his gaze from his own efforts he found that she'd been running towards him in a hurried dash. Her speed was remarkable; she'd most likely be upon him in moments, and he noted that she looked even more panicked about what was happening to him than he was. In fact, the look in her eye had a knowing feel behind them, as if she knew exactly what was going on.

He was going to call out and question her about what she knew, but the words got caught in his throat as he felt his left arm get absorbed, leaving him with merely his neck and other arm. He could tell that he was about to get completely submerged once and for all, and that despite Nana's efforts, she'd be too late.

"Just hang on! Don't shut us out, Izuku!" she'd be upon him in seconds, but her words gave him pause. What...? Don't shut you out? What's that supposed to mean? What exactly does it look like I'm doing here, huh?! I'm not TRYING to do this! Did I somehow give you the impression that my desperate struggles to not get terrifyingly absorbed into the ground was intentional!

He failed to notice that the angrier his thoughts got the stronger the pull became, as his right arm started to sink.

For whatever reason he found himself accepting his fate as she was about to reach out for him. He saw her lips start moving and figured that she'd been saying something to encourage him to take her hand and keep fighting, but he couldn't hear her anymore; his head was now halfway absorbed including his ears, drowning out all sound.

This is nothing more than some sort of nightmare. Although I've never had one this vivid, or one inside of One for All like this, it'll all be fine. Once I go under, I'll just wake up and this'll all be over. Sorry, Nana, but I don't want to talk anymore. I hope you'll be able to understand.

He looked into his predecessors' eyes one last time, and for a moment, he felt immense remorse. Seeing her look down at him like a loving mother on the verge of tears shouting something in fear of losing her child made him think over the way he'd been fighting with her. He felt regret for not trying harder to come to a peaceful resolution, even if she'd been making it difficult.

He wanted to say something to apologize to her, to make amends, to do anything to take the pain away that was filling her eyes, but it was too late. Darkness surrounded his world as the invisible force finally won its battle, dragging the rest of his head below the surface, and into the void.


When Izuku opened his eyes, he expected to find himself peacefully sprawled out and greedily enveloped in the infinite warmth of the most comfortable wool blanket he'd ever had the privilege of sleeping with. Or, in case he'd somehow managed to dream of the entire day he'd spent with Himiko Toga, he expected to wake up in some extraordinarily uncomfortable rundown shack that he'd setup camp in for the night before going out on another day of hunting down Tartarus escapees.

So, he was rather surprised to discover himself standing in the middle of some unknown street with heavily damaged houses flanking both sides of it. Doors of some of the homes looked to be violently torn off the hinges, and many of the windows were shattered as well. From what he could barely see of the insides of the homes, they appeared to be in no better state than their exteriors. There wasn't a single vehicle in sight either. Whether it was from an opened garage, the driveways, or even on the street itself, there was nothing. It was as if the place had been completely abandoned, and then a group of crazed looters came in and had their way with the unoccupied buildings.

Then there was the condition the street was in. The concrete itself was deeply cracked in numerous different spots alongside multiple deep potholes, as if there'd been a strong earthquake that ravaged the area. Just what happened here exactly?

Trying to think deeper on the situation and recall what could've led him there, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that he was wearing his tinted beige gloves from his hero costume as he subconsciously went to scratch his chin. Checking the rest of his body, he found Gran Torino's now dirty and battered cape worn around his neck along with his trusty respirator, which was slightly rusted and chipped after the endless battles he'd gone through without repairing it. After finishing his checkup, he concluded that he'd been wearing his complete hero costume, as poor condition as it was in. Whenever I get the chance; I really need to clean myself up.

Moving on to look around to try and find some sort of familiarity or indication about where the hell he could possibly be, he came up with close to nothing. He supposed that the houses looked familiar to some neighborhoods he'd seen around Musutafu before, but he highly doubted it. It wouldn't make any sense for me to be in Musutafu. Even if I imagined everything that happened yesterday, I'd be somewhere around Kamino right now. Maybe I'm still…

His thoughts were interrupted by the foul fumes of something burning filling his nose, causing him to scrunch his face disdainfully at the scent. He couldn't quite place exactly what it was, but the strength of it suggested that it was nearby. Going into hero mode at the sudden potential danger of a fire, he spun around to locate the crisis. Wait… the sky!

Upon turning around, the disturbing sight of a blood red sky glaring down on the world greeted him. Observing such a scene threatened to buckle his knees as he tried to stand tall despite the sudden weight he was feeling on his shoulders. It was like he somehow knew there was a direct source of the corrupted sky, and whatever it was it was threatening everything he held dear, and it would brutally destroy it all if he didn't stop it. But something… was whispering to him that he was too late.

