all for two two for all

by ChaoskingXD

why don't you find out?

All For Two and Two For All Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/38382340.

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings Category: F/M, M/M, Multi Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア Boku no Hero Academia My Hero

Academia Relationship: Kirishima Eijirou/Midoriya Izuku, Jirou Kyouka/Midoriya Izuku, Jirou

Kyouka/Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Inko/Yagi Toshinori All Might, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina/Midoriya Izuku, Ashido Mina/Jirou Kyouka, Ashido Mina/Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Shouto/Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto/Uraraka Ochako

Character: Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki, Yagi Toshinori All Might, Aizawa Shouta Eraserhead, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia)

Additional Tags: Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has All for One Quirk, Bakugou Katsuki Has One for All Quirk, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku are Best Friends, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku are Childhood Friends, Sensei All For One is Midoriya Izuku's Parent, Parental Yagi Toshinori All Might, Parental Aizawa Shouta Eraserhead, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Quirk Discrimination (My Hero Academia), Rated For Violence, Polyamory, Yoarashi Inasa Goes to U.A. High School, Yagi Toshinori All Might is a Good Teacher

Language: English Collections: Amazing BNHA fics, every fic Ko has read in 2022 (and loved), Dkn,

Fanfiction Deem Worthy Of The Name, Absolute Best, If I Was A Dragon This Would Be My Hoard, Nox's Favorite BNHA fics

Stats: Published: 2022-04-14 Updated: 2022-11-17 Chapters: 30/? Words: 243070

All For Two and Two For All by Arktron66

Summary

Name: Izuku Midoriya Quirk: All For One

Name: Katsuki Bakugou Quirk: One For All

Izuku and Katsuki grow up bullied and as social outcasts, one with a villains quirk who everyone thinks should be in jail and the other without any quirk at all. Their joint dreams of being heroes seem unachievable to everyone but each other. But when All Might meets the unknown son of his greatest enemy and his quirkless best friend he realises /users/Arktron66/pseuds/Arktron66

together they could be so much more than a symbol of peace. Working together he knows that the two best friends could shake their society to it's very core. Especially if between them they possessed the two most powerful quirks in the world.

Quirk Diagnosis

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou met when they were each just a few weeks old. The meeting had gone as expected, Inko and Izuku had visited only two weeks after Izuku was born. Both mothers had cooed as Inko had placed Izuku in Katsuki's playpen. Both babies had rolled about for five minutes before seemingly becoming aware of each other, red eyes met green as both boys froze upon discovering they were sharing the space. They stared at each other for a few minutes before Katsuki leaned forward slightly. Reaching out he gave Izuku a slight pop on the face, it was little more than a flick, even for a baby.

But of course Izuku was a Midoyria.

His wails filled the room as Inko scooped him up, Bakugou giggled at the whole display as his mother desperately tried to apologise to her green haired counterpart.

Izuku and Katsuki had been best friends ever since.

Multiple playdates and eighteen months later saw the two boys sitting in high chairs at the Bakugou's, the remnants of a pasta meal strewn about their faces. It wasn't unusual to find the two Midoyria's round for dinner. Inko's husband worked abroad and so as a result she often found herself lonely at home. Mitsuki was all too happy to have her oldest friend visit as much as possible, she always felt outnumbered when with her husband and son. Masaru was just happy to take the time to nap and take a break from his overactive wife and son. Izuku and Katsuki were always happy when they saw each other, which was almost every day at this point.

Said toddlers had also just started to form words and sentences, this had of course led them to try and pronounce each other's names. Easier said than done (or not in this case) as lips spluttered and spit shot out from their mouths as they both tried, their faces red with the effort. It was Izuku who had some success first.

"Ka-Ka-" The child desperately started, unable to finish the name, "Kaaaa-Kaach-Kacchan!"

Izuku looked unashamedly proud of himself as he repeated the 'name' again and again. Both parents started to giggle as Katsuki gave him a grumpy look before clenching his fists.

"I-Zu-I-I-Zuzu…Zuzu!" Katsuki shouted and held his hands up high, eyes gleaming.

At this point Inko and Mitsuki were actively giggling like schoolgirls watching the pair.

Izuku frowned at Katsuki's declaration and held up his hands, "Kacchan!" he shouted louder.

Katsuki locked eyes with Izuku, "Zuzu!" the blonde shouted so loud it woke his father from his nap upstairs.

Izuku narrowed his eyes, "KACCHAN!"

"ZUZU!"

"KACCHAN!"

"ZUZU!"

Inko and Mitsuki howled with laughter as the latter tried to keep her phone steady as she recorded the entire situation.

The boys were two when the hero obsession started, Inko and Mitsuki were spending some 'girl time' together and so Masaru had decided to take the boys out for some ice cream. Vanilla for Izuku and chocolate for Katsuki. Masaru smiled to himself as they walked through the park, the two boys happily talking away to each other.

Suddenly Masaru came to a stop, almost dropping his own ice cream as he collided with a very small but stiff green haired toddler. Katsuki had also noticed his friend was no longer next to him and had turned around with a confused expression.

"Izuku?" Masaru asked.

"What's that?" Izuku said, not looking at Masaru but pointing in the distance.

Masaru and Katsuki followed Izuku's finger. Not far from them there seemed to have been a commotion, a police car was parked up, sirens flashing as one officer put a handcuffed man in the back and the other questioned a rather unhappy looking man. Said man was wearing a wild costume with literal flames coming off it.

Masaru smiled, "That my boys is a hero, Endeavour, if I'm not mistaken."

"Woah…" Katsuki said, his mouth agape and equally fixated on the hero.

"Uncle Masaru, what do heroes do?" Izuku asked, finally tearing his sight away from the flame hero.

Masaru ruffled Izuku's hair, "They use their quirks to protect people, both from natural disasters and villains, people who use their quirks to do bad things."

As if pre planned, both boys gave Masaru hopeful looks and spoke in perfect sync, "Can I be a hero?"

Masaru chuckled, "With the right quirks I have no doubt you could do it."

Masaru would regret the way he phrased that sentence for years.

And so began the pairs hero obsession, Katsuki became obsessed with how strong heroes were. Who had the most powerful quirks and how it made them the top heroes. Izuku however was more focused on the nuances and technicalities of the quirks. They all quickly discovered Izuku had a talent for analysis. The moment he could hold a crayon he started the first versions of his infamous notebooks.

It was only a few weeks after they first saw Endeavour the pair came across All Might. If their parents thought they had an obsession before it was nothing compared to how they worshipped The New Number One Hero. Katsuki loved to watch his fights, the most powerful hero of them all while Izuku pondered over the man's mysterious quirk. By the time the boy turned ten her had three notebooks worth of theories on what it might be.

As the boys grew older there were… some concerns about their behaviour. Katsuki almost became power hungry, insisting he would have a powerful quirk and become the greatest hero of all time. It

caused him to quickly develop a superiority complex, putting down all the other kids around him, even Izuku. The worse it became the more Mitsuki wondered when it was time to have a firm talk with her son.

Inko also had her own problems with Izuku, the boy was more than obsessed with quirks, they made up his entire existence. Endless notes and mutterings on every quirk they came across, his eyes would glaze over as he came up with theories on how best to utilise the quirk… and fight it. Inko had caught her son more than once looking at her with something akin to madness when she used her quirk around the house. She would never breathe a word of it but even she had to admit it was creepy.

Both mothers were concerned about the routes their children were going down, Katsuki the road of a bully and Izuku the road of a social outcast.

As it were they didn't have to be concerned. Because everything changed when the boys turned four.

It was a few weeks after Izuku, the youngest of the pair, turned four that Inko and Mitsuki had a brilliant idea. It seemed everyday the boys would come home and talk about how someone at their daycare had gained their quirk (though the conversation lasted significantly longer for Inko). As a result the mothers decided it would be fun to visit a quirk councillor together to see if they could discover the boys' quirks.

At first the plan seemed to go off perfectly, as Mitsuki drove them to the clinic Katsuki and Izuku chatted away in the back happily.

"You're serious Zuzu? You'd rather have your Moms quirk than your Dads? But he can breathe fire!" Katsuki explained.

Izuku just nodded his head, "Of course Kacchan. Loads of people have fire quirks but not a lot of heros have telekinesis, I'd be more valued."

Mitsuki didn't miss the slight smirk on Inkos face.

Neither mother could remember a time where their boys behaved so well, both happy to do all the tests the doctors gave them without complaint. Izuku practically vibrated with excitement every time they poked and prodded him. Katsuki just stood around with a smug look, knowing he was

going to have a powerful quirk.

Eventually all four sat in an office awaiting the results, both Katsuki and Izuku had wide grins of excitement spread across their faces. Eventually the same doctor who had tested the two of them came through with their folders.

Inko and Mitsuki shared a concerned glance, Izuku's was far larger than Katsuki's.

The doctor cleared his throat and sat down, "Right, so, Izuku Midoyira and Katsuki Bakugou…"

"Soon to be the best hero team ever!" Katsuki declared and puffed out his chest.

The doctor winced at the display, "Yes… well… um… let's start with Midoriya shall we?"

Katsuki deflated slightly but didn't protest as Izuku's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Well doctor?" Inko asked, hugging her son tightly, "Do we know what his quirk will be?"

"I'm afraid not," the doctor started and quickly continued when he saw Izuku's crestfallen expression, "don't misunderstand me son. You have a quirk, an emitter type and a powerful one at that. It's just that we don't know the specifics, it doesn't match any of our records, it may well even be the first quirk of its kind."

Inko's heart was filled with pride while Izuku practically tore his face in half with the smile he wore, even Katsuki was giving the green haired boy a smug but proud look.

"Maybe you'll make a good sidekick Zuzu." Katsuki said and Izuku just nodded, too excited to realise the backhanded compliment.

"So what are our next steps?" Inko asked, trying to make sure her child didn't vibrate so much he phased through the floor.

"At this point all we can do is wait, I'd advise being patient and waiting for the quirk to activate

naturally."

Inko nodded, she just hoped that Izuku could wait.

Finally having heard enough about his friend Katsuki interrupted the conversation, "My turn! So tell me doc, how powerful is my quirk!"

The doctor winced once again and hesitated before sighing, "Yes well… you see… that's just it. We've run every test he can, they all come to the same conclusion. I'm sorry Mister Bakagou but it appears you're quirkless."

A deathly silence fell over the room, the excitement from a moment ago evaporated into the air. Katsuki had gone deathly pale as his eyes unfocused.

"I..I'm.." he wasn't even able to finish the sentence.

"I'm sorry son, really I am, but it's just not going to happen for you." the doctor said with a sympathetic smile.

The hole in Katsuki's soul would never fully recover from that day, for the first time since he was a baby tears started to fall down his cheeks.

"Can I… Can I still be a great hero."

The silence that followed was enough of an answer, Inko at least had the respect to look ashamed, the doctor acted like he hadn't even heard Katsuki. But it was his mother that hurt the most, she couldn't even look at him, but he could still feel the pity pouring from her.

"Yes."

All eyes snapped to Izuku who was looking at Katsuki with determination, "I think you can still be a hero Kacchan!"

Katsuki opened his mouth to snipe back with a snarky comment when he shut it again. He took a long look at Izuku, the boy he had admittedly belittled for months and suddenly he saw it. Izuku was strong, not because of his quirk but because of his determination. The boy who had kept up his hero notebooks despite his own mother thinking it was odd. It was at this moment Katsuki knew so long as he stayed by Izuku's side they could do anything.

"Thank's Zuzu."

From that moment on the boys were inseparable, Mistuki and Masaru were silently grateful for that everyday. They were almost certain that had Izuku abandoned Katsuki the boy would have broken completely. The quirkless were not looked upon well in modern society, combined with Katsuki's… less than stellar personality and he likely would have grown up bitter and alone. The one silver lining of the event was that it seemed to mellow out Katsukis superiority complex while giving Izuku a bit of a confidence boost. The overall effect was to balance out their friendship and bring them closer.

The next few years were odd, word soon got around that Katsuki was quirkless and by comparison Izuku was destined to have a powerful quirk. The fact one could not be found without the other resulted in a simple reaction, most people ignored them. Too disgusted by Katsuki to approach Izuku. Too envious of Izuku to bully Katsuki. Life wasn't easy for the pair, but it wasn't difficult either. There was also the added excitement of waiting for Izuku's quirk to manifest.

At least it was for anyone who wasn't Inko. She had always panicked about Izuku's quirk, she had always been an overprotective mother. But it was an incident when the boys were five, before Izuku's quirk had manifested, that drew her worry into overdrive.

There had been a plumbing issue in their apartment and so Inko had called out a specialised quirk plumber. Said plumber had walked into her apartment and instantly drew all the water out of the pipes, holding it one big ball above his head as he worked.

"Wow" Inko had exclaimed, "That's quite the quirk."

The plumber chuckled, "Both my parents were pro-heroes, I may not have followed them career wise but I still have their powerful quirks."

Inko nodded as she watched him work. A commotion from her front door alerted her to the fact that Katsuki and Izuku were home from school.

"I'm telling you Zuzu, Endeavour could easily beat Midnight."

"Nuh uh Kacchan, we don't know if Midnight's gas would burn, if not she could just knock him out like everyone else."

Inko smiled, "Hello boys."

"Hey Aunty!"

"Hi Mom!"

It was at that moment both boys turned the corner and saw the plumber at work. Both froze instantly as they watched the man effortlessly use his quirk.

Inko smiled sadly as she saw the same look of envy on Katsuki's face every time he saw someone use their own quirk. But it was the look she saw on Izuku that drove a shiver up her spine.

He looked hungry.

No, that was putting it mildly, it wasn't like he wanted lunch. It was more like he was ravenous, he was frozen solid, staring at the man like he was nothing put a piece of meat for Izuku to tear apart and enjoy.

Inko was rooted to the spot in fear, unable to move as she watched her son's eyes fill with something she had only seen before in the worst villains on TV. She could only stare in horror as Izuku slowly moved forward, hand reaching out and-

"Come on Zuzu, I wanna watch the new All Might fight!" Katsuki moaned as he yanked Izuku by the arm.

Izuku blinked a few times before he snapped out of whatever state had overcome him. Shaking his head he gave Katsuki a soft smile, "Sure, Mom, we're going to use the computer if that's ok?"

Inko could only give a very stiff nod in response.

As the years went by she would notice that look more and more and though she didn't want to admit it there was an obvious connection. Every time Izuku got within a certain distance of someone with a powerful quirk it was like he was overcome with a desperate hunger directed at said person. Inko didn't know if anyone else ever noticed but she was too afraid to ask.

It wasn't until Izuku was seven that the puzzle all came together. Things had steadily been declining for Katsuki and Izuku at school, every single classmate had long gained their quirk. The only two left were Katsuki, who would never gain his quirk, and Izuku. This left many starting to wonder if Izuku's powerful quirk was just a lie to cover up the fact he was also quirkless.

As a result a few people had started to be more 'aggressive' towards their disdain for the pair, Katsuki in particular. Though they were mainly restricted to hushed whispers and insults with Izuku, Katsuki received a much more physical form of bullying. One child in particular, a boy with a fire quirk, found great pleasure in cornering Katsuki on those rare occasions he was separated from Izuku.

It was on one of these said occasions that it happened. Izuku had done exceptionally well on a test and so his teacher wanted to keep him behind to discuss the gifted and talented programme. As always Katsuki had waited for Izuku just outside of the school gates when Firecracker (Izuku's idea) turned up with his two minions.

"Hey, if it isn't the quirkless loser." Firecracker sneered.

Katsuki just narrowed his eyes and turned away from the three.

"Ha, he's scared of you!" One of the minions exclaimed proudly.

Katsuki just rolled his eyes and gave him the finger. He may be seven but he was still a Bakagou.

Firecracker scowled, "Figures you'd wait for your lying idiot friend."

Katsuki snapped round to face Firecracker with a growl, they could insult him all they liked but no one went after Izuku.

Firecracker just laughed as his hands lit up with flames, Katsuki balled his own into fists.

"Kacchan!"

Both boys looked to see Izuku running up to the scene, the ever present determination evident on his face. Katsuki rolled his eyes at the display while Firecracker just scowled.

"Well well well, the liar and the weakling. When are you going to admit you're both quirkless losers?" Firecracker drawled as Izuku stood next to Katsuki with a frown.

"We're not losers!" Izuku said defiantly, "We're going to be the best heroes ever!"

Katsuki couldn't fight the smirk that pulled at his lips, Izuku had come a long way with his confidence.

"That's right!" Katsuki shouted with a fist bump in the air, "You're the losers!"

Firecracker paused before he and his lackeys burst into laughter, "You two quirkless losers heroes? Don't be stupid, you'd get pummelled in your first fight. Me on the other hand, my quirk is perfect for beating villains."

To prove his point Firecracker held out his hands activating his quirk. Long claws made of white hot fire extended from his hands, he couldn't manipulate or shoot out the fire but the white hot claws could cut and burn anything. Including Izuku and Katsuki, both had small scars to prove it.

"Pffft, you think a quirk like that could beat All Might, it's basically a fancy knife." Katsuki scoffed.

Firecracker snarled in response and was easily drawn into a shouting match with the loud blonde. Izuku however had stopped noticing and was instead staring intently at Firecracker with wide eyes.

The moment the boy had activated his quirk, Izuku had noticed some type of 'energy' surrounding

the boy. It was white, much like the fire of his claws, and flowed rapidly around him. It was simultaneously bright and transparent, Izuku would describe it as blinding except it was easy to stare at and almost completely transparent. It was also not evenly spread out, while it covered his entire body the energy seemed to concentrate in Firecracker's hands and forearms. Something in the back of Izuku's mind told him it was likely quirk related then, the fact he was also vaguely aware that Firecrackers two lackeys also had their own energy while Katsuki didn't appear to have any cemented this theory.

However Izuku was distracted by these thoughts due to one overwhelming feeling.

Hunger.

Not the sort of hunger he gets when his Mom is late with dinner or when he sees a candy shop full of his favourite treats. It wasn't even similar to the day he and Katsuki forgot lunch and had to go through the entire day with only a granola bar between them.

No, this hunger was something else. It pounded in his head, clawing at his skull to get out, desperate to be fed. And somehow Izuku knew exactly what to feed it, to stop the ravenous feeling that engulfed his body.

Running on autopilot Izuku mentally reached out for Firecrackers energy, there was a slight pull against him before the energy flowed directly from Firecracker to Izuku. It felt… good.

Izuku raised his left hand, looking at the white energy which now flowed over his arm, almost identical to how it had been for Firecracker. Staring at his own hand Izuku didn't notice how Firecrackers own energy had vanished or how his fire claws had disappeared the moment Izuku took the energy. He also failed to see the looks of horror he was getting from the bullies and the one of concern from Katsuki. All he could focus on was the energy and his left hand.

"Z-Zuzu…" Kacchans call brought him back to reality, he turned to his friend to respond only to find Katsuki staring at Izuku's right hand.

Izuku frowned and looked down at said hand.

Oh.

From the fingers of his hand protruded a set of white hot claws. Firecracker's quirk. He was using Firecrackers quirk.

That's when he noticed his fingers and hand, the bubbling red raw flesh and smoke rising up from them.

Katsuki would have nightmares for years about the scream that came out of his best friends mouth that day as the green haired boy collapsed on the sidewalk.

Many hours later found five people crammed into the small quirk councillors office at their local hospital. Inko sat cradling Izuku her in lap, the boy's eyes were red with tears and his right hand was covered in a thick layer of bandages. Katsuki stood next to them, holding tightly onto Izuku's good hand, angry glaring at anyone who dared look at his friend the wrong way. Mitsuki sat in the other chair in the office with Masaru standing behind her, both kept glancing at Katsuki nervously.

When the three of them arrived at the school after the emergency call the plan had been for Mitsuki to accompany Inko and Izuku to the hospital while Masaru took Katsuki home. The moment it had been suggested Katsuki had grown so angry and aggressive his parents wondered if he too was about to throw a quirk at them. The situation was far too serious to spend any time arguing and so Masaru had simply shuffled the group into his car and sped to the emergency room.

The burns had been bad, Firecrackers quirk was white hot, far hotter than any natural fire. Chunks of Izuku's hand had actually burnt to ash in the few seconds he had it active. It was unlikely he would ever be able to feel anything in his right hand again and there would be bad permanent scarring. The doctors hadn't said it outright but they had strongly hinted that he should start to learn to write with his left hand.

That had all seemed minor in the build-up to the real question everyone had, what had actually happened? Once they had finished work on Izuku's hand the hospital had instantly transferred him to their quirk department, running several tests, with a powerful quirk like this they wasted no time. Silently Katsuki's parents were relieved his original quirk diagnoses had come from a small local clinic, they weren't sure how he would react to going back there. Though he had still refused Izuku's whispered suggestion of getting his own quirk status checked out with a better team of experts and equipment.

Finally they had been summoned into the small office they now sat it, the tension thick in the air, the only sounds were Izuku's sniffles and Katsuki's occasional growl.

The door to the office swung open and five sets of eyes snapped to the doctor walking in with a rather large file. He stumbled in surprise slightly at the full room but quickly regained an air of

professionalism.

"Ah, Izuku Midoriya and… family?" The doctor asked cautiously.

"Damn straight!" Mitsuki replied to an eye roll from her husband though he noticed the small smiles that graced both Midoriya's.

"Right I see, well I'll get right to it. You've had an eventful day after all." That was the understatement of the century.

"First of all I'd like to reassure you all that Midoriya's classmate is ok, no harm done."

Mitsuki's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to respond, her son beat her to it however.

"Who gives a shit if he's ok! Look at Zuzu! He nearly lost a hand!"

"Katsuki." Masaru scolded though there was no real bite to it.

"Right of course… which brings me to Midoriya's quirk. Quite simply, it appears he has the ability to steal other people's quirks… permanently."

There was utter silence in the room, the three adults had wide eyes in surprise. Izuku had curled in on himself, not wanting the attention. Only Katsuki actually supported a proud smile.

"You.. you mean he now has his classmates quirk?" Mitsuki asked.

"Oh, no. It also appears he is able to return or even transfer the quirks he steals," Katsuki frowned at that word being said again, "his body returned his classmates quirk most likely as a reflex when he passed out. As of right now your son is essentially quirkless."

The Bakugou parents flinched at that word but luckily Katsuki was too focused on Izuku to react to it.

"That seems like a… powerful quirk." Mitsuki commented, Inko had gone strangely silent and rigid as the discussion moved forward.

The doctor nodded in agreement, "Powerful and dangerous, I've already informed the boys school and local authorities, the heroes will need to keep a close eye on him as he grows older." Once again Katsuki frowned, did this doctor think Izuku was a bad guy?

"There do however appear to be two main drawbacks to his quirk," the doctor continued, "Firstly while is able to steal the core element of the quirk he is unable to take any mutation abilities that come with it. Thus the incident today, while he took the fire ability of his classmate he didn't have the fire resistant skin to deal with it." Izuku flinched and drew his bandaged hand into his chest.

"The other dangerous drawback we were able to discover from your accounts of the past few years and today's incident. Your son's quirk also comes with a hunger, a desperate need to feed off and take powerful quirks."

Everyone in the room looked uncomfortable, they had all seen the way Izuku had zoned out around powerful quirks, it was not a pleasant sight.

Masaru decided to quickly move the conversation onwards, "Is this normal? I know people can have mutations of their parents' quirks but this seems… out there…"

The doctor flicked through a few pages of the file he had while Inko paled, "It is… odd. His ability to steal the quirks over a distance is obviously derived from Mrs Midoriya here. The rest I have no idea about, you say his father has a fire quirk?"

All eyes turned to Inko who, much to the surprise of Mitsuki, had at some point started crying silently.

"H-Hisashi isn't Izuku's father."

There was a brief moment of utter silent shock in the room before, "He's WHAT!?" Mitsuki cried, her chair falling behind her as she got to her feet.

Inko started to openly sob, "I-I'm sorry! It only happened once but… Oh God… He was always working abroad, n-never home. I was so lonely that I went to a bar one night after he left for another trip. There was this lovely man there, we chatted and- and…"

She didn't need to finish for everyone to understand the implications. Inko had been lonely, met a stranger in a bar and nine months later Izuku had popped out.

"You… you BITCH!" Mitsuki had stalked over to Inko who cowered back at her friends seething look, "Why Inko!? Why didn't you tell me!? God fucking damn it! Think of Izuku! Think of Hisashi! They've spent seven years thinking-"

"Enough!"

It was rare for Masaru to raise his voice, so much so that both Inko and Mitsuki looked at him in shock. His wife's voice died in her throat as she looked at the fire in her husband's eyes.

"This is not the time nor the place, look at your sons." Masaru said with barley contained anger.

Inko hadn't even noticed Izuku slip from her lap, Katsuki's arms wrapped around him protectively as the blond boy stood between him and the adults. Both boys were looking at their mothers with fear in their eyes, more so for Izuku who had started silently crying again.

The doctor cleared his throat, the tension in the room dipping slightly though still rampart between everyone, "If I may, there's not much more to discuss, it's possible that his real father had a copy quirk, though even by those standards this is an extreme mutation. I've labelled the quirk 'Quirk Theft' on all your sons files. Apart from that my suggestion is to watch him closely, many villains start out like this."

"Excuse me!?" Both women in the room said in unison, their argument long forgotten. Izuku himself flinched at the doctor's words.

"How dare you, Izuku is anything but a villain!" Inko cried, her tears now gone and replaced with anger.

"Who the fuck are you to decide that!?" Mitsuki agreed, both women on their feet.

"I- I didn't mean anything by it but statistically speaking… We should be careful, he could be a powerful villain," It was obvious the doctor was rambling at this point, "The heroes will need to keep a close eye on him. He won't be able to attend hero school of course, too many risks invo-"

There was a slam from behind everyone causing them all to turn and see a shaking door and raging Katsuki, it was obvious Izuku had just fled the office and his best friend was not happy about it.

"Izuku!" Inko cried.

"Fucking idiot!" Katsuki cried, running forward and kicking the doctor in the shin before anyone could react.

"Ha! That's my boy!" Mitsuki cheered as the doctor cried out in pain.

"Mitsuki!" Masaru shouted with exasperation as Katsuki ran out the room to follow Izuku.

He had to run down a few corridors before he found his friend sat in a corner sobbing into his hands. Katsuki slowly approached him before sitting down and silently bringing him in for a hug.

Izuku didn't even look up as he spoke, "K-Kacchan, I-I'm a villain, you should run-"

Katsuki merely hit Izuku in the back of the head, "Tch, idiot, you're not a villain and even if you were I haven't got a shitty quirk for you to steal."

Izuku couldn't help but giggle at that, "You- you really don't think I'm a villain."

"Zuzu you cried when I swatted a fly once. Nah, that doctor is an idiot you…you have an amazing quirk."

Izuku didn't miss how hard it was for Katsuki to admit to that, he knew his friend hated talking about great quirks, not having one of his own. Combined with the fact Katsuki hated admitting he was weak and he had never used the word amazing in response to someone's quirk before and

Izuku knew how much Katsuki really did mean those words.

"Then we can still both be the best heroes!" Izuku said with a teary smile, looking at Katsuki

"You.. you still want to be a hero with me?" Katsuki asked in mild shock, he had assumed now that Izuku had a powerful quirk he wouldn't need his quirkless friend.

"If I'm not a villain that means you're not weak, we're going to be the best heroes Kacchan!"

Katsuki could only give a dangerous smile in response.

The next week of Izuku's life would go down as one of, if not the worst week of his life. Despite the Bakugou's showing support of the situation, the air between Mitsuki and Inko was tense. The moment they arrived at the Bakugou's home Masaru had shepareded Katsuki and Izuku into Katsuki's room. Though that did little to muffle the shouting from down below.

Mistuki had demanded Inko call Hisashi the same day and tell him everything. Masaru had come into Katsuki's room two hours later to explain what a divorce was to the two boys. It had made Izuku feel sick, in one day he had gained a villain's quirk and lost his father.

Once Inko had made the call and calmed down however Mitsuki seemed to mellow out slightly, offering her support to Inko. Financially Inko wouldn't be able to keep going with the lifestyle she and Izuku had. So it was quickly decided that the Midoriya's would move in with the Bakugou's, albeit on a temporary basis for now.

Katsuki had returned to school a few days later but Izuku took another two weeks off, partly to let his hand heal and for him and his mother to move but also to get used to the effects of his new quirk.

The main change was the energy that now surrounded every person he met, bar Katsuki. Each person was different, his mother had a bright green energy which concentrated in pulsing balls in her hand. Mitsuki had a brown energy which looked like it had soaked her body, she had threatened to stop making Katsudon if Izuku ever told anyone. Masaru was similar to his mother, he had bright yellow energy which sparked in his hands.

Izuku also found he could 'sense' when the energy was being used, in other word when people used their quirks. He felt his mother pull a file for work towards her while she was downstairs

while he sat reading in his new room. He realised Masaru was lighting a fire in the kitchen while he and Katsuki played in the backyard. Mitsuki was different however, her quirk didn't turn on and off and so while he had a much harder time sensing her as clearly he was almost always aware of her presence within the house.

The hunger was also something he had to get under control, luckily it only really flared up when people used their quirks around him and generally it was little more than a pang in the back of his head. It seemed he only really struggled with powerful quirks, it would be a problem if he really did end up in hero school but not so much for a seven year old.

Eventually once Izuku had some semblance of movement in his bandaged hand and he was used to his new quirk his mother made him return to school.

If he thought the previous week had been bad he wasn't prepared for Monday morning.

He had a meeting with the principal first thing so he had arrived early before Katsuki. The meeting itself was odd in his mind, though the principal had congratulated him on his quirk, he had insisted Izuku remain standing by the office door away from his desk. He had also stumbled over words, telling Izuku like many other quirks they would have to make some unique changes for Izuku.

At first Izuku hadn't understood what he meant, but then as he walked to class he started to gain an uneasy understanding. First the school nurse had started walking his way in the halls, only to spot Izuku and quickly turn the other way. It was only when he arrived at his classroom he realised the full effect of what was happening.

Every set of eyes turned to him, some looked terrified while others were full of hate. But Izuku wasn't paying attention, he was staring at what was written on the blackboard behind the teacher.

Quirk Theft: How to protect ourselves

Izuku could only stare as bile raised in his throat. They had been… discussing him… his quirk, without his permission.

"A-ah… Midoriya! I didn't realise you were here…" His teacher said awkwardly.

"We were uh… just making sure everyone knew about your quirk and its dangers, can't be too

careful now?" His teacher said with a slight chuckle which almost made Izuku vomit.

"We've also… made some changes to the seating arrangement, all just precaution of course."

Izuku followed his teachers gesturing hand to a desk that had been stuffed into the furthest corner at the back of the room. The entire room had been reorganised to make sure every other desk was as far apart from it as possible.

"Right…" Izuku croaked out, tears brimming in his eyes.

Head down Izuku walked over to his desk and sat down, never feeling so alone as every eye in the room bored into him. He was about to break when there was a scraping to his right followed by a huff and a thud.

Opening his eyes Izuku saw that Katsuki had dragged his desk over and planted it right next to Izuku's, glaring at anyone who dared to question his decision. Their teacher seemed to debate it for a moment before seemingly deciding it would be easier not to challenge the two.

At Izuku's wide eyed look Katsuki just shrugged, "Can't be hero partners unless we get used to working together."

Izuku gave him a wide smile, he would later find out Katsuki had a weeks worth of detention for swearing multiple times throughout the presentation on Izuku's quirk.

Mitsuki bought them a cake to celebrate the detention.

Chapter End Notes

So I just wanted to give you all the heads up updates for this won't be on any sort of real schedule, I'll just post updates as I finish chapters, but should be at least once a week or so

The Worst Number One Hero

Chapter Summary

Izuku and Katsuki's day was already going pretty badly, then they met a literal pile of sludge

Izuku sighed as he finished another page of his notebook, his entry on Death Arms now four pages long. Honestly it was a rather boring entry, there wasn't much to his quirk. His arms were strong. That was it. There were literally hundreds of heroes with strength quirks out there, some of them far better than a simple set of strong arms. Of course Izuku knew the exact reason Death Arms had soared in the ranks, it was written about halfway down the third page of his entry.

…almost always uses excessive force to end his fights, breaks bones and limbs, more of a show for the media. Also drags easy fights out, gets better attention and plays to a crowd, comes with a high risk of collateral damage.

Izuku frowned, rereading the entry, Katsuki's influence was coming through. His brother best friend wasn't bitter per say… ok he was bitter. Growing up together Katsuki had been forced to take part in Izuku's quirk analysis, watching hero fights and making notes about them. As time had gone on though Katsuki had started to notice the less desirable heroes who operated. The likes of Death Arms and others who were it for fame, glory or money and not for the very basic motivation of helping people. Combined with Katsuki being quirkless himself and he had grown an utter hatred for those who he said abused their quirks.

Izuku had to admit once he started to look closer and got over his hero obsession he had to agree. They didn't hate all heroes, there were of course those who were genuine, Miruko, Present Mic and Edgeshot just to name a few. But equally there were those who Izuku and Katsuki believed should have their licences revoked, they weren't bad people per say, but they weren't good heroes either.

Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at some of the notes Katsuki had made next to his own in the notebook. Kacchan wasn't as good at hero analysis as Izuku but he wasn't bad either. Though his red notes stood out all over Izuku's notebook, mainly because they weren't as… well thought out at Izuku's own.

Idiot will break his fucking back if he only has strength in his arms

His costume isn't even fireproof, the dickhead is literally made of wood

He's a glorified fucking hosepipe, I wouldn't even need support equipment to take him down

Katsuki hated analysis, though he would never admit the real reason but Izuku knew it was because he hated taking apart quirks without being able to do the same for his own. But he also realised that if he really wanted to be a quirkless hero he needed to be smart and knowing how to take apart your opponents quirk was a key element of that.

Izuku didn't have an excuse as to why his own quirk wasn't in one of his notebooks. It wasn't that he hadn't analysed it, he could probably fill an entire notebook with it. But he had quickly learned that he should never discuss his quirk in public or have any reference to it on his person. He had even rubbed it out with a marker on his school ID. Why his school insisted on putting them on their ID's in the first place was an entire can of worms in of itself.

That didn't mean he knew nothing, he had done experimentation in private, even away from Katsuki. Theoretically he could hold multiple quirks at once however he only took the core element of the quirk in its very basic form. For instance he could take his classmates' bull quirk and he would gain a hardened skull and strength but he wouldn't grow horns. He had a rough range of about ten metres for which he could steal a quirk, it didn't matter if he couldn't see the person or even if there were physical objects in the way. As long as he could sense the quirk he could take it. Well, at least he could with most. People with weak untrained quirks he could take with ease, he knew if he wanted he could take Auntie's quick without even really thinking about it. But powerful quirks or people who had trained with them were harder to take, their energy was more resistant to his pull. Uncle's quirk was the most used and most powerful of the three adults at home and Izuku knew it was the hardest to pull on and take. Surprisingly the easiest had been the first quirk he had taken during the incident.

Thinking of the incident made him glance at his right hand, he had never regained feeling in it and couldn't feel anything from his elbow onwards on his right arm. He flexed his fingers, the scarring was bad, the skin on his hand was nearly all scar tissue, and Izuku wore a glove on said hand at every moment. He only took it off to shower. Even then his fingers were obviously crooked and damaged. It had taken him years to get used to using his left hand for everything and tasks that needed two hands were still difficult. Without any feeling combined with his crooked fingers and the fact that sometimes his hand didn't respond to commands, it often led to accidents at home.

That was another thing, despite the theoretical temporary arrangement the Midoriya's and the Bakugou's still lived together. Inko had long since finished her law studies and now made enough money for her and Izuku to move out but truth be told by that point everyone had grown used to it and so instead the big family had moved into one large home together. It was nice but Izuku and Kacchan knew the real reason behind it was the fact their mothers did not want to deal with either of them alone.

But it meant Katsuki and Izuku lived literally in the rooms next to each other. It made training together easy at least, because of course Kacchan insisted that Izuku had to actually train to be a hero. It was probably a good thing if Izuku was being honest, at least both boys had some semblance of muscle now. Which helped with the bullying or at least it helped Katsuki because no one dared come anywhere near Izuku for fear of losing their quirk.

It was because of this that despite now attending Aldera Izuku and Katsuki still sat in a corner together far away from their classmates.

Izuku was brought out of his musing by their teacher's voice, glancing next to him he could see Kacchan was near the point of dozing off. Kicking the blonde in the shin to wake him Izuku scowled at him, he did not need Katsuki getting detention for falling asleep and he definitely didn't need to get dragged along too just because to their teachers if one of them was out of line, they both were.

Katsuki jolted in his seat and met Izuku's scowl, they had a silent argument before Katsuki relented and turned to front, giving the teacher the minimum amount of attention required to not be called out. Izuku too listened in on his teacher's drawl.

"... I'd ask what you all want to do but let's be honest, you all want to be heroes."

"Crap." Katsuki muttered before the room exploded into a variety of quirks.

People cheered and shouted as they displayed their quirks while their teacher chuckled along at the widely illegal quirk usage.

Izuku gritted his teeth as his body tensed and he grabbed onto his desk with a near enough force to crack it. The energy surrounding his classmates flared around him as he felt the hunger in the back of mind rear its ugly head, none of them had the powerful type of quirks which pushed his limit but with this many people in one room it was still a lot to deal with. Their energy was a mix and match of colours. Izuku found himself facing them all, the pang increasing as he licked his lips.

'Hungry'

His grip slowly loosed on his desk as he started tor rise and-

"Tch. Sit down before we get arrested, idiot." Kacchan said as he slapped him on the back of his head.

Izuku came to his senses and sent a sheepish smile at his friend at being caught out, Katsuki just rolled his eyes. Luckily it seemed no one else had noticed that he had nearly stolen every quirk in the room.

"Oh, that's right… Midoriya, Bakugou, are you sure about your choice. You both want to go to UA?"

Izuku heard Kacchan swear under his breath beside him as every student turned to look at the pair, all wearing disbelieving smirks.

Katsuki growled, "Yeah? What of it?"

"Come on man," Said a student with solid white eyes, "You don't even have a quirk and no hero school is gonna let a villain in. Maybe you could both become garbage cleaners." she snickered.

Katsuki stood up with clenched fists, "Oh yeah? Your quirk is x-ray vision and you're thin as a stick, I could beat your ass any day of the week."

Izuku just sighed as the rest of the class came to the girls' defence, doodling in his notebook and waiting for the bell to signal the end of the day. He kept one ear on Kacchans shouting though, making sure it didn't get too out of hand.

"Well maybe if you stopped hiding behind the big bad villain we'd actually believe a quirkless nobody like you could fight!" One boy shouted.

"I'm not hiding! You're all just too pussy because Zuzu has the most powerful quirk here!"

"Then come prove it." The boy responded with a smirk.

Katsuki grit his teeth and stepped out from behind his desk. Izuku looked up and noticed their teacher watching them, a familiar glint in his eye as he looked for any excuse to give the two boys detention.

"Kacchan, it's not worth it." Izuku said and reached out to grab his friend's wrist.

Katsuki seemed to consider it briefly before he huffed and sat back down. Izuku had to stop himself from lashing out when he saw his teacher's expression of disappointment.

It was at this moment that the bell rang, their teacher mumbled something to officially let them go despite half the class already heading for the door. Izuku and Katsuki took their time packing their bags, making sure they were last to leave. It was simply because they liked to let the queues die down at the snack bar just across the road. It definitely wasn't because it meant Katsuki could keep close to Izuku who would scare away any of the kids who would get more physical with the quirkless boy.

As they approached the door however their teacher called out to them, "Midoriya, a word?"

Katsuki and Izuku exchanged a look, "I'll just be outside." Katsuki said and left the room.

Izuku slowly approached his teachers desk before they held up a hand, "That's close enough."

Izuku had to fight the urge to scowl, he was seven metres away, if he wanted to steal his teacher's quirk he could.

"Midoriya… UA, really?" His teacher gave him an unimpressed look.

This time Izuku did scowl, "I don't know what you mean sir."

"Don't be sassy with me boy, you know about the black mark on your file as much as I do."

Izuku clenched his fists, he had no idea why the doctor had done it, maybe he was just spiteful at Kacchan kicking him. But one week after discovering his quirk they had also discovered his doctor had put a black mark on all his public files. To put it simply it indicated he was a child at risk of

turning to villainy despite the fact Izuku had never done anything even remotely illigal, all because of his stupid quirk.

"UA has no rules against students with black marks." Izuku ground out.

Their teacher just scoffed, "A publicity stunt at best. Well, if I can't convince you, maybe when you and Bakugou are rejected you'll understand. You may go."

Izuku stormed out before he really did do something to get himself arrested, slamming the door open and catching Katsuki by surprise who had been idly scrolling on his phone.

"Let's go." Izuku said that indicated no arguments.

Katsuki merely nodded, recognising the mood his friend was in and knowing better than to argue as he followed.

"She really should have set up in the country."

"Fucking idiot, she nearly took the entire building down."

"It would be pretty easy to escape her, just run into a heavily populated building."

"That kick was nothing but a limelight grab, she wasn't needed here at all."

Izuku and Katsuki were standing down the road from where Mt Lady had just made her debut. She was posing for the cameras while still in her gigantic form, it was a waste of quirk energy for the sake of a few pictures if you asked both the boys.

They couldn't get too close to the main fight for fear that Izuku would lose control in the large crowd, not to mention the powerful quirks of the heroes themselves. As a result they were sat on a brick wall a ways down the road, Izuku making rapid notes while Katsuki gave his input every now and then.

It's safe to say both boys were not impressed with Mt Lady's performance. Heroes with

gigantification quirks operated best in the country where they had a lot of land to move about without fear of taking down apartment blocks. Not only that but between Death Arms and Kamui Woods the situation was well under control, there really was no need for her to intervene.

But she had taken the villain down effectively and quickly, albeit the kick had been risky with a lot of people around, so Izuku had to admit she at least knew what she was doing. As he mused, Katsuki reached over and scribbled something in the margin of the notebook, Izuku just tilted his head as he read it.

Suit doesn't offer protection, just get her stand on some sharp metal pipes in some rubble

That was a good point, her suit looked to be little more than expanding skin tight fabric. You would have thought she was aware of the obvious flaw of a gigantification quirk: All her vulnerable areas suddenly became massive and easy to hit targets. You wouldn't have to be very accurate to launch a projectile into her eyes. In fact Izuku added that next to Katsuki's own notes.

Eventually however things started to wrap up and Izuku folded his notebook, Katsuki took that as a sign to start moving as they both hopped down from the wall.

"We should take another route home," Izuku said, frowning at the still sizable crowd, "I'm not sure how much control I'll have in a crowd like that."

Katsuki mealry grunted in response and shoved his hands in his pockets, Izuku knew that was Kacchan language for an agreement. Izuku raised his eyebrow as he followed his friend, Katsuki had an unnatural talent for always knowing which routes to take back home as the blonde stormed through the various alleyways causing Izuku to narrow his eyes.

"Kacchan what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine nerd." The blonde responded in a gruff voice.

Izuku rolled his eyes, "Kacchan you haven't been able to lie to me since we were eight."

Karsuki paused before turning round to face Izuku. Despite being a few inches shorter Izuku just looked up definitely at him.

"What the fuck did the prick tell you?" Katsuki demanded.

"Nothing important." Izuku responded with a hard look up at his friend.

Katsuki paused, "Zuzu, you haven't been able to lie to me since we were eight."

Izuku narrowed his eyes at his own words being used against him. Katsuki simply narrowed his back as the two entered an intense staring contest. To any passers by it almost looked like they were about to start throwing punches at each other. With Izuku and Katsuki it was entirely possible.

Eventually however, Izuku relented and sighed, his whole body sagged, "He said I should stop my application to UA because of my black mark."

Katsuki frowned, "Fucking asshole," he spat, "I swear one day I'm going back for that doctor."

Izuku wasn't listening, however, he bit his lip and looked nervously away from Katsuki, "What… What if he's right though? What if no matter how well I do UA rejects me because of my black mark?"

Katsuki scoffed, "Then there a bunch of fucking idiots. Once you actually gain the balls to start taking quirks," Izuku winced at that, "you'll be the most powerful hero in history. You could literally steal the quirks of villains and stop them there and then."

Izuku shrugged, "We don't even know how many quirks I can steal, my limit could be two."

Katsuki just rolled his eyes, "At least he actually thinks you can pass the entrance exam, probably doesn't feel the need to speak to me. He'll just wait until I end up in hospital trying to get in."

Katsuki hadn't moved much as he said it but Izuku could see the fear and insecurity in his eyes, "I thought we agreed Kacchan, you could easily get in, it's me who's gonna be dragging us back."

"Ha! I guess we'll just have to show those damn extra's what a real hero looks like!" Katsuki said with a feral grin and holding out his first.

Izuku smirked and met the fist with his own, "Sounds good to me."

The mood now significantly lighter, the two continued on walking home, talk turned to far more pleasant subjects of what they should get for Inko's birthday.

It was as they passed under a small tunnel that Izuku felt it before they saw it. The energy spike coming from below them his eye's immediately snapped downwards. He could vaguely see the energy moving about, it was thick and black and moved randomly around what he presumed was a body.

Katsuki was a few steps ahead when he realised his friend had fallen behind, turning round with a confused expression he called out to him, "Zuzu?"

Izuku's head snapped to Katsuki, the pang of the hunger hitting him as the energy drew closer. Glancing to his right Izuku saw it approach the manhole cover next to Kacchan.

Izuku's eyes widened, "KACCHAN LOOK OUT!"

Katsuki's eyes widened in confusion before the manhole cover exploded, sludge pouring out of it as a slick laugh filled the alleyway.

"My luck is turning around, two pretty boy skin suits to choose from!" the sludge said as it crawled out of the sewers, Izuku could see a mouth and two sets of nightmare inducing eyes follow it all out of the sewers.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw the sludge reach out for Katsuki as the boy stumbled back. Without even realising it Izuku found his feet charging him forward directly for the blonde.

"Kacchan!" Izuku shouted as he barrelled into the boy, pushing him out of the way of the incoming sludge hands.

Katsuki fell to the ground and rolled away as the sludge wrapped around Izuku who yelped out in fright and he found himself lifted off his feet and being dragged into the sludge.

Katsuki Looked at the boy and leapt to his feet.

"Get the fuck off him!" He growled, sprinting towards Izuku.

"Get lost kid, otherwise I'll kill you too." The Sludge said as it swung what Izuku assumed was its arm at Katsuki.

The blonde tried to dodge but to no avail, he took a blow directly to the chest, the air knocked out of him as he was sent flying across the alleyway. His clothes tore as he skidded across the ground, his skin getting cut up. Coming to a stop Katsuki let out a groan of pain.

Izuku went to cry out only to find the moment he opened his mouth it was filled with sludge. He screamed internally as he felt the stuff fill his mouth and travel towards his lungs, it sunk under his clothes and he could feel tears pouring down his face. He clawed at the sludge only to find it pointless as his fingers went straight through. Desperately he felt out with his quirk and tried to pull in the energy surrounding the creature. However it was futile, the energy was too attached to the sludge, too engraved into the physical body of the villain. No matter how hard he pulled Izuku couldn't get the energy away from it.

"Don't worry kid," The sludge villain snarled, "It'll all be over soon, then once I kill your friend I'll be on my way."

Suddenly he felt a hand on his wrist, Izuku tried to see what was going on but sludge was clouding his vision. He then felt the hand pull so hard Izuku thought he might dislocate his shoulder. But he could also feel the sludge pulling away and the next thing Izuku knew he was on the ground, coughing his lungs out and desperately clawing sludge out from his mouth.

Looking around he saw Katsuki, bruised and bleeding and panting next to him, "That's fifty seven times I've saved your ass now." the blonde said with a hint of a smirk.

"Damn, you brats are starting to get annoying." The sludge villain said as Izuku and Katsuki looked toward him, his body nearly completely filling the alleyway as he looked down at the two boys with a dangerous grin.

"Well then you're going to find me incredibly troublesome." Said a booming voice.

The Sludge Villains eyes went from gleeful to filled with terror, it went to turn around when a gust of wind as strong as a hurricane filled the alleyway. Izuku had to cover his face as dust was blown up and Katsuki was pushed to the ground.

That was mild compared to how the sludge villain exploded with a strained cry into nothing more than a puddle with two closed eyes at the centre, the being seemingly knocked out.

"Sorry about the delay boys, these sewers really are a maze."

Izuku had gone silent, staring at the new person on the scene. Katsuki however was tsill rubbing the dust out of his eyes and getting up.

"Hey asshole, we didn't need the help of some god… damn… hero…" Katsuki's voice died as he found himself staring face to face with the imposing figure of the Number One Hero.

All Might raised an eyebrow at Katsuki's comment but let out a deep laugh, "Hahaha, of course not, my mistake! You two did well to fight until I arrived!"

Katsuki could only stare as All Might started to get the villain into a pair of bottles. He had just called the greatest hero of all time an asshole. Izuku was never going to let him live this down. If he was lucky however he could save this moment.

"Play it cool Katsuki, just play it cool." He mumbled to himself.

All Might to his credit pretended not to hear as he turned around with two full bottles and gave the boys his signature smile, "Well boys I need to get this villain to the police, you should get home and get patched up. Your friend looks like he needs a motherly hug."

Katsuki frowned, "Huh?" he asked and turned to Izuku.

Said boy was frozen solid, staring right at All Might, his face was pale and eyes wide. His pupils were dilated and he was looking at All Might with an almost feral look.

Suddenly it clicked in Katsuki's mind. Izuku's quirk gave him an insatiable hunger for powerful quirks.

All Might had one of the most powerful quirks in the world.

Fuck.

"ZUZU NO!"

It all happened at once.

All Might leapt into the air as Izuku lunged forward with a snarl at the hero. Katsuki jumped out, desperately trying to stop his friend.

The end result was that as All Might looked behind him as he flew through the air he found the two teenage boys holding onto his leg for dear life. Izuku had at least come back to his senses as was looking down in terror at the ground below while Katsuki was focused solely on glaring at his friend as their hair whipped in the wind.

"W-What are you boys doing! Let go!"

"We can't!" Izuku cried.

"If we let go we'll fucking fall to our deaths you idiot!" Katsuki shouted though he was still glaring at Izuku.

"R-Right!"

All Might made sure they all landed safely on a nearby rooftop as Izuku and Katsuki scrambled off, Katsuki already mid rant at his friend, despite knowing full well there was no way Izuku could have controlled his hunger next to All Might. Izuku ignored his friend as he bowed down low, facing the hero.

"I'm so sorry All Might! I- My quirk has a drawback and-"

All Might however wasn't paying attention as steam poured off his body and he cursed under his breath. Katsuki and Izuku both looked up as, with a puff of steam, All Might was replaced with a stick man who looked like he had died several years ago.

"What the FUCK!?"

"Im-imposter!?"

All-Might raised his hands at the panicked pair, "Boys, please calm down. I'm not an imposter, I'm still All Might."

Katsuki and Izuku jaws dropped at that, "But… how?" Izuku asked.

"You know how you get those guys at the pool who puff their chests out? That's essentially how my quirk works but I can only hold it for about three hours every day." As he spoke All Might lifted up his shirt, both boys grimaced at the gaping wound on his left side.

"About five years ago I nearly died fighting a villain, I lost a lung and most of my stomach. Ever since then the amount I can use my quirk had slowly been going down."

Izuku frowned, "Five years ago? Your only big fight back then was with Toxic Chainsaw."

"Pfft," Katsuki said, "No way that two bit villain could've done this, his chainsaw couldn't even penetrate All Might's skin."

All Might raised an eyebrow, "That's an impressive level of knowledge. But you're right, this battle wasn't shown by the media and I'd like to keep it that way. That includes my injury and time limit, you boys understand of course."

Izuku nodded so hard All Might was concerned he might get a concussion, "Of course All Might

Sir! And again I'm so sorry, my quirk it well…"

All Might just waved the boy off, "Don't worry about it young man, quirks come in all shapes and sizes, they all have drawbacks we struggle with."

Izuku nearly burst into tears at those words. Katsuki however spoke softly next to him.

"All Might… sir…"

Izuku turned around so fast he almost got whiplash, Katsuki never spoke like that and he definitely never called anyone sir.

"What is it my boy?" All Might said with a kind smile.

"Can… can someone without a quirk become a hero?"

Izuku's mouth made a wide O shape, of course that's what was going through Kacchan's mind. It was no secret that every person he had ever asked that question to had responded in the negative. Bar Izuku of course.

All Might's smile dropped, as his attention focused on Katsuki, "You know, I have one of, if not the, most powerful strength enhancement quirk in the world. Yet even with that I still received an injury that nearly killed me. So to answer your question, can you become a hero without a quirk? No, I don't think you can."

Izuku's jaw tightened and his fists clenched. Had All Might really just said that? Had he really just crushed Katsuki's dreams in front of the boy?

Apparently he had as Izuku heard a sound he had only heard a handful of time in his entire life. Katsuki let out a strangled sob before he fled for the door and to exit to the roof.

"Kacchan!" Izuku cried but it was no use, his friend had already slammed the door behind him.

It was rare for Katsuki to cry, it was even rarer for Izuku to feel pure unadulterated rage.

But it seemed All Might was able to cause both within the same afternoon.

Izku turned to face The Number One Hero with a furious look, All Might even flinched at the sight and looked awkwardly at the child not sure what to say. Izuku on the other hand could feel his anger bubble inside him while he stared at All Might.

If he wasn't furious he would have appreciated All Might's energy, it was bright, brighter than any he had come across. Its focus was a pure white orb in the centre of All Mights chest, the orb was solid and unmoving, always there and casting it's light. But the interesting thing was the layers surrounding the orb, six of them to be exact. Each layer was slightly different, one was solid black and looked like it was made of black bandages while another almost looked like pure smoke.

Izuku could count on one hand the amount of times he had used his quirk. The first was the incident when he was seven, the other three were in secret on his mother, aunt and uncle and the final use had been just thirty minutes ago. But in this moment Izuku didn't care about himself or his villainous quirk, all he cared about was how the man in front of him had hurt his best and only friend and he latched onto All Might's energy.

Izuku pulled.

Pain stabbed into his head the moment he did, it was like someone had planted a hot knife into his brain. Izuku instantly let go and fell to the floor clutching his head and panting, sweat falling down his face. Despite not actually stealing his quirk it looked like All Might hadn't fared better. The mans legs had collapsed under him and he had fallen to the ground, violently coughing up a dangerous amount of blood.

The blonde haired hero looked up and caught Izuku's eye. Izuku had to suppress a wince when he saw the amount of fear in the man's eyes..

Deciding to ignore what just happened Izuku instead ran to the door, desperately trying to find Katsuki. But just as he reached out for the doorknob he felt a hand on his shoulder pull him back.

He turned around to find himself staring up at the face of All Might, this time Izuku did wince at the anger in the man's face.

"Stop. You're coming with me. I need to know who your father is. Now!" Even though he was in his thin form, All Might's voice still boomed down at him.

Izuku finally snapped.

Pulling his fist back Izuku heard a satisfying crack as it made contact with All Mights nose. The hero stumbled back in shock, clearly not expecting that reaction.

"I don't even know my fathers fucking name, that good enough for you!? I never thought you of all people would be a fake hero." Izuku spat before ripping the door open and chasing after Katsuki.

All Might could only stare as the door closed, the immense guilt slowly building in his chest.

As Izuku swept through the nearby streets his anger slowly started to fade and a sick feeling started to replace it. Izuku had used his quirk. Something he swore he would never do to anyone but a villain. Not only that but he had used it on The Number One Hero.

Maybe Izuku really was a villain.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the large crowd that had gathered up ahead. Izuku paused, going to turn away so as to make sure his quirk remained calm when something caught his eye. Or rather caught his quirk.

Izuku could sense the energy of the gathered crowd, but in front of them were a few stand outs. He recognized the energy of Mt Lady and Death Arms and scowled. He really didn't want to see a fight like this right now, not when he needed to find Kacchan.

He was about to leave when he felt an energy he recognized. The brown slow moving energy of The Sludge Villain.

Izuku gasped, maybe All Might was talking with the other heroes and had the villain with him?

Izuku knew it wasn't true, there was no way he would miss All Might's energy.

Despite his better judgement Izuku forced himself into the crowd. He desperately pushed back at the pangs of hunger in his head as he ducked and weaved his way to the front. When he finally did arrive his heart dropped. There in full view was The Sludge Villain, surrounded by rubble.

"Stay back heroes! I'm warning you!" The villain cried as a massive arm of sludge shot out, smashing into the building above them and causing rubble to fall onto the street.

"Everyone please stay back!" Backdraft ordered as he pushed against the crowd.

"Dammit, none of our quirks are compatible, we can't get close." Death Arms swore as he watched the carnage.

Izuku gave the man a disgusted look, what did he mean his quirk wasn't compatible? It was a strength quirk; it didn't have compatibility!

Not to mention Izuku had realised the villain had a hostage, one who was certainly being choked to death just as Izuku had earlier that afternoon. He could only feel guilt as he wondered who had been taken hostage in his place. Whoever it was, Izuku could see they were giving a valiant fight against the villain.

Red eyes met green.

Izuku gasped in horror, it was Katsuki. Katsuki was the hostage fighting for his life.

And the good for nothing heroes were doing nothing!

Izuku moved.

It was like his body had a mind of its own, his legs moving forward as he ducked under the arms of the shocked heroes trying to grab him.

Next his quirk seemed to activate without him using it, latching onto the grey energy of Death Arms Izuku drew it into himself, instantly feeling it in his own arms and flexing his muscles.

The Sludge Villain caught sight of him charging forward, "You!" it cried reaching out with a massive arm.

Izuku dived forward, reaching out he landed on the ground with one bent arm. Using Death Arms energy he pushed himself up.

The concrete cracked as Izuku launched himself into the air. The arm of sludge swept uselessly under him as he flew forwards. Landing right next to the villain Izuku didn't even hesitate to reach out and grab Katsuki. Pulling with his newfound strength Izuku fell back as Katsuki stumbled out of the sludge next to him coughing.

"I think that makes us even." Izuku said panting.

Katsuki actually gave him a dangerous smirk, "As if nerd!"

"You fucking kids!" The Sludge Villain cried as it brought another arm down.

Katsuki and Izuku dived away from it as the ground exploded on impact. Izuku's rucksack was torn open, stationary falling all over the road.

"What the fuck do we do, he's made of sludge!" Katsuki cried as they dodged another swing.

Izuku's thoughts were firing a million miles an hour as he dived to his right, then it struck him, "His eyes are solid!"

Katsuki sent him a grin that would look far more appropriate on a beast than a human teenager, "Two targets each."

Izuku nodded and leapt into action, sliding under a wave of sludge as he grabbed a large chunk of concrete. Even with Death Arms quirk it was surprisingly light. Jumping back slightly Izuku pulled his arm back, pausing to take aim before throwing the chunk with all he had.

It shot through the air and hit right on the target, there was a sickening burst noise as the concrete made contact with the villain's left eye.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" The Sludge Villain cried out as it closed it's quickly swelling eye.

"Zuzu!"

Izuku didn't have time to bask in his own glory as Kacchan came running at him wielding… Izuku's pen?

Somehow Izuku knew exactly what to do as he reached down and cupped his hands. Katsuki leapt up, placing his right foot in Izuku's hands who subsequently shot his arms upwards. Katsuki flew straight up into the air and over the sludge villain.

The villain only had time to look up as Katsuki gave him a snarl before falling back down directly over the villain. Wielding Izuku's pen, Katsuki pushed it straight down into the villain's eye. The villain let out another anguished cry as Katsuki rolled into the ground, coming to a stop next to Izuku.

"YOU FUCKING KIDS, I'M GONNA TEAR YOU APART!" The villain cried as he swung his arms out wildly, destroying every bit of property around him.

"We uh… really didn't think about this." Izuku mumbled as he and Katsuki were forced to the ground.

They could only watch helplessly as another arm of sludge raised up in front of them before smashing down.

Except the smash never came.

Izuku, who had closed his eyes to accept death, slowly reopened them to see The Number One Hero holding back The Sludge Villain.

"I really am pathetic," All Might said as he held the sludge villain in place, "How dare I tell you

you couldn't be a hero when all we heroes did was stand by and watch as two teenage boys risked their lives for each other. Well boys, let me try to make it up to you… SMAAAAAASH"

Izuku and Katsuki sat side by side in the back of the ambulance as they were checked out by paramedics. By some miracle neither had any serious injuries other than few cuts and bruises. Izuku was incredibly tired but that could've been from the fact it was the first time he had ever really used his quirk. He had of course returned Death Arms quirk the moment All Might had stopped the villain.

Speaking of All Might it had initially looked like he had wanted to speak to Katsuki and Izuku but he had instantly been swarmed by reporters before disappearing. Katsuki and Izuku had quickly been swept up by the other pros. Said pros had not been happy, they had ripped into Izuku, telling him how despite having a strength quirk, what he did was incredibly dangerous. But they had been even worse to Katsuki, questioning why a quirkless school kid had not gone straight home after school. It made Izuku's blood boil while Katsuki just frowned and took the verbal beating.

It looked like things were just calming down when a loud voice caused the paramedic and officer looking after the boys to jump.

"Arrest that boy!"

Izuku pulled in on himself as he recognized the voice, he should have guessed this would happen. Suddenly Death Arms appeared in front of the two boys, seething and looking at Izuku. Katsuki raised his eyebrow at the display.

"Excuse me?" The officer said, looking a little out of his depth.

"That boy is a villain and needs to be locked in Tartarus immediately!" Death Arms claimed, pointing an accusing finger at Izuku.

"What the fuck dude! We're kids!" Katsuki cried though Izuku knew full well that Kacchan had a perfect idea of exactly what he had done.

"You think I care!? This child is a threat to heroes everywhere we need to get him locked away before-"

"Enough!"

All heads turned to a man who was wearing a brown trench coat and a scowl as he approached the group.

"Detective Tsukauchi!" The young office said in surprise, "I didn't expect you?"

"A… friend suggested I drop by." Tsukauchi said eyeing Katsuki and Izuku with curiosity.

"Excellent, then you can facilitate the arrest of this menace" Death Arms said approvingly.

Izuku could hear Katsuki's teeth grinding next to him but he reach out and grabbed the boys arm, attacking a pro would definitely get them barred from any hero school. Izuku himself was refusing to look up from his lap however.

"On what grounds?" Tsukauchi asked.

"He stole my quirk!"

The paramedic sat dressing Katsuki's wounds scoffed, "Weren't you just lifting a car a moment ago?"

"Well… I took it back!" Death Arms said with a scowl.

Tsukauchi actually rolled his eyes, "Death Arms do you actually have any evidence?"

"Of course!"

Izuku actually looked up at the detective when he asked his question, he hadn't really noticed his quirk but it seemed to have activated when he asked the question. Tsukauchi's energy was focused in his head, it spun around in a grey orb, it looked incredibly plain. However when Death Arms had answered the colour of the energy changed from grey to red.

"Don't lie to me Death Arms, I'll ask you again, do you have any evidence the boy stole your quirk?"

Death Arms clenched his jaw and stared at Tsukauchi for a moment before replying through gritted teeth, "No."

This time Tsukauchi's energy changed from grey to green.

"So it could've easily been caused by someone in the crowd accidentally activating an erasure quirk?"

Death Arms seemed to want to argue back before the paramedic cut in, "Wouldn't it be bad press to be caught arguing with the police and a child?"

Death Arms narrowed his eyes at her but huffed and moved on, instantly morphing his face into a smile and waving at the crowd, reassuring them that Katsuki and Izuku were fine. It made the boys sick.

With the hero gone Tsukauchi turned to Izuku, "I won't press for details but I need to advise you despite everything that was still illegal quirk usage out there."

Izuku shrunk in on himself, he knew this would come up and with his black mark there was no way they weren't going to arrest him. At least he'd still be able to watch Katsuki in The UA Sports Festival.

"Calm down kid."

Izuku's eyes opened to find Katsuki had stood up protectively in front of Izuku and was practically glaring at Tsukauchi.

"We're not going to arrest your friend."

"You're not?" Izuku asked, surprised.

Tsukauchi shook his head, "No, your lucky, you have a powerful friend who vouched for you. We'll overlook it this time, but I suggest you don't let me see you again. My friend's word will only go so far."

And with that the detective turned around and left, leaving a very confused Katsuki and Izuku in his wake.

"Do you boys need help getting home?" The other police officer asked.

"Pfft, we'll be fine." Katsuki said as he jumped out of the ambulance, Izuku quietly following.

It was only as they walked up their drive Izuku realised something.

"OH MY GOD KACCHAN! I punched All Might!"

Yagi hadn't had a single drop of alcohol for nearly three years. The reason was obvious, his body could barely handle the stuff these days. But after the day he'd had the moment he walked into his apartment he had grabbed his emergency bottle of whisky and had poured himself a glass.

He now lay on his sofa, nursing said glass as the weight of the guilt from the day crushed him underneath it all. He'd had worse days as a hero sure, but he could honestly say today he had failed at every turn.

First he had let the sludge villain get away from him into the sewers. Then he let the villain get away AGAIN and gain a teenage hostage. And of course when Yagi caught up to the situation his excuse had been his lack of time. How fucking pathetic. Two teenage boys, one of which was quirkless, had given a better fight than he, The Number One Goddamn Hero, had.

Of course that brought him to his other failings of the day. The two boys he had met, who he was certain were no longer fans of his. Not only had been late to save them, meaning both would most likely be traumatised from their fight with the villain, he had then handled their questions with about as much tact as Endeavour had during an interrogation.

Yagi was supposed to be better than this.

All Might was supposed to be more than this.

Could a quirkless person become a hero? No, they couldn't. It was an undeniable truth that Yagi wished he could change. In his early years as All Might he had desperately done research into it, hoping that other quirkless people like he had once been could pursue their dreams. But the truth was quirkless people would be hopelessly outmatched.

Sure, they could use support equipment but so could those with quirks. Just because someone had a strength quirk didn't mean they couldn't use a grappling hook and weapons.

So perhaps they could become a master martial artist. But it was the same issue, nothing was stopping people with quirks doing the same. Yagi remembered a villain from his early days who had a fire quirk. Yagi had gotten in close hoping to finish them off quickly only to find the villain was black belt in karate.

Even heroes who focused on investigation had quirks to help them. His old sidekick Sir Nighteye went on roughly six active missions a year. He had a powerful quirk but even he had to fight tooth and nail not to get thrown off the hero course every day he was there. And even now Nighteye had once admitted to Yagi he was nothing more than a glorified police detective.

The facts of the real world were that no matter what a quirkless person did they just couldn't gain the same unique edge quirks gave. Not even The Number One Hero could change that.

Even so, the way Yagi had shot that child down made his stomach churn. He may as well have slapped the kid across the face. There were far better ways to go about a conversation as serious as that. None of them were on top of a rooftop moments after a villain attack.

Idiot.

Then of course there was the other boy.

And wasn't that the most shocking thing to happen to Yagi in five years.

He had felt the way the boy tried to rip his quirk from him, of course One For All couldn't be stolen and so it hadn't worked but… Yagi knew that quirk. The child, for a moment all he had seen was the man who killed his mentor. The fear that ran through to his bones had shaken him to his core.

But it was obvious even if that boy really did have All For One that he didn't truly know it. There was no way the greatest villain of all time would have had his heir apparent attending a standard elementary school in a local district with his quirkless best friend.

Of course Yagi hadn't considered this, he had just seen the boys quirk. And how had he responded? He had forcibly grabbed a young child.

He was ashamed, those were the actions of an uncaring soul, not the actions of the Symbol of Peace. It was obvious the boy didn't know the truth of his quirk but Yagi had acted like he was the second coming of the antichrist.

Before he could wallow in his self pity any longer Yagis phone went off. Squinting at the contact he sighed.

"Tsukauchi." He greeted.

"Shit Yagi, you sound awful."

"It's been a rather… trying day." Yagi confessed as he fell back in his sofa.

"So I hear, that sludge villain turned out to be more trouble than he was worth." Tsukauchi said, sounding exasperated.

"You're telling me."

"Mhmm… anyway I just wanted to let you know the two boys you asked about? They got back home safe."

Yagi raised an eyebrow, "No one demanded an arrest?"

Tsukauchi scoffed, "Oh no, Death Arms wanted to see the green haired kid locked up for the rest of his life."

Yagi clenched his phone tightly, despite popular belief Yagi was well aware of the attitude of some so called heroes.

"But luckily All Might's name goes a long way in the department." Tsukauchi continued, "I'm fairly sure those kids could've gotten away with mass murder if you vouched for them."

Yagi sighed, "I'm not sure that's a good thing."

"It is what it is. Anyway I did some digging on these kids."

"Oh?" Yagi asked, sitting up straight.

"Blonde one is called Katsuki Bakugou, parents are Mitsuki and Masaru, diagnosed quirkless. Family life seems standard enough, parents are in the fashion industry and make a good living. But the kids school files are a different story."

"Let me guess, it's a mile long?"

"Bingo, all his teachers' notes talk about how he's a delinquent, always starting fights. Not to mention he's refused anger management on several occasions. Paints a picture of an unstable aggressive kid." Tsukacuhi said though didn't seem convinced.

"You disagree?" Yagi asked.

Tsukauchi seemed to pause in thought, "When I spoke to his friend earlier, the moment he suspected I might try to do something with the kid he was on his feet protecting him. Sure the kid has a hell of a mouth on him and looks like he enjoys punching things a little too much but he doesn't have the eyes of a lunatic, just someone who's taken too much shit."

"Well, he is quirkless, we know what that's like. Interesting kid."

Tsukauchi actually laughed, "I thought he was interesting too until I looked into the other kid. Names Izuku Midoriya, parents were originally listed as Inko and Hisashi. But once the kid's quirk came in his father changed to 'unknown' and his original parents got a divorce."

"So she had an affair that became obvious when his quirk manifested?"

"It's more common than you think. Mutations happen but it's pretty obvious when you and your husband have water quirks and the neighbour has a fire quirk the same as your son's."

Yagi just shook his head, he'd never reality settled down so had never really dealt with these sorts of issues, "So no idea who the boy's father really is?"

"Not a clue, apparently when asked all his mother can say is the man went by Ren. She spent one night with him and never saw him again. But that's not even the interesting part. The boys quirk, it's one of the most powerful I've ever seen."

Yagi felt a sense of dread come over him, knowing exactly what was coming.

"It was labelled as Quirk Theft," Yagi frowned, that was a pretty controversial name for a quirk, "The kid can permanently steal and transfer quirks. Which pretty much confirms he was using Death Arms quirk today, though he did give back. Apparently the quirk has some drawbacks though, he's unable to effectively copy quirks completely. He discovered the quirk when he stole his classmate's fire quirk, except he didn't gain the fire resistance with it."

Yagi wince, he had noticed the gloved crooked hand of the boy, that can't have been an easy quirk awakening.

"Do you think he's dangerous?" Yagi couldn't help but ask.

"On paper? Absolutely, this kid doesn't even need to touch you to take your quirk. He could walk into a hero convention and steal half of the top ten quirks before anyone noticed. Imagine a villain with that amount of power," I don't have to, Yagi internally thought.

"But?" Yagi asked, he could tell Tsukauchi was getting onto something.

"The kid seems to have a heart of gold. We've had a few officers called into his school when his teachers became… fearful of his quirk. Each and every time the kid would burst into tears and apologise profusely. Apparently one of the new recruits was there just last month, got the kid talking, he wants to be a hero just like All Might."

Yagi couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of that.

"Quite frankly it's all bullshit." Tsukauchi said with a hint of venom.

"Bullshit?"

"The kid has a black mark on his record."

Yagi's eyebrows rose in surprise, "You said he was a good kid though?"

"He's had the mark since he was seven… three days after he registered his quirk."

Yagi gasped, "You mean they…?"

"Took one look at his quirk and decided he was a villain."

Yagi went very pale, the guilt coming back like a freight train. This child had been told nothing but his whole life he was a villain unfairly. Judged purely for his quirk. And then All Might himself, the kids hero, had done exactly the same.

For the first time in many years Yagi questioned if he was really hero material.

"That's… terrible."

Tsukacuhi let out a long sigh, "It's becoming more and more common. Sad truth is heroes these days all have flashy quirks. The sort that people love to watch while the villains have much more dangerous and unknown quirks. Society starts to push these two types of people in their respective directions the moment they show up."

"So you're saying…?"

"That most villains and heroes have their paths chosen by others purley based on their quirks."

Yagi sighed and fell back into his chair, he knew it all too well. How many villains had turned out that way because they felt rejected by society? How many heroes were arrogant because they had been told from a young age that they were special and powerful?

Too many.

"Sorry," Tsukauchi said, interrupting the silence, "I didn't mean to get political on you."

"It's fine, thank you for the information but it's late and I won't keep you."

"Anytime, anything else before I go?"

Yagi didn't need the information, he hadn't even considered it but for some reason when Tsukauchi asked he responded automatically.

"Do you have an address for them both?"

"Of course, funny thing, ever since the divorce the two families have lived together. I'll email it to you, if there's nothing else have a nice night Yagi."

"You too." Yagi replied before hanging up.

Yeah, he had fucked up big time.

These two kids were obviously outcasts who had been abused by the way their society had been built since the outbreak of quirks and heroes. And then came along Yagi, a man who claimed to be above it all, a man who claimed to be a symbol above it all, he had beaten them down just like they had been their entire lives.

Yagi sighed and downed the rest of his glass of Whisky, it burned his throat and he could feel his stomach churning at the liquid but he didn't care. He ran his hand down his tired face as he leaned forward over his coffee table. Opening his eyes he came face to face with a file he had spent the last few days reading over and over. He read the large name on the cover of the file.

Miro Togata

Nedzu had been kind enough to send over the young heros file after he discovered Sir Nighteye had recommended him. Yagi had been over the file several times in the past few days yet despite that he still found himself reaching out and flicking open the papers.

Bright blue eyes stared back at him, the school photo taking up most of the first page as well as a lot of basic information. Togata's age, home address, quirk, things like that. Speaking of quirks Yagi had been impressed by Togata's control of his complex quirk. Apparently the boy had nearly been kicked out of UA in his first year due to his lack of control. However after some tutoring by Nighteye Togata now had precise control of his quirk and could use it to deadly effect. He had gone from being the only hero student to be knocked out of the first round in his first year sports festival to completely dominating his second year festival.

His complex quirk was a plus, Yagi wasn't sure what effect One For All would have on permeation but whatever it was it would likely be hard to control. Having experience working with a difficult quirk would mean he would gain control of One For All quickly.

Flipping to the second page detailed Young Togata's life before UA. It was typically middle class, he was an only child who had grown up in a happy family. Nothing really of note. Yet despite Togata's upbringing he had never grown an ego or been selfish. Even before UA his teachers had praised his kind hearted soul and how he always helped out around the classroom.

This of course continued into his notes from UA on the next page. Every teacher had nothing but praise for the boy. Even Eraserhead, the most critical of all the UA teachers, had a begrudging respect for the kid, claiming that his newfound control of his quirk shows the work ethic of someone who could excel at heroics. Outside of the classroom Togata was popular and well liked by his peers, he was often the focus of group training and people turned to him as a natural leader.

The rest of the file continued much like this: notes from Nighteye, accounts of his missions as an intern and his performance at the provisional licensing exams. All of it pointed to one thing, Togata would make an excellent symbol of peace. The kid even looked a little like All Might.

Yagi had no doubt that if Young Togata received One For All he would soar through the hero rankings. The young hero could easily become a new symbol of peace within his first few years and Japan would naturally replace him with All Might. He was very nearly a perfect candidate.

So why did he feel so much like the wrong choice to Yagi?

To be honest Yagi knew the answer to that, it wasn't that there was anything wrong with Togata, in fact quite the opposite. He would be perfect to continue the legacy of All Might and be The Next Symbol of Peace. But after today Yagi wondered to himself, is that really what Japan, maybe even the world needed?

Yagi wasn't arrogant, he knew he was only the top hero in Japan. The rest of the world had plenty of powerful heroes; the number one heroes in America and Europe had incredible quirks and could easily go toe to toe with All Might. But equally Japan was the centre for quirks on the planet, their hero industry was larger, the sheer volume of powerful quirks far exceeded that of any other country and the rest of the world often looked to Japan to see how to handle quirk and hero laws. Yagi had never once stepped foot in Italy yet his fights were always top news in the country.

What the top heroes of Japan did resonated around the world. And whoever Yagi passed his quirk onto would easily become a top ten hero with that amount of power. The question was what did Yagi really want the legacy of his successor to be?

Being The Symbol of Peace had been important when Yagi was young, villains were starting to become better organised and powerful quirks were turning up at every dark alley. Not to mention the hero industry had stagnated, new hero licences given out every year had been on the decline. Society had needed a hero to rally around, to look up to and hope when there was no hope left. That's what All Might had been.

But now? There were more heroes than ever, sure All Might still came at the top and was still a symbol. When Yagi had moved into the area, UA crime had dropped by 50%. But he wasn't the only one in the game. When Endeavour had moved cities a few years ago villains had run for the hills and there had been no crime within fifty miles of his new agency for a month. When Miruko had made her debut it had been so impressive criminals had actually come forth and handed themselves over to avoid her wrath.

So did Japan still need a Symbol Of Peace? The truth was probably in the negative, it needed heroes but the symbol All Might had been was from another era. So what did society need?

Yagi found his thoughts drifting back to the two boys he had met today, Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou. Did the two of them really care what sort of symbol he was? To them it didn't matter how many villains he took down, they were still bullied, still outcasts that people looked down upon with disgust.

The two were eerily similar yet totally different. Bakugou was foul mouthed, aggressive and cocky. He wanted to prove he was the best and his competitive streak ran perhaps deeper than even Endeavours. But he was quirkless, constantly told he was weak would amount to nothing. Yet despite that Yagi saw how the child had bit back, defied those who claimed otherwise. It reminded him of Nana.

Then there was Midoriya, the child was shy, nervous and unsure of himself. He wanted to help people yet never had the confidence to stand up for himself. But on the flip side he had arguably one of, if not the most powerful quirk in history. But he was more afraid of it than any real life villain, only using it when his friend was in danger.

That was something they both had in common, they were fiercely loyal to each other. Yagi had seen how the loud boisterous Bakugou had spoken softly to Midoriya when the boy was overwhelmed after the second incident with The Sludge Villain. And how could he forget how the normally quiet Midoriya had reacted when he saw how Yagi had hurt his friend.

He thought back to the way he had watched them fight The Sludge Villain together. They had been in perfect sync, even pro's who trained together for years couldn't match it. Bakugou had moved and fought despite being quirkless while Midoriya had utilised Death Arms quirk perfectly despite having only taken it moments before. And these two kids wanted to be heroes?

Yagi wondered just how powerful a hero with All For One could become. Not to mention they had both grown up knowing the downside of their hero obsessed society. Neither of them could become Symbols Of Peace, they had seen too much pain for that. But perhaps the pair could become something else all together. Symbols for change instead of peace.

It was just a shame that for all Midoriya's power Bakugou would struggle to keep up with his lack of quirk.

Oh.

Wait.

Yagi smiled to himself. It was a mad idea, Bakugou was the complete opposite of Togata. He was brash, had a mouth like a sailor and his main goal in life was to prove how much better he was than anyone. The boy would terrify any opposition he had into submission and beat down anyone he felt was even remotely morally ambitious.

Yagi gained a smile that would cause even the most seasoned pros to sweat as his mind cemented on his decision.

One For All and All For One working together, they would be unstoppable.

Man, Nighteye was gonna be pissed.

All Might's Offer

Chapter Summary

Tracking down Izuku and Katsuki All Might makes them an intriguing offer

Things had been… odd after The Sludge Villain incident for Izuku and Katsuki. Their parents of course had swept them into tight hugs the moment they walked through the door back home. Inko had nearly flooded the kitchen with how much she had cried when she held them both. Mitsuki had given them both hard slaps on the back of the head, ranting and raving about how they needed to be careful and look out for each other more. Though despite her rant the tears falling down her face and the relief in her eyes spoke of another story.

It had been Masaru who had surprised the boys though later that night, after they had both had long showers and sat in Katsuki's room scrolling through their phones. Masaru had knocked quietly before shutting the door behind him and kneeling down to the boy's level. He had put hand on both their shoulders and simply told them if they ever needed to talk he would always be there for them both.

Both boys had agreed not to talk about the way they had both cried into Masaru's arms after that.

Unfortunately on the other side school had become even worse, if that were possible. The moment the boys had walked into the classroom their classmates had hounded them.

"Man, I assumed you guys wouldn't come back after that embarrassing display."

"I'm surprised the villain didn't recognise one of his own Midoriya."

"Maybe it was a secret plan to kill Bakugou, I wouldn't blame them."

"THE FUCK YOU EXTRA'S TALKING ABOUT? THAT SLUDGE VILLAIN WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO US!"

Katsuki's shout just made the class laugh harder as their teacher half heartedly tried to calm them down. To the casual observer it looked like nothing had changed, but Izuku could tell. Katsuki didn't have the normal bite behind his words. His pride had been wounded and not by The Sludge Villain. It was his childhood hero telling him that he couldn't achieve his dream.

It made Midoriya clench his fists, if he ever saw All Might again he wasn't sure he could stop himself from punching the man.

…again.

Ironically it was only three days later the boys saw the hero again. For the first time in a while there had been no hold ups on their way home, no villain fights to observe and luckily no classmates to fight with.

It was Katsuki who spied him first at the end of the road from their house.

"What the fuck!?"

Izuku, who had been quietly mumbling to himself, jumped in surprise, "Kacchan?"

Katsuki didn't respond verbally, but only pointed down the road. Following his outstretched arm Izuku came face to face with All Might in his deflated form, standing just down the road from their house and looking incredibly awkward.

"Oh… hello boys…"

"Hi." The coldness in Izuku's reply caused All Might to look away in shame and Katsuki to raise an eyebrow slightly, it was a very unIzuku like response.

"What are you doing here, don't you have villains to take down?" Katsuki said as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the hero.

All Might sighed, suddenly looking much weaker than they had ever seen him, even in his skeleton, "I came to apologise to you both and… talk."

Izuku and Katsuki turned to each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes as they made various facial expressions at each other. All Might withheld a chuckle, they really were perfectly in sync. After a few tense minutes the boys both turned back to him.

"All right, we'll hear you out." Katsuki said as Izuku nodded in agreement.

"There's a park down the road with a few benches, it should be quiet." Izuku said and waved for All Might to follow.

Considering the man was the number one hero he was fairly timid as he followed the boys to the park. True to their word the park was all but abandoned, not surprising considering the torn up ground and rusty equipment, much of it broken.

"There was a small time villain fight here a few years ago, but they never did rebuild the park." Izuku explained as they all sat at one of the few remaining benches, Izuku and Katsuki facing All Might.

"Right…" All Might said as he sat down, more evidence of how damaging their hero obsessed society had become.

"So," Katsuki said, leaning back and staring at the man, "You said you wanted to talk."

"Yes, I did…" All Might said and scratched the back of his head, "First of all I wanted to apologise to you both. My actions on the day we met were… not what All Might is supposed to be. Not only did I not intervene when the two of you were under attack by that villain, the way I treated you both… what I said to you…"

Suddenly All Might had stood up from the bench and bowed low in front of them, "I offer you my deepest apologies, I am truly ashamed of my actions."

Katsuki and Izuku blinked, out of everything that had been expecting that was not it. Izuku was the first to recover.

"I… it's ok All Might. I have a villainous quirk that I attempted to use on you. You don't need to

apologise for how you reacted."

At Izuku's words All Might frowned as he sat back down, "Young man there is no such thing as a villainous quirk," Izuku's head snapped up at that, "Quirks are simply a part of us. Some use theirs for good, others for evil. A knife is capable of both stabbing someone and chopping vegetables. Yet we don't deem them inherently good or bad."

Izuku could feel the tears welling in his eyes, All Might, ALL MIGHT, had said his quirk wasn't villainous. He was the first person outside of Kacchan in his entire life to have said something along those lines, even his own mother was uncomfortable when discussing his quirk.

"S-still, I should apologise too, I-Oh God I tried to take your quirk and-"

All Might held up a hand before Izuku could fall into one of his famous mumbling episodes, "You were a child who was reacting with emotion, it is perfectly understandable, I should not expect someone of your age and experience to react any differently to the situation. Truly it is I who reacted poorly, I am pro, I should not be afraid of a child with a powerful quirk. I treated you no better than some people I have put behind bars."

All Might looked off to the side, a light breeze catching his hair, seemingly having an internal debate before he spoke, "Many years ago I fought a villain with the ability to steal quirks," Izuku's eyes went wide, "He was a powerful foe and had stored hundreds, if not thousands of quirks by them time I stopped him. I may have come out on top but… it was one of my most difficult fights, I lost a lot that day… including my closest friend. When I felt you pull on my quirk all I could think about was how he killed her… I… I was weak… I allowed my fear to overcome me and you paid the price. For that I am sorry."

Izuku had gone very quiet, looking down into his lap where his fists were clenched, "I… I don't know who my real father is…"

All Might realised where his line of thinking was going, "Young man, I cannot tell you if the man I fought was your father. Is it possible? Yes, your quirks are very similar, with the exception that while you can take at range he had to touch someone to steal their quirk. Yet it may also be coincidence, perhaps your real father had a powerful copy quirk which mutated to become stealing as opposed to copying."

All Might knew it was a long shot, all copy quirks came with a time limit and could only copy a few quirks at a time. Izuku was able to completely take someone's quirk and keep it indefinitely. But, he was not ready to burden these boys with the truth about All For One just yet.

Izuku merely nodded, lost in thought. On the one hand this was the closest he had ever been to finding out who his real father was. On the other hand if this man really was his father then that meant Izuku's quirk really was villainous and that everything anyone had ever said to him was all true. It made Izuku feel sick.

"Were you wrong, about quirkless heroes?"

The soft voice from his left startled Izuku, he had completely forgotten Kacchan was also there, caught up in his thoughts about his quirk and possible familial connections to a villain able to take on All Might himself.

Katsuki sat incredibly still, his fists clenched and knuckles white as he stared intently at All Might. His eyes were hard and on fire, the intensity of them almost made Izuku slide back away from him. It made Izuku shiver slightly.

All Might however met his gaze unflinching, he didn't say anything at first, just stared directly into the boy's eyes with his own look of equal intensity. It was obvious to All Might whatever he said next would change the course of this boy's life, he had to be careful with his words.

"Truthfully, I don't know."

The answer took both Katsuki and Izuku by surprise, their eyes widened and Izuku's jaw dropped slightly. Katsuki quickly recovered however and slammed his fist on the table between the benches.

"What do you mean you don't fucking know! It's a yes or no answer!" Izuku could see the wetness of his eyes as tears started to form in them.

"The issue lies in that there has never been a quirkless hero, it is only in recent years that the quirkless have been allowed to apply for hero courses and exams. But no one has yet passed either, I have nothing to compare it to so I cannot say for certain if it is possible." All Might explained.

"But what about heroes who fight quirkless," Izuku countered, "Take the underground hero Eraserhead, he essentially fights quirkless."

All Might raised an eyebrow, that was an impressive level of knowledge on the illusive underground hero, "That is true yes, but by his nature Eraserhead makes it so that everyone is fighting quirkless against him. He evens out the playing field."

Izuku opened his mouth to argue but it died in his throat, All Might was right. Most heroes who fought quirkless did so with an advantage their quirk supplied. Ms Joke distracted her enemies to allow her an easy win, Ragdoll operated as a part of a team that essentially fought for her while she provided support.

"Support equipment exists! I'd like to see someone with a strength quirk stop a flamethrower!" Katsuki cried, standing up, Izuku could hear the desperation creeping into his voice.

All Might gave him a sad smile, "No, but why could they not use their own flamethrower?"

Katsuki snapped his mouth shut as Izuku sighed, that was a good point they hadn't thought of. Most pro's didn't use support equipment and utilised their quirks but that didn't mean they couldn't. And once you were both using support equipment it still came down to quirks.

Katsuki sat back down, a defeated look on his face, "So you're saying it's impossible?"

All Might paused, he clasped his hands together and looked at the two boys in front of him, "Young Midoriya, Young Bakugou," That caught the boys attention, they didn't realise All Might knew their names, "Tell me, what sort of heroes do you want to be?"

Both boys paused and looked at each other. They both knew the answer to that question for themselves and each other off by heart.

Izuku went first, "I.. I want to give people hope. Not the same hope you do. Not that I don't want to give everyone hope!" Izuku corrected, waving his hands around, "But… I want people like me, people who hate their own quirks, who… who have villainous quirks. I want them to look at me and think 'I can do that too'."

All Might gave Izuku a warm smile as Katsuki began to speak, "I want to prove them all wrong. I want to be the best! I want to win it all! I want to show those fuckers what a real hero is! What a real hero should be! Not those damn fakes and extras like Death Arms!"

All Might couldn't help but chuckle at Katsuki's mini speech. At some point the boy had risen to his feet and looked very much like a hero, except for the scowl etched onto his face.

"I thought as much, both fine reasons for being heroes. Perhaps better reasons than most of us. But tell me, with your own goals in mind, could you become the hero you WANT to be without a quirk?"

Katsuki scowled deeper and went to open his mouth, another rant on the tip of his tongue. However, said rant died when he actually paused to think about it. Could he really become the best without a quirk? Would support equipment, luck and quirkless skills really take to the same level as the top ten?

Katsuki sagged and sat back down, letting out a long sigh that caused Izuku's face to morph into concern, "No I couldn't, even if I passed all the exams and became the first quirkless hero I'd most likely be an underground or investigatory hero."

Al Might nodded in agreement, "Yes, I'm afraid that is the most likely scenario."

Izuku turned to All Might with a frown, "So we're just supposed to give up?"

All Might gave Izuku a hard look that nearly made the boy cower back, but he just steeled himself and stared right back. All Might smiled.

"Did I say you should give up? Tell me, what do you know about my quirk."

Izuku tilted his head in surprise but answered the question anyway, "No one really knows what your quirk is, every time you're asked about you dodge the question."

Katsuki nodded in agreement, "It's obviously some kind of strength enhancement, me and Zuzu have always suspected it's something more."

"You two really are bright," All Might said with a chuckle, "My quirk is called One For All, at its core my quirk is power, it's why it takes the form of strength for me. But more than that it is a quirk that is passed down from generation to generation. You see I was given One For All by my Sensei who was given it to herself by her Sensei and so on."

Izuku's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, "You can… you can pass on your quirk!? That's amazing! How's that possible!? It defies all known quirk laws! How does the power even transfer, hoedoesthenewhostadaptoitisitalwasyastrength-"

"Oi! Nerd!" Katsuki shouted as he slapped Izuku on the back of his head, "Don't get into a muttering storm."

"S-sorry" Izuku mumbled.

Katsuki turned to All Might, "Why the hell are you telling us about your transferable quirk anyway?"

All Might gave Katsuki a deadpanned look.

Katsuki suddenly paled as all the pieces clicked into place and he gave All Might an astonished look.

"You… you want me… to…"

All Might just nodded, "That's right Young Bakugou, I would like to offer you my power. While it may mean you cannot be the first quirkless hero it will mean that you and Young Midoriya here can rise to the tops of hero society and from the top you can make the changes so that no one should suffer like you have."

"But… Why me?" Katsuki asked softly in a rare moment of vulnerability, "I'm not… I'm not a particularly nice person, I could hardly be a symbol of peace."

Izuku turned to argue that point but All Might beat him to it, "Young Bakugou I do not want you to be the next symbol of peace. I want you to be the hero you are. The truth is that it is too late for me, in all my years I never saw the society I was helping to create. The world does not need another All Might. But I firmly believe it needs Katsuki Bakugou."

Katsuki could only stare at All Might, his mouth opening and closing in shock.

"The word you're looking for is yes, maybe even a please if you're feeling generous." Izuku sassed from next to Katsuki who shot the giggling boy a two finger salute.

Katsuki turned back to All Might and took a breath, "Alright All Might, I accept your quirk and with it I'll show all those shitty heroes what they're supposed to be."

All Might gave Katsuki a wide smile, "Excellent then we'll begin your training immediately. Please both meet me at Dagobah Beach tomorrow at 6AM."

Katsuki blanched at the early hour while Izuku looked at All Might in confusion, "Both of us?"

"Of course Young Midoriya. First of all I'm well aware the two of you are a package deal-"

"Damn straight." Katsuki muttered.

"-However, I believe that both of you can be great heroes. And with your quirk you have the potential to be one of the best, I want to help you both achieve the dreams you have that I was unable to. You, Young Midoriya, have the heart, soul and quirk of a hero."

Izuku could feel the tears gather in his eyes before All Might had even finished. Katsuki too noticed the incoming flood.

"Aw fuck."

Suddenly Izuku burst into sobbing, tears flowing freely from his eyes as the dam burst," Tha- Thank you All Might Sensei! I promise I won't let you down!"

All Might had leapt back from the bench as a small flood started around them, "Oh uh.. it's fine young man. Is this uh, normal for him?" he asked, turning to Katsuki.

Katsuki just shrugged, "Eh you just gotta wait it out."

For Izuku 6AM came far too late, they were being trained by ALL MIGHT. He was certain he was going to wake up any minute and discover it was all a dream. Izuku didn't even know what this training was going to be. A slight pit formed in the bottom of his stomach, would All Might make him use his quirk? He was fine when the man was in his thin form, his energy was dulled, but Izuku wasn't sure how he would react when the man activated his quirk.

Katsuki was less than pleased about the early start, he had always valued his sleep. Though he was notably in the best mood he had been since the incident a few days ago. This just translated as him being louder, swearing more and his insults being more creative. Such as the one he had been calling All Might all morning.

"Fucking Stick Might and his early starts, why couldn't he have let us sleep in?"

"To be fair Kacchan we still have school, we'll need to utilise all our time if we want to pass the UA entrance exams!" Izuku said with far too much enthusiasm for the morning.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

As they walked, Katsuki mellowed out slightly and gave Izuku a concerned glance, "Zuzu…"

Izuku hummed, "Yes Kacchan?"

"You uh… you know you're going to have to get used to stealing quirks and… and gain control of the hunger."

Izuku didn't respond at first, as if on cue the familiar pang in his head flared up slightly. He wrung his hands together nervously and looked away from Katsuki.

"I know. The stealing quirks I… I think I can handle that part. I just need to get used to it but the hunger… there's going to be a lot of powerful quirks if we get into UA…" Izuku didn't need to finish for them both to understand the consequences if Izuku lost control in the middle of a hero school.

"WHEN we get into UA, not if." Katsuki corrected though he didn't push the topic further, the hunger was something Izuku rarely discussed, even with him.

Not long later they came to the beach, one look had Katsuki scrunching his nose in disgust, "THIS is our training ground!? This place if fucking filthy."

"Language!" Said a deep voice from behind them, turning round they found a small might walking towards them with a smile on his face, a pick up truck parked not far behind him.

"All Might!" Izuku greeted him with a bow.

"First of all Young Midoriya, there is no need to bow. Secondly in this form please call me by my civilian name Toshinori Yagi."

Izuku nodded his head vigorously while Katsuki just huffed in agreement.

"Come on then, hand your quirk over."

"Kacchan!" Izuku reprimanded, though Katsuki ignored him, instead glaring at Yagi.

Yagi chuckled at the display, "It's quite alright Young Midoriya, Bakugou here I expect is just excited. But I'm afraid I can't give you my quirk just yet."

Katsuki's eyes widened in annoyance, "Hah!? But you said!?"

"What I mean is that you need training before taking One For All, it's a powerful quirk and without the body to handle it it could blow your arms and legs off."

Izuku stumbled at those words while Katsuki's rage dropped significantly, maybe he could wait a few more months to gain a quirk.

"So is that why we're at this junkyard?" Katsuki said, indicating to the massive piles of trash behind him.

Yagi nodded, "Yes but not just that. This beach used to be beautiful, a real romantic spot for people to come visit. But then people started using it to dump their trash and slowly it became the junkyard you see today."

"So… you want us to clean it?" Katsuki said, sounding unimpressed.

"Don't look so down Young Bakugou, community service is an important part of hero work, regardless of the kind of hero you want to be. Present Mic for instance has his radio show while The Wild Wild Pussycats host camping trips for young children for free every summer. By cleaning this beach not only will you build the required muscle to take One For All you'll also be helping the local people and providing a service."

"Is that all?" Katsuki said though his bite had definitely gone now that he understood the reasoning.

"Oh no, the beach will be your main focus when I cannot be present for your training, I am still a hero after all. When I am able I will assist you both with other exercises. Which brings me to these!"

Yagi reached into his pocket and pulled out two packets and handed each one to Izuku and Katsuki. Izuku looked down at the colourful packet.

Aim To Pass: American Dream Plan, Midoriya Version

Izuku flicked through the packet and his eyes almost fell out of his sockets, the workout was extreme and the diet even more so. Izuku was fairly sure this would kill him before he even made it to UA and from the look on Katsuki's face his packet was no different.

"Now, one thing to say straight off the bat is that your plans are slightly different. Midoriya for you I have focused on building lean muscle and being athletic, with your quirk you need to make sure your body can withstand the blowback of any quirks you may take in the field but you also need to be able to use them effectively so having a more rounded training plan will be the most beneficial."

Izuku nodded, that made a lot of sense actually, he had never really considered his physical prowess a key part of his quirk however he didn't want to take a quirk one day to find his body

couldn't handle it. He was rather embarrassed his analytical mind hadn't picked that up.

"Young Bakugou's plan however concentrates more on strength building and muscle gain. Your body is better suited to it and you'll need it for One For All."

Katsuki gruffed in response as he looked through the diet plan, "It's a good fuckin job we've got a lawyer and two fashion designers in the family. This shits gonna be expensive."

Yagi sweat dropped at that, he had admittedly forgot about the economic element of the plan.

"I'm trusting the two of you to keep each other on track with this plan, if you fall behind or overwork yourselves the plan won't be as effective as it's designed to be. This goes even more so for you Young Bakugou, if you falter from this plan I won't be able to give you One For All."

Katsuki nodded with determination, his back straight, "I won't fail and I'll make sure Zuzu sticks to it too. I'm not having a weak ass partner." Izuku giggled at that but his eyes were full of the same determination as Katsuki's.

"Yagi Sensei, what uh… what about training my quirk?" Izuku asked timidly, not looking Yagi in the eye.

"That is… a problem I'm still working on," Yagi admitted as he rubbed his chin in thought, "We can't exactly go around taking peoples' quirks to train you. For now I suggest focusing on your basic physical skills as well the generic skills everyone needs for quirk usage. In the meantime I'll brainstorm some ideas."

"You really don't have to." Izuku mumbled.

"Nonsense Young Midoriya, Bakugou may be my successor but you are now both my students. I will make sure we incorporate your quirk into our training somehow." Yagi said as he placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder.

The boy smiled up at him, "Oh, there's also something else we need to bring up. Actually two things… is it just two or-"

"Nerd."

"Right sorry!" Izuku apologised to Katsuki though the blonde was looking at his friend with curiosity, he knew one thing they had agreed to bring up, he did not know the second.

Izuku closed his eyes as his body tensed before looking up at Yagi, "My quirk has a rather… large drawback and it's something I need to learn to control before UA."

Katsuki's eyes widened as he realised what Izuku was getting at while Yagi nodded, indicating for the boy to continue.

"I… well… I'm drawn to quirks. We uh… we call it the hunger. I feel it in my head and it's like I NEED to steal the quirk. It gets worse with more quirks around and the more powerful quirks. It's why I don't do well in crowds." Izuku confessed as he stared directly at the ground, meanwhile Katsuki was looking directly at Yagi, daring him to say something.

Yagi paused for a minute, considering this information, "Well, that explains what happened when we first met, I assumed you lost control." At Izuku's ashamed nod Yagi continued, "You seem fine with me now though?"

"Your energy- uh quirks look like energy to me- is a lot smaller and weaker in this form, it's fairly easy to deal with."

Yagi nodded in thought, that made sense, he didn't technically have his quirk active right now. He looked down at Izuku with a smile.

"I can see why you're concerned, it was brave of you to tell me about this. Luckily this aspect of your quirk shouldn't be difficult to train. I have the only quirk in the world that you can't steal so first we can get you used to being around me and go from there."

Izuku looked up at Yagi with wide eyes as tears started to gather in the corner of his eyes. Fearing another flood Yagi frantically waved his arms around.

"What's the second thing!?" He all but shouted in their faces.

"We should tell our parents." Katsuki grunted.

Yagi coughed from the shock, stumbling back as blood poured out of his mouth to the shocked look of Katsuki and Izuku. Bringing out a handkerchief Yagi wiped his mouth clean as he waved off the boy's concerned looks.

"Don't worry, this happens all the time. I'm sorry boys but we can't tell your parents, One For All is a secret only a handful of people know about, it's too risky."

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Not about your quirk dumbass."

Yagi sweat dropped at being called a dumbass, had he really chosen this boy as his successor?

"What Kacchan means," Izuku said with a harsh look at Katsuki, "Is that we should at least tell them we're being trained by someone who works for a pro hero. And maybe that you believe Katsuki has a latent quirk, it'll be less of a shock then when you hand it over."

Yagi thought about it for a moment, it would definitely be easier if their parents had some idea of what was going on. He can't imagine it was easy to convince them to let them leave the house at 5AM every day.

Yagi nodded in agreement, "All right, we can cut training short after your school finishes today to visit your home."

Yagi could honestly say he had no idea what to expect from the boy's parents as he followed them up their driveway. All he really knew was that they were a wealthy family and that Midoriya's mother may have had an affair with the most powerful supervillain of all time. Not exactly the sort of light conversion one brought up over a cup of tea.

The house itself was fairly impressive, Yagi already knew it was a wealthy area when he came here yesterday. But actually walking up to the house he saw why his diet plan wasn't a concern for the boys. The house was rather large, which of course made sense when there were three adults and two teenage boys living there. Three stories high Yagi suspected his apartment could fit within its walls five times.

They walked up the path to the front door that split the garden in two and Yagi found himself slightly nervous. He hoped the boy's parents didn't react badly to him or his training plan. He decided the best method was to go with his usual cover story, that he worked as an assistant at All Might's agency. It would help explain why he had access to such lavish resources.

He was shaken from his thoughts as he entered the house and Katsuki called out, "Auntie we're home!"

"Mom works from home when she's not in court." Izuku explained as he neatly packed his stuff away by the door and they walked further into the house.

"Oh! Hello boys, I was wondering when- Oh! Who's this?" A small woman had turned around from the stove as the three had entered the kitchen.

It was obvious this was Izuku's mother, their green hair matched perfectly. It was clear she had just been working out, she was wearing tight fitting gym clothes and had her hair tied up in a bun. Despite being a single mother it was obvious she worked to maintain a figure and Yagi found himself staring slightly.

"A-apologies, my name is Toshinori Yagi" He said and gave a low bow.

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm Inko Midoriya, Izuku's mother." Inko supplied with a warm smile that made Yagi's mouth dry, 'pull it together you old fool!'

"I apologise for the intrusion Ms Midoriya, we would have called ahead but this was a last minute decision." Yagi explained.

Inko's eyes widened in fear as something seemed to come over her, "You're… you're not with the police are you!? Is this about Izuku!? Did Katsuki start a fight!?" Inko stepped protectively in front of the surprised boys who had been scouring the fridge for snacks.

Yagi had to bite back to remind them they were no longer allowed candy, he supposed it was the first day.

"I assure you it's nothing untoward, I actually work for The All Might agency." Yagi said with a chuckle.

Inko's jaw dropped, "All Might!?"

"There's a lot to discuss, perhaps we should wait until Young Bakugou's parents are also present?" Yagi suggested.

"They just pulled up," Izuku said as he and Katsuki fought over a bar of chocolate, it appeared it was down to a thumb war, "I can sense their energy."

Inko gave Izuku a surprised look, he never casually spoke about his quirk to strangers.

To prove Izuku's point the sound of the front door being slammed open filled the room causing Yagi to jump slightly.

"Inko we're home! Are Brat Version One and Brat Version Two home yet?"

"We're all in the kitchen Auntie!" Izuku called out, it appeared he had won the thumb war as he sat digging into the chocolate while Katsuki moped in the chair next to him.

"Man, what a day, I could really do with- who the fuck is this!?"

Yagi sweat dropped as the Bakugou mother entered the kitchen, suddenly his successor's behaviour made a lot more sense. Like Inko and Izuku, Katsuki and his mother had near identical hair, she had her hand on her hip and was giving Yagi a scowl that he had seen many a time on Katsuki's face. Yagi guessed the timid looking man behind her was Katsuki's father.

"Oi Hag, he's our guest!" Katsuki shouted.

His mother just scoffed, "Shut up Brat One, he's in my house, I'll ask the questions."

"This is Toshinori Yagi, he works for The All Might agency." Inko supplied and sent a reassuring

smile to Yagi who couldn't help but smile back.

"All Might Agency huh?" The elder Bakugou said and shot a smirk at Izuku, "Hey Brat Two, you didn't steal the number one hero's quirk did you?"

Izuku spluttered in shock, nearly choking on his chocolate, "Auntie! I- of course not!" In his panic he dropped the rest of the bar which was quickly swiped by Katsuki with a smug look.

"I'm kidding, you Midoriya's with your nerves. Names, Mitsuki Bakugou, the moron behind me is the man I tricked into marrying me, Masaru." Mitsuki said and pointed a thumb at her husband who gave Yagi an apologetic look and a slight wave.

"A pleasure, I can assure you however they boys are not in any sort of trouble, in fact quite the opposite. Perhaps we should discuss this in a more comfortable setting?" Yagi suggested.

"I'll make tea!" Inko said and clapped her hands together.

Soon Yagi found himself sitting in the living room in a comfortable chair, steaming cup of tea in his hands, facing the entire family. Izuku and Katsuki were sitting together on a sofa nervously looking at the four adults in the room. Mitsuki and Masaru shared the other sofa in the room while Inko had plopped herself on the armrest of said sofa. It didn't go amiss to Yagi that it was set up very much like an interrogation.

"So, Mr Yagi, what does All Might have to do with our boys?" Inko asked, her gaze kept flickering to Izuku in concern.

Yagi cleared his throat, "I'm sure you're aware of The Sludge Villain incident earlier in the week."

All three adults nodded as their eyes briefly snapped to Izuku and Katsuki who were pointedly not looking at anyone.

"Well, truth be told, All Might felt guilty about the whole event. Your sons were put in danger by his delay and he wanted to apologise."

"Damn straight! If he were here I'd give him a piece of my mind!" Mitsuki claimed with a slight frown, Izuku, Katsuki and Yagi all exchanged a look at her comment.

"Yes well…" Yagi stumbled a bit, not used to dealing with someone so… abrasive, "As you know I work for The All Might agency, nothing fancy, just as an assistant. All Might asked the police for your address and asked me to check in on the boys. Upon meeting the two of them we started to chat and I learned of their goals to be heroes and go to UA."

Yagi did not miss the looks that crossed the faces of the adults if only for a second. He sighed internally, he couldn't blame them but he couldn't imagine how much that would hurt Katsuki and Izuku if they ever caught it.

"Upon discussing this with All Might we both saw the potential in the boys and were eager to offer to train them together. Well, mainly me with a little input from All Might. That's where they were today, meeting with me to discuss their regimes."

"You… you really think they could be heroes?" Inko asked, her voice wavering slightly at the end, Mitsuki and Masaru were also looking intently at Yagi.

Yagi gave a firm nod, "Absolutely, with the right training we believe they are shoe ins for UA."

Inko gave a happy sob though Mitsuki seemed torn at this, Masaru looked thoughtful as he spoke, "You mentioned a training regime."

Yagi nodded, "Boys?"

In perfect sync Katsuki and Izuku pulled out their dream plan packets and handed it to their parents. Masaru took both packets and opened them up, flipping through the pages. Inko and Mitsuki leaned in, both reading over his shoulder.

"These-these look intense." Inko said with a frown as she prepared Izuku's workout regime for week eight.

"I assure you they are safe, they were created by experts with specific goals in mind while taking into account the boys' ages and body types. So long as they follow these to the letter there will be no negative effects."

Mitsuki scowled as her eyes flicked over the two packets, "Why is Brat One's regime more intense than Brat Twos'?"

Yagi chuckled slightly, then instantly regretted it when Mitsuki gave him a look that indicated one wrong move and he'd be dead.

"Oh… um.. Well.." Yagi cleared his throat to regain control of his voice, "First of all they are as intense as each other, it's just that Young Bakugou's concentrates more on muscle mass while Young Midoriya's is more about overall athleticism. There is, however, a very good reason for this and the main reason I came here today."

All three adults gave Yagi a confused look, "Once Bakugou told me he was quirkless we did some tests at the agency. As it turns out this is an incorrect diagnosis," three jaws immediately dropped to the floor in shock, "It seems Young Bakugou has a dormant argumentation quirk. It seems to be incredibly strong, so much so that his body is not currently able to hold the power and so had automatically shut the quirk down so to speak. This plan should get his body ready for the quirk in roughly eight months."

Mitsuki paused before a wide smile spread across her face, "HAH! I knew my brat was special, a quirk so strong he needs to train to be able to even use it!"

Masaru however had a grim look on his face, "A strength quirk? From ours?" he said as his eyes looked at Inko who had gone incredibly pale.

The realisation hit Yagi at a hundred miles an hour. He had just informed the Bakugou's that their son had a strength quirk. A quirk completely different from either of his known parents' quirks. Just like they had found when Izuku gained his quirk.

Fuck.

Yagi desperately had to save the situation before he tore his successor's family apart, "It's not completely unheard of, tell me has there ever been a strength quirk in your family?"

Masaru seemed to think it over before his eyes widened, "Ah yes! Of course, my great aunt's family all had them. To think it lasted all the way to Katsuki."

Yagi let out a breath of relief, he was starting to think he needed to stop speaking all the time before he really did ruin someone's life.

"Mr Yagi," The small voice of Inko caught his attention and he turned to look at her, her face etched on worry, "I'm not sure how much Izuku has told of his quirk but there are… drawbacks."

"He knows about my hunger Mom." Izuku said, looking firmly in his lap.

Yagi nodded, "Izuku has given me the full details of his quirk. I assure you I meant what I said earlier, your son has the potential to be a great hero Ms Midoriya."

Inko smiled, "Please call me Inko, Ms Midoriya was my mother. I'm sorry to worry it's just… I've never seen another quirk like Izuku's and I don't want my baby to get hurt."

"Please then Inko, call me Toshi. I promise you myself and All Might are working hard to make sure that by the time the UA entrance exams come around in ten months Young Midoriya will have firm control of his quirk, including being able to be near powerful quirks without giving into his hunger." Yagi said as he stood up and bowed low.

Inko smiled, "Thank you Toshi, All Might is lucky to have you.

Yagi sputtered while Mitsuki watched the display, a smug grin slowly making its way to her face, "Well, I'm convinced. I'm not sure it would make a difference even if I said no. So you hear that Brat One, you better be the best hero I know you can be!"

Katsuki actually gave his mother a small smile at her words, "Thanks Hag."

"I agree as well." Masaru said with a smile at his son.

Inko looked away briefly as Yagi turned his attention to her, biting her lip, "I don't see an issue with it so long as Izuku…"

Izuku nodded at the silent question, "I want to Mom, I want to use my quirk for good and prove it's not just for evil."

Inko looked at her son for a moment before nodding and turning back to Yagi, "Then you have my permission, we will help in any way we can."

Yagi smiled, "I shall look after them both with all I have. Now I'm afraid I must be on my way."

Mitsuki latched onto the opportunity, "Hey Inko why don't you show Toshi out. Just make sure it is to the front door and not your bedroom."

Both Inko and Yagi spluttered as Masaru rolled his eyes and his wife cackled.

"C-come on Toshi, I'll show you the door." Inko said as she and Yagi fled the room both with coloured cheeks while Mitsuki cackled harder.

Izuku frowned at the display and narrowed his eyes, "Did that seem weird to you Kacchan?"

Katsuki just grunted in response.

The Quirk of a Villain

Chapter Summary

While their physical training is going well All Might has concerns about dealing with Izuku's quirk

A month later and Yagi had to admit he was quietly impressed with his successors and Izuku's progress. They had cleared a decent chunk of the beach working together, far quicker than Yagi was expecting. He was going to have to change their plans towards the end of their schedule, they would run out of trash to clear at the beach before they finished.

Katsuki had dived into the training with more aggression than Yagi had been expecting. And he had been expecting a lot of aggression. The boy made sure to let out a curse word every time they got another piece of trash into Yagi's truck. Even in the exercises where Yagi supervised them he cursed like a madman, pushing himself as hard as his body would allow him.

That wasn't to say Izuku hadn't done the same, the boy had a silent determination about him that matched Katsuki's intensity. For as much as Katsuki shouted and made a scene when he was pushing himself you could always find Izuku right next to him. No, it wasn't Izuku's training regime or his dedication that was the issue. It was his quirk training.

Three weeks in and Yagi had come up with a way of working on Izuku's 'hunger' problem. It had been one of the times the boys training had them doing different things, Izuku and Yagi had left Katsuki completing a series of press ups and crunches on the beach while Yagi followed Izuku on a run.

They were about halfway through it when Yagi stopped for a quick water break. As Izuku had been downing the bottle Yagi had, without warning, changed into his All Might form for the first time since they had been on the rooftop when they met.

It had been a disaster.

The odd thing was that it wasn't because Izuku had given in. At first Yagi had panicked when he saw Izuku's reaction. The boy had frozen solid, water falling down his front as he crunched the plastic bottle in his fist. Then he had started to shake, his head turning slowly to look at Yagi and man, if that hadn't been terrifying. It was something straight out of a horror film, the pale face and dilated dead eyes looking into Yagi's very soul. At that point Izuku had taken a step forward and

Yagi had been about to deflate, preparing for the tugging on his quirk, when Izuku's eyes had regained their normal spark and the boy had fallen back.

Yagi had gone to praise him only to find him sobbing, begging Yagi to stay at least ten metres away (he later realised this was the effective range of the boy's quirk). Izuku had been a mess, constantly shaking and terrified to even move. Yagi had eventually retrieved Katsuki using his All Might form who was able to calm the boy down to the point that he was willing to move again.

But ever since then Izuku had been avoiding Yagi, despite the man apologising and assuring him that he wouldn't try that again without permission. Izuku had of course said that it wasn't Yagi's fault but Yagi could tell the boy still feared his hunger. Every time he got too close Izuku would take a few steps back, making sure to keep a good distance between them.

Yagi sighed as he watched Izuku haul an oven unit into his truck, Izuku gave him a wave but ran back to the beach before Yagi could respond. Katsuki was, to an extent, easy. Yagi knew how to train the boy for his quirk and how to prepare him. He also knew what it was like to be quirkless and while they were different he understood the boy's goals to become a hero.

Izuku was different, Yagi could appreciate his struggles but he didn't understand them, not really. When Yagi had gotten his quirk just before UA he had received nothing but praise for his powerful and flashy superpower. No one had ever put the label of villain anywhere near him yet for Izuku it was the first thing anyone ever assumed.

Then there was the quirk itself, Yagi just didn't know how to handle it. How did you train All For One a stealing quirk? Yagi was sure even if he pulled up volunteers Izuku would be too nervous and afraid to steal their quirks. Then there was the hunger, Yagi appreciated it was hard but the truth was they needed to work on it, one month and they'd only had one disaster for their efforts. Try as he might Yagi couldn't figure out how to get through the barrier of Izuku seeing his quirk as dangerous and villainous.

In the back of his mind Yagi wondered if this is how he started, if society had been cruel to him and pushed him into the life he led. He shook his head of those thoughts, Izuku was not All For One, even it seemed like he really did have the quirk.

Loath as he was to admit it, Yagi couldn't help Izuku with this problem. But maybe he knew someone who could.

Aizawa sighed as he approached Nedzu's office, a yawn escaping from him as he threw his latest juice pouch into the trash. Sometimes he really hated the rat- bear- whatever he was. Aizawa got one free period a day and today he apparently had to spend it in a meeting with his boss.

Someone better have died.

Aizawa didn't bother to knock as he arrived at the office, he knew Nedzu would have seen him coming anyway and just swung the door open, admittedly a little harder than he needed to.

"What?" He asked in a tired voice.

"Ah! Hello Aizawa!" Nedzu said in his usual cheery tone.

Aizawa had expected this, Nedzu always seemed overly enthusiastic. What he hadn't expected however was to see The Number One Hero sitting in one of the chairs facing Nedzu's desk, his muscular form looking far too large for the seat.

All Might gave Aizawa one of his signature smiles that was much too large for Aizawa to be perfectly comfortable with.

"Eraserhead! It's a pleasure to formally meet you, we've neve had the pleasure of working together!" All Might said and held out a hand.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, he had of course been informed just a couple of weeks ago by Nedzu that All Might would be taking a teaching position, but he hadn't expected to meet the man so soon.

"Yes," Aizawa said slowly, "We've never had such a 'pleasure'."

All Might winced at Aizawa's words, it was no secret he was not loved completely by the underground community. His method of fighting was the literal opposite to how they operated.

A polite cough from Aizawa's left reminded him that he was still technically a teacher and that his boss was sat right there. Sighing he reached out and shook All Mights hand, "I'm interested to see what you can bring to the Hero Foundation course."

Nedzu glared at Aizawa briefly for the underhanded compliment but All Might didn't seem to pick up on it and vigorously shook Aizawa's hand. Taking a seat next to the hero, Aizawa turned to Nedzu.

"I assume this is about school business?"

"Actually no, we don't need to worry about that for another few months yet." Nedzu explained as he poured himself a cup of tea.

"Yes," All Might said a little awkwardly which surprised Aizawa, it was a bit of a change from the loudmouth hero seen in the media, "This is actually regarding a personal matter…"

Aizawa's eyebrows rose in surprise, "What issue could you possibly have that you need an overworked teacher and underground hero?"

All Might chuckled, "You'd be surprised. You see, I'm currently mentoring this young man, two of them in fact. If all goes according to plan you'll see them here at UA next year."

The surprises kept coming it seemed, in all his years active All Might had never taken an intern or work study, his agency was notorious for running on a skeleton crew and considering he had been a top ten hero for at least three decades he had only ever had one sidekick. And now all of a sudden he was mentoring two teenage boys to enter UA? Aizawa's thoughts started to wonder if All Might had been married in secret.

"They're not my secret children." All Might said as if reading Aizawa's mind.

At the teacher's raised eyebrow All Might indicated to Nedzu, "I asked the same thing," The rat supplied.

"Right," Aizawa nodded, "So, these two kids, what's the issue?"

"It's actually only one of them I need your help with, Midoriya is his name. He's a good kid, heart of gold. He wants to be a hero not just to save people to change people's perception of quirks."

"A noble goal but unless he has a quirk on par with yours it'll be difficult to make any headway." Aizawa said, it was blunt but it was the truth.

Instead of expecting All Might to be disappointed or snap back, the hero just laughed, "Funny you should say that… It's actually his quirk that is the issue. Midoriya has dived into the physical aspect of our training with more dedication than I could have ever imagined. But his quirk training on the other hand… We've had one disastrous incident in an attempt to deal with the main drawback of his quirk and I'm not even sure how to go about the main training of it."

If Aizawa had been intrigued before he was now fully involved, who the hell was this kid?

"Exactly how complex is this kids quirk situation?"

It was Nedzu who answered, "As of two weeks ago, Izuku Midoriya's quirk, at the request of All Might, was classified and removed from all official documents. His quirk counsellor and current teachers all agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Though we can do nothing about his classmates who are all aware of the basics of his quirk, any other information on it is now classified under the HPSC, Level 0."

If Mic was playing a prank on him Aizawa was going to be so fucking pissed. Level 0 was the highest level of classification for any hero information; only the top members of the HPSC, government ministers and the number one hero could access that level. Even Endeavour would be rejected. It contained information such as a complete record of Tartarus security, the identity of every double agent working in villain organisations and-

"You have the only other quirk I know of classified at that level." Aizawa said to All Might, "Just what the hell is this kid's quirk that it needs to be one of only two quirks classified under such high security."

All Might gave him a small smile, "One of three actually, Katsuki Bakugou, the other child I mentioned who I'm mentoring. His quirk is also classified under that level."

"Fuck off."

All Might actually let out a booming laugh at Aizawa's words, "I understand this is a lot to take in but actually, the favour I'm asking of you is far more simple than that."

"Go on."

All Might actually sagged as he continued, "Midoriyas quirk is powerful and dangerous not to mention it isn't just some simple elemental or physical quirk. I admit, even I was afraid of it at first. So you can imagine how most people react."

"They think he's a villain in the waiting," Aizawa said, realisation coming over him, "And you want to help him but the truth is you never experienced quirk discrimination and don't how to handle it."

"Bingo." All Might said looking defeated, perhaps Aizawa had misjudged his character, it was obvious he cared about these boys.

Aizawa sighed, "Look, I'm happy to talk to the kid but I don't know much help I can be if I don't even know what his quirk is."

All Might hesitated and looked at Nedzu who nodded his head slightly, "I told you this morning Yagi, you can trust Aizawa with these secrets."

All Might and stood up from his chair, "Well then, it's probably easier to start from the beginning," he said as the office filled with steam.

Izuku panted as he made it to one of the markers in the sand, he didn't even pause before turning on his heel and running in the opposite direction to the other marker on the beach. It was one of the days when Yagi was able to join them for their training. As such Izuku and Katsuki were split up. Katsuki was currently a little further down the beach, doing pushups while Yagi sat on his back reading today's paper. Izuku meanwhile was running between two markers in the sand, his phone to the side beeping at intervals with each interval being quicker than the last. His goal was to make

sure he got to the other marker before the beep.

Running in sand made the task even more difficult and Izuku's lungs and legs were screaming at him by the time he made it to the marker just before the final beep of that stage. Collapsing on his back in the sand Izuku panted hard and closed his eyes, he didn't need to check his pack to know he now had a ten minute break. He and Katsuki knew their breaks right up until the end of the ten months, it was the only way they were staying sane.

As he lay there recovering Izuku became vaguely aware of someone's energy approaching him as he felt a slight pang of hunger in his head.

"You really need to lay down after that display?" Came the low bored tone of the intruder

Izuku frowned and opened his eyes to find himself staring at… a hobo? The man was wearing dark shaggy clothes to match his black matted hair. He had heavy eye bags that made it look like he hadn't slept since the day he was born and half his face was covered by a grey scarf. Something in the back of Izuku's mind told him he should recognize this stranger.

Izuku stood up and brushed the sand off his clothes, "I have been going at it for four hours now."

"Is that all?" Came the drawled out reply of the man.

Izuku gave the man an incredulous look, "Excuse me but uh, who are you?"

"I'm a colleague of All Might." The stranger replied.

Izuku felt the excitement start to bubble in his chest, "You're a pro hero!?"

"No, we're in the same barbershop quartet." The stranger deadpanned back.

Izuku's face fell, "That wasn't very funny."

"Agree to disagree. Sit with me." The stranger said and summoned him over the stairs down to the

beach in a way that indicated it wasn't a question.

Izuku dragged himself over and sat next to the stranger, internally mumbling about how this was easting into his precious break time. Over on the other side of the beach Katsuki had started to hit his limit and had resorted to his usual method of pushing through the pain.

"247, fuck!"

"248, shit!"

"249, BASTARD!"

The stranger snorted at the display, "That's some kid. He's the one that's going be taking One For All?"

Izuku froze as he heard those words, the stranger must have noticed however as let out a soft chuckle, "Relax kid, I'm in the big secret club of secrets, All Might himself told me."

Izuku relaxed, the tension leaving his shoulders as he smiled looking at Kacchan, "Kacchan can be a little aggressive but he's going to be a great hero one day."

The stranger turned to him, looking Izuku up and down with a gaze that made the teenager a little uncomfortable, "And you won't be?"

Izuku sighed and turned away from the stranger, "I want to be but… my quirk… it's…"

"A villain's quirk?" The stranger finished for him.

Izuku sagged, "Yeah, something like that."

"What a coincidence, same here."

Izuku's head whipped round so fast the stranger was concerned the boy might have gotten whiplash. For the first time Izuku actually took a good look at the strangers energy and realised just how unusual it was. It was concentrated in his eyes, trails of it spreading out from there all over his body. Outside of that it seemed to contradict itself, it was bright yet dark at the same time, it was thick yet thin and Izuku couldn't place its colour. Somehow Izuku seemed to know that this stranger's quirk was both weak at first glance yet in reality incredibly powerful and was focused on his eyes.

The puzzle pieces came together in Izuku's mind, the scarf, the eyes and the unusual quirk.

Izuku gasped, "You're Erasurehead, the hero who can erase quirks!"

Erasure actually smiled, "Not bad kid, I'm almost impressed, call me Aizawa."

Izuku tilted his head in thought, "I don't understand, how could your quirk be considered villainous?"

Aizawa rolled his eyes at the question, "Think about it kid, I deactivate people's quirks. People like their quirks, they don't like not being able to feel them."

Huh, now that Izuku actually thought about it he supposed that wasn't too different to his own issues. People feared both their quirks because it took away their own quirks. Albeit Izuku's method was a little more permanent.

"When I was kid I could hardly control Erasure, it used to randomly activate and deactivate the quirks of anyone I was looking at. Every time it did I was kicked from foster home to foster home. Eventually it happened one too many times and I got a black mark on my record. Had it not been for some old hero on the brink of retirement finding me and seeing how useful my quirk could be I may have very well become a villain."

Izuku took Aizawa's words and pondered them, "But… things changed when you got into UA right?"

Aizawa seemed to stare at Izuku for an eternity before answering, "To an extent. A lot of people saw the value in my quirk, a lot of my classmates didn't care what my quirk was. I had better control of it by then too, it helped that it didn't randomly activate all the time. Eventually I had friends who encouraged me to use my quirk on them to help them train, the first time they asked I

nearly fainted in shock."

Izuku scoffed before turning to Aizawa, "I feel like there's a but."

Aizawa nodded, "I won't sugar coat it kid, not everyone was as accepting of my quirk. Even at UA people still thought it was villainous and that I couldn't be trusted. Too ingrained in their idea that heros had naturally flashy and 'traditional' quirks. Even now, there are still heroes who refuse to work with me."

Izuku could feel the pit in his stomach grow, Erasurehead was a well respected underground hero and even he still dealt with this sort of quirk discrimination. And his quirk only temporarily deactivated someone else's. Izuku's quirk had a far more permanent effect.

"Not what you wanted to hear?" Aizawa asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"No, not really." Izuku admitted.

"Does it matter?"

Izuku's brow furrowed and he turned to Aizawa, "What do you mean?"

"Tell me kid, do you want to be a hero to become popular?"

Izuku had to laugh at that, "One of the drawbacks of my quirk is that I gain a kind of hunger for other quirks. I despise crowds."

Aizawa smirked, "A kindred spirit. In which case kid, who gives a shit what people think of your quirk?"

"Uhh the Hero Commission?"

"The hero commission doesn't care about charts or media, if you get the job done they'll give you missions and patrols. You think I could be the number one underground hero if the Hero

Commission cared how people viewed my quirk? In the field only two things matter, keeping people safe and stopping the villain. You need to grab some civilians' quirk to get them safety? Who cares if they rant and rave at you afterwards because no matter what they say you still saved them, they get to go home to their family because of your actions. That's what being a hero is about, not what people think of your quirk."

Miruko had suddenly been knocked down from Izuku's second favourite hero to his third as Erasurehead shot up the charts. In fact the underground hero was even challenging All Might for the top spot at this rate.

"I guess… I guess you're right."

"Mhmm, there's no guessing about it… steal my quirk."

Aizawa sentence nearly caused Izuku to fall down the stone stairs to the beach, he looked at the hero with wide eyes, "Are you… are you…?"

"Yes, now come on kid, I'm holding down two jobs here, time is precious."

Izuku nodded and reached out for Aizawa's energy, latching onto it Izuku pulled. It put up a bit of resistance and was more difficult to take than Death Arms quirk, but after a bit of tugging Izuku watched as the energy flowed from Aizawa into himself. Aizawa's slight twitching of his eyes was the only indication he had felt anything when his quirk left him.

"That felt… odd. Forty three seconds." Aizawa said, looking down at his watch.

"What?" Izuku asked in confusion, half distracted watching Aizawa's quick energy morph over his body.

"It took you forty three seconds to steal my quirk. I'm guessing you don't have anything to compare that to?"

Izuku looked sheepish, "Ahhh no, I've only stolen a handful of quirks in my life. I don't remember how long it took to take Death Arms quirk and my Mom, Aunt and Uncle are all pretty much instant but they're not pro heroes."

Aizawa nodded, "We'll table that number for now then. Think you can use my quirk?"

Izuku frowned and concentrated on Aizawa's energy flowing through his body. It was more difficult compared to using Death Arms' quirk, he didn't have to actively do anything there, he just let the energy flow through him. But with Erasure he had to figure out how to actually turn it on and control it. Focusing on the energy in his body Izuku tried to feel how it moved, how it seemed to gather tendrils from within his body and lead them to his eyes. Feeling these tendrils he tried to follow the flow of energy, feeling it moving upwards. He imagined reaching out and grabbing onto that energy, forcing out through his eyes. As he did the energy responded to him and he felt it pour through his eye sockets, at the same time he felt a tingle on his head as his hair stood on all ends.

Turning to Aizawa he could see the man was giving him a rather deranged smile, "Damn, that is kinda creepy. I get why it shuts Mic up now."

Izuku let go of the energy, stopping it from leaving his eyes again and felt his hair fall back down as Aizawa checked his watch again.

"Four minutes thirty two seconds. I suppose it's better than ten years, but still not great."

Izuku allowed the energy to flow back into Aizawa as he questioned the man, "What do you mean?"

"That's how long it took for you to activate my quirk. Overall it took more than five minutes for you to steal and activate my quirk. In a real life hero scenario that's a massive amount of time." It came off almost as a scolding and made Izuku wince slightly.

"You're saying I need to improve my quirk."

"I am, your commitment to being a hero is admirable. But it's all for naught if you won't actively train your quirk. The students that get into UA have normally spent years getting to grips with their quirks, you and for that matter your friend, are about ten years behind. You said you've taken your families' quirks?"

Izuku nodded, "Only in their sleep though, in the middle of the night."

"That's good but I want you to start actively taking their quirks with them knowing about it. And not just taking them but using them, get used to trying to use quirks on the fly. If you do get into UA you'll likely be in my class. I do an assessment at the start of every year to… see if people have the potential to be heroes. I'm giving you an extra test on top of everyone else, I want you to get that time down to under two minutes, prove to me you can go plus ultra." Aizawa said, standing up as he finished.

Izuku stood too, clenching his fists and giving Aizawa a hard look, "I promise Sensei, I'll get in and I'll get my time down. I'll prove to you and everyone else that I can use my quirk for good."

Aizawa gave him a wicked smile, "Damn right kid. Oh, and make sure you get that hunger aspect under control. It would look pretty bad on your permanent record if you went insane and started stealing everyone's quirks on your first day. Good luck kid, I'm rooting for you, don't let the bastards get you down."

Izuku could only smile, tears in his eyes as Aizawa walked off. He wasn't alone; there were other people out there who truly understood him. It also made him realise something, there were plenty of heroes like Aizawa, who were looked down upon or forced underground because of their quirks. In that moment Izuku made a decision, he wouldn't just be a hero, he would be a top hero. A limelight hero who would prove to everyone quirk discrimination was bullshit and would be a symbol for not just kids with villainous quirks but heroes too. Showing them all that they were not alone.

With a newfound determination Izuku turned on his heels and started to march down the beach towards Katsuki and Yagi who had finished their workout and were on a break. Katsuki caught sight of him first and raised an eyebrow at how Izuku was marching towards them as if he was about to take down the greatest villain of all time. Yagi too seemed surprised as he rose from his seat to greet the boy.

"Yagi Sensei!" Izuku called out in a voice that made both Katsuki and Yagi raise their eyebrows in surprise.

"Please change into your muscle form, I want to train against my hunger." Izuku all but demanded of the number one hero, causing Yagi to give him a wide smile and Katsuki to smirk.

God have mercy on the next kid to call Izuku's quirk villainous.

A Pair of Lunatics

Chapter Summary

It's finally time for All Might to pass on One For All to Katsuki, surprisingly, it doesn't go to plan

Chapter Notes

Hi all, first of all, thanks for all the Kudos and comments, really thrilled people are enjoying this. Second of all, I just have a few notes/points I want to make you all aware of:

1) Apologies for misspelling Eraserhead in the previous chapter, autocorrect updated and I didn't think to check. I've made sure it's correct from now on and will go back and edit the last chapter when I get a chance.

2) I've added Mina into the plolycule and edited the tags, so Izuku's romantic relationship will be Izuku/Kyouka/Eijiro/Mina. Apologies if you're not a fan, I'll be honest I'm a sucker for poly relationships but having said that the romantic relationships in this fic will be fairly background with the focus being on Izuku and Katsuki and their brotherly relationship

3) I'm going to be taking some liberties with how canon OFA works with Katsuki, nothing too dramatic like giving him laser vision but I didn't want him to feel like Izuku 2.0 in this fic so made a few tweaks to try give him is own style of using OFA outside of All Might and canon Izuku

4) For those wondering Izuku will use AFO to take and keep quirks and gain his own stockpile, but it will be a slow build up of his stockpile. As much as Izuku will be powerful in this fic I didn't want him completely OP and to walk into UA with 100 quirks and backhand everyone

That's all of it, hope nobody hates these points too much and I'm sorry if the change turns you off the fic. But if you're willing to stay I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Seven months. That's how long it took for Katsuki and Izuku to clear the beach of trash. Yagi had thought he was pushing them to complete it in eight, but once again he had underestimated the pair. Together they had pushed each other to their limits and further. When Katsuki had started to stop eating their lunches due to the mocking at school Izuku had practically force fed him. And when Izuku had slowed in his weight lifting caused by the uncomfortable feeling he had towards his damaged hand Katsuki had all but zip tied the dumbells to Izuku.

Not only did the pair push each other they also watched each other like hawks and made sure they

didn't push past what would be safe. Yagi had discovered that Katsuki had found Izuku was staying up into the early hours training and had spent two solid weeks sleeping on the boy's floor to make sure he went to sleep at a reasonable time. Meanwhile Izuku had found that Katsuki worked through their allocated break times when he thought no one was watching, since that day Izuku made sure the blonde was always within his line of sight when training.

It was strange, Yagi had often mused, the two didn't seem to care about their own wellbeing and both had crippling self confidence issues. Despite his persona it was obvious Katsuki saw himself as weak and useless, his loudmouth and aggression stemmed from a belief it was the only way anyone would notice a quirkless boy like himself. Meanwhile, since his talk with Aizawa Izuku was more comfortable with his quirk, at least around his family, his hunger was still an issue but he hadn't lunged at All Might in weeks. Despite that however Yagi could tell the boy still saw himself as a villain and was just waiting for The Number One Hero to turn around and arrest him.

Yet despite their own issues the boys were undoubtedly the greatest supporters of each other. Izuku had nothing but praise for Katsuki, always impressed by what the boy could achieve. While Katsuki himself always went on about how heroic Izuku was and that he would even surpass All Might in the book of legends. They were fiercely loyal to each other and dangerously effective at teamwork. Yagi prayed every night that if they did get into UA their final exam wouldn't be against him, he wanted to live for at least another few years. There was also something else about the pair.

They were absolute fucking lunatics.

On their fifth week Yagi had to stop the pair from attempting to topple the tall piles of trash over live dominoes for a better spread across the beach. In their sixth week Yagi had fallen asleep during their training due to a tough villain fight the night before and hadn't been able to take the truck to the landfill once full as normal. Not wanting to wake the hero, the boys had decided to hot wire the truck and drive it themselves, luckily the yelp from Izuku when he electrocuted himself woke Yagi up. The incident on the twelfth week hadn't even been during training. Yagi had been patrolling as All Might and saw a fight in the distance. As he jumped over the rooftops he noticed the pair on top of a building overlooking the fight. Obviously their angle to watch it had not been good enough for them as Katsuki had literally been dangling Izuku over the ranglings on top of a twenty story building. Even after giving them both a stern talking to and asking what the hell they were doing the pair had both just shrugged and claimed it was research.

At this rate Yagi was going to have survived All For One just to be killed by a heart attack induced by his own successor and the son of his greatest enemy. No wonder Inko had moved in with the Bakugous.

Yet despite all the bumps in the road the pair had done it one month ahead of schedule. Yagi only felt pride when he looked down at the two exhausted boys as they hauled the final piece of trash

into the back of the truck.

Izuku grunted as the final fridge was thrown into the pick up truck, Yagi standing off to the side beaming at them. He paused and looked down at his hands, the skin was rough and raw on his left hand. He imagined his right was the same though he still had one of his gloves on. They had done it and a month early to boot.

"FUCK YEAH! SCREW YOU, YOU STUPID TRASH, YOU WERE NOTHING COMPARED TO KATSUKI FUCKING BAKUGOU!"

Izuku could only smile at Katsuki's proud declaration, the blonde panting next to him with two fists held high into the air. Yagi chuckled at the display.

"Well done boys, you have once again impressed me."

Katsuki merely gave Yagi a smug grin and crossed his arms, "It was nothing."

Despite his words Izuku could see the genuine joy he got from the praise.

"Yes," Yagi nodded, looking Bakugou over, "I think it's about time you received my quirk."

Izuku's eyes widened and Katsuki's face lost a lot of its colour, with all the training they had been doing together it was easy to forget the main reason for it. So that Katsuki could receive All Might's quirk. But Izuku had to agree, he was definitely ready for it.

Katsuki had always been bigger than Izuku but now it almost looked like Izuku was several years younger than his friend. True to his word, Yagi's plan for Katsuki had focused on muscle gain and it had paid off. Katsuki now sported broad shoulders and huge arms, his entire wardrobe had needed to be bought again due to going up a size. He had also grown a few inches and now practically towered above Izuku.

That's not to say Izuku had been a slouch, he too had gone through some major changes. While had

not gained as much muscle as Katsuki there was a notable increase in the size of his chest and arms. Not to mention that he had next to no body fat, every muscle he had could be seen flexing as he worked out and he had smugly gazed (in private) at his new found six pack for hours in the mirror.

Katsuki may have been able to knock Izuku out in one punch but Izuku could dodge those punches for hours.

Katsuki looked at Yagi with a small amount of awe, "Are… are you sure?" he whispered.

Yagi smiled kindly at him, "My boy, I've been sure since the day we met."

Katsuki's eyes flickered with an emotion Izuku recognized as self doubt, a rare find on Katsuki around anyone who wasn't Izuku. Before his friend could start to spiral Izuku nudged him with his shoulder, their eyes met for a brief moment and Izuku nodded, watching as the doubt vanished from Katsuki's eyes.

The blonde turned back to Yagi, "I'm ready All Might, I'm ready to receive One For All."

Yagu gave him a wide smile, "Well then Young Bakugou, it's time!"

Izuku flinched and froze as Yagi became All Might and he felt the wave of hunger slam into him as All Might's quirk flared up and nearly blocked everything else out from Izuku's vision. However before the hunger overcame him he pushed back, focusing on his other senses as he forced the hunger back taking a deep breath to regain control of himself. It was a credit to how much he improved that neither All Might nor Katsuki even glanced in his direction, trusting him with the control of his quirk.

"So uh… how do I actually gain your quirk?" Katsuki asked, scratching his chin in thought.

"It's quite simple," All Might said as he reached up to his hair, it was an odd sight for Izuku who could see the energy of the hero's quirk. As All Might reached up to his hair his quirk pulsed as if knowing the man's intention, a chunk of the central bright orb broke off travelling upwards. As it travelled it took the six layers with it, leaving nothing but the pure bright orb left. Pinching a section of his hair, Izuku watched as the energy flowed into All Might's golden locks and eventually into the single strand he pulled out. Said strand glowed with such an intensity Izuku had to shield his eyes.

"Eat this!" All Might declared as he held out the hair to Katsuki.

"Eh!?" Katsuki cried looking at the hair with disgust, "You want me to do what!?"

All Might just smiled brighter, Eat it! To gain my quirk you must ingest my DNA!"

Katsuki paled slightly, staring at the hair, Izuku couldn't help but smirk, "You're not afraid of a little hair are you Kacchan?"

Katsuki sneered, "Shut up Zuzu! Give me the damn hair!"

He swiped the hair from All Might and shoved it into his mouth, even making his swallow aggressive. Izuku tilted his head in fascination as the glow from the hair travelled to the centre of Katsuki's chest where it formed an orb similar to All Might's, except Katsuki's orb was far smaller yet far brighter than his predecessor. It seemed to pulse with energy for a few moments before exploding and slowly fading.

Katsuki looked down at himself with a frown, "Did it work?"

Izuku nodded, "It's… odd. I can't see any energy but I know it's there. You've always been… blank. But now I can sense something, I just can't see it."

"Give it time my boy! You need to not only digest my DNA first but allow the quirk to spread within your body!" All Might reassured the blonde as Katsuki flexed his hand a few times, as if he was expecting it to suddenly explode.

"Now, we still have three months until the UA Entrance Exams! We can't stand around all day wasting time! I want at least 100 laps of the beach from Young Bakugou and 150 from you, Young Midoriya!"

Both boys jumped and scrambled down to the beach to complete the required laps. It wasn't for another two hours, both boys nearing exhaustion, that Izuku noticed the change in Katsuki's energy.

At first he had assumed it was Yagi's quirk, except that the man had long since deflated and the quirk was just as bright as when he was in his muscle form. Katsuki was currently stretching as Izuku observed his new energy, much like All Might's it was centred in his chest and was incredibly bright, almost blinding. Unlike All Might's however it was not centred around a solid orb instead it looked almost like a constant explosion, similar to videos he had seen of the sun. And instead of the eight layers surrounding and encasing the orb they now shot out in streams that broke free from the explosive orb before disappearing, again Izuku couldn't help but compare them to solar flares that came off the sun.

"Man Zuzu, you can be really creepy sometimes." Katsuki said and Izuku realised he had been staring, Katsuki was looking at him with a smirk.

Izuku just rolled his eyes, "Fine, I won't tell you about your new quirk energy then."

"WHAT!?"

Izuku had to suppress a chuckle as excitement swarmed over Katsuki, the boy practically jumping into the air at the thought of using a quirk as he rapidly started patting down his body. It was like he expected a button to have grown on him that would activate One For All.

Yagi too, was amused by the display, "Calm down Young Bakugou, One For All isn't a quirk that will cause any obvious changes."

Katsuki stopped patting his body down and frowned, "So how do we test it?"

"That's easy! Try making a punch!" Yagi exclaimed.

Katsuki looked confused but shrugged, turning away from Izuku and Yagi who took a few steps back as a precaution. All Might could change the weather with his punches, they didn't want to be on the receiving end of something like that.

Katsuki took a deep breath before adjusting his stance, it was similar to how a boxer stood, and raised his right arm back. He paused briefly before launching his first forward.

Nothing happened.

Katsuki's first merely shot out and stopped, no weather change, no shockwave, not even a little bit of disturbance in the sand.

Katsuki looked down at his fist confused, "Uhhh?"

Izuku couldn't help it, "Damn Kacchan, that's some quirk you've got there. It's so powerful it made it look like nothing happened at all."

Katsuki spun round and glared at him, "Shut it Zuzu. Maybe I just need to actually punch the face of an idiot for it to work."

Izuku frowned, "I'm not sure how quickly we can find a mirror Kacchan."

"Ahem, boys," Yagi said as he sweat dropped, these kids were exhausting.

"Young Midoriya is right, using One For All is more than just simply punching. You need to grasp the quirk and wield it like any other part of your body." Yagi explained.

"How do I do that? I've never had a quirk before?" Katsuki asked with a huff, clearly less than pleased with the results so far.

"It's simple really," Yagi said before he puffed into All Might causing Izuku to wince and take a step back from the energy, "You just clench your butt cheeks and yell from the depths of your heart!"

Izuku and Katsuki just deadpanned at All Might, "The hell does that mean!?" Katsuki cried with a wave of his arms.

All Might looked confused and tilted his head at his successor, "Well my boy it means… uh… well, what it implies is that you have to… well… um…"

"Are you seriously trying to tell me I need to use this quirk by essentially holding in a shit?" Katsuki said as he crossed his arms and glared at All Might who spluttered under the suggestion.

"Um, All Might, I have some experience in welding new quirks" Izuku suggested, true he had only actively used four quirks in his life (he didn't include the incident from when they were seven) but it was more quirks that most people had to use.

All Might simply nodded, seemingly lost at what to do.

Izuku nodded and turned to Katsuki, pointing at his chest, "Your energy is like All Might's but different. All Might had a solid bright orb at his centre surrounded by six different layers," both boys missed All Might's surprised look at this, "But yours is more volatile, it's like a never ending explosion with the six layers now contained within. You need to think about how your quirk works, for Eraserhead I had to manipulate his energy and push out of my eyes, Mom's energy naturally flows outward so to use her quirk I had to reverse the flow of it, for Uncle it's like his energy is fixed in a certain way and if I change it in the right pattern it will create sparks."

Katsuki seemed to understand as he nodded along with Izuku's explanation, "So what you're saying is that my energy is incredibly violent," Izuku rolled his eyes at that description, "and that I need to direct that violence with my punches?"

Izuku shrugged, it was a very Kacchan description but it wasn't wrong, "Think of it like this, for All Might One For All is a lake he takes from but for you it's more like a raging river, you can't take directly from it but you can direct it."

As Izuku finished he felt a large strong hand slap him on the back, almost pushing him over into the sand, "I was just thinking the same thing Young Midoriya, I see you really do have a knack for quirk analysis!"

Izuku looked up at All Might with narrowed eyes while the hero looked back at him with a desperation in his eyes that tried to convey a simple message.

'Please let me have this'

"Right…" Izuku said with a slight eye roll while Katsuki took his place once more, ready to launch another punch.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his whole body sagged briefly before he tensed it again.

"Ok," Katsuki said, "Let the explosion out through your punch."

Katsuki lifted right arm back, paused and threw a punch.

Several things happened at once.

Firstly as his arm shot forward Katsuki's quirk flared up. And not like a bright light like All Might's did, no this was much more akin to a supernova. The lights were almost blinding to Izuku as he watched what had been a small explosion encompass all of Katsuki's body, a section of it ripping apart from the main source and travelling up the blonde's arm.

This of course had the effect of causing Izuku's hunger to charge full steam into his head. But this wasn't the pleasant relaxing pang he got with All Might, this was like a rampaging horde of rhinos had smashed straight through his skill. Clutching his head Izuku fell to his knees as the hunger became so intense pain sliced through his mind like a hot butter knife. His chest became constricted and heavy and he felt like he couldn't breath, the world fading around him. Vaguely aware of All Might's panicked cries.

The final thing to occur was the actual result of Katsuki using One For All. The pressure from the punch caused the air to expand rapidly with a great boom. The sand in front of him burst like a pipe as the shockwave from the punch travelled down the beach, tearing apart anything in its path.

For a few hours the beach had been a beautiful sight to look at with not a single piece of trash visible. Now it looked like a warzone where a great battle had taken place with massive clashing armies, sand strewn everywhere, the sea a mess with seaweed on the surface and the pier cracked and broken.

Then, as quickly as the chaos had started everything calmed down, Katsuki's quirk returned back to its normal state and the hunger in Izuku was swept away. He let out a shaky breath, finally able to breath again as his thoughts returned, his head still thumping however.

Despite what happened Izuku was proud of his friend, he was excited for his new quirk. It had been much more powerful than they had been expecting!

"Kacchan that was-!" Izuku cut himself off as he got a look at his friend, Katsuki wasn't paying attention, focused solely on his right arm.

Said arm was completely red and purple, visible tears on the muscles that had torn through his skin. Bent backwards, Izuku could see the bone sticking out. The fingers were mangled and some looked to be hanging on to Katsuki's hand by a thread.

Izuku would have screamed.

But Katsuki was not Izuku.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!"

Suddenly there was a whoosh of air from next to Izuku as a very panicked All Might landed next to Katsuki and lifted the screaming boy into his arms.

"Meet us at UA!" All Might shouted as he bent his legs and shot into the sky.

The shockwave from All Might's jump threw Izuku onto his back with the force and as the sand settled back down and Izuku starred up into the sky he could only think of one thing.

What the fuck was that?

Izuku's breath hitched in his throat as he stared up at the intimidating building that was UA. Four separate towers for each department rose up and penetrated into the sky. The famous UA barrier blocked his view of the grounds as it stood tall against any intruders. It was a Sunday evening and the area around the school was deserted and eerily quiet. Izuku gulped and steeled himself, he could hardly hope to become a great hero if the very school he wanted to attend made him this nervous.

Getting to UA hadn't been too difficult, it was only one train ride and a short walk, however Izuku had gotten some odd looks. He supposed he was wearing shorts and a tank top and his hair was covered in sand. Not to mention the single black glove on his right hand.

He had considered calling Kacchan or Yagi but decided against it, he didn't know how Kacchan was being treated and he didn't want to cause anymore stress to Yagi who had clearly been panicked by the result of the punch.

But now he was standing outside the gates of UA and he had no idea what to do, he was fairly sure he couldn't just stroll right in. Did Yagi know he was here, should he text him? Izuku wondered if there was some kind of intercom and stepped forward to the gate. As far as he could see it was solid steel yet he started to run his hands over it looking for any kind of secret doorbell.

Secret doorbells were a thing right?

"Midoriya."

Izuku swung around from his doorbell investigations to find a man clad in rugged black clothes looking at him with a raised eyebrow from within the UA gates.

"Aizawa Sensei!" Izuku greeted with a bow.

"I'm not your sensei Midoriya."

Izuku shrugged, "Not yet but I hope one day you will be."

Aizawa observed Izuku with a critical eye before waving him inside, "Come on, All Might sent me to get you."

"Is Kacchan ok?" Izuku asked as he jogged up next to Aizawa.

"Kacchan?"

"Oh, sorry, I mean Katsuki. It's uh… a nickname."

Aizawa just gave a non caring shrug at the explanation, "He's fine. All Might made the right choice in bringing him here, if it wasn't for Recovery Girl we might not have saved his hand."

Izuku winced, in the rush of seeing UA for the first time he had forgotten the very serious reason he was here.

"Will he still be able to use his arm?"

"A few days of rest and it should be fine, albeit with some scarring."

Izuku pondered the thought as he subconsciously played with his gloved hand. As they entered the main UA building Izuku found himself… disappointed. It was like any other school building, long corridors with classrooms at regular intervals. The odd notice board that had various announcements on it from lunch menus to reservations about gyms and training rooms.

Izuku supposed that for all its grandeur UA was still just another school, there were only so many ways someone could make English exciting. Bedside's UA's real diamond was the massive amount of land behind the main school which housed its various training grounds and the arena for The Sports Festival. Not to mention the pro heroes who taught there.

"I'm surprised you didn't sense my energy earlier." Aizawa commented as they turned yet another corner.

Izuku gave him an embarrassed look, "Oh well, I've been training to gain control of my hunger and well, the best way not to be drawn to people's quirk energy is to learn to ignore it all together. It's easier if I keep my mind busy."

Aizawa hummed as he processed this new information, "That's not a terrible strategy, especially for everyday life. However your ability to sense quirk energy could be a useful tool in being a hero, you'd be almost impossible to sneak up on. You should try making sure you can withstand the hunger while still being able to track energy."

"All Might has been transforming periodically around with no warning. I uh.. Stopped lashing out at him after two months, I still freeze and need to take a few deep breaths but I'm not losing control

anymore."

"Progress is progress kid, keep working at it, you've still got two and half months till the exams."

Izuku frowned and looked up at Aizawa, "Aren't the entrance exams three months away?"

Aizawa raised a curious eyebrow but shrugged in response, "Right, my mistake. We're here."

It was obvious they were outside the medical wing of the school, not only was it signposted but the entrance looked like the swinging doors they had at hospitals except the windows were blacked out. Inside Izuku could see both Katsuki and Yagi's energy but he could also see a third energy. It was a soft green and flowed in two directions from two central points. It seemed like a simple quirk yet the pang in his head told Izuku it was a powerful one.

Aizawa pushed open the door and the two stepped inside.

"-complete idiotic fool of a hero! No supervision, no research, just punch and see what happens!? The boy could've lost his arm, you damn moron!"

Izuku could only stand and watch as a tiny old woman in a lab coat beat Yagi over the head with a furious expression on her head. Yagi held up his hands in an attempt to block the blows but the number one hero was no match for her as her wooden cane came down over and over on the man's head. Katsuki watched the whole display from one of the hospital beds with wide eyes, his facial expression halfway between amused and terrified.

Aizawa cleared his throat to announce their presence, "Kid's here," he said and gestured to Izuku.

"Young Midoriya! Look Recovery Girl, it's Midoriya!" Yagi exclaimed with enough enthusiasm to make Izuku take a cautious step back.

"Oh no! Don't you think you'll distract me with another accident prone student!" Recovery Girl shouted as Yagi scrambled back.

Ignoring the pair, Izuku quickly walked over to Katsuki's bedside, "Kacchan! Are you ok?"

Katsuki scoffed, as if the fact he could be hurt in any shape or form was all but a myth.

"I'm fine nerd, nothing old lady there couldn't patch up."

"I heard that!" Recovery Girl yelled as she finally walked away from Yagi, leaving the man in the foetal position on the floor.

Katsuki rolled his eyes and held up his bandaged arm, "Gonna have some pretty sick scars though I'm told."

This time it was Izuku's turn to scoff, "I'm not sure breaking a few bones can't compare to having chunks of skin burned off," he said and held up his right hand, "point to me."

Katsuki frowned, "Dammit, you reckon we could start a quick fire in this place?"

"The bed sheets look pretty flammable."

"Probably won't burn hot enough to get the same sort of damage you have."

"If we're lucky there might be some chemicals in the medical cabinets we could use to upgrade the fire."

All three adults gave the boys concerned looks before Aizawa shook his head.

"I trust you're going to make sure this doesn't happen again?" He said with a glare directed at Yagi who flinched under the man's gaze.

"Yes… I must apologise, when I took One For All I was able to use it completely with no blowback. I had not expected the negative effects to be so severe for you." Yagi said with a bow.

"Eh, no harm done." Katsuki said nonchalantly as he poked and prodded his bandaged arm along

with Izuku.

"Yes, harm was done." Recovery Girl said with mild shock, "Harm very much done, you nearly lost an arm."

"Yeah but I didn't thanks to you doc." Katsuki said and waved his arm around to prove he still in fact had two of them.

Aizawa sighed and mumbled about problem children while Izuku turned to recovery girl, stepping forward a bit with an excited smile on his face.

"Um… E-Excuse me, Recovery Girl?"

"Oh here we go." Katsuki mumbled.

Recovery Girl looked Izuku up and down and raised an eyebrow, "Yes deary?"

Izuku opened his mouth and the words came tumbling out, "I…I just want to say you're one of my favourite heroes! You have such a useful and cool quirk, it's really hard to become a hero with a medical quirk and you were the first to do it and thoughI'mnotthesameIhaveasimilarsituationandjustwantedtosay-"

Izuku shut up when a pillow hit him in the back of the head thrown by a laughing Katsuki who rolled his eyes as Izuku blushed and mumbled a quick apology to Recovery Girl.

"Why thank you dear, I didn't think I had any fans left," Recovery Girl observed Izuku for a moment before turning her full attention to him, "You're the kid who can take quirks huh?"

Izuku gulped and nodded nervously.

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to take mine and let me retire?"

Aizawa let out a snort of laughter as Izuku blushed slightly.

"I'm uh… not sure my mother would approve."

Recovery Girl sighed, "Figures, well back to work, damn rat and his small print employment contracts…"

Izuku guessed the damned rat was probably the principal, Nedzu if his knowledge served him right.

Which it always did.

With Recovery Girl placated somewhat Aizawa took the opportunity to turn his ire to Yagi, who was finally scrambling up from the floor.

"I trust you actually have a plan to train your quirk within the kid and not just have him throw random punches?"

Yagi withered under the intense stare, "Y-yes well. I was thinking that perhaps we um… maybe use some martial arts?"

Even Izuku and Katsuki have to give in at that point and admit their faith in All Might's training had somewhat declined. It seemed the man didn't have much more of a plan other than:

Step 1: Gain Muscle

Step 2: Hand Quirk Over

Step 3: Profit?

"I'm sorry," Yagi said as everyone gave him exhausted looks, "I hadn't expected Young Bakugou to have such a blow back, not with the muscle he had packed on in the last seven months."

"Idiot, even with your training the kid's entire body is only as wide as your bicep." Aizawa said with an eye roll, the comment causing Katsuki to frown.

Yagi put one hand on his chin, tapping it with his finger as he thought about the situation, "Well, it seems your body can't handle One For All completely yet young Bakugou. Perhaps if you were to try and limit your power output?"

Katsuki turned to Izuku with a look of confusion, he wasn't dumb but Izuku far outweighed him in anything related to quirk academics. As predicted the boy's eyes were out of focus and he was mumbling at a pace fast enough to give those with translator quirks a run for their money as he tried to decipher Katsuki's issue with One For All.

Clicking his fingers Izuku returned to the world with a slight glint in his eyes, "It's like an egg and a microwave! You just need to make sure you set the temperature and timer right to not overload the egg Kacchan!"

Katsuki gave him an expressionless look, "Are we sure Auntie didn't drop you as a baby?"

Izuku responded to the comment in the most mature way he could think of. He stuck his tongue out at Katsuki who rolled his eyes and looked at Aizawa.

Aizawa just shrugged at the look, "Don't look at me, my specialty is psychic quirks. I've never dealt with an uncontrollable strength quirk."

Katsuki threw his arms up in the air in defeat, "God damnit, does no one know anything about this fucking quirk!?"

"Gran Torino might." Recovery Girl commented from where she sat at her desk with her back to the group.

The effect on Yagi was instant, his legs nearly gave out from under him as his whole body started to violently shake. His face paled and his eyes grew wide with fear as he spluttered in shock.

"I-I'm not sure that's com-completely n-n-necessary!"

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the display and Izuku and Katsuki exchanged a look. Who the hell was this guy if he could scare All Might like this?

"Who the fuck is Gran Torino?" Katsuki demanded to the room as Izuku went over a list of names in his head.

"He's not in the Top 100 heroes." He commented.

"How do you know?" Recovery Girl asked, swivelling in her chair.

Katsuki scoffed, "Damn nerd has the entire list memorised."

Aizawa filed that information away for later before he spoke, "His name crossed my desk once or twice when I started out. I'm fairly sure he also used to teach here."

"He was a teacher here during this moron's UA years," Recovery Girl said and pointed her cane towards a still shaking Yagi, "Knows the big secret too so you don't have to be all tiptoed around him."

Aizawa seemed to nod in agreement, "Seems like a smart move, I assume his contact details are still in the school database."

"B-but.." Yagi all but begged much to the amusement of Recovery Girl.

"Oh stop being such a big baby. The man was gentle at heart, oh how I remember our days in UA, he had such a way with his hands." She swooned, "Oh get over yourselves!" Recovery Girl snapped as she glared at Izuku and Katsuki, both of whom had gone slightly green.

Shaking his head to get thoughts of Recovery Girl doing that out of his head Izuku put forward his agreement with the idea.

"I agree with Aizawa and Recovery Girl, if it helps Kacchan become a better hero we have to do it!" He could hear Katsuki mumble something about him being overly sappy.

"Besides," Izuku continued, "I'm sure Auntie and Mom won't be impressed with today. I know Mom would be relieved knowing Kacchan was being trained safely."

At his comment Yagi seemed to perk up, "Oh… you think Inko would be pleased?"

Izuku gave him a confused look while Recovery Girl and Aizawa raised their eyebrows simultaneously.

"Well Auntie will probably be more concerned but yeah, I guess Mom would be pleased too."

Izuku missed the eye roll Katsuki gave as Yagi finally stopped shaking, "Then I shall endeavour to convince Gran Torino at once! Anything for Inko-I mean Young Bakugou!"

Aizawa snorted while Katsuki let out a laugh, Izuku just tilted his head in confusion at the display.

"Well I'm sure they'll be able to thank you themselves!" Izuku said with a bright smile that made Aizawa grumble.

"What are you talking about nerd?" Katsuki asked.

"Oh! They're right outside, I can see their energy!" Izuku declared happily while Yagi suddenly started shaking again.

Before anyone could say anything else the door to the medical unit slammed open. Anything Recovery Girl had been going to say to reprimand to offenders died in her throat when she saw the pure rage emanating from Mitsuki Bakugou with a nervous looking Inko behind her.

Aizawa took one look at the raging woman and swivelled on his feet, "Nope." he declared and subsequently jumped out of the open window.

Izuku could only stare at said window and blinked a few times, "Did he just…?"

Recovery Girl sighed, "You get used to it."

Ignoring her son, Mistuki turned to a, yet again, trembling Yagi and stormed over to him, Inko giving the two boys a slight wave.

"You!? You said you'd train them safely and what do I get? A fucking phone call from the nurse of UA to say my son suffered a broken arm! Explain yourself!"

Yagi held up his hands and took a step back, "W-we weren't prepared for his quirk to be so powerful! It-it took us all by surprise."

"SURPRISE!?" Mitsuki screeched, "A surprise is when my husband brings me flowers home! This isn't a surprise, it's a fucking disaster!" Mitsuki cried, jabbing a finger into Yagi's chest.

"Oi shut up hag! He's already agreed to get All Might's old teacher to help!" Katsuki shouted at his mother, matching her own volume.

Inko seemed to perk up at this news, "Oh what an excellent idea Toshi. I'm sure this trainer will be perfect for Katsuki, don't you agree?" she asked Mitsuki in an attempt to placate her friend, Mitsuki just scoffed though she didn't argue.

There was a pause in the room as Yagi started to recover from Mitsuki's wrath before-

"FUCK!"

All four adults turned their attention to Katsuki, Mitsuki already opening her mouth to scold the boy. But when they looked at him they saw him staring at Izuku with a mixture of shock and pride. Izuku himself was sporting a deep frown and it was obvious it had instead been him who had shouted.

"Izuku Midoriya!" Inko gasped in shock at her son's language, Mitsuki just laughed, Izuku didn't swear often but he spent enough time around Katsuki to be able to pick it up.

Katsuki himself had to suppress a laugh, "What the fuck is the matter Zuzu?"

Instead of answering the question Izuku just held up his right hand with his glove on though his fingers weren't as crooked or twitchy as normal. Still as Katsuki laid eyes on the glove his own face dawned with realisation.

"God fucking damnit!" He shouted much to the confusion of the adults.

"What the hell is wrong with you brats?" Mitsuki asked with narrowed eyes.

In response Izuku at Katsuki held out their right hands to the adults, both hands now slightly crooked, one covered in bandages, the other in a glove. Mitsuki and Inko too seemed to realise the issue as Inko sighed.

"Ah yes, that is rather frustrating." She commented.

Yagi furrowed his eyebrows, still confused, "Am I missing something?"

Izuku turned to him using his left hand to point to his right hand and Katsuki's, "I still don't have a use for all my spare left hand gloves."

Yagi could only facepalm as his suspicions were confirmed.

A pair of absolute fucking lunatics.

Gran Torino

Chapter Summary

Izuku and Katsuki finally meet Gran Torino as Yagi takes their training to the next level

A week had passed since Katsuki's punching incident but despite that both he and Izuku had refused to stop training, much to the concern of their mothers. Yagi had managed to convince them both, partly due to fact nothing had happened to Izuku so there was no need to interrupt his training, but also under the agreement he would lighten the load on Katsuki until such a time that Gran Torino could oversee the training. Katsuki had initially argued until Izuku had pointed out that permanently damaging his right arm further would not be a good idea. The fact Izuku knew exactly what it was like to deal with a damaged limb went unsaid.

And so for the past week Katsuki had been focused on two things during training. The first was general athletics, though he was taking a break from strength training while his arm recovered he was still able to complete laps of the beach and work on his ability to dodge blows. The other half of his training consisted of getting used to feeling One For All run through his body. Yagi had absolutely forbidden him from doing any form of movement with the quirk active but at least Katsuki was able to bring the quirk forward and allow it to run through his body safely, even if it was only for a few moments before he was overcome with pain.

What Yagi had failed to mention was that the temporary reduction in Katsuki's training meant the opposite for Izuku. With the beach clear and Izuku in good physical condition Yagi decided it was time to teach him more specific skills. Moving from the beach to more urban areas Yagi started the mornings by teaching Izuku the basics of parkour, leaping over rooftops and twirling through alleyways. Then in the afternoon they focused on hand eye coordination, Katsuki taking great pleasure in throwing tennis balls at Izuku with Yagi as the boy tried to dodge. At first Izuku had wondered if Yagi was just getting random training from the internet but then Yagi explained his reasoning, firstly Izuku couldn't effectively take mutation quirks and replicate them and so he would mainly be using emitter type quirks, so hand eye coordination was a must for those. But of course all that came assuming he would eventually start taking quirks, because as of right now he was effectively quirkless which meant if he wanted to keep up with his classmates he needed skills that didn't require a quirk, parkour being a prime example, especially after Yagi had told him Aizawa had recommended the skill himself.

It was a Saturday morning when Izuku and Katsuki finally met Gran Torino. Yagi had decided that with the beach clear they should start training in other areas to expand their skills. Today he had decided on a forest, mainly for Izuku who was currently jumping from tree to tree. It was a good idea to make sure his parkour skills weren't limited to flat concrete buildings. Katsuki meanwhile was finally able to return to strength training and was on his tenth consecutive set of pushups below the tree ranches while Yagi stood off to the side watching them both.

Katsuki finished up his current set and wiped the sweat off his brow. Looking up he watched as Izuku jumped and swung from branch to branch, a million different new nicknames flew into his mind at once before he settled on one. He looked at Yagi who gave his successor a quick nod causing Katsuki to smirk and look up at Izuku as he leapt off one branch, reaching out for another.

"Hey Spider-Monkey!"

The shout caused Izuku to briefly glance in Katsuki's direction. That of course wouldn't be enough to put the boy off his leap but what Katsuki did next definitely would. As soon as Izuku looked in his direction Katsuki activated One For All. It was only for a moment and he instantly felt the pain shoot through him but it was enough.

As Izuku reached out for his target branch he heard Katsuki's call, it was dumb and Izuku only paid the vaguest of attention as he looked at his friend. However the moment his eyes met Katsuki's he saw the familiar red lines cover the blonde's body. Despite being a good distance away the effect was immediate. Izuku's mind was all but torn apart by the hunger. His entire focus was on pushing it back and regaining control of his body so he didn't even notice as he started to fall through the air, his hands reaching out tirelessly.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few moments Izuku felt himself push the hunger back. He became aware of his surroundings again and blinked a few times. He looked down and saw Katsuki still smirking at him while Yagi was giving him a thumbs up. That confused Izuku at first, hadn't he just very nearly lost control to the hunger? That's when he realised he hadn't actually fallen to the floor, it was also when he realised the tugging on his right shoulder. Turning his head to look up Izuku saw that his right hand was gripping tightly onto the branch he was aiming for. Huh. Well it was progress, the first few times Katsuki had activated One For All around him he had all but blacked out.

"Hey Zuzu!"

Izuku turned to look at Katsuki who had a glint in his eye and a wide, dangerous smile. Izuku sighed, "Kacchan… please don't."

Katsuki's smile only grew wider, "How's it hanging?"

Izuku groaned and ran his free hand down his face while Yagi chuckled. They may have made light of the situation but Izuku knew he needed to improve. Even if he could resist actively letting the hunger consume him he still needed to work on dealing with it so it didn't completely take over his mind in the middle of a battle.

As Izuku mused he suddenly felt something from behind him, frowning he concentrated on what he quickly realised was someone's fast approaching energy.

"Uh, guys-" Izuku didn't manage to say anymore as he felt something make an impact from behind him.

His was ripped from the branch he had been hanging on and thrown across the air, landing hard on the ground and rolling until he came to a stop.

Katsuki's eyes widened as he saw his his friend groan from his position in the dirt, "Zuzu!"

Katsuki didn't have time to do anything other than shout however as an orange and white blur slammed into him. Katsuki's head snapped back as he was sent tumbling in the same direction as Izuku, landing next to the boy who had at least managed to sit up.

"What the fuck?" Katsuki managed to get out as he rubbed his jaw.

As Izuku looked up, the blur landed in front of them to reveal a small old man, he couldn't have been much taller than Recovery Girl. His grey hair and beard only added to his old age, not to mention the cane he was using. The white and orange suit indicated he was at least a pro hero of

some kind though the scowl he was giving the teenagers was slightly concerning.

"So, you're the moron he's given his quirk to," the old man said and pointed his cane at Katsuki, "and you're the idiot who can take quirks. First impression of you both is pretty lousy, aren't you supposed to feel my quirk energy or something?" He finished pointing his cane at Izuku.

"G-Gran Torino!" Yagi cried, though he kept himself distanced from the man, "I didn't realise you'd come this quickly."

Gran Torino turned to Yagi with a frown causing the man to jump slightly, "Chiyo called me, told me how the moron broke his arm. You should've called me the moment you decided to train these two. They would've been pro heroes by now if you had."

Yagi could only tremble under the gaze of Gran Torino, trying to mutter out something about wanting to train his own successor. Gran Torino just scoffed and turned back to the two teenage boys.

"Well, what's your explanation for being caught off guard? Idiot, couldn't you sense my quirk energy?" He demanded of Izuku.

Izuku panicked under the man's intense gaze, "I… uh well, you were coming so fast and I wasn't sure-"

"Wasn't sure! If I were a villain you'd be dead! And you," Gran Torino turned his attention to Katsuki, "You had ample warning I was here after your friend got hit yet you left yourself wide open!"

"I thought Zuzu was injured!" Katsuki shouted back as the boys got back to their feet.

"And what could you be if he was injured and you were dead! Lesson number one, make sure your enemy is subdued before you let your guard down!" Gran Torino declared and smacked them both over the head with his cane.

"You just got us by surprise old man, next time you won't stand a chance against me and Zuzu!" Katsuki shouted in Torino's face.

The old hero frowned before jumping in the air with a jet from his feet. Izuku could barely react before he felt a foot to the side of his face and he was thrown into the dirt again. A grunt and a thud next to him indicated Katsuki was in a similar situation.

Groaning, he opened his eyes to find Gran Torino staring down at them from a branch with a smug look on his face. Izuku could feel his back click and bones creak as he stood up, much slower than Katsuki who practically leapt to his feet with a feral grin.

"Alright! Stop taking us by surprise! You won't get a lucky a third-"

Katsuki couldn't even finish his sentence before the blonde was thrown through the air and slammed directly into a tree, Izuku could only sigh before he too was thrown next to the blonde. Both boys fell to the ground, clutching their chests.

"Kacchan?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up."

Gran Torino snorted with amusement as he landed on the ground in front of both of them. Luckily Katsuki listened to Izuku's advice and the boy just scowled while he and Izuku helped each other up.

"So, who can tell me what they're issue is?" Gran Torino asked the two boys.

Katsuki and Izuku shared a glance before nodding to each other.

"Kacchan can't access One For All without breaking his body. He needs to figure out how to limit his power output so that he can still move with it activated."

"And Zuzu needs time and focus to take, activate and learn quirks, it's not practical in a real life situation. He needs to work out how to cut that time down and do it on the fly with quirks he's never encountered before."

Gran Torino blinked a few times and looked between the boys, his face morphing into one of slight surprise, clearly he hadn't expected the boys to answer for each other. Torino raised a curious eyebrow to Yagi as he walked up behind his old teacher.

Yagi just shrugged in response, "They're better at analysing each other than they are their own quirks. You get used to it."

Gran Torino just shrugged and turned his attention back to the teenagers.

"Well the solution to both your problems seem obvious to me. Sounds to me like the moron needs to stop thinking about reducing the power of his quirk and start thinking about how much he can access for his body. While the idiot needs to stop treating his quick like a tool or a piece of equipment, start considering it an extension of yourself just like your arm or leg."

Katsuki and Izuku glanced at each other, both taking in the advice with thoughtful expressions. Izuku supposed that Gran Torino was right. He had spent years dissociating his quirk from himself, considering it an aspect of him he never wanted to use. Most people grew up using their quirks, knowing completely how they felt and how to wield them. It was like Izuku was learning to walk in preparation for a marathon. Katsuki may have been in a similar position but really all he had to work out was how to activate One For All safely, from there his fighting style was based on skills he had been working on for years. Izuku's quirk operated separately to the rest of his body, he was trying to play catch up on years of experience everyone else had.

"And how exactly are we fucking supposed to do that?" Katsuki asked with an huff and crossed his arms.

Gran Torino just gave a shrug, "No idea but you best work it out if you don't want the snot beaten out of you all day."

"Huh?" Izuku intelligently responded.

Before either teenager could do anything else, Gran Torino had shot into the air and up to the branches above them. Izuku tried to keep track of his energy but the man moved too fast, it was like trying to keep track of a bird. As Izuku attempted to focus Katsuki grabbed his arm.

"Run you damn nerd!" The blonde shouted before dragging Izuku further into the forest at a sprint.

He quickly matched Katsuki's pace, being the more athletic of the pair, as they ran. Above him he could hear Gran Torino shooting from tree to tree. He was vaguely aware of his energy but it was almost impossible to pinpoint.

"Any idea how to take this guy down?" Katsuki shouted back to him.

"You could start by running faster!" Gran Torino shouted and Izuku felt the impact on his back between his shoulders.

He managed to break his fall with his arms before he had a mouthful of dirt but he still stumbled to the ground. Katsuki was less lucky and as Izuku got to his feet he saw him spitting clumps of dirt out of his mouth onto the ground.

"For fuck sake!" Katsuki yelled and slammed his fist into the dirt.

"We need to get to thicker woods, the more trees the less room he'll have to manoeuvre." Izuku said as he desperately tried to keep track of the air streams Torino left behind him.

"Damn it, I swear I'll break my arm to keep this asshole off us!" Katsuki shouted, his eyes darting around frantically.

'Huh,' Izuku thought, 'I guess he can't keep track of him as well as I can, maybe being aware of energy really is a help.'

"Come on, we need to move!" Izuku yelled and started sprinting towards a thick layer of trees, Katsuki hot on his heels.

As they ran Izuku tried to lock onto Torino's energy, even if the man was keeping out of his range to take his quirk his ability to detect someone's energy went on for nearly half a mile. But even then it was almost impossible, the moment Izuku felt Gran Torino's energy to his right he heard the man on his left. He was just too fast to keep track of.

It also appeared Torino had figured out their plan, "Oh no you don't you sneaky brats!"

Izuku felt the boot make contact with his left side and he was thrown into Katsuki who had been running next to him. Both boys started to tumble and he could practically feel Katsuki's rage puring off him.

"Fuck off you old man!"

It all happened in slow motion. Izuku's eyes widened as he felt Katsuki's quirk flare up with power, enough power that the punch he was attempting to make would throw them both completely off course and break his arm.

"Kacchan!" Izuku yelled and panicked and without thinking felt his quirk lash out, tugging on One For All.

Both boys yelled out in pain as their quirks clashed, though it had the desired effect and Katsuki's body lost the red lines appearing over it. They both tumbled down, apparently they had been on top of a hill and they quickly rolled down to the bottom.

Izuku groaned and went to stand when he felt a hand slap around his mouth and a set of arms drag him back. He fought the urge to fight back and lash out with his quirk again and let Katsuki pull him into some undergrowth. Moments later he felt Torino's energy come into range, the man jumped around the area looking for the boys while both stayed perfectly still in their hiding spot before the retired hero seemed to give up and move on.