Just a little beyond his field of vision above a hill that he suddenly remembered all too well, there was a massive amount of clouds of fire filled smoke exploding into the air and making its way to combine with the red sky. It truly was a horrific sight, and he worried about the possibility of anyone who could've got caught in it, but he didn't have time to sit around and wallow in his growing fear. Every second wasted could be another live lost, and he wouldn't have that.

Full Cowling… Eighty-Five Percent… The massive rush of power felt different than it normally did… as if it were, altered? He didn't know but wasn't willing to waste a moment pondering over it, as he squatted down and made a massive bound leaping towards the source of the smoke, leaving behind a considerable thoom and cloud of dust in his wake.

The buildings below became mere blurs as he nearly doubled his speed with his next bound after landing from the first. He was tempted to increase his output of OFA to go even faster, but held back due to the thought of there possibly being a powerful enemy waiting for him and needing to save as much of his strength for the potential fight.

As he got closer, he started recognizing his destination more clearly, and it made his heart sink. There was a reason after all that the hill he'd been approaching looked familiar. He'd ascended it countless times over the course of the year and had even battled a man who'd gone by the name of Gentle Criminal on it before. So… this is Musutafu! No… no, no no no… that means… the fires coming from UA!

Losing all previous restrains at the realization, he increased his output to ninety percent, causing his hair to stand up and give off a spiky appearance. Electrical blue sparks of energy surged brightly from his eyes and body, making him look like a shooting blue star to anyone who'd manage to get a glimpse of him soaring through the sky.

Feeling the tug of gravity start to pull him down from his current bound into a descent that would slow him down, he decided to deploy another course of action. Float, plus Ninety Percent One For All. Kicking his legs violently with the current full power he was omitting, he unleashed a powerful blast of air pressure to propel himself forward, significantly faster than before, while also making use of Float to avoid having to land again.

The combined quirks made ascending the hill take only a matter of seconds, but upon seeing what was waiting for him he immediately made an emergency landing just outside what was supposed to be the front gates to the schoolgrounds. Without deactivating his powers, he looked upon the incredibly intimidating giant black high-tech looking maximum-security walls standing in front of him, blocking the school from view. Gawking at its sheer height, he estimated that it had to be at the very least a hundred meters tall and centered at the top of the entry portion of the wall was a clear label displaying "UA" and written in a bit of smaller font beneath it, "EMERGENCY SECURITY SYSTEM".

At the sides of the entry gate were what he assumed to be two corresponding security towers to observe anything that made its way towards the wall. Or, at least, what was supposed to be two towers. Whatever had once stood on the left side of the entrance had been completely demolished, leaving nothing but rubble and flames in its remains, partially contributing to the smoke that was emitting into the sky.

As for the entrance itself down on ground-level, it too had been completely blown off its original place, leaving spider-web shaped cracks traveling up the rest of the wall.

This is… unbelievable… I've only been gone for, what…? A little more than a week? How did you put this together in that time! Izuku thought to himself, while calling on his power again to dash into the schoolgrounds to find his way to the epicenter of the chaos. Once he made his way past the security gate it was more than easy to see where the main source of smoke was coming from. But there were a lot of obstacles in his way.

Weaving through the newly organized layout of the school, Izuku noted that there were more dormitories constructed in every direction, a lot more. They could easily house more than thousands of people with all the new buildings, which made sense to him seeing as UA was basically the first and biggest designated shelter setup in the country. But I don't have time to admire your handiwork, Principal Nezu… what happened here? Are you safe? Are you alright?

His panic was rapidly worsening as he could tell that the fumes were pouring out centrally from where he knew the actual school itself stood. And judging from the amount of smoke alone he knew deep down that the entire structure itself was most likely set ablaze. If not already completely destroyed…

From where he was currently running, he just had to turn the corner of one more dormitory and he'd find the carnage, and most likely whatever or whoever had been the cause along with it. Just as he was about to make his final dash and launch into what could be a terrible battle waiting for him, he saw something out of his peripheral vision just outside the final dorm. Digging his iron soles into the ground to stop his momentum so he could investigate what he'd thought he'd seen, he turned back in the direction of the building.

His first instinct upon finding what he'd thought he saw was to bend over and violently vomit, but instead his body didn't react in a single way other than entering a shocked state, and hanging his mouth open with widened nearly emotionless eyes. Sprawled out all over the bloodied grass of the front lawn of the dorm, were the bodies of multiple members of classes A and B, all motionless, and mutilated.

What should've been green on the yard was instead painted red, as numerous severed limbs and torn pieces of hero costumes were scattered in every which way. Not a single sound could be heard from the still bodies, and the smell was so putrid and unbearable, consisting of overwhelming copper, burned flesh and charred bone, and other scents you'd expect to find at the graveyard of a battlefield.

Internally he was screaming at himself to move, to rush to their bodies and check each and every one of them for any possible survivors. Someone… anyone… SOMEONE has to still be alive…! SO MOVE DAMNIT! But his body wouldn't respond to his commands, no matter how desperately he roared at himself to save them. And no matter how much he told himself that someone had to still be alive, he knew deep down that not a single soul remained in the corpses in front of him.

While his body stayed frozen in place, he tried to at least avert his gaze to not traumatize himself any further by burning the image of the scene deeper into his mind, but not even that worked. He found his gaze scanning each and every body analytically, despite not wanting to do so with every fiber of his being.

He saw Uraraka lying face down on the ground, almost as if she'd been dropped there from a large height, earning the first choked sob out of him. Then his eyes robotically turned to Shoto, who's chest had been pierced by what he knew was one of his own constructed pieces of ice. Stop… please… no more… I don't want to look at anymore of this… his eyes then turned to Tenya, then to Kendou, then to Kirishima, then to Ashido, then to Tsuyu, then to Monoma, then to Momo, to Shiozaki, to Jiro… and then finally to Aizawa.

It appeared that each of them had been murdered in a way that had been done so by the usage of their own quirks; with the exception of the few of them that couldn't because their quirks couldn't be used in such a way, like Aizawa, Tsuyu, and Monoma.

Once whatever had been compelling him to observe each body of his murdered friends had finished, he found himself with control over his body once again, only to weakly fall to his knees in agony to sob his heart out and scream animalistically. He clutched at the fabric of Gran Torino's cape so tightly with his right hand as if it were a way to somehow call out to him, so he could fly in and comfort him to take the pain away, to somehow undo what he had undoubtedly just seen.

He cried and yelled until his throat grew hoarse and his eyes felt as though they were running dry. He stared at anything except the massacre he knelt before, denying what he saw over and over, not having the strength to accept his failure. This can't be happening. It can't. This can't be real. This is just a nigh-

"DIE!" he heard the unmistakable voice of his childhood friend scream out in the distance, followed up by a set of explosions immediately coming after his signature battle cry, cutting him off from his thoughts once again. KACHAAN! YOU'RE ALIVE! He didn't even need to turn to locate the direction of where he had heard his voice, he just knew it was coming from the original destination he'd been heading towards before he got distracted.

Blackwhip, plus Float, plus One For All Ninety Percent. Without wasting time to rise back to his feet and turnaround to align himself to the proper trajectory, he aimed his right hand towards the corner of the building that he needed to pass and launched a single thick tendril of Blackwhip to latch onto it, and then yanked himself with the combined force of One For All and Float to maximize his speed.

Flying in a wide arc around the building, he released the tendril at the moment of highest velocity which resulted in a deafening blast of air pressure that most definitely shattered any glass in the surrounding vicinity, but he wouldn't be able to know that with the one-track mind he was running with. Everything other than getting to Bakugo before he could die like the others was nothing more than a distraction that he wouldn't stop for.

When his eyes found his friend, everything started passing in slow motion, and he observed everything at a mile a second. The first thing he noticed were the five villains surrounding Bakugo, all of which were aiming down at him with what he knew would be killing blows to finish of a seemingly prolonged battle. The next thing he found were the countless Nomu that he assumed had to be High-Ends circling the area, as if they were starved animals waiting for their chance to jump in and consume the remains of their prey. He could've sworn he recognized the one flying above the rest looking down on them all, as if it were their king. But if it were the one he'd been thinking of then it must've gone through a lot of modifications.

He then saw the state that Bakugo was in; deep gashes all over his body, disgusting purple bruises littered across the exposed skin of his arms, both of his grenade designed gauntlets completely obliterated leaving nothing but his broken hands to show, and that he'd been forced down to his knees in a defeated position awaiting his execution.

He'd never seen him with such a hopeless expression before. The usual arrogant fire in his eyes had visibly burned out, along with not even a twitch coming from his still arms that hung limply at his sides. It was utterly heartbreaking for Izuku to see, to say the least. He then noticed that each villain had been in perfectly fine condition as well, with not even a single scratch or ruffled hair either. Everything about them gave the visage that they hadn't even broken a sweat and that they were having the time of their lives, basking in the brutal grotesque violence that they'd just committed. And that angered him even more.