Katsuki sighed and let go of Izuku who rolled away from the blonde slightly and frowned at him.

"Real clever Kacchan, breaking your arm at the guy and launching us both halfway across the forest, what a fantastic plan that would have been." Izuku said in a rare moment of frustration, sarcasm laced his voice.

"Oh shut the fuck up Zuzu, at least I tried something! I counted at least five times he came in your range and you did nothing." Katsuki shot back and narrowed his eyes at Izuku.

Izuku waved his arms around, "He's too fast! I can't lock onto him!"

"What the fuck does lock on mean, why do you have to lock onto anything!" Katsuki whisper shouted back, both boys not risking being caught.

"I need to lock onto his energy to be able to take it Kacchan." Izuku said with an eyeroll.

"Since when!? When have you ever locked onto a quirk to take it." Katsuki said as both boys started to get in each other's faces.

"How to hell do you know how my quirk works!? I need to focus, it's impossible-"

"Did you know you take quirks in your sleep?"

Katsuki's surprisingly calm words drove Izuku's entire mind to a screeching halt. He eyed the other boy's face to indicate any kind of lie or cruel joke. But Katsuki hadn't really lied to Izuku since they were four.

"I… what?"

Katsuki sighed, "I didn't find out till we were eleven and the hag made me promise to never tell you but… yeah sometimes Aunty, Dad or the hag used to wake up in the night without their quirk. I was getting a glass of water one night and overheard Dad telling Aunty that his quirk had gone and they needed to replace your sheets as you had damaged them by sparking your hands without realising. We never told you because we were worried about how you'd react but you actually do it at least twice a month. Dad reckons as you wake up your body notices the quirk and you subconsciously reject it before you realise what happened."

Izuku didn't know how to respond to that.. He.. he'd been taking quirks this entire time? He would have never guessed he activated his quirk in his sleep. He knew it wasn't unheard of, his Mom often woke up to find she had dragged her beside clock to her in the night. But Izuku's quirk was far more complex than that and he just… took quirks asleep?

"So why tell me now?" Izuku asked in the best neutral tone he could muster.

"Because you keep nerding out and overthinking your quirk," Katsuki responded with a huff, "All this talk of locking on and latching onto someone's energy. You just need to take it, stop overthinking about how you do it and just do it. You don't think about locking on every time you throw a punch."

Izuku paused at processed Katsuki's words. That was actually a good point. Izuku always considered his quirk as a separate entity, something he could call upon to use. But he didn't call upon his legs to run, he didn't call upon his eyes to read, he didn't-

A slap on the back of his head brought him back to reality.

"Tch. Next we just need to break that damn muttering habit."

Izuku blushed, "Right… ok, so I just need to… stop thinking and take his quirk. Shouldn't be too difficult, his energy is pretty light and is focused mostly on his lower legs and feet. Not like yours or All Might's who's focus is the centre of your chest."

As Izuku silently mused a strategy he caught sight of Katsuki's jaw dropping and eyes going so wide Izuku thought they might pop out.

"What the fuck did you say?"

Izuku jumped slightly at the question, "Uh… his energy won't be hard to take as it's not wide spread?"

Of everything Izuku had thought might happen in response to his answer he had not been expecting Katsuki to leap forward and hug him so hard he thought the boy had activated his quirk.

"Zuzu you're a fucking genius!"

Izuku gave Katsuki an awkward one arm hug back, "Uh… thanks?"

Katsuki pulled back from the hug with an excited look, "I've been going about it all wrong! I've been treating One For All like a river that I try to direct into certain body parts, like putting into my arm to punch! But I need to treat it like a lake with a dam, a dam I can open a little bit and flow all over my body!"

To anyone else Katsuki's explanation might have seemed stupid and impossible to follow. But not for Izuku who's smile grew just as wide as Katsuki's.

"Of course! It's not about trying to direct the force of the quirk, it's about letting your body naturally use it. If you can get that down everything you do will naturally be enhanced."

Katsuki took a step back and folded his arms, puffing out his chest, "And One For All effects my entire body, so getting it under control with amplify everything about me."

Izuku frowned, "Was that a euphemism?"

Katsuki spluttered in denial, complaining about how Izuku used to be incredibly innocent and was now a tainted soul. Izuku didn't point out her learnt what sex was by Katsuki smuggerling a few dirty mags home when they were twelve. They had been grounded for weeks after that.

The crack of branches caused their heads to snap to their right, apparently they had been too loud and Gran Torino was heading back to their position. The growing awareness of his energy confirmed the suspicion in Izuku's mind.

"I think I might have a plan." Katsuki said and turned to Izuku.

"Lead the way oh mighty One For All." Izuku said with a mock salute causing Katsuki to roll his eyes.

"I'll distract him long enough for you to take his quirk. But I won't be able to hold him for long so you better not fuck about with all that nerd shit and just do it."

Izuku nodded, "I'll do it."

Katsuki gave him a feral smile, "Good," he said and ran out into the open, "Hey Oldman! Come fight like a real fucking hero!"

In the distance Izuku could hear the mad laughter of Gran Torino as his energy took on a more direct approach to them. Crouching down Izuku took cover behind a tree, he trusted Kacchan to do as he said, he just had to keep up his end of the plan. Katsuki was right, he needed to stop trying to focus and think, just feel for the quirk and take it. Taking a sigh Izuku closed his eyes and learnt against the tree, pushing everything else away and focusing on the energy of Katsuki and Gran Torino.

Meanwhile Katsuki stood firm, eying the forest carefully as he tried to listen out for where Gran Torino was. As the sounds grew louder and Torino closed in, Katsuki took a deep breath and felt inside for his quirk. However unlike the other times he's used it, rather than imagining the force of it heading towards one section of his body he imagined simply allowing a small amount out and letting it flow naturally.

To his amazement (though he would never admit it) it worked.

Katsuki felt One For All slowly spread over his body like a cloak, it's power was significantly reduced but it still felt incredible. He instantly felt stronger, faster and more capable. If he had to guess he was currently allowing around 5% of the quirk to flow through him. On the outside his body had lit up with red lines of power that had formed all over his skin. However as he gained control the lines disappeared and instead were replaced would could only be described as a pure red and black fire that encased his body. But unlike the calm house fire people had in their homes this fire crackled and sparked, almost like a small fireworks show surrounding him. As he focused his eyes his bright red irises glowed with raw power. It was all rather intimidating.

Katsuki focused and put his second theory to the test, at it's core One For All was a power quirk that augmented and enhanced the natural abilities of the user. This is of course in essence meant their physical capabilities were enhanced, they gained strength, speed and endurance. However there was a lot more to the human body than muscle's. Katsuki grasped a small amount of the power flowing through him and focused it in his eyes just as Gran Torino smashed through the foliage from above.

He was moving slowly.

At least more slowly than he had been before. Katsuki couldn't resist the urge to smirk, the nerd would be damn proud. Using One For All in his eyes had allowed Katsuki to perceive time far slower than the average person, he wasn't sure how long he could hold it for but he didn't need long.

Planting his feet in the ground he followed Gran Torino's outstretched leg heading straight for his chest. Making sure not to arouse suspicion and cause the old hero to change his trajectory, Katsuki tried not to respond too quickly. Not until Torino was in perfect range.

Waiting until the last second Katsuki simply sidestepped Torino's outstretched leg as his foot passed harmlessly through thin air. Torino only had time to widen his eyes in surprise briefly before Katsuki reached out, grabbing the man's arm and holding on with an iron grip enhanced by One For All.

As predicted Gran Torino reacted by using his own quirk to launch himself in the opposite direction. Katsuki threw the arm not holding the retired pro hero out, it made a crunching noise as his hand slammed into the tree next to him digging into the trunk. Using it as an anchor Katsuki grunted and swung Gran Torino round, gritting his teeth as the force pulled at his shoulders hoping he wouldn't dislocate his arm.

Luckily though Katsuki's arm stayed in tact and he slammed Torino into the tree, using his body to

pin the man down. All he had to do now was hope Izuku could take his quirk before the hero escaped.

Izuku was doing just that. He had kept his eyes closed the entire time, focusing only on the quirk energy he could feel. He had to fight the hunger slightly when Katsuki activated his quirk but it didn't put up much of a fight. He also felt Gran Torino's energy come into play and he stopped trying to focus and locate both of them, concentrating purely on being aware of the energy.

The moment Torino's energy came within range he didn't even think, he pulled. Instantly the quirk put up a fight. It wasn't a particularly strong quirk but Gran Torino was an experienced hero who knew their quirk inside and out, the energy was putting up a hell of a fight.

He just needed to focus on it, think about how to- No! It was thinking which was letting him down, this was his quirk, his power. He didn't need to think, he just needed to PULL!

Izuku let out a cry as, with a burst of effort, he ripped Gran Torino's quirk from him and felt the old man's energy flow into his body.

Izuku let out a sigh and collapsed to his knees, wiping the sweat off his brow. He had gotten used to easily taking known quirks, he wasn't prepared for such a battle. Walking out of his hiding spot he saw Katsuki collapse, he also looked exhausted at really using his quirk for the first time. Though based on the gaping hole in the tree his method had worked.

Gran Torino meanwhile slide down from the tree onto the ground and Izuku briefly panicked, thinking they had seriously hurt the hero before the man jumped up.

"Ha! Not bad kids, I'm almost impressed." He said and clicked his back, "Man, feels weird not having your quirk." He mumbled.

Izuku was too ecstatic to listen and started to run over to Katsuki, "Kacchan, that was amazing! I can't imagine what you'll be able to-"

The was a sudden burst from beneath his feet and the next thing Izuku knew he was flying through the air. He watched the world twist and turn around him as he smacked into a branch mid air and was once gain thrown to the ground.

Katsuki was of course sympathetic, "HAHA, you fucking idiot Zuzu that was brilliant!"

Gran Torino scoffed in amusement, "Looks like we need work on you being able to control the quirks you take."

"You think." Izuku grumbled back as he pulled leaves out of his hair.

Izuku watched the scenery fly past as Yagi swerved his truck in and out of traffic. The street signs indicated they were heading further into the city. Yagi had grabbed Izuku not long after he had returned Gran Torino's quirk and informed him it was time they took the next step in his training. The fact Gran Torino could stay behind to help Katsuki with his new so-called 'full cloak' move made the timing even better.

Though Izuku still had no idea what they were doing, they had been driving for awhile now and

Yagi had not said a word to him since they had entered the truck. It wasn't an awkward silence by any means and Izuku was thankful to have some time to contemplate the mornings training and his and Katsuki's progress. However curiosity was starting to get the better of him.

"So you mentioned something about taking the next step in my training?" He asked Yagi as he turned his attention to the man.

Yagi nodded though he kept his eyes on the road, "Yes, overall your training is going well. You've gained not only the skill but also the confidence to take quirks, though I'm aware this is still in a very limited capacity. However, one aspect which I am concerned about is that you may be falling behind on your hunger."

Izuku winced slightly, "I've been doing better though. You don't really cause much more than a slight jolt these days and even Kacchan only causes me to lose focus briefly. Not to mention I barely reacted to Gran Torino and I've never met him."

"That's all true," Yagi responded, "However, you've had months to get used to One For All and though skilled Gran Torino doesn't have a very powerful quirk. We can't be sure how you'll perform in a crowd of people, especially a crowd made up of UA Hero Students."

"So we're training my hunger today?" Izuku asked and looked out of the window, they were definitely reaching a nicer part of the city, he doubted his own family could afford to live out here.

"We are, tell me, have you ever heard of Café Leblanc?"

Izuku tilted his head in slight surprise, "It's an online conspiracy theory. Essentially Café Leblanc is supposed to be a secret chain of restaurants across Japan only accessible by pro heroes. Most people who believe it say the locations are kept secret to keep it away from prying eyes. There's various theories about its true nature, some think it's actually a club for heroes while some argue they're actually safe houses for undercover operations. Though that wouldn't make sense, why give all the safe houses across the country the same codename not to mention-"

Yagi's cough made Izuku realise he was mumbling again and the boy blushed slightly.

"It's actually far more simple than that," Yagi explained, "Put simply it's a series of restaurants that allow pro heroes to enjoy a quiet meal out without being hounded by fans. There are strict ruled for every site and you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, however you and your family can attend freely after that."

"That's… actually a pretty smart business idea."

Yagi chuckled, "The man who came up with it is richer than any pro hero I've ever met."

The dots started to connect in Izuku's mind, "So we're going there to test my control of my hunger?"

"Exactly, it might be throwing you in the deep end a bit but if you can handle a room full of pro's then I have no doubt you'll manage at UA."

Izuku fidgeted in his seat slightly, sure he had a much better control of his hunger now but training it like this… If Izuku lost control here he had no doubt he would be blacklisted by every hero school in the country. That was assuming he didn't end up in Tartarus.

Yagi seemed to pick up on his mood, "You're worried what will happen if you lose control."

Izuku nodded, " I could hurt people."

Internally Yagi couldn't help but smile, for all the problems it would cause for the boy himself Izuku's main concern was the wellbeing of others. It was further evidence that, even if his suspicions about the boy's real father were true, Izuku Midoriya was about as far away from a villain as you could get.

"It's definitely a risk, but it's a calculated risk. Don't forget I am still The Number One Hero and you're unable to take my quirk. If it comes to it I can simply buff out and get you out of there to a safe spot. And if it does come to it I will happily vouch for you at any hero school you apply for."

Izuku took in Yagi's words and mulled them over, he supposed he couldn't just train to resist a few quirks forever. At least this method was far more controlled than having him walk around public crowds.

"Alright, I trust you." Izuku said with a slight smile to Yagi.

Yagi nodded, "Good, now if you open up the glove box there's a few items in there for a uh disguise. Despite it being a pure hero restaurant All Might would still gain some attention, luckily the owner allowed me in as All Might's secretary, you'll be coming with me as my nephew, Akira."

Izuku nodded and reached into the glove box, inside he found a beanie, glasses and a pair of false contacts. He put the contacts in first, changing his eyes from gleaming emerald to brilliant blue. He made sure to push all his green hair into the beanie which had been added with tufts of blonde to give the impression he shared Yagi's hair colour. Finally the black rimmed stylish glasses, the lenses of which were just made with ordinary glass, completed the look.

Izuku turned to Yagi with a wide smile, "So how do I look?"

Yagi glanced at him and nearly swerved his truck off the road, the boy looked almost identical to how Yagi had in his younger years. Almost like he was the son of himself and Inko. Yagi quickly shook those thoughts away and shot the boy a quick smile.

"You look perfect, it's best no one links you to me when you come out as a hero. That could cause complications so I'm afraid the disguise is necessary." Yagi glanced back at the boy when he heard sniffling, only to find tears welling Izuku's eyes, "My boy! Whatever is the matter!?"

Izuku rubbed his eyes, careful not to disturb the contacts, "You said WHEN I become a hero, not IF."

Yagi sighed, they really needed to work on this crying issue.

Eventually they reached a central residential area of the city, the buildings were all exquisite. Perfectly trimmed bushes and driveways full of cars that probably cost more than Izuku's own house. The streets bristled with activity, men and women wearing expensive clothes and jewellery that glinted in the sun. If Izuku ever decided to become a criminal he knew what suburb he was robbing first.

He raised an eyebrow when they turned down a street which seemed eerily quiet. The cars on the drives looked older than most, the gardens where well kept but simple, easy to maintain with no extravagant extras and the houses all had tinted windows trying to hide the luxurious lives of those inside instead of proudly showing them off.

"So this is the street it's on." Izuku commented.

Yagi gave him a curious look, "What makes you think that?"

"This suburb is clearly expensive and a place for the super rich. But the kind of rich that like to show off, otherwise it's a pretty bad suburb, it's out of the way, hero patrols are light and there's no nearby station to get into the city. The only reason people live here is the ability to show off how wealthy they are. Every house we've passed has been extravagant in some way or another. All except for this street, sure it's nice and clearly expensive but there's nothing that stands out. Like it's trying to fit in without drawing attention to itself." Izuku explained in a monologue that would have divulged into muttering had it not been for Yagi pulling into an alley and catching Izuku's attention.

Yagi chuckled, "You would have made a great detective in another life."

Izuku blushed as they drove further into the alley and was surprised to find… a homeless man? The figure was wearing dirty old clothes that hung over his body and his face was largely covered by a baseball cap. Yagi didn't seem fazed however by the man and simply pulled up along side him, opening his door window.

"Good Afternoon," Yagi greeted the man with a smile as he flashed him some sort of ID card, "Toshinori Yagi, I have a booking for two at 14:00 with my nephew."

The homeless man leaned forward and read the ID card before smiling, "Good Afternoon Mr Yagi, it's good to see you back."

Izuku's jaw dropped as the man's clothes started to morph, they retreated back to fit the man's body as if tailor made while the very material and colours seemed to change. Before long the homeless man was wearing a red tuxedo accompanied with a valet hat.

"Woah… Is that your quirk!?" Izuku asked excitedly.

The man chuckled, "My cousin is Best Jeanist, though the hero gig didn't suit me, excuse the pun."

Yagi slapped his hand over Izuku's mouth before the boy started to rant and gestured for him to exit the car. Sulking slightly Izuku followed as Yagi passed the man the keys to his truck. They entered the building through a side door just by where the man had been loitering.

The moment they stepped through Izuku could feel the wealth radiating off the place. The lush red carpet that lined the entranceway and stairways was so vibrant Izuku thought he had been colour- blind his whole life until that moment. They handed their coats to the staff in the entrance way and were led upstairs, gold seemed to line everything from the lights to the picture frames, each one containing a famous hero, until they reached a set of large double doors.

A large man with a wide smile greeted them just before the doors, "Ah Yagi! How good to see you! It's been too long!"

Yagi shook the man's outstretched hand, "Genji, a pleasure as always. Please meet my nephew Akira, Akira Genji is the manager here."

Izuku bowed low, "It's good to meet you sir."

Genji smiled down at him, "A fine young man I see, just like your uncle. Tell me Yagi, will All Might ever again visit us? It's been so long since he was here, he's always welcome to a private room. Doesn't the man ever date?"

Yagi sputtered slightly, "W-well you know, being the number one her does keep him busy."

Genji laughed, "Of course, of course. Still we are always delighted to see his secretary, your money is as good as anyone's! Please let me show you to your seats."

Izuku smiled and followed Yagi and Genji, he knew of course the very nature of this place meant he couldn't go up and talk to anyone but just imagine the heroes he might be able to see! Maybe Miruko or Edgeshot! There could be any number of them, he desperately strained his head to see behind Genji as they walked through the doors and-

!HUNGRY!

Izuku was thrown into darkness, the only thing he became aware of were the masses of energy that swirled around him. It was like his own personal typhoon, different coloured energies lashed around him with each feeling more tempting than the last. The hunger was overwhelming and caused his mind to break. Izuku didn't know if he was kneeling or stumbling forward, he felt his hands press onto his head but also hug his body, he wanted to throw up but at the same time was starving.

He could feel his mind ebbing away, he couldn't remember why he was here, what was he doing? He tried to push back against the hunger, the overwhelming need to absorb the energy that surrounded him. But why should he fight it? The energy looked delicious, it looked like the perfect meal. And boy was Izu… what was his name again? Oh well, it didn't matter, the energy didn't have a name and that was what was important. There was a bright orange one in front of him, just in range. It looked perfect, so incredibly powerful and fierce, all he needed to do was reach out and-

NO!

Izuku's mind came crashing back directly into the hunger, the two forces battling for dominance. He threw all his willpower into it, everything else vanishing as he pushed back against the force.

HUnGry!

NO!

Izuku's mind was like a warzone, the two forces pushing and pulling against each other, neither giving in. In all his years growing up Izuku had never known pain like it, it was like his head was being torn in two and his mind ripped apart.

He needed to fight back against it push it down and contain it he needed-

!FEED!

Izuku was sure if he had been aware of his body and able to feel anything he would have just thrown up there and then. He had never felt such a strong desire to feed off quirk energy before. The hunger had fought back against him and dialled itself up to a new level he had never felt before. He started to panic, where the fuck was All Might?

He couldn't do it, he couldn't win against it. There was no way he could push this level of force down and keep it away from himself. It was just an element of himself he couldn't fight.

Wait.

What had Gran Torino said? He needed to stop separating his quirk from himself. He would never win by directly fighting against the hunger, he needed to accept it.

Man he hoped All Might was telling the truth about stopping him.

Izuku stopped fighting and let the hunger overflow him.

HIs mind vanished, all that was left was a shell of a human. All For One His quirk taking full control using his body as a vessel while the energy around him flared up, it surrounded him in one giant ball, crackling around him, ready to be taken and-

"Are you alright?"

Izuku's eyes snapped open. He could feel sweat on his brow and he was breathing heavily, his whole body shaking slightly. His vision was blurred and slowly coming into focus. His memories came stumbling back and he realised he was still in LeBlanc, the sounds of chatter and scraping chairs around him.

In front of him stood a boy about his own age with two-tone hair, one half red and the other white. The boy was looking at him with a blank expression that made Izuku nervous. His energy was also off, rather than one type the boy had two distinct types of energy. On his left side the energy was a bright orange and crackled with life, it was constantly moving and looked like it was fighting to get out. On his right his energy was a soft blue, it was far more solid and almost formed spikes against his skin. What was really off however was the fact the two energies refused to interact or touch, there was a solid line between the two in the middle of the boy's body where no energy sat. There was also something else Izuku noticed.

He desperately wanted to take the energy.

He could feel the hunger all over his body, desperate to feed off this unique energy like a starved animal staring at a perfect meal. Yet… Izuku just ignored it. It was there sure and he could feel it but unlike every time before he felt in control of it. It was almost like when he was thirty and training at the beach, no matter how appealing the ocean might look like to drink from he never uncontrollably ran towards it and started gulping down. Much like how he felt now, the hunger was there and strong but he just chose not to act on it.

Izuku smiled and relief flushed through him, sure it was incredibly uncomfortable and borderline painful but here he was, standing in a room of powerful quirks and he was able to simply ignore his hunger.

He smiled at the two-toned boy, "Yes thank, I'm ok, just some uh quirk issues."

The boy nodded in understanding, "I understand, I also have issues with my quirk sometimes. I hope it doesn't disappoint your family too much either."

Izuku's smile twitched slightly at that, "Oh uh… are you here with your family?"

"Yes, father decided it would be nice to visit for my sister's birthday. Even my older brother came. It's a nice break from training." The boy said with a bored expression.

Izuku went to respond when a voice distracted him.

"Young Mi-Akira! There you are!"

Izuku turned his head to find a frantic Yagi running up to him, fear etched across his face, "My boy I'm so sorry, I got distracted talking to Genji and didn't realise you had wondered. Are you ok?"

Izuku turned to the boy he had been talking to only to find him gone. He filed away the encounter

in his mind for further analysis at a later date before turning back to Yagi with a wide smile.

"You know what? I'm fucking great!"

Yagi smiled to himself as he sat on the balcony of his apartment, simply taking in the last of the day's sunshine, its rays giving a slight warmth to his tired bones. Today had been perhaps the most successful day he'd had since agreeing to train Young Bakugou and Midoriya. Bakugou was now able to control a small percentage of One For All and was adapting to the quirk quickly with Gran Torino. Yagi had no doubt the way he was now he would practically walk through The UA entrance exams.

Not only that but Midoriya had also made great progress with All For One, yes Yagi was no longer in denial about the truth of the quirk. He seemed to have finally accepted the quirk in its fullest as being a part of him. Though he still had issues with the idea of taking quirks and they shouldn't get too complacent with his hunger. But the boy was finally willing to use the quirk in battle and do it safely.

A slamming at Yagi's door caused him to jump slightly. With a frown he walked back into his apartment, ready to buff up at a moment's notice. Only two people knew of this address, the first was Tsukauchi and the second was…

Oh no.

The front door of the apartment was torn open, the lock flying off its hinges and nearly embedding itself in Yagi's skull.

"Next time don't lock the damn door!" Gran Torino grumbled as he stepped inside, a duffel bag over his shoulder.

"G-Gran Torino, what are you doing here!" Yagi cried as he tried to shut his ruined door.

"What, you didn't think I'd do this training for free now did you!? Free accommodation and food while I stick around and train the kids is the least you could do." Torino scoffed as he walked further into the apartment looking over the place with a slight frown of disgust.

"O-oh of course, I uh suppose there's the spare room." Yagi said trying not to let his voice quiver.

"Good enough. Place is a little modest considering how much you get paid." Torino said and threw his bag down on the sofa in the main room.

"Well I like to give a little back to the community…" Yagi explained.

Torino chuckled, "So much like Nana… You got any grub in this place?"

The old hero seemed to use his sixth sense to head straight into the kitchen, Yagi followed. Like the rest of the apartment the kitchen was fairly modest but well stocked, there were five different blenders that allowed Yagi to eat meals without a stomach. Said man froze when he walked in behind Torino and found the man staring at various papers strewn about the kitchen table.

"Toshi… What are these?" Torino asked in an uncharacteristically quiet tone.

Yagi smiled nervously, "They're my lesson plans for UA."

Torino paused and looked up at him with a blank expression, "Toshi I say this as your old Sensei and your friend… these plans are the worst fucking teaching I've ever seen in my life."

Yagi had to quickly grab the handkerchief he stored in his pocket to catch the blood that shot out from his mouth as he coughed at Torino's words. Before he could defend himself however the old hero whipped out a folder that Yagi recognised as his lesson plan for the first day.

"You're going to just have them go at each other in their first ever heroics lesson!?" Torino exclaimed.

"W-well… it'll be a good way to see where they stand with their quirks." Yagi said, the quiver in his voice back in full force.

"That's what the entrance exams are for you knumbskull! Having teenagers just fight with no training is a sure fire way to kill someone! What if the moron accidently let too much of One For All slip and caved in someone's skull!? What if the idiot stole a quirk he couldn't control!" Torino all but shouted, throwing the folder back onto the table.

"B-but in-in the field they won't know-"

"This isn't the damn field Yagi! It's school! At the very least they need to understand their own quirks and how to restrain themselves before letting them use them against an actual person." Torino shot back and started flicking through the rest of the folders on the table

"I.. I hadn't thought about that…" Yagi admitted as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Torino's scowl only deepened as he read more folders, "Where are all the classroom lessons? These are nothing but practicals."

"Ah well I figured we'd get combat down first and then move onto the classroom portion of heroics." Yagi tried to point out.

Torino grunted, "Sure, if you want to make forty vigilantes. Heroics is more than just pummelling the bad guy. Not everyone will be the type of hero you are, the recon and stealth students won't gain much by being beaten up every lesson. Not to mention all the paperwork and technicalities of hero work. The role the HPSC plays in it, how to come up with patrol routes, how hero quick classification and grades work…"

Yagi was feeling more and more embarrassed as Torino turned to him and pointed at one of the kitchen seats.

"Sit down!"

Yagi spluttered, "W-why?"

Torino took his own chair opposite where he had told Yagi to sit and grabbed the folder for Yagi's first lesson plan.

"I'm already teaching the two kids, may as well become your Sensei again and try to make a real teacher out of you."

Aizawa's Recommendation

Chapter Summary

As Entrance Exams draw near Aizawa visits Izuku and Katsuki for an update on their training and a suggestion for Izuku

Izuku crouched low in the undergrowth, keeping his senses open as he made sure to control his breathing with slow, quiet breaths. The trees above him rustled in the wind slightly as he focused on his surroundings, letting his quirk spread out and search for any energy in the area. He flexed his hands and felt the quirks he had taken flow through him, their energy almost second nature to him at this point.

He scanned the trees, of his two opponents the most dangerous would come from above, using their speed to stop him from taking their quirk. His timing was better but he was also learning the more he used it on someone the better they became at fighting it. There was no point worrying about his second opponent, Izuku would sense their energy a mile away.

As he sat waiting to ambush anyone who came by, he pondered the last few weeks. With the addition of Gran Torino training them he and Katsuki were now reasonably decent fighters. Katsuki was able to wield roughly 5% of One For All throughout his body constantly and raise it to 10% for a split second at times. He used this to deadly effect focusing on precise and sharp movements, jabs and kicks fuelled by his 10% output to quickly take down an opponent while increasing his endurance with his Full Cloak technique.

Meanwhile Izuku was getting better at quickly adapting to quirks he took, Torino had encouraged his analysis skills and used classroom style lessons to help Izuku quickly break down the core of a quirk and how best to use it. Combined with his now reasonably solid control of his hunger and increased ability to take quirks and Izuku was becoming just as deadly at close range as Katsuki was.

Gran Torino could run circles around them both but even he had to be cautious, if he got too close to Katsuki, or stayed in Izuku's range too long, he would be finished in a moment.

Speaking of Torino, Izuku could sense the man's quirk coming his way, it was subtle but he could feel it. Izuku tensed up, not moving a muscle as he lowered his breathing to the point he was almost drowsy. As Torino's energy got close Izuku could feel the hunger start, he accepted it and let it guide him to Torino, keeping it reeled in but using it to focus on the energy.

Izuku held out his hand, briefly glancing at the weird mix of green, brown and golden that swirled around it. He waited until he felt Torino launch above him in the trees and focused on the green energy in his hand. Pointing towards a tree opposite him Izuku activated his mothers quirk causing a branch on the tree to snap off and fall to the ground.

Torino reacted immediately, his path above Izuku altered and he headed straight for the disturbance. Izuku really did stop breathing at that point, his entire strategy rested on the element of surprise, the moment Torino knew he was in the area he would make sure never to be within Izuku's range for more than a second.

Torino landed in the trees above and paused, clearly trying to scan the area for either Izuku or Katsuki. Izuku smirked, his energy was exactly ten metres away, he just needed to make sure he pulled with as much force as could and didn't give-

Tornio shot back using his quirk, Izuku's eyes widened slightly and he ducked down, feeling Torino's foot miss his head by only a slither. Not giving Izuku a chance to take his quirk, Torino landed on the ground next to him and shot back into the sky. Izuku rolled out from the undergrowth and looked up to see Torino perched on a branch looking down at him, just out of range.

"Smart, using a relatively weak quirk tactically turns it into a useful tool and while being sneaky may not always be popular, surprise attacks often result in low casualties and an easy win." Torino said approvingly while Izuku watched the man carefully, "Yet again however you made one fatal mistake."

Torino flew from his branch, jumping between the trees above Izuku. Not bothering to try to keep track of him physically, Izuku turned and ran, making sure to feel Torino's energy around him.

He quickly planted his feet in the ground and stopped himself moving forward as Torino ripped through the air just in front of him. Had he not kept track of the energy and stopped, it would have been a direct hit.

Izuku could always try and counter Torino but the truth was he wasn't as strong as Katsuki and the first time he had tried it it was like being barrelled into by a freight train.

Torino once again landed in the trees above Izuku, "Idiot, you hesitated in taking my quirk. Again."

Izuku rolled out of the way as Torino nearly took his head off with another quirk powered kick, "I had to be sure I took it."

"Well you failed on that front, you need to control your hunger, I could feel it on my quirk the moment I landed."

As if to emphasise his point Torino came at Izuku from the side, not even looking in the boy's direction as Izuku jumped back onto the ground. It was probably time for plan B.

By this point Izuku knew exactly how Torino's quirk worked. The air jets he released were actually fairly basic, they launched him in whichever direction his legs were pointing. While the bones and muscles in his legs were more solid than a normal persons to take the pressure he still needed to keep his ankles straight to avoid damage. As a result he actually struggled with manoeuvrability and so used short jets to fly between areas so as to change direction. It also meant while he was able to change direction mid air it came at the complete loss of ant control of his movements

And it played right into Izuku's plan.

Ducking and diving to avoid Torino's attacks, Izuku led the man into an open area, the exact opposite of his plan when he first encountered him. Torino shot past him and started jumping between the trees. Izuku loosely tracked his energy while focusing on his mothers quirk. He waited patiently for the perfect moment.

Suddenly he felt Torino change direction and put his plan into motion. Activating his Mother's quirk, Izuku pulled piles of leaves and twigs into his hand, they hadn't had rain for a while and the foliage was crisp and dry. Which meant when Izuku threw his two piles directly at Torino while activating his Uncle's quirk it caused the piles to burst into flames and spread through the air. Torino was strong but he wasn't flame proof.

The man saw what appeared to be a wave of flame in his path and immediately activated his quark to avoid it. Unfortunately, like Izuku predicted, Torino couldn't fully control his momentum and shot away at an awkward angle, unable to correct himself. It also meant he stayed within Izuku's range a second too long.

Izuku let his hunger out and tore the quirk from Torino with relative ease, the hero too confused and focused on landing to put up any real fight. Torino stumbled slightly onto the ground before finding his feet and turning back to Izuku, giving him a nod while Izuku smiled with pride

"Good work idiot. Though you still have a problem, you're too focused on one opponent."

Izuku's smile vanished from his face and he turned on his feet just in time to see a massive tree trunk hurtling towards him. He activated Torino's quick just in time and was able to leap over the (entire fucking) tree that had been thrown at him and landed on the ground with a thud, the tree crashing behind him as Torino walked off, cackling like a madman.

Katsuki stood deeper within the forest, the smirk evident on his face even from this distance. Clearly Izuku had been too loud in taking down Torino and his friend decided to launch his own surprise attack.

Even if it was about as subtle as an atomic bomb.

Before Izuku could recover Katsuki punched another tree, using One For All and tearing it from the ground. He then swung in with an enhanced kick, the middle of the tree buckled but the force sent it rocketing towards Izuku.

Izuku was forced to jump back and duck as the tree flew overhead. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered who was going to pay for all this damage.

Katsuki quickly launched another tree as Izuku activated Jet and took cover behind a large maple which buckled and creaked under the attack but held firm. This was bad, clearly Katsuki knew that his best strategy was to weaken and exhaust Izuku at range before moving in. Which meant Izuku had to get close to Katsuki.

While Katsuki threw literal trees at him.

Well, Plus Ultra and all that.

Izuku turned around from the tree and used Jet to launch himself into the air. Another tree came flying at him and he was forced to launch himself above the tree line to avoid it. He momentarily got a complete view of the forest, birds flying in every direction away from the chaos and an obvious gap in the tree line from Kacchans deforestation technique, before he plummeted back down.

Using jet he launched through the tree line, directing himself to Katsuki and avoiding another tree

thrown his way. With the amount of noise they were making he'd be surprised if a hero didn't turn up.

Another tree flew at him and he dove to the left, pushing forward.

Another and he ducked under it, leaping straight.

Another tree and he leapt over it with one final push bringing him to Katsuki.

He landed in front of the blonde, just within range of his own quirk. They were surrounded by tree trunks that had been torn in half by Katsuki. Both boys stood staring at each other and panting.

Katsuki smirked at him, "Nice take down of the old man Zuzu, you're getting pretty good at using Dad and Auntie's quirk. But even three quirks won't be enough to take me down."

Katsuki was annoyingly correct, Izuku was at a disadvantage. Sure he could just let the hunger tear away at One For All but that would hurt Izuku just as much as Katsuki. The first time he had done it Torino had spent an hour lecturing him on appropriate tactics.

Izuku's only real advantage was speed and agility, even with his quirk Katsuki wasn't as light on his feet at Izuku, doubly so when he was using jet. But the issue was Katsuki hit like a truck, Izuku wasn't exceptionally tough and one decent hit could take him out. Meanwhile Katsuki was as tough as they came and with One For All flowing through him it was like hitting solid rock, it could take hours for Izuku to eventually beat him down.

It was like he was attacking Katsuki with a butter knife while Katsuki wielded an axe.

But of course Izuku was nothing if smart and so that night before training he had come up with a plan and called in a favour with his Aunt.

"Four."

Katsuki frowned, "What?"

"I'm using four quirks Kacchan."

As he spoke Izuku held out his palm and focused on the sweat that had built up in his hand from Auntie's quirk and simultaneously activated his uncle's quirk.

BOOM!

The explosion threw Izuku back through the air as it filled the area with fire and smoke. The entire forest shook with the force and Izuku could hear ringing in his ears as he crumpled to the ground. His wrist throbbed with pain and his vision blurred as he looked up. He could still, however, sense Katsuki's energy run up to him.

"Zuzu! Are you ok?"

Katsuki slowly came back into focus and Izuku flinched slightly at the sight, his friend's clothes were burned and scorched, it matched the rest of the area of the forest where smoke was rising up from some of the burned tree trunks.

"Well that sucked." Izuku said as he sat up, nursing his wrist, luckily it didn't feel broken.

Katsuki snorted at the response, "I'll say, pretty impressive move though."

"What the hell was that!?" Gran Torino shouted as he came running into the clearing, scowling at Izuku who gave him a sheepish smile.

"Well, Auntie finally let me borrow her quirk for the day. She sweats nitro-glycerine and Uncle creates sparks so…" Izuku responded while at the same time giving Torino his quirk back, he didn't miss the slight relief in the man's eyes.

"Combining the two equals explosion." Katsuki said with a toothy grin and a look in his eyes that made Izuku shudder slightly, "Man imagine if I had gotten that as a quirk."

"You probably would've been an asshole." Izuku deadpanned to which Katsuki responded with a two fingered salute.

Torino rolled his eyes, "Your logic was sound but you clearly didn't think through what the overall effect would be."

Izuku nodded as Katsuki helped him to his feet, "I guess I didn't think about how my body wouldn't adapt to an explosion quirk, turns out it has a pretty big blowback."

"I'll say." A monotone voice from behind them.

Izuku whipped round to face the voice, "Aizawa sir! What are you doing here?"

Aizawa just rolled his eyes as he walked up to three, Yagi next to him as they both glanced around the damaged forest. It was the first time Izuku had seen Aizawa out of his hero costume. Though the man didn't look much different, he still wore a pair of faded black jeans, ragged black jacked and the bags under his eyes were perhaps even worse.

"I heard a commotion and thought it best to investigate, ran into Yagi who explained you were doing some… rigorous training." He responded with a shrug.

"Ah yes, sorry about that." Izuku and Yagi said at the same time.

"Don't apologise for training." Katsuki and Torino responded in sync.

Aizawa blinked several times, unsure how to treat the situation before settling on the best route forward. Ignoring it all together.

"Actually I was glad I ran into you, there was something I wanted to discuss with you and Yagi."

"Yes, it appears I must apologise Young Midoriya. In all the time we spent training I had never stopped to pause and think about your situation." Yagi said with a small smile at the boy.

Izuku raised an eyebrow, "My situation?"

Aizawa nodded, "It occurred to me when we spoke at UA, you said you only had three months, now just three weeks, until the entrance exam."

"Well yeah, me and Kacchan have already put our applications in." Izuku said with visible confusion.

"I'm aware, however, you shouldn't be taking the entrance exam." Aizawa said with neutral expression.

Izuku froze and his face paled, beside him he felt Katsuki stiffen up. After all this time did Aizawa really think he didn't deserve to try? He could feel a wave of self doubt creeping over him as Katsuki opened his mouth to let off what Izuku assumed as a fiery rant and defence of his friend.

Before he could, however, Aizawa raised his hand, "Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying you shouldn't apply for UA, I'm saying the entrance exam isn't the way to do it. For a quirk like yours The Recommendation Exam would be far more suitable."

Katsuki's mouth snapped shut and Izuku felt colour return to his face, at least Aizawa wasn't suggesting he couldn't be a hero. After all this time he wasn't sure he could take that blow. Still that didn't mean he agreed with the man.

"No," Izuku said and firmly shook his head, "I don't want any special treatment, I'll take the entrance exam just like Kacchan."

"Illogical." Aizawa responded, causing Izuku to frown.

"Why? I'm going to prove that even with a quirk like mine I can become a hero, the same way as everyone else." He defended.

"The type of hero you become won't be determined in a school exam problem child. It doesn't make you any less of a hero, I took the recommendation exam when I applied for UA." Aizawa admitted in a tone that dared Izuku to challenge him.

Izuku was thrown off slightly by that revelation, "Aren't the Recommendation Exams for like… uh…"

"Rich pompous assholes." Katsuki finished for him, causing Izuku to splutter in surprise.

Aizawa sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Not officially no, though I can't deny most of the applicants come from a certain background. The actual purpose of the recommendation exams was to create an alternative for those whose quirks weren't best suited for direct combat. Quirks like mine. Truth is the entrance exam is pretty biased towards people with flashy powerful quirk like Bakugou's, no offence."

Katsuki just gave a shrug in response, truth was in a one on one situation both teenagers knew Izuku wouldn't stand a chance against Kacchan in his current state.

"He's right kid," Gran Torino commented, "Even back in my day the entrance exams were pretty physical, I had to chase down a runaway car, all self driving too, not another real person in sight. No quirks you can take in that situation."

Yagi nodded in agreement, "Yes, while the UA entrance exam changes every year all the alumni I've ever spoken to say the same thing. I remember my entrance exam was essentially a complex game of a tag with a robot."

"I obviously can't reveal the details of this year's exam but they're correct, the exam will focus on physical attributes and how you utilise your quirk. Will you be using your parents' quirks for the exam?" Aizawa asked.

Izuku scratched the back of his head, "Ah, no. They let me borrow them here and there but I can't keep them permanently. Apparently it's uncomfortable to go an entire day without your quirk so it's best I don't get too used to them."

"Uncomfortable is the least of it, it's like losing a limb. I don't mind you doing it during training, but I'd hardly call it a pleasant feeling." Torino grumbled, letting off a few small bursts of air under his feet as if to make sure his quirk still worked.

"Right," Aizawa continued, "And I'm assuming you won't take any of the fellow examinees quirks."

Izuku looked horrified at the thought, "Of course not! That would be completely unfair! It could ruin someone's chances of passing for my selfish needs!"

Katsuki and Torino snorted at that while Yagi gave him a beaming smile, Aizawa just rolled his eyes.

"I disagree but I won't argue with you. The point is you'll essentially be going into the exam quirkless and while not impossible you'd be giving yourself a massive handicap to pass. Compare it to the recommendation exam which not only consists of a physical test but also an interview and you'd have a better opportunity to succeed in a more closed off and controlled exam situation. Part of being a hero is understanding where your strengths lay and adapting to them. Quite frankly I've seen too many potential heroes never make it past the entrance exam because their quirks weren't suited for it, it would be a shame if you were one of them."

Izuku thought over Aizawa's words, he had always assumed he and Kacchan would take the same path to being a hero. Complete the entrance exam for UA together, be in the same class and so forth. But he supposed that was a childhood dream and that the reality was of course always going to be different. The truth was even without taking in their quirks into account Izuku and Katsuki were incredibly different, they wouldn't always take the same paths.

Izuku sighed, "I see your point. But isn't this all hypothetical? The exams are just a few weeks away, surely it's too late to be recommended?"

Aizawa shrugged, "Normally yes, we accept 100 recommendations about six months before the exam. But one of the examinees dropped out a few days ago so there's a free spot."

"But isn't that still against the rules and how would I even gain that spot? I doubt my school would recommend me and there's no way our parents would have enough influence for it."

Yagi coughed into his hand slightly and gave Izuku a smile, "Well, being the number one hero does have its benefits."

Izuku's eyes widened at Yagi, "Yagi Sensei… you would recommend me?"

"Of course my boy!" Yagi said with a bright smile, "Like I told you from the start, Young Bakugou may be my successor but you are also my student. I would be proud to put my name in as your recommendation."

"And as loath as I am to admit it, All Might does have enough influence to bend the rules and get you that spot." Aizawa admitted with a slight frown.

Izuku paused and turned to Katsuki who had largely remained silent throughout, a constant curious eyebrow raised at the conversation.

"Kacchan, what do you think?"

Katsuki turned to him and gave him a serious look, "I think that I'll kill you if you don't get into UA, so if this is the best way for you to do it then I say take the recommendation."

Izuku nodded, his mind made up and turned back to Aizawa, "Ok, I'll take the recommendation exam, any advice?"

Aizawa smirked slightly at him, "Maybe there's hope for you yet. The 'exam' as it's called consists of three parts, a written exam, a physical assessment and an interview with Principal Nedzu. Don't get cocky about the written, the paper for the recommendation is purposely made harder than the standard entrance. You're supposed to be the best of the best and we want you to prove it. For the physical, don't get too pent up on winning, sure it'll be a point in your favour if you do but we're looking for people who utilise their quirks both to support themselves and use against others. You're essentially showing us the basics of how you'll operate as a hero. Finally, don't underestimate how important the interview is. Though all the teachers contribute to the discussion the final decision on who gets in falls to Nedzu, you can get top scores in both the written and practical but fail to impress him in your interview and you'll be rejected. Equally subpar scores on both of the other tests have sometimes been overruled by Nedzu due to the potential he saw in the interview. Oh, you'll also need to bring an item to the interview, something personal to create a talking point for Nedzu to discuss with you."

"It's also worth pointing out I've never recommended a student before or even had an intern and while the recommendations aren't necessarily advertised they're not kept secret either. My recommendation will likely raise a few eyebrows." Yagi admitted.

Katsuki snorted, "More raised eyebrows than a hero student who can take people's quirks?"

Yagi paused, "Point."

Izuku sighed and rubbed his temples, he hadn't expected everything to get so intense and complicated so quickly.

"Ok, so I'm taking the recommendation exam, when is it anyway?" He asked.

"Three days time."

"WHAT!?"

Izuku gulped as he approached the gates of UA, his whole body was shaking with nerves and he was sure he was leaving a trail of sweat as he walked. His school uniform felt tight around his body, despite his mother only buying it a few weeks earlier to accommodate his new muscle. His backpack felt like it weighed a ton even though it only had a notebook, his pencil case and gym clothes in it. His recommendation letter had long been crumpled on one end as he held it in an iron tight grip in his hand.

His mother had offered to take the train with him to the exam but he had refused. She couldn't coddle him if he got into UA and having her with him would only make him nervous. Well, more nervous than he already was. She had of course given him a teary goodbye and good luck, Auntie and Uncle had also given him tight hugs. Katsuki had only said that if Izuku failed today he was going to kill him, though the look in his eyes gave Izuku more motivation than anyone else could.

His nerves had steadily increased on the train journey to UA, it had only really hit him as he sat there reading his letter over and over again that he was about to take The Recommendation Exam. Who would have guessed he of all people would have been standing here with a recommendation from a top ten hero? Certainly not his current homeroom teacher who had needed a good ten minutes to recover from the shock of Izuku telling him he needed the day off for it. He had almost been tempted to hand over the name of his recommendation but he decided he didn't want to comatose his teacher.

His nerves only grew as he walked down the street to the entrance to the school. Though not because of UA itself, he had already seen and been in the school of course, but rather the other examaniess arriving. Because fuck almighty Izuku had never felt so out of place. The street was lined with limos and expensive cars, people dressed in clothes that looked to be worth a small house hugging their sons and daughters who all wore school uniforms from some of the best private schools in the country. The students all walked with such grace and elegance (some also with an air of superiority) and proudly handed over their letters to the teachers at the gate. Izuku swore he had even seen a private helicopter land within the grounds.

And there was the energy around him. Man, was he glad he and Yagi had visited LeBlanc a few more times since their first outing. Because Izuku was certain if they hadn't done so he would have lost control and taken half the quirks present already. The energy around him was like his own private fireworks display, some people had powerful unstable energy, one boy almost felt like he had a tornado surrounding him. Others had more subtle energy that could be missed at first glance but upon further inspection became more and more enticing to Izuku's hunger. It was spread all over his body and was pulsing with his heart but luckily due to his training Izuku was able to deal with it. Mostly.

He shook his head and tried to flush all thoughts of the other examinees away, right now he needed to focus on himself and pass this exam. He rolled his shoulders back and walked up to the gates with what he hoped was at least some semblance of confidence. A few of the students (and some adults) gave him mild looks of confusion and disgust, clearly realising he wasn't from Japan's elite like everyone else. He walked up to the gate and was greeted by the pro hero Midnight, he bit his cheek desperately to stop himself from fanboying out.

Midnight gave him a smile, "Ah hello, here for the recommendation exam?"

"Y-yes Ma'am." Izuku nodded and handed over the letter in his hand.

Midnight giggled at his stutter, "Nervous huh? Don't worry kiddo, I'm sure you'll be fine."

Izuku tried to give her a smile but he was certain it was more creepy than anything, "Thank you ma'am."

"Now lets see," Midnight said and started to read his letter, "Izuku Midoriya… from Aldera Junior High… you'll be in group two… recommendation came from-"

Midnight's jaw dropped open and her eyebrows rose up so high Izuku thought they may disappear off her head. The woman's eyes snapped from the letter to Izuku and then back again. Clearly Yagi had been right, getting a recommendation from All Might really would gain attention, even from other pro heroes.

Midnight quickly regained her professional composure however and gave Izuku a smirk, "Well, aren't you just the most curious little thing. Recommended by the big man himself huh? I'll be making sure to keep a close eye on you." She said and gave him a saucy wink.

Izuku blushed madly and started to stutter causing Midnight to laugh, "You'll need to work on that confidence though. Here you go, examinee number 100, head straight in and to the assembly hall."

Izuku didn't need to be told twice, he wiped his ID badge from her, gave a quick bow and practically sprinted to the building.

Finding his seat in the hall was fairly easy, being 100 meant he was in the very back right hand corner of the seating arrangement. It was obvious the assembly hall was designed for a lot more than 100 people as they all sat close to the front, just by the stage. He put his bag under his seat and sat trying to calm his nerves while observing the other examaniess (and their energy) take their seats.

Huh, was that the two-toned boy he'd seen at LeBlanc?

Eventually all 100 students took their seats, a few seemed to know each other and made small talk but a majority sat silently. Izuku himself was trying to calm his nerves by reading people's energy and trying to analyse their quirks based on what he could see.

The two side doors on the stage swung open and the teachers of UA filed out onto the stage, Izuku recognizing each pro hero with excitement. Some like Midnight and Present Mic had excitable faces on, chatting amongst themselves and pointing out a few students. Izuku lowered himself in his chair when he saw Midnight point at him and say something to make Present Miz trip slightly. Others like Aizawa had more serious looks and gazed intently out at the hero hopefuls. Principal Nedzu himself had a wide smile on his face as he approached the microphone at the centre of the stage.

"Greeting applicants! I am a bear? Am I a rat? Who knows, more importantly I'm the Principle of UA! It's a pleasure to welcome you all to this year's Recommendation Exam. As I'm sure you're all aware you all represent the best your generation has to offer."

Izuku noticed Aizawa hide what he assumed was a scowl behind his scarf at that comment.

"Some of you were recommended by the best schools around the country based on your grades and test scores, others are here to carry on a proud family legacy of heroics," Izuku swore he saw someone's energy in the assembly flare up at that, but there were too many quirks around to focus on it.

"There's also those of you who were recommended by industry leading figures who saw your potential as a hero, this includes those of you who were recommended by heroes themselves! I and my staff look forward to seeing what you can accomplish today in your efforts to prove these recommendations were not made in vain. On that note, while there is no requirement to keep recommendations a secret we ask that you respect your fellow examinees if they do not wish to divulge this information. Equally please understand that some of you will come from heroic families who's quicks have certain classified traits, please don't push anyone for this information. Anyone found ignoring these rules will fail the exam immediately."

Izuku gulped slightly at that, suddenly becoming aware of the calibre of students here. Quicks with classified elements were usually that way to protect heroes who used them or keep powerful villains from discovering the secrets of the quirk. Izuku should know, seeing as his entire quirk itself was classified, he wondered if even the teachers knew the full extent of what he could do.

Nedzu continued his speech, "Now as I'm sure you're all aware the day will consist of three separate sections, a written and practical exam and interview with yours truly. You have been split into three separate groups to spread you out throughout the day. Group one will complete their practical, then have the interviews and finish off with their written exam. Group two will start with written, move onto the practical and then have their own interviews. Finally group three will start with the interview, then written and of course finally your practical. If you're unsure of your group please see a teacher after this assembly."

Izuku supposed it could be worse, being in group two at least he would get the written exam out of the way, though he wasn't looking forward to finishing off the day with a grilling from Nedzu.

"There will be a rest after each event and time between the first and second event to eat a lunch provided by ourselves. Now, are there any questions? Yes, examinee number 23?"

A girl a few rows in front of Izuku stood up, she was wearing a black skirt and blazer trimmed with gold. Her hair was in a pony table and her looks could easily be summarised by a few of the staring boys who were actively drooling. Her energy was also interesting, it shone brightly, almost as bright at All Might but was spread throughout her body.

"Thank you Principal, in regards to the written exam, how much time do we have and is there a word limit on our answers?"

"You will have three hours to complete the exam, there is no word limit and we have plenty of paper to write as much as you like, however I must warn you that quirks are strictly forbidden for the written test. Once again anyone caught out will fail immediately. Yes, examinee number 41."

A boy practically on the other end of the seating arrangement to Izuku stood up, yet even at that distance Izuku's eyes widened at how tall the boy was. He had a buzz cut of dark hair on his head and had an intense look in his eyes. He likely even towered above Katsuki. His energy was violent, like a tornado than encompassed his whole body

"I am most honoured to be here, Principal!" The boy shouted before bowing so quickly and so low Izuku thought he may have broken his back but he soon stood straight again, "For my question; are we allowed to know the parameters of the practical test before taking part?"

Nedzu nodded at the boy, "Of course! The practical assessment will consist of an obstacle course race against the fellow examinees in your group, your goal is to reach the finish line in as little time as possible. All supervised by teachers of course."

Izuku immediately picked up on that wording, Nedzu hadn't said the goal was to win, merely complete the course. This of course meant that a win wasn't guaranteed admission. He knew from speaking with Aizawa that the goal wasn't necessarily just to beat your opponents, however it was definitely an element. The real test was your time. But of course the unmentioned rule was that your time was only good or bad compared to the average. They were here to prove they could be heroes. And what better way to secure a high time than to push everyone else down? It was cruel but it would be effective. It was exactly something Izuku would imagine Aizawa thinking of.

The issue of course was just how much they were allowed to use their quirks. Obviously he didn't want to seriously hurt anyone but Izuku didn't want to be caught out by using his quirk in a way that wasn't allowed. Especially for a quirk like his which he had a complex relationship with to say the least. Somehow he needed to gain more information on how best to use his quirk, he already had a plan in mind but it was one that could easily get him disqualified. Maybe if he tried to ask Aizawa quietly or text Yagi when he had a chance he could-

"Yes, examinee number 100?"

Huh?

Izuku looked up from where he had been quietly mumbling and found a gloved hand in the air. His own right arm had betrayed him and risen to ask a question without his consent. His lack of feeling in the arm meant he didn't even notice. He now had over 100 sets of eyes looking at him expectantly.

He nodded in thanks and rose in his seat nervously, "Y-yes thank-thank you sir. I was uh… I was just w-wondering. Is-is there a limit o-on quirk usage during the uh practical section of the exam?"

Nedzu clapped happily, "Of course not! You are here to prove yourselves, you will be allowed to use your quirk however you see fit. Now any other-"

Izuku cleared his throat and interrupted The Principle, much to the shock of the assembled students and some of the teachers. Nedzu however actually looked excited at the interruption.

"I'm s-sorry sir. But it's really important that I understand c-correctly. You're telling me there is absolutely no limit on what we do with our quirks and nothing we do with them will get us disqualified?"

Nedzu paused for a moment and Izuku thought he saw the glint of something in the rat's eye.

"You are correct number 100, bar setting out to seriously maim your other examinees on purpose, you may do anything you wish with your quirk. We have Recovery Girl on standby for any serious inquiries and our own Eraserhead will be overseeing the practical should things get really out of hand."

Izuku nodded his thanks and finally sat back down, a few of the students around him held their curious gazes for a few moments longer before turning their attention back to the stage. The questions continued for another ten minutes. There were some obvious ones like asking when they'd get their results, how many students would be admitted and how long the individual interviews would take. Other questions definitely showed the type of crowd Izuku was in, could their personal chef bring their lunch, could they use their pre-made hero costumes for the exam and if UA provided private study rooms for those who were willing to pay.

Throughout it all Izuku only paid half attention, his mind piercing together his plan for the practical. There was of course no way he would steal the quirks of other examinees. He couldn't quite bring himself to do that yet. But Nedzu had assured him no matter what he did he wouldn't be disqualified. He just needed to make sure he positioned himself right for the start of the race in regards to his range.

It Made sense they would have Aizawa watching over the physical, if anyone lost control of their quirk he could just erase it.

Of course that was assuming Aizawa still had his quirk.

The growl of his stomach indicated to Izuku that he needed to eat and he strongly agreed. He was glad he had taken Aizawa's advice and done some last minute cramming for the written exam because quite frankly it was the hardest thing he had even done. He was certain at one point his brain had started leaking from his ears. His left hand had cramped up towards the end and he just hoped whoever was marking his paper could make out the scrawls he made when using his right.

Luckily however they had now finished the exam and he and the rest of group two were trudging towards the lunch hall. Everyone looked as exhausted as he felt, well except for the ponytail girl who had asked the first question, she looked ecstatic and Izuku could hear her complimenting how wonderfully challenging the test had been. Izuku agreed, if by challenging she meant literal psychological torture.

A few of the examinees had started some conversions and Izuku found himself pulled into one.

"Hey 100, that was an odd ass question earlier. You got a quirk that's gonna kill us all or something?" One boy asked with a chuckle.

"Huh!?" Izuku asked with a panicked wave of his arms, "O-oh, no, I just wanted to clarify the rules."

Another girl laughed, "Sure. Hey, what school do you go to? I don't recognise that uniform from any private school in the area?"

Izuku blushed slightly, "I uh don't go to private school. We could never afford that."

The pair's eyes widened, "You don't!? How did a commoner get into a program like this? Surely UA's standards haven't dropped like this, the entrance exam is for people like you."

Izuku felt a flash of anger from him, "Actually the recommendation exam was created to help those with less physical quirks. It's just been manipulated by the rich and elite to act more as a stepping stone for those with wealth and power."

Somewhere in the school Aizawa sneezed.

The pair looked at Izuku with shock for a moment before sneers of disgust appeared on their faces, "Don't be ridiculous, who exactly did you bribe to get a recommendation from? Perhaps your a villain who-"

"Examinee numbers 12 and 78, at the start of the assembly I informed you not to mistreat your fellow students. Please return to the UA gate, you have both failed."

Nedzu's voice came through the intercom and caused the entire group to turn to the security camera which was focused on the pair talking to Izuku. Izuku himself tried to cower into the ground and avoid being seen by everyone, several of whom were staring right at him.

The girl looked at the camera with shocked eyes, "But- You can't do this! My parents are-"

"Nothing compared to the might of UA, now please leave before we are forced to escort you. You are now delaying the group, two of which have personal recommendations from two top ten heroes. I doubt they'd be pleased to hear you delayed their students' exam."

The pair blushed with embarrassment but turned on their heels and stormed back down the hall towards the exit. Izuku watched them go and sighed with relief, at least it seemed UA had a principle with some morals.

"Interesting, I wonder who the second top ten recommended is."

Izuku turned at the comment to find the two-toned boy standing next to him. He wasn't exactly sure if the boy had asked him the question as his eyes were focused on the retreating pair of examinees. However Izuku decided to attempt some conversation anyway.

"You were recommended by a top ten?" He asked.

The boy nodded but didn't turn to look at Izuku, "Yes, my father is Endeavour."

Well shit.

That was definitely not the answer he had been expecting. Endeavour was a curious hero for Izuku and Katsuki. He was aggressive, violent and held the record for property damage. But they couldn't deny he was powerful and he put away his fair share of villains.

"Oh." Was all Izuku said.

This time the boy did turn to him, "That's not the reaction most people have."

Izuku shrugged, "I'm not most people."

The boy paused and looked Izuku in the eyes for a few moments, "I see."

And with that he walked off.

Shaking off how weird that interaction had been, Izuku followed the boy into the lunch hall. Due to timings the groups were separated for lunch, something Izuku was glad of. Even with his better control of his quirk he still didn't like large crowds. He walked into the hall to find most of the students split into several small queues. It seemed UA had spared no expense, fine cuts of meat, soups and other luxuries could be seen as nearly everyone felt their mouths water. Izuku however was drawn to something in particular, something that not even the hunger of his quirk could compare to in his desire.

Katsudon.

Izuku quickly walked over to a large steaming pan, pleased there was no real queue. Once again he had to avoid mumbling a million questions at Lunch Rush who happily served him a bowl, pleased someone finally went for the Katsudon he had made. Izuku thanked the hero and easily found an empty table in the cafeteria, sitting down and going over his plan for the practical.

"Excuse me!"

Izuku jumped slightly at the interruption and looked up… and up… and up until he came face to face with the enthusiastic boy earlier who asked the second question. Izuku cowered slightly in the shadow of the boy who was staring at him with a solemn expression.

"Y-yes?" Izuku stuttered out.

Just like before the boy suddenly bowed low, so low in fact his head collided with the ground.

"I would like to apologise! Those two students from earlier go to my school and I would like to assure you that they do not represent all students from there! I for one am pleased to see the recommendation exams do not limit themselves to those of us with privileged backgrounds." Whether it was because his head was facing away from Izuku or he was just loud, the boy seemed to feel the need to shout every word.

Maybe Katsuki had a long lost brother.

"Oh no, I would never assume you were the same. But Thanks for apologising I guess." Izuku said a little awkwardly.

The boy once again straightened himself up and gave Izuku a smile that would rival even All Might and held out his hand, "My name is Inasa Yoarashi!"

'Ok Izuku, you prepped for this, you just have to be friendly, remember this isn't Kacchan and he isn't a bully.'

"I'm Izuku Midoriya, I'd shake your hand but my right hand is fucked."

Nailed it.

Yoarashi's smile faltered slightly at Izuku's words before he let out a bellowing laugh, "Fair enough Midoriya, may I join you for lunch?"

Izuku nodded his head, "Be my guest."

Yoarashi smiled and sat opposite Izuku, "So how did you find the written portion of the exam?"

Izuku sighed, "Harder than I expected and I had expected it to be impossible."

Yoarashi chuckled, "Yes I agree, I knew UA was the best obviously but I'm not sure anyone could be prepared for that."

Izuku nodded, "I spent at least a third of my time on the mathematics section, I eventually just settled for 567 on the last question."

Yoarashi's face paled, "567?"

Izuku nodded.

"Oh um, excuse me?"

Both boys turned to face the new voice, at the end of their table stood the ponytail girl from earlier. A slight blush on her face as she looked away nervously.

"I'm sorry, I overheard you both talking about the exam and well… I'm quite eager to discuss it but no one else seemed keen. Do you mind if I join you?"

Izuku shook his head, "Not at all, Yoarashi?"

"Of course not! I look forward to comparing our thoughts!" Yoarashi bellowed and Izuku was starting to think Katsuki had finally met his match in the loud department.

The girl smiled and took a seat next to Yoarashi, "Thank you, I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, it's a pleasure to meet you both."

"I'm Izuku Midoriya." Izuku responded with a smile.

"And I'm Inasa Yoarashi! I hope I'm not too forward but Yaoyorozu? Are you by chance related to the Yaoyorozu support company?"

Yaoyorozu smiled with a slight blush, "Yes, my father and Aunt own and run the company."

Yoarashi, "I thought so, they make all the support equipment for my Uncle."

"Your Uncle is a pro hero?" Izuku asked, the excitement in his voice was obvious.

"Ah yes. He's the pro hero Typhoon." Yoarashi said with pride.

"Wow! Typhoon is one of the best rescue heroes out there! Only The Wild Wild Pussycats consistently rank above him and they have four members. He's famous for using his ability to create air suction to control floods and other natural disasters." Izuku's eyes sparkled as he practically leaned across the table.

Yoarashi chuckled a little, "I see you're a hero fan."

Izuku blushed immensely as Yaoyorozu giggled at him, "Sorry I uh… can get a bit excited sometimes."

Yoarashi merely grinned at him, "Don't apologise! I am proud of my Uncle and hope to continue in his work!"

"I assume he was your recommendation then?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Yes, I've trained him since I was young and decided to be a hero. He was kind enough to offer me the recommendation to UA. I'm guessing you were also recommended by your family?" Yoarashi asked and turned the tables attention to Yaoyorozu.

"Of sorts yes, technically the entire company recommended me as well as few other support companies," Izuku nearly choked on his food at that, here he was thinking a recommendation from All Might was impressive, "Though my family have always traditionally gone into support I decided to buck the trend and so here I am."

Both then turned to Izuku who coughed nervously, "Uh, it's probably best for me to keep the specifics of my recommendation on the down low. But I don't mind telling you it came from a pro hero who has been mentoring me, though not a family member like you Yoarashi."

"Of course, forgive us for prying," Yaoyorozu said before Yoarashi could snap the table in half with a bow, "Now about the exam, Midoriya you said you got 567 for the final mathematics question?"

Izuku nodded, "Once you carried it all over, yeah, that's what I came out with."

Yaoyorozu frowned, "Odd, I got 604 as my answer."

Yoarashi paled considerably at that, "604?"

Yaoyorozu nodded, "Yes, what about you Yoarashi, what did you get?"

Yoarashi gulped, "Uh… X?"

How To Kill The Principle of UA

Chapter Summary

Izuku faces both the physical assessment and his interview with Nedzu

There was a satisfying pop from Izuku's back as he completed one final stretch. Around him the rest of his group were completing similar exercises. He noticed a few people working their quirks and felt his hunger briefly flare up but he kept it under control. He blushed and had to look away when he saw Yaoyorozu in nothing more than a sports bra and bike shorts. He assumed she needed skin exposure to work for her quirk, much like Midnight. Yoarashi wore similar clothes to Izuku, a simple tank top and shorts. Now that he had his plan in mind Izuku was glad he hadn't gone with something heavier.

The examinees were currently standing by the start of the obstacle course, there was some damage left by the first group but it appeared to mostly be repaired. It was hard to judge what they would be facing as the dirt path of the track took a sharp right only a few metres from the starting line.

As the students stood nervously Izuku felt four energies approach, he turned to see the supervising teachers approaching, Aizawa, Present Mic, Midnight and Ectoplasm.

"What's up little listeners!?" Mic asked excitedly to which a few people responded with half hearted hellos.

Mic frowned and Midnight giggled, "Don't feel so bad Mic, this is the group who just sat the written exam. Though if you ask me they're the group who are going to put on the best performance~"

Midnight's eyes briefly snapped first to Endeavour's son (Shoto Todoroki, Izuku had been told) and then to Izuku himself, it made his skin twitch slightly.

Ectoplasm ignored Midnight and stepped forward, "The four of us will be overseeing the race, we'll keep an eye out for any serious injuries as well as watching your overall performance. Any questions?"

This time nobody raised their hands and Mic pulled out a starting gun, "Alright listeners, take your

starting positions!"

Most people took a casual walk up to the line. Izuku on the other hand all but sprinted to the right hand side of it, taking a spot right on the edge where the four teachers stood. The move caused a few curious glances his way and he noticed Aizawa giving him a critical eye.

"Sorry, I'm just excited." Izuku said and it was true, he was excited, because from this point all four teachers were comfortably within ten metres of him

Mic gave him a supportive thumbs up but Aizawa kept his eyes on Izuku, clearly suspecting something. Izuku made eye contact with him briefly and decided he may as well make sure his plan was ok before the race started.

With a pull he took Aizawa's quirk.

Aizawa's eyes widened briefly though whether it was from piercing together Izuku's plan or the fact his quirk had been taken Izuku couldn't say. However as Aizawa overcame the surprise Izuku could have sworn he saw a smirk play at the man's lips.

"Hey Mic," Aizawa said to his colleague, "Why don't I start the race this time?"

Mic practically dropped the starting gun in surprise, his jaw on the ground. It was a battle just to get Aizawa to attend these things, let alone get him to actively take part. Even Midnight and Ectoplasm were caught off guard.

"Uh, sure." Mic responded and passed the gun over.

Aizawa nodded his thanks and turned to the examinees, "Ok everyone, get into your starting positions."

Izuku smiled and crouched low, he wasn't sure if what Aizawa was doing was completely moral but he was hardly one to complain. Aizawa would make sure to keep the race going while Izuku prepared, it was rather convenient in the end. He knew he could comfortably hold four quirks.

And there were four teachers.

"Get ready." Aizawa said as he held the gun up.

Izuku pulled at Midnight's energy first. He had noticed it when he first arrived, her energy looked similar to her gas, except it was a darker shade and seemed to be thicker. It floated within her whole body almost like she was a balloon someone had filled up. The quirk put up a slight fight as Izuku pulled on it but the energy quickly flowed from Midnight into himself. Midnight went very pale the moment her quirk left her, she froze completely and looked down at her hands, clearly in shock.

"Three."

Next Izuku targeted Present Mic. His energy was similar to Aizawa's, it flowed upwards from his chest to his throat and mouth but unlike Aizawa's more firm lines of energy vibrated upwards almost moving in sync like shockwaves. Mic had a more visible reaction to having his quirk taken and winced slightly, he opened mouth to speak but he was cut off when his energy was taken by Izuku.

"Two."

Finally Izuku latched onto the energy of Ectoplasm. Out of the four he had the most unusual, it contained what looked like pockets of gas connected by strands of energy throughout his body. It also put up the most fight, but compared to Gran Torino it was still relatively easy for Izuku to take. The four quirks sat in his body, it gave him a warm feeling like he had just eaten a large meal. Ectoplasm seemed to panic, his eyes widening as he turned to Aizawa, but it was too late.

"One." Aizawa said and let off the shooting gun.

The entire group of examinees surged forward. Or at least they would have if not for the fact the moment Aizawa let off the gun Izuku used everything he had to force out Midnight's quirk. Luckily most emitter quirks worked the same way and all he had to do was focus on the energy and expel it from his body.

The gas poured from Izuku's skin, unlike Midnights his was a thick green and looked far more toxic than alluring. He didn't wait to see if it worked as he sprinted down the dirt track. However based on the various thuds he heard behind him and the shocked cry of Present Mic he assumed it had worked. Keeping a steady stream of gas spewing from his body, Izuku skidded round the first

corner.

Squelch!

He almost fell flat on his face as his foot made contact with the damp moss beneath him. Having turned a corner Izuku could see their first obstacle. To put it simply it was a swamp, water was everywhere and there were mounds of mossy covered soil. Annoyingly there were no trees or upper pathways Izuku could take to avoid the swamp altogether. Which meant he had no choice but to plough straight through.

He would have to buy Yagi a present for making him run along that beach over and over again. Though not identical to the moist swampy landscape he was in currently, running on all that sand made it far easier to stumble his way through the swamp at a reasonable speed. By the time he made it across where the dirt path picked back up his shoes were soaked through. But as far as he could tell he was still in the lead.

However as he picked up the pace down the dirt path he felt someone's energy appear right next to him. Glancing to his right Izuku saw that it was Yaoyorozu, she had somehow managed to get hold of a gas mask and was wearing it over her face to avoid the green gas Izuku was still pushing out of his body.

But that was nothing compared to fucking bike she was on.

Izuku assumed this all had to do with her quirk but he didn't have time to think about it. Yaoyorozu was quickly getting ahead of him and he could feel the energy of others approaching the end of the swamp. He stopped expelling the sleeping gas from Midnight's quirk, no need to use up the effort when it had already served it's main purpose.

He saw Yaoyorozu skip to a halt up ahead and he wondered if something had gone wrong as she got off her bike and ran to the right, throwing her gas mask on the ground. It was only when Izuku skidded round the corner he realised why.

They had gone from one extreme to another it seemed, instead of a swamp in front of him this time Izuku was faced with a towering forest. The forest was far thicker and the trees far higher than the one he and Katsuki had trained in. Up ahead he could see Yaoyorozu making a path in the foliage with a machete, presumably it came from the same mysterious place as the bike and mask.

Izuku couldn't help but smirk, getting through a forest? It was hardly a challenge for him. He charged forward. There was one issue though, he would move best within the branches of the trees, but getting up there would be difficult. There was no way one jump would do it and while he could climb up that would cost him a lot of time. Realistically he needed someone to give him a boost.

Oh right, Ectoplasm.

As he approached the forest Izuku zoned in on one of the trees. Meanwhile he grabbed onto Ectoplasm's quirk and manipulated the energy. It felt odd, rather than using the entire stream of energy Izuku latched onto one of the gas balls floating in his body and forced it out through his mouth. The mist of the quirk was blown out from his throat and in front of him.

A few moments later and there was a perfect clone of Izuku, clothes and all, running slightly ahead of him. As they approached the tree the clone swung round and knelt to the ground, clasping his hands together and holding out his palms. Izuku put one foot in the open palms and lifted the other onto his clone's shoulder.

He heard his clone grunt as they pushed him up with as much strength as they had. Izuku used his own legs to further propel himself up and he flew into the air. Reaching out he grabbed a low hanging branch and used it to swing himself up. Down below his clone turned back to mist and returned to Izuku, becoming a ball of energy within him once again.

Now up in the branches Izuku took a sigh of relief and smiled to himself. He quickly started to leap from branch to branch, making his way through the tree line. He wasn't sure what place he was in but based on the energy he could feel a large chunk of the group was still a fair ways behind him.

It didn't take long for him to clear the forest jumping down from the final tree and onto the ground below. Up ahead he could see the finish point for the course. Unfortunately between him and the finish line there were two final blaring obstacles. The first being a raging set of rapids he needed to cross and just beyond that a deep cavern that he was sure was so deep he wouldn't be able to see the bottom.

He could see Yaoyorozu within the river, she was using some kind of grappling hook to pull herself across and had made it about halfway. But she looked like she was struggling, the rapids were merciless and were pounding away at her, her face scrunched up in pain as she pulled herself along.

Izuku scanned the river, there was no way he was going to attempt to head straight through, even with four quirks he had nothing he could use to stop himself being swept away. Looking upstream

he could see calmer waters but again heading up that way would cost him valuable time. He could however see several rocks and boulders sitting in the river, the tops of a few protruding out of the water. Izuku gulped, he didn't have a choice.

Bracing himself he crouched low and took aim at the first boulder. With a running start he jumped into the air and landed on said rock. The moment his feet made contact he felt them sweep out from under him. He toppled forward and managed to grab hold of the edge of the rock at the last minute, landing harshly on top. He could feel the water from the river whip up and quickly soak him through.

Taking a breath to steady himself he eyed the next boulder in his path. Pushing up with his feet he flew across the rapids below and landed again with a sharp thud. His feet slipped and he almost fell into the raging river but was able to haul himself up, by this point his clothes were pretty soaked. Izuku observed the path ahead, if he did it right he would get across with just another two jumps.

A scream tore his attention away from the rocks. Snapping his head to his left he saw Yaoyorozu being swept away by the current, her face full of sheer panic. The grappling hook she had been using apparently hadn't been able to take the weight and had snapped, one end of it flying through air.

Izuku moved without thinking.

On instinct he pushed off from the rock he was perched on, eyes trained on the snapped end of the rope. He snatched it out of the air with his left hand while his right reached out. He grunted and cried out in pain as he landed in the water, his left hand wrapped around the rope and his right now gripping the rock he had originally been planning to jump to. His arms were stretched in a T pose as he grit his teeth, feeling the pull of the rapids on his shoulders.

Looking down he saw Yaoyorozu still gripping onto the rope for dear life, she was looking back at him with wide panicked eyes.

"M-Midoriya!"

"Just hold on Yaoyorozu!" Izuku cried and grit his teeth as he felt the force of the water strain his muscles.

As he looked down stream he saw the forest collapse slightly, shards of ice tearing apart the trees.

To his utter relief Todoroki came charging through, his body coated in a thin layer of frost. The boy paused and took a quick look at the river in front of him.

"Todoroki!" Izuku called, "We need help!"

Todoroki didn't even glance in their direction. He paused to catch his breath before stepping forward and shooting out a wave of ice behind him, easily clearing the rapids and leaving the pair behind. Yaoyorozu stared in horror as the boy took off while Izuku scowled.

"TODOROKI!" He roared, his cry driven largely by the pain in his body.

He gripped harder, the rope slowly running through his left hand giving him painful burns. He couldn't even feel what was happening with his right hand. His entire body felt like it was going to be torn in half from the force. Just as Izuku was beginning to panic he felt a rush of air next to him and was suddenly aware of someone's energy.

"Midoriya!" Yoarashi cried, he was currently floating on what appeared to be a tornado next to Izuku, the water below him whipping up in all directions.

"Keep hold of the rope! I've got you!" He cried and wrapped an arm around Izuku who released his hold on the rock.

Yoarashi grunted as he took Izuku's full weight, luckily despite his training Izuku was still small compared to larger boyi. Izuku grabbed the rope with both hands while Yoayorozu grit her teeth and kept hold at the other end.

Using his quirk Yoarashi pulled Izuku through the air, Yoayorozu being dragged along through the river. The boys collapsed on the bank across the other end and Izuku dug his feet into the ground, pulling hard on the rope.

Yoarashi dove forward grabbing the rope also and together boys slowly pulled Yaoyorozu to the shore line. She hauled herself out of the river and all three collapsed onto the ground panting.

"Are you both ok?" Yoarashi said as he helped Yaoyorozu to her feet.

"I-I think so… Thank you both. I clearly didn't create the rope with enough tensile strength." Yaoyoroze had an embarrassed blush on her face as she apologised.

Izuke waved her off, though he wasn't sure what she meant by created, "It's fine Yaoyorozu, you couldn't have known. At least most of the group is still behind us."

Indeed the rest of the group were starting to break out of the forest and arrive at the river. It looked like most didn't have any quirks that would work well in the situation however and were struggling to cross.

"Todoroki is storming ahead however." Yoarashi said, looking over at the canyon, the final obstacle, where Todoroki stood on the edge slowly forming an ice bridge to cross.

"I-I can't believe he just left us." Yaoyorozu said with a quiver in her voice, it looked like she was in mild shock.

"He what!?" Yoarashi cried in outrage.

"It doesn't matter right now, we need to focus on completing the course. This is still a race after all." Izuku was pushing his own anger down at the boy but there was nothing he could do right now.

Yaoyorozu and Yaorashi looked at each other before nodding at Izuku, "Right," they said in unison.

There was a gust of wind and before Izuku realised it the pair had rushed ahead of him, heading straight for the canyon. Izuku cursed under his breath and started to follow, trying to calculate a plan in his mind to cross the obstacle. Todoroki had almost completed his ice bridge while Yoayorozu' stomach was glowing, a large pole slowly growing out of it. Yoarashi simply flew straight over the gap. If Izuku didn't do something they were going to leave him in the dust.

His thoughts ran a million miles an hour and he was sure he was mumbling out loud as his mind raced. He had pages of notes on all four quirks he currently had, there had to be something he could do. Aizawa and Midnights quirks were pretty much useless for it and he didn't think a clone would get him across nor was the range of spewing them out great enough to get over the crevasse. That left him with Present Mic's quirk but how could a soundwave quirk help him? Sure it was powerful, Present Mic famously needed to hold a certain pose while using it due to the force of-

Wait.

Could that really work? Was Izuku really that crazy enough to try it?

Of course he fucking was.

Izuku skidded to a halt just before the canyon, Yoarashi and Yaoyorozu had already crossed and Todoroki was moments away from completing his bridge. Spinning on his feet Izuku faced back towards the river, there were a few other examinees attempting to cross now, some gave him an odd look as he faced them.

Izuku bent his legs low while feeling the energy of Mic's quirk, just like Aizawa's he realised he needed to force it out. He pushed off the ground hard, jumping into the air and let Mic's quirk rip through his throat.

The soundwaves instantly roared out, several examinees (both completing the physical exam and across the entire school) jumped at the sudden noise. Even Todoroki's head whipped round to Izuku. The sound waves slammed into the dirt, cracking it and blowing it in all directions. Izuku himself was sent through the air by the force, launching himself over the canyon. Unfortunately for Todoroki the shockwave proved too great for his ice as the bridge collapsed.

Izuku's flight over the crevasse was hardly majestic, he twisted and turned awkwardly in the air as he made sure that the soundwave always faced the right direction. When he was sure he had gone far enough he shut his mouth and turned off the quirk. He crashed into the dirt below, rolling painfully on the ground and gaining a mouth full of dust.

Izuku coughed and scrambled back to his feet, he had made it across but Yaoyorozu and Yoarashi were still in front and quickly approaching the finish line. Izuku put everything he had into his legs and pursued them. But while he was slowly gaining on Yaoyorozu it was clear with his quirk Yoarashi would leave them in the dust. Literally. And Izuku had decided he no longer wanted to just do well, he wanted to win.

"Sorry Yoarashi." He said to himself before activating Aizawa's quirk.

Yoarashi's wind vanished in an instant and the boy yelped as he tumbled to the ground. Izuku kept his eyes on the shocked boy for as long as he could. To his credit Yoarashi only paused in shock

briefly before he started a far more traditional sprint to the finish line. However it was clear he just wasn't built for running as well as Izuku and Yoayorozu who both quickly passed him.

Izuku clenched his fists as he desperately tried to catch Yoayorozu but it was obvious at this stage she would hit the finish line before he could pass her. By the looks of things she wasn't actively using her quirk so he couldn't cancel it out. In a last ditch effort he threw Midnight's quirk out, trying to throw it forward as green gas filled the area.

But Yoayorozu wouldn't be fooled twice and before the gas could take effect her hand glowed and she pulled out a mask, covering her mouth. Izuku cursed, she would finish before the gas got through that. Maybe- yes!

If he used Ectoplasm's quirk he could throw a clone forward who would be able to pass Yaoyorozu. He wasn't sure if it would count but it was worth a try. He latched onto one of the energy orbs from Ectoplasm and pushed it forward. What he hadn't realised was that he was still using Midnight's quirk.

The orb of energy shot forward but rather than having mist spew from his mouth Izuku watched up ahead as the gas from Midnight's quirk started to move. It drew itself into one location, solidifying and morphing into a figure. As the gas further solidified the figure grew skin, their eyes shone a bright emerald and their hair stuck up in green spikes.

Izuku's clone fell from the sky and landed right over the finish line.

The scoreboard to their right bleeped as Izuku's name appeared across the top. Moments later Yaoyorozu crossed the line, followed by the original Izuku who starred as his clone with a mild amount of shock. He didn't think too hard however before he saw the four teachers staring at him, three with slight fear and the forth with a look of expectation. Izuku gave Aizawa a sheepish grin and let the four quirks he was holding onto drift back to their owners.

A commotion caused him to turn back to the race. It appeared Todoroki had finally managed to cross the canyon and was heading straight to the finish line. But Yoarashi was hot on his tail, having finally figured out he hadn't lost his quirk permanently and was picking up dust as he pushed it to its limits. Izuku had to admit it was exciting watching two people with such powerful quirks go head to head. Eventually however Yoarashi squeezed out in front at the last minute, the scoreboard bleeped twice, showing their places in the third and forth under Izuku and Yoayorozu.

1st Izuku Midoriya: 06:32:12s

2nd Momo Yaoyorozu: 06:33:40s

3rd Inasa Yoarashi: 07:09:24s

4th Shoto Todoroki: 07:09:25s

Yoarashi turned to Todoroki with a wide smile, "Woah! That was incredibly close there at the end! Who knew the battle for third would be so intense! Should we both get in, I look forward to several rematches!"

Todoroki didn't even look at him and Izuku shivered slightly at the coldness in the boy's eyes, "We are both failures, but I will be the top overall, you all just stand in my way."

Yoarashi's smile vanished and the boy looked both angry and outraged, before he could respond Todoroki turned and marched to the changing rooms. Izuku frowned at the interaction but quickly smiled and ran over to Yoarashi.

"Yoarashi," he called, "That was amazing! I guessed you had a wind quirk but I didn't expect it to be so powerful!"

Yoarashi jumped slightly but his smile soon returned to his face, "Whirlwind is truly a fantastic quirk to be gifted with! Yet I still only came third, truly the standard of UA is phenomenal!"

"Your quirk control is amazing too, I mean you used it to fly!" Izuku said excitedly.

"I wouldn't call it flying, it's more that I can hover over the ground. It was pretty useless in the forest." Yoarashi said with a shrug.

"Still, it's a credit to how hard you've worked!" Yoarashi beamed at the compliment, "You too Yaoyorozu, I couldn't quite figure out what your quirk is though," Izuku said as the girl walked up to the two boys.

She smiled at them both, "Thank you, my quirk is called Creation. So long as I know the molecular structure of something I can create it."

Izuku's jaw dropped, "That's… that's got to be the most powerful quirk I've heard of. I mean, what are its limits?"

Yoayorozu gave him an awkward smile, "I'm afraid the specifics of my quirk, including its limitations, are classified with the HPSC."

Izuku waved his arms in front of him, "Of course, my apologies for asking."

Yoayorozu just shrugged, "No harm done."

Yoarashi chuckled, "I can't believe we're here discussing our quirks when the real topic is your quirk Midoriya. I swear I saw you use several of them, I can't even begin to work out what it is."

Yoayorozu nodded her head, "I too am curious, I assumed you had a quirk like Midnights but then you used something akin to Present Mic."

Izuku froze and gulped nervously, "Uh… I'm afraid my quirk is also classified under the HPSC."

Yaoyorozu gave him a kind smile, "That's ok, you can just tell us the declassified elements."

Izuku scratched the back of his neck, "Ah no, sorry I mean my entire quirk is classified."

Izuku was sure Yoayorozu was about to faint while Yoarashi spluttered in surprise. Both giving him wide eyes of awe, it made Izuku slightly uncomfortable to be honest. Before anyone could say anything more Izuku cried out as a wooden cane hit the back of his head.

"Idiot teenager, when were you going to see me about that!?" Recovery Girl all but shouted, pointing at Izuku's right hand.

"Huh?"

Izuku looked down and winced, his right hand was twisted in completely the wrong direction, his wrist clearly broken while thick drops of blood were landing on the floor, his glove torn to shreds.

"M-Midoriya!" Yoayorozu screeched, "How are you resisting all that pain?"

Izuku gave her a toothy smile, "It's fine, I haven't felt anything in my right hand since I was seven."

"WHAT!?" Yoarashi cried.

Recovery Girl sighed, "If you and your brother get in I'm demanding a raise.

Izuku was uncomfortable, his whole body ached despite the warm shower he had after the physical assessment. Putting on his school uniform again had felt like crawling into a coffin. He wanted nothing more than to fall into bed. But he still had one last element of the exam to go, the interview with Nedzu. He sat in the waiting room outside the principal's office as the students were called in one by one. If he had thought this part of the test would be easy he was quickly being proven wrong. Several people had walked out of the office sickly green, one examinee had even been sobbing. It didn't even look like Nedzu was picking people in any order, he just came out and shouted a random name.

Over half of the group had already left and Izuku was growing more nervous. He had to stop himself from tearing his notebook in half several times. Izuku had decided to lean into his more academic side and bring in a quirk analysis notebook for his talking point. Of course he hadn't brought in just any old book, he had spent the past three days putting together an overall summary of his others, using points and an index to create an incredibly professional looking book.

He couldn't help but look at what everyone else had brought, a few had what looked like priceless family heirlooms while others had brought entire bags of items. Todoroki had surprised him slightly and brought a flower he didn't recognize while Yoarashi was tightly holding onto some kind of book.

Izuku frowned when he glanced at Yaoyorozu, "Have you got your talking point Yaoyorozu?"

Yaoyorozu gasped, "Oh my! Thank you Midoriya. I can't believe I forgot to prepare."

Izuku's face burst into red as the girl lifted her shirt, showing her tight stomach. He watched as he stomach glowed and she pulled out-

"Is that a gold bar?!" Yoarashi whispered, though it was still louder than Izuku's indoor voice.

Yaoyorozu smiled as she adjusted her shirt, "Only coated, it's iron inside. Technically I could use my quirk to create endless supplies of money, but doing so would destabilise the economy and so I thought it would be a good discussion topic."

Izuku wasn't completely sure about that, even if she could, he doubted one person could destabilise an economy based on a population of over 100 million people, even with Yoayorozu's quirk. But he understood the concept and wouldn't argue.

"What about you two, what did you bring?" She asked the boys.

Izuku bit his lip, "I uh… I do quirk analysis as a hobby and brought in one of my notebooks. I figured I'd lean into it seeing as it's both relevant and a favourite pastime of mine."