Standing in the center of the formation of the villains was All for One's original body, sporting his unnatural grin that was too wide for what should've been possible for a human face to make. Flanking his left and right was Shigaraki who had been wearing a nearly picture-perfect replica smile of his masters, and Dabi on the other, who just wore a basic grin.

Standing next to the eldest Todoroki son was none other than that bastard Overhaul, who Izuku had nearly hated just as much as AFO himself, for what he'd done to Eri, but he just looked bored of the entire situation. And the final villain standing beside Shigaraki looked like it was someone he'd encountered before, but for whatever reason his mind wouldn't let him put the pieces together. It was like there was a mental block preventing him from putting a name to his face, which was covered partially by a black and purple mask with silver eyes and long wavy white hair.

All of them had a hand extended and pointing towards Bakugo, moments away from ending things. But Izuku wouldn't allow that.

Rushing forward, he dully noted that he soared above a few bodies of what must've been pro heroes that he did not recognize; like one giant woman who wore a stripped cape that he knew was designed after the American flag. But it only passed his vision for half a second, as he had his sights set on who was still alive, and who he could still save. It'll be difficult to attack with Kachaan in the middle of them… but that doesn't matter! This is the only way to save him!

"Detroit SMASH!" Izuku settled for an indirect attack as to avoid hurting Bakugo too much, but also enough to blow their enemies away, by using all ninety percent to punch the air and send a massive torrent of wind at the group. Whatever their surprised reactions were, he did not know, as they were instantly blown away and sent on a crash course for the flaming rubbles of broken wood, shattered glass, and other materials that made up the building that was once UA. Before Bakugo could fly away with them, Izuku quickly extended a tendril of Blackwhip from the hand he hadn't punched with to grab and retrieve him.

The gust of wind from his attack combined with the impact of the villains on the broken building was more than enough to send a large cloud of debris and dust to obscure the field of vision of the area.

Pulling Bakugo back, he caught him in his arms and immediately knelt over to start checking on his condition. "Kachaan! Stay with me! Everything's going to be fine now, I'm here for you. They won't hurt you anymore!" Izuku desperately tried to assure him, but couldn't help the few faltering cracks in his voice as he took in just how bad of shape he was in. He hadn't been able to tell from the distance he'd been observing from before, but now he could clearly see a nasty slash cutting down from the right side of the top of his forehead going straight down, through his closed eye and stopping at his jaw.

Bakugo didn't even show signs of acknowledging that Izuku was there, as he just continued to emotionlessly stare off into nothingness, his breathing growing weaker, his arms hanging limp and broken.

"Kachaan, say something!" Izuku begged, barely keeping his voice below a full out shout. He didn't even know where to start on treating his wounds, and that added with the fact that he knew his initial attack definitely wasn't even close to enough to stop all of those villains, he didn't have the time to perform extensive care on his friend either. There was also the problem of all the Nomu circling them, but perceivably awaiting something before attacking.

"Deku…" he heard Bakugo very faintly mutter, with a voice so frail that it sounded like the remaining lifeforce that he had left would be blown away with just the flick of a finger. Izuku's breathing hitched, darting his eyes to meet the one that his friend had left, not knowing whether to feel relieved that he'd managed to talk, or to be terrified of the obvious signs of death approaching.

"Kachaan…! It's… it's okay! I'm going to get you out of here! We're both going to survive this! And when we do… we're both going to live on to compete for the number one spot. Just like we always said we would!" Izuku once again tried to calm him, this time by mentioning the dreams that he knew they both shared from throughout their childhood. He thought that if anything, his aspirations to be the number one hero and surpass even All Might would keep his will to live going.

But of all things to get in response, he wasn't expecting the pure disdain and hatred that was being directed straight at him from that single surviving eye.

"…Kachaan?"

"Cut the fucking shit… Deku…" he muttered, still in a weak voice, but with powerful repulsion laced within it. He then raised one of his beaten purple covered arms and attempted to grab at Izuku's metal respirator attached around his neck, but visibly grimaced as he struggled with his partially broken right hand. "What the fuck were you doing… huh? This is all your fault you useless piece of shit." The unadulterated venom in his words felt like knives stabbing into his heart repeatedly, hurting more than any wound ever could.

Izuku tried to respond; not even to defend himself, but to try to once again calm his friend from expending what little energy he had left, but he did not know what to say in the face of such unexpected hostility. At the very least he raised a nervous shaky hand to place over Bakugo's so he could stop him from squeezing his respirator. But he just tightened his grip in response when he tried to remove his hand.

"Well, DEKU?! What the fuck have you been doing all this time with that damned power All Might gave you! Were you just fucking around this entire year, not mastering it, and leaving us to pick up the slack!" Bakugo snarled accusingly, and if he could, Izuku was sure he would be setting off threatening miniature explosions in his hands.

"I… It's not like that, I… I worked my hardest all year long… I built up as much of One for All as quickly as my body would allow… I'm sorry." Izuku practically mumbled with uncertainty, never breaking eye contact. What am I doing? As much as this hurts, I don't have time to waste on this! If I don't hurry up and do something to treat his wounds, then he's going to die!

"Don't you fucking touch me. This is all your fault, bastard! Why didn't you stop them before now?! Why didn't you find Shigaraki before he finished his transformation! Before he came here and killed everyone?!" Izuku ignored his wishes and removed his hand forcefully but as gently as possible, returning it to his side. He then moved to one of the pouches geared to his belt to attain some of his first aid equipment, all the while doing his best to ignore the curses Bakugo was spewing towards him.

"Indeed, Izuku Midoriya, why didn't you stop us?" Izuku was forced to halt his efforts to raise his guard against the now recovered enemies behind him. Placing one hand tenderly on Bakugo's chest, and the other on his back to gently lay him down on the ground in a resting position, he rose to his feet to stand defiant against the impossible foes awaiting him; knowing full well that his chances of defeating their combined forces would be slim if not nonexistent.

He was met with All for One giving him a taunting smile, standing in front of his unscathed allies. You're the reason for all of this… you were the direct cause of all our suffering… and now, you're the cause of the deaths of all my friends! The reason Kachaan's on the verge of death! Why?! I can't ever forgive a monster like you… for the sake of the world; you have to be destroyed!

Full Cowling, One Hundred Percent! He tensed all his muscles and geared himself in preparation to go all out. He expected to feel the red braces covering his arms that were designed to alleviate the damages done to his body from using high amounts of OFA break apart, but bizarrely no such thing happened. They just remained intact, not even the slightest trace of strain showing. I thought All Might said that these would be annihilated when I used my full power…

"I wouldn't make a move if I were you. That is, if you don't want dear Kachaan's head here to plop right off his shoulders and roll right on over to your feet." AFO advised, barely restraining his excitement in his tone.

Izuku's eyes widened in disbelief and horror, as Bakugo straight up just emerged out of thin air right in front of AFO, being held tightly by the back of his neck, facing him with a still spiteful expression.

"WHAT?!" Izuku exclaimed in denial, turning around to look at where he'd set down Bakugo just moments ago, and finding that he truly was no longer there and that his eyes had not been deceiving him. How? How, HOW?! What on earth is going on here! How are so many things that should be impossible happening?! Is it all just different quirks that All for One has? Not even that would make any sense!

"Let him go!" he yelled hopelessly, not knowing what to do, but at the very least trying to buy some time so he could think.

"Or what exactly? Look around you, young one. You are hopelessly outnumbered, outpowered, and outmatched. Could you even hope to defeat just Tomura here now that his transformation is complete?" AFO questioned obviously rhetorically, clearly having more than enough confidence in his successor. "Honestly, before now, I thought that this moment would be a lot more fun to take my time in tormenting you before executing your friend right before you, as you do nothing but watch, helplessly, powerlessly. But now that I have you here?" He paused momentarily to give a chilling toothy grin, tightening his grip around Bakugo's neck and earning some instinctive squirms.

Izuku held his breath. Smoke, flames, debris, a blood red sky, and the desperate squirms of his suffering friend was his entire world in that moment.

"I just don't want to wait any longer to see what kind of expression you'll make! Show it to me, Izuku! Let's find out together!" AFO rejoiced in anticipation, unleashing the full amount of power his hand could produce into an unholy squeeze.

In that moment, several things happened. The first was Izuku hearing a ghostly feminine voice shouting his name repeatedly sounding as though it were coming from all around him. The next was the realization that he was currently having a nightmare, and how that explained all the illogical occurrences happening throughout the dream. Like how OFA's power had felt different, how he found himself in the middle of Musutafu despite being nowhere near the area beforehand, how his armbraces were capable of withstanding one hundred percent, and how Bakugo appeared out of thin air.

And the last thing that happened was Izuku barely managing to wake up before the disturbing sounds of bones snapping and crushing could fill his ears.


Izuku opened his eyes, finding that he'd been crying out in his sleep, and even possibly screaming, but had no way of being able to tell. He could feel his body beneath his hero costume that he'd forgotten to change out of before going to bed was covered in a slick cold coat of sweat, and that his face still had fresh tears streaming down them, embedding themselves into his already moist cheeks.

He'd been trying so hard to wake up before he'd witness another horrifying experience in what felt like a never-ending nightmare, that once he opened his eyes, he violently jerked his entire upper body into a sitting up position. Unfortunately, he found that there'd been something above him that blocked his path, causing him to slam his head against something equally as hard as his own skull.