Yaoyorozu giggled and covered her mouth, "No wonder you were so interested in our quirks."

Izuku blushed and scratched the back of his head, "Yeah I uh.. Had to restrain myself from adding to my notebook."

Yoarashi chuckled, "I'm not sure I made the right choice with mine hearing what you two brought in."

"What did you bring Yoarashi?" Yaoyorzu asked.

Yoarashi held up an old and tattered book, "It's an old book I used to read as a child. It's about a legend from England about King Arthur and Camelot. King Arthur was always a moral and just King in the story and it's his principles that inspired me to be a hero."

"That's not stupid at all, I think it's great you have a strong set of morals for being a hero." Izuku commented with a smile.

Before any of them could continue the office door swung open and Todoroki stepped out, it was difficult to tell if the interview had any effect on him as his face looked as blank as ever. Nedzu quickly appeared on the doorway behind him, a vicious smile on his face as he scanned the room.

"Inasa Yoarashi!"

"Wish me luck." Yoarashi said as he stood up while the other two nodded their heads.

Fifteen minutes later he stumbled out of the office, eyes wide and his book clutched to his chest like a long treasure. He didn't even acknowledge Izuku and Yaoyorozu as he escaped into the hallway. The pair glanced at each other and gulped.

"Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku's heart skipped a beat but his body moved on autopilot following the principle into his office. As he entered he noticed several screens replaying the key moments from his obstacle race. He was finally able to see how effective his first move had been, the gas had knocked everyone out but Yaoyorozu who had only survived because she was the opposite end of the starting line as him.

"Ah, I see you're admiring your handiwork."

Izuku's focus was pulled from the screens as he noticed Nedzu looking up at him with a smile from behind his desk. Izuku blushed and took his seat opposite the principal.

"Sorry Sir, I didn't get to see what happened at the start of the race."

"Oh I wasn't criticising! Observing your own work is a key element of how you improve, I must say though I was impressed with how effective your initial plan was, Midnight's quirk truly is powerful when used effectively." Nedzu said with a clap of his hands.

Izuku froze in his seat, "You uh…"

"Oh of course, my apologies Midoriya. I am in what Aizawa likes to call The Big Secret Club. I am fully aware of the details of your quirk as well as One For All." Nedzu explained and Izuku let out a sigh of relief before the principal gained a more serious expression, "I must warn you however even if you have been trained by All Might and your friend is his successor you have just as much chance of passing or failing today as everyone else here."

Izuku felt a weight lifted off his shoulders, "Oh thank you. I was so worried you were going to give me an automatic pass due to my quirk and connections. I'm glad I'm getting in on my own merits."

Nedzu blinked. It wasn't often he was surprised but they weren't five minutes in and Izuku had done it. Most of the examinees with recommendations of the calibre he had expected to walk in and be offered a spot there and then. It was refreshing to find someone who actually wanted to earn their spot.

"I'm pleased to hear it. Now would you like some tea?" Nedzu asked, a cup and teapot seemingly appearing from thin air.

"Oh, uh sure. Thanks." Izuku said and Nedzu looked genuinely thrilled at being taken up on the offer.

"I want to reassure you today that even if you fail you will automatically be entered into our entrance exam in two weeks. If your written test today has been up to standard you will only be required to take the practical section of the exam also. However, based on your performance today you are looking strong. If I might say, congratulations on your win in the practical section." Nedzu handed Izuku a steaming cup of tea and the boy was surprised to find it was quite delicious.

"Your use of the four quirks you took from my staff was impressive, especially considering that for three of them this was the first time you ever used them. Many people spend years gaining even a small amount of control of their quirk but you did it in a manner of minutes." Nedzu said with a glint in his eye as he sipped his own tea.

"Actually sir, it's quite easy to adapt to them. Most quirks work the same way, especially emitter quirks."

"Oh, is that so?" Nedzu said with a hint of excitement.

Izuku nodded, "Quirks appear as a type of energy to me, it's how I take them, I draw the energy into myself. Emitter quirks are quite simple from there, all I really need to do is expel the energy, the quirks automatically take the correct path out of the body and take on whatever effect they have."

"Fascinating. So the difference between Eraserhead and Present Mics' quirks…?"

"Eraserhead's energy I push through my eyes while Present Mic's I push through my throat, the energy automatically morphs into the quirk from there. I often theorised the reason I'm able to see quirks as energy is less to do with taking them and more to do with making it easier to use them when I do gain them." Izuku explained trying not to fall into a mumbling rant.

Nedzu nodded and stroked his chin in thought, "That would make sense, your quirk would be useless if you were unable to effectively use the quirks you gained. However, while we could spend all day discussing your quirk there are plenty of other questions I am curious about, first let's start with the obvious: Why UA?"

Izuku answered automatically, "Because it's the best hero school in the country."

Nedzu's smile faltered slightly though he hid it from Midoriya. It was a little disappointing, the boy had been steadily getting more interesting. But he had given the same old answer nearly every other examinee gave, they wanted to be here because it was the best. Nedzu was proud of that fact of course but it was a lazy answer to the question.

"Yes, well, we do have the best curriculum and alumni I suppose." He sighed.

Izuku's eyes widened, "Oh no, it's not that. I mean yes you do have both of those and of course you're the school All Might went to. But UA excels due to how flexible your heroics course is and how much freedom your teachers are given. Most hero schools and classes focus on different types of heroics. Tokyo Hero School for instance is all about strong emitter quirks while The Kyoto Recon school of course specialises on those with recon quirks. There's nothing wrong with having a specialty of course, there are great heroes who do. Miruko for example focuses on quick and strong attacks, overcoming her opponent before they can really fight back. It's a sound tactic but she doesn't have more than three supermoves and she's been caught out in long firefights before. UA alumni are far more flexible however, look at The Wild Wild Pussycats, while they may be a primarily rescue based team they are also effective in villain situations, this is largely due to them all being in the same UA class and learning how to adapt and rely on each other as a group in any situation.

"As you can imagine for someone who's whole concept is taking a variety of quirks I'll need to make sure my hero style is as flexible and adaptable as possible. Not only that but having a varied hero education will allow me to be a better hero and take on many different missions and patrol routes. There's also the fact you were the first school in the country to allow quirkless applicants which proves to me you really don't care about the actual quirk someone had and more their capabilities. Which uh… as you can imagine is a bit of an issue for me."

Nedzu was unable to hide the wide smile that graced his face at Izuku's explanation, he had clearly done more than some surface research into different hero schools and had clear reasons for his top choice. Though Nedzu suspected there was another reason he had chosen UA.

"Ah yes, your quirk is definitely one of the more complex facts about you. I noticed on your application you have a black mark."

Izuku sagged in his seat, "Will-Will that be a problem sir?"

"If it were a problem we wouldn't have allowed you to sit the exams," Nedzu waved off the concern, "However I can't imagine many hero schools were as lenient as we were."

Izuku looked down at his clenched hands in his lap, "Out of the 10 hero courses I applied for only two didn't immediately reject me and Shiketsu requested a review of my case if I pass their entrance exam."

Nedzi sighed, "Humans are such foolish creatures. Anyone with half a brain can see you had that mark assigned to you when you were seven and only a few days after your quirk diagnosis. It's obvious you had a prejudiced quirk doctor who labelled you unfairly. For all intents and purposes we will ignore that mark in regards to your application."

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you sir. And thank you for what you did earlier with those two other examinees. I'm uh.. Not used to people defending me, well, except Kacchan."

Nedzu tilted his head, "Is that why you want to be a hero? To defend people like you?"

"Partly. Of course I want to save and protect people from villains but I also want to be a symbol, I want to show the world that having a 'villainous quirk' doesn't mean anything and give hope to the people like me, the ones outcast from society, show them they can be like the other heroes." Izuku

explained with a quiet firmness in his voice.

Nedzu stroked his chin in thought, "It almost sounds like you take issue with our society?"

Izuku hesitated which Nedzu seemed to pick up on.

"Please Midoriya, I won't judge you for what you say here, I'd much rather you give me honest and blunt answers than waffle about what you think I want to hear." Nedzu assured him.

Izuku eyed the principle carefully for a moment, looking for any obvious signs of deceit. But when he couldn't find any he decided to just drop the bombshell.

"Then if I can be honest sir, the hero system and our society at large is in complete shambles, widely corrupt and has led to Japan as a whole becoming an elist and unequal society."

Nedzu almost dropped his tea at the confession, he had of course come across people who had issues with how heroes operated but he had never had someone show such disdain for hero society before. Especially not someone who wanted to join said society.

"If I may be so bold then, why become a hero at all?" He asked the student.

Izuku sighed, "Because being a hero should be about two things, saving people and giving people hope. But it's become an easy way for those with flashy and powerful quirks to gain money, fame and reputation. I read a news article four weeks ago, there was a villain robbing a store and a local hero arrived to intervene. No-one big, but they have a face for TV and have been steadily climbing the ranks. Turns out the store owner had a quirk that allowed him to throw out extended blood vessels like a whip while the robber could project light from their hands. The hero took one look at their quirks and beat the owner half to death, by the time anyone realised the truth the real villain was long gone."

Nedzu had gained a horrified expression while Izuku gave a bitter laugh, "The worst part is there wasn't even a lawsuit. The owner will never walk again yet because of their quirk and the influence of the hero no reasonable lawyer was willing to represent. And do you want to know what the hero said? They said they hoped the villain was found because with a quirk like theirs there was hope for rehabilitation."

"That is… rather disturbing." Internally Nedzu filed away the information for further investigation later on, "So you're hoping to change hero society from within?"

Izuku nodded, "There are already pressure groups out there but the issue is the HPSC tends to shut them down fairly quickly. It's frustrating but I don't blame them, allowing dozens of protesters onto the site of a villain battle is asking for trouble. But the HPSC would change if its heroes did, it might finally start to have more rigorous entry requirements and closer watch of those with licences. Maybe get rid of some of the fake heroes out there."

"An interesting goal, I can't help but ask then, what do you think of Endeavour?"

Izuku shrugged, "He's rude, arrogant and careless. He's powerful and knows it, throws villains around like their toys, destroying property in the process. He has a substantial hate group because of it, people say he's dangerous and like a wild animal, and from his interviews they may not be wrong. I also have some… suspicions about what he's like in private that don't paint him in a positive light."

Nedzu hummed to himself, "Yes, I also have my own suspicions about that. I do, however, sense a but?"

Izuku sighed, "Truth is despite all of that he's powerful and has excellent control of his quirk. All Might might be a better symbol but statistically Endeavour puts away more villains every year. Despite popular belief he actually doesn't have a high casualty rate compared to other heroes of a similar power level, he's fine tuned his quirk to make sure he doesn't harm bystanders. Sure he might destroy your home but he'll make sure you're out of it first. And as much as I hate to admit it, All Might can't be everywhere at once taking down every villain, sometimes there are villains whose power is so great we need someone like Endeavour."

"So you're saying he's a necessary evil?" Nedzu inquired as he poured himself another cup of tea.

"Not exactly," Izuku said thinking it over, "I wouldn't call Endeavour a real hero but I wouldn't call him a fake either it's more like he's a soldier. In his mindset the most important thing is taking down villains, sure he has a healthy ego to go with it but the reason he is a hero isn't corrupt in of itself. The issue is HPSC doesn't push back against him because he's their perfect soldier, he'll follow orders without question. But if the heroes around him questioned him more and made the public do the same things would have to change. Not to mention if other powerful heroes the HPSC relied on started pushing back."

Nedzu chuckled at him, "So not only do you want to be a true hero, you want to knock down the

number two and turn hero society on its head. That's quite the ambitious goal, you'd easily need to be a top ten hero to achieve them. For most people I'd almost say it was impossible."

Izuku bit his lip and looked away from the principle, "So you're saying I can't do it."

"I said most people Midoriya, you are not most people." Nedzu said with a smile at the boy, "Let's not beat around the bush, you have one of the most powerful quirks in existence, these goals are well within your reach."

"I suppose my quirk is impressive on paper." Izuku mumbled.

"Indeed, now let's discuss your quirk. I must say I'm impressed with the skill you showed during the practical assessment. I am aware of your general dislike of using your quirk so the fact you freely took my teachers' quirks and used them to your advantage indicates you've come a long way. Though I'm assuming you'd still be unwilling to use it on your fellow students?"

Izuku nodded and scratched the back of his neck, "I uh, know it's a problem, especially as I'll need to train my quirk once here but…"

Nedzu gave him a warm smile, "Midoriya I would not expect you to have complete dominance of your quirk just yet. That is what we are here for, many of the students who arrive here barely have control of their quirks. The fact you have been able to go from completely terrified of your quirk to actively using it on teachers you just met is a credit to your dedication to being a hero."

"Thank you sir." Izuku said, trying to hold back his famous tears.

"Now I do have one other concern, as it stands you've mostly used your quirk as an advanced form of a copy quirk and while effective this doesn't utilise the full potential of what you can do."

"Is there something wrong with copy quirks sir?" Izuku asked with a frown.

"Not at all!" Nedzu replied with a chipper smile, "Just yesterday I was reading over an applicant for the general exam who processes one, they are impressive and versatile quirks. However unlike your own quirk they normally have a time limit of just a few minutes and can only hold a handful of quirks at a time, using their basic effect. You on the other hand are able to keep the quirk permanently, wield its more advanced versions with skill and can hold an indefinite amount. So

I'm curious, do you plan to continue using your quirk purely as a copy quirk?"

Izuku shook his head, "No, even if I wanted to, it's actually more ineffective as a copy quirk. I can't replicate a quirk, I take it completely, it's hardly something I can frequently use on allies."

"In which case my next question would be how do you plan to gain your own stockpile of quirks?"

Gran Torino had asked the same question a few days into their training, Izuku's answer had surprised him as much as it was about to surprise Nedzu.

"Well the obvious answer would be volunteers but this has several problems. First of all I've discovered no-one likes having their quirk taken, even if they hate the quirk itself it's like losing a part of you," He held up his gloved right hand, "When I was seven I lost all feeling in my hand, you could take my pinkie and I wouldn't feel anything. But I'd still miss it, I still don't want you to take it. My brother suggested I take the quirks of people on their deathbeds but quite frankly that feels completely weird and immoral, it would be like harvesting someone's organs before they've gone. Not to mention most quirks aren't actually that strong, stocking up quirks that allow me to see an extra colour would be pretty pointless."

Nedzu gave a slight shiver, flashes of his cage back in his early days flashing into his mind.

"Yes, that is quite the image. So if not volunteers then how?"

Izuku smirked slightly, "Villains."

Nedzu tilted his head, "Villains?"

Izuku nodded, "Yes, the most efficient way in a villain encounter for me to take them down would be to take their quirk. And then I just… keep it."

Nedzu blinked several times, "Surely that's illegal?"

"Actually it's not, at least not technically," Izuku had never been more pleased his mother was a lawyer, they had gone over dozens of documents in the past few weeks proving all this, "You see

the law is fairly lenient when it comes to heroes, once someone commits a crime and is classed as a villain licensed heroes are able to use whatever means they deem necessary to deal with them. Except this permission never officially ends, there was a case a few years ago of someone being attacked accidentally by a hero. They tried to sue but because twenty years before they had robbed a store the permission for heroes to use their quirks on them was still technically allowed."

Nedzu frowned, "The law hasn't been rewritten to close that loophole in all these years?"

Izuku shook his head, "The issue is the HPSC always pushes back due how psych quirks work. Take Ms. Joke for instance, her quirk has been known to last for days at a time and she doesn't have the ability to turn it off. Without that loophole it leaves her open to lawsuits every time she takes down a villain."

Nedzu nodded his head, seemingly thinking it over, "How interesting, under a hero licence you would have permission to use your quirk freely on a villain, which technically means taking theirs. And with this loophole you would be under no obligation to return it. It's a sound tactic, however the chances are the more you do this and the more you rise in the ranks it's likely there will be calls to close this loophole, even from other heroes."

"True," Izuku admitted, "But generally hero laws are controlled by the HPSC, so as long as I stay in their good books they should make sure any changes protect my ability to stockpile quirks."

Nedzu hummed, "A good point, but just being a strong hero may not be enough."

"Oh I'm well aware. I'm also aware that the HPSC has been hounded for the past few years about costs, Tartarus alone cost over 100 Billion Yen last year. Running a prison where each individual cell has to be designed to contain someone with a unique quirk isn't cheap."

Nedzu seemed to realise what he was getting at, "But if they didn't have a quirk to contain…"

"Then most of them could be put in standard prisons, saving millions while I hold onto the quirk for free. It might not work for the weaker villains or the ones who only have short sentences but most of Tartarus have life sentences anyway." Izuku said with a slightly smug grin.

Nedzu gave him a toothy smile, "Ingenious, you keep the HPSC costs down and in return gain your own stockpile of quirks. Meanwhile if the public or other heroes do push back against it the hero commission could easily fight back by saying you holding onto their quirks eradicates the risk

of them ever breaking out. I don't say this often Midoriya and especially not during a recommendation interview but I'm impressed."

Izuku blushed, "Thank you sir."

"Now then!" Nedzu chirped and clapped his hands together, "I think it's about time we move onto your talking point. I'm curious as to what you brought."

Izuku pushed his notebook across the desk, "I uh… I like to analyse quirks as a hobby and I thought I'd bring in one of my notebooks to show you."

"One?" Nedzu asked with a raised eyebrow as he took the book.

"There are uh… several volumes… the first were in crayon." Izuku admitted, slightly embarrassed.

Nedzu chuckled as he looked down at the book, "Now lets see what we have here, Quirk Analysis for The Future: Attack Plans and Counter Information."

Izuku's whole body stopped working for a moment. He'd brought in the wrong notebook. He must have just grabbed the book on top of the pile without looking at the title. That wouldn't be so bad if it was one of his recent volumes but this was the worst notebook he could've grabbed. Attack Plans were full of notes on how to take down various heroes and villains and how to counter quirks. It was brutal, he hadn't written down just how to beat but how to crush them, seriously maim and in some cases even kill them. They were covered in notes by him and Katsuki about how to take down the greatest heroes of all time, there was even a page on All Might.

"Ned-Nedzu sir! I apologise but-"

"Please Midoriya," Nedzu said as he flicked through the pages, "I do not like to be disturbed while reading."

Izuku snapped his mouth shut and watched in horror as Nedzu flicked through the various pages, pausing to read some and completely skipping others. Izuku sat there, sweat building on his forehead as his heart nearly beat through his chest, his whole body ridged.

After what felt like hours, Nedzu flipped the book round, "Tell me, how confident are you of this theory?"

Izuku looked down to where Nedzu was pointing, it was his entry of Midnight.

… her gas would be least effective in humid environments, water based quirks would be the best method to attack her with. Also worth looking into if there is a chemical composition of her quirk, there may be a counter agent and the gas may even be flammable. If you are able to nullify her gas the best method is close quarters attacks, target the weak spots of her costume and go for the neck and eyes. Dispose of her quickly before she can gas you again.

Izuku gulped, "W-well… Obviously I-I'm not aware of the details of her q-quirk but… the humid theory should work regardless. And depending on the composition of her gas there will definitely be a counter agent out there."

Nedzu flipped the book back around and frowned, "I honestly hadn't considered that, I may need to amend our security protocol to account for that. I'm also not sure she even considered herself that her gas would have a chemical composition."

Izuku winced, "I'm sorry sir, I understand these notes are inappropriate."

Nedzu's head snapped up from the book, "Inappropriate? Midoriya these notes… Quite frankly they're brilliant. There are professional heroes who couldn't hope to replicate these kinds of tactics."

Izuku blinked several times, "You mean… you approve?"

Nedzu beamed at him, "Approve!? Midoriya these notes could help make you an incredible hero, you could break down a quirk in minutes, take it and use it effectively. Quite frankly I wish I had led with this, these notes are fascinating."

"I have to confess, they're not all mine, the book I meant to bring in only included writing from me. But some of those notes were made by my brother." izuku said and sighed with relief at not being kicked out immediately.

"I assume they are the ones done in red scrawl?" Nedzu asked.

Izuku nodded, "Yes, that's them."

"While not as impressive as yours they still show a keen mind. I look forward to seeing him take the entrance exam. I do notice however that I'm not here?" Nedzu said with a vicious smile.

Izuku shrugged, "I mainly write them while watching hero fights and you're more of a background investigator, most of your fights go unrecorded."

"Fair enough," Nedzu looked at him with a wide feral smile, his eyes gleaming, "In which case I'd like to hear how you'd take me down now."

Izuku paused and considered it for a moment, "Well your quirk is called High Specs, at its core it's an intelligence based quirk but it specialises in allowing you to predict patterns and events in a domino effect. Naturally the best option to take you down would be to lure you into a trap."

"The obvious choice but I would easily see any trap coming and counter it, assuming I even bothered to walk into it." Nedzu countered.

"True but as smart as you are you're famous for also loving a challenge, if it were someone like Sir Nighteye I imagine you couldn't resist." Izuku replied with a smirk.

Nedzu's smile only widened, "You make an excellent point, ok say you lure me into this trap, what's the plan?"

Izuku chuckled, "Who ever said I had a plan?"

Nedzu raised an eyebrow, "You're taking me on without a plan?"

Izuku nodded, "Any plan I could come up with you'd be easily able to counter. The key would be being unpredictable, I'd bring a team of course but I'd just grab whoever was available."

"So you'd make sure there was nothing for me to predict?" Nedzu said quickly, getting excited.

"I'm not an idiot, even running in with no plan you'd be able to predict some elements. How each individual moves, their supermoves and even how likely we are to work together as a team." Izuku confessed knowing that no matter how random you made something there were always patterns.

"Very true, while I might not be able to predict an overall plan I'd certainly be familiar with their basic moves and attacks. Easily able to counter them, which again puts you in a bind. Check." Nedzu said and leant back in his chair, the smugness radiating off him.

Midoriya only smirked back, leaning forward, he was in his element, "Oh I have no doubt you could predict their moves, but you're forgetting one thing."

"Oh? Am I?" Nedzu asked with an arrogant chuckle.

"Yes you are Principle, you've forgotten I don't just take quirks, I can transfer them." Izuku said and leant forward across the desk.

Nedzu's eyes widened and his smug smile fell, "You could swap their quirks out at will."

Izuku bared his teeth at the rat with a smile, "You might know how Endeavour uses his quirk, but who knows what Edgeshot would do with it. Or how Miruko would use Mt. Lady's gigantification. What did you say? Check."

Nedzu practically leaped forward, slamming his hands on the desk, "Even that can still be predicted, quirks are limited in their capabilities!"

"But even you would struggle to keep up with all the possibilities, especially if I were to keep swapping quirks out. Once we close in it'd be easy to overpower you." Izuku all but shouted back, at some point he had risen out of his seat.

"Hah!" Nedzu cried and pointed a finger at him, "You've made the same mistake all my enemies do, just because my specialty is intelligence does not mean I'm not a capable fighter! You'd be lucky to land a single hit on me with how slow humans are, not to mention my senses are far greater than yours!"

At this point the pair were all but leaning over the desk, giving each other vicious smiles.

"Ah but your senses can easily be a weakness, blinding lights and sound would disorient you while barely affecting the rest of us." Izuku said, his grin growing wider.

"You really think you would be able to effectively use anything like that on me!?" Nedzu was now fully standing on his desk cackling like a wild animal.

"Of course, you seem to have a weak spot for getting too excited, all I'd need to do is get you worked up and you'd be too distracted." Izuku's voice was laced with smugness.

Nedzu gave him narrowed eyes and a wide smirk, "And how exactly do you know this would work."

Izuku leant back in his chair and smiled at the ray, "Because halfway through this conversation I stole your quirk and you still haven't noticed."

Nedzu froze, his fur standing on end and the smile falling from his face. He suddenly became aware that the usual formulas and predictions that always ran in the back of his mind had stopped. He didn't rely on his quirk for basic intelligence but he was acutely aware of the difference suddenly.

Meanwhile Izuku sat back down in his chair, a cheshire grin stretched across his face and his hands clasped together. Oh he was absolutely going to look back at this later today and freak out about how he'd acted, but at the moment he couldn't help but be dragged into a battle of wits about quirk analysis.

"I believe that's checkmate sir." Izuku said and released Nedzu's quirk, the soft blue energy returning to the rat, sitting in an orb in his head.

Nedzu paused for a moment before falling back in his chair, letting out a laugh better suited to All Might in sheer volume.

"Oh my that was wonderful! Thank you Midoriya, I haven't had a vigorous debate like that in months. I'm starting to see why All Might speaks so highly of you and Mister Bakugou." Nedzu said as he calmed himself down.

Izuku blushed a little, "I'm glad you didn't freak out about my notes."

Nedzu tilted his head, "Why would I? When it's all said and done, being a hero is about winning fights, these notes and skills will be a great asset in that regard… I'm assuming you've had negative reactions before?"

Izuku looked away, "My teacher found my notebook once… he took me to the police station to get me arrested. He assumed I was analysing quirks to steal."

There was a long pause before Nedzu spoke, "Life has not been kind to you, has it Midoriya?"

Izuku felt tears form in his eyes, "Did you know I didn't touch my mother for a year after my quirk diagnosis? I was so terrified that I'd steal her quirk accidentally and she'd hate me for it. If I ever accidentally touched someone in class they were automatically sent to the nurses office and I was given detention, despite the fact I never once stole their quirk."

Nedzu didn't speak, he just watched Midoriya with a neutral expression as the boy turned back to him, a few tears falling down his face but a fire in his eyes.

"I know I've picked a hard path but I don't care who stands in my way. I will become a top hero and I will make sure that no one has to go through what I did again. I'll fight you, The HPSC and any hero I have to to prove it." By the end of his small speech Izuku was standing with clenched fists.

"Even if you have to do it alone?" Nedzu asked with a raised eyebrow.

Izuku smiled at him, "I haven't been alone since I was four years old, sir."

Nedzu paused before a wide smile spread across his face, "I'm sure. Well I'm pleased to say that you'll face no opposition from me. However I'm afraid our time is up. I want to thank you for a fascinating interview Midoriya, should you pass or fail today's exams, we will inform you in a week's time via letter."

Izuku bowed low, "Thank you for the opportunity to take today's exams sir, I appreciate there were

some strings pulled to allow me here."

Nedzu waved him off, "No thanks needed, it was quite worth it."

Chapter Title: REDACTED

Chapter Summary

It's time for The UA staff to decide on the who passed The Recommendation Exams

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku took a few deep breaths to calm himself down in the halls, today had been intense to say the least. His brain felt like it had short circuited, his muscles ached with every step and the questions on how he had performed were already starting to pop into his mind. He shook his head as he headed for the exit. The school was surprisingly quiet, he assumed those taking the written portion were still mid-exam while those doing the physical had long since left. It was just those from his group that were slowly trickling out.

As he strolled through an empty hallway he heard the click of a door ahead of him. Midnight stepped out and sighed, Izuku smiled and went to greet her when the woman turned and caught sight of him. The effect was immediate.

Midnight's eyes widened in fear, her body went from relaxed to tense, her hand laying gently on the end of her whip. It made Izuku freeze mid-step. He recognized the look she was giving him, he'd seen it over and over throughout his life. It was the look someone gave when staring down a villain.

The tension in the hallway rose considerably, neither party moving. Izuku didn't dare do something that would trigger Midnight and Midnight clearly didn't trust Izuku enough to move on.

"Midoriya?"

On instinct Izuku whipped round and came face to face to Aizawa, as he did he heard a door snap shut behind him.

"Aizawa sir!"

Aizawa raised an eyebrow and looked over Izuku's shoulder, "Who was that?"

"Uh… N-no-one." Izuku stammered out.

Aizawa clearly didn't believe him but didn't push the question, "I assume you've just had your interview?"

Izuku nodded his head.

"How did it go?" Aizawa asked and Izuku was surprised by the genuine curiosity in his voice.

"Well enough I suppose, honestly it was a little strange." Izuku said with a sigh.

Aizawa snorted, "Only a little? Well regardless of what happens you should know I was mildly impressed with your performance in the physical. I hadn't expected you to take four quirks so casually."

Izuku shrugged, "It was that or lose."

Aizawa smirked slightly, "Indeed. You should get on home, I imagine your family is eager to hear about your performance."

Izuku bowed, "I will sir, thank you."

He quickly hurried down the hall and out on the front gates, he took a deep breath and finally let some of the tension in his body ease away. A shout to his right caught his attention. He turned to see Todoroki quickly stepping into a limo while Yoarashi stood on the sidewalk next to it with a furious and outraged expression.

Izuku raised an eyebrow as the limo sped off and he waved an arm, calling out, "Yoarashi!"

Yoarashi glanced at him and his face moped from anger into a smile, "Ah, Midoriya, how was your interview?"

"Confusing, I have no idea how I did." Izuku said as he walked up to his fellow examinee.

Yoarashi chuckled, "Yes I feel the same. Nedzu seemed intent on questioning me about my interest in knights."

Izuku hummed, "Maybe he uses the talking points we bring to gauge how we would act not only as heroes but throughout our time at UA."

"That's a good point." Yoarashi said, lost in thought.

"Anyway, we'll find out in a week, I hope we'll both get in." Izuku said with a beaming smile.

Yoarashi's face fell slightly, "Actually I'm going to drop out."

Izuku's jaw dropped, "What!? But why? Yoarashi you were amazing today, you don't need to worry about your results!"

"It's because of Todoroki." Yoarashi stated, causing Izuku to frown.

"Why Todoroki?"

"I don't like Endeavour." Yoarashi said with a steeled expression.

"Understandable." Izuku responded automatically.

This caused Yoarashi to blink in surprise, "Oh, most hero hopefuls I meet normally attack me for saying that."

Izuku gave a soft chuckle, "I have some pretty uncommon beliefs when it comes to heroes."

"I see," Yoarashi said and his eyes shone with curiosity, though he continued with his explanation,

"I tried several times to talk to him today and be friendly and all I got in response was the same cold eyes as his father. I can't attend the same school as Shoto Todoroki."

"That's… completely fucking stupid!"

Yoarashi spluttered and yelped at Izuku's outburst, both at the language and the scowl now present on Izuku's face.

"You're not going to attend your dream school because you don't like one person who may not even get in? What happens after school, if you're both called to a hero response are you just going to ignore it and put people at risk?" There was a slither of anger in Izuku's voice and it made Yoarashi pale slightly.

"So what if you don't like him, Yaorashi you may not even end up in the same class. You can't just alter your life because someone doesn't like you, hell if I did that I'd be a hermit by now!" Izuku took a breath after he finished his rant, Yaorashi was looking at him with wide eyes and a pale face, the boy paused before-

SLAM!

Izuku jumped and took a step back as Yorashi's skull cracked the concrete between them slightly.

"You are completely right, Midoriya! How can I ever hope to be a great hero if I allow petty dislikes to hinder my path! Thank you for talking sense into me, I too hope we pass together!" Yoarashi shouted so loudly it caused Izuku's bones to vibrate.

Izuku laughed at the display, "I'm just glad you didn't do something stupid, if UA is where you want to go you shouldn't worry about everybody else."

Yoarashi straightened himself up and smiled, "Yes, you're right!"

"Midoriya! Yoarashi!"

Both boys turned to find Yaoyorozu walking towards them, she was smiling but it was obvious she

was as tired as they were.

"Ah, hello Yoayorozu! I trust your interview went well?" Yaorashi asked.

"Oh yes, I had quite an in-depth discussion with Nedzu about economics." Yaoyorozu said with a clap of her hands.

"There's definitely a theme here." Izuku mumbled as Yoayorozu pulled out her phone.

"I'm glad I caught you both, I wanted to get your numbers so we can stay in contact in the run up to the results and hopeful start of term for us!"

"An excellent idea!" Yoarashi cried, pulling out his own phone.

Izuku's heart skipped a beat. Was… was he making friends? He hadn't ever made a friend before. Kacchan didn't count, he had always been there since they were babies. Is this what it was like for everyone not to be terrified of you?

"S-Sure." Izuku said as his hands fumbled with his own phone, his crooked right hand awkwardly inputting the numbers.

"So what did you discuss in your interview Midoriya?" Yoayorozu asked.

Izuku was only half paying attention as he put in the digits and answered automatically, "Oh I explained to Nedzu how I'd kill him."

Aizawa nursed a large cup of coffee as he leaned back in his chair, the final examinees had left a few hours ago and it was time to decide on the results of the day. Many of the teachers considered it literal torture that Nedzu made them stay to make the decision immediately after the exams, they often finished in the early hours of the morning. But this was one of the rare occasions where being an insomniac paid off, whereas most of the staff tended to dip into sleep towards the end Aizawa remained as awake as he did throughout the day.

Admittedly this wasn't actually that much.

The entire staff, bar Nedzu, were sitting around the conference table where most of these decisions were made. Projected onto one wall of the room there were 87 pictures and names of the examinees. Each staff member also had a file in front of them with a more detailed page on each examinee. Several had already failed due to various actions throughout the day, such as the pair that mocked Midoriya. Nedzu was always watching and if he saw something he didn't like he had no qualms failing someone there and then.

Finally the door to the room swung open and Nedzu stepped in, taking his seat at the head of the table and beaming at his assembled staff.

"Well done everyone, another year of recommendation exams completed successfully. I dare say this was one of the most interesting years to date!" Nedzu said and clapped his hands together in excitement.

"I'll say…" Mic mumbled next to Aizawa, it didn't take a genius to work out what he was referring to.

"Now then, let's get rid of the stragglers shall we!" Nedzu said and tapped away at his tablet.

The straggles, as Nedzu liked to call them, were the examinees who had performed relatively poorly throughout the day. They either had one blaringly poor score, for example not completing the physical or getting below a passing mark on the written. Or their scores were sub par across the board and trailed behind the obvious leads overall. It actually got rid of most of the group and the same rang true for this year as Aizawa watched the names on the board go down from 87 to 20.

"A slightly larger than normal group of stragglers this year but the remaining group performed higher than expected, the gap between the leaders and rest was far larger than normal, most intriguing. Now, let's rank them based on their physical performance." Nedzu again typed away at his tablet as the names moved across the screen, showing the overall performance based on everyone's times in the race.

Aizawa glanced over the top performers.

1st Setsuna Tokage

2nd Juzo Honenuki

3rd Izuku Midoriya

4th Momo Yaoyorozu

5th Inasa Yoarashi

6th Shoto Todoroki

"Now then, Eraserhead, Midnight, Mic, Ectoplasm, you were the assessors this year, any thoughts on the top scorers?" Nedzu asked as the room's attention was drawn to the four.

"Tokage showed the most ingenuity and outside the box thinking out of everyone who participated today," Aizawa started, "When the race began she used her quirk to split her body and observe the area. She quickly realised the race was in a rough loop. She also read between the lines and figured out we said they needed to reach the finish line as opposed to run the race itself and simply walked over to the destination. It gave her an impressive time."

Ectoplasm nodded in agreement with Aizawa, "She wasn't the only one, Honenuki used his quirk to travers underground and search the area for the finish line. He more or less ignored the course and the only reason he had a worse time was due to having to come up to actually see where he was and where he needed to go."

"It's definitely ingenious compared to how Todoroki and Yoarashi ran the course," Mic commented stroking his goatee, "They pretty much just blasted through with not much planning."

"To be fair to them, many students with powerful quirks do the same. You don't need to think up a plan to get over the wall if you can just smash through it." Thirteen commented, it was generally regarded that she had the most powerful quirk on the staff so she understood these sort of tactics better than most.

Well… she did have the most powerful quirk up until All Might officially joined.

"That may be so and I'd understand if not for the fact they lost." Aizawa countered.

"Eraserhead makes a good point, both Yaoyorozu and Midoriya got the head start on them." Hound Dog growled out as if disgusted by the students poor performance, "Neither had back up plans to counter this and paid the price. Compared to Yoayorozu who looked like she had a plan to deal with everything we threw at her."

"True, she definitely planned for every scenario. However she clearly pre planned all these and didn't come up with them on the spot. During the rapids when her rope snapped she panicked, had it not been for Midoriya one of us would have needed to intervene." Ectoplasm said as he flicked to Yaoyorozu's file.

"Lets not get ahead ourselves, combat experience and crisis response is hardly something we expect to see in our incoming students. There is time to teach Yoayorozu these things." Nedzu said in defence of the girl.

"Well she's certainly got the quirk for it, one of the most impressive I've seen. With some training in quick thinking she could be a real asset in the battlefield, she could happily slot into any role." Ectoplasm continued and Aizawa too reached out for his folder and flicked to Yoayorozu's file.

Name: Momo Yoayorozu

DOB: September 23rd

Father: Coco Yoayorozu

Mother: Makoto Yoayorozu

Quirk Name: Creation

Description: Allows the user to create inanimate objects from any part of their body

Classification: Emitter

Requirements: Fat lipids as well as an understanding of the object at a molecular level

Limitations: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 2

Other known users or similar quirks: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 2

HPSC Quirk Grade: TBD (Assumed Omega)

Mic whistled as he read the file, "Not a lot of Omega quirks in heroics these days."

"A complex quirk to say the least, though if her written and interview scores are good enough she's definitely what we're looking for." Vlad King commented and Aizawa found himself agreeing with his rival for once.

"I was actually disappointed with Todoroki's performance after reading up on his quirk. He only used half of it to compete." Aizawa said with a scowl as he flicked to Todoroki's file.

Name: Shoto Todoroki

DOB: January 11th

Father: Enji Todoroki

Mother: Rei Todoroki

Quirk Name: Half-Cold Half-Hot

Quirk Description: Allows the user to create frost and cold from the right side of their body and fire and heat from the left side of their body

Classification: Emitter

Requirements: None though the user must monitor body temperature

Limitations: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFICATION LEVEL 1

Other known users or similar quirks: None

HPSC Quirk Grade: S-Grade (Grade formerly requested by Endeavour agency)

"He refuses to use his left side." Nedzu said while looking off in thought, "It appears he has issues with his father and won't use his quirk."

"That could be problematic." Hound Dog replied, being the school's psychiatrist he often took an interest in these things early on.

"It worked against him in the practical, perhaps if he had decided to use it against the leads he

could have easily pushed Yaoyorozu back." Ectoplasm said with a shake of his head.

"Both her and Midoriya showed an impressive use of their quirks, which explains why they won." Aizawa said, subconsciously feeling his quirk in his body as he did.

"I have to confess, I couldn't actually work out what Midoriya's quirk was from the footage." Snipe commented in confusion as a few of the other staff members nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I mean I was there and still don't know. So what is.- Hey! What the hell!?" Mic screeched as he slammed his hand down on his folder.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow and flicked to the end of his papers to Midoriya's file. As soon as he landed on it he understood Mic's outburst, he had forgotten he was technically in on a secret that only two people in the room were aware of.

Name: Izuku Midoriya

DOB: July 15th

Father: Unknown

Mother: Inko Midoriya

Quirk Name: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

Quirk Description: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

Classification: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

Limitations: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

Other known users or similar quirks: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

HPSC Quirk Grade: REDACTED- HPSC CLASSIFIED LEVEL 0

"That's… unusual." Cementoss said as the rest of the staff turned to the page, all wearing equal looks of surprise.

Aizawa snorted at that, unusual was one hell of an understatement.

"Just who the hell is this kid? No father? He's not like… All Might's kid or something is he?" Mic asked with a wide open jaw.

Nedzu chuckled, "I can assure you he's not. Though myself and HPSC do have our suspicions about his lineage I'm afraid that is also classified."

"We can't exactly admit a student if we don't know their quirk." Vlad King said with a frown

"Ah, not to worry, both myself and Eraserhead are aware of the full details of Midoriya's quirk." Nedzu replied happily as every eye in the staffroom turned to Aizawa who glared at the rat.

"I'm fairly sure just the fact that we know that is classified." Aizawa drawled.

"Why the hell does Eraserhead know? His security clearance only goes up to Level 1". Vlad King complained with a scowl, Aizawa smirked at him in response.

"I got promoted."

Vlad King was at his feet in an instant, pure outrage plastered across his face, "You promoted him and not me!?"

Nedzu just smiled and shook his head, "Of course not, this was an internal promotion by the HPSC. Though generally unknown and less official underground heroes do have their own rankings. Eraserhead has consistently been the number one underground hero for a number of years now, thus, with All Might's backing, it was decided he should have the same security clearance as the number one limelight hero. Of course if Midoriya is accepted we have permission to share the basics of his quirk."

Vlad King looked like he wanted to argue further but thought better of it, sitting down and scowling at Aizawa who's smug grin only grew wider.

"Well then Eraserhead, given you know the nature of his quirk, how do you feel he performed?" It was difficult to tell how Thirteen felt about the whole situation with their helmet on.

Aizawa paused to consider his answer, "Admirably. He has a rather large metal block that stops him using his quirk to its full potential, it's a problem but it's understandable if you know his history. Having said that he's clearly worked on his personal issues and when he does use his quirk he excels, he showed a tremendous amount of skill and quick thinking today. He has potential."

A few of the staff raised an eyebrow, that was high praise indeed coming from Aizawa who was normally more critical of the recommended exams.

"Hmmm, so our top six scorers in the physical showed a unique mix of power, skill and ingenuity. What about the rest of the remaining candidates?" Nedzu asked.

"The gap was fairly wide this year, the time difference between sixth and seventh place was almost a full two minutes." Ectoplasm commented as the Aizawa nodded in agreement.

"Midnight, do you have any further comments? You've been unusually quiet." Nedzu asked, a slight hint of concern in his voice.

Midnight jumped at hearing her name, she had been distracted the entire meeting and finally seemed to refocus herself, "Oh… uh… no… the top six were all very capable."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, something was off about her.

"I see and I'm afraid to say there are also no impressive interviews from the rest to make them stand out. Well it seems like we're down to six candidates." Nedzu said as another 16 names were wiped away.

"It looks like this will have to come down to the interview, they all had reasonable written results, though Yoarashi was a minor disappointment." Cementoss said and Nedzu clicked the button to display their written exam scores next to their positions in the physical.

1st Setsuna Tokage- 87%

2nd Juzo Honenuki- 90%

3rd Izuku Midoriya- 86%

4th Momo Yaoyorozu- 96%

5th Inasa Yoarashi- 68%

6th Shoto Todoroki- 81%

"Yaoyorozu continues to show an impressive level of intellect," Ectoplasm said with approval, perhaps someone would finally enjoy his classroom lessons.

"Makes sense, with a quirk like hers she needs a certain level of intelligence to operate it effectively." Aizawa said with a gruff nod of agreement.

"It's worth noting that while she may not have achieved the highest score, Tokage did show a level of emotional intelligence far above her competitors." Nedzu explained, his eyes deep in thought.

"That will be useful, a lot of kids tend to underestimate how difficult heroics is and the toll it takes. Having someone like Tokage could provide a support model for whatever class she's in." Vlad King said as he made some notes, it was after all often him that ended up with the more naïve of the two classes.

"While it definitely looks like Yoarashi didn't perform as well in the written, it's not worth counting him out. Let's not forget he apologised to Midoriya during lunch due the behaviour of his classmates and they both stepped in to help Yaoyorozu during the incident in their physical." Lunch Rush said, he may not be the most prominent staff member but he often had the biggest insight into the examinees when they thought they weren't being observed during lunch.

"Agreed, let's take a look at their interview results." Nedzu said with a slight smirk.

Just like the written, Nedzu gave each examinee a percentage on how he felt they performed in the interview. No one was completely sure how the grading system worked but it hadn't failed them yet. Nedzu was also a notoriously harsh scorer. Yet despite that Aizawa was still a little surprised

by the scores of the bottom two on the board.

5th Inasa Yoarashi- 45%

6th Shoto Todoroki- 32%

"You gave the number two hero's kid a score of 32%?" Snipe asked in shock, it appeared a few of the other teachers had noticed the low scores.

Nedzu sighed, "Yes, I'm afraid both he and Yoarashi disappointed me for similar reasons. Todoroki, while an intelligent and polite young man, doesn't really seem to know why he wants to be a hero. Throw in the fact that he hates his father and refuses to use his fire is further concern for his mental state. Meanwhile Yoarashi has the exact idea of why he wants to be a hero and how he'll get there, while this isn't a bad thing in of itself the issue lies that he isn't flexible about this path. He refuses to budge if there's a slight change on what he sees as his overall career as a hero, including anything to do with his schooling. I was almost concerned he would drop out due to the tension between him and Todoroki."

Hound Dog mulled this information over, "So you're saying they could both-

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?"

Aizawa scowled and snapped his head round to Mic as he activated his quirk to shut the blonde up, the clock had just ticked over 1AM and he was in no mood for the man's antics. Mic didn't even look at Aizawa but merely pointed to the board to prove his point. Aizawa rolled his eyes and turned, scanning the names. Tokage and Honenuki had decent scores which was not a surprise and then-

Oh.

Well.

Fuck.

3rd Izuku Midoriya- 100%

As other staff members caught sight of the score jaws dropped to the floor and there were several gasps around the room, Nedzu himself sat back in his chair with an evil smile on his face, clearly enjoying the show.

Vlad King whipped his round to the corner of the room where Recovery Girl sat, even she had a look of shock on her face.

"Recovery Girl, has he ever…?" Vlad asked.

Rocovery Girl shook her head, "No, the highest up until this point I've ever seen was 92% with Best Jeanist."

Aizawa turned to Nedzu, "Explain."

Nedzu chuckled, "From the beginning I was always going to give him a high score. Throughout the interview he showed several attributes that we should value in a hero. He has an admirable, albeit challenging, goal he wants to achieve and has the determination to get him through. His understanding of his own quirk and the wider hero industry is certainly the level we expect of our recommended students too. However, there was one reason I decided to give him a perfect score."

"And that was?" Aizawa asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He outsmarted me."

Several things happened at once. Vlad King and Mic shouted at the top of their voices, crying out how that was impossible. Meanwhile Thirteen and Ectoplasm for the first time since he'd met them genuinely looked shocked to Aizawa. Aizawa himself went pale and would privately admit to feeling a shiver of fear up his spine. Midoriya already had a powerful quirk, combining it with the ability to match Nedzu in a battle of wits and it made the boy all the more threatening.

It was Midnight's reaction however which garnered the most attention.

"Nedzu… you… you can't seriously be thinking of admitting this boy?"

Several confused eyes turned to Midnight while Nedzu's own eyes narrowed.

"Whatever reason wouldn't we? He was a top scorer in all three categories and was recommended by All Might, who's judgement I think we all can agree to trust."

"But.. his quirk! You can't let that near other students." Midnight cried, she was beginning to cause a bit of a stir among the staff, "Mic, you must have felt it too, what he did?!"

Mis suddenly looked very uncomfortable in his chair, "I mean sure… I have my suspicions but Nedzu and Sho trust him…"

Midnight turned her desperate eyes to Aizawa and it finally clicked in place for him. She was afraid of Midoriya.

"Aizawa… you… you can't tell me you don't have concerns. This boys quirk, it's the quirk of a -"

"If the next word out of your mouth is villain you can consider our friendship over Nemuri." Aizawa's voice was so cold it even caused Nedzu to jump in surprise slightly.

"Just what the hell is this kid's quirk?" Vlad King asked, clearly exasperated by all the cloak and dagger.

Nedzu and Aizawa exchanged a glance and Aizawa sighed, "Let's be honest here, it doesn't matter how much anyone pushes you against it. You're going to accept Midoriya regardless. You may as well tell them his quirk."

Nedzu nodded before turning to his staff and clearing his throat, "Izuku Midoriya's quirk is called Quirk Thief, though I still dislike the name, to put it simply it allows him to take or steal other peoples quirks."

The entire room's eyebrows rose and Cementoss gave Nedzu a quizzical look, "Like a copy quirk?"

Aizawa shook his head, "No, copy quirks copy the basic nature of a quirk for a temporary basis and don't affect the person who's quirk is being copied. Midoriya completely takes your quirk, essentially making you quirkless. He also has greater control of the quirk and can use it to its fullest extent. Unlike copy quirks he can also keep the quirk permanently with no currently known time limit."

Several faces paled at the thought and Aizawa couldn't blame them. He would fight anyone who dared claim the quirk or the boy himself were villainous. But the quirk itself held enough power to make anyone nervous.

"So at the physical…" Mic all but whispered.

Nedzu nodded, "He took your four quirks to use throughout the race before returning them."

Ectoplasm tilted his head, "That clears things up. It's certainly a powerful quirk, it would make an effective tool against villains."

Vlad King snorted, "I'll say."

Suddenly Midnight slammed her hands on the table, standing up with a furious expression.

"How can you all be so casual about this!? HE STOLE MY QUIRK!"

"Borrowed," Nedzu said calmly, "He borrowed your quirk."

"Only because he gave it back, what if next time he decides to hold onto it? Aren't you all afraid of what he's capable of?" Midnight cried, her eyes darting between the various staff members.

"Oh I'm absolutely terrified." Aizawa admitted and caused a few raised eyebrows in his direction, "He doesn't have to see or touch you to take your quirk. He could stand outside this room right now and steal half our quirks before any of us noticed. And even then I doubt we'd be able to take him down without a fair amount of casualties on our side."

Several of the staff members had paled at that and Nedzu was looking at Aizawa with a curious eye. Midnight meanwhile gave an incredulous look.

"And you're fine with that?" She asked with a shriek.

Aizawa smirked and nodded, "Of course, if a 15 year old untrained kid can make an entire room full of pro heroes nervous, imagine what that kid will do as a fully qualified pro hero. Imagine how the villains would feel with him around, I'm not even sure All Might and Endeavour could muster even that much infamy."

Nedzu copied Aizawa's smirk while Mic gave him a slightly terrified look.

Midnight however wasn't convinced, "But he-"

"Nemuri," Nedzu's tone caused Midnight to flinch, "Midoriya not only excelled in today's exams but he showed all the qualities of a true hero and a good natured person. Yes, his quirk is certainly complex and powerful but that's exactly why he will make a great hero. He's getting in Nemuri and I expect you to treat him like any other student."

Midnight cowered under the intense gaze of Nedzu and when it was obvious she wouldn't find any other support around the table she sat back down, looking down at her lap and trying to make herself small.

"Well that takes care of one of the spots, what about the other three?" Vlad King asked.

"Seems fairly obvious to me based on the over five scores." Mic said as he and Aizawa scanned through the names and their interview scores.

1st Setsuna Tokage- 86%

2nd Juzo Honenuki- 91%

3rd Izuku Midoriya- 100%

4th Momo Yaoyorozu- 80%

5th Inasa Yoarashi- 45%

6th Shoto Todoroki- 32%

"Agreed," Nedzu said, "As I already mentioned Tokage showed an impressive level of emotional intelligence while being relaxed and comfortable in the interview. Her natural sociability will definitely help her become a focus point of any class she joins. I have some concerns she may not realise the true depth of being a hero but anyone rarely does at her age. Meanwhile Honenuki performed consistently well across all categories and remained calm and collective in every situation. The answers he gave in the interview were all very logical and thought out, though he never came across as cold or impolite. While it's unlikely he'll be seen as a leader or take up the limelight he'll be a calming agent for his peers. Though I did notice he didn't really have any firm motivation for being a hero other than as a career path."

"And what about Yaoyorozu, she seems to have a slight dip in her score compared to the others." Snipe commented.

"True, she's led a very privileged and sheltered life and it's obvious she doesn't fully understand the requirements of being a hero. However she's a borderline genius and does have a clear motivation as to why she wants to be in this school. However it's likely that she'll struggle socially in her class and possibly crumble under her first real challenge in the course." Nedzu explained.

"Isn't the point for us to help them through all that though, teach them how to deal with it all?" Power Loader commented from the side, like Lunch Rush he normally had little to do with the hero course but could still offer an opinion.

"Precisely!" Nedzu said with a smile, "Which is why I don't doubt she'll make a fine student."

"So, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Tokage and Honenuki. Not a bad patch for our recommended students I suppose." Aizawa said and mulled over the four names in thought, already deciding on who he wanted in his class.

"Failing Todoroki and Yoarashi will cause a ruckus but I believe it's for the best. Failing will make

Todoroki actually think about his motivations for being a hero and why he's doing all this outside of his father. Meanwhile Yoarashi will be forced to face the fact his path to being a hero may not be so clear cut." Hound Dog said as he scribbled down notes on both students in his notebook.

"Excellent, we're all in agreement then. I'll prepare the letters for the failures and record the congratulations for the four that passed." Nedzu said and closed the projection down.

There was a collective sigh of relief from the staff as the clock ticked just past 2AM and they all started to shuffle out of their seats.

"Now then, there's just enough time to go over the last minute details of The Entrance Exam!" Nedzi cried happily.

Aizawa almost quit there and then.

Izuku had been steadily growing more nervous with each passing day after the recommendation exam. Unlike the entrance exam it was impossible for him to predict how he had done. He knew he had performed well in the physical of course (a fact Katsuki took great pride in informing Torino and All Might the next day) but the written and interviews were a complete unknown.

His nerves had also been coming through in his behaviour, he was fine when he was out training but left alone at home his mind started to wander and he quickly became a mess. Mitsuki had suggested he keep himself busy at home in order to distract his mind.

Boy had that been a mistake.

For the past week the rest of the family had to avoid Izuku for fear of being barrelled into while doing his chores. Masaru had caught him throwing laundry into the machine as if he was pitching for baseball while Inko had nearly been decapitated as the boy went about making meals like a man possessed.

Today was no different as Izuku stormed around the kitchen cleaning it. Katsuki, the only member of the family who dared get close to Izuku recently, sat eating cereal on the table watching his friend with amusement.

That was until Izuku suddenly swept up next to him and picked his bowl up in the air, "Hey! What the hell Zuzu!?"

"Don't get milk on the table Kacchan!" Izuku cried before cleaning the table with a sponge.

"It's my house too you know, I'll do what I damn- FUCK! HEY!" Katsuki's eyes widened as Izuku tilted his chair back, with Katsuki still sitting in it.

"Sorry, there's dust under your chair." Izuku said simply and quickly threw a broom under the legs of the chair before putting Katsuki back.

"Dammit Zuzu why can't-"

"I-Izuku!"

Both boys snapped their heads round to the entrance of the kitchen where Inko was shuffling in, her whole body shaking slightly.

"Mom? Is everything ok?" Izuku asked, his voice quickly becoming concerned.

Katsuki also stood up, a little worried at his Aunts actions. Inko however just shuffled forward, holding out what appeared to be a letter.

"It-it came… The results of your UA exam, they've arrived."

Izuku 's face paled and Katuski froze as their eyes locked in on the letter in Inko's shaking hand. As if sensing the scene Mitsuki and Masaru came charging into the kitchen?

"It came!?" Mitsuki shouted, her eyes wide and staring at the letter.

Inko could only nod her head in response as Izuku took a deep breath, "I'd like to open in private

please."

Masaru nodded with a smile, "Of course Izuku, we'll all wait here."

Izuku nodded and took the letter out his mothers hand, giving her a soft smile as he did. He went to turn and head up to his room when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned and came face to face with Katsuki who was giving him an uncharacteristically soft expression.

"Whatever happens, whatever they say, you're gonna be an amazing hero one day."

Izuku smiled at him, "Thanks Kacchan."

He hurried up to his room and closed the door, tension slowly rising in his body as he sat down at his desk with the envelope. He tore it open and jumped in surprise as a small round disk fell out. He was just about to pick it up when it lit up and a projection of Nedzu appeared above the disk.

"Greetings!"

"AHHH!"

"What the hell is going on up there brat?!" Mitsuki yelled from downstairs.

"Nothing Auntie!" Izuku quickly shouted back as Nedzu continued.

"Am I a rat, am I a bear? It doesn't matter, I'm the Principle and I'm here to inform you of the recommendations results!"

Izuku let out a sigh of relief at realising it was a recording and sat back, his heart beating so fast he had to check he hadn't stolen a superspeed quirk.

"Izuku Midoriya, All Might's recommended student himself, first of all your written results were impressive and in the top 10% of examinees this year, congratulations. Of course you

already know you performed well in the physical, coming first in your group and third overall. Being one of the staff members here at UA to know your quirk both myself and Aizawa were impressed with your ingenuity and skill when using it to gain the upperhand early on in the race. However, where you really excelled was the interview portion. Most recommended students who I speak to fall into two easy categories, the first are those whose intentions are good however they underestimate the reality of being a hero and aren't prepared to face this reality. The second are those who are better prepared for this reality but lack the same drive and motivation as the first group. You however Midoriya have both an understanding of what hero society really is like while still having clear goals with the drive to back them up. Combined with your unique viewpoint on hero society and quirks and I must say your interview was the first I genuinely enjoyed in a long time. I do have some concerns, mainly regarding the mental blocks you have placed on the use of your quirk. That and there is a minor concern that you lack a few social skills. But of course those are skills we excel at teaching here at UA."

Izuku couldn't breathe, he had actually done well? Not only had he passed the written but Nedzu had not thrown him out for his controversial views but actually been impressed by him? Was Nedzu really saying…?

"With all that in mind, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that you have passed The Recommendation Exam and gained a spot on our hero course! Welcome, Izuku Midoriya, this is your hero academia."

Izuku almost fainted in shock, he had passed! He'd gotten in! He really was going to be a hero!

"Now, before you run off to what I imagine will be a rather chaotic celebration I have two last things I'd like to bring up. The first is in relation to The Entrance Exam, each year we like to invite the successful recommended students to observe the practical portion of the exam. We feel it gives you a good insight into where the rest of your classmates are coming from as well as a good way for the four of you to meet. Secondly, I would like to invite you to a brief meeting with me after the exam. Nothing nefarious I assure you, I just had a few thoughts about your quirk and wondered if you'd indulge me, you're welcome to bring your friend along as well as I know he'll be taking the exam itself. Please let me know within a few days for both points. You'll also receive your class assignment in a letter sent out along The Entrance Exam results. I look forward to seeing how far you go, Mister Midoriya."

Izuku's whole body was numb as he stood up from his desk. He'd done it. He'd gotten in. He… He could actually be a hero. And it wasn't just someone telling him he could be one, he was actually going to become a hero. UA hadn't judged him on his quirk and they had deemed him worthy!

He was barely aware of his surroundings as he stumbled down the stairs and turned into the kitchen. All activity stopped immediately and he was met with four anxious stares. None of them more desperate for an answer than Katsuki.

"I…I got in." Izuku said to the room, still not quite believing it himself.

There was a brief pause and then-

"OHHH MY BABY IZUKU!" He felt the air rush out of his lungs as his mother pulled him an airtight hug, "Oh I'm so proud of you Izuku, you've worked so hard and you deserve this!"

"Atta boy Brat 2, show them who's boss. I knew you could do it!" Mitsuki shouted before joining Inko in the bone crushing hug, Izuku silently hoped he wouldn't have broken ribs for the start of term.

As Izuku struggled to breath Masaru came up and chuckled at the sight, "Ladies, let's not kill him before his first day of classes. I'm proud of you Izuku." He said and ruffled the boy's hair.

Izuku blushed slightly as Mitsuki and Inko let him go, both still cooing over the boy slightly. The adults parted and Izuku came face to face with Katsuki's unreadable expression. There was a slight pause before the boy jumped forward and wrapped his arms around Izuku.

Mitsuki and Inko practically melted at the sight, the two boys didn't hug very often. Izuku didn't like to be touched due to his quirk and Katsuki was hardly the most emotional person. The result was that when it did happen it was always a fairly awkward hug.

As indeed it was right now, Izuku simply stiffened up and accepted the hug, it only lasted for a moment before Katsuki broke it. He cleared his throat and gave Izuku a look that indicated they would never speak of the hug again.

"Not bad Zuzu, I always told you if you were just willing to use your quirk you'd be unstoppable." Katsuki said with a smirk.

Izuku snorted, "I won a race, I'm fairly sure I'd be decimated by any reasonable pro hero. Speaking of, you better pass The Entrance Exam, there's no way I'm going to UA without you."

Katsuki laughed, "Ain't no way I'm gonna let you go it alone, I'll wipe the floor of anyone who tries to beat me in the exam."

Izuku smirked back while their parents rolled their eyes at the display.

A few hours later after the sun had set and Izuku was laying in bed feeling bloated, technically he was still training but All Might had said he could indulge as a one off. As a result Inko had prepared the best Katsudon he had ever had and Mistuki had baked a cake full of so much sugar Izuku had been bouncing off the walls. The best thing about it was smugly devouring both meals in front of Katsuki who couldn't cheat so close to his own exam day.

As he lay smiling at the memory his phone beeped from his side. He had a notification from the group chat he had with Yoayorozu and Yoarashi ever since the exam. Of course he had completely forgotten in all the excitement they would also be getting their result today. He quickly opened the chat to find a message from Yaoyorozu.

Would Not Recommend

Einstein's Daughter: I'm sure you've both had busy days like myself but I figured I'd start the ball rolling here and let you know I passed and got in!

Name: CLASSIFIED: Congratulations Yaoyorozu! I knew you'd get in, there was no way they'd say no with your quirk and intellect!

Einstein's Daughter: Thank you Midoriya, what about yourself? I can't imagine they'd fail the winner of our physical.

Name: CLASSIFIED: Actually I was told that wasn't a guarantee but yes, I also passed.

Einstein's Daughter: Oh wonderful! Congratulations, who knows we may even be in the same class!

Name: CLASSIFIED: I hope so! What about you Yoarashi?

Air Conditioner: Well done to you both, it's understandable that UA would want such fine candidates as its recommended students. Though I'm afraid I didn't get in, my written score was

weak and Nedzu had some concerns during my interview which knocked me down.

Name: CLASSIFIED: I'm sorry Yoarashi, for what's it worth I still think you're going to make a great hero.

Einstein's Daughter: Yes I agree, it's just a shame only four people out of everyone who took the exam were admitted.

Air Conditioner: Thank you both but I have already started working towards passing the standard entrance exams! I won't let this bump in the road deter me!

Einstein's Daughter: Excellent, I'm glad you're not letting this get to you Yoarashi.

Name: CLASSIFIED: Oh hey, my brother is taking The Entrance Exam too, I could add him to this chat? Might be worth it?

Air Conditioner: Ah yes! That would be most useful to exchange training tips and advice!

Name: CLASSIFIED added Katsuki Bakugou to the chat

Einstein's Daughter: I didn't know you had a brother Midoriya?

Name: CLASSIFIED: We're not technically brothers but we've grown up together and lived together since we were seven, we just kinda started referring to each other as it

Katsuki Bakugou: What the fuck is this?

Name: CLASSIFIED changed Katsuki Bakugou's name to Angry Boi

Air Conditioner: Ah! It is a pleasure to meet you Bakugou!

Angry Boi: Huh, who the fuck is Air Conditioner?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Kacchan, this is Inasa Yoarashi and Momo Yaoyorozu, the people I met at The Recommendation Exam. Yoarashi sadly didn't pass, I figured since you're both going to be

taking The Entrance Exam it would be good to meet!

Angry Boi: Alright but you better not slow me down!

Air Conditioner: Oh yeah! That's the sort of spirit and motivation that'll get us through!

Einstein's Daughter: If I may be curious Bakugou, is your quirk also classified?

Angry Boi: Nah, not to the same extent Zuzu's is. My quirk is called Enhancement, it's pretty simple really, it enhances and augments my physical capabilities. Though currently I can only use a

small percentage of it or risk it breaking my body. The rest of my quirk info is classified though.

Air Conditioner: Impressive! Both you and Midoriya have seemingly powerful quirks, it's a wonder your parents aren't heroes!

Einstein's Daughter: Also, Kacchan and Zuzu?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Nicknames we've had since we were kids and we both have pretty big mutations, our parents' quirks are actually pretty different to what we both have.

Einstein's Daughter: Ah, I see. Oh, Midoriya, will be observing the entrance exams too?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Oh yeah! I'll be there, I'd never miss a chance to watch Kacchan make a fool of himself.

Angry Boi: Fuck you, you just spent an hour crying over chocolate cake.

Name: CLASSIFIED: Oh fuck you Kacchan, at least I didn't punch a wall when Mommy told me I couldn't have cake.

Angy Boi: FUCK YOU!

Name: CLASSIFIED: FUCK YOU!

Air Conditioner: Oh dear.

Chapter End Notes

Thanks for all the Kudos and comments everyone! Just a note, Quirk Grades are something I've come up with for this fic which will be explained in later chapter

The Entrance Exam

Chapter Summary

Katsuki and Yoarashi take the entrance exam together

Katsuki looked at the crowds of people scrambling through the gates of UA and scowled. Even from across the road he could already start to see who would pass and fail. Some people were walking in with too much confidence, most likely those who had powerful quirks or had been praised throughout their childhood and expected to breeze through this exam. Some of them probably would make it in but others clearly weren't ready for the reality of the test.

It wasn't just the arrogant ones either, there were plenty of people who were practically shaking into the school, they looked terrified before they had even made it in, let alone at what the exam would throw at them. Many of them looked woefully unprepared. He noticed one boy with purple hair who looked like a soft breeze might blow him over. It didn't matter how good your quirk was, you still needed to be physically fit to be a hero, you couldn't hope to coast by on a quirk alone. There were far too many people like that, ones who clearly hadn't done anywhere near the amount of physical training required to be a hero.

Others, the worst in Katsuki's opinion, just looked like they didn't really care. To them it was just another school exam, another career choice they had considered. They weren't motivated by heroics, they were motivated by fame and money. If they failed here they could always find it elsewhere.

It all made Katsuki furious, if you weren't putting 100% into being a genuine hero then you shouldn't be here.

That wasn't to say everyone here was a lost cause, as he watched from his position Katsuki could respect a few obvious contenders for the course. He'd seen a pink skinned girl walk in with a clear air of confidence while a boy with multiple arms had seemed incredibly cool and collected yet held determination in his eyes.

Katsuki was starting to get fidgety, he had arrived thirty minutes early but he had insisted he'd wait for his… friend? He supposed it was the closest he had out of Zuzu (who didn't count) and besides, his Mom and Aunt were always going on about how he needed to make new friends.

"Bakugou?"

Katsuki grunted and looked up to his left where he found a boy well over six foot towering over him. The boy had a slightly nervous smile on his face. Katsuki just nodded in response.

"You must be Air Conditioner huh?"

Yoarashi's nervousness vanished and his smile grew wide, "Ah! It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Bakugou!"

Katsuki gave a slight grunt, "You too I guess. You ready for this?"

Yoarashi clenched his fist and gave Katsuki a firm nod, "Yes, failing the recommendation exam has given me a renewed determination in my hero career. I refuse to fail once again."

Katsuki raised an eyebrow, "Not bad Airhead," Yoarashi blinked at the nickname, "I guess Zuzu doesn't have too bad a taste in friends."

Yoarashi let out a bellow, "Ha! I see where Midoriya gets his snap from! I'm glad I found friends in both of you."

That made Katsuki pause. Yoarashi considered him a friend? Did that mean Yaoyorozu did too? He had chatted to them a lot over the past week in their group chat but he just kind of assumed they were there for Izuku. It made sense, Izuku was friendly, kind and easy to talk to. Katsuki was loud, brash and rude. He never had friends, it just wasn't his thing.

But that didn't mean he didn't want them.

"Same here." Katsuki said and held out his fist, Yoarashi smiled and eagerly gave him a pump, it felt kinda nice to have a friend.

"Shall we head inside?" Yoarashi suggested.

Katsuki nodded and together they marched towards and through the gates. They made quite the

intimidating pair, both over six feet and muscular. Yoarashi with his ever wide and slightly daunting smile and Katsuki with his famous scowl and narrowed red eyes. As a result several students all but jumped out of their way. Except for one.

"Oof." Katsuki grunted as he almost toppled to the ground, luckily at the last minute he felt Yoarashi grab onto his shoulder.

"Oh my GOD! I'm so so soooo sorry!"

Katsuki turned to face a very panicked girl with brown bobbed hair, wide auburn eyes and a slight blush on her cheeks. She was looking at him with an equally fearful and embarrassed expression.

"I wasn't watching where I was going, I was so in awe and I just bumped into you and-"

Katsuki held up his hand to stop the girl who snapped her mouth shut and blushed further, "Don't worry about it. No harm done, just be more careful."

The girl seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, "Phew, thanks! You both look super scary so I was kinda afraid you'd bite my hand off."

"What! How could you think the two of us are scary?!" Yoarashi cried, causing Katsuki to roll his eyes as the girl jumped back, clearly Yoarashi didn't appreciate just how loud and tall he was.

"It's cool, I guess there's gonna be a few nerves today." Katsuki said with a shrug.

"I know," the girl said gazing up at the building, "It's really intimidating to be honest. And I heard there's a few people who failed the recommendation exam here, I'm not sure I can hold up against that. Especially with my quirk." She said, sounding a bit dejected.

Katsuki scoffed, "You quirk won't matter. This is an exam, just like any other exam you've ever done. Just go in there, give it your absolute best and nothing less. You do that and it doesn't matter what your quirk is, you'll pass."

The girl blinked a few times before her eyes filled with fire, "Hell yeah! I'm gonna go in there and

just give it my all! Thanks! I'll see you inside."

The girl turned on her feet and quickly scurried into the building without so much as asking for a name. Katsuki may have been out of the loop in terms of a social life but he was fairly sure that could be classed as odd.

"Wow!" Yoarashi exclaimed next to him, "Who knew the standard entrance exams would attract such an intense crowd, it's almost more exciting than the recommendation exams."

Katsuki snorted, "Think about that two hours into the written exam."

Yoarashi paled.

Considering it was only the third time he'd been at the school Izuku was surprised by how genuinely calm he felt. Maybe it was the knowledge he wasn't one of the thousand or so students being tested today. It might also be the excitement he felt at seeing Katsuki let loose with his quirk. In training against each other they generally held back for fear of seriously hurting the other and due to the fact they trained in a public space. But he knew Katsuki would do nothing less than give it his all for the exam.

As Midoriya walked up to the front gate he smiled as he saw the other three recommended students already waiting. Yaoyorozu saw him and waved.

"Oh Midoriya! It's so good to see you again!"

Izuku gave his least nervous smile back, "You too Yaoyorozu, how have you been?"

"Well, I celebrated and relaxed for a few days but then had to get back into my training. My quirk is fairly useless if I don't understand the things I'm making, so studying is a big part of my life." Yoayorozu said with a sigh, it was often the topic of their group chat, how complex her quirk was.

"I know what you mean, I had all of three hours before Kacchan demanded I start training again." Izuku said with a chuckle.

Yoayorozu giggled, "He does seem rather intense, I suspect Yoarashi is in for quite the day."

"Well whatever happens Kacchan won't let him fail. Whether he admits it or not he considers you both friends now and he doesn't let friends fall behind." Izuku said with a shrug.

"Hey, aren't you the guy who won the second group physical?" A girl with short green hair, not too dissimilar to Izuku's own, walked up next to Yoayorozu as did a boy who appeared to have no lips.

Izuku scratched the back of head nervously, "Uh yeah… I did…"

The girl gave him a wide smile, "Damn, I heard your group's race was pretty intense. I'm Setsuna Tokage by the way."

The lipless boy nodded at Izuku, "Juzo Honenuki"

"I'm Izuku Midoriya." Izuku replied with a polite nod and a smile he hoped didn't show how intimidated he was.

"Nice hair." Tokage said as she pointed to her own green hair and winked at Izuku causing the boy to blush.

"H-How did you guys do on your exams?" Izuku asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Man it was the written for me, I was in the group who had it last and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed by that point." Tokage moaned dramatically.

"Just be glad you didn't have the physical last, half my group didn't even finish it due to exhaustion." Honenuki said with a shake of his head.

"At least you got the grilling from Nedzu over with." Yoayorozu said with a shudder.

Izuku just shrugged, "To be honest I quite enjoyed the interview."

All three of his fellow recommended students turned to him with horrified expressions. It was if he had just admitted to having had a quiet lunch date with The Devil. Which he supposed in a way he had. Before anyone could respond Izuku felt someone's quirk energy approach.

"Ah, greetings everyone. Welcome back to UA." Vlad King said as he met the students at the gate, "I'm glad all four of you could make it today."

"It will be interesting to see what the standard exams are like, it will give us a good idea of how our classmates also got their places in the hero course." Honenuki said in thought as the four teenagers followed Vlad King into the school.

"It'll be a good opportunity to scout out any cuties too." Tokage said with a wiggle of her eyebrows causing Izuku and Yoayorozu to blush and Honenuki to roll his eyes.

Vlad King chuckled at the display as he led them towards a minibus.

"The entrance exams take place within the grounds, it's just a ten minute drive to the monitoring station," He explained at the questioning glances the four were giving him.

They all clambered into the mini bus, which felt fairly empty considering it was designed for a class of 20 students. Vlad King sat behind the wheel as they made their way down the road. The four students in the back sat in silence, all observing the sights as they went. Izuku was finally understanding why UA had such a high reputation. The land they owned spread for miles in all directions, he could see training grounds in the distance spread out among the landscape. Makeshift cities, rivers and even mountains could be seen dotted about the place. It made the main UA building, impressive in of itself, look like someone's oversized dollhouse.

Eventually they made it to what almost looked like an old aircraft control tower. The four students all looked around in wonder as Vlad King led them inside with a smug grin. They took an elevator in the centre of the tower up to the top floor. As the doors opened with a ping the four students all had equal looks of amazement.

They were in a large circular room, one half of the room was completely covered in screens, each one trained on a group of teenagers waiting outside different makeshift cities. In the centre of the room sat Nedzu on what, in a certain light, could easily be described as a throne. Several other

teachers sat with him while the rest of the UA staff stood around the place, though all of them turned their attention to the group as they excited the elevator.

Izuku didn't miss the way Midnight tenses and stepped as far away from him as she could the moment he stepped out. At least Aizawa gave him a nod of acknowledgment.

"Ah! Our recommended students! Welcome all of you, I'm so pleased you could all make it." Nedzu said and smiled with a clap of his hands.

Yaoyorozu bowed, "Thank you for the invitation sir, I'm looking forward to seeing our future classmates in action."

"Quite," Nedzu responded, "Though of course sadly not everyone out there today will pass, out of nearly a thousand students only 36 will join you here at UA. Tougher odds than even your exams."

Nedzu continued to chat to the recommended students but Izuku had quickly become distracted. It had been a while since his hunger had really played up but surrounded by pro heroes it was obvious how much of a step up they were from a standard crowd and it took a few deep breaths to stop himself letting go of his grip on the hunger. However, he did pick up on a familiar type of energy.

"E-Excuse me sir?"

Nedzu turned to with a curious tilt of the head, "Everything ok Mr Midoriya?"

"Yes, sorry. I was just wondering if I could get some water?" Izuku asked.

"Of course, there's a refreshment area opposite the viewing screens, you're all welcome to take advantage of it." Nedzu said, looking at Izuku with a knowing smirk.

Izuku nodded his thanks and wandered over to the table that contained a selection of snacks and drinks. He truly was thirsty but there was another reason he had walked over to pour himself some juice. He'd noticed it the moment they entered the room, the energy in the far corner of someone trying to hide in the darkness. It would've worked if not for the fact Izuku could see with more than just his eyes.

He felt the man tense as he made his drink, it was lucky the refreshments stand was right next to the corner the man had chosen to hide in.

"You know I can sense your energy right?" Izuku said nonchalantly.

The man coughed violently in surprise and had to pull out a handkerchief to catch the blood which came out through his mouth as he did. It made Izuku panic but before he could spiral the man turned to him with a smile and a chuckle.

"I suppose I let it slip my mind." Yagi said as he shuffled out of the shadows and into the room more.

Izuku gave him a slight frown, "Are you here to watch Bakugou's performance?"

"Partly yes, though I'm here to observe the overall process." Yagi said with a gesture to the wider room.

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before the gears in his head started to move.

"You're going to be teaching here?" Izuku asked in no small amount of surprise, Yagi wasn't the… best teacher he'd ever met.

Yagi frowned, "Don't sound so surprised, after all you and Young Bakugou were the perfect practice I needed for it."

Izuku sweat dropped, Yagi seemed to be forgetting how Katsuki had broken an arm and Izuku himself had lost control several times throughout their training. Well, at least Gran Torino seemed to have noticed the issue as well, Yagi's teaching had certainly started to improve in the past weeks.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Izuku asked, though there was no malice in the tone, only general curiosity.

Yagi shrugged, "I know what you're both like, had you discovered I was taking a teaching position here you wouldn't have allowed me to teach you. And even if you had you both would have suspected I was influencing you to be admitted to the school."

Izuku scratched the back of his head, "I guess you have a point. But Nedzu assured me in my interview you weren't."

"Indeed and for the same reason I ask you don't tell your brother at least until he receives his results from today." Yagi said with a smile.

"Don't worry, he deserves to know he passed this exam on his own merits." Izuku responded as he turned to the screens, scanning the different areas and trying to find Katsuki.

Yagi followed his gaze and nodded, "Yes, I'm quite curious to see how far he's come with One For All."

Katsuki wasn't the nervous one, he left that role up to Zuzu. Izuku was the one whose body would shake with nerves and who tripped over his own words when panicked. Katsuki was the cool collected brother who never slipped. At least that what most people believed, the truth was Katsuki could be as nervous as his brother, he just didn't show it as much.

But as his bus approached the area for his physical section of the exam he felt said nerves flare up. His eyes darted around the bus, finding escape routes and eyeing up anyone he thought might attack. His body tensed and he rapidly clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Are you ok Bakugou?"

Katsuki looked up at the teenager sitting next to him, Yoarashi was looking down at the blonde with a look of concern etched on his face. The pair had met up after the written test and had been pleasantly (though Katsuki would never admit it) surprised to discover during the briefing they were in the same area for the physical section.

"I'm good Airhead… Just… There's no way I'm letting Zuzu go here alone." Katsuki said and looked away from his friend, slightly embarrassed by the admission.

Yoarashi nodded, "Yes I can imagine, though I'm sure not to the same level as you, I too don't want to let Midoriya down. Nor Yaoyorozu for that matter. They're both so incredible and I want to prove to them they didn't make a mistake befriending me."

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Zuzu wouldn't stop being your friend just because you didn't get in moron. If anything he'd spend every waking hour trying to coach you to be able to transfer later on in the year."

Yoarashi chuckled though from his mouth it was more like a bellow that drew several people's attention. A blue haired boy near the front turned to scowl at the pair. Katsuki met the boy's scowl with his own, he recognized him from the presentation, the one who had interrupted Present Mic. The boy turned back with his nose raised high, Katsuki would've normally made some comment about privileged private school kids but considering there was another private school kid sat next to him he decided against it. Izuku really did have an influence on him.

Eventually Yoarashi stopped laughing and smiled back down at Katsuki, "You're correct, which is why I'm excited to show you all what I can do."

Katsuki just nodded in agreement, his focus moving away from Yoarashi as the bus slowed to a stop. The group of students all stepped off, the silence among them slightly unnerving as they all looked up in awe at the giant walls and gate which lead to their examination area.

Katsuki took a step away from the crowd and observed the gathered examinees. The group looked far larger off the bus, there were easily at least a hundred people around. Some of them were giants like Yoarashi with obvious mutant quirks while others may have been smaller or less threatening but gave off an aura that ebbed of confidence. It made Katsuki frown, there would of course be a limited number of robots so as result he wasn't just fighting to gain points he was fighting to take it away from everyone else. He suspected the obvious infighting this would cause among the students was all part of the psychological games Nedzu and UA were famous for.

It gave him an idea.

"Hey Airhead," Yoarashi, who had been stretching not far from Katsuki, turned to him with a curious gaze, "We should work together. You're quirk excels at range while mine is almost exclusively close combat. If we go it alone I'll have to avoid the ranged robots while you need to make sure you don't get trapped in close quarters."

Yoarashi seemed to think it over before giving Katsuki a wide smile, "An excellent idea! Together we are bound to get more points and wow the UA staff!"

"Excuse me!"

Katsuki and Yoarashi turned to the outraged voice and they came face to face with the same blue haired boy who had scowled at them on the bus. The same scowl was present on his face as started to shout at the pair, his arms waving wildly.

"You two are being far too loud, everyone here is trying quietly to prepare for the exam and here you are laughing, it's completely-

"Start!"

The blue haired boy was thrown back and the rest of the group momentarily stunned as a shockwave spread throughout them followed by a great gust of wind. A few people looked around in shock, not completely sure what actually just happened.

Up above Present Mic smirked down at them, "What are you waiting for? There's no countdown in real life, you best all hurry up or those two are going to get all the points!"

Up ahead Katsuki and Yoarashi were screaming down the street neck and neck. Katsuki had spent months training with Izuku who utilised surprise attacks and as a result was always keeping one ear open to his surroundings. Yoarashi had only been a moment behind but had quickly caught on the second he realised his friend was moving.

Katsuki's feet slammed into the concrete as he ran, One For All flowing through his body. Each impact on the ground left a cracked footprint as he charged down the road. Yoarashi was right next to him, a whirlwind surrounding his body and pushing him through the air. As the pair went further into the city they came across a collection of robots, a group of one pointers surrounded a three pointer while a few two pointers had taken positions on the roofs surrounding the street.

Katsuki smirked, of course the first set that anyone would likely face had been set up as a trap.

"Airhead, you take the two pointers up top, keep them off me while I take out the group below!" Katsuki shouted through the air that whipped over his face.

Yoarashi nodded in response, "Right, I won't let you down!"

Yoarashi swerved off to the side, making his way up a fire escape on one of the buildings. Katsuki had to admit he was mildly impressed, Yoarashi 'flying' was little more than levitating slightly off the ground but it meant he was able to move far swifter than anyone without a speed quirk.

Focusing back on the robots in front of him, Katsuki pumped a little bit more of One For All into his body, the red crackling fire of full cloak surrounding him. The one pointers quickly saw him coming and started to turn towards his direction.

He was suddenly thankful that Izuku had forced him to share in his hobby of quirk analysis. As the one pointers started to move Katsuki noticed a blaring weakness, the mini guns on their arms took time to spin up. Several had already started but it was obvious they needed a few seconds before they could hail him with bullets.

Luckily Katsuki needed less time.

His feet slammed into the ground as he sprinted as fast as he could before launching himself off the road with his shoulder facing forwards. Bracing himself, Katsuki flew through the air and smashed into the first one pointer. Barrelling through it he grit his teeth as he felt the metal tear across his skin, luckily with One For All running through him it didn't draw blood.

He smashed through several more until his momentum died and he skidded to a halt on the ground surrounded by one pointers. Several of them quickly turned with the one closest swinging its arm around. Katsuki managed to catch the arm as it swung towards him, his fingers digging into the shield it had as the metal creaked under his grip.

Planting his feet Katsuki used the momentum of the robot's swing to his advantage and used all his strength to throw the entire machine upwards. It flew over his head and slammed into another one pointer, the explosion tearing through the air and ringing in Katsuki's ears.

He smirked as he dodged another arm that came swinging his way leaping forward and launching several strikes to the centre of the robot. Its chest quickly crumpled away as oil and sparks fell from it, the robot falling back.

A rumbling behind him made him spin on his heels. He only had a second to raise his arms before

a green steel fist rammed into them, forcing him to skid along the concrete. The three pointer wasn't very fast but it was bulky and strong. The pair were now locked in a battle of strength, Katsuki pushing against the fist from the three pointer which was trying to force him back.

The whirring sounds of guns starting up to his right caused him to panic as his head snapped over and he saw several one pointers taking aim at him. Before he could react however a two pointer fell from the sky into them, another explosion ripping through the street.

Looking up, Katsuki could see Yoarashi fighting on the roof top. The two pointers were trying to flank him but he was expertly using his whirlwinds to control the battlefield. A tornado flew across the edge of the roof and threw several more of them off as they reigned down onto the street below. Yoarashi was clearly no slouch when it came to combat training.

Yet his range still had limits, groups of two pointers from other rooftops were turning their attention to him. Unlike the one pointers they didn't need to warm up their weapons. Bullets flew toward Yoarashi and he was forced to go on the defensive. He brought up two great gusts of wind, powerful enough that they forced the projectiles being shot at him completely off course. But the wind was so powerful Yoarashi was unable to manoeuvre it, all he could do was stand there and take the hits.

Katsuki frowned and clenched his jaw, he needed to get Yoarashi out of there. He turned his head to face the three pointer which was still trying to push against him. He also noticed how the rocket launchers on its back were starting to power up. He didn't feel like testing if One For All enhanced him enough to survive that.

Katsuki took a breath before letting slightly more of One For All flow through his body. He then swivelled on his feet, letting the arm of the three pointer go. The robot lurched forward with the sudden release of force and Katsuki leaned into the advantage. He stepped forward and grabbed the metallic forearm of the robot and pulled.

The arm was torn off with the sound of sparking electricity. Swinging it forward, the three pointer was forced to move back to avoid Katsuki's attack. Using the distraction Katsuki dropped the arm and jumped up, the force of his quick launching him high into the air. Much like how he had landed on The Sludge Villain, Katsuki twisted in the air and landed on the robot's back.

He dug his feet into the easy slots between the metal plates that made up the three pointers back to steady himself as he landed. The robot started to move around, trying to throw him off and so he worked quickly. Reaching out, Katsuki grabbed one of the launches from the machine's shoulder. He yanked it back and grinned when it broke off easily.

He looked upwards to the rooftops and identified one of the groups of two pointers laying down fire on Yoarashi. Biting his inner lip he pulled his arm back and took aim. Allowing as much of One For All as he dared to flow into his arm he threw the launcher, which was still full of rockets, at the group.

It soared through the air and not a second later made impact. The explosion was the biggest yet and ripped apart the two pointers and destroyed a chunk of the building they were on.

Not letting up Katsuki repeated the move with the second shoulder launcher from the three pointer. This time the two pointers tried to shoot down the makeshift projectile before it reached its target but Katsuki's throw was far too powerful. The ground shook as the top of the building collapsed and the fiery remains of the robots fell to the ground.

Katsuki glanced back at Yoarashi who gave him a thumbs up. With the incoming fire lessened he was able to manoeuvre more and quickly went back to taking out the last of the two pointers.

Meanwhile Katsuki looked down at the three pointer he was still standing on. Its remaining arm reached back and tried to throw him off. Before it could, however, Katsuki raised his hands up and stretched out his fingers flat. Increasing the amount of One For All in his arms he shot both straight down at a point and they went seep into the back of the robot. Katsuki grunted as he then pulled them apart with all his might. The machine below him groaned against the pressure before it gave out and the robot was split in half, Katsuki falling through the middle and landing on the concrete with a thud.

Despite that however he smirked and looked around the road, the remains of the robots he and Yoarashi had fought were everywhere. Smoke was rising from some and it filled Katsuki with no small amount of pride. A whoosh to his right indicated Yoarashi had returned from the rooftops.

"Wow!" The wind quirk user cried, "That was incredible Bakugou! Midoriya was right, you really don't have anything to be worried about, you'll definitely pass!"

Katsuki grunted, "Obviously, it's not over yet though."

He indicated to a one pointer which had skidded round a nearby corner and was approaching them. Katsuki powered up his quirk and got ready to leap forward. Before he could, however, a bright blue laser appeared on the scene and cut the robot clean in half.

Katsuki scowled and turned to see a blonde haired boy give him a wink. His scowl deepened as he saw the rest of the group approaching.

"Come one," He said and indicated to another street, "There'll be too much competition here, we need to get away from the main group."

Yoarashi nodded and two boys took off.

Izuku was beaming, his smile nearly tearing his face in two as he watched Katsuki dispose of robot after robot. His training was coming through in spades, he ducked and weaved past attacks to get in close and take down the various enemies any way he could. He punched through their chests, ripped off their heads and kicked them clean in two.

Meanwhile Yoarashi flew around him, taking out all the stragglers and groups that tried to ambush them. Robots flew high into the air on the back of tornados while others were ripped apart by the sheer force of the gales Yoarashi was creating. Together they were easily racking up points.

"The blonde kid with the strength quirk is your brother?" Honenuki asked to which Izuku nodded.

Tokage whistled, "Man, the guys tearing apart those robots like it's nothing."