"Agh!" he yelped at the sudden pain.

"Shit!" another voice cried.

Izuku groaned in pain while gently rubbing what he was hoping wasn't a growing bump on the top of his forehead, returning to a lying down position. "Why do I keep hitting my head…" he complained to no one in particular. After a few more moments of assuaging what had become a pounding headache, he started to acknowledge his surroundings, and how it was unusual that he hit his head against something. I don't remember anything hanging so low over the bed… wait… did I hear someone say 'shit'?

"owowow" he heard the voice whimper again, this time from the other end of the bed. Shooting up once more from his laid-back position, this time taking care to make sure there wasn't anything unexpected waiting for him to slam into, he looked to confirm his suspicions.

"Toga!" he exclaimed, finding that she was laying on her back just a couple feet away from his legs, rubbing her own forehead in obvious pain from what he figured was being on the receiving end of his accidental headbutt. Oh… crap. "Oh my… Toga! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! I didn't know you would be there, I, uh, er… I didn't mean to just kick up like that. It was kind of just, reflex… I'm really sorry!" he rapidly apologized, while clumsily attempting to remove himself from his wool blanket, which proved to be much more difficult than it should've been as he nearly fell of the bed in the tangled mess he found himself in.

When he finally escaped, he frantically rushed onto his knees to her side to check on her condition and see if what he'd done would leave a mark. From what he could see beneath her hands, her skin looked to be getting a bit red, but thankfully didn't appear to be bleeding at all, which earned a light sigh of relief from him.

"Izuuu… what the hell was thaaaat…" she moaned in exasperation, but he could tell that she wasn't angry in the slightest bit with him. She dragged her hands down from her forehead to cover her eyes and took some deep breaths. After what felt like a prolonged silence between them, she parted her fingers to give herself a peephole to peak out at him.

Izuku noticed her yellow eyes gazing at him instantly, as he may have been… staring at her. But it was only because he felt guilty about hitting her and was worried about her! Yeah… because… it's because I was worried about how bad I might've hurt her…!

She looked as though she were studying something about his face; like she was trying to find an explanation for something she was seeing. That only served to make him slightly confused, and even grow a bit flustered as he thought there might've been something wrong about him that was bothering her.

"Umm… again, I'm really sorry about hitting your head. Are you okay?" he restated his question, trying to break some of the awkwardness he'd started feeling while nervously rubbing the back of his neck. It didn't even occur to him that it was still the middle of the night and completely dark out until he saw the way the moonlight reflected off Toga's smooth delicate looking light skin, and how it complimented her almost glowing yellow eyes. In that moment his thoughts started drifting off to less composed topics, like how beautiful she really was and how he'd never even thought about her that way before. Wait, what...? what the hell, brain?! Stop that!

"I'm fine don't worry about it. Besides, it's my fault for yelling at you in your sleep and waking you up so abruptly." Toga answered, giving him a playful slap to his knee that was positioned just about a foot away from her head, which worked to lighten the mood a bit.

"Wait… you were trying to wake me up?" he inquired curiously, placing his hands on his knees and slightly leaning forward. I thought I heard someone's voice towards the end of that… nightmare. So that was you, huh?

"Yeah… I woke up a little bit ago, and a few minutes after I did, I heard you start making a ruckus." Izuku raised an eyebrow at her description of what he'd been doing, but waited for her to continue, "I got really worried about you, so I got up and started heading towards your room to ask if everything was alright. Then I heard you start screaming, so I didn't bother knocking and I rushed in. Things were kinda crazy when I found you…" she trailed off a bit, frowning presumably at the recollection of what she'd seen, causing Izuku to feel a bit guilty.

"You were struggling in the bed… crying, muttering a whole bunch of different things, and your cool whole lightning thing was going off like fireworks… whatever sort of nightmare you were having it looked really bad, and I know a thing or two about that, so I was really scared for you…" her frown deepened. You say you have nightmares too? It looked so personal when you said that… how often do you have them? I hope not much… Toga.

"I tried waking you up for a while, but nothing seemed to work. I started by lightly nudging your shoulder and calling to you, but I got no response. At one point things got really bad and you seemed terrified, so I got a bit more aggressive and shouted at you multiple times while shaking your shoulders more rigorously. It took about five minutes of trying to get through to you for you to finally wake up. And then wham, bam, you wacked heads with me and here we are." She concluded, still looking rather disheartened over the subject. I never thought you were capable of being so careful and caring for something before… you were really that worried about me?