"Yoarashi too is giving off an impressive display, I had no idea his wind could be so powerful." Yaoyorozu commented as she watched said teenager rip apart a three pointer with nothing more than air.

"Don't underestimate his quark," Vlad King commented from the side of the recommendation students, "He's recorded as being able to achieve wind speeds of 300mph."

Izuku's eyebrows rose in surprise, with those sorts of speeds if Yoarashi was able to create a whirlwind large enough he could destroy entire buildings if he wanted. It was a reminder that while he, Katsuki and Yoayorozu might have complex and classified quirks it didn't mean that the more basic ones, such as elemental control, could be any less devastating.

"It's a good example of why we need the recommendation exams, quirks like theirs excel in these environments while in the obstacle race they struggled against Young Midoriya and Yaoyorozu who were more adaptable. Yet if the two of you were out there I have to confess I think you'd struggle to keep up with their sheer power with your current training levels." Yagi said as he stroked his chin in thought.

"...what?" He asked as he noticed every set of eyes in the room had turned to him with an equal amount of jaws on the floor. Aizawa even looked like he wanted to cry with joy.

"Who did you say you were again?" Tokage asked.

Yagi chuckled nervously, "Toshinori Yagi… I'll be uh… a teaching assistant here in the new term."

Izuku noticed a few staff members raising their eyebrows at that comment, even Nedzu looked a little surprised. Clearly they had been expecting All Might to teach his classes and not Yagi.

"While those two truly are impressive we mustn't neglect the rest of the candidates either." Nedzu commented as his eyes darted from screen to screen, taking in each individual examinee and their performance.

Izuku forced himself to look away from Katsuki and Yoarashi and started to observe some of the other test areas. He was glad he did as he found himself presented with a wide array of new quirks to analyse.

He first came across a pink girl with horns, she had removed her shoes and was sliding around on her feet, a gooey like substance underneath them that allowed her to move around gracefully. She approached a one pointer and threw out a blob of the same substance from her hand, it hit the robot directly in the face and Izuku watched in fascination as the robot's head melted away.

Acid he realised, again it was a pretty simple quirk but a powerful one. He assumed she must have been able to change the PH of the acid as the trails she was leaving under her feet weren't melting the road like the metal. It was also curious how the robots she was hitting weren't exploding or catching fire, it meant her acid wasn't flammable which suggested it had some sort of specific chemical composition.

Moving away from the pink girl Izuku saw another monitor show a one pointer charge directly into

a student. For a minute Izuku panicked but then he saw the boy's skin harden and take the full force of the blow. The one pointer bent under the sudden force and the boy quickly punched back, easily tearing through the robot. It looked like he had some sort of quirk which hardened his skin.

Though there must be more to it than that Izuku thought, if all he did was harden his skin the force of that impact would have still thrown him down. It was possible that whatever method was used to harden his skin also increased his weight substantially, this would mean he could both take blows and punch harder. It also raised the question of just what exactly hardening meant, it was clearly more than just thick skin and didn't look like bone. Again it was possible the substance wasn't something that could be found in the natural world.

Next to the hardening boys screen there was a purple haired girl who, unlike a majority of the students, was taking more of a stealth route. She was keeping to the shadows and moving quietly, she seemed to be aware of everything going on around her however and was easily creating ambushes for the robots. She targeted ones outside of a group and as they passed her her ears shot out. They appeared to have some sort of jack on the end which she slammed into the robot which would then vibrate violently before collapsing to the ground.

At first it looked like she had a vibration quirk, but thinking about it this didn't make sense. For starters, requiring whatever was hanging from her ears as a contact point wasn't very logical, even for a quirk. And if it was a simple vibration quirk then the entire robot would be ruined, instead it looked like the damage was mostly internal. There was also the way she moved, it was obvious much like how Izuku could sense energy she was using something outside of standard sight to gain awareness of the battlefield.

There was an awkward cough from next to Izuku and he blinked several times, returning back to the real world. He noticed that, like Yagi a moment ago, every pair of eyes were on him. Yagi, who it appeared had been the cougher, was looking at him with mild amusement, Aizawa was smirking at him and Nedzu was giving him a look of pure glee that somehow sent a shiver down Izuku's spine.

Yoayorozu giggled next to him, "You weren't joking when you said you were into quirk analysis."

Izuku blushed furiously, "I mumbled all that out loud didn't I?"

Yagi let out a loud laugh, "Don't worry my boy, we all have bad habits."

Izuku grumbled in response which just caused Yagi to laugh even more.

"It looks like Todoroki is retaking the exam as well." Yoayorozu said and Izuku stopped pouting to follow her gaze.

Indeed in another area separate from Bakugou and Yoarashi he could see great seas of ice sweeping across the city streets. Every robot within the area was instantly frozen and fell to the ground, their systems unable to take the sheer cold. Todoroki himself was simply moving from street to street, taking out every point on the road in one massive attack before moving on.

Izuku frowned at the display, "He's being a complete idiot."

A few surprised gazes were sent his way as Vlad King spluttered next to him, "How on earth could you say that, in one move he racked up more points than over half the other competitors?"

Izuku had to fight the urge to roll his eyes, despite Yagi and Aizawa's influence he and Katsuki still had a few issues with authority. It wouldn't do him any favours to start antagonising the UA staff before he even started, especially given the looks some of them were giving him. It was clear they now knew of his quirk.

"He might be gaining a lot of points but that's only because of the amount of power he's using. He's just launching giant sweeps and not thinking about it, he's lucky he hasn't hit another person yet."

As if to prove his point Todororki shot out a massive wave of ice which barrelled over several robots in an alleyway. But several people in the room flinched as the purple haired girl was forced to scramble up a fire escape out of its path. She scowled at Todoroki who simply walked away from the scene.

"That is… rather concerning." Yagi commented with a frown.

Nedzu sighed, "I'd hoped failing the recommendation would cause him to humble himself but if anything it's made him more stubborn."

Izuku meanwhile was watching Todoroki carefully, "Somethings wrong."

Aizawa gave him a curious look, "How so?"

"Look at him," Izuku said and indicated to the screen, "His entire right side is covered in frost."

"He has an ice quirk, that isn't unusual." Vlad King commented with a confused furrow of his eyebrows.

"No, Midoriya is right." Nedzu said and leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at Todoroki, "He's moving slowly and shivering, the ice is slowly harming him."

"So… what's the issue?" Tokage asked, completely lost.

Izuku turned to her, "It's incredibly rare for people with elemental quirks not to be completely resistant to said element. Yoarashi for example is still able to breath easily despite the extreme winds that go on around his body and Endeavour can't be harmed by fire no matter how intense. But Todoroki is clearly being affected by his ice here, if I were to guess I'd say he's not using his second quirk to regulate the temperature of his body."

"Wait," Honenuki said, "How do you know he has two quirks?"

Izuku froze, the answer was of course that he could sense the two different quirk energies within Todoroki but he wasn't about to admit that to the entire room. Yagi too seemed to have realised his dilemma and was sending the boy a nervous glance.

"Oh you only have to listen to Endeavour for five minutes at any high society event to hear him brag about it. Supposedly his son has both an ice and fire quirk." Yaoyorozu said to which Izuku felt relief wash through him.

"He's still not using his fire, which is a concern." Aizawa said as he glared into the screen so hard Izuku half expected Todoroki to die on the spot.

"Then perhaps he needs something a little more challenging." Nedzu commented with a sadistic smile as he reached for the large red button in front of him.

Katsuki jumped forward, cleanly punching the head off a two pointer and smirking to himself as it flew high into the air. There was a crash to his right as another two pointer was thrown into the side of a building, the whirlwind which had launched it slowly dying down. Various other bodies of robots were strewn about the place, the pair had circled back to the main street and had caught a group of them preparing an ambush off guard. It made for easy pickings.

Yoarashi jogged up to him, both boys were panting heavily with sweat dripping down from their foreheads. Katsuki's whole body ached and he could feel the strain One For All was putting on him. He couldn't risk going above 5% currently for fear of causing permanent damage to his body. Yoarashi also looked to be suffering from quirk exhaustion, his wind becoming unstable and harder to control as the pair pushed themselves beyond their limits.

"Where to next?" Yoarashi asked as he scanned the area.

Katsuki looked around the various street options, "Doesn't look like any big groups are nearby and we've only got a few minutes left. Our best bet is to head back to the main street and mop up anything the other candidates haven't already got to."

Yoarashi nodded and the boys took off down the road, it was obvious how exhausted they were by the fact that neither activated their quick to do so. They exited the side street they had been down and came out onto the main plaza. It was obvious most of the fighting had taken place on this street, chunks of robots littered the area and nearly every building in sight had some form of damage to it. The ground itself was scorched and cracked in some places, it almost looked like a warzone.

"Your plan to move away from the main area was definitely a good one." Yoarashi commented and indicated down the street.

Katsuki watched as the blue haired boy from earlier (who appeared to have exhausts sticking out of his legs) charged straight at a one pointer. Before he could, however, green vines shot out from the ground and crushed the robot, causing a minor explosion to ring out. The boy shot a girl, whose hair appeared to be made of said vines, a frustrated look before speeding off to find another robot.

"Yeah, I'd be surprised if any of these extra's were able to tally up as many points as us if they stayed here the whole time." Katsuki said as he watched the brown haired girl from earlier throw several three pointers into the air before letting them fall to the ground, he was mildly impressed.

"Maybe if we move down-"

Yoarashi was interrupted as the ground around them started to shake, chunks of rock fell from the already weak buildings and a few of the candidates around them were thrown to the ground. Katsuki snapped his head round and his eyes widened as he looked up the street. A massive cloud of dust and debris was being thrown up in the air but that was nothing compared to the colossal robot that towered above the skyline, looking down at the now mostly terrified students.

"That's the fucking zero pointer!?" Katsuki shouted as he strained his neck to get a view of the whole thing,

Yoarashi looked positively ecstatic at the giant death robot making its way towards them, "HAHAHA! I knew UA was impressive but WOW! Truly they are challenging us even in the entrance exam!"

"Run you fucking idiot!" Katsuki shouted and grabbed Yoarashi's arm as the other candidates sprinted past them away from the zero pointer.

Yoarashi looked shocked at Katsuki's suggestion, "Bakugou, isn't it a hero's duty to stop threats like this?"

Katsuki turned and nearly punched Yoarashi who refused to move from his spot, "It's worth zero points, it's far too strong for us to take down and there's no civilians in the area at risk. Attacking it would be pointless and too risky for us, sometimes you need to know when to stand down."

Yoarashi didn't look convinced, "But as heroes-"

"We're no good to anybody if we're dead," Katsuki said with a stern look, he'd had this conversation far too many times with Izuku, "We shouldn't engage that thing unless-"

"Owwww"

Both boy's heads snapped round to the zero pointer, Katsuki scanned the area before his eyes focused on the same brown haired girl he'd collided with at the gates. She was trapped underneath a large chunk of rubble as she scrambled to escape, even from this distance Katsuki could see the pain on her face. To make matters worse the zero pointer was making its way towards her,

crushing everything in its path.

Katsuki didn't even think before he was moving, One For All flowing through his body as his feet slammed into the ground. He sprinted down the road and came to a skidding halt next to the girl who looked up at him with a small amount of awe and shock.

"Can you move?" Katsuki asked as he reached down and hauled the concrete slab off her.

"I-I think my leg is broken." The girl said and winced when she looked back and saw the awkward angle her right leg was at.

"Then I'll have to carry you." Katsuki reached down and plucked the girl off the ground, she let out a yelp as he picked her up bridal style, with his new found muscle she was easy to carry and the small girl looked tiny in his arms.

"Look out!" The girl cried and Katsuki whipped round to come face to face with an incoming steel fist the size of a small car.

Before he could jump out of the way a massive whirlwind of air caught the fist. The arm of the zero pointer groaned under the pressure as it tried to push back against the hurricane level strength. Standing next to Katsuki, Yoarashi grunted under the intense pressure as he pushed his quirk to its absolute limits, his whole body tensed as he tried not to break under the force.

"Airhead, what are you doing!?" Katsuki shouted.

His friend shot him a smile, "What sort of hero and friend would I be if I let you tackle this alone?"

Katsuki smirked, "Can you hold it?"

Yoarashi hissed as he was forced back slightly, the arm of the giant robot pushing against his tornado. The building behind the arm was being torn to shreds from the force of the wind but the arm itself seemed to be holding.

"Just about, you should-"

"It has ANOTHER ARM!" The girl screamed from Katsuki's arms.

Katsuki swivelled on his feet, the girl was right, it's second arm was less than a metre away from completely pummelling them both. He could try to jump to avoid it but with Yoarashi's powerful wind in the area he could be violently thrown off course. And with the girl in his arms he didn't have any way of fighting back. His mind raced through scenarios, Zuzu always told him to use his head.

Use. His. Head…

As the giant steel fist came towards him Katsuki let as much of One For All as he could flow into his forehead. With a cry of rage he leant back before ramming it forward. He headbutted the fist dead on, the strength of One For All causing his forehead to split open and blood to spurt out.

The fist was stopped in its tracks, a great dent appearing in the shape of Katsuki's head. The metal creaked and shook as the force of the headbutt reverberated through it. The arm was forced back and started to crumble, unable to take the force of the vibrations shaking it. It wasn't long before the entire left arm of the zero pointer collapsed, chunks of it exploding as the arm fell to the ground.

Katsuki smiled in victory, in his arms the girl looked at him with terror filled eyes, he was giving the zero pointer a manic smile with his face covered in blood. He looked far more like a villain than a hero yet despite that she still felt reassured in his arms.

There was a shout of pain behind them and the pair turned their heads to see Yoarashi pushing the last arm of the giant robot back with everything he had. The gust of wind that shot from his hands caused the metal plates of the robot's arm to tear off and be thrown into the air. The building behind it all but vanished as it collapsed in on itself from the pressure.

The zero pointer was forced back slightly by the wind and Yoarashi deactivated his quirk, nearly dropping to his knees from exhaustion. Katsuki quickly made his way over to him.

"Can you run?" he asked.

Yoarashi looked up at him with a pale face but nodded, "Yes, I can still move."

Katsuki started to pass the girl in his arms to Yoarashi, the girl cried out as she was passed between them, "Get her out of here, I'll keep it distracted."

Yoarashi's eyes widened, "Leave you behind? Bakugou I couldn't-"

"You're spent, you can't use your quirk anymore and you're on the verge of collapsing and she has a broken leg." Katsuki said with a scowl and forced the girl into Yoarashi's arms.

"But-"

"I'm not arguing Airhead, get the fuck out of here!" Katsuki shouted as the zero pointer started to rumble forward again.

Yoarashi looked like he wanted to argue more but he snapped his mouth shut and took off running down the street with the girl in his arms.

Katsuki turned to face the zero pointer, its remaining ruined arm moving rubble out of its way. He clenched his fists, one solid punch might do the trick but it would have to be dead on and would absolutely destroy his arm. The vibrations he'd sent through its other arm had worked a charm, he just needed to replicate that on a larger scale.

Katsuki smirked, he'd heard how Zuzu had dominated his obstacle race, he had to one up his brother somehow.

He charged forward, allowing his quirk to run freely into his arms, the pain was immense but he just grit his teeth and pushed through it. The zero pointer swung down but Katsuki ducked under it's arm. With a warcry he leaped off the ground aiming at the tracks the robot moved on. His arms were engulfed in red flame and he brought them down together in one movement directly onto the bottom of the zero pointer.

The effect was instant, the metal and rubber collapsed under the force and Katsuki felt his muscles tear from overusing his quirk. The force from the attack ripped through the entire robot, the whole thing shook violently as parts of it were thrown off. The vibration from Katsuki's attack shook the whole machine. Explosions escaped its body at various locations as it started to fall back. Katsuki jumped backwards as the whole robot fell in of itself, fire and smoke filling the area before-

"And that's time!"

The entire street was utterly silent as the smoke cleared, the remains of the zero pointer taking up half the view. Katsuki himself was standing just in front of it, arms limp at his side and body covered in blood. But he was grinning maniacally.

As the smoke cleared Yoarashi came running through, the girl still in his arms, "Bakugou!"

"Are you ok!?" The girl cried as she saw his state.

Katsuki ignored them and searched around wildly, the girl and Yoarashi glanced at each other in concern. From their perspective it looked like the blonde had finally snapped. But eventually Katsuki found what he was looking for.

The security camera was perfectly focused on him and even seemed to to look closer when he noticed it. Katsuki's smile was so wide it almost resembled a wild animal.

"You see that Zuzu!? You may have won some shitty obstacle race but I just took down a giant fucking robot! YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST ME ONCE WE REALLY START!" Katsuki bellowed much to the amusement of Yoarashi and the confusion of the girl.

Inside the observation room everyone was silent in watching Katsuki, the beaten up boy screaming at the camera. Nedzu had subtly activated the volume so they had all heard what had just been said.

They all shivered when there was a dark chuckling in the room.

"Well played Kacchan… well played." Izuku said with his own maniacal grin as he looked at the remains of the zero pointer.

"...is anyone else fucking terrified?" Tokage said.

Quirk Energy

Chapter Summary

Izuku and Katsuki discover some things about their quirks with Nedzu

Chapter Notes

Thanks for all the comments and kudos as always! Just wanted to warn you all this chapter diverges from canon a bit in regards to how quirks work and the science behind them, hopefully it's too much of a dramatic change for you all

Izuku's smile hadn't left his face since the end of the entrance exam, he knew Katsuki had come far since their first day on the beach but watching him take down a giant robot had proved to everyone just how strong his brother had become. Katsuki was right, Izuku really did have some catching up to do if he wanted to stay on the same level.

He watched the other students file out the gate of UA, more than a few had faces of disappointment, clearly they already knew they had failed the exam purely based on their performance. A few others looked hopeful however. Izuku had already said goodbye to Tokage and Honenuki while Yoayorozu had elected to wait with him for Katsuki and Yoarashi.

"May I ask you a question, Midoriya?" Yoayorozu said to his side.

"Sure." Izuku responded with a tilt of his head.

"Why do you and Bakugou seem so…" Yoayorozu bit her lip in though, clearly unsure how to phrase the question.

"Odd? Weird? Complete maniacs?" Izuku said with a chuckle, "It's ok Yoayorozu, I know we're not exactly normal."

"I wouldn't say that but well… your relationship isn't like any I've seen before." She admitted.

Izuku shrugged, "We had a… difficult upbringing, I won't go into details but it's safe to say we definitely didn't have what could be classed as a normal childhood."

"I see." Yoayorozu said, her eyes drifting off in thought though she didn't press the issue.

"I told you assholes you didn't need to wait!"

Katsuki's shout drew the pair's attention as he stormed over, Yoarashi close behind. They had clearly been to see Recovery Girl as Katsuki had bandages over his arms and forehead while Yoarashi was looking far better than he had at the end of the exam and some colour had returned to his face.

Izuku rolled his eyes, "Did you forget I have a meeting with Nedzu?"

Katsuki grumbled and blushed slightly while Yoayorozu looked at Izuku in surprise, "You do?"

Izuku nodded, "Yeah, nothing major, he just wanted to have a discussion on my quirk before the term starts."

Yoarashi laughed, "After seeing Bakugou's quirk in action I'm almost afraid of what yours could be to warrant it being fully classified."

Katsuki scoffed, "Oh you have no idea."

Izuku elbowed the boy in the side to which Katsuki scowled back at him.

"Oi watch it, I'm still recovering!"

"Oh, does the big bad Kacchan need me to take him home so his mommy can give him a glass of milk?" Izuku mocked and Yoayorozu and Yoarashi sighed.

"Hey asshole, did you happen to see the giant fucking robot I just took down?" Katsuki shouted back with a smug grin.

Izuku just waved him off, "Pffft, Yoarashi helped you take it down and I already beat Yoarashi so I win."

"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!"

"Hey!"

The fifth voice to enter the area pulled Katsuki and Izuku away from their scowling as the brown haired girl from the exam came running up to the group. She was limping slightly but other than that appeared to be fully healed, Recovery Girls quirk really was something else. Katsuki raised his eyebrow at the new arrival while Yoarashi gave her a wide smile.

"Ah it's you! I'm glad to see your leg is all healed up!" The wind user cried with a thumbs up, a few people walking past the group turned at the volume.

"Mhmm," The girl nodded, "Recovery Girl got me healed up though it's still a little sore, she said to rest for a few days. Anyway, I wanted to thank you both for what you did back there, I was gonna be mincemeat for sure if you hadn't intervened!"

"I'm sure UA wouldn't have allowed any serious injury to befall you." Yoayorozu said with a smile.

"Nedzu's in charge." Izuku reminded her and the girl paled.

Katsuki snorted, "Don't worry about it, we can't exactly call ourselves heroes if we didn't help you."

"Indeed!" Yoarashi agreed, "Helping someone in need is the essence of a hero!"

The girl giggled, "Man you guys are intense, I'm Ochako Uraraka."

"A pleasure to meet you Uraraka, I'm Inasa Yoarashi!" Yoarashi announced with his standard bow

which shook the ground, it caused Uraraka to yelp while Katsuki and Yaoyorozu jumped slightly. Izuku barely moved, too used to it by this point.

"I'm Momo Yoayorozu, it's also good to meet you." Yoayorozu said in the most formal voice Izuku had heard her use.

"Katsuki Bakugou," Katsuki grunted, "Green haired idiot-"

"Hey!"

"-next to me is my brother, Izuku Midoriya."

Izuku folded his arms and pouted at Katsuki who just smirked in response, Uraraka giggled at the display before turning to Izuku and Yaoyorozu.

"So did you two take the entrance exams too?" She asked.

"Ah no," Izuku said with an awkward shrug, "We both already got in through the recommendation exams."

Uraraka's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped slightly, "Woah, you two must have really impressive quirks then!"

Katsuki frowned and stepped forward, Izuku was confused for a moment before the blonde reached out and flicked Uraraka on the forehead. The girl in question could barely respond to the display, her body freezing as she looked up at Katsuki in pure shock. Yoarashi and Yoayorozu too had both horrified and panicked looks on their faces. Katsuki just stepped back and narrowed his eyes at Uraraka.

"Kacchan! You can't just go… go flicking people!" Izuku shouted as he waved his arms in the air.

Katsuki just rolled his eyes and ignored him, "What did I say before we walked in?"

Uraraka suddenly realised he was talking to her and blinked in surprise, "Huh?"

"I told you quirks don't matter," Katsuki said, "Zuzu and Yaoyorozu didn't get in on recommendation because of their quirks, they got in because of their hard work, smarts and skills."

Uraraka paused before she giggled at the display, "Man, you really are all serious about that. But yeah you're right, it's more than just quirks."

"Speaking of which I'm going to be late to my meeting, you coming Kacchan?" Izuku asked.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Obviously."

Izuku and Katsuki approached Nedzu's office, a few students (and some staff) had given them strange looks as they walked in the opposite direction to the crowd and made their way through the school. Izuku had assumed he could remember the way, unfortunately this proved wrong and Katsuki was becoming more and more frustrated as they turned round various corners.

"I think if we take the next left…" Izuku mumbled as he looked at various doors they walked past.

Katsuki seethed behind the green haired boy, "Dammit Zuzu I swear to god if we pass that fucking trophy case one more time I'm going to-"

"Ah boys you're here!"

Both boys turned to their right where Nedzu was standing in a doorway smiling at them, the glint of mischief in his eyes made Izuku narrow his own. He was almost certain this wasn't the same office he'd had his interview in, for starters there was no waiting room like last time. Izuku wouldn't put it past the principle to have several offices throughout the school just to confuse people.

But he wasn't going to let Katsuki know that.

"See Kacchan, I knew exactly where to go." He said smugly and followed Nedzu inside the office.

Katsuki just ground his teeth together as he took the seat next to Izuku, both of them facing Nedzu who sat behind his desk with his paws clasped together. He gave both boys a smile.

"Would either of you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes please." Izuku responded as he watched Nedzu once again pull out his magical teapot from the nether realm, Katsuki just gave a shrug in response which Nedzu took as a yes and handed them both steaming cups.

"May I ask what this meeting is about? You were pretty unclear in your message." Izuku asked as he took a sip of the tea.

"Ah yes, my apologies," Nedzu said with a slight bow of his head, "Truthfully it's not all that necessary but I just couldn't wait until the start of the term. You see, in watching your physical assessment I noticed some things about your quirk and combined with the quite frankly abhorrent quirk diagnoses you received I thought it was about time we updated your HPSC records."

Izuku blinked a few times in surprise as he stared at Nedzu, "You can do that?"

Nedzu chuckled, "Of course, who do you think updated Mr Bakugou's record here."

"Huh?" Bakugou said, looking up from his tea, "That was you? Why didn't All Might do it?"

"Believe it or not, heroes don't have the authority to update those kinds of records, but as the principle of UA I'm able to. It's not unusual for students to undergo dramatic changes to their quirks under the intense training they go through here so it's really a requirement of the job. On that note I must say Bakugou I was impressed with your control of One For All in the exam, you've even started to adapt to your own style, precise deadly strikes over All Might's powerful blows, it was truly interesting to watch." Nedzu said with a glint in his eye.

Katsuki just folded his arms and stared at the rat, "So did I pass?"

"Kacchan!" Izuku cried.

Nedzu just let out a laugh, "I see now why you give both Yagi and Aizawa such a headache between the two of you. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait like everyone else."

Katsuki huffed, "Fine, so what about Zuzu's quirk?"

Nedzu turned to a computer he kept on his desk and started to tap away at the keyboard, "Now then, I suggest a complete wipe of all your previous notes. A fresh start is what I feel is best. Now, first things first, what shall we call it?"

Izuku gave Nedzu a shocked look, "We're even changing the name?"

Katsuki however looked relieved, "Finally! Damn doctor never should have been allowed to call it that."

Nedzu nodded in agreement, "Katsuki is right, by law quirk names are supposed to be neutral. How that doctor got away with the name Quirk Thief I'll never know. But we're here to change that."

Izuku stroked his chin in thought, "Well, the doctor wasn't technically wrong in what I can do. I do take quirks, but I can also transfer them, theoretically I could take your quirk and give it to Kacchan right now."

Nedzu titled his head in response to that statement, "Have you ever transferred a quirk?"

Izuku shook his head, "No, I can barely tolerate taking a quirk for myself let alone giving it to someone else. Plus there's no way of knowing what the blowback would be, my body has limited ways of adapting to new quirks but others won't have anything. Imagine giving an ice quirk to someone with no frost resistance."

Katsuki shuddered at the thought though Nedzu looked lost in thought, "You know that's not a bad battle tactic. Giving someone a quirk they can't handle."

At that moment both Katsuki and Izuku had never been more terrified of an animal. Neither boys were strangers to brutal and effective combat tactics, which Nedzu of course knew from Izuku's interview but even that seemed going a little too far for being a hero.

"Don't forget about the weird energy shit you can sense," Katsuki commented, "It's probably why you understand quirks better than anyone else too."

Nedzu was tapping his fingers together as he spoke, "The more I go over your quirk the more I realise how complex it is."

Izuku blushed slightly, "It's not that bad."

Katsuki scoffed, "It's more complex than mine."

Izuku gave him a deadpanned look, "Kacchan you have a quirk that was passed down to you from at least nine generations from the most powerful hero in the country."

Nedzu chuckled, "You are quite the pair, to think Bakugou holds One For All and you Midoriya hold All For- An equally powerful quirk."

Nedzu panicked internally at his slip up, he had been so engrossed in the discussion of the quirk he had completely forgotten Midoriya wasn't aware of All Might's theory. He noticed the boy turn to him with a quizzical look but luckily neither of his guests seemed to pick up on what exactly he had slipped up on.

Clearing his throat Nedzu continued, "There is also another theory about it I want to pick up on but for that we need some assistance to test it out."

On a perfect cue the door to the office swung open and Aizawa and Ectoplasm walked in. Aizawa looked exceptionally bored while Ectoplasm just gave both boys a pilote nod. Katsuki raised his eyebrow as the teachers walked around to flank Nedzu.

"Don't look so impressed, he had us wait outside for five minutes." Aizawa said.

Nedzu frowned and pouted, "Please don't ruin my fun Aizawa, messing with humans is the only hobby I have left."

Aizawa just grunted in response, "What are we here for?"

"Ah, that's quite simple. I have a theory about Midoriya's quirk and you both advised me you were comfortable with him borrowing yours."

Izuku looked up at the two teachers, "You are?"

Ectoplasm nodded, "We are hero teachers and while I don't enjoy having my quirk taken, if it advances my students skill set then I am more than happy to help."

"What he said," Aizawa said with a nod in his colleague's direction.

Izuku couldn't help but feel a well of happiness in his chest at their words which Katsuki clearly picked up on as the boy rolled his eyes and elbowed Izuku.

"Don't fucking cry."

Nedzu chuckled, "Now if we could all just pay attention to the following video clip please."

Everyone turned to the screen on the wall as Nedzu played the clip. Izuku recognised it instantly as the final moments of his obstacle race during the recommendation exam. He and Yaoyorozu sprinted through the green gas he'd created using Midnights quirk while the gathered group watched as he used Ectoplasm's quirk and a clone of Izuku morphed at the edge of the gas cloud and jumped out, passing over the finish line.

As the footage finished Katsuki nodded at him, "Not bad Zuzu, it's not quite a giant robot but not bad."

Izuku responded by giving Katsuki the finger. A cough made him realise there were others in the room and he blushed as the three teachers were giving him amused looks.

"Now," Nedzu said, "Does anyone notice anything strange about what happened?"

"I can," Ectoplasm responded, "That's not how my quirk works. There should have been a mist which formed from Midoriya's mouth, not to mention the range at which the clone appeared was almost double what I can do."

"I'm assuming it's not a coincidence that the clone appeared at the edge of his gas cloud." Aizawa said, a hint of genuine curiosity in his voice.

"Exactly, I noticed these too and came up with a theory, so, Midoriya, could you please take my staff's quirks." Nedzu said as his eyes gleamed with excitement.

Izuku glanced up at Aizawa and Ectoplasm who both gave their nods of approval. He sighed and closed his eyes, he first focused on Aizawa's quirk, by this point he could grasp onto it fairly easily. It put up a slight fight but Aizawa quickly let it go and it flowed into Izuku.

He then turned to Ectoplasm and grasped at his quirk, he gave a slight pull and felt some resistance. Izuku frowned and tugged further yet unlike Aizawa who let the quirk go Ectoplasm seemed to pull the pack. Izuku grunted slightly and pulled harder, allowing a small amount of his hunger to reign free and help him. Unfortunately the result was for Ectoplasm just to pull back and they quickly got into a tug of war over the quirk. Izuku grit his teeth and pulled harder letting more of hunger out, as he did he felt Nedzu and Katsuki's quirk around him, both looked appealing, maybe after he took-

"STOP!"

Izuku's shout, followed by his subsequent collapse to the ground, made the entire room jump in shock. Izuku clutched his chest, taking deep breaths as he tried to steady himself, in fighting for the quirk he let his hunger slip and he needed to regain control. Around him the office erupted into pandemonium. Ectoplasm fell back against the wall, clearly winded and with wide eyes.

Katsuki was on his feet in seconds, standing protectively in front of Izuku. One For All flared up around his body and he slammed his hands onto the desk, the wood cracking underneath them.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" He roared at the teachers who all wore shocked expressions.

Aizawa went to activate his quirk to calm things down only to realise Izuku was still holding onto it and he cursed under his breath.

"Please Mr Bakugou, calm down," Nedzu said with a surprising amount of patience for someone who had a border line feral teenager looming over them, "I'm just as lost as you are here."

Katsuki made to open his mouth and shout the rat down but was stopped when he felt One For All vanish from his body. He snapped his round to see Izuku staring up at him from the ground with glowing red eyes, his green hair standing up on end.

"It's fine Kacchan, I know what happened." Izuku said as he struggled back into his seat.

"As do I," Ectoplasm responded as he also seemed to calm down and shake himself off, "I apologise Midoriya, the moment I felt you tug against my quirk instinct took over."

"Ah, it appears I understand what happened. Am I right in thinking Midoriya pulled against your quirk and you automatically fought back against it?" Nedzu asked as he turned his head to Ectoplasm.

"It's not entirely his fault," Midoriya said though he was glaring at Katsuki as the boy sat back down, "I should've stopped but I let more and more of my hunger out and I risked losing control."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, "This was never an issue before?"

"Before the recommendation exam I used a method of pushing it back to control my hunger, now I let it out completely but maintain control of it. It's useful but it means when actually using my quirk it's easier to succumb to it." Izuku explained.

"How interesting," Nedzu said as he stroked his chin, "Still, you didn't seem to have too much trouble taking Aizawa and everyone else's quirk for the exam."

Izuku shrugged, "I was able to focus entirely on the quirks at the time and apart from Aizawa, who let me take it, everyone else had their guard down and was taken by surprise. In reality I can't just waltz up and start taking quirks, especially not in the middle of a battle, people start naturally

fighting back. The first time I took Gran Torino's quirk, Kacchan had to hold him down for nearly three minutes and Torino had a relatively weak quirk to take. I doubt I'd be able to take the quirk of anyone in the top thirty hero charts unless it was by surprise and they had their guard down."

Aizawa grunted, "That's a weakness we'll need to work on when you start. Your idea for stockpiling quirks won't work well if you can't take a villain's quirk mid battle."

"Indeed, but that's for another time. For now are you both confident in trying again?" Nedzu asked, indicating both to Izuku and Ectoplasm.

The two of them nodded and Izuku closed his eyes again, focusing on Ectoplasm's energy. Ectoplasm at first tugged back against him but after an audible sigh from the hero Izuku felt his energy transfer into himself. He opened his eyes and nodded at Nedzu to initiate the success.

"Excellent!" Nedzu cried with a clap of his hands, "Now, I wonder if you might use their quirks one after the other."

Izuku nodded and activated Aizawa's quirk first, he felt the quirk energy shoot out of him and saw both Nedzu and Katsuki shudder slightly at the loss of their quiks. He quickly deactivated Eraser, not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable for longer than they needed to be. He then followed it by opening his mouth, mist sped forth into the space between him and Katsuki's chair. A perfect clone of Izuku appeared and smirked down at Katsuki.

"Hey Kacchan." Both Izukus' said in unison.

Katsuki frowned, "You know it's only murder if I kill the real Zuzu right?"

Izuku grumbled as he let his clone fly back into his mouth, Katsuki just laughed at him.

"Now," Nedzu said with a wide smile, "I'd like you to try using both quirks in unison."

Four sets of eyes turned to Nedzu with equal looks of surprise. Izuku's mind was racing, could he do that? Use both quirks at the same time? He's never tried something like that, sure he had combined his Uncle and Aunties quirks in training before but Auntie's was just a constant, he didn't need to actively turn it on. He had never used two quirks together… unless…

"I see what you're getting at." Katsuki said as realisation dawned on his face, "You think he used both Midnights and Ectoplasm quirk at the end of the exam. That's why it worked so differently."

Nedzu nodded, "Indeed Bakugou, I'm quite curious to test my theory. So Midoriya, do you think you could give it a try?"

Izuku nodded in response and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He felt the two energies within him, activating each one individually was fairly easy at this point but trying to activate them together would be difficult. He could expel the energy of both quirks at the same time but he felt that wasn't really what Nedzu was getting at. He tried to think back to his exam and when he used Ectoplasm's quirk then. At the time he had subcoinsily still been pushing Midnight's quirk out. He vaguely remembered what had happened, normally when he used Ectoplasm's quirk one of the balls would be pushed out through his mouth as mist. But when he'd used it at the end of the race the ball had joined with Midnight's energy and been pushed out through his chest. So maybe the key was to combine the energies.

As he thought about it Izuku latched onto Ectoplasm's energy within himself and imagined pushing it towards where Aizawa's energy sat. To his shock it worked, he felt the balls of Ectoplasm's quirk move within his body and start to line up behind his eyes where Aizawa's energy sat. The lines of Aizawa's energy seemed to reach out and pull the orbs into it, the two energies slowly changing to the same colour.

Izuku took a breath and activated the quirks- no, the single quirk. The rest of the room watched as he opened his mouth and the familiar mist of Ectoplasm's quirk poured out and surrounded the office. Ectoplasm himself raised an eyebrow at the sight, already noticing a few differences in the mist.

After a short time a solid wall of mist surrounded the occupants of the office. Izuku paused before he opened his eyes and activated Aizawa's section of the quirk. The moment he did the mist that surrounded everyone was filled with eyes identical to Izuku's own. They floated in the mist glowing red and staring down at everyone. The slight jump from both Nedzu and Katsuki indicated they were under the effect of Eraser and had indeed lost their quirks.

Katsuki smirked as he looked at the various glowing red eyes around the room, "Wicked."

Izuku blushed slightly at the comment and deactivated the quirk before pushing Aizawa and Ectoplasm's energy back to their masters. It took a little longer than usual as he had to separate them back into their separate quirks but after a few minutes both teachers had slightly relieved faces when they felt their quirks return.

Nedzu meanwhile was tapping away at his computer like a rat possessed, "Wonderful! Wonderful! Thank you Ectoplasm, Eraserhead, you can both return to your duties."

Ectoplasm gave everyone in the room a slight nod before walking out the door. Aizawa however didn't move a muscle from where he stood.

Nedzu sighed, "You're not going to leave are you?"

"Nope," Aizawa confirmed, "I'm in the secret club remember, I want to see where this goes."

Nedzu just waved over at a spare chair, "Fine, then grab a seat and don't disturb my note taking."

Aizawa smirked slightly and pulled up a chair next to Nedzu, eyeing Izuku and Katsuki each individually. Izuku couldn't tell if he was genuinely unimpressed or if it was just his natural face. Maybe it was both.

"So then," Nedzu said, his voice vibrating with excitement, "It seems you're able to use two quirks at once?"

Izuku shook his head, "Actually, it's more like I took their energy once I had them and combined them to create one new singular quirk."

Nedzu's hands were all but a blur as he typed away, Katsuki watched with a slightly fearful expression. The similarities between Nedzu and Izuku's quirk obsession was far too high to be comfortable with. From the look Aizawa was giving his boss he too felt the same.

"So in summary, your quirk allows you to take, transfer and combine quirks. You're able to do this all due to the energy that you can see and manipulate which is unique to each quirk, correct?" Nedzu asked as he paused his typing and looked over at Izuku.

Izuku nodded, "That sounds about right."

"Wonderful, in which case I have the evidence I need to support my theory. Midoriya, you have misdiagnosed, you do not in fact take quirks." Nedzu said with a smile as if he hadn't just dropped a bombshell right on top of Izuku.

There was a brief pause around the office before-

"WHAT!?" Katsuki shouted, jumping to his feet though unlike last time he hadn't activated his quirk.

Aizawa sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Nedzu I don't normally question your insanity but this is one I have to. I can assure you he definitely takes quirks, trust me I've had it done three times to mine now."

Nedzu just nodded, "Yes he's also taken my quirk but I still think I'm right."

Izuku had remained very quiet and still since Nedzu had spoken but broke his silence with a soft whisper, "Nedzu s-sir, could you please explain?"

The other occupants of the room turned to Izuku and suddenly realised how uncomfortable he looked. Katsuki slowly sat back down but was still scowling at the two teachers while Aizawa sighed and leant back in his chair. Nedzu's face softened slightly as he spoke.

"May I ask Midoriya, do you have your own quirk energy?"

Izuku stopped breathing mid gasp, his whole body just stopped at the question.

"Nah, Zuzu doesn't have quirk energy, almost like he's quirkless." Katsuki said, giving his friend a nervous glance.

"I see," Nedzu said with a slight frown, but before he could continue Izuku spoke in barely a whisper.

"I do have my own quirk energy."

Katsuki turned to him with wide wide eyes, "What the hell Zuzu!?"

Izuku gulped, "I-I wanted to tell you but- but I was so afraid of what you'd say. And then you got your quirk and it's amazing, it's like the sun in your chest and mine… my energy is disgusting."

Katsuki took a few deep breaths which Izuku recognized as his method of calming himself down. His fists were clenched by his sides and Izuku started to panic, he hadn't realised how angry this would make Katsuki. But when the boy opened his eyes to look at Izuku he felt his breath catch in his throat, his eyes weren't filled with anger but rather pain.

"We swore Zuzu," Katsuki said in a tone that didn't fit the brash blonde, "We swore we would tell each other everything. We said no secrets between us. I've told you everything, you stayed up with me for three hours after I got my quirk and freaked out. So why wouldn't you tell me this?"

Izuku flinched, "Because I wouldn't survive you looking at me the same way they do."

Katsuki blinked in surprise and gave Izuku a confused look, "Huh?"

"I'm not blind," Izuku said and looked at Aizawa and Nedzu who both felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze, "I see the way people react when I take their quirks, I see the relief in their eyes when I give them back. No matter how hard anyone tries, at the moment I take their quirk they look at me like I'm a monster even if it's just for a second."

Internally both Nedzu and Aizawa winced slightly. Though neither of them took issue with Izuku using his quirk on them, that didn't mean they enjoyed the sensation. It was difficult not to let your face briefly change when it felt like you were having a limb ripped from you.

Izuku turned back to Katsuki, "Even Mom glanced at me in fear when I first took her quirk. It was only a moment but I saw how uncomfortable it made her. I couldn't- I couldn't stand it if you looked at me the same way."

Izuku turned away from Katsuki as he finished, not wanting to look at the boy any more. There was a slight pause as Izuku felt every beat of his heart in his chest before a hand slapped the back of his head.

"Tch. Moron, how could you think I'd ever look at you like that? Especially when it's something where you're literally the only fucking person who can see it." Katsuki said with an eye roll and a huff.

Izuku felt the end of his lips tug and he sighed, "My energy… the best way I can describe it is that it looks like a black hole. It's a black murky orb in the centre of my chest, when I take someone's energy it passes through the hole before spreading over my body."

Aizawa and Nedzu glanced at each other, it wasn't lost on them that was the complete opposite to how Izuku described Katsuki's quirk and One For All. One was a bright sun which constantly expelled energy while the other was a black hole which absorbs energy.

Katsuki gave Izuku a dumbfounded look, "You thought I'd freak out over that!? Zuzu a black hole is fucking awesome!"

Izuku couldn't help but scoff at Katsuki's words while Aizawa just sighed and mumbled a few curses along with the words problem children under his breath. Nedzu returned to his rapid typing before facing the boys once again.

"Tell me, do either of you know anything about Quirk Fuel Theory?" Nedzu asked.

The boys nodded in sync and Katsuki started to speak, "Yeah, it basically says that there's some sort of matter we can't see or detect that fuels quirks."

"The basic idea is that quirks shouldn't be possible, science just says they can't exist-" Izuku said.

"- like, it shouldn't be possible for someone just to shoot fucking fire from their hands." Katsuki finished.

"Even with a quirk factor in our genetics we still as a species shouldn't be able to wield the powers we do-" Izuku started.

"-So Quirk Fuel Theory believes there is some unknown energy, similar to say dark matter, that our quirk factor allows us to manipulate and convert into what we commonly believe to be quirks." Katsuki completed.

Nedzu and Aizawa stared at the two in shock for at least another minute. On one hand they were impressed with how much knowledge the boys had, on the other the way that they had completed each other's sentences was quite frankly… creepy.

Nedzu cleared his throat, "That's uh… correct. Now, do you see the correlation between Midoriya's quirk and this theory?"

Katsuki slowly started to nod his head, "I get it, you think the energy Zuzu see's in this undiscovered quirk fuel?"

Nedzu nodded excitedly, "Precisely, which leads me to believe that in reality what Midoriya takes from someone is their quirk fuel and is then able to use it as his own."

Aizawa had a thoughtful expression on his face as he spoke, "That would make a lot of sense, it would also explain my quirk more. I essentially cut them off from their supply. It also makes sense as to why quirks don't show up until your four, presumably it takes that long for the raw quirk fuel to adapt to your quirk factor and become your quirk."

"Indeed," Nedzu agreed, "So in summary Midoriya I believe your quirk has two parts. The first is the ability to manipulate this quirk fuel and take it for yourself and fuel your own quirk. The second is that your body and own quirk factor are able to adapt to the fuel you take and replicate the original quirk. It also explains why you essentially leave someone quirkless, they have no fuel left to charge their quirk factor with."

"So you're saying it's the combination of quirk fuel and a quirk factor that allows someone to use a quirk?" Katsuki asked, it wasn't lost on everyone in the room as to why he was asking.

Nedzu nodded, "Yes, in fact it makes you two rather unique."

"It does?" Izuku asked as he and Katsuki glanced at each other.

"Yes, you see you operate in similar ways. You Midoriya effectively have a blank slate for a quirk factor, think of it as a blank canvas. When you take the energy of someone your quirk factor adapts so that you may replicate the effect of their quirk. But this also allows you to combine the effects and create a new quirk altogether with the energy you take. Meanwhile, Bakugou, you have no quirk factor at all, therefore when All Might gave you One For All he was essentially giving an

endless supply of quirk fuel which comes out in its purest form when you use it." Nedzu explained as Aizawa looked at the two boys with a critical eye, it was at this moment he decided he was going to have them in his class no matter how hard anyone fought him on it.

"For all intents and purposes you both lack your own unique quirk and quirk factor yet have the unique ability each to wield quirk energy directly, albeit with different results. This of it this way, most people force their quirk energy through a certain shape which turns the energy into their quirk. Let's say a square for a fire quirk and a circle for a water quirk, this is their quirk factor. Midoriya you are essentially able to change the shape of your quirk factor at will, you can change it to a circle and produce a water quirk or change it to a square and produce a fire quirk. However you need the correct fuel to do this which is why you need to take the quirk energy of others. Bakugou however has no quirk factor, no shape, at all, you just freely force the energy out of you. " Nedzu finished.

Izuku and Katsuki turned to look at each, each with wide eyes. There was a pause before they both gained equal wide grins that made Nedzu and Aizawa shiver internally.

"Awsome." They both said in unison.

Aizawa and Nedzu shared a concerned glance, they had hoped for an easy school year, somehow that was seemingly less and less likely.

"Wait," Izuku said with a frown, "If my quirk factor can adapt to the quirk energy I'm taking to replicate the effect of the quirk, why did this happen?"

Izuku raised his gloved right hand indicating his injury he had received all those years ago. If he was able to adapt to quirks due to his blank quirk factor why did he get such a blowback from some quirks.

"Ah yes," Nedzu said, "Most likely your initial injury was caused by a delay in the full activation of your quirk. The section of your quirk which allowed your body to adapt was not yet developed. It's also a concern for your teaching here, with such menial use of your quirk it's likely you still won't be able to adapt as effectively as you could. Not to worry though, that's what we're here for!"

Izuku and Katsuki nodded in sync, causing Aizawa to blanch, as they came to the same agreement as the rat.

"Well," Nedzu said, regaining the boy's attention, "Now I think it's finally time we updated your

records, so what are we feeling for a name."

Izuku paused before giving the first genuine smile he'd ever had in relation to his quirk, "Quirk Absorption."

Would Not Recommend

Einstein's Daughter added Ochako Uraraka to the chat

Ochako Uraraka changed her username to Floaty McFloat

Einstein's Daughter: It was a pleasure to meet you today Uraraka!

Floaty McFloat: You too, it was great to meet all of you! I feel so out of place though, Bakugou and Yoarashi were soooooo cool today and you and Midoriya are recommended students!

Air Conditioner: Nonsense! You were just as impressive out there today Uraraka!

Einstein's Daughter: Agreed! I watched you for a time in the observation room and the way you used your quirk was impressive!

Floaty McFloat: OMG! You guys are making me blush but thanks! I was so tired when I got home though.

Air Conditioner: As was I, I'm still exhausted now!

Angry Boi: Ha! Weaklings! Get on my level!

Name: CLASSIFIED: Kacchan you had a two hour nap as soon as we got home and fell asleep on me on the train

Angry Boi: SHUT THE FUCK UP ZUZU NO I DIDN'T

Floaty McFloat: Press X to doubt

Air Conditioner: There is nothing wrong with getting sleep Bakugou, all the best heroes do!

Angry Boi: Shut up Airhead! All you do is push air around

Name: CLASSIFIED: All you do is punch things

Name: CLASSIFIED: I've been told to inform you all Kacchan just shouted a 'sick and traumatic burn' across the house back at me but as my quirk is classified I'm unable to share it with you

Einstein's Daughter: Sick?

Angry Boi: Yaoyorozu pop culture alert

Floaty McFloat: Wut?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Yaoyorozu was homeschooled so doesn't have the best social skills for how people are age

Air Conditioner: The three of us have endeavoured to teach her before the start of UA!

Floaty McFloat: …I'm not sure you three are the best representatives

Angry Boi: WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN ROUND FACE!?

Name: CLASSIFIED: … I see your point

Angry Boi: SHUT UP ZUZU YOU'RE AS FUCKED AS I AM

Name: CLASSIFIED: Eh, if we're being honest I'm probably more fucked up

Floaty McFloat: …you two aren't normal are you?

Blood Brothers

Chapter Summary

Katsuki and Izuku reflect on their lives before they start at UA

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Katsuki responded to the wait for his exam results differently to Izuku, whereas Izuku became frantic and ran around like he'd had his cereal with Endeavours Branded Energy Drink every morning, Katsuki became quiet and eerily calm. He was still Katsuki however and as the days drew on he became more and more irate. He started to snap and shout at anyone and everything that irked him the wrong way. A week after the exam and Izuku was the only other person he could stand being around.

That was how the boys found themselves currently sitting in Izuku's room, Izuku sat at his desk, watching the latest hero fight and scribbling away in his notebook. Katsuki meanwhile was laying on Izuku's bed mindlessly scrolling through his phone, he wasn't actually really looking at anything but the distraction was enough to stop him going insane. The calm silence between them was the only thing stopping Katsuki from tearing the house down.

The door slammed open, tearing the silence away from Katsuki and he shot off the bed with a snarl, ready to tear whoever had disturbed him limb from limb. The anger on his face vanished however when he saw his mother standing there, face pale and body frozen solid. Her right arm was outstretched towards Katsuki and she held a pristine white envelope in her hand. The UA symbol of the front blaring out at everyone in the room. Izuku nervously looked between the letter and Katsuki as he held his breath.

Without another word Katsuki grabbed the envelope and marched into his own room, Izuku and Mitsuki watching him as he went. He shut his door and let out a shuddering breath before walking over to his desk. Luckily Izuku had warned him about the disk and he took it out with a slightly shaking hand and placed it in front of him.

"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!"

Katsuki jumped slightly as All Might appeared before him, he may have been prepared for the projection but he assumed like Izuku he would be greeted with Nedzu. Not the booming voice of his predecessor.

"First of all Young Bakugou allow me to apologise, truthfully I am not just in this city to fight villains. You're looking at the newest member of the UA faculty, I'm sorry I never told you or your brother but I felt it was for the best."

Katsuki huffed and scowled at the projection of All Might with such intense hatred the real All Might felt a shudder from miles away. He of course knew the reasons behind the deceit but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Now! Onto your results! You passed the written exam with a solid score, though, seeing as you'll both ask anyway, you were slightly behind Midoriya." The projection of All Might sent Katsuki a wink who growled at the knowledge had lost to Izuku.

"As for the practical, the staff were impressed with the teamwork you displayed with Young Yoarashi. Not to mention it paid off, you received a total of 55 villain points. A decent score in itself!"

Katsuki couldn't help the smile that pulled at his lips, he had overhead a few people discussing their scores in the changing rooms after the exam. But none of them had felt they had gotten over 40 points. He was easily going to get in with 55.

"But that's not all! What sort of hero school would we be if we ranked people purely on their quirk power? Not only did you regularly help Yoarashi throughout the exam, you stepped in together to face the zero pointer. A feat you knew would garner no points yet you didn't hesitate to help a fellow examinee you saw in need. As a result you have been awarded 40 rescue points. Giving you a total of 95 points for the exam, not only is that more than enough for you to get admitted, it's also the highest score this year! Congratulations Katsuki Bakugou, this is your hero academia."

Katsuki's mouth was dry as All Might vanished. He'd done it. He'd gotten in. The quirkless boy everyone saw as weak had not only gotten into UA he'd gotten in with the top score. He wasn't weak anymore. He had proven them all wrong. He took a large swallow as the top ten scores jumped up on the screen and he quickly read through them.

1st

Katsuki Bakugou

Villain Points: 55

Rescue Points: 40

Total: 95

2nd

Inasa Yoarashi

Villain Points: 53

Rescue Points: 35

Total: 88

3rd

Shoto Todoroki

Villain Points: 85

Rescue Points: 0

Total: 85

4th

Ejiro Kirishima

Villain Points: 39

Rescue Points: 35

Total: 74

5th

Ibara Shiozaki

Villain Points: 36

Rescue Points: 31

Total: 68

6th

Itsuka Kendo

Villain Points: 25

Rescue Points: 40

Total: 65

7th

Ochako Uraraka

Villain Points: 28

Rescue Points: 35

Total: 63

So both Yoarashi and Uraraka had made it in too huh? And with decent scores of their own. The only other name on the list Katsuki recognised was the Todoroki kid Izuku had told him about. His villain score was impressive though his lack of villain points told Katsuki all he needed to know about the boy.

Not wasting any more time on the scoreboard, Katsuki opened his door and walked down to the kitchen. In a scene that mirrored two weeks ago he walked into the kitchen to find the entire family. Izuku was sitting at the table with his mother, a few papers strewn about which Katsuki assumed was his class and supply list. Mitsuki and Masaru stood off to the side and both locked eyes with their son the moment he walked in the room, Izuku and Inko not far behind.

Katsuki scoffed, "Of course I got in, who do you think I am?"

Just like Izuku, the family celebrated with as much food as they could find. Katsuki himself had a smile on the entire afternoon. It was made even better when he discovered both he and Izuku would be in the same class. They might have taken different routes but they had gotten there together. It was as Katsuki was finishing off his final piece of cake while Masaru set up his favourite film to watch that his phone buzzed.

Would Not Recommend

Floaty McFloat: Guess who got in bitchez

Einstein's Daughter: Yas Queen

Einstein's Daughter: Did I do that right?

Floaty McFloat: Yes, Yaoyorozu, you did and it was the single greatest moment of my life

Air Conditioner: Congratulations Uraraka! I also got in!

Einstein's Daughter: Oh Yoarashi that's wonderful news, you deserve it after all your hard work

Floaty McFloat: Yessssss you go Yoarashi!

Einstein's Daughter: Have we heard from Bakugou?

Angry Boi: What? You really think they'd let those two idiots in and not me?

Floaty McFloat: You really have a way with words you know that?

Einstein's Daughter: Oh this is fantastic, all of us got in. I won't need my notes of condolences after all!

Name: CLASSIFIED: Well done you guys, I knew you could all do it!

Air Conditioner: I'm glad I'll be able to have a rematch with you at some point Midoriya!

Floaty McFloat: Are we just gonna ignore the fact Yaoyorozu had condolences notes?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Yes

Angry Boi: Yes

Air Conditioner: Yes

Einstein's Daughter: Yes

Floaty McFloat: Moving on… What class did you guys get? I'm in 1-A

Einstein's Daughter: Oh me too!

Air Conditioner: Same here!

Angry Boi: Me and Zuzu are in that class too

Floaty McFloat: OMG we're all gonna be classmates, that's awesome!

Angry Boi: I suppose I can tolerate you assholes

Name: CLASSIFIED: I can literally see the massive smile you got from reading that Kacchan

Floaty McFloat: Awww Bakugou you do care

Angry Boi: I SWEAR TO GOD

All Might had been fairly vague in the text he had sent Katsuki, simply asking him to meet him on Dagobah beach. They hadn't spoken since the exam and Katsuki would admit he was slightly nervous about all the cloak and dagger. Though the text didn't mention anything he had of course invited Izuku but his friend had turned him down, saying he understood that Katsuki and All Might would sometimes need some one on one time without him due to their shared quirk.

And so Katsuki found himself walking along the sandy beach long after the sun had set, apparently All Might didn't operate on the same time zone as everyone else and it had taken Katsuki nearly an hour to convince his Mom to let him go. As his eyes wandered over the beach Katsuki couldn't help but feel a small amount of pride. A year ago this beach had been little more than a junkyard that no one would step within a mile of. Today, after months of work by himself and Izuku, it was a pleasant and welcoming beach, he even saw a few people on late night strolls making use of the now clean sand.

He spied Yagi off in the distance, the man was staring out into the ocean with a faraway look in his eyes. The wind blew through his hair and whipped up the golden locks, Katsuki silently approached and stood next to him.

"You know this was where my predecessor gave me One For All?" Yagi said.

Katsuki side eyed the man, "You've never mentioned them before?"

"She died," Yagi said, his voice was steady but Katsuki could hear the underlying emotion behind it. "We were fighting a powerful villain, she sacrificed herself to give me an opening to escape. And for over three decades I trained to stop that villain, I became The Symbol of Peace to show him and the rest of the world that I wouldn't back down. Everywhere he looked he would be reminded of me, knowing that one day I was coming for him. Then five years ago I did. The battle nearly killed me but I finally defeated him."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Katsuki asked, it wasn't that he didn't want to know, it just seemed very out of place for the number one.

"Because I want you to understand where I went wrong, where I failed as a hero." Yagi responded, "I may have become the Symbol of Peace, an icon that brought hope and fear to villains but that didn't stop the bullies who came after you and Midoriya. That didn't stop my neighbour from killing his wife because he was throwing his quirk around in a drunken stupor. And it didn't stop the death of my mentor's son."

Yagi's eyes seemed to be filled with pain at that moment and Katsuki was suddenly aware this was

a man who had spent three decades as the number one. He had been in every major battle, put down monsters that had come straight out of fantasy novels and probably lost more in his life than Katsuki could ever comprehend. It hadn't gone unnoticed to himself and Izuku that Yagi didn't have a family and rarely spoke about having any friends. All Might may have been the most powerful hero in Japan, maybe even the world but he had achieved that by taking every blow ever sent his way and standing back up from it. Katsuki suspected Yagi was in more pain, both physically and mentally than he let on.

Katsuki sighed, "I'm sorry."

Yagi was pulled from his memories and turned to Katsuki with a look of surprise, "My boy, whatever for?"

Katsuki clenched his fists as he spoke, "I- I should've done better. I know I got the most points but Todoroki took down more villains. You would've done better, you would've destroyed the robot in one punch, you would've-"

"Katsuki."

The use of his name made Katsuki jump slightly and he looked up to find Yagi staring down at him with a warm smile. The hero reached out and gave his shoulder a squeeze and for once the boy didn't shrug it off.

"I have told you many times, you are not me and you should not try to be me. I chose you precisely because you are not like me. You are headstrong, brash and loyal, qualities that could all be found in my predecessor Nana Shimura, that is what first drew you to me as a successor. But then as I watched you train I saw far more, you chose to work with others in the entrance exam rather than go it alone. Something even now I still struggle to do. I've also watched you share the burden of One For All with Izuku, you never hesitated to inform him of your progress, your struggles and doubts with the quirk. Again, this is a level of trust I almost never had in the forty years I held the quirk. Yet before you even took the entrance exam you had someone who would help you shoulder the responsibility."

Yagi sighed and stepped back, giving Katsuki a wide smile, "You're right Katsuki Bakugou, you're not All Might. Because you have so much more potential than I ever did. All Might was a Symbol of Peace, the greatest hero of a generation. But Katsuki Bakugou has the potential to change the world.

Katsuki paused, the swelling in his chest was getting on his nerves and it was the sand in his eyes

making them water, it had nothing to do with his emotions. At least that's what he would say to anyone who claimed otherwise. Yagi of course didn't say a word and politely ignored the display as Katsuki rubbed his eyes.

"So you weren't disappointed in my performance at the entrance exam?" He asked.

"Quite the opposite, I was highly impressed!" Yagi replied with excitement, "Your control over One For All is far beyond what we could have hoped for at this stage. True you don't have the same level of strength as me or perhaps the same level of speed I would expect from someone like Izuku but your technique is flawless. Not to mention the unique way you use the power of One For All to enhance your senses and not just your basic physical abilities."

Katsuki shrugged, "Actually that's pretty easy to do now that I have a better understanding of how the quirk works."

"Ah yes," Yagi said with a thoughtful rub of his chin, "Nedzu informed me about your meeting after the exam. It's a plausible theory and would explain why with myself and you One For All appears far more basic when compared with our predecessors."

Katsuki blinked and furrowed his eyebrows, "You and me?"

Yagi slapped his forehead, "I can't believe I never told you, in all this time it never occurred to me," he said with a chuckle, "Like you I was also quirkless when One For All was passed down to me."

Katsuki's jaw almost dropped to the ground. All Might, the most powerful hero in history, had been quirkless just like him?

Yagi laughed at Katsuki's shocked expression, "Perhaps I should have told you sooner. But if this quirk energy theory is correct it would explain why for you and me One For All comes out as raw power, enhancing our capabilities. For Nana however it turned her simple float quirk into full blown supersonic flight."

"Wait," Katsuki said holding up his hands, "Your predecessor could fucking fly!? Do you have any idea how rare flight quirks are? There's only six recorded cases of it in Japan in the last two hundred years alone."

Yagi shrugged, "Honestly she just used it to avoid traffic most of the time."

Katsuki couldn't help but facepalm at that, much to Yagi's amusement.

"Oh yeah," Katsuki said, straightening up, "I almost forgot."

Yagi raised an eyebrow in confusion before Katsuki jumped off the sand, a small amount of One For All flowing through him to help him gain height. He shot off the ground while simultaneously pushing his head back. Yagi's eyes widened as he recognized the stance from the entrance exam. But before Yagi could respond Katsuki threw his head forward and made contact with his predecessor's own forehead.

There was a defining crack throughout the beach as Yagi stumbled back slightly frowning and rubbing his head. Katsuki landed back on the sand and crossed his arms with a huff, glaring at Yagi.

"That's for not fucking telling me you were going to be a teacher at UA."

Yagi could only laugh.

It was late by the time Katsuki returned home and the house was dark and quiet as he walked up the drive. A quick glance up at the windows told him most, if not then the entire house was asleep. Luckily since gaining his quirk his parents had allowed him to be out later than usual on his own into the night. He was well aware of what that told him about how they viewed his quirklessness but he was hardly one to complain about more lenient rules.

Making sure to be as quiet as possible, Katsuki crept through the front door of the house. Considering there were five people who lived in the large home it was eerily silent as he slowly shut the door. He went to throw his shoes off before a soft but sharp breeze passed over his skin.

With a slight frown and a shiver Katsuki moved to the back of the house where he found the back door open out into the yard. Even without his quirk enhancing his eyesight there was enough light from the moon to make out the scene. The yard was completely empty save for a lone figure sat on the grass in the middle, gazing up at the moon as the rays lit up his green hair.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow and made his way out into the yard, without speaking he sat himself down next to Izuku who continued to look up into the sky.

"Hey." Izuku said softly.

"Hey," Katsuki responded without his usual grunt.

"Everything good with All Might?" Izuku asked as his eyes flickered to Katsuki.

"Just wanted to go through my progress with his quirk." Katsuki said with a shrug.

"YOUR quirk Kacchan." Izuku corrected as he turned his full attention to the boy.

"Right," Katsuki said with a firm nod, "My quirk."

Izuku nodded his head in agreement and returned to looking up at the sky. Katsuki joined him and bent his neck back. It was a clear sky and so he could easily see the moon surrounded by thousands upon thousands of stars. He remembered how Izuku had described his quirk energy and wondered if the starry night sky was what Izuku saw when he focused on people's quirks. Katsuki couldn't decide if he was envious of it or if he pitied him.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Katsuki asked.

Izuku chuckled at the question, "It just kinda hit me you know? We did it, we both got into UA, despite what everyone said."

Katsuki scoffed, "We haven't done shit yet, for all we know we might get expelled on the first day"

"If we managed to get through Aldera without getting kicked out I think we can survive UA." Izuku responded with an amused smile.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Only because they realised by the fifth time Auntie was a good enough lawyer to stop them."

"I can't believe she managed to stop you from getting expelled after you broke what's his face's nose." Izuku said with an uncharacteristic snort.

"Nah, too many other fights going on to be able to defend that without expelling loads of others. We were definitely more at risk when you caused blondie to have a mental breakdown." Katsuki said with a wide smile as the memory of the incident flashed across his mind.

Izuku blushed slightly, "Th-that wasn't my fault! She asked for a breakdown of her quirk!"

"Yeah but you didn't have to completely rewrite her understanding of her quirk and life. You turned a simple voice changing quirk into a weapon of mass destruction!" Katsuki explained with a wide smile as he enjoyed Izuku squirm.

"Sh-shut up Kachaaaan!" Izuku whined before he started laughing and fell back slightly.

Katsuki frowned a little as he looked down at the boy, "You're acting weird."

Izuku blinked a few times looking up at him before turning his head, it was as if he was making sure the yard was completely abandoned before he leaned in.

"I was celebrating." Izuku whispered into Katsuki's ear and pulled out a bottle of whisky that had clearly had a good portion of it drunk already.

Katsuki's eyes went so wide he thought they might pop out. Of everything he expected this had not been it. Izuku Midoriya, the sweetest cinnamon roll on the planet and the boy who had cried when he accidentally stepped on an ant once, had snuck whisky right out from under their parents' nose. The smirk that grew on Katsuki's face would be enough to make even pro heroes shiver.

"Izuku Midoriya you sly dog, I never figured you'd be the first of us to sneak booze out of the house."

Izuku giggled slightly, "I was wandering downstairs for a drink and Uncle must have left this out. I was going to ignore it but then I figured what the hell? It's horrible to drink though."

Izuku scrunched his face up as he stared at the bottle remembering the pain as the drink had gone down his throat.

"Ha! That's just because you're weak!" Katsuki said and swiped the bottle from Izuku, "It takes someone tough to enjoy this stuff."

To prove his point Katsuki lifted the bottle to his lips and chugged it back, taking a large swig of the drink as Izuku's eyes widened with panic. Before he had even moved the bottle away from his lips Katsuki started coughing, the liquid burning his throat. Izuku had to take the bottle from him for fear of Katsuki collapsing while still holding it.

"Wow Kacchan, you really are tough." Izuku mocked as he took his own swig of the drink, he grimaced slightly but otherwise fared far better than Katsuki.

Katsuki growled at Izuku's smug face as he swiped the bottle back, "I just need to get used to it you damn nerd."

What followed quickly became one of the most unusual competitions the pair had ever had. One after the other they took bigger swigs in an attempt to prove who was tougher, each one trying not to react. Soon both boys were on their feet and passing the bottle between themselves and it wasn't long before Izuku went to take a drink only to realise the bottle was empty.

"Ha!" Katsuki exclaimed, "I WIN!" He shouted with a slightly slurred voice.

Izuku stepped forward, waving his arms about wildly, "Shhhh Kacchan, we *hic* we don't wanna wake anyone up."

Katsuki crossed his arms and scowled at Izuku, "I still won though." He whispered though it still carried throughout the area.

Izuku just rolled his eyes, "Fine you *hic* won. Here is your reward."

Izuku held out the empty bottle with a completely fake innocent look on his face. Katsuki growled and swatted the bottle out of his hands.

Izuku gasped, "What did that bottle ever do to you Kacchan?"

Izuku was able to hold his look of outrage as he stared up and pouted at Katsuki for another few seconds until he started to wobble on his feet. His arms shot out as he tried to steady himself but Izuku quickly gave in to the enemy of gravity and promptly fell back onto his ass, letting out a yelp as he fell. Katsuki predictably burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha, you fucking idiot Zuzu!" Katsuki cried as he doubled over in laughter.

Izuku tried to haul himself up only to lose his balance once again and fall back down onto the grass. He looked up at Katsuki, who had at this point almost collapsed himself from laughter,

and stuck his tongue out at the boy before bursting into giggles himself.

"Kachaaaaan," Izuku whined, "I think we might be drunk."

Katsuki shook his head violently and laughed at the very idea, "Maybe you but not me, I'm All Might's chosen succ-seckes-succeceor- I have All Might's power! And no one can push me down!"

With his declaration Katsuki struck a mighty pose worthy of any top hero, he stuck his chest out and folded his arms, chin up high with a fearless look in his eyes. Katsuki frowned however as the world started to tilt while he was holding his pose. The sky seemed to turn at a perfect angle and he found himself landing on the grass next to Izuku with a thud.

This time it was Izuku's turn to burst into laughter, "I think we should call All *hic* Might Kacchan, I think your quirk is broken."

Katsuki scrambled to his knees (there was no way he could manage to get to his feet) and stuck a finger in Izuku's face, "Shut up you fucking nerd, my quirk works just fine. It's stupid gravity that's broken."

Izuku couldn't help but laugh louder at that. In protest Katsuki scowled at him and turned away crossing his arms and pouting. Eventually Izuku's laughter died down and he fell back onto the

grass, the night sky shining down on him, and a comfortable silence came over the pair.

"I'm proud of you Katsuki."

Izuku's words hit Katsuki like a freight train. Sure it was nice when his parents said that to him, when Auntie and All Might praised him but hearing it from Izuku? The boy who had been with him his entire life, who was the first to criticise and correct him when he was wrong but also the first to praise him when he was right, it just hit different.

But it didn't stop the pit that had been growing in his stomach.

"What if… what if I'm not strong enough." Katsuki said with barely a whisper, not daring to turn and look at Izuku as he spoke.

Behind Katsuki Izuku propped himself up onto his elbows and frowned at the back of the blonde's head, "Kacchan you got first in the entrance exam."

"That's not the point," Katsuki yelled and swivelled round to face Izuku, tears in his eyes, "What if I can't do it? What if despite everything I can't change anything! We said we'd change the world together, but you're already beating other hero students and I struggled against some robots. What if I can never use more than 5% of my quirk? I'm supposed to be just as strong as you but I don't know if I can keep up."

Izuku held up his hand in a rare role reversal and Katsuki snapped his mouth shut. He had never seen such a serious face on his friend as he stared into Izuku's green eyes which held such an intensity within them.

"You didn't let me finish," Izuku said and it was like the alcohol had been washed away as his voice held firm, "You got first place in the entrance exam. You mastered your quirk in just a few months, something that normally takes people a decade to do. You saved Uraraka when no one else did. You helped me gain control of my own quirk. Hell Kacchan you did more in that entrance exam then some hero graduates do in a lifetime. Of course you're strong enough to be a hero, Kacchan, because you already are."

As Izuku finished what he was saying Katsuki could only stare at him, tears now freely falling down his face. Izuku cried out as he was quickly pulled into a tight hug. The pair sat on the grass, arms wrapped around each other as they let their emotions out in front of the only person they each

trusted completely in this cruel world.

"I'm scared too, you know." Izuku whispered as his own eyes filled with tears, "People will find out about my quirk eventually. What if- what if they hate me? What if our friends don't want anything to do with me? People might demand I be expelled or they might not let me-"

Izuku was cut off as Katsuki squeezed the small boy tightly in the hug, "Then we fucking leave. We become vigilantes if we have to. I don't give a flying fuck who or what stands in our way, we're going to be the greatest heroes in history. No matter what anyone says… I'm proud of you too, Izuku."

Katsuki felt the tension in Izuku's shoulders ebb away and the pair separated, both wiping their eyes as they sat in the grass. At this point they had no idea what time it was and they were both barely able to stand due to the drink but they both had smiles on their faces again.

"Uhh Kacchan?" Izuku said rather timidly as he looked away with an embarrassed blush.

"Huh, what is it?" Katsuki grunted in response.

"I uh… I had an idea. I saw it online and well… I guess I just… with everything moving so fast recently I wanted us…" Izuku stammered, unable to complete his sentence.

Katsuki rolled his his eyes, "Just fucking spit it out."

"I want us to become blood brothers!" Izuku managed to force the sentence out of his mouth. As he did he reached into his pockets and pulled out a small pen knife Katsuki recognized as his fathers. Izuku had his eyes shut and was shaking slightly as if he expected Katsuki to use his quirk to yeet the boy into orbit for suggesting it.

"Tch, just give me the knife." Katsuki said and grabbed the blade from Izuku, internally Katsuki's heart was swelling at the idea of him and Izuku becoming kind of official brothers.

Izuku sighed with relief as Katsuki flicked open the knife. He bit his lip as he brought the steel down onto his hand and pushed it into the skin. Izuku winced as he watched Katsuki slice his hand open, blood quickly beginning to flow from the wound.

Katsuki pushed the knife back into Izuku's hand, "You better not fucking cry."

Izuku nodded and opened his own palm, gently pushing the knife down onto the skin. The boy gave a more physical flinch as the blade sliced his hand open and blood dripped down onto the grass but there were no tears.

Izuku fumbled with his non-injured hand as he put the knife back in his pocket. He briefly glanced at Katsuki and the boys nodded to each other. They held out their hands and pressed them together, both hissing slightly as their respective wounds pushed against each other.

They held the position for a few moments, technically this was a massive health risk and didn't actually mean anything. But for Katsuki and Izuku it was everything, it was a sign that they were real brothers and that no matter what might happen once they stepped through those gates of UA they would always have each other.

Eventually once the blood started to drip from between their hands the pair pulled their hands back. Katsuki reached down and ripped two sections of his shirt off, passing one to Izuku who wrapped it around his wound. Once again the boys found themselves sitting in a comfortable silence.

"Kacchan."

"Yeah Zuzu?"

"I think I'm too drunk to walk back to the house."

"Same."

Both boys erupted into giggles (though Katsuki would claim it was boisterous laughter until the day he died) and ended up leaning against each other as they looked out into the yard.

"Man," Izuku said, "Can you imagine how pissed out Moms would be if they found us like this."

Katsuki shuddered slightly, "They'd probably say something like, 'you're supposed to be hero students, not drunk delinquents'."

"You know Inko I couldn't have put it better myself."

"I completely agree Mitsuki, Katsuki took the words right out of my mouth."

Izuku and Katsuki froze in complete horror and their eyes filled with pure unadulterated fear. As a pair they slowly turned around to find Mistuki and Inko staring back down at them, both women were wearing bathrobes and had furious looks on their faces. Behind them the kitchen light had been turned on and the boys could see Masaru standing in the back door giving the pair an amused look though even he wasn't brave enough to stand in the way of their Moms'.

"Well well well, what do we have here? It looks like you boys are having a good evening." Mitsuki said, her voice was laced with venom.

"You know I could've sworn that you had to be twenty to enjoy a drink. Not two teenage boys who should have been asleep hours ago." Inko said, her voice quivered with pure rage that made Izuku and Katsuki gulp simultaneously.

"Wait! Mom! Auntie! I can explain." Izuku said as he tried to get to his feet.

Under the effect of the whisky however Izuku wobbled and struggled to get up. Luckily Katsuki was there to help him and by some miracle the boys managed to clamber up to their feet together, leaning against each other as Izuku took a deep breath and looked up to their mothers, both of whom had their eyebrows raised with unimpressed frowns.

Katsuki nodded at Izuku, he was the one who was best in these situations. He would know exactly what to say to get them out of this mess. He had a way of smiling and managing to convince their parents everything was ok. So when Izuku opened his mouth to talk, Katsuki had complete and utter confidence in him.

Izuku threw up.

The boy hunched over and quickly emptied his stomach onto the ground. Inko looked slightly surprised at the turn of events and Mitsuki gave a slight scoff but neither moved to help him.

Eventually Izuku finished spewing his guts everywhere and collapsed onto the ground with a groan. Katsuki stood over him, a little unsteady on his feet but a wide smile spread across his face as he came to the only logical conclusion.

"HA! I WIN ZUZU!"

Katsuki then also promptly threw up

Chapter End Notes

Just a note: Uraraka's score is slightly down for the exam as she didn't have the chance to save Izuku like in canon

Izuku's Piggy Back Ride

Chapter Summary

On his first day at UA Izuku must figure out how not be to be expelled

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku had to practically jog through the halls to keep up with Katsuki who marched forward, their difference in height never more apparent than Izuku having to take two steps for every one Katsuki did. It was a good job Katsuki had the sense to check the school map yesterday otherwise Izuku was sure he would have ended up stranded on the roof trying to find their classroom. That didn't mean he agreed with everything Katsuki had done that morning, dragging Izuku out of bed before the sun had even risen was not something the boy had appreciated. Out of all their similarities, Katsuki's obsessive need to be at least an hour early to everything was not something Izuku shared.

Despite his foul mood at being woken up early he couldn't help but smile when he saw himself in the mirror with his UA uniform on. At first he'd struggled with his tie, making it comically short, but Masaru had caught sight of him and corrected it with a chuckle. Katsuki had almost torn the house apart when their mothers had made them pose for photos and cooed over the pair. But after several shouting matches between Mitsuki and Katsuki, an unhealthy amount of sighing from Masaru and biblical levels of tears from Inko the pair had made it out the door and into UA. Exactly an hour before they needed to be.

Izuku needed a coffee.

"Remind me why we needed to be this early?" Izuku asked with a yawn as he managed to catch up and keep pace with Katsuki.

"First of all, you take at least ten minutes to get out of bed and there was no way I was gonna be late for my first day. Secondly we don't know what our classmates will be like, we need to make sure to assert dominance and show that we mean business in this course by making sure to turn up early for every class." Katsuki explained as he led Izuku round another corner.

"Kacchan it's 7AM." Izuku groaned as another yawn caused his jaw to expand

"Which means we'll be the first here, all those other extras will panic about it and how serious we are in our studies and will see us as a threat. We'll be at the top of the food chain by the end of the day." Katsuki said with a wide and dangerous smile on his face.

Izuku just gave him a deadpanned look, "We're not a pack of animals Kacchan."

Katsuki just responded with a growl that made Izuku question whether Katsuki was in fact just an animal with a mutation quirk. Before the conversation could continue further however, Katsuki came to a sudden stop, Izuku almost slamming into the back of him.

"We're here." Katsuki said as both boys turned to stare up at the massive door with the words 1-A plastered over it.

Izuku gulped, "T-The door must be that large to accommodate all kinds of quirks."

Katsuki frowned, "Tch, I thought we'd worked on that stuttering of yours?"

Izuku scratched the back of his head with a little embarrassment, "It's not that easy just to stop."

"Whatever," Katsuki said, waving it off, "Come on, there's no way we're not the first here. If we get set up and prepared our air of superiority will practically make our classmates cower before us!"

Katsuki gave a wide smirk before reaching out and grabbing the door handle. He pushed it to the side with such force Izuku wondered if he'd used his quirk. The wall of the classroom shook as Katsuki marched through with an air of confidence into the empty classroom, except for the fact-

"Oh! Bakugou, Midoriya! You're here early too!"

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT" Katsuki screamed and slammed his fist into the side of the wall.

Izuku ducked under Katsuki's arm and gave a wide smile, "Yaoyorozu! It's so good to see you!"

It was clear Yoayorozu too had only just arrived as she was standing by the teachers desk, rucksack over her shoulders and a few extra books in her arms.

"And you," Yoayorozu replied, "Though Bakugou looks angrier than usual."

Said angry teenager huffed and turned around to dramatically slam the door shut behind him. Crossing his arms with a scowl he walked up to stand next to Izuku, giving Yaoyorozu a curt nod.

"He's just pouting because he wanted to be the first here and you beat us to it." Izuku said with an eyeroll to which Katsuki glared at him.

Yaoyorozu giggled at Katsuki, "While I would like to claim that title I'm afraid I was second to arrive."

Yoayorozu indicated with her head to the back of the class. Turning, Izuku made eye contact with Todoroki who was sitting at his seat, the two boys stared at each for a moment before Todoroki gave Izuku a curt nod, still with his famous neutral expression and returned to the book currently open on his desk. Bakugou scoffed but Izuku chose to just ignore the situation and return to Yaoyorozu. The three quickly fell into comfortable chat about their days since the entrance exam.

"Ah, I should've known you three would be here early!" Yoarashi declared as he entered the classroom and while he didn't actively try to slam the door like Katsuki had he still closed it with enough force to cause a loud bang to reverberate throughout the classroom.

The sound made Todoroki look up with a frown, Yoarashi caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to face the duel coloured boy. Yoarashi froze mid step, his face flipping from a wide smile to a deep scowl. The action made Todoroki's own frown deepen as both parties narrowed their eyes at each other. The tension in the room rose considerably, Yaoyorozu actively shrinking back from it. Izuku could've sworn he also felt a slight chill in the room and a strong breeze despite the door and windows being all closed.

Izuku cleared his throat, gaining Yoarashi's attention before a fight could break out before class had even started, "Yoarashi! How have you been? Did you manage to get that new move down?"

And just like Izuku had flicked a switch, Yoarashi was suddenly sporting another wide smile and walking over to his friends. The tension that had filled the classroom briefly vanished as Todoroki returned to his book. Izuku sighed as the four friends once again fell into an easy conversion,

though the overall volume had raised considerably since Yoarashi had joined them.

"What's this? Is a social circle already being formed!?"

Izuku blinked in surprise at the arrival of another voice that he could only describe as supernaturally upbeat considering it wasn't even 8AM yet. Looking round Yoarashi's giant frame Izuku was met with a smile that could easily be argued to be as wide and bright, if not more so, than his own. Said smile belonged to a girl with pink skin and pink fluffy hair, again almost as fluffy as Izuku's own. She further stood out by the horns on her head combined with her golden eyes with black sclera. The pink girl all but bounced over to the group, inserting herself between Izuku and Yoarashi though both boys found her infectious bubbly attitude too happy to be annoyed by it.

"I was soooo worried everyone was gonna be awkward and that's no fun! I figured I was gonna have to try super hard to start making friends but you guys are way ahead of me!" The girl's voice was full of so much energy Izuku thought he might have accidentally put coffee in his mug that morning.

"Actually we all met at the entrance exams! We all quickly became great friends and rivals!" Yoarashi declared, puffing his chest out with pride at the quality of his companions.

The girl puffed her cheeks out in annoyance, "Damn it, why didn't I think of trying to make friends at the exam. I was so focused on passing I didn't talk to a single person!"

"To your credit, myself and Midoriya got in on the recommendation exams so we met beforehand." Yaoyorozu explained with a warm smile at the new arrival.

"Plus we're brothers, makes it easy to get to know each other." Katsuki said, his voice laced with sarcasm which earned him an elbow from Izuku.

The girl laughed, "Oh that makes a lot more sense, I'm Mina Ashido!"

'She's so pretty' Izuku thought to himself as he couldn't help but stare at Ashido's wide smile and wide eyes.

Said pretty girls' eyes widened in surprise and flicked their attention to Izuku, a purple blush

forming on her face. Meanwhile Yaoyorozu had to cover her mouth as she let out a very unlady- like snort and giggle while Yoarashi's smile turned into more of an amused smirk. Katsuki didn't bother to cover his mouth though as he burst into full blown laughter, giving Izuku a playful shove.

"We're really gonna have to work on your mumbling habit Zuzu." Katsuki said as he looked at Izuku with eyes full of deadly mischief.

Izuku's face morphed into one of horror and he felt his cheeks heat up as if he'd stolen a fire quirk, "I-I said that OUT LOUD!?"

Katsuki, Yaoyorozu and Yoarashi couldn't hold their laughter in as all three barrelled over at Izuku's situation. Izuku himself was starting to wonder if friends were really worth the torment. Ashido meanwhile seemed to recover from the slight shock of Izuku's words and swung an arm around his shoulders with a smug look.

"Gee, I didn't even have to swing my hips for the first guy in class to show an interest." Ashido said as she wiggled her eyebrows at Izuku, leaning into him slightly.

Izuku's face turned into a deep shade of red as his heart nearly beat through his chest, "I-I'm s- sorry, I didn't mean to-to…"

Ashido just responded by squeezing his shoulders more, "It's ok, I quite like a man who's forward and you're pretty cute yourself." she said with a wink.

At this point Izuku wouldn't have been surprised if he just collapsed to the ground in a catatonic state as Ashido leaned up against his rigid frame. He tried to respond but words failed him and he was only able to utter out something between a scream of a terror and a moan of ecstasy. Luckily, before he literally died, Katsuki decided to intervene.

"Lay off him pinky, I promised his Mom I'd look after him today." Katsuki said though he was still smirking at Izuku.

Ashido giggled but obliged, taking a step away from Izuku who suddenly realised he hadn't been breathing and started to gasp for air. Slowly life returned to his body and his face stopped being an imitation of a tomato. He let out a shaky breath and sent a quivering smile to Ashido.

"Th-thank you, I'm Izuku Midoroya." He managed to get out.

Everyone else in the group introduced themselves, well, Katsuki grunted and Izuku informed Ashido that his name was in fact not just a noncommittal noise from the back of your throat. Ashido took it all in perfect stride, bouncing on her feet throughout the entire conversation and laughing along like she had been part of the group for weeks. It was clear she was a social butterfly and was thrilled to be meeting new people this early into the term.

As they spoke and made introductions other students started to trickle into the classroom, a few glancing in curiosity at the group gathered at the front of the room. Izuku had to stop himself from running over to practically every person and rambling questions about their quirk. He noticed a few with obvious mutant quirks such as a boy with a large tail but others were more of mystery. The only reason he hadn't bombarded Ashido with questions was due to him recognizing her as the acid girl from the exam, something Yaoyorozu had mentioned to the girl who had seemed slightly flustered by the praise.

"Perhaps we should take our seats." Yaoyorozu suggested as more students started to enter the classroom.

Everyone agreed and Izuku quickly looked around to find his seat, as it turned out he was at the front of the class on the very left hand side facing the teacher. Coincidentally this was the exact opposite to Katsuki who sat at the back of the class on the right hand side. Izuku wondered if this had been done on purpose.

Which it absolutely had been as there was no way Aizawa was going to let the problem brothers anywhere near each other during classroom hours.

Izuku took his seat at the front of the class and he was pleasantly surprised to find Ashido was stationed directly behind him. The girl dropped her backpack under her desk and sat down on the chair instantly leaning forward with her smile still plastered on her face.

Now that he wasn't so flustered he was able to get a good look at her quirk energy. It wasn't unlike Mitsuki's, it was like Ashido was coated in a layer of greyish thick liquid that dripped down her body. From the way his hunger reacted Izuku could tell her quirk wasn't exceptionally strong, at least not compared to the likes of Katsuki or Yoarashi. It also didn't seem particularly complex, it didn't have the same almost exotic appeal to him that Yoayorozu's quirk energy had. But that didn't mean he still wasn't impressed, the energy had a… sturdy feel to it. It wasn't powerful or complex but it was reliant and useful. Much like how he felt about katsudon. It wasn't the most extravagant meal in the world but it never failed to fill his belly and make him smile.

"So Midoriya! Looking forward to UA?" Ashido asked as she leaned over her desk.

Despite how flustered the girl made him Izuku couldn't stop the wide smile that broke out over his face at the mention of the start of their hero careers, "Oh yeah! Honestly I'm still convinced this is all just a dream, I never thought I'd actually be here with Kacchan."

"Kacchan?" Ashido asked with a confused scrunch of her eyebrows.

"It's a nickname for Katsuki." Izuku explained.

"Oh right, it must be cool that you got in with your brother." Ashido said as she eyed Katsuki at the other end of the classroom, the blonde was currently leaning back in his chair, feet up on the desk and eyeing Todoroki with a mix of curiosity and rage.

Izuku nodded, "Yeah, we were lucky we all got in the same class."

"Man I'm so jealous of how you all knew each other beforehand, I don't know anyone here." Ahsido whined as she face planted her desk, the sight making Izuku chuckle.

"I'm just lucky I guess. Besides, you've been here 15 minutes and you're already talking to me. If I hadn't met Yaoyorozu and Yoarashi at the recommendation exams I'm sure I'd be a stuttering mess right now and not make any friends." Izuku said with a sigh.

'And even if I could, I definitely won't have any friends left once they find out about my quirk.' He added to himself internally, Uraraka liked to joke a lot about his mystery quirk in the group chat but he wasn't sure she'd be so accommodating if she knew what he could actually do.

"Nah, your cuteness would naturally draw people in." Ashido said with a wink as she pulled her head off the desk.