Seeing that she averted her gaze from his to the other side of the bed to look out the windows, visibly distraught, he tried to come up with something to cheer her up. Feeling that words wouldn't be enough to fully convey his gratitude, he put aside his hesitant thoughts and reached out to put a gentle hand on her shoulder and did his best to ignore the feeling of her soft skin under his, "Toga, thank you." He stated softly, his voice barely above a whisper, but seeming to be enough to regrasp her attention as she shot her head back with shocked eyes looking at her shoulder; her usual perpetual blush growing far redder than normal.

"I… can't really express how grateful I am that you'd show that much concern for me… I know you probably felt really nervous about entering my room because you might've thought that I'd freak out or something and drop our partnership because of it… but despite knowing the risks, you wanted to help me wake up from whatever I was going through." Izuku didn't know the last time he'd felt this nervous about conversing with someone, but was sure that it was before the war against the Paranormal Liberation Front. Ever since then he hadn't really felt like himself and hadn't engaged in all that much social interaction at all. However, the way he was talking with Toga now made him feel more like his normal self; and that only made him feel even more appreciative.

"You may not have really thought of it like this, but that was a selfless act, Toga. Putting your own standing with me at risk to help me when you didn't need to… well, how do I put this?" He scratched his chin while trying to put together the proper words, "We haven't even been partners for an entire twenty-four hours yet, but you've already managed to reassure me that I wasn't wrong about you, and that you really do have the potential to do good. So… I guess to sum it up," he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, inadvertently earning a gasp out of her and dusting a blush on his own cheeks.

"Thank you."

Honestly, he didn't know what kind of reaction he was expecting, but more silence paired alongside her mouth hanging open in what he thought might've been shocked speechlessness was a significantly more tamed response than anything he expected from her. Wow… seriously I thought you'd use anything as an excuse to leap onto me and probably bang my head against something in the process. Did I really catch you that off guard?

"Izuku~?" she sung out his name questioningly, barely containing her steadily growing smile.

"Uh, er… yes?" he felt his voice nearly crack and felt as though he would've died of embarrassment if it had.

"If I were dressed in anything more than my underwear right now, I'd be all over you for catching me by surprise like that!" Toga effused uproariously, practically bouncing with energy that suggested that she was considering going back on her words.

"If you were dressed in wha?" Izuku's mind dramatically slowed its thinking process, having a difficult time processing the information she'd just fed him. He felt his eyes travel down his own arm to look at where he was still holding her shoulder for what he now realized had been for way too long, and finally processed just why her skin had been bare and available to his rough, calloused and scarred touch. She's… she's… she's not wearing a shirt… and if she were being literal then… she's also not…

The realization dawning on him made his entire face pale drastically, and his once natural gentle grip on her shoulder grew extremely weak and shaky, along with what he knew was nervous sweat forming under his palm. His eyes widened in horror when he met her feral gaze once more, gleaming with such a predatory glint as if she were about to pounce on her prey.

"WHY AREN'T YOU WEARING ANYTHING?!" he shouted, terrified, while quickly removing his hand and throwing himself to the furthest end of the bed that he could manage. He also managed to somehow grab one of the many spare blankets accompanying his favorite wool one during his jump and threw it with perfect precision, completely covering Toga.

Not wasting a moment in reaction, Toga ripped the blanket off her upper body, and continued to stare at him with an unrestrained smile at his retaliation, "You should be thankful I'm wearing anything! I usually sleep naked!" she countered, while actually moving an inch towards him, causing him to thoughtlessly grab one of the many pillows and chuck it at her.

"YOU COULDN'T HAVE THROWN SOMETHING ON BEFORE COMING IN HERE?!" he grabbed more pillows with both hands and took aim, preparing if she made any moves to advance.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Next time I hear you screaming I'll make sure to get properly dressed so I can look presentable!" Toga yelled back with clear sarcasm laced in her voice, grabbing the pillow that'd struck her square in the face and prepared to throw it back.

"Thanks, I'd really appreciate being at least able to look at the person who's trying to save me the next time I'm in trouble!" he answered while deflecting the pillow that she chucked back at him. "Toga… Toga stop! I'll use Blackwhip on you to keep you back! TOGA, STOP!" he pleaded, seeing her brace herself for a charge, and seemingly taking his threat as nothing more than a challenge.

Despite his mind racing in a maddened panic at the compromising position Toga was putting him in, he was still able to decipher a few things about the way she was treating him. Although I know as a fact that this isn't the entire reason you're doing this… you saw how distraught and freaked out I was from my nightmare, and you were really worried about me… Toga, this is your way of trying to get my mind off things and make me feel better, isn't it? Izuku smiled to himself at the thought, but did well to hide it from his assailant. You're a lot smarter than people give you credit for. Thank you for not asking me about what happened in my nightmare. It's like you already know that I'd rather not talk about it.

"If you really want me to stop then you should do something about that blood dripping from your forehead, Izuku~." She murmured, her eyes aiming lustfully straight above his eyes. Izuku felt his nervousness take an even stronger hold as he reached up to his forehead and indeed found it to be bleeding ever so slightly. "Don't worry, I can help you out with that. How about I lick it up for you~" the suggestiveness in her tone sent a shudder down his spine, and the look in her eyes told him that she took his reaction in an exciting way.

"No! that's fine! I can clean it up myself!" Izuku insisted, desperately wiping at the wound hoping that it would dry quicker. Which of course, as his luck would have it, it did not, as when he checked with another light tap, he found it still freshly bleeding. "You stay back! BACK DAMMIT!" Izuku cried while she pounced on him, narrowly but expertly avoiding tendrils of Blackwhip and thrown pillows to get closer and closer.

Normally, he'd be deeply disturbed by her mention of desire for his blood, but under the circumstances of how incredibly tired he still was, how he hadn't gotten a single tingle from Danger Sense which implied that everything she was planning was all in good fun, and the distraction of how she was wearing next to nothing and pursuing him, he hadn't really paid the mind to care that much.

Additionally, he had already accepted yesterday that he needed to accept her for who she was before he could help her grow into a better version of herself, and that would include living with mentions of blood every now and then. So, her desire for the red liquid protruding in a rather small amount from his forehead wouldn't come off as all too shocking even if his mind were in a fully awakened state.

His only real concern was keeping the hyperactive girl off from him, which was starting to look less and less possible with each move she made. God damn she's fast! It's way too late for someone to have this kind of energy!

As their little scuffle continued, Izuku subconsciously noted that Toga succeeded in completely distracting him from the emotional pain that his nightmare had left him in. His tears had no longer run freely down his cheeks, and his reddened eyes slowly started to return to normal. Well, normal aside from the constant alerted panic they'd shown while he tried to keep his half-naked partner from showing him any physical affection for his praise of her earlier. He'd make sure that the next time he gave her any kind of compliment that he'd have some sort of self defense plan prepared.

Another thing that he'd been distracted from noticing, was the unexplainable sensation in his mind as if he'd lost something. Something specifically having to do with One for All. It felt as though some sort of connection he had with his quirk had been severed when he had woken up. Something that he had once deeply cherished, was now broken. But in the moment he shared with Himiko Toga, he did not notice it. He was content with allowing himself to bask in what little joy he could find after such a horrific nightmare. Content with the fact that his friends had not all been killed by an enemy that he had not found yet. Content with knowing that he had not failed, and with knowing that he wouldn't allow himself to.


A/N: Could it have been separated into two chapters? Possibly. However, I simply did not want to do so. Lots of story to tell, lots of characters to introduce, and most importantly, more of Izuku and Himiko's story that needs to be written.

Firstly, I want to explain that I'm adjusting my writing style to fit a new one that I enjoy more than what I was using in the first three chapters. I'm moving on to use more singular character perspective locked sections of chapters, like what you saw in this one. Each section of a chapter will be dedicated to a single character's perspective of the events, and I'll only give insights on their thoughts and perceptions of events. Like how through Dabi's portion of this chapter I only gave insights to his thoughts and none of All for One's or Overhauls. And Izuku's section only centered around him and not Mama Shimura, or Himiko.

I hope this style feels more enjoyable and organized for you guys.

Secondly, I realized that with this chapter I needed to change the rating from T to M because of the graphic depictions of violence that not only took place in this chapter but will take place in the future as well. There are other themes like language that fit more appropriately for mature rating, and other things, but I don't want to get into those other topics as to avoid potential spoilers.

If the writing was too dark at any point for you and you don't feel comfortable reading it, then I'm sorry and I understand.

Well, that's about a forty-page chapter out of me, and I have to say that I am spent. It takes me a lot of time to review and revise something this long, so I apologize for the wait that it took.

Also, I read some of your reviews stating your concerns about how I'm handling Toga, and if she's being depicted as too innocent. All I have to say is that I'm going to write her in my own way, and that I hope you don't feel disappointed. But also, just wait for a chapter centered around her to get a better understanding for where she's at.

Anyways, and as always, thank you all so much for all the follows, favorites, and especially reviews! I appreciate all of you, and reading your comments really helps me out. We've got a crap ton of follows since the posting of chapter 3, and it was amazing! Thank you all for being here! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Have a great rest of your day!