Izuku once again blushed furiously and covered his face with his hands, "Please stop," he begged, which only made Ashido giggle.

She looked like she was about to make another remark before something to the side caught her

attention and her eyes widened in surprise, "Kirishima!?"

Izuku raised an eyebrow in curiosity and followed Ashido's gaze. In the doorway to the classroom stood a broad and clearly muscular boy with bright red hair that was gelled up in spikes. The red hair matched the boys' nervous looking red eyes that were scanning over the classroom. He jumped slightly at the call of his name but gained a smile as he saw Ashido waving over at him. Izuku noticed as the boy smiled that his mouth was also full of razor sharp teeth.

The now named Krishima quickly walked over to Ashido and Izuku's desks, his smile growing wider with each step. He failed to notice however that while his smile was growing wider Ashido's was fading from her face.

"Ashido!" He cried as he finally made his way over, standing next to their desks, "I can't believe we're in the same class."

Ashido paused briefly before-

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you were taking the UA exam!" Ahsido shouted as she pelted the boy with multiple punches.

Kirishima panicked and backed up slightly, though it didn't appear Ashido's fists were actually doing any serious damage. However Izuku couldn't blame the poor guy, Ashido looked like she was ready to throw him out the window.

"A-Ashido! Stop! I'm sorry I-I didn't tell anyone!" Kirishima pleaded as he held up his hands to block Ashido's blows.

Said hands were now completely solid and Izuku realised this was the boy he'd seen take a punch at the entrance exam, the one with the hardening quirk. It was also fascinating to watch Kirishima's quirk energy as he activated said quirk. His body was full of a pale like thin gas, but when he activated his hardening the gas moved towards the spots or spots and gathered at the edge of Kirishima's aura, thickening and becoming far more solid to the point Izuku almost couldn't see through the energy.

Ashido quickly realised that lightly punching a man who could turn his body into a substance harder than concrete probably wasn't the smartest move. Instead she went for the classic tactic of folding her arms, huffing and pouting at the red head.

"Still, I can't believe you didn't tell me even after you got in. Especially after I gave Midoriya my whole sob story about being all alone in the class." Ashido said and unfolded her arms to gesture at Izuku.

Kirishima turned his attention to Izuku who gave a small smile and a slight wave, "Hi, I'm Midoriya."

Ashido gasped and slapped her forehead, her quest to pout long forgotten as she once again beamed at the pair, "Oh my God! How could I forget! Izuku Midoriya, this is Eijiro Kirishima, we went to junior high together. Eijiro Kirishima, this is Izuku Midoriya, a recommendation student and my new bestie!"

"B-Bestie!?" Izuku stammered in surprise.

"Oh man, you're a recommendation student? That's so manly Midoriya!" Kirishima exclaimed and held out his fist.

Izuku had enough social skills to understand how to give a fist bump, albeit a little awkwardly, "Thanks, uh.. Manly?"

Ashido giggled and waved him off, "That's Kiri's thing, it just means you're a pretty awesome person."

"I-I see, thanks Kirishima. I saw you at the entrance exam, you were pretty uh manly there yourself." Izuku said with a small but nervous smile.

Kirishima looked like he was ready to burst into tears of joy with that statement, "Thanks man!"

Ashido just rolled her eyes and muttered something about boys under her breath.

"Excuse me, you're kinda in my way."

Kirishima swivelled around and suddenly realised he'd been practically sitting on the desk next to Ashido. Standing by said desk was a girl with purple hair and what appeared to be headphone jacks hanging from her ears. Though she seemed relaxed Izuku could see the slight nervousness in her eyes that seemed to be plaguing the entire class.

"Oh man, sorry!" Kirishima apologised as he took a step back next to Izuku's desk.

The girl responded with a nod as she sat down and started to unpack her bag. Izuku couldn't help but take a look at her energy. It was mainly focused around her ears, a build up of the purple energy told him her jacks weren't just a useless mutation but served her quirk as well. From her jacks she had purple lines of energy which flowed directly from her ears and into the area Izuku knew held her heart. The lines themselves seem to vibrate at a rhythm that matched what he assumed was her heartbeat.

"You're the sneaky girl with the vibration quirk!" Izuku suddenly declared much to the shock of the people around him.

The girl in question snapped her attention to Izuku with a slight blush forming on her face from embarrassment, ""W-What!?"

Ashido giggled, "Man Midoriya, you need to calm yourself, the first day and you've already made two girls blush."

Once again Izuku went bright red, waving his arms in front of his face desperately, "I'm sorry! I was watching you at the entrance exam!"

Being distracted as he was, Izuku didn't realise how that came out and could only watch on in horror as the girl's eyes filled with fear and she started to shakily get out of her seat. Luckily Ashido decided that Izuku didn't deserve to end up in Nedzu's office for harassment on the first day of school.

"He's a recommendation student, he means he watched the exam with the teachers. He's just not all that good with words." Ashido reassured the scared girl before shooting Izuku a wink, causing said boy to groan and collapse onto his desk.

The purplette took a few calming breaths before sitting back down with a small smile, "A recommendation student huh? That's pretty rad dude. I'm Kyouka Jiro by the way."

"That's what I said!" Kirishima shouted with a toothy smile and Izuku couldn't help but wonder how 'rad' and 'manly' were even remotely the same, "I'm Eijiro Kirishima!"

"Mina Ashido!" Ashido's enthusiastic voice carried throughout the classroom.

"Izuku Midoriya." Izuku groaned from his spot at his desk, "I wish I had been in 1-B"

Jiro snorted while Ashdio gasped with mock outrage, Kirishima let out a chuckle, "It can't be that bad?"

"HOW DARE YOU TREAT SCHOOL PROPERTY LIKE THIS, GET YOU FEET OFF THE DESK!"

"FUCK OFF FOUR EYES, GET THAT STICK OUT YOUR ASS AND SIT DOWN!"

"HOW DARE YOU! INSULTING A CLASSMATE ON YOUR FIRST DAY!"

Izuku sighed, he opened his eyes and sat back up even though he didn't need to to know what was happening. Indeed the sight that greeted him (and the rest of the present students who were all looking at the scene) was that of Katsuki, still leaning back in his chair, and a blue haired student, frowning and shouting at each other.

"PFFT CALM YOUR TITS! WHO GIVES A FUCK IF I SCUFF THE DESK, IT'S A FUCKING DESK!" Katsuki shouted back at the boy as he purposely leaned back with a smug expression, of course Izuku knew Katsuki didn't really care about his feet on the desk, the point was this newcomer had now challenged him and Katsuki wouldn't back down.

The blue haired boy looked like he was going to shout again but paused before he let out a long sigh, "Perhaps we should start over, my name is Tenya Iida, I attended Somei Private Academy."

"Somei huh?" Katsuki responded with a grunt, "Were they the assholes that put that stick up your ass then?"

Iida once again took on an affronted look before quickly returning to shouting down at Katsuki and waving his arms in a chopping motion. Katsuki of course just fought back by raising his own voice, as if the pair were in competition to see who could shout the loudest. Which of course they more or less were.

By this point the entire class was watching the argument unfold. Ashido was observing it all with an amused smile while Jiro and Kirishima looked on with fearful frowns.

Kirshima gulped, "Man I really wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of that blonde guy, I heard he's the one who took down a zero pointer."

Jiro shivered at the thought, "Remind me to stay away from him, only someone with a death wish would antagonise that."

Izuku meanwhile sighed as he watched Katsuki slowly lose it, he was half expecting him to start frothing at the mouth. He reached down and pulled out a spare notebook from his bag which he opened and tore a page out of. He scrunched the paper into a tight ball and reached back with his arm, taking aim and sticking his tongue out in concentration as he did. Ashido was the only one around who seemed to notice what he was doing and was watching him with a curious gaze.

Once he was sure he had his aim right Izuku threw his arm forward. The paper ball flew through the air (rather gracefully) towards the other end of the classroom. Jiro, Kirishima and a few other members of the class noticed the ball as it made its journey. As it flew it started to fall towards the ground, rolling in the air until it landed directly between Katsuki's eyes before rolling onto the floor.

The entire classroom seemed to take gasp and hold their breath, both Katsuki and Iida paused mid argument, one of Iida's hands was frozen in mid air while Katsuki's mouth hung open halfway through saying the word fuck. Kirishima and Jiro turned to look at Izuku with horrified expressions, as if they were about to witness a murder live in front of them. Only Ashido remained somewhat amused at the whole situation.

Katsuki's head slowly turned until he was making eye contact with Izuku who narrowed his eyes, "Just take your feet off the desk Kacchan."

For a moment it looked like Katsuki was going to start shouting across the classroom. But instead he narrowed his eyes back, holding Izuku's glare for a moment before taking his feet off the desk with several mumbled curse words aimed at Izuku who just rolled his eyes in response. Katsuki made sure to give Iida a challenging scowl, daring the boy to challenge him on something else.

Luckily however while confused at the interaction Iida at least had the sense to leave Katsuki alone, nodding his thanks to Izuku before taking his own seat.

Kirishima turned to Izuku with eyes full of awe, "Are you a witch?"

Ashido snorted at the question and Jiro rolled her eyes, "Seriously dude? Maybe it's I dunno… a quirk?"

Kirshimia blushed a little at the jab and chuckled nervously, "Uh right…"

"Actually it's not a quirk, he's my brother." Izuku explained with a slight grimace as he watched Katsuki be pulled into another argument with Uraraka who had just arrived with only a minute to spare, a crime as great as murder in Katsuki's mind.

"Damn man…" Jiro said as her eyes snapped from Izuku to Katsuki and back again.

There was a sudden commotion at the door and the whole class was silenced. In the doorway to the class there now stood a yellow caterpillar with the face of Eraserhead. Said caterpillar was just finishing up a juice box and staring at the class with disappointment.

"It took you 8 seconds to be quiet, that's unacceptable," Aizawa said as he climbed out of his sleeping bag, "My name is Shota Aizawa and I'm your teacher."

Izuku eyed Aizawa nervously, though he didn't know the man extremely well but felt he had enough of a rapport to at least be friendly with the man. So when Izuku had rushed first out of the changing room (because the boys had started to discuss quirks and he didn't wait around to be asked about his own) he thought it was perfectly fine to give his teacher a friendly 'Good Morning Aizawa Sensei!'. Sadly it seemed he was wrong.

Aizawa's face had changed from one of uninterest to one of borderline contempt as his gaze focused solely on Izuku and his eyes narrowed slightly. Izuku himself tried to keep his body from shaking under Aizawa's fixed stare, it was like being circled by a hawk. Izuku silently wished he'd at least waited for Katsuki so he wasn't standing outside alone with Aizawa.

"Midoriya," The lack of emotion behind Aizawa's voice made Izuku gulp, "I appreciate you know me outside of the classroom, I also appreciate I have complimented you several times on the progress of your quirk and training."

"Th-thank you sir!" Izuku stuttered out, not exactly sure where this was going.

Aizawa gave a non committal nod and continued, "However here, in the classroom, you're on the same level as everyone else. If you fail to impress me, fail to make progress with your quirk or fail to show me that you deserve to be here I will expel you just like everyone else. Just because you had a harder fight than most to get here doesn't mean I'm going to treat you any differently."

Izuku;s body had gone rigid as he listened, though Aizawa hadn't said anything Izuku could read between the lines, "You want me to take my classmates' quirks?"

Aizawa nodded, seemingly unsurprised by Izuku's detective skills "Yes, not necessarily today but at some point you will need to gain the confidence to take their quirks. Right now the biggest thing holding you back is that mental block, it may be the first day but I expect you to overcome that block if you want to be a hero. In the meantime remember, your quirk is not the only tool in your arsenal, prove to me you have other skills for being a hero and I might be slightly more forgiving."

Despite the harsh words Izuku could feel the slight smirk from Aizawa at the end, he gave a firm nod to his teacher, "I won't let you down Sensei."

Aizawa responded with a nod and left the conversion at that, returning to his uninterested and unfocused gaze (which Izuku now realised was just him keeping a general observation of the area as opposed to actually being unfocused). Izuku sighed in relief slightly when he felt Katsuki's energy approaching, no longer having to suffer Aizawa alone.

"They ask you about your quirk?" Izuku asked, not bothering to turn and look at Katsuki, he knew his friend was aware that Izuku could 'see' him.

"Of course they did, all anyone here seems to care about is quirks," Aizawa gave a slight grunt and snapped his eyes to Katsuki who rolled eyes, "Fine, everyone but our teacher cares about quirks. Think Todoroki was the only other guy besides us who wasn't enthusiastic about the conversation, he didn't even refuse to answer, just ignored dunce face."

"Dunca face?" Izuku asked with an amused expression and a raised eyebrow.

"That dumb guy with the blonde hair. Anyway, I don't blame you for getting out of there. They all freaked out when I told them everything bar the name of my quirk was classified, can't imagine how they'd react to you."

Izuku snorted but internally his heart plummeted, if Aizawa wanted him to use his quirk on his classmates it meant they'd eventually find out about the truth behind it. The thought caused a pit to grow in Izuku's stomach. Would Yoarashi want a rival with such a villainous quirk? Would Yoayorozu trust him enough to ever get close to him again? What if Uraraka become so afraid of him she-

"Tch, I can hear your thoughts from here. Who cares what those extras think when they find out." Katsuki said with a slap at the back of Izuku's head.

"Thanks Kacchan." Izuku said with a small smile though he rubbed the back of his head, Katsuki sure had become a lot stronger.

"Midoriya and… Bakugou?"

The two brothers whipped round to come face to face with Todoroki who was looking at them with blank eyes. Izuku and Katsuki exchanged a confused glance.

"Uh yeah… that's us?" Izuku said slowly.

Todoroki nodded, "Midoriya, you beat me in the recommendation. And Bakugou you beat me in the main entrance exam."

Kastuki frowned, "Yeah, so?"

"How?"

Izuku blinked in surprise at the question, Katsuki also seemed to have been taken by surprise due to the lack of shouting.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked with a tilt of his head.

"Practically speaking, I have the strongest quirk in the class, perhaps the entire school. Yet you both beat with a simple strength quirk and… I'm not even sure what your quirk is Midoriya." Todoroki said with the same lack of expression that he seemed to maintain at all times.

"There's your problem right there, we beat you because we were thinking outside of our quirks," Katsuki said and Izuku was more than happy to let him take the lead on this, even months after receiving One For All quirks were still a sore topic for Katsuki, "Zuzu adapted to the race without trying to barrel through everything like you even when your quirk wasn't the best option. Meanwhile I actually thought about tactics when it came to the entrance exam, teaming up with someone to counter my weaknesses."

Todoroki seemed genuinely surprised at Katsuki's answer, "I see. My father asked me the same question and I could not answer him. I shall pass on your thoughts, hopefully he will not be too displeased with them."

Izuku and Katsuki once again glanced at each other, it was safe to say Todoroki was an odd character. Izuku had been preparing to calm Katsuki down from an impending argument but Todoroki had acted like he was after a genuine answer to the question as opposed to riling up for a fight. Before either party could investigate further the rest of the class started to trickle out of the changing rooms and Todoroki took a few steps back into the background.

Much to the surprise of the brothers they quickly found themselves surrounded by… friends? Uraraka, Yoayorozu, Jiro and Ashido had come out first, Uraraka appeared to have roped Ashido into another lesson on teenage culture for Yaoyorozu while Jiro watched on laughing. Then came Kirishima and Yoarashi, still talking to each other about their respective quirks, Izuku didn't blame them, just because he and Katsuki had a few (read a lot) of issues with quirks didn't mean they should stop others' enthusiasm.

Soon the entire class had wandered out onto the field and Aizawa gave them all a slight frown, "10 minutes between leaving the classroom and getting out here, I want that down to five next time."

This made a few people in the class stand up straighter, Aizawa was clearly not messing around.

"First of all, congratulations on passing the entrance exams to get here. But as of right now, that biased exam means nothing. If you want to stay on this course you need to prove to me you deserve your spot, otherwise I'm not afraid to expel the whole class."

Several people paled considerably at Aizawa's words and he focused his attention on Izuku and Yaoyorozu, "This includes you two, just because you're recommended students doesn't mean you get an easy ride."

Both students gave Aizawa a firm nod while Izuku felt several pairs of eyes in the back of his head.

"Bakugou," Aizawa called out, making said boy raise an eyebrow, "You came first in the entrance exam, what was your score for a ball throw back in junior high?"

"67 metres." Katsuki responded as Aizawa pulled a baseball out from his pocket.

"Try it again for me, except this time feel free to use your quirk. Only rule is not to leave the circle." Aizawa explained as he threw the ball to Katsuki who caught it effortlessly.

The One For All user walked up to the plate with an air of quiet confidence. A few people started to lean forward in anticipation of what Katsuki would do, he was after all the top scorer on the entrance exam. Once in the circle Katsuki stretched his arm for a moment before firmly planting his feet and pulled back. Knowing what was coming Izuku made sure to have a firm grip on his hunger. He saw Katsuki give a slight smirk.

"FUCK YOU!"

Katsuki's scream took the entire class by surprise for a moment until the surprise caused by the scream was completely overridden by the surprise that came with the massive shock wave caused by Katsuki's throw. His entire body was lit up with red and black fire as the ball shot out of his hand. Dust and dirt was thrown into the air around Katsuki and was blown over the class, several jaws dropping as it did. Izuku felt his hunger flare up and tensed slightly but was otherwise unaffected by the sudden power of Katsuki's energy. The only one seemingly unaffected by the raw power of the throw was Aizawa who still looked bored.

As the scene calmed down there was a beeping from the device Aizawa was holding in his hand, he glanced down at it, "Not bad kid, though watch the language next time."

Aizawa turned the device for the entire class to see.

813.4m

"Woah!" Kirishima exclaimed in genuine awe, "That's so manly!"

Several other students nodded along despite half of them not knowing what that really meant. Izuku had to suppress a proud smile from forming on his face, not that he wasn't proud but if Katsuki saw he'd never let him live it down.

"The truth is not all men and women are created equal," Aizawa continued as Katsuki re-joined the class with a smug smile, "As heroes you need to be greater than most and this starts with your physical training. So for me to understand where your potential lies, if at all, you'll be completing the standard physical assessment test, except you'll be allowed complete use of your quirks to achieve a score for each task."

There were mixed reactions among the class, some looked excited, some looked nervous and others looked disappointed.

"But Sensei, what about the opening ceremony?" Uraraka asked with a downtrodden expression.

"A pointless display, you can get all that from your school booklet. At UA the teachers are given far more control over our classes than most and you're in the hero course, your training to fight villains, not to become an accountant." Aizawa said with a serious expression at the class, Izuku felt a shiver up his spine as memories of the sludge villain surfaced.

"Oh man, completing an assessment with our quirks though? This will be fun!" Ashido said with an excited clap of her hands a slight jump in the air.

Aizawa zeroed in on the pink girl immediately, his face morphing into one of sadistic joy, "Fun huh? This isn't fun, this is for you to prove to me you deserve your spot. So whoever comes in last will be expelled."

It was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over the entire class. As a collective the faces of 1-A paled considerably, even Todoroki, Katsuki and Yoarashi, who's quirks were perfect for an assessment like this, were looking slightly nervous.

"A logical ruse." Izuku heard Yoayorozu mumble next to him.

"Actually Yoayorozu, my uncle told me about Eraserhead, I suspect he is very serious…" Yoarashi said from behind Izuku and he felt the Yoayorozu stiffen up next to him.

As Aizawa walked over to the racetrack to set up for the 50 metre dash the entire class gave a collective gulp and many started to seriously think about the applications of their quirks for the test. Izuku too was going over various plans in his head, except he had one obvious issue.

He didn't have a quirk to use.

He could technically take a few of his classmates but there was no way he was ready for that. Not to mention the chaos it had the potential to cause. But there was something else nagging in Izuku's mind. This whole scenario was… very un-Aizawa.

The man himself didn't have a physical quirk, so of course he would understand better than anyone that just being allowed to use your quirk in these tests wouldn't make a difference to every student present. Izuku's eyes drifted to the floating set of gym clothes, he didn't know her name but it was obvious the girl had an invisibility quirk, how was that supposed to help her throw a ball? Would Aizawa really expel her if she came last?

'Don't get too pent up on winning'

Aizawa's advice about the recommendation exam floated into Izuku's mind. Back then Aizawa had explained that the purpose of the exam was to look for heroic potential and not just win a race. So why now had he done a complete 180? Especially in a test with as much bias as this.

Unless…

'Prove to me you deserve your spot here.'

Aizawa wasn't really bothered about who won or lost, he was watching how people reacted to the challenge. Izuku had no doubt he really would expel last place, but only if he felt they weren't giving the tests their all. He would equally expel first place if he felt they didn't deserve to be here.

Ok, so now that Izuku didn't have to worry about not coming last he needed to worry about not

being expelled. Aizawa was well aware he wasn't going to use his quirk here and while he wasn't against stealing Aizawa's quirk directly he doubted that's what his teacher wanted to see. He'd already used that trick and bringing down the rest of his class was hardly pushing himself.

Izuku then remembered something back on the day of the entrance exam. When talking to the teachers they had mentioned how while most of group 2 during the recommendation exam had used brute force all of them had been beaten by Tokage and Honenuki who had used smarts and ingenuity. And Izuku was no slouch when it came to smarts, he just needed to figure out how that could translate to better scores on the test.

'Achieve a score for each task'

Wait. Aizawa hadn't said they needed to complete each exercise, just that they needed to achieve a score. Those were two very different things and there was no way Aizawa was someone who would make a verbal slip up like that. Izuku couldn't help but smirk slightly, Aizawa was a cleaver teacher, he set it up so that the likes of Katsuki would dominate the ranks. He was not only making a point but trying to push those in the class like Izuku who needed to think outside the box if they wanted to achieve decent scores.

And if there was one thing Izuku Midoriya knew how to do, it was think outside the box.

Izuku's plan for the 50 metre dash was arguably the riskiest, not because of the danger of his plan but rather the feasibility. Aizawa was making them do the run in pairs which meant Izuku's plan only hindered on who he was paired with but also if they were willing to go along with his plan. His confidence also took a hit when he watched both Yoarashi and Todoroki storm across the track, nearly destroying it in the process and getting less than 3 seconds each.

But, whether it be the intervention of God, Aizawa actively taking pity on him or an unknown luck quirk, Izuku nearly burst into tears of joy when Aizawa called himself and Katsuki to the field.

As they walked together Izuku slowed their pace slightly and leaned towards Katsuki, "Hey Kacchan, I have an idea…"

To the rest of the class it looked like the boys had had a casual conversion as they made their way to the starting line. Katsuki bent down, planting his feet and leaning on his hands in a traditional starting position for a runner. Izuku however simply stood in the general vicinity of the starting

line with a relaxed posture and a smile on his face.

"What's he doing?" Jiro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't he taking this seriously!?" Iida whispered with frown.

"Could it be to do with his quirk?" Kirishima asked, his eyes widening with anticipation.

"Oh! Are we about to see the mysterious quirk in action!?" Yoarashi asked, his voice carrying over the class, Todoroki's eyebrows rose with surprise at the question.

"Oh my God, Bakugou said the other day he reckons Midoriya's quirk is more powerful than his. This is gonna be insane!" Uraraka whispered to an eager looking Ashido as she bawled her fists in her hands.

Despite the voices carrying, Izuku and Katsuki ignored them as the robot at the start line began its count down.

"On your marks."

Katsukis body visibly tensed as Izuku shifted his feet slightly and bent his knees. At this point nearly the entire class has shuffled forward to see what was about to happen. Aizawa simply looked on, internally curious as to how Izuku would handle the situation.

"Get set."

Todoroki had expected Izuku to unleash god-like power and tear the course apart.

Yoarashi had expected a brilliant display of a well tuned and stunning quirk.

Uraraka had expected a battle of brothers the likes of which could only be seen in anime.

What no one, not even Aizawa, had been expecting was for Izuku to jump onto Katsuki's back, wrapping his arms around the large boy's chest and legs around his waist. Katsuki had clearly been expecting the passenger as he didn't respond back, locking himself in for Izuku to jump on and adjusting his weight accordingly.

"Go!"

The moment the starting pistol went off Katsuki (and by extension Izuku) were enveloped in red and black fireworks. Katsuki launched them off the starting point and tore across the track, each step he made causing a small crater in the dirt as the force of his quirk ran through his body. It didn't take long for Katsuki to cross the finish line, bringing Izuku with him.

"3.23 seconds." The robot at the end of the line announced.

"Dammit!" Katsuki shouted and kicked the dirt as Izuku jumped off his back, "That's only 4th!"

"Relax Kacchan," Izuku reassured as he patted his friend's shoulder, "You've still got several tests to go, you can bring it back."

Meanwhile the entire class had frozen in shock, jaws hanging open. Izuku's stunt had gained even more of a reaction than Katsuki's ball throw. Even Yoarashi and Yaoyorozu were looking at Izuku with something akin to disbelief, as if the teenager had just given Aizawa the middle finger and expected not to get expelled. As did the entire class.

However Aizawa himself merely added the boys' scores into the system with a blank expression, "Alright, next up is Jiro and Tokoyami."

"Sensei!" Iida cried, causing every set of eyes to snap their attention to him, "Aren't you going to reprimand Midoriya!?"

Katsuki narrowed his eyes at the boy and growled, though this went unnoticed by Iida who watched in abstract horror as Aizawa gave him a confused look.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because!" Iida cried as his hands came flying down, several students around him taking a step back out of range, "He cheated!"

"Did he?" Aizawa asked with a raised eyebrow, "I didn't notice."

Iida's face seemed to be going red though out of outrage or exhaustion from waving his arms around nobody was quite sure, "He completely ignored the rules of the dash!"

"What rules?" Izuku asked with a slight frown, surprising both Katsuki and Aizawa who both had open mouths in readiness to respond, "Aizawa Sensei never set out any rules other than getting from the start line to the finish line in the fastest possible way. Which considering my options was pretty much latching onto Kacchan."

Katsuki crossed his arms and glared at the class, "Of which I gave my ok beforehand, any of you extra's got a problem with that?"

Before anyone could respond Aizawa raised his voice slightly, "Stop antagonising each other, Iida if I had a problem with the way Midoriya or anyone took the tests I'd make them redo it."

That at least seemed to satisfy Iida although he sent a couple of dirty looks to the brothers as they re-joined the class. Meanwhile Izuku could've sworn he'd seen Aizawa smirking underneath his scarf as he completed the race.

The grip strength test was another challenge for Izuku, he could probably get a reasonable score on his own, at the very least it wouldn't be in the bottom five. But compared to the likes of Katsuki and the kid who had six tree trunk sized arms, who had just pulled 374kg and 540.5kg respectively, his score would be nothing. And Izuku was damned if he wasn't going to push to get his best.

He could of course just ask Katsuki to squeeze his grips tester for him but he suspected even with his leniant rules Aizawa would quickly tire if Izuku became a one trick pony throughout the tests. Instead Izuku decided to walk around the test area for inspiration. They had moved inside and were in a rather well equipped gym for the test. Izuku walked past the various free weight benches when he spotted something in the corner.

It was a landmine. A piece of gym equipment made by taking a barbell and securing one end of the barbell to the floor with a pivot, allowing someone to add weights and lift the other end. As Izuku observed the equipment his eyes lit up with an idea.

He quickly found a barbell with no weights on and slipped it through the grip tester he was using. Laying the grip tester down on the ground he let the empty barbell rest directly on top of the trigger that he was supposed to squeeze, checking the tester he saw it now read 10kg, the exact weight of the barbell.

Izuku smirked and hurried over the landmine, lifting the free end of it up (that already had some weight on) and allowing it to rest on top of the empty barbell which in turn pushed down against the grip tester. A quick check showed it now read 50kg the added weight of the landmine now being taken into the equation.

Izuku's eyes shined with victory and he quickly ran about grabbing more weights to add to the landmine. The first he tried nearly broke his back and he realised he'd been trying to lift a single weight that read 200kg. He didn't know what it was made out of but UA clearly made sure to accommodate the gym for those with strength quirks. Luckily he found some lighter weights he could shift and started to add them to the landmine.

He added as many to the end as he could until there was literally no room left to slot any more of the round weights on. A few of his classmates had spared him odd glances at his behaviour but none had bothered him about it. He stepped back for a moment once he'd added the final weight on and waited for the machine to ping indicating it had recorded his score. Once done he made sure to put the landmine and weights back the way he found them.

With a smile he grabbed the grip tester and checked his score, he hadn't been keeping track of the weights and so hoped he'd at least broken 200kg.

Oh.

875kg

The long jump presented more of a challenge than the first two tests. Aizawa was very clear in the way he worded this test, they had to jump off at the start and the robot would record their distance until they hit the ground again. There was no clever way around that and nothing Izuku could think

of to boost his score through smarts.

He had considered asking Katsuki to throw him but he wasn't quite desperate enough to stoop to that level. Not to mention he suspected Katsuki would literally make him beg out of some sadistic pleasure. You know, in a lot of ways Izuku's brother was similar to Aizawa.

Instead Izuku just watched the other students perform, partly to see in more detail how their quirks operated but also to see if there were any tricks he could pick up. If not he'd just have to give it his all with a standard jump and hope for the best.

There were plenty of students doing well here, more so than the dash and grip test. More than a few were completely clearing the sandpit and Aizawa had to stop Yoarashi from flying off into the forest, giving him the top score, due to the fact Yoarashi could theoretically fly.

Up next was Todoroki and Izuku was curious to see how he'd tackle the jump. Ideally he'd use his fire to help propel him through the air, similar to how his father does. But seeing as Todoroki hadn't once used his fire he doubted that there would be a sudden twist at the long jump of all places.

Indeed Todoroki simply walked up the jump before putting himself in a prone position. The ground shook as a great pillar of ice rose up from the ground carrying Todoroki across the sand pit. Izuku shivered slightly as the giant pillar of ice caused a cold wind to pick up. He also felt his hunger reaching out for the powerful quirk as he watched Todoroki's energy flare up.

Eventually the ice structure started to crack slightly and Todoroki jumped down onto the ground as he waited for his score to be announced. Izuku frowned, normally the robot announced it the moment their feet touched the ground. A quick glance at the robot revealed the issue, it had been caught in Todoroki's ice, head mid turn as it had followed him across the sand pit. Izuku wasn't quite sure how it worked but the robot seemed to lock onto the person at the start of their jump and follow them through the air until they landed.

Which meant Izuku's score was completely determined by the robot registering him landing on the ground.

As Todoroki melted the massive ice structure to free the robot an idea formed in Izuku's mind, it was arguably the sneakiest idea so far but he figured if Aizawa had a major problem with it he could just do the jump again.

Once free the robot snapped its attention to Todoroki, "32.5 Metres."

It was a good score, not as high as Yoarashi's flight or Yaoyorozu's pole vault but decent enough to get him in the top three. Izuku shook his head, he didn't need to worry about Todoroki's score, only his own.

"Midoriya, you're up next." Aizawa said without looking up from where he was entering Todoroki's score into the system.

Izuku nodded and walked into position, a few of classmates followed him curiously, while he hadn't tackled the tests with any kind of flamboyant quirk, a few people were curious to see what method he'd use next.

Izuku made sure to give himself a running distance to the jump line, if his plan was to work he still needed to achieve a decent jump. He took a few calming breaths before taking off, sprinting as hard as he could towards the jump line. He reached the line and launched himself into the air, except unlike everyone else he pushed off at a slight angle. As it had with everyone before him the robot locked onto Izuku and followed his path through the air.

Right up until the moment that Izuku's feet made contact with said robot. He came flying through the air and landed directly on top of it. His feet hit its head at the perfect angle, snapping it around on its 'neck' and forcing it to face away from Izuku as the whole robot collapsed to the ground.

Izuku didn't waste a second, he had no idea how long it would take for the robot to recover, he quickly rolled on the ground into the fall before leaping back to his feet and taking off down the sandpit. He smirked to himself when he didn't hear the robot beep, he was right, his score wouldn't be recorded until the robot regained sight of him. So the further away he got the longer his 'jump' would be recorded down as.

As Izuku ran he managed to clear the sand pit and was just starting to wonder how far he'd get when he heard the beeping of the robot ring out. Skidding to a stop Izuku saw that while still on the ground the robot had managed to lift its head (which was now dented) and lock back onto him.

"46.8 Metres."

Try as he might, Izuku couldn't figure out a way to 'cheat' the repeated side steps and there was no clever tactic to improve his ability at the test. Plus he knew the ball throw was next and he needed time to prepare. So he just gave it his all without any sly underhanded score manipulation and hoped that would be enough.

On the plus side he was one of the first to go and once he finished he quickly walked over to Aizawa, "Aizawa Sensei, may I go to the bathroom?"

Aizawa gave him a look which indicated he very much knew Izuku didn't need to go to the bathroom but just grunted and nodded his head in agreement.

Izuku nodded his thanks and quickly fled out of the gym where they were doing the side steps. Walking back out into the courtyard he spied a box next to the circle they would be using to throw the balls from.

Walking over it was as he expected, the box was filled with baseballs. Picking one up he saw the name Kaminari stencilled onto the ball. Just above the name was a small black metal circle with a blinking light. So they were throwing normal baseballs with tracking devices stuck on them.

Putting the ball back into the box Izuku rummaged around until he found his own ball, picking it up out of the box he rolled it in his hand and found the tracking device. A quick play around with it and Izuku was able to pop it off relatively easily.

He quickly started scanning through the rest of the balls while his analytical mind ran at full speed. He knew quirks, he should easily figure out who would get a good score here. Katsuki had already gone which ruled him out, Yoarashi was bound to get a good score with his wind as well. He didn't know what Todoroki planned to do but the boy had excelled in nearly every test so far so it was a safe bet. But none of them had the perfect quirk for this test, Izuku already knew exactly who he was looking for and finding the right ball he just hoped they would go along with it.

Eventually the rest of the class joined Izuku outside who whistled innocently, Katsuki gave him a look but he just shrugged and smiled in a way that told him to watch and find out. Izuku watched as the class started to go through the ball throw. He briefly wondered if he should have gone with Yaoyorozu who created a literal canon and achieved the highest score so far with 872.9m. But Izuku was still confident in his choice.

He smiled as Uraraka was called up, she searched the box for her ball before bringing it out. As she looked down at it she paused and frowned slightly, she glanced at Izuku before turning to Aizawa.

"Aizawa Sensei, I think there's an issue with my baseball."

Aizawa sighed, "Just throw the ball Uraraka, if there is an issue with it we have plenty to try again."

Uraraka hesitated before she nodded and walked up to a plate. Her throw didn't look particularly strenuous but the entire class watched as the ball travelled straight up. It kept rising into the sky until even anyone with a sight based quirk would struggle to see it.

A few eyes widened as Aizawa turned as his tablet pinged and simply showed a score of infinity. Uraraka smiled sheepishly at the looks she was getting.

Aizawa was about to move on when his tablet pinged again, with a frown he looked down. As he read what was on his screen he let out a slight snort.

"Well played Midoriya." He said and turned the tablet to the rest of the class, the infinity symbol also showing under Izuku's name.

"Wait… huh?" Kirishima said, dumbfounded and what had just happened.

"Let me guess," Aizawa said as he tried to hide the way the edge of his mouth twitched, "You came out early and stuck the tracking device from your baseball onto Uraraka's?"

Izuku gave an affirmative nod, he could practically feel the dirty glares he was getting in the back of his head (and literally feel a few quirks flare up), "That's right, sorry I didn't get your permission Uraraka."

Izuku bowed at the girl who just giggled and waved him off, "It's fine, I figured it was you, I just wanted to make sure it didn't invalidate our scores."

Aizawa nodded, "You're fine, though I would still like to record your standard throw Midoriya."

Izuku agreed and was pleasantly surprised by his score of 50.4m.

Like the side step Izuku couldn't figure out a method for improving his scores in the seated toe touch and sit ups. But most of the class didn't really have quirks that suited these two tests so Izuku simply did them as standard to the best of his ability. Luckily after months of an intensive course with All Might he was still able to perform decently on physical capability alone.

Finally they had the long distance run, again Izuku wasn't sure what exactly he could do to improve his score here, however, while Katsuki may have been physically stronger, when it came to running Izuku could run (literally) circles around most people at this point. So he just figured he'd do the best he could and would probably get into at least the top half of the class. That was until Aizawa explained the test.

"This is a test of your endurance, the rules are simple, you need to keep moving around the track until you stop. The moment you stop, even for a breath, you're out." Their teacher drawled as the class lined up on the track.

Izuku meanwhile met the man's eyes, they stared at each other briefly and Izuku tried to read his expression. Which proved to be impossible seeing as Aizawa had a better poker face than even Todoroki could muster. Izuku sighed, he'd just have to trust his gut again.

Because Aizawa never said they had to run along the track.

And so when the pistol went off to indicate they could start Izuku hung back and let the rest of the class shoot off from the starting line and tear across the path. Even Yaoyorozu had created a small moped and sped off with the others. Izuku meanwhile stuck his hands in his pockets and started to stroll down the track, enjoying the wind in his air.

Technically he was moving.

A snort drew his attention to Aizawa who wasn't even bothering to hide his smirk, the pair nodded to each other before Aizawa turned his attention to the rest of the class.

It didn't take long until Izuku found himself lapped. First uo was Iida, who was leading the charge, and Izuku couldn't help but be impressed, give him some distance and Iida could really pick up

some top speeds. His energy was focused in his legs, when not being used it looked like a slick black oil but when activated turned into what he would describe as bright blue flame that matched the pattern of his engines.

After Iida came Katsuki, Todoroki and Yoarashi who were all battling for second place, Katsuki rolled his eyes as Izuku gave him a wave and the three ripped past him. Izuku would admit that he was nearly tripped up by the spike in hunger caused by the three active and powerful quirks.

Next came a larger group of the class who all possessed mobility based quirks, the boy with the tail, the girl who frog leaped everywhere and Ashido who seemed to be using her acid to skid along the ground. Yaoyorozu was also a part of this group as her moped moved along at a pleasant pace.

Finally came the group that, if Izuku was running, he would probably be in, it was everyone who didn't have a quirk to help them run. Kirishima seemed to be leading the charge with this group and waved to Izuku as he jogged past and Izuku gave him a wave back. Jiro too shot him an amused look as she went past him. Though a few people were definitely giving him less than friendly looks.

Eventually people started to drop out, some from quirk exhaustion and other from regular exhaustion. Izuku winced as he watched Iida have to be carried from the course by Kirishima and a now identified Shoji due to his engines overheating. Once the first person went down it wasn't long before only Izuku and Yoayorozu remained on the track. Aizawa eventually told them to come back, realising that Izuku could probably walk for hours and Yaoyorozu would keep going until she ran out of gas.

There were more than a few tired looking students as the class gathered for the final results. Despite not having worked nearly as hard physically as some of his other classmates Izuku still felt like he could do with a rest and the dirty glances a few people were sending his way didn't help. He suspected more than a few assumed he was about to get expelled, he knew (hoped) they were wrong.

"Well then, here are the results." Aizawa said with absolutely no ceremony and clicked a button on his tablet, the outside screen lighting up with a list of names.

Izuku instantly snapped to last place, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Hagakure's name, though he did feel a pang of sympathy for the invisible girl who had started to sniffle upon seeing her name. Luckily Ashido also picked up on this and quickly ran over to the girl with a reassuring

hug.

Izuku started to scan the middle of the board for his name, based on not using his quirk he assumed he would be around this area. But panic started to set in when he didn't see his name. Had he gone too far? Had Aizawa simply not scored him because he was already expelled?

"Not bad nerd, next time you're mine though." Katsuki said with a grunt a smirk next to him.

"Huh?" Was Izuku's philosophical response as he turned to Katsuki who rolled his eyes and pointed at the board.

Izuku nearly fainted.

1st Momo Yaoyorozu

2nd Izuku Midoriya

3rd Shoto Todoroki

4th Inasa Yoarashi

5th Katsuki Bakugou

"Oh man, I guess you two really are recommendation students!" Kirshima, who was sat comfortably in 9th place, exclaimed with a wide smile and a thumbs up at Izuku and Yaoyorozu.

"Also, no one is expelled, I was just trying to motivate you." Aizawa said with a smile that could only be described as deranged.

"Hmpf, I knew it was a logical ruse." Yoayorozu said to Yoarashi who looked slightly offended by the fact their teacher had just lied to them.

"Actually I was fully prepared to expel any of you if I felt like you didn't belong here, even if you had come in first." Aizawa explained with slightly narrowed eyes.

Yoayorozu gulped, "So… is anyone getting expelled?"

Aizawa paused to answer and for a brief moment 20 people were filled with utter dread, "No. While many, if not most, of you disappointed me, none of you did so poorly that I feel the need to get rid of you."

The entire class let out a sigh of relief mixed with a slight grimace at their teacher's words. A few people frowned however.

"You're not even going to expel Midoriya, after everything he did to cheat?" The boy with the tail asked and Izuku instantly felt every pair of eyes on him.

He started to sweat and curled in on himself slightly, hoping the world would swallow him up. Next to him Katsuki took a protective step in front of his friend, eyes narrowed at the tail man.

"Of course not," Aizawa said, bringing the attention back to him, "In fact out of everyone Midoriya impressed me more than anyone else in the class."

Izuku looked up and blinked in surprise, as did most of the class at the smile Aizawa was sending Izuku's way. He hadn't used his quirk once in the exam yet he was more impressive than the likes of Todoroki and Yaoyorozu to Aizawa?

"But Sensei!" Iida cried, raising his hand, "He didn't even use his quirk!"

Aizawa smiled, "Exactly. Kaminari!" He barked and the blonde boy jumped, "How did your quirk help you during the 50 metre dash?"

Kaminari frowned in confusion, "It didn't… I didn't use it."

Aizawa nodded before moving his focus on, "Hagakure, did your quirk make you stronger for the strength test?"

"What? No? It's just invisibility." Hagakure said, her voice still quivering slightly from the shock of nearly being expelled.

"Precisely," Aizawa said like he'd just had a eureka moment, except far more subdued, "Quite frankly I never cared about your scores because this entire test is rigged in favour of those with physical quirks like Bakugou and Yoarashi. Meanwhile those of you with more specialised or less physical quirks were always going to struggle. For most of you your quirks would only help boost your score in one or two tests, in fact for some of you, such as Midoriya, your quirks wouldn't be of any help in these tests at all."

It wasn't technically true, Izuku's quirk was arguably the best quirk here for the tests, seeing as how, if he really wanted, he could pick and choose which quirks among the class he used in each test. But he understood what Aizawa was trying to say.

"However, unlike the rest of you who just approached these tests with a simple mind set of completing them quirkless, Midoriya knew he would be outmatched if he went at them like that and instead faced the problem at various angles and worked out loopholes. Out thinking how the tests operated. If you made sure to pay attention I never said you had to complete the tests, only that you needed a score. The only other person to pick up on this was Yaoyorozu and the only reason she beat Midoriya is because her quirk is better suited to that way of thinking. Had those of you who were able to use your quirks in a few of the tests thought like either of them chances are you would also be in a top spot. Remember, your quirk is just one tool in your arsenal, you'll face plenty of situations as a hero where your quirk is useless, you need to be able to adapt to that. Now, the rest of the day is free, please collect your welcome packs and class schedule from your desks back at the classroom. Midoriya, stay behind."

Various glances were shot at Izuku as the rest of the class started to make their way towards the changing rooms. Some glances were impressed, some curious and more than a few were angry enough for Izuku to feel uncomfortable. Katsuki hung back slightly but Izuku waved him off, he highly doubted Aizawa would attack him after that speech.

"Don't get too cocky," Katsuki said as he turned to join the rest of the class leaving, "Next time I'll beat you."

"Don't you need to beat Yoarashi and Todoroki first though?"

"SHUT UP ROUND FACE!"

Izuku sighed as the class disappeared into the changing rooms, at least he had some friends among them.

"You good kid?" Aizawa asked, slightly surprising Izuku.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked with a furrowed eyebrow.

"I'm not an idiot problem child, I was standing where you were once. I'm also not blind, I saw some of the looks you were getting." Aizawa said and for once his voice and expression softened.

Izuku just shrugged, "It's not their fault, they've been brought up to believe their status is based on their quirk, they don't like being beaten by someone who was effectively quirkless."

"They'll learn," Aizawa said, "And if not I'll just make sure to beat it into them." He said with a sadistic smile which made Izuku shudder.

A chuckle alerted Izuku to a third member of the group and his eyes widened slightly when he saw Cementoss approach them, "Threatening your students again Aizawa? Maybe one day you'll get through the first day without making a student cry."

Aizawa just scoffed, "Unlikely, children are just oversized brats."

"Uh, what am I here for?" Izuku asked a little nervously.

"Don't you remember?" Aizawa replied, "I told you if you got into my class I'd give you an extra test on top of everyone else. I expected you'd tackle the assessment quirkless but I still want to monitor your quirk progress too. And Cementoss here was willing to volunteer."

"It gets me out of my third year management class for 15 minutes, I tell you, those kids are like vultures." Cementoss said with a slight shiver.

"Ok." Izuku said and closed his eyes, "Give me a countdown."

"No, go now." Aizawa said.

Luckily Izuku was half expecting it so the moment he heard Aizawa respond he latched onto Cementoss's quirk. The pair quickly got into a tug of war over the quirk, it was relatively powerful and Cementoss was a pro hero and teacher. Izuku grit his teeth as he pulled harder and harder, allowing his hunger to aid him without it being overwhelming. He could feel sweat start to drip down his face as he finally managed to tear Cementoss's quirk away from him.

He let out a sigh and heard a grunt behind him, but he was being timed and he knew Aizawa would stop if there was a serious concern. A quick glance down at his arms showed him Cementoss's quirk energy. Unlike most, rather than being fluid, his energy was made up of several grey like bricks stacked together that now sat in Izuku's forearm. He pressed his hand to the ground and focused on the quirk energy.

Despite being an emitter cement was the first quirk he'd used where the energy of the quirk itself wasn't the actual power. Unlike Aizawa's power Izuku needed to use the energy to wield an external force, simply pushing the energy out of his body wasn't enough. He focused on the quirk and felt it hum, he pushed the hum out through his hand and watched in fascination as bricks from the energy shot out in pathways in the ground. Izuku kept track of each path, feeling it hum information back at him, he felt the ground around him match the hum and it felt like the entire area was an extension of his body.

Clenching his jaw, Izuku willed the concrete in the ground to move. There was a rumbling from underneath him and a pillar of concrete shot up into the ground, causing a few nearby birds to flee in terror.

Izuku smiled to himself and wiped the sweat off his brow, turning back to Aizawa and Cementoss he returned for the former's quirk with a nod of thanks. Cementoss gave Izuku a quick smile before turning back and quickly heading into the school. Izuku sighed, it was the kind of reaction he had been expecting.

Aizawa decided to ignore the awkwardness of Cementoss's exit and turned to Izuku, "Not bad kid, 1 minutes and 53 seconds to take and use the quirk."

Izuku smiled, "It's more difficult when they know what's about to happen."

"Still, I told you I wanted it to take under two minutes and you did it. Good job problem child. Now, go and make sure your brother doesn't kill someone and make me expel you both."

Izuku decided Aizawa was a rather odd person

Chapter End Notes

Thanks for all the kudos and comments everyone! Just wanted to give you all a heads up updates may slow down for a bit as I'm really bust at the moment, but will try to keep it as regular as I can

Quirk Grades

Chapter Summary

1-A Must elect their class president before finally having their first heroics lesson

Chapter Notes

Hi all, as always thanks for all the kudos and comments, you're all amazing! Just a few things to say here:

1. Just to confirm 1-A is exactly the same as canon except for the fact Yoarashi replaces Mineta

2. To those who asked, when Izuku takes a quirk like Cementoss he gains the ability of the quirk but not the mutation, the mutation comes from the quirk factor which he doesn't steal, just the quirk fuel, so Cementoss was still a block when Izuku took his quirk. Izuku's own factor adapts to replicate the mutation of the quirk where required for him to wield it (but these quirks are incredibly difficult for him to steal)

3. I should have mentioned this sooner but I'll pre warn you all not everyone is going to get on with Izuku and accept his quirk, I love all the canon characters but it just seemed too boring if everyone was chill with Izuku's Quirk so some of the characters will be a little OOC in the fact that they're assholes

4. The timeline here is a little different than in canon but only in that the class president election is happening a day early

Izuku dramatically fell on top of Katsuki's desk, "Why do you insist on torturing me? What cruel god did I piss off to receive you as a brother?"

Katsuki snorted from his seat, "Stop being a cry baby, my plan worked didn't it?"

Izuku raised his head and scowled at Katsuki. Seeing as Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had beaten them yesterday, this morning Katsuki had insisted on getting up and leaving the house even earlier. Inko and Mitsuki hadn't even been awake when they left and Masaru only offered them a tired wave as he poured himself a cup of coffee. But it worked and unlike yesterday they were the first to arrive in the empty classroom.

"You're right Kacchan, there's no way we won't be top heroes now, you've discovered the secret to All Might and Endeavor's success. Arriving to class two whole fucking hours early." Izuku

snapped back with a bit more bite than he anticipated but screw it, he'd been having a wonderful dream that definitely did not involve Ashido when Katsuki had woken him up.

"Oi, cut the sass, if it wasn't for me you'd probably be late." Katsuki said and narrowed his eyes.

Izuku narrowed his eyes back as the pair glared at each other. Luckily before punches could be thrown the door to the classroom opened and Todoroki stepped through. If he was surprised by Izuku and Katsuki's presence he didn't show it. However once he noticed them he did make his way over to the pair.

Izuku glanced at Katsuki who just shrugged his shoulders, "Uh, good morning Todoroki." Izuku said politely.

Todoroki nodded at them both, "Good Morning. I informed my father of why you have consistently beaten me. He disagreed."

"O-oh…" Izuku stammered, not entirely sure how to respond to that statement.

"He said if I'd used my fire I would have soundly beaten you on both occasions." Todoroki said while maintaining his monotone voice.

Izuku exchanged a slightly concerned glance with Katsuki, the topic of Todoroki's fire seemed to be coming up at regular intervals, "Not necessarily," Izuku said and started to mumble as he began to start analysing Todoroki's quirk, "Yesterday the only test your fire would have been better than your ice would have been the long jump, and even then I still might have beaten you. And during the recommendation exam you mainly lost because you didn't have a faster way to cross the canyon. And even if you had managed to cross quickly my quirks would have easily countered you."

This time Todoroki did gain an expression of surprise as he spoke, "Quirks? As in you have multiple quirks?"

Izuku froze, his eyes snapping open at the realisation of what he had said. Katsuki, who had only been half listening to the conversion, nearly fell back in his chair, snapping the pencil he had been holding in half. Both boys turned to each other, having a silent conversion on how to handle the situation.

"I didn't realise I wasn't the only one in the class with multiple quirks." Todoroki said, seemingly lost in thought at the revelation.

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, he supposed Todoroki thinking he had two or more quirks wasn't the worst thing in the world. But Izuku really needed to work on his mumbling habit, accidentally letting slip what his quirk was or worse, what Katsuki's quirk truly was, would be colossally bad.

"Perhaps that's why you were able to win, I shall make sure to inform my father." And with that Todoroki turned and walked over to his own desk, apparently he had decided the conversation was over.

Izuku and Katsuki looked at each other, Katsuki raised an eyebrow but Izuku just shrugged and waved him off. Todoroki seemed harmless, at least for now. Bidding goodbye to Katsuki Izuku made his way to the front of the class and took his seat, watching the rest of class arrive one by one.

"Good Morning Midori!" Ashido said as she took her seat behind him.

Izuku raised an eyebrow and swivelled in his chair to face her, "Midori?"

Ashido nodded, "Uh huh! I give all my friends nicknames," Her face dropped slightly, "Is that uh, ok?"

Izuku had to make sure he didn't burst into tears, it was the first nickname (bar Zuzu of course) he'd ever had that wasn't meant as an insult, "I-it's fine." He said, his voice quivering slightly.

Ashido gave him a wide smile and both Kirishima and Jiro arrived, "Hey guys!" Kirishima said with a wave while Jiro shot them both a peace sign, both taking their seats next to Izuku and Ashido respectively.

"Say uh.. Midoirya," Kirishima said a little nervously, making Izuku look at him with a concerned frown, "Do you mind me asking why you're always wearing a glove on your right hand?"

Izuku flinched slightly at the question and subconsciously pulled his right hand back, hiding it in his jacket and holding it with his left. Ashido noticed the reaction and turned to Kirishima with an angry expression.

"Oh My God Kirishima! You can't just ask something like that!" She cried and on instinct Kirishima activated his quirk for fear of being pummelled.

"It-It's ok Ashido," Izuku said quietly, pausing the oncoming attack she was aiming at Kirishima, "I had a bad accident when I first discovered my quirk and well… my hand is pretty much all scar tissue, I can't even feel anything below my elbow."

Ashido's eyes filled with sadness and her usual upbeat demeanour dropped slightly. Kirishima also suddenly looked very sober while Jiro shot him a glare, "Good job moron."

Kirshima was forced to harden as Jiro started to attack him with her jacks until Aizawa finally entered the room and the class settled down

"5 seconds today, better but it still needs improvement," Aizawa said as he walked over and stood behind the podium at the front of the class, "I had hoped to allow you some free time in homeroom this morning but Nedzu reminded me of something important, something which will affect your entire time at UA."

The entire class tensed at those words, Aizawa's expression turned serious as he scanned over the classroom, "You need to elect a class president."

There was a brief sigh of relief among the class before chaos ensued.

"Oh pick me! I'd plan so many trips for the class!"

"You extra's need a powerful leader! I'm stronger than any of you!"

"It would be an honour to serve as president to such prestigious students!"

The entire class was soon silenced however when Aizawa activated his quirk, red eyes scanning over everyone and erasing their quirks. For most of the class it was the first time they had even realised what their teacher's quirk was and the red eyes combined with the floating hair followed by the brief loss of quirk was enough to shut anyone up.

However, despite knowing what their teachers' quirk was, it was still the first time Izuku and Katsuki had been on the receiving end of it. As he felt his quirk vanish Katsuki frowned slightly at the empty feeling within him, unlike most others in the class he didn't have such an outward reaction, he had after all had that empty feeling for 15 years before receiving his quirk.

Izuku, on the other hand, was one of the said class members who had a larger reaction than most. At first he was just as uncomfortable as everyone else, despite not having the best opinion on his quirk he didn't enjoy the emptiness that came without it, he had grown so used to his hunger being a constant in the back of his mind that it's absence made for an almost uncomfortable level of silence. He was also suddenly unable to feel the quirk energy of his classmates, to Izuku it was like being temporarily blind of deaf. Overall the entire experience made him visibly shiver and flinch far more than the rest of the class which drew a concerned glance from Kirishima.

But that was nothing compared to when Aizawa's eyes snapped away from him, his quirk came rushing back like a volcanic eruption. The energy of his classmates flared brightly and his hunger swept over his mind like a flood. He lurched forward, half expecting to lose his lunch as his hands gripped the side of his the desk with white knuckled hands. He was vaguely aware of the taste of blood in his mouth as he fought to make sure he regained control of his hunger. After what felt like hours but was probably in reality only a few seconds he felt his hunger simmer down the the energy of the quirks around him dim slightly.

As he came back to reality he noticed the entire class was looking at him with varying levels of concern. In the corner of the room Katsuki was already out of his desk, Kirishima too had stood up but seemed too concerned to touch him.

Aizawa quickly came running over, a look of horror on his face, and passed Izuku a handkerchief, "Midoriya, are you ok!?"

Izuku sighed and nodded and wiped the blood from his mouth, his tongue was throbbing and he could feel sweat on his face, "I'm ok. Sorry Sensei, my quirk, it uh… It came back with a lot of force, I had to regain control."

Aizawa sighed and pinched between his eyes, "Shit," he mumbled under his breath before looking at Izuku again, "Sorry kid, I should've considered the consequences of erasing your quirk. Do you need to go to the nurses office?"

Izuku shook his head, "I'm fine honestly, I have it all under control now, but uh.. Please warn me in the future."

Aizawa shot him a small but reassuring smirk, "I'll make sure to think of another way to put the fear of god into you."

Izuku chuckled and Aizawa returned to the front of the classroom, Kirishima sat back down as did Katsuki once Izuku gave him a reassuring nod. There were a few glances sent his way but luckily it appeared he wasn't the only one in the class who had a reaction to having their quirk erased. Dark Shadow had appeared in almost pure terror, having essentially been temporarily wiped from existence while Jiro seemed to have had her hearing effected and was snapping her fingers next to each ear.

"Apologies for using my quirk on you, normally I wait until I understand your quirks better so I know who not to focus on for those of you with more volatile reactions but it's become a force of habit in recent years.," Aizawa said as his hair was once again captured by gravity, "Now then, I don't care how you select them but you'll need a president and vice president and do it without burning the room down."

And with that Aizawa quickly climbed back into his sleeping bag and propped himself in the corner of the room, eyes closed and head down. Izuku pondered if the man might have a quirk that allowed him to sleep while also being aware of the real world. Either that or he was just paranoid.

"Everybody!" Iida shouted and shot up out of his seat before anyone else could talk, "The best way to do this would be via a democratic vote! We should have one vote each."

"Uhh I'm not sure Iida, wouldn't everyone just vote for themselves though? I mean most of us hardly know each other" Uraraka asked with a slight frown and Izuku had to agree, he might have some friends among the class but as for the rest of them he had only just figured out everyone's names that same morning.

"Exactly! Therefore the person with the most votes will be the best candidate for the job, the same goes for the person with the second most votes for vice president." Iida insisted and a few people nodded, having been convinced.

"The president should choose their vice, moron." Katsuki said with a snort from behind Iida.

"Why do you say that Bakugou?" Yaoyorozu (who was also hoping for the position) asked.

"Because the president and vice president need to be a team, they need to get along and also compliment each other in their roles." Katsuki said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's… actually a good point." Kirshima said with some surprise.

"WHY THE FUCK DO YOU SOUND SO SURPRISED SHITTY HAIR!?"

"It's settled then!" Iida cried, ignoring how Bakugou was halfway out of his seat and practically frothing from the mouth behind him, "We shall all cast our vote for the president who shall then pick their vice!"

Yaoyorozu quickly took care of creating a hat and Izuku (un)happily provided a few pages out of a spare notebook. Tapping his pen for a moment Izuku considered his choice and in the end decided on Yaoyorozu, she had all the qualities he would expect of a president and had buckets more confidence than he could ever hope to possess. There was no point voting for himself anyway, no one was going to win with one vote.

Iida offered to tally up the votes and everyone agreed, there was no way that the man who worshipped The God of Rulemaking would ever manipulate the results to put himself in the position. He quickly wrote the results on the chalkboard and turned to reveal them with a frown. Izuku quickly saw why due to the one written next to Iida's name. Izuku quickly moved his eyes to the top to see who had won.

Oh.

1st Izuku Midoriya: 5 votes

2nd Momo Yoayorozu: 2 votes

"W-wait… what?" Izuku stuttered as every pair of eyes in the room turned to him.

"Congrats man!" Kirishima said with a wide smile and shot Izuku a thumbs up.

"Midoriya is your new president, now hurry and get up here to pick out a vice." Aizawa said from

his corner without even looking up.

Somehow Izuku managed to stumble to the front of the class without falling unconscious or losing his breakfast as 19 sets of eyes locked onto him. For a second as he stood up staring at his classmates he considered resigning and just handing it over to Yaoyorozu. But then he remembered one of the reasons he wanted to be a hero was to fight for people like him, fight for those with villainous quirks. And part of that would naturally mean dipping his toes into politics and while being class president wasn't the do or die in that situation it was at least a good start.

Swallowing and trying to calm his nerves, Izuku smiled in front of his class, "Th-Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I uh, I'll be honest. I'm not the best with uh… people." He saw a few people's faces drop and noticed how both Uraraka and Yoarashi nodded in agreement.

Izuku took a breath and gripped onto the podium in front of him, his face steeled and he looked out into the class with intense eyes (which caused more than a few people in the class to tug at their collars), "But something I do know about is pain. I know what it's like to suffer, what it's like to hate school and dread coming in every day. So I want to say that as your class president I don't want any of you to feel like that. In this class we treat others with respect, regardless of quirks, looks or anything else. If anyone and I mean anyone in or out of this class, even if they're my friend or… brother," a few people sent Katsuki a curious glance but the boy was too busy smirking at Izuku to notice, "I want you to come to me and I promise I'll do everything in my power to set it right."

Izuku finished his mini speech and stood up straighter on the podium, his eyes dancing with a fire that few had seen before.

"Well said Midoriya, you'll have my full support in making sure anyone who steps out of line receives a suitable punishment." Aizawa, who at some point had once again left his sleeping back and was now standing next to the new president, said with a dangerous gleam in his eyes directed at the class, the pair combined made for quite the sight.

"That's so many dude! You're gonna make a great class president!" Kirishima cried as Ashido and a few others nodded along.

"Truly, with a quirk like mine, school was not always easy. It is reassuring to know our class president will happily stand at my defence within the darkness." Tokoyami said while Shoji nodded in agreement, it was obvious despite their powerful quirks their mutations were not always well received.

Izuku smiled at them all, "Thank you for your support."

"OH! Who's gonna be your vice?" Uraraka asked from the back of the class.

Izuku paused to think, his first thoughts were to select Yaoyorozu or even Iida, out of everyone in the class they seemed like the most suited for the spot. But thinking about it he realised they didn't counter him very well, all three would excel in paperwork and the admin side of the role while sharing similar weaknesses. He briefly considered Katsuki but that would probably be seen as favouritism and he wasn't convinced his brother would actually want the world anyway, certainly not with Izuku being the president. Yoarashi and Uraraka wouldn't be bad picks but again he didn't feel they countered him well enough, Uraraka could be as timid and shy as he was in certain situations. Meanwhile Yoarashi was the complete opposite, loud and intimidating, between him and Izuku's own awkwardness they wouldn't exactly be approachable. What Izuku needed was a vice who could be his confidence, someone who the class wouldn't be afraid to approach and who would easily spot any issues within the class social circle. He knew exactly who that was.

"I'd like Ashido to be my vice president." Izuku said with a smile aimed towards the pink girl.

Ashido leaned back in her chair and her eyes widened in surprise, "Me? Not that I don't want it but why? I'm not exactly very good at note taking and stuff."

"Exactly," Izuku excitedly responded, "Like I said, I'm not very good with people. But you're the opposite, you made friends yesterday before classes even started. Then when Hagakure was upset you were by her side making her feel better in an instant during the quirk assessment. I can handle all the note taking and admin side of the job but you can be the one who looks after the class and makes sure everyone is ok!"

Ashido paused before smiling and jumping out of her seat, skipping up to the podium next to Izuku, "Sounds like a plan to me Midori! You guys need anything at all you come to me and I'll keep my eye on you guys. Any issues and I'll unleash the green beast here on you!"

"A-Ashido!" Izuku cried and covered his face with a slight blush.

"Good, Midoriya is your president and Ashido your vice president. There's a school council meeting at the end of the day today, are you both able to attend?" Aizawa asked and both students nodded in the affirmative.

"Good, in which case I'm going to get some shut eye before that sound demon arrives for your first English class. Anyone wakes me up and I'll expel you." Aizawa said and Izuku believed every word.

The rest of the morning went by without any major events, for 1-A their days consisted of standard lessons in the morning (which today consisted of English and Mathematics) with their afternoons dedicated to their heroics classes (the opposite way round to their sister class 1-B). Despite what most would consider fairly boring lessons Izuku was practically vibrating in his seat as he was taught English grammar by a pro hero. Katsuki had to roll his eyes as Izuku excitedly asked both teachers for an autograph after each lesson.

Lunch had taken both Izuku and Katsuki by surprise. As it turned out old habits die hard and the moment the bell had rung for lunch both boys had all but sprinted out of the classroom together (much to the shock of their classmates) and quickly grabbed their lunches and found a secluded two seater table in a dark corner of the cafeteria. Years of bullying had taught them that getting their lunch as quickly as possible and finishing it before anyone else meant they were less likely to have it thrown in their faces.

However the pair had failed to account for their new friends. Before either had really dug into their meal they found themselves ambushed by Uraraka and Ahsido who, without a word, had dragged the pair to a much larger table where the four were joined by Yoayorozu, Yoarashi, Kirshima and Jiro. Though nervous, both made an effort to be included in the conversation, luckily it seemed Ashido, Kirishima and Uraraka were all social butterflies and found it easy to include everyone.

That was until conversion turned to the topic of their previous schooling, both Katsuki and Izuku became quiet and focused on their meals as their friends exchanged stories of growing up. Luckily Ashido managed to pick up on how uncomfortable the pair were and managed to steer the conversation away from them. Izuku suspected she had already put the pieces together based on how the pair acted and Izuku's mini speech in homeroom. It was further evidence that he'd made the right choice in selecting her as his vice.

But even reminders of their previous school couldn't dampen the excitement both Izuku and Katsuki (and the rest of the class) felt as lunch ended and they sat in anticipation for their first heroics lesson. It was after all the entire reason they were all here.

"Who do you guys think our teacher is going to be?" Kirshima asked excitedly as he sat sideways in his chair as he, Izuku, Jiro and Ashido made a huddle in their corner.

"I bet it's a pro hero, maybe a retired top ten!" Ashido said with a gleam in her eyes as she focused on the door, as if awaiting it to blow open at any moment.

"I hope they're not too old, I want a teacher who can get involved in the action." Jiro said as she twirled one of her ear jacks around her finger.

Izuku was about to offer his opinion when a familiar quirk energy came into his range, approaching the classroom. He tilted his head in curiosity, wondering how said person was going to handle teaching the class. He got his answer when the large door to the class started to open, instantly the entire student body was sitting facing the front of the room and leaning in with anticipation at who their teacher might be, all hoping for a famous and respected hero.

Izuku could practically feel the disappointment radiate off the class when the door opened to reveal a tall skeleton man in a yellow pinstripe suit. Yagi gave the class a nervous smile before closing the door behind him and walking up to the podium, setting down a large looking binder.

He cleared his throat as he looked out over the class, "Good Afternoon everyone, my name is Toshinori Yagi and I'll be one of your teachers for foundational heroics this year. A little bit about me, I've worked alongside some of the top heroes in Japan, including All Might himself." The disappointment that had spread among the class was washed away in an instant and several people perked up, "I mostly handle the paperwork side of their agencies as well as managing all active investigations, this has given me a valuable insight into the less obvious sides of heroics and so when my colleague announced he would be teaching here I offered to join in a supportive role to cover those topics." It was a well fabricated lie Yagi had put together with Nedzu to explain why the course normally handled by one teacher was for this year being handled by 'two'.

Yaoyorozu raised her hand and Yagi nodded at her, "One of sir?"

"That's correct," Yagi responded, "I will handle all your classroom work while my colleague, who you'll meet later today, will handle all your physical lessons."

Kaminari raised his hand, a confused frown on his face, "We'll be having classroom lessons as well as physical?"

"Of course!" Yagi said, apparently perking up slightly, "While the physical aspect of heroics is of course important there is plenty to the career outside of simply fighting. In these classroom lessons we'll be discussing the role of the HPSC in your career, how to present yourself and handle the media as well as many other topics. We will start off however by delving into your quirks, skills and type of hero you want to be. While at UA you will train in all aspects of heroics from stealth to

detective work to charity events however chances are you will end up specialising in something best suited to you. That shall be the main goal of our lessons here, combined with your physical lessons in which you'll start to better learn the strength and weaknesses of your quirks and the goal for us all is to get to know your quirk and hero style inside and out."

Despite the disappointment that Yagi was not in fact a top hero (as far as 18 members of the class were aware) most of 1-A had smiles on their faces as Yagi spoke about his lesson plans. Izuku was no exception to this, it was one thing to talk and imagine being a hero, it was another thing entirely to go into an in depth discussion about their future careers, it suddenly made everything seem so real.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself," Yagi said and turned to the chalkboard, "To start with, we will be spending the next few weeks analysing your quirks. Now can anyone tell me what a Quirk Grade is?"

Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Iida and Yoarashi all raised their hands.

"Yes, Yoarashi?" Yagi said and indicated the giant of a teenager.

Yoarashi shot out of his seat so fast Izuku thought he may have used his quirk for a minute, "Sensei! A quirk grade is a classification given to all heroes by the HPSC to help better determine their effectiveness in battle!"

Yagi nodded with a smile as he started to write on the chalkboard, "That's a good basis for it but you're wrong on two fronts. First of all the classification is purely based on someone's quirk and not their capabilities as an overall hero. While a quirk will certainly be a large part of how you operate as a hero there will be plenty of other skills you can bring to table. And while your grade helps the HPSC determine how you may perform in a battle it is an overall indication of how to utilise your quirks. To give an example, a few years ago the HPSC noticed a small city up north that had nearly exclusively recon based quirks operating in the area. Obviously this isn't the most efficient team and so the HPSC was able to assist moving a few heroes to balance this out. Any questions?"

Shoji raised his hand(s), "When are these quirk grades determined?"

Yagi smiled and tapped on the folder on his desk, "They have already been assigned by the HPSC within the days after we confirmed your admittance here at UA."

The entire class (bar Todoroki) leaned forward in their seats with a gleam in their eyes, many theorising on what grade they may have.

But before revealing that Yagi tuned back to the board, "First of all I should advise you that Quirk Grades are a general secret from the public, however now that you are hero students you all signed the standard non disclosure agreement which gives you access to level 5 HPSC classified files which includes quirk grades. Now, when they were first created there was a standard ranking system of quirk grades. The system was fairly simple, it started at E, the lowest power rank and went up to A, the highest rank."

Yagi wrote each rank on the board, leaving a wide space underneath each one, "Can anyone see an issue with this system."

Izuku as well as Katsuki and Yoayorozu raised their hands and Yagi gestured for Izuku to answer.

"It's too much of a restrictive system, basing the ranking off the pure power of the quirk means you won't see the full potential of the quirk. Take Yoarashi for example, his quirk is a traditional elemental emitter, he'd easily be ranked A or B. But chances are if you took Hagakure's quirk it would be a much lower rank… uh, no offence Hagakure." Izuku added with a bit of blush realising he had more or less just insulted the girl, luckily she just waved him off and he continued.

"But it all depends on the situation, Hagakure would obviously be far more skilled at stealth and even outside of stealth I'd personally much rather have Hagakure on my team if we were infiltrating an underground facility. Yoarashi is much more suited to outside or open spaces. Therefore simply basing them on a rigid power structure isn't useful to anyone." Izuku finished and it was a miracle he hadn't delved into mumbling.

Yagi gave him a wide smile, "Excellent! I couldn't have put it better myself. You are correct and within a few years the HPSC realised the same thing. To combat this they added additional categories for those quirks which on the surface may not seem as strong but are so specialised they can be just as useful as grade A quirks. Four sub categories were created to help with this, they are Recon, Stealth, Support and Omega. Can anyone hazard a guess as to what each category means?"

This time more than a handful of hands went up, for obvious reasons and Izuku didn't know if Yagi was just that naïve that he generally thought people wouldn't know what stealth was or if he was just trying to engage the class. Izuku hoped it was the former. Stealth and Recon were identified easily enough by Kaminari and Ojiro respectively while Support, as it turned out, was slightly more complex than just healing quirks, it referred to any quirk which was best suited to aiding team members or other heroes in a confrontation. Sir Nighteye and Eraserhead were both examples of heroes who possessed non healing support quirks, though apparently Aizawa had fought against that classification throughout his entire career. It had been assigned on the basis

Aizawa would operate by hanging back and allowing his team to take down villains with nullified quirks. The HPSC had not accounted for his capture weapon or his extreme levels of stubbornness. The only one the class struggled with was the Omega class, Todoroki was the only one who offered a hand for that.

"Omega classes are quirks with extreme variety or are so unique they are hard to classify on the standard system even with the sub categories. They are extremely rare within the hero industry and are usually considered to be extremely powerful within their own right." Todoroki informed the class as if he was reading from a textbook.

"Thank you Todoroki that's correct, omega quirks are in fact so rare that there are no current active heroes in Japan with an omega classified quirk. The closest country with one is China with a hero who has the ability to 'flip' the effects of other quirks. Omega quirks aren't necessarily automatically more powerful than other quirks but can often be used in any situation from limelight villain battles to underground investigations." Yagi explained and Izuku couldn't help but glance behind him at Yaoyorozu, if anyone in their class had an omega quirk it would be her.

"There is also one more addition that was brought in since the system's creation. The S Grade." Yagi said and his face took on a much more sombre expression, "Class this may be getting ahead of myself but if you ever come across an S Class villain, especially one with training, you should never engage alone, no matter how strong you are. Grade S was created when quirks started to mutate to levels beyond what we ever anticipated. S grade quirks are quirks that one upon a time went into grade A but are deemed so powerful, unique or dangerous that they are worthy of being singled out. They are even rarer than Omega classed quirks and there are considered to be only around 10 to 12 S Class quirks in all of Japan and only around 30 to 40 on the entire planet. To give you an example, the only current active hero with a Grade S quirk is All Might."

Aizawa could have walked in wearing a bikini and declared his love for All Might and it wouldn't have gotten a peep out of anyone at that moment. The collective facial expression of the class was one of dread, they all knew of course that as heroes they would have to face villains but getting a warning like that on day two… it was a stark reminder that some heroes never made it home from work.

Yagi coughed into a handkerchief and cleared his throat, "Apologies for what may have seemed like a dark comment but while I may not agree with Aizawa on everything, including his taste in coffee," That at least got a chuckle from the class, "I do agree that we shouldn't sugar coat what this career path really is like. Now, let's move onto the main event shall we? Time to figure out your quirk grades."

It was like Yagi had produced a wave of pure happiness as the entire class switched from pale faces and sober moods to wide smiles and highs made of pure excitement. Ashido was leaning so far forward in her chair she was practically sitting on her desk while Katsuki had a vicious smirk on

his face, confident he was a Grade A. Only two people in the room weren't excited. The first was Todoroki, who already knew his quirk as informed by his father. The second was Izuku himself, although he was thrilled and excited by the idea of finding out his friend's Quirks Grade he didn't have the same enthusiasm for his own quirk. Call him a broken record but he still didn't enjoy thinking too hard about the reality of his abilities.

"Now, before I tell you your official grades I want you to try and estimate your own, please keep in mind that these grades are based on the full potential of your quirk. So just because you are ranked Grade A or B doesn't mean you're ready to face down villains, without training nearly all quirks can be considered class C or less. You won't deal with the HPSC until after graduation anyway so there's no point grading your quirks in their current state. It's also possible for your quirks to change as you are put under the intense training here, some of you will likely have quirk awakenings which may up your grade or gain you a subclass, so please don't fear if you're disappointed by your result. Now then, please spend 15 minutes coming up with what you think your grade could be and then present it to the class. Yes Yaoyorozu?"

Izuku jumped in his seat slightly, he hadn't even realised they were open to questions as Yoayorozu spoke, "Sensei, some of us have classified elements to our quirks, will this be an issue?"

"Ah, forgive me as I should have mentioned this already. Due to the close nature of training to be heroes together HPSC classification rules are void within a heroics class. Myself, Aizawa and your other heroics teacher all have access to the complete information on your quirks. Meanwhile if you choose you may also inform your classmates, though it isn't necessary to and you are all protected under the non-disclosure agreements you signed." Yagi explained as he started to hand out paper around the room.

Izuku sighed as he looked down at the blank paper as the scratching of pens and pencils filled the room. At least Yagi wouldn't force him to reveal his quirk to the class on day two. But that didn't mean he was thrilled about analysing his own quirk. He knew that his quirk had the potential to be powerful but honestly he suspected he was within the B range. The issue was he knew he needed specific requirements for his quirk to work. If a fight were to break out right now in class he would be pretty useless if he was unable to focus and have the time to take anyone's quirk. Deciding that he was probably a solid B Grade he quickly wrote down his reasons.

After the promised 15 minutes were up Yagi started to go around the room and discuss people's quirks grades before revealing their actual grade. Honestly… it was painful to watch most of them. More than a few estimated themselves one or even two grades higher than they actually were.Aoyama had actually suggested he was an S Grade. He had nearly fainted at being told he was in fact just a C Grade. There were a few, however, who underestimated themselves. Uraraka was surprised to discover she was a Grade B, apparently the HPSC believed with the correct training it was possible that the amount of weight she could nullify could be limitless. Tokoyami was the first student to get a Grade A followed by Yoarashi, both boys received impressed glances from their classmates. But it wasn't until it was Katsuki's turn that the real shocks started.

"I think I'm Grade A," Katsuki declared to the surprise of no-one, "It might seem arrogant but my quirk is simple and powerful, currently I have to limit the amount I use so as not to break my body. Yet despite that I'm stronger and faster than most of you extra's so by the time I graduate I'll be stronger and faster than all of you!" Katsuki finished with a smirk at the class.

Yagi chuckled slightly, "Smart reasoning, I don't think it's arrogant at all, in fact if anything it's not arrogant enough…"

Nearly every head snapped to the chalkboard as Yagi turned to add Katsuki to the growing list, none faster than Izuku who nearly had whiplash as his thoughts caught up with Yagi's words.

'No way…'

Grade S

Katsuki Bakugou

"Holy fuck…" Someone in the class whispered though no one was able to identify who it was.

Very slowly the entire class turned to look at Katsuki who was looking so smug that Izuku almost took a picture to show Auntie after school. It was definitely a look that would go down in the history books. Though thinking about it it actually made sense, All Might and Katsuki did have the same quirk after all, of course they would receive the same grade.

The entire class was looking at Katsuki with something akin to awe, even Yoarashi who had seen his quirk first hand was in a mild amount of shock. Apparently he hadn't realised Katsuki was forcibly limiting his power output.

"Now then, let's move on," Yagi said swiftly, probably in an attempt to stop the class erupting in chaos, "Todoroki?"

Todoroki stood up and nodded, "My father already had my quirk assessed by the HPSC, I'm Grade S."

This time Yagi couldn't stop the chaos. Several students shouted over each other, a few accidentally activating their quirks. Others paled in fear, suddenly realising at some point they would have to spar against these two quirk gods. Izuku just sat back and let it all unfold, keeping control of his hunger which had flared up slightly at the energy. Eventually however Yagi did regain control of the class and was able to get a few more people's grades in before the next major surprise came.

"It's hard to classify my quirk," Yaoyorozu said as she read off her notes, "Compared to the likes of Bakugou it's not all that powerful but my quirk does have several uses, therefore I felt that I would be a Grade B with the subclass of support."

Yagi rubbed his chin, "I can certainly see why you might feel like that at this stage. But you must consider Yaoyorozu while your quirk doesn't have any obvious power behind it, with enough training it could have nearly unlimited possibilities, able to help in any situation."

Turning to board Yagi added Yaoyorozu to a small list of students.

Grade A

Fumikage Tokoyami

Inasa Yoarashi

Momo Yaoyorozu (Omega)

Yoayorozu's jaw dropped slightly, "Oh my, I have the Omega class?"

"Damn straight Yaoyorozu!" Uraraka cheered, "You're going to be the only Omega class hero! That will be amazing!"

Yoayorozu blushed at the complement and sat back down, a few more words of praise being sent her way. Even Katsuki and Todoroki seemed to look at her with some level of respect. Both could admit even their power had its limits compared to someone who could create literally anything for any situation.

Eventually Yagi had 19 names on the chalkboard as all but one person had been informed of their Quirk Grade. Izuku didn't know if it was coincidental or on purpose that it was just his name missing, maybe Yagi was well aware this wasn't enjoyable for Izuku and had put it off for as long as possible. Nevertheless Izuku was the only person left as he read off the board.

Grade E

Hagakure (Stealth)

Koji Koda (Support)

Grade D

Hanta Sero

Rikido Sato

Mashirao Ojiro

Grade C

Kyouka Jiro (Recon)

Mina Ashido

Yuga Aoyama

Mezo Shoji (Recon)

Grade B

Eijio Kirishima

Tsuyu Asui

Ochako Uraraka (Support)

Tenya Iida

Denki Kaminari

Grade A

Fumikage Tokoyami

Inasa Yoarashi

Momo Yaoyorozu (Omega)

Grade S

Katsuki Bakugou

Shoto Todoroki

Izuku couldn't help but be impressed, half the class were Grade B or above which, according to Yagi, was above average for most hero classes. Not to mention they had not one but two S Grade students and the only Omega student in the country. Izuku wouldn't be surprised if they made up the top three heroes one day. He sighed as Yagi called his name and stood up, at least he still felt his quirk was a solid B Grade.

"I believe my quirk to be Grade B. Though I know my quirk has the potential to be powerful it has certain conditions which prevent me from being ranked higher," Izuku missed Katsuki's frown in disagreement but the blonde didn't interrupt, "I know I don't hold a candle to anyone above me or maybe even those already Grade B, if we were attacked now I'd probably be useless, but I hope with training I can earn the Grade B my quirk represents."

Yagi was giving Izuku a look he didn't recognise and there were a few people mumbling in the class and giving him mixed looks. Some, like Todoroki and Ojiro looked disappointed, others like Yoarashi and Kirishima seemed confused, they had thought he had a strong A Grade quirk, while Katsuki was completely alone in his frown.

"Well that's… a little disappointing." Ojiro said with a slight scowl.

Several heads turned to Ojiro with angry expressions, Katsuki was literally growling at the body and Izuku could feel One For All starting to activate under his brother's skin. But it was Jiro who was the voice of the small group of angry students.

"Hey man, that's not cool, like, at all. In fact it's borderline quirkist, besides you're only rank E." She said with a vicious scowl that almost impressed Katsuki with how mean it looked.

Ojiro held up his hands at the incredibly hostile energy he was getting from a section of the class, "I'm just saying, he made the big speech about how he'll stand up for us, how's he supposed to that when half the class, and quite possibly the school, have a more powerful quirk than him."

By this stage Izuku had curled in on himself, refusing to look anywhere but down at his desk, he

could practically feel the eyes of his class slicing open his skin and trying to look at his disgusting quirk energy. Meanwhile Katsuki had risen out of his seat and looked ready to commit murder, though this wasn't surprising. What was surprising though was that Yoarashi and Kirishima had also risen out of their seats and half the class had to shuffle away from the pure rage that Uraraka was giving off. Even Ashido and Jiro had rather menacing scowls on their faces. For a minute it looked like all out war was about to break out.

"Enough! All of you!"

Yagi's voice made the entire class freeze, even Katsuki and Izuku. Neither had heard him talk like this, it was almost similar to how he spoke as All Might towards villains, he hadn;t shouted but his voice held enough authority that everyone but Izuku sat back down and faced the front.

"Ojiro," Yagi said with a frown towards the boy who flinched slightly under the surprisingly intense gaze, "Jiro is right, we do not determine someone's worth here based on their quirks. Hagakure and Koda are the lowest Grade here yet I suspect none of you could infiltrate a base as effectively as Hagakure meanwhile Koda has the potential to amass an entire army within moments, something none of you could even come close to replicating." Said students both seemed to relax slightly and Koda even sported a small smile, both had been rather disappointed by their Grades, "These Grades are purely to help you understand where you might be most useful and do not indicate someone's worth."

The mood settled in the classroom and Izuku felt some tension leave his shoulders. Yagi turned to him and his face once again turned into a smile.

"Besides, Midoriya here was actually wrong about his grade."

Izuku's heart started to beat far too fast for it to be medically safe, he wasn't sure he could handle the embarrassment of overestimating his grade. He held his breath as Yagi stepped away.

Grade S

Katsuki Bakugou

Shoto Todoroki

Izuku Midoriya (Omega)

There was utter silence as the entire class took in that information, only one person seemed

unfazed.

"Pfft, obviously." Katsuki said with an eye roll.

"M-Midoriya…?" Jiro asked without taking her eyes from the board.

"Y-Yes?" Izuku asked, he himself still taking in the shock of his grade.

"What. The. Actual. Fuck?"

Then the floodgates opened.

"Holy SHIT Midori! You really are a badass!"

"Midoriya if you don't tell me what your mystery quirk is I swear I'm gonna float you into the sun!"

"TO THINK MY OWN FRIEND AND RIVAL HAS SUCH AN IMPRESSIVE QUIRK, I TRULY AM HONOURED TO HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST YOU IN THE RECOMMENDATION EXAMS!"

It took Yagi nearly twice as long to calm the class down compared to when they had exploded at Todoroki's revelation. Izuku himself felt numb as he sat down. He was not only an S Grade but also an Omega. Quite frankly it was a lot to take for a person who a year ago had never once used his quirk.

"Jesus fuck me sideways," Sero muttered from across the room, "Yagi Sensei said there were twelve S Grade quicks in Japan. That means a quarter of them are in this room!"

Technically there were actually four S Grades in the room at that moment but obviously only three people were actually aware of that fact.

"Not only that, Midoriya is the first hero to ever be classed as both Grade S and Omega." Yagi said

with a chuckle which caused nearly every student in the room to look at said boy with a mix of awe and jealousy.

Todoroki seemed to be having an existential crisis as his attention switched between Katsuki and Izuku. If Izuku were to guess he assumed Todoroki thought he would be the only S Grade in the class, after all his own father was only an A Grade. To discover he had not one but two rivals in the same grade not to mention an Omega would be making him rethink his position.

"Now then," Yagi said and finally drew the attention back to him, "With the knowledge of your quirk grade for your homework I'd like you to each do a brief analysis of your quirk and determine which situation it would be best suited for. I'd like you to form your answer in terms of the four main branches of heroics, Limelight, Underground, Rescue and Investigation."

The class couldn't help but let out a collective groan, after the excitement of the last hour it was easy to forget they were still technically at school. The whole situation made Yagi chuckle.

"Sorry kids, but this is still technically a lesson just like Mathematics or English. On the brightside, I think it's about time you headed for the practical part of your lesson!"

The mood in the class switched instantly, they were finally getting to the good part of studying heroics! Twenty wide smiles that ranged from pure joy to deranged danger spread out among the students.

"Now, if you could make your way to Ground Foxtrot you'll meet your second heroics teacher there. But of course, as young heroes, you'll be needing these first." Yagi said with a slightly smug wink.

The wall to the left of Izuku suddenly opened up to reveal several stacked cased numbers from one to twenty. Izuku's eyes were suddenly filled with stars as he realised what he was looking at.

"That's right!" Yagi said, "You hero costumes designed and created to your specifications by the Yaoyorozu Support company!"

Yaoyorozu blushed slightly at the mention of her parents' company but the rest of the class were too excited to question her on it.

Ashido turned in her seat to face Izuku, "Oh my god Midori, this is so exciting. I can't believe all this. And hey, what is your quirk anyway?"

But by the time she turned to face him Izuku had already grabbed his costume and was halfway out the door.

Gran Torino's Influence

Chapter Summary

It's time for Class 1-A's first heroic practical lesson and while All Might might actually be a decent teacher he's also learned to channel his inner Gran Torino

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku wasted no time in running to the changing room and getting changed into his hero costume. Unlike Katsuki he despised the attention that would inevitably come from his quirk grade. Some, like Todoroki and Yoarashi would take it as a challenge, defeat the Grade S Omega hero and there's few left who could challenge you. Others would probably try to befriend him, partner up with a hero with that much power and you're bound to soar through the ranks. Even those without ulterior motives would still naturally be curious about his quirk.

Izuku knew he was just delaying the inevitable, there was frankly no way he would be able to pass his hero exams and avoid expulsion via Aizawa unless he started to use his quirk on his classmates. But he'd had two good days so far, he wanted to at least enjoy his first heroics lesson without worrying about his classmates' reaction to his quirk.

But even with all of that absolutely nothing could bring his mood down once he finished putting on his hero costume and caught himself in the mirror. Despite having literally dozens of costume ideas growing up when it had actually come down to designing them (after Katsuki had managed to stop Izuku crying from the very thought of his own hero costume) they ended up being relatively simple designs. The truth was in practice One For All was a relatively simple physical quirk so, while powerful, Katsuki didn't really need any specialised costume adaptations to help him. Meanwhile there was no telling what Izuku's costume would need to handle so there was no way to know what adaptations and equipment he required.

In the end both boys would admit their initial designs ended up being a little bland bar the colours, just standard jumpsuits with a utility belt each. That was until Katsuki's fashion designer parents caught sight of the designs.

A few weeks ago

"So you'll be working at UA this year?" Inko asked Yagi as she poured him a fresh cup of tea, feeling kind she had picked the boys up from training that day and insisted Yagi come back to the house for tea.

"That's right, it's not a full time role but the boys will probably see me around the campus, I may even end up teaching a lesson or two if they let me." Yagi said with a chuckle.

Inko smiled and glanced down at the other end of the table where her and Yagi were sitting, to where Katsuki and Izuku were surrounded by pens, pencils and sheets of paper. Quietly discussing costume ideas between themselves.

"I'm glad you'll be around, I know he's come a long way but I still can't help but be concerned for Izuku. Katsuki too, they've been through so much."

Yagi leaned forward and put his hand over Inko's own much smaller one, "I won't promise the path they've chosen will be easy but they'll have mine and All Might's support throughout."

Inko blushed slightly as her hand was wrapped up but smiled nonetheless, "Thank you Toshi."

"What is this crap!?"

Yagi and Inko jumped slightly in surprise and turned their heads down to the end of the table again, though their hands didn't move. At the other end Mitsuki and Masaru were currently standing over the boys and Mitsuki had a slightly disgusted look on her face while Masaru seemed deep in thought.

"What the hell hag? These are our costume designs!" Katsuki retorted with a slight growl, Yagi perked up slightly at hearing they were designing their costumes.

"I know that Brat One!" Mitsuki said as she leaned in and investigated the two designs, "Quite frankly I'm disappointed in both of you, you've grown up in a house with two fashion designers and THIS is the best you can both come up with!?"

Masaru picked up both designers and furrowed his eyebrows, "They are rather… dull boys."

Izuku's face suddenly looked downtrodden and Katsuki frowned, "It's not the circus, they're practical!"

"Actually boys," Yagi said intervening in the conversation, Masaru and Izuku turned their attention to him while Katsuki and Mitsuki continued to glare at each other, "Having a good a costume can be important, especially for limelight heroes who want to rise through the ranks. Getting noticed and having a memorable costume is half the battle when it comes to the media and popularity rankings. Just look at Endeavour, he uses his flames for style while The Wild Wild Pussycats are themed around cats despite only one of their members having cat like features, the most important aspect must always be functionality but if you want to achieve the top spots you'll need to stand out in appearance as well as performance."

"Hmpf, fine then hag, what do you think?" Katsuki said through gritted teeth as he reluctantly allowed his mother to sit with him.

Izuku meanwhile sighed, "Even while making it look good I'll still struggle with practicality, there's no way of knowing what kind of quirk I'll be using."

Yagi tapped his chin in thought, "You know I did hear of a second year UA student who had issues getting his costume to work with his quirk. I believe they used a new method to create a new costume for him that used DNA extracted from his hair to create a material that worked alongside his quirk. Your body is able to adapt to the quirks you steal, perhaps using a similar method to create your outfit would give it equal levels of adaptability."

Izuku's eyes gleamed however Masaru hesitated, "Is that standard for a first year student?" he asked.

Yagi's smile dropped slightly, "Ah… no, most companies and schools won't pay the costs for a first year. But… The All Might agency has plenty of money to spare."

All five members of the Bakugou-Midoriya household snapped their attention to Yagi who froze under the intense gazes, "That's uh… assuming you want the funds?"

In the end Izuku and Katsuki's hero costumes had been designed by the elder Bakugous, funded by the All Might Agency and created by the Yaoyorozu Support Company. Apparently Izuku's costume had caused quite the stir in the industry, while hero outfits could obviously be designed to

be to withstand most quirks Izuku's could theoretically withstand all quirks. He didn't quite understand how it worked but the material was able to react to outside forces and adapt to them, it could become fire resistant one moment and able to withstand ice the next. It had gotten to the point where Inko had to get involved with her legal agency to make sure Izuku's DNA wasn't sold or sought after by other companies. But weeks later Izuku could say that the result spoke for themselves.

The basic jumpsuit he had originally designed made for the base of the costume, though it was a much darker green than he had originally anticipated. The top half was fit tightly around his chest while the legs were more baggy and lead to his signature red shoes (though these weren't actually his shoes and instead reinforced copies). He had a black and red utility belt around his waist though apart from a small first aid kit it was mostly empty, the theory was he would be able to use it to store equipment that would help the quirks he took from villains as he built his stockpile.

The dark green was accompanied by black lines that went down to his legs, each line coming out of the large black star on the centre of his chest. On his right arm he had a full sleeve that went into a glove, completely covering his scarred hand and fingers, the sleeve followed the same pattern as the rest of his costume and was coloured a dark green with black stripes, the exception being the red colour of the glove to match his shoes. The entire arm, along with his overall costume was padded to give him better protection against blows. His left arm however was completely sleeveless, his costume ended at the shoulder and his arm was completely bare apart from the fingerless red glove on his hand. The reason behind the arm difference was partly that Izuku still didn't like people seeing his right hand and partly that he had no way of knowing if he might take a quirk requiring exposed skin like Yoayorozu's.

The suit was accompanied by a hood that Izuku could pull over his head as well as a dark red mouth guard which was actually built similar what Present Mic used and when equipped would allow him to modulate any voice related quirks.It might not have been as flashy as Mitsuki wanted but if Izuku drew his hood, put on his mouth guard (which came with a voice editor so he could talk with a much deeper voice than his own) and it was a fairly intimidating look.

But that was nothing compared to how terrifying Katsuki's outfit was. Like Izuku he had a standard jump suit as the basis of his outfit. Whereas Izuku's was green with back patterns, Katsuki's was black with red patterns. His chest had a large red X on it that spread round to his back and helped bring out the red belt around his waist, though it wasn't a utility belt like Izukus. During the design of Katsuki's outfit Yagi had pointed out how it would be a good idea for the boy to have some leg and forearm supports while he developed the strength of his quirk. But of course Mitsuki wouldn't accept just a standard set of supports.

Instead Katsuki wore a set of greaves and gauntlets styled after European Knights and made to look like they were made of dark tinted red metal. The greeves went up to his knees and included knee guards while the gauntlets went right up his arm and included shoulder pads. Of course Katsuki being Katsuki had included spikes on the greaves and gauntlets, though they were technically dulled. The overall look was completed with a simple black mask and went over his eyes.

As Izuku watched the other boys get changed he realised why All Might's agency had been required to fund his own costume. Despite how flashy some of them looked it was obvious they weren't too complex, not like Izuku's was. He understood why, of course, hero suits were expensive and could cost hundreds of millions of yen for the more complex versions. Not to mention the fact that out of the thousands of first year hero students starting their courses this year only 52% of them would make it to pro hero status. So schools and support companies weren't exactly eager to pour money into costumes that would never be used out in the field. Despite that Izuku still thought the majority of his peers looked absolutely incredible, he also knew he'd be spending hours after school today adding notes about all their outfits in his notebook.

Ground Foxtrot as it turned out was essentially just a giant gym, far larger than the one Aizawa had them in yesterday, Izuku was fairly sure it was even larger than a standard aircraft hangar. It was filled to the brim with complex and expensive looking equipment that varied from standard weight benches and treadmills to more advanced technology that Izuku couldn't even start to fathom for what purpose it was. Even the walls and ceilings were covered in equipment for those with agility or even flight based quirks.

Izuku and Katsuki, being the first two out of the changing rooms as per usual, were staring up at the gym in awe as the rest of the class started to exit in their hero outfits.

"Oh my God! You guys look amazing!" Uraraka squealed as she practically skipped towards the pair, Jiro along with her.

"Th-thanks Uraraka, you guys look great too." Izuku stammered in response trying to ignore how tight Uraraka's outfit was.

"Not really," Jiro said with a sigh, "I wasn't really sure what I wanted so my only specifications was a kind of punk look as well as the speakers on my legs." She said and indicated the two large speakers which completely covered her shins.

At the sight Izuku's eyes lit up, "Oh that's such a good idea, it's essentially a weaker version of Present Mics quirk, in fact you could add speakers to other locations of your body you may even be able to go as far as replicating Present Mics quirk ifyouaddedaspeakerasamouthpiecelikeIhaveand…"

Katsuki sighed as Izuku fell into a mumbling storm, "Well that's him gone for the next five minutes. Seriously though, if you want any recommendations for changes just ask the nerd, he'll probably have three pages worth of notes on it by the end of the day."

Jiro and Uraraka watched with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity as Izuku continued to ramble. Uraraka waved her hand over the boy's face to find no reaction from him whatsoever.

"Uh, is there any way to snap him out of it?" Jiro asked as Uraraka started to snap her fingers in front of the boy's eyes, again, Izuku didn't even flinch.

Katsuki smirked, "Yeah, there's one way."

There was a resounding slap that echoed through the gym causing a few of their other classmates to turn around in surprise. Meanwhile Uraraka and Jiro had open jaws and shocked expressions as their eyes snapped between Izuku and Katsuki. The latter was smirking at the former who had stopped mumbling and whose head was now facing to the side, a large red hand print on one of his cheeks.

Jiro and Uraraka held their breath, Izuku's wasn't moving, eyes wide and simply registering the slap. The two girls were all but ready to run and get a teacher to report a fight breaking out between the pair.

"Oooooooow, that hurt Kacchan." Izuku said, tuning back to Katsuki and pouting at the slapper.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Stop being such a baby. You were the one who said you wanted me to slap you every time you mumbled."

"You didn't have to slap me so hard," Izuku grumbled and crossed his arms before his eyes widened, "Wait, I was mumbling!? I'm sorry, please forgive me!"

Izuku turned to Uraraka and Jiro and gave a low bow, his face flushed with embarrassment. The two girls looked down in surprise before tuning to each other and offering an in sync shrug.

"It was a little creepy but you don't need to apologise." Uraraka said with a wide smile.

"Yeah, don't apologise for being smart, if anything I'm glad you have some thoughts about my costume." Jiro said as she looked down and observed her punk outfit.

Izuku gained a shaky smile as he stood back up, he opened his mouth to say something when a sight behind the girls drew his attention.

"K-Kirishima!" He stuttered as the red haired boy walked over followed by Yoarashi.

Said red haired boy was wearing his hero outfit, which consisted of a fairly simple design which didn't include a shirt with his bare chest on display. Apparently Izuku wasn't the only one shocked by the topless boy based on how Uraraka covered her mouth as she giggled and Jiro had to look away, her face growing red and jacks clicking together. Bakugou just scoffed at the whole display.

"Hey guys!" Kirishima shouted with a wave, "Wow, I thought Yoarashi had the most impressive costume but all you guys look amazing too!"

Izuku couldn't help but agree on the note about Yoarashi, considering the teenager's already intimidating height, his costume just added to the fear factor. It was thick, clearly made to keep him warm when using the intense gale force winds of his quirk and had equipment dotted around to help him control said winds. Combined with how one arm seemed to be encased in a massive glove with the billowing cape behind him and Izuku gulped slightly, compared to Yoarashi the rest of them looked like children playing dress up.

"Oi shitty hair!" Katsuki cried, "What the fuck kind of costume is that!?"

Kirshima laughed and beat his chest slightly, activating his quirk as he did, "Well, my main tactic is gonna be taking blows so any costume I do wear will get pretty torn up, so I figured why bother?"

"Because!" Jiro exclaimed, she appeared to be the only one besides Izuku who had become flustered at Kirishima's bare chest, "You're… what if… I mean… Won't you get cold?"

Katsuki raised an eyebrow and Uraraka shot Jiro a sly smirk, Kirsihima just chuckled, "Nah, using my quirk also helps negate temperature a little."

All thoughts of Kirishima's bare chest were forgotten as Izuku's eyes lit up and filled with excitement. But before anything happened Katsuki slapped his hand over Izuku's mouth.

"I ain't letting you fall into another mumble storm."

Izuku grumbled in protest, much to the amusement of the group, but left it and they quickly fell into casual conversation with each other as the rest of the class arrived. Ashido and Yaoyorozu soon joined them and all four boys had to make a conscious effort to make sure they never looked anywhere but directly into Yaoyorozu's eyes. Eventually the whole class stood on the gym floor, still no teacher in sight, wondering what their lesson would be.

Once again Izuku felt a familiar energy at the edge of his range coming from above them, he turned to the rest of his friends (where Katsuki was currently in a shouting match with Uraraka over which rescue hero was the toughest), "You all might want to brace."

"Ah! I see you're all ready for your lesson!" A voice from somewhere near the top of the warehouse shouted down, "That's good! Because I AM HERE… TO TEACH YOU!"

All Might crashed down in front of the shocked class, a great gust of wind pushing a few of them over from the shockwave. All Might put his hands on his hips and smiled down at the class wearing his silver age costume.

"It- it's All Might!"

"Ribbet, he's wearing his silver age costume, he looks incredible."

"I can't believe we're going to be taught by All Might!"

"This class is going to be so manly!"

A few people, including Izuku and Katsuki shot Kirishima confused glances at that last comment while All Might let out a great bellow of a laugh.

"That's right, students! While Yagi will handle all your classroom lessons I shall be taking control of your physical lessons! Here our main goal is for you to develop your quirk while also learning all the skills you'll need for hero work. We'll work hand in hand with your classroom lessons to better understand your quirk and make sure you can utilise it to its fullest. But we'll also be working on skills directly outside of your quirks such as stealth, hand to hand combat and endurance training!" The more All Might spoke the more the man seemed to fill with confidence at how much attention every single student paid him, even Izuku

and Katsuki, who had been taught by the man for nearly a year at this point, were just as captivated by his words.

"But before we get into that we need to get as familiar with your quirks as we can. That's why we're here in Ground Foxtrot, put simply you're currently standing in one of, if not the, most advanced gymnasiums in Japan! There is equipment here to test the limits and boundaries of every quirk imnagaible, some of the equipment has even been added for some of the quirks we have in this very class!"

All Might pushed a button on a remote he had and several robots zoomed up to the class, each holding what appeared to be a stack of folders, "Each of you have a folder that myself and Aizawa created based on your quirks, once a week one of your practical heroics lessons will be based here with each week having a set exercises to go through designed to help better understand your quirk and it's limitations as well as track your progress."

A robotic student up near the front of the class raised their hand and All Might indicated for them to speak, "Sensei!" Ah, the robot was Iida, "This seems very basic for heroics lessons, simple exercises and quirk tests? I already spent years at home testing the limits of my quirk and pushing myself, surely we're ready to test those limits in battle!"

Izuku half suspected All Might to splutter and panic in response, but the hero just have a satisfied smile, as if Iida had just sprung a trap, "Tell me Young Iida, at what speed and force would one of your kicks be powerful enough to snap a person's neck?"

Izuku was sure that if Iida wasn't wearing a helmet he would have seen the boy pale considerably. As it was Iida froze up completely and nearly every smile within the class dropped (bar Katsuki of course) some were looking at Iida and All Might with slight fear, a couple whispered to themselves and Izuku swore he heard Jiro say something about not realising her lessons would involve killing her classmates. After a few moments Iida seemed to regain control of his senses.

"I.. I don't know Sensei…" He admitted and All Might nodded, moving his attention away.

"Ashido!" All Might boomed and the girl squeaked next to Izuku, "Do you know when your acid strength has hit the PH required to melt skin?"

Ashido gulped and shook her head, "No… I've never… I've never really measured it against a living creature."

All Might smiled and turned to another student, "Kaminari, what voltage is required to stop someone's heart?"

Kaminari literally sparked with nerves under All Might's intense gaze, "I have uh… no idea Sensei."

All Might's smile softened slightly, "Of course not. I would not expect any of you to know the answers to these kinds of questions at this stage. But they are important questions nonetheless. These classes will be about learning to limit and control your abilities as much as they will teach you to push and train them. Not every hero fight will be against a supervillain, not every rescue operation will be in the midst of a natural disaster. When I stop a simple robbery or save someone who has fallen down a well I don't use the full extent of my strength, that could risk lives or cause unnecessary destruction. Let us also not forget that quirk exhaustion also exists and as much as your bodies are adapted to your quirks they can also still be harmed by them if not wielded correctly."

Both Izuku and Katsuki flexed their right hands at All Might's words, both thinking back to the accidents they'd had when first using their quirks, "Understanding your quirks isn't just about pushing them to their limits but knowing when those limits aren't necessary. Therefore our time here will also be spent learning control. It's also important to keep in mind that while a few of you come from legacy families there are those in the class who had little more than a backyard to train their quirks in, for many this will be an opportunity to finally test their limits with real equipment. I expect you all to face these exercises head on, PLUS ULTRA!"

All Might's dramatic finish (in which he threw a fist into the air) managed to raise the spirits of the class. For most of them, who didn't come from hero legacies or hadn't received special training like Izuku and Katsuki, it was like All Might had said, it was their first time really being able to test their abilities. People quickly ran up and grabbed their folders, flipping them open, a few read through the first few pages, getting a sense of their plans while others simply looked up the first exercise and ran off into the gym.

Izuku took his folder with some trepidation, he was mainly aware of how thin it was compared to many of the others in the class. It wasn't even a quarter of the size of Todoroki's, who had the largest folder out of everyone. He gripped it tightly and tried to open it but something in his chest prevented him, it was like an external force stopping him from moving his arms. Meanwhile all his friends were excitedly reading through their folders.

"Oh neat! I've got to try and melt several minerals and substances to see how strong my acid is and

try to gauge how to better control it! What about you guys?" Ashido asked as she bounced on her feet.

"I've got to listen to various decibels and see what my actual hearing range is before lifting various weights with my jacks to see how strong they are." Jiro said as she twirled said jacks around her fingers.

"Guess I'll see you there ears, I'm pretty much just lifting weights and testing my strength all afternoon." Katsuki said as he slammed his folder shut with a grunt.

"I am also in the weight area!" Yoarashi declared with enough enthusiasm to make Katsuki roll his eyes, "I'm pushing weights with my wind to see just how strong I can make it without launching them off the ground."

"Guess I'm with you guys then, I need to test how much weight I can nullify at once!" Uraraka said with a fist pump though her other hand held onto her stomach nervously.

"I uh… I have to stand and let various projectives hit me…" Kirishima said as he paled and the entire group flinched slightly while Uraraka patted him on the back with an understanding smile.

"How fascinating," Yoayorozu said as she read through her file, "Sensei has given me a list of items to create but not written down their chemical or molecular makeups. He's incorporated studying into my practical lessons! Oh how exciting!"

The rest of the group sweatdropped at Yoayorozu's words before Ashido turned to Izuku, "What are you doing Midori?"

Izuku jumped slightly at the attention he was getting, "Oh… well… uh"

Both Ashido and Katsuki seemed to pick up on how uncomfortable the question was making Izuku (though only Katsuki really understood why) and glanced at each other.

"Come on Airhead, Round Cheeks, let's go lift some weights." Katsuki declared and grabbed Yoarashi and Uraraka by the elbows and started to lead them away, both were luckily too hyped up about the exercise to really be bothered by it.

"Hey Yoayorozu, fancy keeping me company in my area while you work on your exercises?" Ashido asked the girl with a bright smile.

"Oh what a wonderful idea Ashido, let's go!" Yoayorozu clapped her hands together and followed Ashido further into the gym, Jiro shot Izuku a peace sign and she (along with a rather sick looking Kirishima) also went to their respective stations leaving Izuku alone by the entrance.

Well, alone except for two other people.

"All Might Sensei," Todoroki said as he approached their teacher, his folder open in his arms, "I cannot complete these exercises."

All Might frowned slightly, "Is there an issue with your exercises, Young Todoroki? I assure you they were tailed specifically to you and made sure they were safe by Recovery Girl."

Todoroki shook his head, "It's not that, half these exercises involve using his fire. I can't and won't use my fire side."

Izuku raised an eyebrow, Todoroki had referred to it as 'his' fire, not 'my' fire. The more Izuku interacted with the boy the stranger he became. All Might's frown deepened and his eyes filled with concern, despite it not being directed at him Izuku felt like he had suddenly disappointed a puppy and it felt horrible, though Todoroki seemed unfazed.

"Todoroki," All Might said with a stern voice, "Why do you want to be a hero?"

Todoroki looked surprised by the question and paused to answer, "I'm… not sure. I originally wanted to spite my father," both All Might and Izuku winced slightly at that, "But since my failures he seems to have… given up on me. He hasn't even trained me since the entrance exam results came out, I'm not sure what's going on. Regardless I will still prove to him I don't need his fire to be a hero."

Izuku scowled at those words, of course Todoroki needed to use his fire.

"Of course you don't need to use your fire!"

Wait what?

Todoroki too seemed a little stunned by the response, "I don't?"

All Might smiled, "Of course not! Your ice alone is powerful and easily worthy of a Grade A rank quirk." All Might's smile however dropped slightly after a moment, "That is of course assuming you want to be only half the hero you could be."

Todoroki's face went through several phases, the first was shock, the second anger and the third outrage with the two toned teen eventually settling on confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Tell me, how do you feel Yoayorozu will do as a hero?" All Might asked.

Todoroki didn't hesitate with his answer, "She'll excel, her quirk has almost limitless possibilities with enough study."

All Might nodded in agreement, "Agreed. So can you imagine what sort of hero she would be if she didn't study for her quirk and just relied on making basic equipment?"

Izuku almost had to withhold a surprised snort. He was actually impressed with how All Might was handling the situation. It wasn't too dissimilar to the conversation Izuku himself had with Nedzu during his interview, if Izuku only used his quirk as a copy quirk he would be holding back his potential.

For the first time since knowing the boy Izuku saw genuine emotion on Todoroki's face as it morphed into a slack jawed surprised look, "I… well… what?"

All Might sighed, "Todoroki I cannot force you to use your fire. Can you become a hero without it? Absolutely. But you'll never achieve your greatest potential, you'll always look at those ahead of you and wonder how they did it. But the truth is you'll never surpass or even compete with them if you're not willing to utilise your quirk to the fullest. However, I'm sure Aizawa will discuss this with you, for now you may just complete the exercises involving your ice."

Todoroki had seemingly stopped paying attention to All Might halfway through the conversation and was staring into the abyss with an empty look in his eyes as if his entire world had just been shattered. Despite that he gave All Might a polite nod and took off in the direction of his first exercise.

Izuku watched him go and furrowed his eyebrows, he couldn't even begin to imagine how much there was to unpack there.

All Might too briefly watched him walk away before turning back to Izuku, "And then there was one, is everything ok Young Midoriya?"

And just like that Izuku's nerves came crashing back to the front of his mind and he gripped his folder tightly, All Might seemed to notice as his eyes briefly moved down to where Izuku was all but crushing the folder.

"Have you managed to read through your exercises yet?" All Might asked, then stepped forward and leaned down slightly, "Yours and Bakugous are actually a continuation of your dream plans." He whispered (read borderline shouted) to Izuku.

Izuku gave him a shaky smile, "Uh yes… I haven't had a look… I'm just… well."

"You're worried that your exercises involve going around and taking your classmates' quirks." All Might said, it wasn't a question the man had known Izuku long enough to connect the dots.

Izuku looked down at his folder in shame, tears pricking at his eyes, all that work he had done with All Might and Katsuki to get here and he couldn't even face his first heroics lesson.

"Izuku."

Izuku's head snapped up to face All Might at the mention of his name, the man's eyes were soft and despite the situation his smile caused a swell of warmth within Izuku's chest.

"Please open and read your folder." All Might insisted though his words carried nothing but kindness.

Izuku gulped and nodded, opening his folder and reading the first page.

Class 1-A Foundational Heroics Quirk Training Schedule

Izuku Midoriya

Week 1

Please go around the gym and observe your classmates' quirks and energy analysing and making notes on how the energy works in relation to the quirk. Please include tactics about how you would take and use their quirk and the proposed difficulty of taking said quirk. Once every classmate has been observed please proceed to make notes about possible combinations once taken and which quirks you would take in the below scenarios. If you complete this all within the given time frame please then run through a basic weight training routine until class is finished.

Below the text was a list of various scenarios that ranged from wildfires to rural villain encounters to hostage situations. Izuku blinked in surprise and looked up from his folder at All Might who was still smiling at him.

"I'll be honest my boy, in the time I've known you I have picked up that Bakugou may be the optimist between you." Izuku winced slightly because not only was that true he was also well aware that describing Katsuki as an optimist was like calling Yoarashi a quiet man, "While it's true you will eventually need to train that part of your quirk myself and the staff here are not unaware of how you feel. Your plan has been adapted to allow you to slowly gain the confidence required for that area. Besides, your classmates could hardly practise with their quirks if you were taking them every five minutes."

Izuku sighed and felt relief wash over him, perhaps All Might was right, he needed to stop assuming that UA was trying to get him to use his quirk on his fellow students every ten minutes. Honestly the mix of dread and relief was becoming an emotionally exhausting rollercoaster at the start of each lesson.

Izuku frowned still however, flicking through the pages of his folder, "Is there a reason mine is so thin compared to everyone else's?"

"That's because while everyone else's covers the full year, yours only goes up to your internship week." All Might explained.

"Huh?" Was Izuku's intelligent response, "Why?"

"Don't you remember your plan? To stockpile the quirks of villains? Our hope is that you may be able to encounter some small time villains during your internship and start to stockpile quirks. We've left your training open past that point so as to be able to accommodate those into your new plan." All Might said and Izuku's mind already started to clog up with thoughts of internships, but he quickly pushed those thoughts aside to handle the situation at hand.

He gave All Might one final nod before turning and approaching his classmates. He made sure to study everyone bar Katsuki, mainly because he couldn't steal One For All anyway and partly because he already had half a notebook on the quirk. So he started with Uraraka, it was the first time he had really observed her use her quirk and it was fascinating to say the least. Her energy was a soft pink that was focused in her fingers and hands, when she used her quirk her energy would flow out of her finger tips and encase the object she was using it on. It was almost like she created an anti-gravity field around the object as opposed to negating the force of gravity itself. It opened up so many possibilities with her quirk and Izuku had to force himself not to spend the entire lesson with her.

Eventually he was able to move around the gym, many of his classmates gave him odd looks as he would walk over and sit down observing them and making notes, Izuku would admit it was probably a little creepy to watch. But with Yoayorozu also studying to train her quirk most just assumed he was doing something similar, a few, such as Ashido, even seemed to try to put on a show as he watched them.

Despite himself Izuku had a wide smile on for the entire lesson as he observed the energy and quirks of his classmates. He watched as Asui and Ojiro climbed over equipment on the wall and ceiling, listened to Koda who stood by the windows chatting with various animals looking like a scene straight from a Disney movie and was even pulled into the excitement of watching the likes of Todoroki and Kaminari decimate targets with their emitter quirks.

Izuku was also starting to realise his previous observations of quirk energy were incredibly limited. He'd more or less seen mostly emitter type quirks which all operated along similar lines of having energy expelled at various points in the body. The one quirk that had stood out before this was of course One For All but now Izuku had a whole class of stand out quirks.

Koda's quirk energy worked by being expelled from his mouth and forming a connection with the

animals he spoke to. It was also the first time Izuku observed mutation quirk energy (watching both Ojiro and Asui) and while rather simple, being simply coloured energy that filled the entire person's body, it was still a useful titbit of information. Yaoyorozu's quirk energy was also fascinating, as she created an object Izuku would watch as her energy gathered within her and started to take the shape of said object before turning into the relevant material as it left her body. But by far the most unusual quirk energy in the class was that of Tokoyami, at first Izuku had to do a double take as it appeared the raven headed boy didn't have any quirk energy. Then he was even more shocked when he realised Dark Shadow was Tokoyami's quirk energy, his quirk was literally santiant quirk energy. Izuku also had to cover a laugh when he watched Dark Shadow retreat into Tokoyami's chest and move into the foetal position much like a chick inside an egg.

In the end there was no way Izuku would finish before the end of class for some physical training, in fact he was still scribbling down notes about how he might combine Todoroki's fire and Yoarashi gale force when All Might loudly called everyone back to the front of the gym. Several of his classmates looked exhausted, Uraraka looked like she was trying to hold back a stream of vomit and Kirishima was limping back to the group, having been attacked with everything from rubber bullets to a cannonball. Izuku couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if his quirk couldn't handle the cannonball. Much of the class however, like Izuku, had wide smiles however despite the rather mundane form the lesson had taken.

"Well done all of you!" All Might boomed at the gathered students, "I would call that a successful first lesson!" Izuku suspected the man was reassuring himself as much as he was his students.

"But we have just enough time left for one final surprise!" All Might declared and Izuku felt a pit of dread form in his stomach, "You'll be running an obstacle race!"

The way All Might said it with grandeur meant he was probably expecting a round of excitable cheers. Instead his words were met with no small amount of audible groans and a particularly terrified look from Kirishima. But it was Iida who was the brave student who raised his hand.

"Sensei!" The boy shouted as he wobbled on his legs slightly having run the equivalent of nearly five marathons in an hour, "Most of us are exhausted, is it truly wise to have us run an obstacle course after such an intense workout regime?"

Katsuki and Izuku made eye contact from across the group and smirked at each other. This is what the class considered an intense workout? For the two who had spent months training with All Might and Gran Torino this was nothing but a warm up and from the smirk that All Might had on his face he quite agreed. Perhaps the man took after Gran more than most realised.

"You think this is the peak of your training?" All Might let out a booming laugh which quite frankly, terrified most of the students, Koda looked ready to run for the hills, "This was simply a pleasant exercise to get us better acquainted with your quirks. It's also important to remember that the average hero patrol lasts for 15 hours." Many faces paled at that while several whimpers could be heard from a few students and Kirishima had to be held up by Bakugou as the boy nearly fainted, "So a quick obstacle course should be easy to cover after a relaxing and invigorating workout!"

Izuku couldn't help but snort, All Might was definitely channelling his inner Torino here. The man knew full well that while for any pro hero the past hour might have been a breeze for a group of teenagers on their second day in hero school it was downright torture. Izuku also suspected his 'quick' obstacle course was anything but.

Izuku was right, the quick obstacle course was not in fact quick. To be honest it was even a stretch to call it an obstacle course. If he were asked to describe it Izuku would say it was actually an intricate race track designed to torture and eventually kill off the student body of UA. The course itself wasn't far from Ground Foxtrot and like the recommendation exam was focused on outdoor settings, in fact it was an almost exact, albeit smaller, copy of said exam of course.

Almost in the fact that in this course the swamp had geysers that spewed poison gas, the forest was literally a wildfire, the river was now infested with (robotic) crocodiles and the canyon was at least three times as long. And if that wasn't enough the course was littered with the robots from the entrance exam. Izuku wouldn't be surprised if the canyon was hiding a zero pointer inside. There was absolutely no way this course hadn't been created without some of Gran Torino's input.

It didn't take long for the class to work out that they weren't actually expected to complete the course, especially after the first few people to go didn't even make it past the wild fire. All Might confirmed as much when asked by Yaoyorozu when Yoarashi, one of the top members of their class, was brought down by rocket fire while trying to cross the river.

"I would be surprised and extremely impressed if any of you got past this course. You'll be running it every two weeks as a better way to track your progress. My hope is that by the end of the year you'll all be able to make it through the course."

Katsuki, who had been next after those words, had proudly declared he would be the first to complete the course. He had then promptly got lost within the wildfire and accidentally slammed directly into a three pointer which managed to knock the boy out. Even Todoroki couldn't get past the fire which turned out to be far too intense for his ice to handle. The fact he could have negated it with his own fire went unsaid.

Surprisingly it was Hagakure who made it the furthest, being invisible meant she could completely ignore the robots and slowly make her way through the actual areas. She might not have been quick but she was the only person to make it past the river. Unfortunately by the time she did she was covered in soot and mud which made it fairly obvious where she was and was subsequently brought down by the robots.

Once again Izuku found himself as the final member of the class to go and as Asui (who's frog mutation made it almost impossible for her to operate in the heat of the fire) returned to the class's position at the start he wondered if All Might was doing it on purpose.

Excellent work Young Asui though might I suggest thinking about adapting your suit to help combat your weakness to extreme temperatures?" Asui nodded in agreement with a ribbet and All Might turned to Izuku, "Looks like it's just you Midoriya, do you have everything you need?"

Izuku could read between the lines, All Might was giving him a chance to steal any quirks he needed. There were more than enough to effectively deal with the course, Yoarashi's quirk would easily blow the poison gas away, Todoroki's fire would protect him in the forest and Sato's strength would probably see him through the river.

But one look over to his classmates and Izuku knew he couldn't do it, he watched as Yoarashi tried to dry Kirishima off with his wind while Yoayorozu created a sick bag for Uraraka. Quirks were second nature to these people and he wasn't quite ready to have them look at him the way they inevitably would when he took their way of life, albeit temporarily. And unlike Aizawa's lesson he knew there was no smart way out of this.

Izuku sighed as he walked up to the starting line, "I guess so."

All Might nodded at him and gave him a sad but knowing smile. Still, even without any quirks Izuku was determined to try his best. As he took his position and waited for All Might to give him the go ahead he became aware of how the small conversations among his classmates had come to a sudden stop and he could feel countless eyes staring at him, all waiting for him to unleash his mysterious quirk.

The moment All Might let the starting pistol off Izuku was on his feet charging down the course. As he ran he made sure to equip his mouthguard in place, it had a filter in so he didn't have to worry about the gas.

As he approached the swamp he saw two one pointers at the edge of it. They spotted him instantly and Izuku had to jump to the side to avoid a hail of bullets. He hoped to God All Might at least had the sense to make them rubber.

Using the momentum from his jump Izuku put his parkour skills to good use. Charging straight at one of the robots he jumped and further launched himself into the air by using the shield on the arm of the robot as a launching pad.

He twirled in the air and flew over the robots and landed in the swamp. His feet squelched as he rolled into the fall and continued moving. He could feel the gas stinging his eyes but just kept running. Luckily his path straight ahead was clear of any robots and he was quickly leaving the two behind him in the dust… or swamp he supposed. This was good, speed was the key that would allow him to-

He felt the explosion before he heard it, pain ripped up his leg and side as he was thrown off his feet and through the air. He landed painfully, rolling in the ground and felt his mouth guard be torn off. Poison gas quickly filled his lungs as he coughed for air, it wasn't lethal of course but it stung his throat and made him gag.

Rolling onto his back he could see the three pointer at the other end of the swamp, its shoulder launcher still smoking from where it had fired the rocket. Izuku tried to stand up but his leg and side screamed at him, he suspected it may even be broken. But he refused to give up as he went to push himself up with his elbows.

But the wind was forced out of him when seemingly out of nowhere a two pointer appeared above him and pinned him down with one of its legs. Izuku actually shouted in pain as it pushed him down and he was sure he would have broken ribs. He could only look up and glare at the robot, desperately hoping a quirk came within range for him to take.

But no such quirk came and Izuku could only try not to let disappointment wash over him as he finally succumbed to the gas and blacked out.

Chapter End Notes

So I know a lot of people will dissapointed Izuku still isn't really using AFO but keep in mind the kid has nearly a decade of trauma he needs to get over, it isn't going to happen on day two of being in a new school, however I can assure you this is last major angst he'll have with it before he starts to use it and actually start gaining some quirks so all I ask is have some patience and we'll finally start to see the Izuku that

most of the UA staff are terrified of.

As always though thank you so much for the comments and kudos!

Izuku Midoriya: Evil Overlord of 1-A

Chapter Summary

As Izuku recovers from his injuries he must attend his first student council meeting with Ashido

"Absolute insanity! When I get my hands on him he won't live to see the end of term! Five students with damaged throats due to gas, four requiring burn treatments and now you have five cracked ribs and a broken leg to boot!"

Izuku just sat in silence while Recovery Girl tended to his injuries, letting her rant to her heart's content. He was partially afraid that if he said anything the woman might beat him to death with her stick. In fact he was certain that if Yagi were to walk into the nurses office right now the world would be mourning the loss of All Might by the morning.

Izuku had woken up about ten minutes ago to the feeling of his leg snapping back in place as Recovery Girls' quirk worked its magic. Apparently he had been carried there by Katsuki and several other classmates who also needed treatment. Katsuki had to be physically dragged out by Yoarashi and Uraraka, he'd only finally left when Jiro pointed out Izuku still needed to stay behind for the school council meeting anyway. Silently Izuku had thanked Recovery Girl for getting everyone else sorted and out the room before him, leaving him alone with her when he woke up. He wasn't sure he wanted to see anyone after that disappointing display in class. He was half considering skipping out on the council meeting but it was his first one as class president and if he couldn't face people after a less than stellar class performance he could hardly call himself a hero.

He sighed as Recovery Girl wrapped his chest in bandages, his leg was more or less completely healed but he didn't have the energy for her to completely fix his ribs so he'd need to revisit in the morning. Catching his sigh, Recovery Girl looked up at him.

"Rough couple of days huh?" She asked with a sympathetic smile.

Too tired to argue or deflect the question, Izuku just nodded, "I knew it wasn't going to be easy trying to become a hero but… I never realised just how hard getting through even just one lesson was going to be."

"Don't worry so much about it sonny, that's how everyone finds it. You think Toshi was any different? I still remember him being carried on his first day with two broken arms and legs. Then

there was poor Aizawa, the man's eyes were all but ready to pop out of his skull by the end of his first week; he'd overworked himself so hard it was painful to watch." Recovery Girl explained with a chuckle.

Despite himself Izuku smiled slightly, "I just… feel like I'm waiting for someone to turn around and realise I can't be a hero and kick me out."

Recovery Girl paused briefly as she secured his bandages and looked up at him, "Hmmm, do you know I was almost kicked out of UA on a regular basis?"

Izuku's eyes widened and he spluttered, "B-But your Recovery Girl, one of, if not the greatest healing hero in history! I mean, you were the first healing hero!"

"Exactly," Recovery Girl said as she passed him his shirt, "When I tried for UA the teachers all but laughed off my attempt. Afterall I didn't have a quirk that could be used to attack and even though my healing is powerful I'm unable to use it on myself. Basically as a hero I was essentially quirkless. Luckily during the exam I met this arrogant fool who managed to give me enough tips to scrape by. But it didn't stop there, every day my teachers threw impossible challenges at me. I had to spend every waking minute training just to keep up with my classmates who could throw lighting, smash through solid walls and move objects with their mind. But even then I was all but ready to drop out before my first year was even over."

"What made you change your mind?" Izuku asked as he finished putting his uniform back on.

Recovery Girl smiled, "I ended up at an internship with that same arrogant fool from the entrance exam. Damn idiot charged right at the first villain he saw, had his stomach slashed right open. He would've bled out on the street if I hadn't been there."

Izuku chuckled, "He doesn't sound like a very good hero."

Recovery Girl turned to him with a smirk, "Oh I don't know, including your brother he's helped train three generations of One For All at this point."

Izuku coughed and looked at her with surprise, "You mean the idiot was Gran Torino?"

Recovery Girl let out a laugh and reached into her desk and pulled out an old framed photo and

passed it to Izuku. Despite the photo clearly being decades old it was well maintained. It framed two people who, if Izuku were to guess, were in their mid twenties, on the left there was a tall and lean man, he had thick black hair and a well groomed beard, he was looking at the camera with a smirk and raised eyebrow, arms crossed and chest puffed out. On his right was a short woman with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she was covering her mouth and clearly laughing at the antics of her friend. It was obvious who the pair were from their hero costumes.

"You both look so… young." Izuku said, sounding surprised.

"Now now sonny," Recovery Girl said with a frown, "Be careful what you say next, remember I'm the sole doctor in charge of your medical treatment for the next three years."

Izuku gulped with audible fear and wisely chose to keep his mouth shut as he passed the photo back.

"He was the first life I saved with my quirk, sure I'd healed a few scrapes and bumps before but stopping death in its tracks? He was the first. And after that day he made sure to drag me through the hero course kicking and screaming, never letting me falter. And do you know what I did once we graduated?" Recovery Girl asked and Izuku shook his head.

"I saved lives. So many lives I've lost count. Hundreds of my teammates would have died if not for my quirk. And everyday I thank Torino for pushing me and making me realise something I think you need to." She said, smiling up at him.

"What's that?" Izuku asked with a tilt of his head.

"That it doesn't matter how many people hate or fear your quirk. Because it's the few who see the value in you and your quirk that you should care about, they're the ones that make you a hero, not the rankings, opinion polls or even the HPSC." Recovery Girl gave Izuku a soft pat on the shoulder and a warm smile, "Just something to think about, now I believe you have a school council meeting to attend, you don't want to be late to your first meeting."

Izuku returned the smile and nodded. With a quick thanks he grabbed his bag and walked out of the nurses office.

"Midori!"

"AAAAHHHH!"

"AAAHHHHHH!"

Both Izuku and Ashido scrambled back from each other both with eqal looks of terror, unfortuantly for Izuku, who's leg was still recovering, he ended up tripping and landing firmly on his ass. Ashido was able to remain steady on her feet and only stumbled back slightly before both students realised who the opposing scream had come from. Izuku sighed as Ashido looked down at him, a smirk slowly growing on her face.

"You know Midori, it's a good thing you've got such a nice ass considering you keep falling on it."

Izuku blushed furiously and covered his face, "A-Ashidooooo, why do you have to be like this?"

Ashido giggled, "Because Yoarashi and Bakugou are too dumb to pick up on it and I've been doing it to Kiri for years, but you're fresh meat."

Izuku sighed and dropped his arms, at this point he was too tired to be embarrassed by her antics, "What are you doing here anyway?"

Ashido rolled her eyes but offered him a hand up, "Waiting for you silly, or did you forget I'm your Vice President?"

"Right, of course sorry. I keep forgetting about it being the president with well… everything going on." Izuku replied and grabbed her hand as she pulled him up, he decided to ignore the slight jolt in his heartbeat when their hands touched.

"I get it, honestly I was about ready to head home and crawl into bed until Yaomomo reminded me." Ashido said with a slight groan as the pair started to make their way down towards the student council office.

"Yaomomo?" Izuku asked with an amused raised eyebrow.

Ashido chuckled, "I think she was too surprised to argue against it, besides the moment Uraraka jumped on the bandwagon all her resistance against it crumbled."

Izuku couldn't help but smile down at his vice, well as down as he could considering they were more or less the same height, he was once again assured she was the correct choice for this. He knew Yoayorozu struggled to make friends, she had been homeschooled her entire life after all and between his awkwardness, Katsuki's swearing, Yoarashi's intensity and Uraraka's borderline bipolar emotional switch between bubbly and murderous he wasn't sure they had all done the best job at bringing her out of her shell. Yet Ashido had managed it in just two days.

They quickly fell into a comfortable silence as they made their way down the many winding corridors of UA. The student council offices were designed to be neutral, separate from all four departments and so lay on the ground floor directly in the centre of the four towers. As they came closer and closer Izuku started to panic, he was about to represent his entire class. What exactly did they expect of him? What if he needed to vote on various motions or make decisions? He barely knew a quarter of his classmates. Most of them were probably already planning a coup after his performance in the afternoon, if he messed up they would kick him out in a heartbeat.

"Bakugou is right, I can practically feel your thoughts." Ashido said from beside him as she lightly bumped his shoulder, "That's not your quirk is it? Letting everyone else read your mind?"

Izuku laughed and scratched the back of his neck, "No it's not. I guess I'm just nervous, I haven't really thought about the fact that I'm president and what I'll need to do. Besides, after today I'm fairly sure most of the class will want me booted from the position."

Ashido however wasn't having it and she swung an arm around his shoulders, "Come on Midori, cut the teenage angst bullshit. No one's gonna start a revolution against you cause you got blown up in our first hero lesson. Half the class didn't make it out of the swamp. Besides you still showed us all up in Aizawa's schemes and, besides Yaomomo, you were the only person who actually managed to answer any question from Ectoplasm, I swear that guy skipped like three grades worth of material."

Izuku smiled and chuckled slightly, "Thanks Ashido, I uh… have a habit of overthinking things."

"Really?" Ashido deadpanned, "I would have never guessed."

Izuku snorted, Ashido might actually be a challenger for Katsuki in terms of their sarcasm skills.

"Well," Izuku said as they approached a set of doors that had notice boards on either side filled up with various memos and notes despite it only being the second day, "Looks like we're here."

Ashido nodded and punched the air, "Come Midori, let's show them that the 1-A Presidential Overlords mean business."

Izuku watched Ashido march forward with an amused smile and quickly shuffled in step next to her. She threw doors open with no small amount of bravado and both green and pinked haired students observed the gathered crowd. A few older looking students glanced at their grand entry but soon grew uninterested when they realised they were first years.

"Ah, good evening Midoriya, Ashido, I trust you are both well?" Came Nedzu's voice as the principal scurried over to the pair, "Perfectly on time as well, you're the last to arrive and I almost panicked you'd be late."

"Oh, h-hello Principal Nedzu, it's good to see you again." Izuku stammered and took a low bow, he'd been so worked up about facing other students that the thought of teachers being present never crossed his mind.

"Ooooh, you're the principle," Ashido said as she bent down to observe the creature much to Izuku's panic and Nedzu's amusement, "I figured you'd be… I dunno… more impressive."

"Ashido!" Izuku cried, an argument as to why Nedzu shouldn't expel his friend already forming in his mind.

Nedzu however let out a sporadic laugh and threw back his head, "Oh my it's so refreshing not to have a student tremble at my presence."

Ashido just shrugged, "Eh, I was never that smart plus you're kinda fluffy, nothing fluffy can be scary."

Izuku resisted the urge to start listing several 'fluffy' villains over the years who had put several heroes in the hospital.

Nedzu chuckled, "I can see why Midoriya here chose you as his Vice President, you two make quite the pair."

"We do?" Ashido asked while glancing between Izuku and Nedzu.

"Absolutely!" Nedzu exclaimed, "Afterall you are the only two students I've met this year who haven't been phased by my presence."

"Huh, Midoriya wasn't phased either?" Ashido looked at him with a slight smirk, "Doesn't sound like the stuttering mess from class."

Izuku just pouted and stuck his tongue out at Ashido causing the girl to giggle.

"Oh don't misunderstand me Miss Ashido, I'm well aware of Midoriya's nervous energy around crowds. But trust me, knowing Midoirya the way I do he's probably already thought of at least three ways to kill each of your classmates, after all in ten years he's the first student I genuinely believe could best me in battle. Now then, I was only here to make sure everyone arrived, I'll leave you all to it! Cheerio!" Nedzu said and Izuku swore the animal smirked at him before heading out of the doors.

A strangled noise from behind Izuku drew his attention back to Ashido. Turning around he was met with what looked like a very pink fish. Ashido's eyes were wide and her mouth was slowly closing and opening but the only sounds she appeared to be able to make were slight whimps and grunts.

Izuku sighed, "Please don't ask."

Ashido came back to reality with a shake of her head and shrugged, "Of course, I mean it'll be easy to ignore the fact that our principle, one of the most feared beings in Japan, is afraid of you." She said with enough sarcasm to fill a pool.

Izuku chuckled nervously, "I'll tell you one day, I promise."

Ashido pouted slightly but relented, "You better."

"Excuse me."

Ashido and Izuku turned their attention away from each other and found themselves face to face with what they assumed was another President and Vice pair. The pair consisted of a girl with orange hair pulled up in a ponytail and roughly the same height as Izuku along with a shorter boy with blue eyes and light blue hair. From their uniforms Izuku could tell they were also first years.

"You're the representative for Class 1-A right?" The orange haired girl asked.

"That's right!" Ashido responded with a bright smile, "I'm Mina Ashido, Vice President for 1-A and this is Izuku Midoriya, our glorious leader!"

"H-hello, it's nice to meet you." Izuku said a little awkwardly.

"Nice to meet you guys too, I'm Itsuka Kendo and this is Nirengeki Shoda, we're the President and Vice President of 1-B, the other hero class." Kendo explained and Shoda puffed his chest out slightly with pride while Kendo tapped her chin, "Midoriya… I think Tokage has mentioned you, you're a recommendation student too aren't you."

Izuku nodded, "That's right, I was recommended by All- uh, by a hero who had been training me for a few months."

Kendo gave out an impressed whistle, "That's pretty amazing, I I thought I was ahead with my dojo training but I feel so behind already." She said and her shoulders sagged slightly.

"Eh, I think everyone does to be fair," Ashido said, "I'm amazed the entire class survived All Might's first lesson."

All four first year hero students shuddered at the memory, Shoda in particular went slightly green, "I didn't even make it out of the swamp, I couldn't eat lunch because I could still taste the poison gas."

Izuku had to hold back a gag as the mention of the gas reminded him of the mustard-like taste that still lingered in his mouth slightly.

"I know what you mean, over half our class never made it past the first stage." Ashido whined and

she huffed slightly.

"Same here, who knew All Might would be such an intense teacher." Kendo said and Izuku resisted the urge to laugh, they had no idea how intense it was really going to be one All Might found his stride and confidence.

"So uh, where are the rest of the first year representatives?" He asked as he scanned the gathered crowd of students, most ignoring the foursome.

Kendo and Shoda glanced at each other before Kendo spoke, "I guess no-one warned you."

Izuku frowned, "Warned us about what?"

Kendo sighed, "Pretty much everyone outside of the hero department hates the hero department."

Ashido and Izuku's eyes widened, "What, why?" Ashdio asked.

"UA is a hero centred school," Shoda explained, "Most of its resources, teachers and equipment goes towards the hero department despite it having the least amount of students. A lot of the other classes resent us for having priority over everyone else. The management and support courses aren't too bad but most of the management students just want to use you to make money while the support courses only tolerate us because we can test out their inventions without the usual lines of red tape in the real world. But the worst are the general education students, apparently nearly half of them are rejected students who applied for the hero course, they see us as taking up a spot they deserve."

It was then that Izuku noticed the large group of first years over in one corner of the room. There were more than a few who had identified the hero course presidents and were sending the small group dirty looks. Izuku tried to give them a smile but just received eye rolls and scowls in return.

Ashido noticed and blew a breath out through her teeth, "It doesn't look like you're making friends."

Izuku smirked at her, "That's what I brought you for remember."

Ashido giggled and rolled her eyes.

"By the way," Kendo said, "One of the second year hero presidents told us that there can often be a rivalry between the two hero classes. I thought perhaps we could discuss it and make sure it doesn't get… out of hand. There's definitely a few people on our side who would aggravate the situation."

Izuku nodded as various names flashed in his mind that could cause trouble in his own class and he'd be lying if Katsuki's name wasn't one of them, "You're right, I can think of a few people in our own class who I should probably make sure steer clear of you guys."

"How likely are we to run into each other?" Ashido asked.

"Not that much to start with," Shoda replied with a shrug, "The teachers tend to keep us separated, at least until the sports festival. But after a few weeks and once we get the freedom to book training grounds and gyms without supervision the chance increases."

Izuku bit his lip in thought, "Maybe if the four of us make sure to steer the worst of classmates away from each other, keep track of what facilities they're using and make sure there aren't any clashes, that sort of thing, it will keep the worst of it at bay."

"Good idea," Kendo agreed, "Let's exchange numbers then."

As they all typed into their phones, and Ashido predictably made a group chat within a few moments, a tall blonde student, obviously a third year, made his way into the middle of the room, "Hi everyone! It's great you're all here, if you could take your seats we're ready to start!"

The gathered presidents and vice presidents quickly moved to the seating area of the room. The student offices were designed like a small lecture hall with a small stage at one end of the room and semi circular seating arrangement at the other with just enough seats to hold all 66 presidents and vice presidents. Three of the four walls of the room were made of large glass windows that allowed the sun to shine through and from which the school grounds could be seen. Meanwhile the fourth wall had several doors on which allowed class presidents to hold private meetings, the offices were both soundproof and had solid steel doors which could lock, making sure even those in the hero department couldn't break in or eavesdrop on what went on inside.

Izuku and Ashido found seats in the very back right hand corner with Kendo and Shoda, it was

coincidentally the complete opposite to where the rest of the first years had chosen to sit. There were a few quiet whispers among the students but they quickly silenced when the same muscular blonde boy stood on the stage in front of them all and clapped his hands together.

"Hey everyone!" He boomed in a way eerily similar to All Might, "Welcome to the first student council meeting of the year! For the benefit of the first years my name is Mirio Togata and I'll be your student council president for the year as well as being class 3-As President!"

There was a semblance of applause, mainly from the third years and some polite clapping from the second year hero representatives. Of course Ashido managed to clap loud enough for the entire first year and even let out a few cheers much to the delight of Togata.

"All right!" Togata cried and gave Ashido a thumbs up, "Why don't we let the first years introduce themselves? Tell us your class, role and how about something interesting about yourself?"

Slowly Togata went around the first years, Izuku noted how he made sure to come to the four hero students last. Cleary Togata was aware of the animosity between the departments and was trying to show he wasn't going to automatically favour the other hero students being one himself. He also made sure to engage and talk with every single first year student showing genuine interest in them and their class. Izuku didn't know what kind of hero he was but Togata was an excellent leader, it was easy to see why despite the tensions between departments he had been elected as student president.

Eventually he made it round to the hero students, Shoda puffed out his chest proudly while he introduced himself and informed everyone he loved strategy games while Kendo gave a small smile when she told everyone about how she volunteered at her dojo on weekends. Ashido of course gave one of the most enthusiastic introductions of all the first years, practically leaping out of her seat to let everyone she danced as a hobby and actually had a break dancing competition that weekend. The new information triggered a string of notes in Izuku's mind about how she could use that in her heroics classes. But then the attention turned to Izuku and he nervously stood up.

"H-Hello everyone," Izuku said with a shaky voice and nervous wave, Togata just gave him a wide and encouraging smile, "My name is Izuku Midoriya, I'm the President for Class 1-A and well uh…" Izuku wracked his brain for an interesting fact about himself, unfortunately under the pressure the initial ones that popped into his mind weren't exactly appropriate.

'I have the ability to steal all your quirks and make you quirkless.'

'I could break down your quirk in roughly ten minutes and work out how to kill you'

'I'm keeping one of the biggest secrets in heroics for the number one hero known by less than 12 people'

Eventually he settled on something perhaps less interesting but also less likely to cause a riot, "My brother is also in Class 1-A training to be a hero."

Togata's smile, despite seemingly being impossible wide, grew even larger, "Oh that's so cool! At least you both always have someone to help out with homework."

Izuku smiled and sat back down as Togata moved on to the actual business of being in the student council. As it turned out Izuku's role consisted of three main tasks, the first was to attend student council meetings and vote on various motions, the second was to fill out various paperwork and other forms in regards to his class and the final was just to generally look after and keep an eye on his classmates and any issues they had.

Despite it being the first council of the year there were still a few votes to go through, though nothing a major. A couple of votes of gym scheduling, which years would get which training grounds and which heroes to invite to the Sport Festival (Izuku had raised a few eyebrows when he had been the sole person to vote against inviting Death Arms). Once that was over Togata opened the floor for anyone to ask questions or propose a vote. With it being the start of the year there weren't really any major points raised and Izuku couldn't think of anything he personally wanted to bring up though Ashido did ask if the school ran any clubs and to her delight found that there was indeed a dance club she could attend.

All in all Izuku had to admit to himself it was all fairly boring by the end, especially as his body still ached from his heroics lesson. He was so tired that towards the end he was battling to stay awake as one of the third year support students droned on about buying extra chalkboards for the labs. Finally Togata came to the last question, from one of the vice presidents of the first year general classes.

"Ah yeah," the vice president said standing up, "I was just wondering what we should do about a classmate with a villainous quirk?"

Izuku's exhaustion was forcibly shoved out of his body and replaced by an intense mix of anger and fear. His head snapped to attention at the vice president who was wringing their hands together nervously. Izuku wasn't the only one, he felt a few quirks react to the question and could hear Ashido take a sharp breath next to him. Meanwhile on the stage Togata's ever present smile faltered slightly and the gleam in his eyes dimmed.

"What uh… what do you mean?" Togata asked, clearly not sure how to handle the situation.

The vice president didn't seem to pick up on the increased tension in the room, "We were discussing quirks in class earlier today and well… one of my classmates has an obviously villains quirk, he's a reject from the hero department for obvious reasons and a few of the others in the class have concerns. Quite frankly he's a danger to us all, is there any way we can get the school to expel him?"

Izuku clenched his fists and ground his teeth together, his hunger flickering in response to his anger. This student had already apparently failed the hero exam and they wanted to kick him out on day two over his quirk? He'd applied to the hero course, of course he wasn't a villain. Luckily a quick glance showed him that Togata had gone from smiling to frowning and Izuku relaxed a little, at least the council president seemed to agree with him.

Unfortunately before Togata could respond one of the other third year students turned around to face the first year, "Unfortunately the school won't really do anything to help so you need to take it into your own hands. We had a student in our first year who's quirk allowed them to rip the bones from your body. Obviously too dangerous to keep around a school like UA, best thing to do is to isolate them and make it obvious they're not welcome. They'll probably transfer or drop out by the end of first year if you do this."

Izuku didn't feel anger very often, he tended to keep a lid on his emotions largely driven by the way his hunger reacted to them. And to be fair in regards to the current situation Izuku could confidently say he currently wasn't feeling angry. No, instead he was feeling pure unbridled rage. He could feel his hunger just beneath his skin, swirling about like it was throwing its own private party, ready to break out and start taking quirks left, right and centre. He was shaking with fury, his breath coming out in borderline growls as he tried to murder the student with a glare so intense even his Auntie would stagger under its gaze. This so called student representative had all but admitted to bullying a fellow student to the point they had to drop out.

Ashido clearly noticed Izuku's mood as he felt her nudge him, he turned to her and she looked at him with concerned eyes.

'Are you ok?' she mouthed at him.

Izuku closed his eyes and took a breath, as angry as he was completely losing control in the middle of a school council meeting wouldn't help anyone. He nodded to Ashido and tried to calm himself with the knowledge that Togata looked just as angry as he did. However the two students discussing the matter didn't seem to pick up on any of this.

"Oh, that's not a bad idea," the first year said, "Isolating them should be pretty easy, they don't look like they want to make friends anyway."

Togata would handle it, Izuku didn't need to get involved, he should just relax.

"Oh good, not sure they could make friends anyway. No one wants to make friends with wannabe villains, at least most of us have sense here at UA." The older third year responded with a chuckle that scratched at Izuku's mind.

Togata was sure to shut it down and Izuku knew Nedzu could more than handle it before it got out of hand.

"That's true," the first year said, "I'm surprised UA didn't do a sweep for villain quirks at the start of the year, I've heard a rumour there's even a hero student with some unknown quirk in our year."

Togata looked like he was about to shut it down, Izuku didn't need to cause a scene.

The third year laughed, "Could be worse, at least they haven't let a filthy quirkless in yet."

SLAM!

CRACK!

"What the FUCK did you just say!?"

Ashido had to stop herself from physically making a noise that she placed somewhere between a moan, whimper and scream. In the two days she'd known him she'd grown used to Izuku's timed nature and slight stutter whenever he was surprised. But the Izuku who had just shouted at the third year wasn't that Izuku.. This Izuku gave off an aura that was both terrifying yet comforting at the same time, like she knew he would protect her from anything but could also kill her with the flick of his wrist. Not to mention he was no longer hunched over with his head down, he stood proud, chest heaving and glaring down at the third year. His first had made contact with the desk in front of him and had nearly broken it in half. And though she didn't know his quirk she did know he didn't have a strength quirk so that damage had been all him. It suddenly became a lot clearer to

Ashido how Izuku had managed to beat both Yoarashi and Todoroki at the recommendation exam and how he'd put up with someone like Katsuki for years.

The entire hall had gone deathly silent and every set of eyes had turned to Izuku who himself was seething, his entire body ragged with breaths. Even Togata had frozen, mouth open and ready to shut down the discussion yet he'd been a second behind Izuku and now wasn't entirely sure how to handle the very short, fluffy haired yet completely terrifying first year hero student.

However it appeared the only person in the room not shocked into silence by the outburst was the quirkiest third year hero student himself, "Pfft, calm down man. We're just being honest, at least villains actually have a quirk they can use, the quirkless can't do anything."

Izuku's fury only grew, "Of course they can you fucking asshole. How is strength quirk supposed to help a doctor? What use would a wind quirk be for an engineer? You're just some quirkless nobody who thinks just because they have a nice fancy quirk the entire world needs to kiss your feet."

By this point Izuku's quirk was flaring up and acting out in line with his emotions, those around him could feel the effects of his quirk reaching out to them and tugging and playing with their own quirk energy. Kendo had to slap her hands together as they cramped and strained, Ashido realised with some shock that it wasn't sweat she was rubbing off her forehead but in fact her acid and Shoda shuffled back slightly as he could almost feel his quirk running out of control. The rest of the student council was still in too much shock to intervene in the situation.

The third year scowled at Izuku, "We're not a doctors school though are we, we're a hero school, we have no place for villains and the quirkless."

Izuku threw his arms up in the air out of both frustration and fury, "What villains!? Just because someone doesn't have a shiny quirk that came in a well wrapped package doesn't mean they want to go around hurting people!"

The third year just rolled their eyes, "You've been here two days, you just don't understand yet. Trust me, I've been out on patrol with Death Arms, we've put away plenty of people with villainous quirks before they could act out." The third year narrowed his eyes slightly at Izuku, "You're the class 1-A president right? You wouldn't know anything about that other villain who got in would you? You better not be protecting them."

A few years ago Mitsuki had jokingly suggested Izuku change his name to Izuku Midoriya- Bakugou due to all the Bakugou like habits he had picked up. Inko had laughed however and said

that Izuku was still very much a Midoriya, his ability to flood a room with tears, timidness and fluffy green hair were all evidence of this. Mitsuki still disagreed however and claimed every now and then she could see the inner Bakugou come out. And as Izuku was overwhelmed with cold fury at the third year's words it turned out this was one of those times.

"If you come after a single person in my class I'll make sure not even Recovery Girl can fix what I do to you." Izuku's voice came out almost as a whisper, yet carried around the room and every single person could feel the cold fury behind the words with many gulping at the scene.

"Holy shit…" Ashido whispered as she looked up at Izuku with slightly glassy eyes.

The third year laughed, albeit a little nervously, "Please, I'm a third year, I'd take you down in a few minutes."

A very Katsuki like smirk appeared on Izuku's face as he took in the quirk energy of the third year. Like Aizawa it was focused just on the inside of his skull where his eyes were, though the energy was completely different. In fact it reminded Izuku of the energy of someone in his own class.

"Laser Vision," Izuku said, much to the shock of the third year, "I'm not sure if that's what it's called or the specifics but you basically shoot some form of energy out of your eyes."

The third year paled slightly, "How…?"

"It's actually pretty easy to counter," Izuku explained and several students moved forward slightly in curiosity (and a camera in the corner of the room may or may not have been streaming a live video of the argument to a cackling principle), "All I really need to do it keep out your direct line of sight, which is easier than you think. Sight based quirks tend to be less manoeuvrable than you think seeing as you can't move your eyes as you use it, only your head. Plus I just need to put a bit of a cover and it'll be easy to get close. Then, once I'm close enough, taking out your eyes would be like child's play, throwing knives, flashbangs, explosives, there's a lot of options to be honest. Then I can just get behind you and get you in a choke hold."

Izuku could've sworn he heard someone in the room whisper something about wetting themselves, meanwhile next to him Ashido seemed to be having a crisis as she bit her lip and looked up at him with wide eyes and slightly coloured cheeks. Both Togata and the third year had paled considerably and had no idea what to do.

But Izuku wasn't finished and the smile he wore was so deranged it would make even the most seasoned pro heroes sweat, "Of course that's if I was fighting you quirkless. If I were to use my quirk they'd need to scrub you off the sidewalk with a sponge."

"Everyone's dismissed!" Togata suddenly shouted in obvious panic.

He didn't need to repeat it as practically every single student all but sprinted out of the tense room. Even Kendo and Shoda bid Izuku and Ashido a quick farewell before running for the hills. Izuku made one last glare at the third year before marching out of the room. He was vaguely aware of Ashido following him closely as he just headed straight for the nearest door to the courtyard. Once outside he allowed his shoulders to sagg and took deep calming breaths focusing on getting his hunger under control.

"Midori?" Ashido asked quietly, clearly a little shaken up from the whole display as she nervously stepped closer to him.

Izuku turned to her with a shaky smile, "Uh… sorry about that Ashido. I can uh… well Auntie always says that if there's one thing me and Kacchan share it's our temper. Mine just comes out in big bursts."

"It's ok, it's just… that was intense." Ashido responded with her own shy smile, shifting on her feet slightly.

Izuku scratched the back of his head awkwardly, slowly returning to his usual timid self, "It's just… all that talk of villains quirks and the quirkless…"

Ashido paused and seemed to think over her next words, "You haven't really used or spoken about your quirk yet, you're pretty much the only one in class who's quirk I have no clue about. It's not difficult to realise why talking about villainous quirks triggers you so much."

Izuku and Ashido looked at eachother, neither moving before Ashdio offered a warm yet soft smile, "I just want you to know I don't care what your quirk is, whenever you're ready to tell me I know that you could never be a villain."

Izuku gained the first genuine smile he'd had all day, "Thanks Ashido."

"Midoriya! Ashido!"

The pair turned to find Togata running towards them at a dangerously high speed considering they weren't enemies for him to charge. The boy had a wide smile once again on his face as approached the pair.

"I'm glad I caught you," He said before bowing low, "Midoriya, I want to apologise for what happened in there. I always knew the vice rep for 3-B had an edge to him but I never thought… I want to thank you for putting him in his place, I've already sent him and the first year vice rep to Nedzu."

All three students shivered slightly, as much as the argument between Izuku and third year had been intense, Nedzu was on a level of his own.

"Thanks for backing me up, I can't imagine what I'd do if the 3-B president was head of the school council." Izuku said and Ashido snorted.

"You'd probably rope Bakugou into killing them and make me hide the body."

Would Not Recommend

Katsuki Bakugou added Mina Ashido to the chat

Katsuki Bakugou changed Mina Ashido's nickname to Bubbly Bitch

Bubbly Bitch: 1. Rude 2. How do you do, fellow kids?

Angry Boi: Oi Pinky, what the fuck happned?

Bubbly Bitch: Huh?

Floaty McFloat: 1. Sup my fellow bitch 2.What's going on?

Angry Boi: We were all sat eating dinner, Zuzu gets back from the shitty school council meeting and just storms into his room before slamming the door shut, no hello to anyone. Wouldn't even

even let Auntie in to speak to him

Einstein's Daughter: Oh my, did something happen at the school council meeting Ashido?

Bubbly Bitch: Eh, nothing major a few votes on some pretty basic stuff, who gets the gyms at what time, what to serve for lunch, that sort of thing

Air Conditioner: That sounds like important work!

Floaty McFloat: Does it though?

Bubbly Bitch: Oh, there was one other thing

Bubbly Bitch: MIDORI THREATENED TO KILL A THIRD YEAR HERO STUDENT!

Floaty McFloat: He WHAT!?

Einstein's Daughter: That doesn't sound like the wisest move…

Angry Boi: AHAHAHA I KNEW HE WAS A SECRET BAKUGOU

Air Conditioner: That doesn't sound like Midoriya at all

Name: CLASSIFIED: Yeah well that guy was being a Grade A fucking asshole

Air Conditioner: Ah! He lives!

Floaty McFloat: Everytime Midoriya swears it's like my soul is cleansed

Angry Boi: Oi fuckface! Get down here before you give Auntie a heart attack!

Name: CLASSIFIED: Fine

Floaty McFloat: Damn, I can feel the rage pouring through my phone

Air Conditioner: I haven't felt this sort of intensity from him since the recommendation exam

Einstein's Daughter: I'm sorry, going back to our Class President threatening someone, what happened?

Angry Boi: Raccoon Eyes you'll have to answer, Zuzu is currently getting hugged to death by Auntie while the hag shouts at him about ignoring his family

Bubbly Bitch: Ok so it was towards the end of the council meeting, pretty basic stuff like I say we'd just been voting on motions. Fun fact, me and Midori voted exactly the same on everything

but the hero stuff (side note, why do the demon brothers hate heroes?). But then it came to questions from the council and asshole number 1 stands up and asks about kicking someone out of

UA for having a villain's quirk. Then asshole 2 stands up and tells him to basically bully the kid until he drops out. I mean I was angry enough and then BOOM suddenly it's like our little green

cinnamon roll was replaced with the secret love child of All Might and Endeavor

Floaty McFloat: Fuck yeah! I knew Midoirya wouldn't take no shit from any dickheads

Air Conditioner: I think Uraraka is hanging around Bakugou too much but I agree, I would expect a top school like UA to have a zero tolerance policy on quirkism

Angry Boi: WHO THE FUCK WAS THIS ASSHOLE!? I'LL FUCKING KILL HIM

Bubbly Bitch: Relax blasty, the school council president (who I swear is an All Might clone) already took them to see Nedzu, I doubt they'll be much left for you to kill

Einstein's Daughter: A school council meeting is certainly no place to bring up such topics

Bubbly Bitch: Honestly you guys should have seen Midori though, I was both equally terrified of him and turned on by him

Name: CLASSIFIED: Ashido!

Angry Boi: For fuck sake Raccon Eyes! Our parents finally let him go and you go and break him

Bubbly Bitch: It's not my fault your brother can switch between a cute cinnamon roll and a sexy psychopath like he's turning on a light

Air Conditioner: It still surprises me Midoriya got that worked up over it

Bubbly Bitch: Oh yeah, like, he was getting super angry but keeping a lid on it and then guy said quirkless people were worthless and Midori just lost it

Angry Boi: He called quirkless people worthless?

Bubbly Bitch: Yeah, said he was glad none ever made it to UA and that they were the lowest of the low, it really pissed Midori off

Angry Boi: Oh

Floaty McFloat: That was a very un-Bakugou response

Floaty McFloat: Bakugou?

Air Conditioner: Bakugou? Midoriya? Are you both ok?

Bubbly Bitch: Guys?

Einstein's Daughter: Should we try to ring them?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Sorry

Angry Boi: We're back

Floaty McFloat: Where did you guys go?

Angry Boi: We were punching each other

Bubbly Bitch: I… what?

Name: CLASSIFIED: We figured out a while ago the best method of taking out our anger was on each other

Angry Boi: Zuzu can take some of my weaker punches while he can let loose with his quirk on me

Name: CLASSIFIED: It's very therapeutic and doesn't damage the furniture

Bubbly Bitch: Should I be concerned?

Einstein's Daughter: When it comes to Bakugou and Midoriya?

Floaty McFloat: Yes, yes you should

Air Conditioner: Concern is just a side effect of being their friend

Angry Boi: Oi assholes! We can read this, you know!

Floaty McFloat: Once again I'd like to point how fucking weird you guys are

Bubbly Bitch: Are any of us really normal?

Air Conditioner: I like to think I am! Just like the knights of old!

Bubbly Bitch: Oh Yoarashi my sweet innocent child, you're up there with the demon brothers

Name: CLASSIFIED: Calm down Kacchan

Angry Boi: You're just happy cause Auntie made you katsudon!

Floaty McFloat: Man, I wish I had Katsudon, I forgot to go grocery shopping

Bubbly Bitch: Your parents don't do the shopping?

Floaty McFloat: Oh! No, my parents live too far out so I rent this little studio flat so I can go to UA but It's just me

Name: CLASSIFIED: Uraraka, send us your address

Floaty McFloat: Huh? Why?

Angry Boi: Just do it Round Cheeks!

Floaty McFloat sent her location

Name: CLASSIFIED: Kacchan Auntie says you need to take a coat

Angry Boi: Tell her I said fuck you

Name: CLASSIFIED: Mom says she's getting your red one

Angry Boi: …Fine. I'm bringing your rucksack downstairs

Bubbly Bitch: What's going on?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Uraraka do you like spicy food?

Floaty McFloat: Uh… not really?

Angry Boi: Get hers out of Dad and Aunties pot Zuzu

Floaty McFloat: What pot?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Me, Kacchan and Auntie like our food really spicy so Mom always makes a separate pot for her and Uncle. Kacchan I have your shoes

Floaty McFloat: I'm sorry, what's happening?

Name: CLASSIFIED: We're bringing you some katsudon!

Angry Boi: Obviously

Floaty McFloat: Wait! YOU GUYS ARE COMING TO MY APARTMENT!?

Angry Boi: Yes

Floaty McFloat: Don't I get a say in this?

Air Conditioner: I think we all know the answer to that

Floaty McFloat: I'm not even dressed!

Angry Boi: Then get dressed bitch, we're on are way

Name: CLASSIFIED: We have katsudon and mochi!

Floaty McFloat: Mochi?

Floaty McFloat: …you may approach safely

Angry Boi: Don't get too excited, the nerd is bringing work with him

Floaty McFloat: Dammit Midoriya!

Name: CLASSIFIED: Hey! It's just some proposals on quirk discrimination for the school council!

Bubbly Bitch: Oooooh, can I see?

Floaty McFloat: You may as well come round too Ashido

Bubby Bitch: I'm on my way bitchez

Name: CLASSIFIED: FYI, don't worry about my black eye and Kacchans bandaged fingers

Einstein's Daughter: I'm not even coming and I'm worried

Floaty McFloat: Has anyone ever told you that you're both a little insane?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Yes

Angry Boi: Yes

Einstein's Daughter: Sigh

Bubbly Bitch: By the way:

Bubbly Bitch: WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME YOU GUYS ALREADY HAD A GROUP CHAT!?

Katsuki's Big Mouth

Chapter Summary

It's Izuku and Katsuki's third day at UA, by this point all Izuku wants is a qiuet and simple day. What could go wrong?

Only three days in and Izuku was already tired of the early starts that came with UA, as much as he enjoyed hanging out with Uraraka and Ashido last night it meant he hadn't really got a chance to fully relax from the exhausting day. Combined with the fact he had to swing by Recovery Girls office to finish the healing on his ribs and Izuku was dreading the day.

But it seemed he was at least settling into routine each morning. He and Katsuki would be the first to arrive, they'd attempt (and fail) to make conversation with Todoroki before Izuku moved to his own seat and convernsed with Ashido, Jiro and Kirishima until Aizawa arrived (In which he learned that Katsuki's determination to be early had been worth it today as they had apparently avoided a swarm of reporters which appeared as everyone else arrived).

"Good Morning everyone," The tired hero said in a way that indicted the morning was anything but good, "I spoke to Yagi and All Might about your heroics lessons yesterday, I have some concerns about how a few of you dealt with the exercises and quite frankly you all did poorly on the obstacle course but overall an average performance from all of you."

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to decipher whether that was a compliment or insult, knowing Aizawa it was probably both.

"Oh and Midoriya," Aizawa said and turned his attention to the boy in question, "While I understand your motives please try to avoid threatening any more students during school council meetings."

Aizawa didn't even bother to attempt to stop the chaos that unfolded, it was only after Ashido had loudly explained the full events that the class calmed down. A few even praised Midoriya for standing up for other students, though there were also a few who still shot him dirty looks, either disagreeing with his stance or the way he handled things.

From there however the rest of the morning passed without any major incident. Though Midnight's class made Izuku incredibly uncomfortable. Not because of her flirtatious or slightly inappropriate nature with everyone but rather the exact opposite. From the moment she walked into the

classroom Midnight winked, joked and flirted with every member of the class. Except for Izuku. Izuku had raised his hand multiple times at questions and had ever been picked to answer once, Midnight had made at least one flirtatious comment about everyone in the classroom bar himself and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. Though if his friends noticed anything they didn't mention it to him.

But Izuku was perfectly happy to ignore Midnight right back and get on with his day which, all things considered, was turning out pretty well. Once again he'd managed to grab himself some katsudon in the cafeteria (Katsuki insisted one day he would need to eat something else) and found himself sitting at a table with his brother and friends. Both he and Katsuki had decided between themselves to try and make more of an effort at joining in the group conversation.

"Come on Midoriya!" Uraraka groaned, "You can't seriously be telling me The Wild Wild Pussy Cats are better than Thirteen!"

"Thirteen is a fantastic hero within their own right," Izuku said as he stood his ground, "But The Wild Wild Pussy Cats just operate better as a whole. Generally Thirteen heads to flood zones and other big disaster areas but doesn't do as well in small scale situations such as house fires whereas The Wild Wild Pussy Cats can operate in both."

Uraraka frowned at his logic, "Yeah but you're missing something really important."

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "What?"

"Astronauts are way cooler than cats." Uraraka declared and stuck her tongue out at Izuku who returned the favour causing Katsuki to snort from where he sat between them.

"Astronauts are pretty cool…" Yaoyorozu admitted with a slight giggle as Uraraka shot her a smug smile before returning to her pouting match with Izuku.

"I'm gonna go with Midoriya on this one," Jiro said as she played with her jacks, "Thirteen is powerful but they have no recon abilities, they're essentially just told where to point their quirk and activate it. Meanwhile The Wild Wild Pussycats have members like Ragdoll who can identify people in need."

Izuku crossed his arms and gave Uraraka a look so smug even Katsuki thought he might be overdoing it. Uraraka however just rolled her eyes in response.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell you who my favourite rescue hero is! My Uncle Typhoon is truly my idol!" Yoarashi declared with a clenched fist in the air.

"Woah!" Kirishima said, his eyes widening at Yoarashi and ramen long forgotten, "You're uncle is a pro hero? That's so manly!"

"I swear Kiri is there literally anything is this world you don't find-"

Ashido never got to finish her question before a blaring alarm rang out through the building. Instantly the cafeteria turned into chaos, a few people let out screams and students started to jump out of their seats.

"There has been a level 3 security breach, all students please evacuate the grounds immediately!" A robotic voice declared through the speakers throughout the school.

"W-whats a level 3 breach mean!?" Jiro asked as her jack clacked together in panic.

"It means someone is trespassing on the grounds!" A passing third year shouted to the table before heading off to the main doors.

"A trespasser!?" Uraraka gasped, "You don't think it's a-a villain do you?"

Izuku's jaw tightened and flashes of the sludge villain came back into his mind. His heart constricted at the thought and he had to keep a hold of his breathing. If he was lucky he could use Katsuki as a battering ram and the pair could make it out easily.

But before he could make a decision he looked up and saw the fear in his friends eyes. Jiro and Yaoyorozu had gone deathly pale and Jiro's jacks were flailing about with obvious panic. Both Ashido and Kirishima were looking around in fear and confusion, trying to reassure their friends though they were clearly out of their depth . Meanwhile Yoarashi and Uraraka were both trying to look confident but clearly didn't know how to handle the situation while Katsuki looked ready to beat down the villain but had no idea how to help his friends. Izuku grit his teeth, what was it Togata had said? He needed to look after his class.

"Everybody!" Izuku's shout and subsequent slamming of his hands on the table as he stood up drew the group's attention, "Lets not panic, we need to stick together."

His friends seemed to take a collective sigh of relief and Izuku briefly made eye contact with Katsuki, the boy nodding at him, "Ok, we'll move as a group. Kacchan and Yoarashi, you guys take the front, you're the strongest and largest of us so it'll be easy for everyone to see and follow you. Kirishima, you'll be at the back with me, people will likely try to push past us so you'll be good for stopping that. Everyone else heads into the middle, Jiro, you and Ashido keep an eye out for anyone else in the class who might need help. Remember to stick together."

The group steeled themselves at Izuku's words and quickly got into the formation Izuku described. Katsuki wore a manic grin as he pushed through the crowds and Izuku half panicked that his brother might start a fight. Luckily Yoarashi was so loud and boisterous that most people let the group shuffle past without Katsuki's aggression. At the back Kirishima was doing a valiant job of stopping them all being trampled with his quirk. The first few people to push against him quickly realised it was like trying to push a spiky wall and remained several steps back. Jiro and Ashido were making sure to keep an eye out for any Class 1-A stragglers and the group had quickly picked up Kaminari, Hagakure, Iida and Asui meaning over half the class were now moving as a group through the crowds.

However once they made it to the main corridor out of the cafeteria they found that even Izuku's formation was struggling under the sheer mass of students packed like sardines from wall to wall.

"Oi! You extra's better move or I swear I'll break your fucking legs!" Katsuki growled to the second year, blocking their way forward.

"Move where idiot? There's no room here!" One of the other second years said and turned round to Katsuki with a scowl and the two were quickly drawn into an argument with each other which Yoarashi attempted to placate it with little effect.

"I can't even see where the crowds end." Yaoyorozu said as she bit her lip and pushed up on her toes, looking over the heads of the gathered students.

"If I get lost in the crowd I'm bound to be crushed!" Hagakure said, her voice laced with fear as her clothes shook slightly.

"Guys!" Ashido shouted above all the noise, "Let's make sure Hagakure is in the centre!" Everyone nodded and Uraraka and Tsuyu quickly guided the invisible girl to the centre of their group, everyone forming a protective circle around her.

"Oh man, if my quirk goes off it'll be a disaster!" Kaminari said as his hair sparked slightly as he was shoved towards Uraraka.

"Don't you dare moron!" Jiro shouted back and waved her jacks at him threateningly

"Everybody please calm down!" Iida cried at nobody in particular, "We are UA students, we must- Hey!"

Iida was cut off as a surge of students pushed to their right, forcing the group to move in even closer to each other. Kirishima grunted as he was pushed against the floor, his body hardened and arms spread to try and stop the wave of students. But even he was starting to struggle and it was obvious he couldn't maintain his quirk for much longer.

Kirishima wasn't the only one having quirk issues. The moment they had been swarmed by the crowd Izuku's breaths had become ragged and his body tense. The sheer amount of quirks surrounding him was driving his hunger insane, all his energy was spent on making sure he didn't start suddenly grabbing every quirk in sight. The energy he was using was so much that he had even started to sweat, something Jiro noticed with concern.

"Are you alright Midoriya?" She asked as she shuffled her way towards him.

Izuku could barely nod in response, wheezing through his teeth, "Quirk… doesn't do well… crowds."

Jiro's eyes widened, she may not understand what was going on fully but she could understand having issues in crowds, she quickly snapped her head to the front of their group, "Hey Bakugou! Your brother looks like he's struggling with his quirk!?"

Katsuki's head whipped round with his signature scowl but it quickly fell from his face when he caught sight of Izuku's state. He could tell his brother was very close to losing control and who knows what would happen if Izuku went rogue.

"Dammit. Four eyes!" Katsuki shouted and turned his attention to Iida who sputtered, "Take my place!"

Iida frowned in protest, "Bakugou you can't expect me to respond when you talk like-"

"Iida please just do it!" Ashido commanded, she too had become aware of Izuku's state and was sending him concerned glances.

Iida's frown deepened but he nodded and quickly moved to take Katsuki's place, chopping his arms and making sure to shout as loud as he could though it did little more than cause Yoarashi to wince at the volume.

"Zuzu," Katsuki said with an unnatural level of concern and just a hint of fear, which drew surprised looks from Kirishima and Jiro, the only two within earshot, "You need to keep control of it," Katsuki continued, "Don't let it out, not here."

Izuku's body was starting to shake, his quirk was slamming at the doors, no longer willing to be caged, "Ka-Kachan…"

Katsuki gripped his shoulders tightly and looked him in the eyes, "You need to ground yourself, focus on it. I know you can do it, you just need to show it who's boss."

By this point Jiro and Kirishima were shooting each other confused and worried glances, not fully understanding what was happening.

Despite Katsuki's reassuring words, Izuku's entire body shook as he looked up and into his brother's eyes, "But Kacchan… I'm… so… hungry"

Both Kirishima and Jiro's eyes widened in fear as Izuku's voice dropped several octaves and came out like nails on a chalkboard. It was as if something had possessed his body and spoken in the timids boy's place.

Katsui's eyes also widened though he didn't take his hands of Izuku's shoulders, "Fuck… if he loses control here I don't think I'm strong enough to stop him."

"Bakugou," Jiro said as her face paled as she looked at Izuku who had now frozen in place, eyes wide and unfocused, "What happens if he loses control of his quirk?"

"We'd be fucked." Katsuki responded quickly as his head started scanning the crowd, "I need to get him out of this crowd."

"It's the press!" Came the sudden and desperate cry from Yaoyorozu who had been pushed towards the windows on one side of the hallway, "I can see Aizawa sensei out there with them, there's no need to panic!"

Sadly it seemed nobody outside of the 1-A group heard her and the crowd continued to push and shove as Izuku's world slowly started to fade. Katsuki's mind was connecting thousands of dots at once, ideas streaming through his mind as he tried to work out how to handle the situation. Then something he'd been working on came to mind.

"Oi shitty hair!" Katsuki barked at Kirishima who jumped slightly, "Let me stand on your shoulders."

"Uh… what?" Kirishima asked but it was too late, Katsuki was already clambering up the redhead's body and Kirishima had no choice but to support Karasuki as he stood on his shoulders.

A few people around them glanced up with a mixture of amusement and shock as Katsuki wobbled on Kirishima's shoulders slightly but was able to maintain his balance. Though a majority of the crowd were still focused on the borderline brawl that was happening.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes and took a breath, focusing on One For All and allowing the quirk to flow through his body slightly. He'd been working on this theory based on watching All Might. As Yagi while his voice was deep the hero still spoke relatively softly but as All Might his voice boomed and could be heard for miles around.

And Katsuki had a solid guess at the reason, All For Once enhanced their entire being, not just their muscles. Their senses, reaction time and thought process were all upgraded to be far higher than anyone else. Every aspect about them was enhanced… which included their voice. Katsuki took a deep breath before focusing his quirk in his throat.

"HEY!"

Apparently All Might didn't actually use his quirk when he spoke, he was just naturally that loud. Because if he used his quirk in the way Katsuki did he would've destroyed every street where he ever made light conversation. Katsuki's voice came out like a sonic boom that reverberated

throughout the hallway. Every single head within his sight turned to him as it felt like a small earthquake had hit the school. Several windows cracked with one even shattering while the walls shook and dust was thrown into the air as lights flickered.

Izuku's hunger latched onto the activation of One For All and his head snapped up to Katsuki, a cold dead look in his eyes that would make most people shiver in fright. Katsuki however just smirked at him before turning back to the crowd with a scowl.

"Oi! Asshats!" Katsuki shouted though he made sure to lower the level his quirk amplified his voice, "Stop acting like a bunch of fucking school kids! It's just the goddamn press! You fucking extra's are hurting people because you can't use your fucking brains! Start acting like actual UA students or I swear to god I'm gonna smack each and every one of you into the ground."

"That's right!" Ashido shouted as she climbed up a very shocked Yoarashi who had clearly not been expecting the pink girl to clamber up to his shoulders, "Plus there are people who don't do well in crowds or are struggling with their quirks." She said as a few people turned their attention to Izuku who was still staring up at Katsuki like a piece of meat, "We should let those people pass through first." Ashido finished and around her people started to nod their heads.

From there things calmed down, realising there was no actual threat the students stopped pushing and shoving and actually formed a more orderly group as they made their way to the exits. A few third years managed to create a corridor for those who, like Ashido pointed out, were struggling with the crowds. Uraraka and Asui escorted Hagakure through the corridor, the invisible girl's clothes still shaking slightly. Meanwhile Bakugou jumped down from Kirishima's shoulders and helped guide Izuku through the crowd, a few other students raising eyebrows at Izuku's blank expression. Several other people were also taken through the corridor, many with green or pale faces.

Once out the doors Katsuki led Izuku to a secluded spot away from where most of the school were gathering. Once they were far enough away Izuku let out a shaky breath.

"You just gotta breathe nerd." Katsuki said with a soft voice he reserved only for Izuku.

Izuku nodded and started to take deep breaths, Katsuki matching him as both boys' chests moved in sync.

Eventually Izuku felt his hunger die down and it returned to the usual humming in the back of his mind, "Thanks Kacchan."

Katsuki just rolled his eyes but mumbled a very soft, "Of course little brother."

Somewhere in an unknown underground location in the midst of Japan there was a room full of blinking equipment that echoed with a variety of beeps, whistles and whirls. Much of the equipment was prototype technology, built with the sole purpose of keeping death as far away from someone as possible. Said someone sat in the middle of the room, the chair they adorned had many tubes, wires and supports coming out of it leading back to the equipment.

In said chair sat a simple man with a simple goal. To dominate the filth that dared to call itself humanity as it scurried across the face of its pathetic excuse of a society, filled with ugly concrete cities, disease and pain. A society which believed itself to the pinnacle of civilisation, the ignorance of it was enough to make any man disgusted.

That's assuming you could still call All For One a man. He technically still had a human body, although it lacked several vital organs and a face, and he still spoke and communicated like any human. He even had human feelings, though he definitely didn't have the full range of emotion that most enjoyed. But apart from that All For One was less of a human and more of a vessel for the hunger and many thousands of quirks that hummed under his skin. To him they were almost like pets, trophies that his original quirk had gathered over hundreds of years. Many of his quirks didn't even have any real use, one allowed him to see an extra shade of green while another allowed him to turn his skin red, both pointless in his goal of crushing society. But the act of taking them made him shiver with pleasure.

He could still remember when he was younger, when he still went by Shigaraki, how the hunger of his then unnamed quirk became his best friend, how he allowed it to flow under his skin like a reassuring family member giving him their love. He remembered when he took his first quirk, how the boy who dared to insult his little brother clawed and tore Shigaraki's school uniform apart as his quirk was ripped from him. He remembered how the quirk energy had flowed into him, how his hunger had practically growled at him in satisfaction. From that day he allowed his hunger to guide him, taking quirk after quirk and he soon realised something. Quirks allowed people to rise above those without quirks, it made them superior to quirkless. And those with powerful quirks could rise even higher, therefore he came to one logical conclusion.

In a world where quirks determined superiority, the being who could steal and stockpile them was all but a God.

At some point during his late teens Shigaraki gave into his hunger, he allowed it to consume him, to guide him to his next trophy. Eventually there was no distinction between Shigaraki and the

hunger. The result was the creation of All For One, a living God among mortals who could hold the world in the palm of his hand.

Skip forward a few hundred years and said god was sitting surrounded by medical equipment eating his favourite lunch, katsudon accompanied by a lovely cup of tea. He sipped the warm tea with a smile on his face as he 'watched' the various screens in front of him. He didn't actually have eyes but he had enough quirks he could use to see just as well if not better than most.

He was currently watching the inside of UA's famous USJ, the footage having been recorded only a few hours before. For all Nedzu's reputation of being a dangerously intelligent animal it was laughably easy to hack into the security cameras, even without the use of one his 14 hacking quirks.

"That welding quirk is quite fascinating." All For One said to the empty room, "Though initially unsuited for heroics it could be used to effectively restrain villains and secure collapsed buildings."

All For One had always enjoyed studying quirks, perhaps as a side effect of his own. It didn't even bother him that he wanted to kill every person on the screen right now, watching them use their quirks was still a nice way to relax in the middle of the day. Though he would have preferred to observe the more volatile quirks in 1-A alas it was 1-B who had attended the training that morning in the USJ along with Vlad King, Thirteen and Cementoss.

As All For One watched an orange haired girl move piles of rubble with her large hands he felt the quirk energy of someone entering the room.

"Ah, Kurogiri. I trust you have news?" All For One asked, not turning to look at the mist man as he stepped out of his portal, and, despite his seemingly casual position sipping tea and the friendly manner he addressed him, the new addition to the room felt a shiver travel up his spine simply by being in close proximity to the would be God.

"I do," Kurogiri responded and managed to keep his voice level, "As planned Tomura provided a distraction while our spy copied the relevant documents. It turns out All Might will be teaching class 1-A at the USJ this very afternoon. Tomura has already gathered his forces and has set out a plan of attack."

All For One smiled at this new information, he had already planned on observing 1-A as he was doing 1-B but the show had apparently just gotten a lot more interesting.

"I see," The ancient man spoke, "And what about the other matter we discussed? Has he looked into the students that shall be present?"

Kurogiri hesitated with his answer, it was only for a moment but it caused All For One's deadly aura to increase in intensity until Kurogiri resumed the conversation, "While our spy sent over the relevant documents I'm afraid Tomua was uninterested, he seemed to only care about All Might. Luckily I was able to save the documents before he destroyed them." Kurogiri said and held out a folder in his hands

All For One sighed and waved his hand, said documents rose out of Kurogiri's hands and floated across the room. The folder opened in front of All For One and the pages spread out within his line of sight. With the folder handed over Kurogiri opened a portal back to their main hideout.

"I did not say you could leave."

Kurogiri instantly closed the portal and stood to attention frozen on the spot, even the usual wisps of his mist stopped moving as much as they normally did. All For One had spoken so casually yet it caused Kurogiri to fill with a fear so primitive every instinct in his body was telling him to run. But he was well aware he would be dead before he even finished the thought.

Meanwhile All For One was reading the folder in front of him, it wasn't long but it was useful. It was a basic register for UA's Class 1-A. All For One saw some interesting and powerful quirks but he knew exactly what he was looking for. There was a reason All Might had suddenly become a teacher at UA, he'd finally passed it on. The one quirk All For One had never been able to take, the quirk his hunger so desired above all others. It would be easy to discover who was now holding onto it.

Aha. There.

Katsuki Bakugou.

The entire section on his quirk was blacked out, completely classified. All For One chuckled deeply, causing Kurogiri to flinch behind him. If they really wanted to hide the quirk they shouldn't make it so obvious, if the Todoroki child's quirk wasn't classified then it was obvious why Bakugous's was and it would be so interesting to watch his actions this afternoon. All For One went to put the folder away when something caught his eye.

Wait.

Izuku Midoriya.

His quirk was also completely classified, that was curious. What kind of quirk, outside of One For All, was so powerful or dangerous it required this level of classification. All For One felt a slight pang of excitement within himself. One of these boys definitely had One For All, the question was what quirk did the other one have? It was a shame he couldn't see quirk energy through video feeds or he would gain a better idea. Surely the pair had to be true powerhouses for this level of security.

Which did raise some further concerns, All For One had to admit that he had been fairly certain the cockroaches Tomaru had gathered to fight could take care of the students but with this new information… He didn't want to advise Tomaru directly but perhaps he could nudge him slightly.

He reached out for a button on his chair and the click of an intercom could be heard, "Are you there doctor?"

There was a crashing sound from the speakers in the room before there came a desperate reply, "Y- yes my lord! I'm here, how can I serve!?"

"The first creature is ready I trust?" All For One asked, no hint of any emotion in his voice.

"Yes my lord," came the reply, "Tomura had already asked for me to prepare it."

"Good, but tell me, do we have any others ready to go?"

The doctor paused briefly, "Well… I have one. Though it's not nearly as strong, I'd put it roughly at the level of a standard villain. It won't stand a chance against All Might."

"Not to worry doctor, that's what the first one is for. Please also prepare the second creature, Tomura will ask for it shortly." All For One said with a terrifyingly cheery voice, he didn't wait for a reply as he cut the communication line off.

"Kurogiri," He said, causing said man to jump to attention, "Perhaps you could… advise Tomaru that it may be worth taking a second of the creatures, just in case. But please do not force him."

"Of course." Kurogiri responded and was easily able to pick up his cue to leave, opening up a portal and disappearing inside, once again leaving All For One alone.

The man leaned back in his chair, smiling as he took another sip of tea and returned to watching 1- Bs rescue training. The afternoon was certainly looking like it would be exciting.

Midoriya.

Something in the back of his mind sparked when he read the name once again. But he waved it off, if the boy was of any importance he would find out this afternoon.

Izuku and Katsuki were the last to arrive back to class just before the bell rang to signal the end of lunch. A few people glanced their way but one glare from Katsuki made sure nobody dared question where the two had been. Izuku sent a small but grateful smile to the ones who had joined their 'unit' during the whole scenario but relaxed as he took his seat. Hopefully the rest of the day wouldn't be as eventful.

The moment the bell rang Aizawa marched into the classroom, looking even more annoyed than usual, "Damn press, apologies for the chaos at lunch. Hagakure, Midoriya, can I see you both outside for a moment?"

Both students froze in their seats which Aizawa noticed and his expression softened, "Neither of you are in trouble I assure you."

Izuku and Hagakure both paused briefly before both nervously got out of their seats and followed Aizawa out of the classroom. As Aizawa shut the door Izuku looked down and started to shuffle his feet slightly while Hagakure seemed to find the hem of her skirt incredibly interesting. Aizawa saw this and sighed.

"I told you, this isn't anything bad. I just wanted to check that you're both alright?" Aizawa said and his eyes for once weren't full of hardened criticism.

"H-huh?" Izuku responded in confusion while Hagakure remained silent.

"You forget I have received both of your personal files," Aizawa explained, "Crowds, albeit for different reasons, are something you both struggle with."

Hagakure's clothes shifted and somehow Izuku could tell she was looking right at him, "You too huh?" the girl said.

Izuku smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah… I uh… my quirk is affected by large crowds, it's not a pleasant thing to deal with."

"Yeah, I think we could all kind of tell," Hagakure said referring to how pale and distant Izuku had been as Katsuki led him out, "Mine's more of a standard fear though still related to my quirk I guess. People don't really notice the small invisible girl in big crowds and I get shoved around a lot. When I was five my parents lost me on a packed day at the beach. People didn't notice me in my swimsuit and kept kicking and walking all over me. By the time the police found me a few hours later I was nearly unconscious, I spent over a month in the hospital recovering from having all my ribs broken and a ton of internal bleeding. Since then I've always had a big fear of crowds, even when it's just a small group like with our class I like to stay on the outside just in case."

By the time she finished Izuku could tell Hagakure was crying, the slight shake of her shoulders and soft sniffs told him so. Despite his better judgement he reached out and lightly squeezed her shoulder.

"Hey," Izuku said in a soft a voice as he could manage, "I get it, when I was seven my quirk put me in the hospital and I nearly lost my arm," He flexed his gloved hand to emphasise his point, "I nearly gave Kacchan a heart attack, he had to have therapy for 6 months after that. If you ever need anything as class president I'll do what I can to help you."

Izuku felt Hagakure shift under his hand and despite not being able to see her, could feel the warmth of her smile, "Thanks Midoriya… I was uh… I was wondering if there was any way I could get out to lunch a little earlier than everyone else, just to avoid the initial rush."

Izuku turned to Aizawa who answered the unspoken question, "It shouldn't be a problem, I can get you ten minutes but on the flip side you'll need to be back ten minutes before everyone else. Midoriya will be responsible for taking any notes you miss."

Hagakure perked up and squealed slightly, "Oh thank you both!"

Izuku smiled and Aizawa just gave a blank nod as he led the students back into the classroom. Several people watched them with curiosity but seemed to lose interest when Hagakure all but skipped to her desk. Clearly Aizawa hadn't just spent the last five minutes expelling the pair. Izuku shot Katsuki a reassuring smile and sat back down at his desk as Aizawa cleared his throat.

"Now then, moving on. I'll be joining you for your heroics lesson today," several smiles dropped at that revelation, "Today we'll be delving into your first real look at one of the four main branches of being a hero. We'll be completing rescue training."

The smiles that had vanished at knowing Aizawa was overseeing them came back with a vengeance as excitement washed over the room. Even Izuku was infected by it, rescue training was often seen as the pinnacle of hero work. You had one goal: to save people. No villains to bring down, no collateral damage to worry about and nobody who's quirk you needed to take. No one was more excited then Uraraka however who was bouncing in her seat with a smile that was all but glowing, behind her Katsuki scowled, it almost looked like he was trying to defend himself against the girls upbeat attitude.

"Now, for this exercise you may opt out of wearing your hero outfit. Having worn them yesterday for the first time I suspect many of you will have found flaws in the design, these can be altered free of charge by the support department so there's no pressure for you not to wear it today." Aizawa said and promptly walked out the door without even an acknowledgement that he'd been heard, knowing their teacher the rest of the class quickly followed.

Izuku, like most of the class, opted to wear his hero outfit for the day, he hadn't really used it yesterday and it had taken minimal damage during the obstacle course. Besides, his first aid kit and mouth guard would probably come in handy in rescue situations. The only people who had opted not to wear their costumes were Todoroki (who apparently had taken one look at it the mirror of the gym and decided it was downright hideous) and Uraraka (who had realised during yesterday's obstacle course that heels weren't the best idea for a hero outfit).

Once they were changed the class had met Aizawa outside by a bus, apparently their training ground was on the edge of UA's vast land ownership. Iida had suggested they form an orderly queue but Izuku and Ashido had waved him off, saying it would take just as long to get the class under control and line up than it would to scramble on the bus. Their point was further emphasised at the time by the shouting match that Katsuki and Uraraka seemed to have been drawn into.

Izuku and Ashido were just boarding the bus, the last of the class to do so before Aizawa, when a shout drew all three people's attention.

"Aizawa!" Yagi called as he ran up to the bus waving his arms about, his oversized suit blowing in the wind.

Aizawa watched him approach and let out a sigh so deep Izuku thought the man might be in actual pain, "Yagi… I thought All Might was supposed to be joining us today?"

Izuku winced slightly at the way in which Aizawa all but spat All Might's name out. Yagi also flinched slightly as he caught up with the bus while Ashido smirked a little, always the one to be on the lookout for gossip.

"Uh yes," Yagi responded a little awkwardly, "He sends his apologies but All Might was caught up and couldn't attend today's class so asked me to go to his place. You see he had three very important things to do this morning and these three things took up so much time that he's now running late."

If it wasn't for the fact that Ashido was right next to him Izuku would've face palmed. For all his skills as hero Yagi had the subtlety of Endeavor at a charity event for the fire department. It was obvious he'd used up his three hours of 'All Might Time' that morning stopping villain attacks and it clearly didn't impress the other teacher with them.

Aizawa sighed before a smile grew on his face that Izuku wouldn't trust with a gun to his head, "Not to worry Yagi," Aizawa said in a sickeningly sweet voice that made Izuku and Ashido shiver, "I'm glad to have someone on the staff I can trust like you, someone reliable and capable," Yagi perked up at those words but Aizawa wasn't finished, "Unlike All Might of course, you know just this morning Mic was complaining about the mess he made of the gyms.nThen of course there's the self righteous attitude he has, always thinking he's above us, Vlad hates it. Not to mention if you ask Nemuri, she would tell you he's downright ugly, I mean, between me and you Yagi, who would ever be attracted to muscles that big?"

Izuku couldn't hold it any longer and a loud snort erupted from him which he quickly turned into a cough. A downtrodden Yagi shot him a look of betrayal while Ashido, who was biting her own lip to prevent her own amusement from escaping, patted him on the back. If only she knew what had really just taken place.

"But enough of that, we should get going." Aizawa said with a satisfied smirk as a giggling Ashido and Izuku jumped onto the bus followed by a scowling Yagi.

As it was the bus wasn't designed in the way Iida had envisioned and instead had multiple sideways facing seats. Izuku found himself crammed between Katsuki and Yoarashi, much to his annoyance, as the two muscular teenagers all but squished him. Opposite him Ashido noticed his discomfort and wasn't helping his mood by the smirk she wore as she sat between Asui and Jiro.

The conversation between everyone remained relatively light, at least until Asui turned to Izuku.

"Hey Midoriya."

"O-oh yes Asui?" Izuku asked with slight surprise, having never been addressed by the girl before.

"Call me Tsu," She responded casually making Izuku splutter, "Midoriya I'm usually fairly blunt and honest when I speak."

"O-oh ok." Izuku stammered, already having a sinking feeling about where this was going.

"What's your quirk?" Tsu asked as if she was making sure Izuku had grabbed the milk when out grocery shopping.

Instantly the mood around them shifted, Ahsido and Katsuki both winced at the question while the rest of their immediate group turned to him with curiosity, even those a few seats down subtly turned their ears towards the conversation.

Izuku however panicked as words started to tumble out of his mouth, "Well… uh… I… I can… uh-"

"It's complicated frog face and he doesn't need to tell if he doesn't want to!" Katsuki's shout interrupted Izuku's stuttering and caused most of the people around him to jump slightly.

Tsu however didn't seem phased by Katsuki's aggression, "Ribbet, it's just that I haven't seen him use it in class yet, it's almost like he's quirkless."

Ashido's eyes widened in panic as Izuku scowled, "What would be the issue if I was quirkless?"

Again Tsu seemed unfazed by the joint scowls she was getting from the brothers, "Sorry if I offended you ribbet. There's nothing wrong with the quirkless but we all know you have a powerful quirk, I'm just curious as to why you haven't used it yet?"

Ashido quickly jumped into Izuku's defence, "Hey come on Tsu, if Midori doesn't want to tell us about his quirk he doesn't have to."

"Surely we need to know his quirk though to work with him, I'm afraid I must insist he tell us!" Iida shouted from his seat a few rows back, the rest of the class quickly stopping their own conversations.

"Come on dude, that's not manly at all." Kirishima said with a frown that conveyed sadness more than it did anger, almost like he was disappointed with Iida.

"Finally something he doesn't find manly!" Ashido whispered from where she sat, causing Jiro to chuckle.

"I'm sorry but if Midoriya won't tell us his quirk I'm not sure I'd be able to work with him, too many unknowns that would put our lives at risk." Ojiro said with narrowed eyes as he glanced towards Izuku who cowered in his seat slightly.

Jiro scoffed, "You really gonna talk smack about the guy with an S Grade Omega quirk?"

Ojiro rolled his eyes, "Says the girl who's quirk is literally just freaky ears."

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY YOU GOD DAMN 5 LIMBED FREAK!?"

"DUDE! THAT'S NOT EVEN REMOTELY MANLY!"

"HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH REMARKS ABOUT ONE OF MY FRIENDS!"

Ojiro at least had the decency to let a small amount of fear cross his face as Bakugou, Kirishima and Yoarashi leaped out of their seats, each with equal looks of anger on their faces as they all but surrounded Ojiro. Meanwhile Ashido and Uraraka instantly moved either side of a shocked and teary Jiro, her jacks wrapping around her own body in a defensive state.

Aizawa and Yagi both shared an angry glance with each other, having both held one ear to the conversation as they silently agreed now was the time to intervene and both turned their heads. However neither of them got a chance to speak.

"Ojiro."

The voice was razor sharp and held a cold fury that caused the entire bus to plunge into silence. Several of the class were sure they felt their quirks play up as every eye turned to the murderous arua towards the front of the bus. Even Katsuki found his voice caught in his throat and Aizawa and Yagi both paused as their eyes snapped to the student who had spoken.

Izuku stood behind Kirishima, who quickly moved out of the way, and allowed him to look directly at Ojiro. Izuku's entire body was unmoving, even his eyes seemed untarually still and cold as Ojiro squirmed under his gaze, his tail flicking of its own accord.

"I suggest you apologise to Jiro." Izuku said a voice that caused even Aizawa to shudder slightly.

"I-I…" Ojiro looked like he wanted to fight back but combined with Izuku's ire and the furious looks he was receiving from Aizawa and Yagi the boy caved, "I'm sorry Jiro, that was uncalled for I… you're not a freak."

Jiro ignored the boy but she no longer looked to be on the edge of tears as Ashido and Uraraka rubbed her back. Izuku, satisfied with that answer, sat back down though the rest of the bus shot him nervous looks (except for Katsuki who only looked proud) as the tense ride continued.

"Ojiro," Aizawa said, suddenly reminding everyone he was there, "See me after class."

Ojiro's face paled even further at the prospect of a private meeting with his homeroom teacher. Yagi however smiled and tried to lift the mood.

"On the bright side everyone, we're here."

Luckily this did indeed have the desired effect of lifting everyone's spirits as the bus pulled up outside a colossal dome that looked even larger than an olympic stadium. The entire class practically scrambled to one end of the bus, comically pressing their faces against the window with open jaws as the bus rolled to a stop.

Yagi chuckled with amusement, "You should see what it's like inside."

Aizawa just rolled his eyes as the two teachers led the students off the bus, the class quickly following them as Yagi opened the doors with no small amount of flare. Even Katsuki and Todoroki couldn't stop the looks of awe that spread over their faces as they entered the dome, it was almost like walking into a miniature biome. From their raised position at the entrance Izuku could see mountains, city zones and even what looked like a wildfire.

"Ah! Welcome Class 1-A, to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! Or USJ for short. UA's own personally designed disaster area to help train in rescue operations."

The figure of the space hero Thirteen walked up to meet the class who had gathered just behind Yagi and Aizawa.

"Oh. My. God. It's Thirteen!" Uraraka squealed, practically jumping up and down where she stood.

Next to her Katsuki scowled, "Calm down Round Cheeks, your giddiness is painful to stand next to."

Uraraka just stuck her tongue at him before looking behind her shoulder where Izuku was stood between Kirishima and Jiro and gave them a wide smirk, "Hey Midoriya, Jiro, why don't you tell them about how they're not as good as The Wild Wild Pussycats."

"Shut it gravity girl," Jiro hissed and waved her jacks menacingly though Uraraka just giggled and turned back to the front.

Thirteen turned to Aizawa and Yagi as they approached and their step faltered slightly, "Oh… Hello Yagi, were you not- I mean was All Might not scheduled to join us?"

Yagi coughed and looked a little sheepish, "He had three important things to do so I'm filling in."

In front of him Izuku heard Katsuki let out something halfway between a sigh and growl and Izuku had to agree, it was a miracle nobody had discovered All Might's civilian identity as of yet with how badly he and general UA staff seemed to be at keeping it under wraps.

"Oh… I see," Thirteen replied before turning back to class and clearing their throat, "Now then class, before we begin I just have one thing to say… or is two… maybe three? It might even be four or five."

The entire class and Aizawa sweatdropped, at this rate it would take the entire lesson until they actually started. The only one who had a genuine wide smile on their face was Yagi, clearly undeterred by Thirteen stumbling through the introduction. In all the time he'd known the man Izuku still wondered if he was even capable of feeling anger.

"Anyway," Thirteen continued, "As I'm sure many of you know my quirk is called black hole, it sucks up anything I want and turns it into dust. It's made me incredibly useful as a rescue hero. But my quirk can also easily be used to kill…"

Izuku sucked in a breath at that, of course he knew this, he had an entire page devoted in a notebook about how Thirteen could easily kill villains if they chose. It was also a reminder about the dangers of his own quirk, if were to take black hole and lose control of it he had the potential to kill innocent by standards. Several other people in the class also shifted uncomfortably, the point was even more prominent after All Might's words in their previous lesson and several students who's quirks ranged on the more volatile and deadly side, such as Tokoyami and Kaminari, tensed up as Thirteen spoke.

"Many of you also have dangerous and powerful quirks. Mastering these quirks is the most essential thing you will do here at UA. You have already used Yagi and All Might's lessons to start this understanding, you will all now have a better idea of how to control your quirks. You'll be using that knowledge today to learn how to save peoples lives, no villains to defeat or overpower, just challenges to overcome and civilians to get to."

The energy of the class grew as Thirteen spoke, sure All Might's lesson had been fun but this was the first real scenario outside of the entrance exam where they would be able to test their quirks.

Thirteen continued to speak but Izuku quickly found their voice drowned out. Something was…

wrong. He could feel something… something disgusting. It made bile rise up in his throat and his heart constricted inside his chest. It felt like he couldn't breath and he gulped desperately for air. The feeling was getting stronger… something… something powerful and unnatural was coming, something that made Izuku's quirk literally shiver under his skin in anticipation and he immediately knew what was happening. Izuku barely noticed as he fell to his knees, hands clutching at his chest like he was trying to rip out this feeling of disgust.

"Midoriya bro! You ok?" Kirishima asked as he reached down to help Izuku, this garnered the attention of most of the class and their teachers who turned to the scene with concerned frowns.

Before anyone could move or say anything though, Izuku's head shot up. With wide panicked eyes he looked directly at Yagi and Aizawa and managed to force his vocal cords to respond to his commands.

"QUIRKS!" He cried much to the confusion of the class, as far as they could tell Izuku was having some kind of heart or even panic attack.

But to two trained pro heroes who knew the full extent of Izuku's quirk their eyes steeled with understanding and both quickly moved in front of the students.

"Yagi get the class out of here, Thirteen with me!" Aizawa barked and he and Thirteen took stances at the top of the stairs.

Yagi frowed however and Izuku could see him trying to activate One For All but the qurik energy just wouldn't respond to him, "But Aizawa I can-"

"All Might isn't here Yagi!" Aizawa shouted in response and Yagi's eyes filled with pain at the amount of venom and hatred in the mans voice, "You're a civillian without a quirk, you need to get the kids out of here!"

Izuku's focus was snapped to the centre of the USJ where purple circles startet to pop up around the water fountain. Izuku could sense the energy of the powerful portal quirk but it felt… wrong. Like it wasn't supposed to be there and it made him feel slightly sick.

"Huh, what's going on?" Kirishima asked as he helped Izuku stand up, supporting him by letting him lean on his shoulder, "Is that part of exercise?"

"No," Yagi said in a deep and foreboding tone as Aizawa grabbed his capture scarf and Thirteen aimed her right hand out, "Those are villains."

The Battle of The USJ Begins

Chapter Summary

As villains invade the USJ Katsuki and Izuku are seperated and must battle it out to save each other and their classmates

Chapter Notes

Hi all, first off thanks as always for all the kudos and comments, it's great to see so many people enjoying the story! Just wanted to give you all a heads up, some of the fighting in this chapter from the students (Katsuki in particular) is fairly voilent, but I assure you all it's for a reason! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy our faverioute chaotic duo finally being able to take some rage on out some unspecting villains.

"V-Villains?" Jiro stuttered out as panic reached out and gripped the class.

As Kirishima helped him to his feet Izuku gazed out and watched as dozens of villains stepped out of purple portals in the centre of the USJ. It was obvious who the leaders were as a large portal opened up and a small group stepped through.

The first appeared to be the villain who had the portal quirk, his body appeared to be made of the same purple mist with two piercing yellow eyes while his hands waved about, opening and closing portals across the USJ.

The second was a thin young man with blue hair, in fact he was barely more than a teenager. But Izuku shivered as he caught sight of him, he had several severed hands clasped to his body with one even covering his face but you could still see one crazed eye between the fingers that scanned the USJ wildly.

Strange as they may be these two were nothing compared to the next two that stepped out of the portals, they barely even looked human. The first creature to step out looked like it had no muscle, it was as if someone had stretched a skin suit over a skeleton and it easily stood over seven feet tall. Said skin was sickly green and you could count each rib and bone under it, it was a miracle the creature even had the muscles to walk. But walk it did and on a pair of legs that looked like they belonged to a dog rather than a human, with its knees bent backwards as it stepped on bird-like feet. On the end of its feet and hands Izuku could see long razor sharp claws, each easily a few inches long and appeared to be made of metal as opposed to bone. The claws were a matching set

for its razor sharp teeth that didn't fit into its mouth, sticking out at jagged angles. To top all off instead of human eyes the creature had several insect eyes that twitched in all directions. If it was human Izuku couldn't even fathom as to what it's quirk was.

But it was the second creature, the last one to step through the portal, that really drew Izuku's eye. Simply put it was a hulking mass of muscle, easily as big if not bigger than All Might. Every step it took caused muscles to ripple underneath its body to the point that there were several tears in its black skin showing the red ligaments underneath. It had two large beady eyes that looked like they were pointing in different directions while its mouth consisted of a massive beak full of razor sharp teeth. But what really made Izuku pale was the energy he could feel from it, even from its distance outside his normal range he still felt a powerful aura that made him want to turn and run. An aura that felt unnatural, like, despite its power, it didn't belong in the body that wielded it, Izuku had to push back the bile that rose in his throat.

The hand man stepped forward, "What's this? The class schedule said All Might would be here but all I see is Thirteen and… who the hell are the other two, some hobo and a skeleton?"

Yagi tensed from where he stood in front of the class, "So they're the ones responsible for the break in earlier…"

"It is perplexing, perhaps the schedule we received was wrong." The mist man commented while the two creatures next to him remained motionless.

"Maybe if we start killing kids he'll come out to play." The hand man said with growing excitement in his scratchy voice.

The entire class grew wide eyes and several of them started to shake. Izuku tensed and his jaw set in place, next to him Jiro looked like she was about to throw up. Without thinking Izuku reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a soft squeeze.

"Hey, it's going to be ok." He whispered to her and gave her a smile that surprisingly didn't have one ounce of nervousness to it.

Jiro calmed down slightly and gave him a small smile in return, though her face was still deathly pale. Meanwhile Kirishima had leant forward to give both Izuku and Jiro a wobbly smile.

"Stick with me guys, we'll be ok if we stick together." He said and gave them a thumbs up though

even he still looked as terrified as everyone else.

"Sh-Shouldn't there be alarms going off?" A shaky Uraraka asked as Katsuki clenched his fists next to her.

"They must be blocking the signal somehow, Yaoyorozu, see if you can create something to get through, Kaminari, see if you can use your quirk as well to break the block they have going on." Aizawa said as he eyed the villains gathering in the plaza.

A sudden and violent cough drew everyone's attention to Yagi who was hunched over with blood sewing from his mouth. Izuku winced as he saw the man trying to activate One For All and failing. The quirk energy inside him tried to expand but quickly collapsed, not having the fuel or energy left to support Yagi's All Might form. He'd clearly pushed it to its absolute limits that morning.

"Enough Yagi!" Aizawa shouted, clearly also seeing what the man was trying to do, "Stop trying to be the hero, you're not All Might" Aizawa said and Yagi visibly flinched with the double meaning, "Right now you're a teacher and you need to get your students to safety."

Yagi looked like he wanted to argue but the one glance behind him and he saw the rows of terrified teenagers. He grimaced and gave Aizawa a sharp nod and Izuku could tell he'd stopped trying to activate his quirk.

"Thirteen, with me!" Aizawa commanded before he jumped down to the plaza, Thirteen not far behind as they ran down the stairs.

If not for the situation Izuku would have gone full fanboy mode at watching Eraserhead and Thirteen work together. Eraser quickly jumped into the fray of villains, taking them off guard as he erased their quirks before throwing them around with his capture weapon. Izuku (and most of the class) couldn't help but watch in awe at their teacher's skills, his scarf moved around like an extension of his body, it was as natural to him as walking. Villains slammed into each other, Eraserhead tossing them about like a child throwing their toys around during a tantrum, not a single one landing a hit on the teacher.

Thirteen meanwhile was supporting him from the stairs, while clearly not as skilled in combat they made up for it with their powerful quirk. They would point out their hand and activate their quirk at a group of enemies drawing them in, but before they got too close and were turned to dust Thirteen would shut black hole off, sending the enemies flying and crashing into the ground. The villains also quickly realised if they tried to get close Thirteen's quirk would kill them, meaning the best they could do was try to dodge and use ranged attack.

"Midoriya!" Kirishima suddenly cried and grabbed onto Izuku's arm, "You can fanboy later, we need to go!"

Izuku snapped his head round and quickly realised he and Kirishima were being left behind by the rest of the class who were being led by Yagi to the door. He nodded to Kirishima and the pair quickly sprinted to catch up where Jiro was waiting for them, sending worried glances over her shoulder.

Before they reached the door however the area in front of them erupted in purple mist. Yagi immediately stopped, holding out his hands making the class freeze in their tracks.

"Everyone stay back!" He shouted at the class, his voice far louder than it had any right to be coming out of his skeleton frame.

"Greetings students," The mist man said, no sign of his body as the mist enveloped the area, the only sign he was human were two yellow slits for eyes, "We are The League of Villains. I apologise for interrupting your education, but you see we came here to kill All Might. Sadly however there must have been a change in schedule… Toshinori Yagi isn't it I believe? The quirkless teaching assistant."

Yagi narrowed his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth, "You will not touch my students."

"I'm afraid I fail to see how a frail quirkless teacher will protect his class." The mist man said with a hint of amusement, meanwhile Yagi's was actually starting to create a small amount of steam from his body as he once again tried to activate his quirk.

Next to him Izuku felt Kirishima's quirk energy fare up. He turned his head to find the redhead crouching low in preparation for a jump. Before he could, however, Izuku reached out and grabbed his arm, Kirishima turned to him with a confused and alarmed look.

Izuku shook his head, "Don't do it, you're a bad matchup. This guy can counter pretty much any physical attack unless you know exactly where to hit."

Kirishima's body tensed and for a minute Izuku thought he was about to shrug him off. But after a moment he took a deep sigh and scowled, reluctantly deactivating his quirk and returning to his normal soft skin. Unfortunately Izuku wasn't anywhere near Katsuki to advise him of the same.

"YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU TOUCH THEM!"

"Young Bakugou!"

"Kacchan no!"

But it was too late. Katsuki launched himself off the ground, his body surrounded by red fire and he charged through the air with his quirk, his arm held back and first ready to smash the mist.

The mist man however simply sighed, "How disappointing."

With a wave of his hand Izuku felt the purple quirke energy spread throughout the class. He watched in horror as Katsuki's charge led him right into an awaiting portal and his brother disappeared into the abyss. But before Izuku could react any further he felt the ground disappear beneath his feet and he started to drop down, an intense heat appearing underneath him.

Katsuki stumbled onto the hard floor as he came out of the portal. The world rotated several times until he came to a stop, scraping along what felt like concrete. He was met with silence, no indication that any of his classmates had come through the portal with him. He grit his teeth and got onto his knees taking in his surroundings.

He could see the roof of the USJ so he was technically still 'outside'. But apart from that he'd clearly been moved to a different area, he was currently in a small street, the road had deep cracks in it with pipes sticking up at various angles. Burnt out and crushed cars littered the street while the buildings that rose up either side all had large chunks missing with rubble littering the space between them. Smashed windows and storefronts could be seen in almost every building, the rementes of them strewn all over the cracked sidewalk.

So the mist man had transported him to the ruined city zone, supposedly it was meant to replicate an area post earthquake. And said earthquake wasn't designed to be small either, every building in the area was unstable and partially made of rubble. Out of all the zones it was the worst one for Katsuki to be in, one wrong punch or a kick too powerful and he could collapse a city block like domino's. And while tough even Katsuki wouldn't survive an apartment building landing on him.

Clearly this so-called League of Villains had planned this out, block communications off then separate the class before isolating and killing All Might off. Katsuki assumed their plan had to do with those two things back in the plaza, he'd noticed the way Izuku had responded to them. It was a similar reaction he normally had to One For All, which meant those things really might have the power to kill All Might. Not that it fucking mattered, because All Might was currently Yagi and Katsuki was sure if he was able to to use his quirk he already would have. Which means All Might may very well be beaten by some nobody tripping him down some stairs.

And All Might's successor? The one chosen to take on his massive power and take his mantle over to protect the weak and innocent? He had thrown himself like a human RPG at an unknown enemy and put his entire class and mentor in danger. He was certain he wasn't the only one who had been thrown into various locations around the USJ.

"FUCK!" Katsuki smashed his hand into the concrete beneath him, cracks spreading out like a spider web from where he made impact.

He'd tried to throw the mist man off, create an opening for his classmates to take and escape. If he'd just been a little faster, reacted more quickly or not fucking shouted at the top of his voice he might have managed to pin the mist man before he could react.

But he'd failed. Despite now having a quirk. Despite having had training to fight by three separate heroes. Despite how much Izuku and All Might believed in him. It hadn't made a difference. He was still the same as always, he was still-

"Well hello there weakling." Said a cold hard voice behind him, "You know it's dangerous for kids to be out in these parts alone."

Katsuki whipped round and got into a defensive stance, fists raised and eyes narrowed. Five people were walking down the street towards him, clearly they were low level thugs. Dressed in a variety of ridiculous looking outfits they all wore matching amused smiles as they chuckled at the joke the one in front had just made. They were eyeing Katsuki like prey and it made him shiver internally, it was like an upgraded version of the many playground encounters he'd had growing up. Except this time he didn't need Izuku to come save him.

"Get the fuck back," he growled at the approaching thugs, "Or I'll fucking kill you worthless losers."

One of the thugs barked with laughter, "Ha! Kids got spunk, it's a shame we're gonna have to kill him."

Katsuki gave them a deranged smile, One For All flowing through his veins and lighting up his body, "You can try."

Another laugh from the thug at the front of the group, "Shut the fuck up kid, you've been in school what, three days? Trust me, you're a weak pathetic student, the acts good but we'll throw you around between us like a fucking basket ball."

Katsuki's eyes narrowed and fists clenched, "What the fuck did you just call me?"

The thug looked amused ad licked their lips, staring straight at Katsuki and matching his energy with their smile, "I called you pathetic and wea-"

The thug never got to finish his sentence, in fact Katsuki launched himself so fast to the thugs eyes one minute the hero student was ten feet away, the next he was close enough to count the hairs on his head. And see the pure hatred in his eyes.

Katsuki pulled his arm back, the muscles throbbing with One For All at 5%. He launched his fist forward and smirked when it made perfect contact with the thug's jaw. There was a sickening crack as his head was snapped to the right and he was thrown to the ground. Blood splattered the road as it fell from the thugs mouth with several teeth joining it, their jaw hanging loosely from their head, clearly broken and borderline shattered.

"I… am not… WEAK!" Katsuki roared, One For All amplifying his voice and shaking the few intact windows in the surrounding buildings.

The smug smile's on the rest of the thugs faces fell as their leader lay knocked out on the ground, blood slowly dripping from his quickly swelling mouth. Their eyes filled with rage as each one took in Katsuki who himself stood there, fists clenched and panting at them, if looks could kill the entire group would already be dead.

"Fuck!" One of the thugs finally cried, "Fucking kill him!"

Then they moved.

The largest thug, one who appeared to have a tiger mutation, literally roared as they came charging at Katsuki, easily standing a foot taller than the teenager and covered in striped fur. But Katsuki didn't falter, One For All flowed into his senses and the world slowed down. It was clear the tiger thug had no real training as he sloppily threw a punch at Katsuki who easily sidestepped it.

The momenten of his charge carried the thug forward and as he passed by Katsuki launched two quick and powerful jabs into him. The thug gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. Keeping up the attack Katsuki launched his foot into the back of the thug's knee and he lost his balance falling to his knees on the ground. Katsuki quickly finished with a roundhouse kick to the back of the head, the thug slamming into the ground and cracking it. They didn't get up.

But there was no break in the attack. A searing pain appeared in Katsuki's back and he felt his skin tear open, blood quickly spewing from it and running down into his suit. Turning on his heel Katsuki saw one of the thugs smirking at him, she had a long tongue currently retreating away from him. But unlike the tongue of his froggy classmate this tongue looked to have thick scales on it and the end was forked and appeared to be razor sharp.

The thug brought her tongue back slightly before whipping it out again. Katsuki dove to his left, the tongue missing him by inches. Behind him it sliced into a lamppost, cleaving it clean in half. Katsuki winced, he imagined had it not been for One For All that last surprise hit would have likely killed him.

Katsuki turned to her and watched her tongue closely, he had studied the body extensively as part of his fight training. Gran Torino had insisted he needed to understand how his body worked to understand how One For All affected it. It also meant he was fairly capable at predicting attacks and movements, combined with his quirk enhancing his thought process along with his reaction time and well… it was easy to see where the tongue would go next.

To the thug it looked like Katsuki had barely moved. But as she shot her tounge out for another attack aimed at his throat one moment her weapon was whizzing through the air and the next the end of it was held firmly in the boy's hand. Katsuki paused long enough to smirk at the thug before ripping her towards him with her own tongue.

The thug cried out as she flew through the air and into Katsuki's waiting fist, one punch and she was thrown down to the ground, her tongue still flicking around in Katsuki's hand.

"Fuck you, that hurt." Katsuki spat before placing one foot on her chest and wrapping most of her tongue around his forearm.

The thug's eyes widened in horror before Katsuki tugged upwards on her tongue. It stretched for a moment before snapping like a rubber band. The thug let out an ear piercing scream as Katsuki threw her severed tongue to the side, blood spurting from between her hands as she covered her mouth. She only stopped screaming when Katsuki's boot made contact with her face, knocking her out.

"You bastard!"

The shout was the only warning Katsuki got before a fist made contact with his face. He managed to move at the last second however, meaning the fist only scraped his side. Unfortunately it turned out this fist, and most of the thugs arms, were completely covered in bone-like spikes. Spikes that tore down the side of Katsuki's face causing blood to pour out.

Katsuki cried out, taking a few steps back, putting his hand against the wound. Fuck he wished he had Kirishima's quirk right now. Meanwhile the spiked thug glared at him and smiled.

"Hurts doesn't it? You better be able to dance if you wanna avoid my spikes, kid." The thug mocked as he ran forward, raising another spiky fist.

Katsuki growled as he moved his hand away before smiling maniacally at the thug. The idiot thought a little bit of pain would force Katsuki back? Katsuki had lived with pain for fifteen years, this was nothing.

Instead of dodging the man's first Katsuki simply raised his left hand and caught it. Instantly he felt several spikes pierce into his muscle, blood dripping down and staining the concrete below him. But Katsuki barely flinched at the pain while the thug looked at him with no small amount of shock.

"What the fuck kid?" The thug whispered in disbelief.

Katsuki smirked before launching a jab with his other hand directly into the throat of the thug. The thug instantly clutched at his throat, desperate to reopen his blocked airway. But not giving him a chance, Katsuki kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying. The thug crashed into a building and dust was launched into the air. Katsuki ripped out a few remaining spikes, looking for the final thug.

Before he could spot him though a fist made contact with his stomach. Then his face. Then his

side. Then his throat. The final thug had four arms and was using them effectively to batter Katsuki over and over who, despite his quirk, couldn't react to four different punches and was forced back as fist after fist pummelled him. Meanwhile the thug screamed with rage as he attacked the student.

"Why," punch, "won't" punch, "you," punch, "die," punch, "YOU PATHETIC WEAKLING!"

Katsuki saw red. Ignoring the other arms, he grabbed the next punch thrown at him, grabbing the wrist of the thug. Before the thug could pull his arm back however Katsuki squeezed as hard as he could. The thug screamed in pain as wrist shattered under Katsuki's hold, blood spurting over both their faces.

The thug reached up with another arm to try and pry Katsuki off but the teenager only took advantage of this. Punching out with his free arm Katsuki made clean contact with the thugs elbow with such force that the entire arm bent and snapped in the opposite direction it was supposed to. The thug's screams grew more desperate as Katsuki let him go and he tumbled back.

But Katsuki wasn't finished. He jumped forward, wrapping his hand around the thug's throat and lifting him into the air. He slammed him down onto the concrete below them, the wind thrown out of the thugs body as the road cracked and broke under the pressure. Katsuki lifted the man up, launching fist after fist into his face, each time blood was sent flying across the road as Katsuki's quirk amplified voice roared across the street.

"I," punch, "AM," punch, "NOT," punch, "WEAK!" pun-

"BAKUGOU!"

Katsuki's arm came to a sudden stop halfway towards the thug's face, the force from the blow still enough to cause a woosh of air pressure though the thug had long been knocked out to notice. He turned his head to his right to find a shaking Uraraka staring at him with wide and wet eyes.

"U-Uraraka…" Katsuki said and suddenly became aware of his appearance, he was covered in lacerations, blood dripping down from several areas of his body with half of his fance mangled while the other was morphed into a snarl.

Dropping the thug, Katsuki turned to her fully with a wince, "I know I went a little hard on these guys but- oof!"

He was shut off when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his torso and he felt Uraraka bury her head into his chest.

"I'm so glad you're ok!" She sniffed as she squeezed him tighter.

"What the!?" Katsuki cried as his arms flailed about in front of him, "Hey! Get off! Get the fuck away with all this sappy shit!"

Uraraka let go and stepped away from the hug with a roll of her eyes though she was still smiling, "Seesh, you know you don't have to do the whole badass act all the time right?"

Katsuki grunted and crossed his arms, "Who says it's an act?"

Uraraka snorted, "Either way I'm glad I found you. I saw you go through that misty man's portal before I realised I was falling through my own. I came out a few blocks down right by those villains you just took out, though you uh… had a bigger landing then me so they didn't notice me."

Katsuki just shrugged as he glanced over the now battered and bruised group, "These extras were barely worth using my quirk on."

Uraraka gained a steeled look before bumping her fist in the air, "Damn straight! I watched the way you fought, you really are strong!"

Katsuki turned to her and blinked in surprise, "I am?"

Uraraka once again rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh, "Well durr, you really think someone like me or most of the class could've just wiped the floor against 5 villains?"

Katsuki just shrugged in response, trying not to let the edge of his lips twitch, "I guess. Where are the rest of the class do you think?"

"DIEEEEE!"

Katsuki whipped round on his heels, apparently he hadn't completely taken down the tiger like a thug as he charged straight for him. Quickly letting One For All flow through him, Katsuki planted his feet, ready to counter the attack.

However there was no need to when a lamppost came flying through the air, smashing the thug up off the ground and several stories in the sky before they crashed through the building.

Katsuki swivelled on his feet, at the end of the lamppost he found Uraraka holding onto it, having used her quirk to remove its gravity.

"Holy shit…" Katsuki whispered.

Uraraka giggled and dropped the lamppost, its gravity returning, "What? You're not the only one that likes to hit shit."

Katsuki snorted before walking over to her, "Come one, we need to find more villains to bring down."

Uraraka frowned, "Shouldn't we look for- Hey!"

Without warning Katsuki grabbed Uraraka and lifted her into his arms and pulled her against his chest. She was swept off her feet and quickly found herself in his arms bridal style.

"Bakugou! G-Give me some warning next time!" She stuttered and blushed as she felt just how muscular the boy was first hand.

Katsuki just gave his signature grunt in response, "I can run much faster than you can."

And then to prove his point Katsuki took off running, his feet slamming into the ground as he did. He wasn't quite as fast as Iida but Uraraka's hair whipped up as they made their way through the ruins. Katsuki's eyes scanned each building as he went, One For All amplifying it so that he could practically count the cracks in each window as they shot past. Eventually the ruins started to widen out and Katsuki was about to make a turn when a wave of ice appeared right in front of them.

Katsuki skidded to a stop, his feet digging into the concrete and leaving a small crater as he did. He (much to her annoyance) dropped an unsteady Uraraka on her feet as he narrowed his eyes and scanned the area. They were in what appeared to be a ruined park of the city, said park was now coated in a thick layer of ice. At first it looked like several shards of ice were sticking up from the ground before Katsuki realised these were in fact people frozen solid by the wave.

Katsuki scowled, "Oi! Scarface! Watch where you throw your fucking ice!"

From between the frozen villains Todoroki walked towards Uraraka, who was now shivering, and Katsuki with a slightly confused expression.

"Bakugou, Uararaka, apologies, I was not aware you had been teleported close by. I thought I was alone." Todoroki said as he eyed the villains, many of them shiving, though from the ice or fear of Todoroki it wasn't clear.

"Man Todoroki, you don't hold back." Uraraka said as she wrapped her arms around herself.

Todoroki tilted his head, "They are villains out to kill us. Why would I not hold back?"

Katsuki scoffed, "Weren't you paying attention in All Might's lesson? Restraint fuckface."

Uraraka gave Katsuki a look that said she'd very much seen him all but amputate several villains already.

Todoroki shrugged, "Father does not seem to deem it an issue."

"Yeah, well your father is fucking-"

"Guys!" Uraraka shouted gaining both boys attention, "Maybe we should stop arguing and focus on the fucking situation!" She finished glaring at the pair who both winced slightly under her gaze.

"Right," Todoroki nodded, "I interrogated one of the villains here, apparently those… things that came with them are powerful enough to kill All Might."

"They are," Katsuki added with a frustrated sigh, "I saw Zuzu's reaction to them, the only other person that's made him react like that was All Might himself."

"Midoriya can sense quirks?" Todoroki asked with a hint of surprise.

Katsuki shook his head, "Now's not the time Scarface."

"W-well, it's a good thing All Might isn't here, all we need to focus on is escaping and they'll probably leave." Uraraka said as she gulped, looking over into the USJ where a plume of smoke had just started to rise somewhere in the distance.

"It's not that simple," Katsuki said, thinking over his words carefully, "Think about it, if All Might even gets a whiff of what's going on he'll be over in a second to save us. That's when they'll kill him."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Todoroki asked and Katsuki was surprised the boy was actually willing to listen to him.

Katsuki smirked and slammed his fist into his palm, "We find and take down every villain we can before hitting their boss and those freaky fuckers."

This time Todoroki did frown, "Is that really the best course of action? We're students, I've been trained my entire life and even I'm not sure I could take them down."

"Are you calling me fucking weak Scarface!?" Katsuki growled and stepped forward, his quirk appearing over his skin as Todoroki's eyes narrowed.

"Bakugou," Todoroki said in a tone that matched the ice around them, "While you are a fellow student I won't hesitate to take you down if you jeopardise our safety

Katsuki took a dangerous step forward as the air around them started to fill with an unnatural chill, "I'd like to see you fucking try."

"WOULD YOU BOTH JUST FUCK OFF!?"

Both boys turned to Uraraka with a surprised look, the girl was shaking from her outburst and was slightly red in the face. That didn't stop the obvious look of fear on her face.

"Stop arguing like a bunch of little kids! You're supposed to be hero students!" Uraraka hissed at the pair, "Now we need to find our classmates, end of discussion."

Katsuki turned away from her, "You two go on ahead, I'm gonna find the rest of these so- called villains and take them down. I need to show them I'm not- I mean I need to stop them."

Before he could walk off Katsuki felt a vice-like grip on his elbow that forced him to turn back around. He came face to face with Uraraka who's face was flipping between pure rage and terror, her fists clenching and unclenching as tears filled her hardened eyes.

"Bakugou please," she all but begged, "I'm scared! " she practically sobbed out, "Aren't you worried about our classmates, about Midoriya?"

"But…" Katsuki said and his shoulders sagged slightly, "I need to… I need…"

"Perhaps," Todoroki said, taking a cautious step forward as he eyed the other two, "We should head to the central plaza? Where the bulk of the fighting is, we'll get a good idea about our classmates and as the two strongest students in class myself and Bakugou can lend a hand if required."

Kastuki clenched his eyes shut and took a deep shaky breath. He wanted to show these villains why attacking his friends was a bad idea, why no-one should even look at his brother the wrong way. Every instinct was telling him to find an enemy and punch them. But what had Yagi said? Hero work was about more than beating villains up.

"Ok," Katsuki said much to the relief of Uraraka and Todoroki, "Let's head to the plaza and assess the situation."

Uraraka gave him a smile before taking off in the direction where the sounds of battle were coming from. Todoroki and Katsuki followed close behind.

Todoroki turned to Katsuki as they ran, "Will your brother be ok?"

Katsuki snorted, "Trust me Scarface, you and me can fend these fuckers off but Zuzu? Zuzu could wipe the floor with them."

The first thing Izuku became aware of was the intense heat that surrounded him, even with the resistance of his suit he felt like his blood was boiling within his body. He crashed through what felt like wood as he landed on the ground with a thud, the sound of raging fire in his ears and smoke quickly filling his lungs. He coughed and sputtered as the hot air blocked his throat and he gasped for breaths.

Jumping into his legs Izuku fiddled with his mouth guard before getting it in place and instantly felt relief as it filtered the air for him. It was still scorchingly hot and burnt the inside of his throat but it was at least breathable. That didn't improve the situation he found himself in however.

He was in what at best was a replica of a small village home, he had to guess because the entire thing was up in flames. The hole he had caused when he smashed through the roof was already blocked out by a thick layer of smoke. Flames licked up the walls and rose up to the bannisters, piles of ash that once were furniture scattered the room and Izuku's eyes hurt from the power of the fire.

He had no idea how the buildings were maintained in the constant blaze but the fire was definitely real, his left arm, the only uncovered section of his body bar his eyes, was starting to heat up to dangerous levels already. If he didn't escape soon he'd be in serious trouble.

CRASH!

Izuku snapped his head round as an out of control Kirishima came flying through the wall of the house. Izuku dived to the ground as Kirishima flew over him and smashed into the otherside of the room. His quirk deactivated as he fell to the ground in a heap, blood slowly running down from a cut on the side of his head.

Izuku all but leaped over to him, ignoring the way the flames started to reach out towards him like they had a mind of their own, "Kirishima!"

He knelt down by the redhead as he reached for his first aid kit, "Come on Kirishima, please be ok."

Izuku almost burst into tears when he found a strong pulse on Kirishima's wrist. He fumbled with his first aid kit, tearing it open and trying to find something to stop the bleeding on his friend's head. The fire and heat was getting worse and he was certain at this point he'd need medical attention from that alone but he refused to leave Kirishima behind. As he started to bandage up his head Izuku felt the familiar spike of hunger coming from behind him. But that would mean-

Izuku ducked down to the right moments before the fist made contact with the back of his head. He scrambled back as the villain's swing carried them around, narrowly missing the unconscious form of Kirishima. The villain swivelled on their feet before facing Izuku, they moved their arms about as if they were boxing while also skipping on their feet, it was quite the odd sight to see from someone with a murderous look in their eye.

"Damn kid, nice hero outfit," The villain said and Izuku couldn't tell if he was mocking him or being genuinely serious, he didn't know which one he preferred, "I tried to be a hero you know? Got into a hero school and everything? Issue is… I just like killing too much."

Izuku felt the villain's quirk move before his body did, he'd been watching the man's energy ever since he'd entered his range. His quirk was similar to All For One, he had an orb of energy in his chest that flared when he threw a punch or kick, though it was much smaller than the orb All Might or Katsuki had. It was also being fed by external energy the villain gained from seemingly moving around so much.

Which was why Izuku knew exactly which way to roll when the man's right leg flared up with quirk energy. The villain brought his foot down with a cry, the wooden floors shattering beneath his feet as Izuku rolled to his left, much to the villains frustration.

"What the fuck kid, you got some kind of foresight quirk? Cause this dodging is annoying as hell." The villain snarled before returning to their weird in-place jump to feed their quirk.

Izuku quickly jumped to his feet, eyes scanning the surroundings. He'd been pushed dangerously close to the fire and he could feel the flames reaching out for his back, the heat resistance of his costume working overtime to stop him from getting third degree burns.

The villain noticed this and moved forward, grinning at Izuku, "Go on kid, why don't you dodge

right into the fire."

"Why don't you dodge asshole!?"

Both Izuku and the villain whipped their heads to the side as a hardened Kirishima barrelled into the villain who barely had time to even register a look of surprise on his face. The villain let out a gasp of air, unable even with their quirk to stop themselves being lifted off the ground and thrown out of the building along with Kirishima.

Izuku sprinted through the hole the pair had created and breathed a sigh of relief when he made it out to the street, though still in the middle of a blaze the air was far cooler out here than inside the house he'd just escaped. He made a scan of the area, for all intents and purposes he was standing in the middle of an average town street. Various houses and small shops lined the road as well as expensive looking cars and perfectly cut trees. Except for the small matter of literally everything within sight being on fire.

Nearly every car was burnt out or billowing with red hot flames, the stores and houses were covered in smashed windows and black walls while the trees looked less like trees and more like bonfires suspended in the air by the charred remains of their trunks. Izuku's senses were also being overwhelmed, his eyes stung and watered, his throat burned and he wanted to tear his skin off from the heat.

In the middle of the road he saw Kirishima rolling around with the villain who was trying to throw him off. But using his hardening Kirishima was making it difficult for the villain to fight back. Izuku could see the villain trying and failing to to push Kirishima off who was trying to keep the villain pinned.

"Kirishima!" Izuku called as he ran towards them, "His quirk works off movement, you need to keep him still!"

Kirishima didn't turn to look back at Izuku but acknowledged his words with a nod of his head, redoubling his efforts to keep the villain pinned. Izuku continued to job over to them, if he could get close they could knock the villain out and then-

Quirk to his right!

Izuku fell into a roll as the road behind him blew up, shards of concrete flying into the air and

slamming into his back. Coming out of the roll, Izuku turned to the direction he'd felt the quirk energy come from. He found himself looking at a woman who had glowing red eyes and was looking back at him with a snarl of frustration, the road between them was now nothing but a small crater.

"Damn brats," she muttered, "I'm not being paid enough for you to actually fight back."

Izuku felt her quirk energy flare up behind her eyes and he bent his knees, ready to jump out of the way. That was until he saw the two headphone jacks creeping up behind the villain that she appeared not to notice. Just as she activated her quirk said headphones wrapped around her forehead and ripped her head back.

The villain cried out as she stumbled back, her head pointing upwards. As she moved, red hot beams of energy shot out from her eyes. The beams narrowly missed Izuku as they tore up whatever they hit before they started to shoot directly into the air. They tore up the ceiling of the fire zone and glass and metal started to rain down upon them.

Izuku wasted no time in taking advantage of the opening and charged towards the female villain. A well placed punch to her throat and she was forced to deactivate her quirk as she clutched at her neck. Izuku swept her feet out from under her and she cried out as she collapsed on the ground.

"Jiro, get her arms and legs!" Izuku shouted as the purple haired girl came running round the corner she had been crouched behind.

Izuku leapt onto the villain's back, forcing her to her knees as he grabbed her either side of her head, getting her to keep it facing straight ahead as he wrapped his legs around her chest. Meanwhile Jiro pinned the legs of the woman while wrapping her jacks around her arms, under the pair the woman thrashed and screamed.

"Get off… I FUCKING HATE KIDS!" She shouted before activating her quirk directly beneath her.

Izuku grunted as he felt the force of it ripple up his arms, his left hand burnt as the road beneath them started to melt. But he and Jiro kept the woman pinned, making sure all her quirk could do was create a hole in the concrete. Apparently she wasn't too bright and eventually the sheer force of using her quirk beneath her caused her to fall unconscious.

Izuku sighed and stepped off her, flexing his hand. A quick glance down the road showed that Kirishima still had the other villain pinned. They were clearly trying to gain more energy for their quirk but under Kirishima's large frame they were struggling to get the momentum. Izuku turned to Jiro as her jacks returned to their normal length and she too stepped away from the villain they'd pinned.

"Thanks for the assist Jiro, I would've been toast without you there." Izuku said and bowed in front of the girl.

Jiro blushed and chuckled nervously, "It's no problem dude I uh… wow I can literally feel the adrenaline running through my body."

Izuku laughed and looked back over to where Kirishima had finally knocked the first villain out, "Yeah, I know the feeling. We should help Kirishima and then-"

"MIDORIYA GET DOWN!"

Jiro's shout drew Izuku attention a moment before she slammed into him. On instinct Izuku wrapped his arms around her as they toppled to the ground. Not even a second later the burnt out tree next where Izuku's head had been exploded into splinters of wood.

Izuku hit the floor with a grunt as Jiro fell on top of him. He craned his neck and his eyes widened. While quirks were the dominating method of fighting these days that didn't mean other weapons had been left behind. So it really shouldn't be that much of a surprise to find a third villain wielding a pump action shotgun approaching them. Izuku and Jiro froze as the gun was aimed right at them, the villain prepping for another shot.

"NO!"

Kirishima suddenly appeared in their line of sight, facing them and blocking the bath of the shotgun shells. There was a bang from behind him and Izuku watched his face scrunch up in pain as he collapsed forward, falling over Jiro and Izuku, covering them with his body.

"K-Kirishima!" Jiro cried as she reached out for him.

"I'm ok!" Kirishima said through gritted teeth, "I never thought I'd be thankful for All Mights

lesson but at least now I know I can take these bullets but fuck it hurts."

"You've had your quirk active for at least 15 minutes, how much more can you take?" Izuku asked as he shifted underneath Kirishima, Jiro still on top of his chest, all three were close enough to hear each other's breath.

"I-I'm not sure, maybe-ARG"

Another bang rang out and Kirishima's whole body shook as he took the hit. Izuku and Jiro winced at the look of pain on his face. Meanwhile Jiro was pointing her jacks towards the armed villain.

"I-I can hear the rounds inside the barrel, he only has three left." She stuttered out while glancing between Izuku and Kirishima.

"Three," Kirishima responded, "Fuck ok, I think I can handle that."

"Ok," Izuku said formulating a simple plan, "Three more rounds and then Kirishima you get off us and Jiro you and I will charge them."

"R-right." Jiro said and audibly gupled.

"Sounds like a- AHH FUCK!"

Kirishima cried out as another round shook his entire body, even with his hardening it was likely he was doing internal damage to his bones and organs. Izuku flinched and bit his lip, he'd never forgive himself if something happened to his friend under his plan.

"T-two more." Jiro said with a panicked voice.

"Just hang in there Kirishima." Izuku said as Kirishima started to pant heavily.

Bang!

"ARRRGG"

"O-one more Kirishima." Jiro stuttered out as she and Izuku prepared to run.

Kirishima's entire body was shaking and it was obvious he was using the last of his strength to keep himself from collapsing completely on the pair.

Bang!

"Jiro now!"

Kirishima cried out in pain as he finally let his quirk go, rolling off the pair and all but collapsing on the ground next to them. Meanwhile Izuku and Jiro leapt to their feet, charging straight at the shocked villain who tried to fire their weapon off yet soon realised they had no rounds left. Jiro's jacks shot out, the metal ends slamming into the fingers of the villain causing them to yelp as they dropped the gun.

Izuku let out a roar as he charged, he pulled his fist back and launched a clear and clean punch right into the villain's nose. There was a satisfying crunch as the villain screamed and stumbled back, clutching their nose where blood was now spewing out. Jiro ran past Izuku and shot her foot out, kicking the villain down who crumpled to the ground with a groan.

Jiro bent over, panting as she put her hands on her knees, "This… this is fucking crazy right? Like… they are are actual villains… we're actually fighting villains."

Izuku hesitated as he stepped forward, "Are you ok?"

Jiro let out a manic laugh, "No… I'm probably having a breakdown but the adrenaline is too much right now."

Izuku winced and nodded his head, he was calm right now but he was certain this would all hit home at some point, "Right, well we need to look for a way out. Hopefully we won't run into any more villains."

"Ha, I don't think we need to worry about that!" Kirishima shouted from behind them as he unsteadily got to his feet, "You two kicked ass, you ask me, the three of us make a pretty good team."

"That's still to be determined."

Izuku and Jiro's eyes widened and Izuku cursed himself, he'd been so focused on his friends he'd lost track of the villains' quirks. He and Jiro could only watch in horror as the first villain repperead, the orb of his quick now fully charged up. He landed from a jump next to Kirishima and wore a wide and psychotic smile.

Kirishima didn't even have time to turn his head before the villain kicked out, pumping his quirk into his leg as his foot made contact with the side of Kirishima's unhardened knee. There was a sickening crack which made Izuku gag as Kirishima's leg bent to the side at a near perfect right angle. The boy screamed, falling to the floor and clutching his broken leg.

"Kirishima!" Izuku cried and went to charge the villain only to be met halfway by the villain themselves who threw a powerful punch into Izuku's gut.

He was thrown down the road and rolled several times before coming to a complete stop, his stomach and body were screaming at him and he half expected his stomach to have burst from the force of the punch. He groaned and opened his eyes, he was staring directly up the ceiling of the firzone, flames licking at the roof as pain leaked into his body. Izuku tried to sit up but his back screamed at him and he could only turn his head to look down the road and a strangled cry escaped his lips.

The first villain was now holding Jiro up by her throat who was scraping at his arm with both her hands and jacks. Meanwhile the other two villains were recovering and were both back on their feet. Kirishima attempted to limp over to help Jiro but the first villain just laughed at the attempt.

"Really!? Come on kids, know when you're beaten."

And with that he swung Jiro round like a ragdoll, throwing her into Kirishima as the two cried out and ended up crashing into one of the fiery buildings. Disappearing from Izuku's view.

"N-No!" Izuku cried out, forcing himself up onto his knees.

Up ahead the villain with the broken nose whined, "Fuck, did anyone see where my gun went? I'm useless without it."

The second villain rolled her eyes, "You're useless with it, you're only here to guide us through the flames."

The first villain just chuckled, "Come one, use your laser eyes and kill the two brats that I threw into the house, then we just kill the third and we can move on."

Izuku almost cried out as he forced himself onto his knees, fear striking him throughout his body. He couldn't let them hurt his friends. He couldn't let them kill them. He became vaguely aware of the villains laughing as he staggered down the road towards them.

"Man what the fuck does this kid even think he's gonna do?"

"Any idea what his quirk is?"

"No idea, just finish him off would you."

Izuku paused, he could tell from their energy he was only a few metres away from them. He grit his teeth, these villains were out to hurt his friends. If he didn't stand up to them they'd kill Jiro and Kirishima. Then they'd move onto the others, they'd take out all his friends, Ashido, Uraraka, everyone. They'd even get Yagi and… and Kacchan. Izuku couldn't let them. He needed to stop them. He needed to use all his power to fight.

He needed quirks.

Izuku's hunger had been humming beneath his skin the entire encounter, increasing in its restlessness the more he fought. But now it was practically screaming at him, latching on to the quirk energy of the three villains within range. And for once Izuku didn't fight it, he let his hunger wash over him, let it out of its cage and swirl around free and ready to feed.

"Give them to me."

Izuku's cold voice made the three villains pause as they all turned to him. He was standing unnaturally still, the hood of his costume covering his face as he looked down slightly.

The second villain scoffed, "Kid has some guts I'll give him that, you want me to-"

"Hey what the fuck!" The first villain cried, he'd been dancing on his feet until that moment but stopped suddenly, "What the… my… my quirk stopped working, I stopped taking in strength."

"What are you talking about?" The second villain asked as the first villain stumbled slightly.

"My- My quirk is acting weird like… like it's… fucking kill this kid already!" The villain shouted a hint of desperation in his voice.

The second villain frowned but shrugged and turned back to Izuku. With a wide smile her eyes filled with red energy. Then it vanished. Then it returned. Then it vanished again. Soon her eyes were flickering with red energy like a broken bulb as she lost control of her quirk.

"H-hey," She stammered, "What the fuck is going on?"

"I told you… I want them."

Izuku spoke softly but with force and then he moved, far faster than what should have been possible for his injuries. He launched himself onto the second villain, knocking her to the ground as his hands wrapped around her throat. The other two villains tried to run but felt such a force on their quicks they both fell to the ground.

Within Izuku his quirk was running wild, pulling at the three quirks around him as it tried to rip them from their users, causing chaos within the villains as their quirks went out of control. For the first time Izuku's quirk was being allowed off its leash and not just to experiment or in training, it was taking quirks because Izuku wanted them and it had never been more hungry.

As the second villain tried to fight back her eyes flickered with energy… then so did Izuku's, the quirk energy around him started to flow into his body and it felt good. His hunger all but cried out with delight as it fed on the energy, Izuku's own body filling the colours. The three villains could

only watch it horror as they felt their quirks go haywire. Izuku smiled as the energy started to flow into him yet he still felt resistance from the villains.

Izuku started to laugh, the pure joy of taking quirks flowing through him.

"I said give them to me!" He cried, his body filling with power as he roared far louder than the fires that surrounded them.

"They're mine!"

One quirk was his.

"I want them!"

Two quirks were his.

"GIVE THEM TO MEEEE!"

All Might's Legacy

Chapter Summary

As the battle of the USJ continues All Might must face the consequences of being The Symbol of Peace

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Yagi whistled to himself as he walked out of his building, the warm late morning sun beaming down on him with his hair getting caught in a slight breeze. He smiled and nodded at the various people he passed on the street, most gave the tall, skeletal man in an oversized suit strange looks. But said looks did nothing to dampen Yagi's spirits as he made his way down the street with a smile. Three days in and his career as a teacher was going surprisingly well. Both first year classes had responded better than expected to both his classroom lessons as Yagi and to his practical lessons as All Might. The idea to use both his forms had been Gran Torinos, there was no reason he needed to be All Might during his classroom lesson and it both saved his hours as All Might and meant that nobody would be suspicious if they saw Yagi wandering around campus. Even Aizawa had admitted he couldn't find any major fault with Yagi's first heroics lessons.

It wasn't entirely full proof though, take today for example, the USJ training for both classes would easily be three hours long each of pure practical so there was no way All Might could be present for both. But luckily Cementoss had offered to cover for 1-B, truth be told he was a more specialised rescue hero than All Might anyway. As a result Yagi was able to enjoy a relatively lazy morning going over his class notes before leaving with plenty of time to take a leisurely stroll to UA. He didn't want to waste time in his All Might form and quite frankly he hated taking the subway.

So instead he'd taken the rare opportunity to sleep in for a while, make some last minute class notes and take a pleasant stroll to his new job. At least that had been the plan. He'd only made it a few streets away from his apartment complex when a situation in a nearby alley caught his attention.

It was the shouting of a group of teenagers that drew him, the group seemed to be surrounding a final teenager who was cowering on the floor. Yagi frowned before slapping on his usual smile and allowing his quirk to flow through him. He marched into the alleyway straight for the group. As he got closer he could see that the group were in fact kicking and punching the teenager on the ground.

"Please!" All Might's voice boomed down the alley, "Can I ask everyone to stop? There's no

need for violence because I am-"

"Holy shit guys it's All Might!" One of the teenagers said and the entire group snapped their attention to the hero.

Within a second All Might found himself swarmed by the group. All shouting and demanding autographs. He held up his hand and instantly the group was silenced.

"May I ask what on earth is going on here?" He kept his voice steady and with a smile but firm enough to make sure he got an answer.

"Oh that's right!" One of the teenagers said excitedly, "We managed to capture this villain for… well I guess you All Might!"

"Villain…?" All Might asked carefully and flicked his attention towards the teenager on the ground.

What he saw made his smile falter. The teenager was bloody and beaten, he looked to have several broken fingers and his breathing was ragged. He had an obvious mutation quirk, his arms and legs were covered in thick scales with claws at the end of each while a bone-like tail lay beside him. His jaw was full of large and uneven teeth while his eyes were made of thin black slits. Clearly it was a hyper mutation quirk, extreme even for a society full of quirks.

All Might pushed past the teenagers and stepped forward, "My boy are you ok?"

All Might had faced down some of the most terrifying villains to have ever walked the earth, he'd looked monsters in the eyes and laughed and he'd faced death enough times to treat it like an old friend. But the look of pure terror in that boys face when he got sight of All Might would haunt him until the day he died. It made the hero stop dead in his tracks.

"P-Please don't hurt me… I'll be good." The boy begged as sobs started to wrack his body.

"My boy I assure you I have no wish to hurt you-"

"You will! The heroes always hurt me… D-Dad said to stay away from them, we can't trust them." The boy cried out and tried to scramble away from All Might.

"That's because you and your dad are monsters and villains! I'm glad the heroes are around to protect us!" One of the boys behind All Might shouted causing All Might to turn his attention back to them.

"His father was a villain?" All Might asked the group who in turn all nodded.

"Yep, he came to pick him up from school one day after Death Arms had given us a talk. He took one look at his monster quirk and we got to watch as he beat the villain up!" The young boy shouted enthusiastically while the rest of his friends smiled and nodded, so much that they didn't see All Might's look of horror.

"Death Arms just… attacked him? As he collected his child from school?" All Might asked and had a hard time keeping his voice level.

The boys looked up at him in confusion, "Well yeah. His quirk means he eats raw meat and Death Arms said that meant he couldn't go near a school. Besides, you were there at the end All Might, it was amazing to see you and Death Arms."

Somewhere in the back of All Might's mind a memory came forward. Three weeks ago he responded to an incident at a school, on arrival he had found Death Arms carrying the unconscious form of a villain into the back of a police car. The villain looked like a half beast and had the same scales as the teenager in the alleyway. All Might had even complimented Death Arms on a job well down.

It made him feel sick.

All Might turned back to the wounded teenager, "My boy allow me to help you and clear things up with your father so-"

But it was too late, the boy had already scrambled away and out of the alley.

Yagi apologised once again as he bumped into yet another passerby, though he was still able to to walk to UA it was now more of a light jog as opposed to a stroll. It had taken him 30 minutes to sort out the situation in the alley, handing the group of teenagers over to the police while giving them each a stern talking to. At least he'd managed to use his muscular form to launch himself a mile down the road before turning back into Yagi. Losing 30 minutes would mean he would struggle to attend the entire class this afternoon but he could just leave while Thirteen and Aizawa did the round up. The main thing now was making sure to arrive on time.

"Help!"

Sadly it seemed the world had other plans.

Once again Yagi ducked into an alley before All Might emerged and jumped straight into the middle of the street. There was a woman with bright blonde hair laying in the road, standing over her was a scruffy looking homeless man with wild eyes.

All Might didn't hesitate and grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck and lifted him in the air. The man's limbs failed wildly, his eyes snapping back and forth in panic. All Might kept a close eye on him, waiting for any kind of quirk to come forward.

"Stand down villain," All Might commanded and turned to the woman in the street, "Have no fear ma'am for I am-"

"Oh I just knew you'd protect me from that quirkless scum All Might!" The woman cried, big wet tears falling down her face as she scrambled forward, clawing at All Might legs.

All Might himself frowned slightly at her wording but managed to recover with a smile, "Uh… yes well, if you could inform me of this man's crimes I will-"

"This quirkless scum had the gall to stand next to me!" The women cried and shot the scruffy man in All Might's hand a disgusted look.

Said man looked down at her in disbelief, "We were crossing the street at the same time!"

"Don't talk to me, creature! My quirk allows me to see other quirks and looking at how empty you

are almost made me vomit!" The woman screamed and combined with All Might's presence and they were starting to draw quite the crowd.

"Now, ma'am I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you-"

"Hell yeah All Might! Show those quirkless losers who're really in charge!"

"Man, this guy should be put away for life, wasting the time of the number one hero like that!"

"All Might shouldn't be wasting his quirk on a nobody like that!"

"Everybody please calm down!" All Might cried, but even his booming voice struggled to carry over the gathering crowd that was quickly turning into a full blown mob.

All Might was forced to hoist the man above the hands of the crowd which reached out for him. Despite maintaining his signature smile he was starting to panic, he had no idea how to control the mob around him. As far as he could tell the man had done nothing wrong yet they were coming after him with enough venom to make Endeavor wince. Normally All Might had no issue with crowd control but quite frankly he would have an easier time controlling a pack of ravenous dogs.

"Please… just let me go…" Came a soft and defeated voice, All Might would have not even heard it if it wasn't for his heightened hearing.

He turned to look at the quirkless man in his hand, the man's face was neutral but his eyes were soulless as he looked at All Might, "I just want to go home, please just put me down."

"B-But they'll kill you! As a hero it's my duty to help-"

"Help?" The man raised his voice slightly and now All Might could see emotion in his eyes, they were full of anger, it made the hero's stomach swell, "When have people like you ever helped us? You're the ones who put so much value on quirks…

All Might's smile finally dropped as the feeling of guilt that had been building in his stomach exploded. It took all his effort not to double over and cough blood all over the crowd. It was all he

could do to stand rooted to the spot, keeping the man above the crowd as the sirens of police cars could be heard in the distance. For the first time in many years, All Might felt like he was a hero intern out on his first patrols, compeltly and utterly lost as to what being a hero meant.

God he hated the subway. It was hot, crowded and noisy with people shoving each other out of the way and clambering to get on trains. It was also the worst place for him to fight as a hero, it was small and cramped and one wrong move could cause an entire cave in. Hardly the best place for him to be swinging his massively powerful punches. But it had taken 45 minutes for him to finally disperse the crowd with the help of the police and wait for Tsukauchi to arrive and prove the quirkless man's innocence. The police may have helped with the crowd but Tsukaushi was the only person he trusted to deal with the quirkless man fairly.

But now he'd used nearly half his time and there was no way he'd be able to get to UA on time without using the subway. So Yagi grumbled to himself as he weaved in between the crowds, which wasn't easy when you were 7ft tall. He was also dreading having to tell Aizawa that he wouldn't be able to attend the full lesson today. The man may have softened to Yagi slightly over the past few months but Yagi knew he still wasn't fully on board with how All Might operated.

Yagi was very nearly running for his train as he made his way through the thick crowd, the old lights flickering above him. If he could just catch the next train he would be able to-

"Help, villain!"

Moments after the cry filled the entire subway, which caused people to start panicking, All Might erupted from a nearby bathroom, the wall exploded and debris was thrown to the floor as he stepped through. His smile was wide and he beamed down over the crowd of subway goers who cheered and clapped at his arrival. The only person not pleased to see the number one hero was a man pushing his way through the crowd, a floating bag of money over his head.

"Oh fuck!" The man shouted as he threw his hand out, forcing several people to the ground as he scrambled over them.

All Might's eyes narrowed, a telekinesis quirk from the looks of things. Though not a very strong one, certainly not strong enough to push All Might down. His smile grew even more and he launched himself off the ground. The subway floor shattered behind him but people still cheered as he flew down the tunnel landing directly in front of the villain.

The villain lashed out with his quirk and All Might felt a force push against him but it did little more than cause his suit to flutter slightly. The villain realised this and their eyes widened with panic, All Might raised his arm back, clenching his first and launched it forward.

He stopped moments before he hit the villain (he would kill him with a direct hit) but the shockwave and windforce created by the punch pushed the villain to the ground, his quirk failing to keep the bag of money from flying down the subway.

And there was the reason All Might didn't fight in subways.

Along with the villain falling to the floor his move caused several lights to blow out, glass falling to the ground. The tiles of the ground were ripped up and broken apart while several pillars cracked and crumbled slightly. All in all it looked like a desperate battle had taken place as opposed to the quick take down that had just been performed.

All Might winced, the media were going to have a field day with this. Combined with funding Midoriya and Bakugou's costumes and his finances for the month weren't looking too great. Not to mention a few of the civilians who had been caught up in the blast, none looked seriously injured as they got themselves up but his agency staff would beat him if he was sued. He's made it a full two years without any lawsuits.

But he still needed to keep the act, so he plastered his signature smile on his face and put his hands on his hips. The crowd roared as he stood over the knocked out villain.

"Do not fear citizens, apologies for the damage but the villain has now been apprehended because I am-"

"Damn it All Might! You pretentious oversized fucking asshole!"

All Might spluttered and turned to where the crowd were parting, a mixture of looks of awe and fear on their faces. From the separated crowd marched a furious looking muscular woman with tan skin, a white suit and bunny ears.

"Miruko?" All Might said with surprise, "What are you doing here?"

Miruko paused as she marched up to All Might and gave him a disbelieving look, "Don't you check

your HPSC Patrol Updates? This is my fucking patrol moron and he," she said pointing to the villain at All Mights feet, "Was my collar, I don't appricate you showing up halfway through! I've chased this fucker all the way from the bank."

"Oh," All Might responded with a slack jaw, since taking on the training of Midoirya and Bakugou and starting at UA he had stopped doing standard patrols, only going out when the HPSC requested it or when he just happened to be passing by a villain encounter. As a result he had completely forgotten that all heroes were required to check the HPSC Patrol Updates everyday to make sure their patrols didn't clash uncesserialy. And of course Miruko was famous for beating anyone who dared clash with her routes and take possible fights away from her, even Endeavor made sure to avoid her.

"M-My apologies, I was simply in the area and decided to help out." All Might stammered, despite being several spots higher than her on the hero charts and far taller and larger he was still intimidated by the death glare she was giving him.

"You call this helping out?" Miruko scoffed and indicated to the damage All Might had caused, "The guy barely even hurt anyone, you should have known full well to leave him to me you fucking idiot."

All Might coughed slightly, he had great respect for Miruko but her language and attitude could use some work, "Yes well… It's been a busy month."

Miruko just rolled her eyes as she hoisted the villain onto her shoulders, "Cry me a river big guy. Get your fucking act togther, I'm taking this guy to the cops. I'll let you deal with the press."

And with a sinister smirk shot his way All Might watched as Miruko leaped down the tunnel towards the exit. Right over the heads of the gaggle of reporters and cameramen shoving people out of their way to be the first to get an interview with The Number One Hero.

All Might sighed, he was starting to wonder if he should have gone for a career in accounting instead.

The wind whipped up All Might's hair as he guided himself down from his jump. The subway had been a bust, too much damage to continue operating the route All Might needed to use. Combined

with a near hour long session with the press and All Might had been left with no choice but to 'fly' the rest of the way to UA. Unfortunately combined with the several muggings, fires and other incidents he'd stopped to help out at and his body was screaming at him, the searing pain indicating he had gone well past his limits. Not to mention he was now absolutely going to be late to teach his class.

He locked onto UA's incoming roof and bent his knees. The moment he made contact with the roof he ducked into a roll, he hadn't even completed the roll before he was back in his skeletal form.

Yagi groaned and stood up, dusting his suit off before quickly making his way to the side door on the roof. He yanked it open and went to leap down the stairs.

"Good Afternoon Yagi."

"AHHH!"

Nedzu chuckled as Yagi recoiled back slightly, "Who would have guessed little old me could give the number one hero such a fright."

Yagi's heart started to pound as Nedzu stood in the doorway, nursing a steaming cup of tea, "Oh… uh Nedzu sir…"

"You're late." Nedzu stated and the frown that his face morphed into sent shivers up Yagi's spine.

"Yes well…" Yagi started but trailed off a little awkwardly.

"You're also supposed to be teaching as All Might, that was the whole point of you missing this morning's classes. Yet something tells me you're unable to do that now." Nedzu's voice was cold and Yagi could tell the principal was not impressed with the situation.

"I… well I…" Yagi stuttered, he wished he could tell Nedzu he'd been needed as All Might but something about the events this morning just left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Nedzu sighed and stepped aside out of the doorway, "Just get to your class, at least you're still able

to teach them as Yagi. But we'll be having words after hours."

Yagi didn't need to be told twice and all but sprinted away from his boss, he was already dreading the talking down he was likely to get. But at least there was no way his day could get any worse.

Katsuki, Todoroki and Uraraka made their way past the edge of the ruins zone. The buildings started to thin out and the roads stopped being full of cracks. Eventually the city stopped altogether and the road fed into the main plaza of the USJ. The three students quickly ducked behind a bush on the outer rim of the plaza.

"Holy shit, Aizawa and Thirteen are slaughtering them…" Uraraka whispered and Katsuki had to agree.

From the looks of things neither hero had even sustained a punch yet they were surrounded by bodies. Aizawa's movements were borderline art, his capture scarf moving in the air like its own entity. By this point the smarter villains had realised using their quirks was pointless and had resorted to thug tactics, simply charging and waving their fists at Eraserhead. But the hero simply threw them around like he was performing a puppet show.

Meanwhile Thirteen stood atop one the one few sections of the plaza around them still intact. Chucks of concrete had ripped away from the stairs and floor of the plaza, rubble scattering the area. They were using their quirk like a slingshot, throwing chunks of USJ around as well as villains. Combined with Eraserheads moves and the sky was filled with rubble and bodies.

"Damn," Uraraka whispered, "They're making mincemeat out of them."

"It is a rather impressive display of skill." Todoroki agreed as his eyes followed a large villain fly through the air before crashing into the central fountain of the plaza.

Katsuki grunted, "He's the number one underground hero for a reason and Thirteen has a borderline S class quirk. These thugs are probably the equivalent of training dummies to them."

Uraraka glanced up and down Katsuki, his costume now more or less soaked in blood, "Are… are you ok Bakugou?"

Katsuki rolled his neck, popping his shoulders and nodded, "My quirk enhances my entire body, including how quickly I heal. It's no regeneration quirk but I can take a lot more hits and damage than most people can."

"Good," Uraraka said with a determined nod, "Then we can leave them to it and escape and get help."

"I'm not so sure," Todoroki said as his gaze shifted to where the leaders of the League were standing, "That big creature hasn't made a move yet and neither has the blue haired leader. I suspect the canon fodder is in fact just that and was only used to distract us so the big hitters could take out the teachers."

Uaraka paled while Katsuki nodded in agreement, "He's right, if they can really kill All Might they're not going to waste their time on two lower rank heroes like our teachers."

Todoroki frowned as he looked over the leaders of the villains, "Wait, weren't there two of those-"

Before he could finish his sentence both he and Uraraka found themselves yanked back by the scruff of their necks. Their gym uniforms almost tore from the sudden tug as they flew back. Not even a moment later the ground they had been standing on was ripped apart by several long metal claws. The second thin like creature landed down a moment later, taking the place where the three students had been a second ago.

Todoroki and Uraraka landed a few feet away from the creature with a huff, both toppling on their feet. But before either could hit the ground however they felt an arm each wrap around their chest, keeping them in place. Uraraka gasped and looked up.

Katsuki was staring straight ahead at the creature, his quirk enveloping his body with red crackling fire. He was pouring as much of One For All into his eyes as he dared, as a result the world around him was moving far slower than normal, it was the only way to keep track of how fast the creature was moving. The added effect was causing his red eyes to practically glow with raw power. Uraraka's own eyes widened as she looked at the display of strength.

Todoroki was less impressed and scowled as he moved to get out of Katsuki's grasp, "Bakugou what are you-"

Once again Todoroki was interrupted as he and Uraraka found themselves forcibly taken through the air again. Faster than either of his two passengers could register, Katsuki saw the creature move. It pushed off its feet and reached out with its clawed hands for the students. Katsuki pushed off his own feet and dived to the right, the creature's claws missing Todoroki's jugular by less than an inch.

Katsuki skidded along the ground, the jump forcing him, Uraraka and Todoroki further into the centre of the plaza among the main fighting. His two add ons grunted as Katsuki hoisted them up onto their feet, Uraraka wobbled slightly from having been dragged around while Todoroki shot the blond a slight glare.

Katsuki just scoffed, "My reaction time is a hell of a lot better than yours, would you prefer I left you to be carved up?"

Todoroki scowled but said nothing. The entire plaza came to halt as the attention was drawn to the three students standing in the middle of all the chaos. Well, as much chaos as was left considering Eraserhead and Thirteen had taken down more or less the entire villainous army bar the two creatures and blue haired leader.

"Hah, looks like some NPCs were trying to scout us out," The leader said with a gravelly voice as his eyes filled with excitement looking at the students, "Good find Mutt, perhaps it was worth bringing you after all."

The Mutt was apparently the thin creature that had attacked them as it seemed to grunt in response to the leader though it came out far deeper than any human voice and was closer to a growl. Katsuki tensed as he prepared to avoid its claws once again, though it seemed to have stopped moving completely now it's leader was talking.

"What are you three doing here!?" Aizawa shouted as he flung the final villain off the ground, "You should have evacuated!"

"We thought about it but figured we'd go for a fucking stroll instead!" Katsuki barked back while keeping his eyes locked on The Mutt.

"The portal villain ambushed and separated the class Sensei," Todoroki explained with an eye roll at Katsuki, "We just fought our way out the ruins zone, we discovered they plan to kill All Might using… whatever that is."

Todoroki indicated to the great hulking mass that was still standing next to the blue haired leader like a statue.

"Dammit! I knew all this cannon fodder was pointless, not only are they telling people our secrets, they're letting worthless NPCs through to the main battle!" The leader whined as he started to scratch his neck.

"Oi handjob! Who the fuck you calling worthless!?" Katsuki demanded with a shout.

"Bakugou!" Aizawa hissed, "Shut. Up."

Katsuki growled but relented, narrowing his eyes at The Mutt, daring it to attack him. Meanwhile next to the blue haired leader the purple mist from before appeared once again. Two yellow eyes appeared in the mist as they gazed out onto the battlefield.

"Kurogiri!" The hand man shouted, "Did you get it done?"

"Indeed Shigaraki," Kurogiri responded, "The entire class, as well as the quirkless teacher, were scattered around the USJ. None escaped."

The now identified Shigaraki cackled with laughter, "Excellent work Kurogiri, now tell me, how many of our employees have reported killing their students?"

Katsuki felt his breath hitch in his throat and he could practically feel the hate flowing off Aizawa at those words. Katsuki could only imagine the hell the villains would have to pay if they had hurt any of Eraserheads students.

But Kurogiri hesitated in his answer, "It appears… none have reported success. In fact, I surveyed several areas and… it appears the students are winning."

Katsuki smiled and bared his teeth at the news, maybe all the extras in his class weren't so bad afterall. And of course he knew by this point Izuku was likely tearing through the villains like butter, he may not love his quirk but the moment he saw one of his classmates being threatened he would become an unstoppable force of nature.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" Shigaraki cried, he was now furiously scratching his neck and Katsuki could smell the soft scent of blood in the air, "First All Might doesn't appear and now some bratty kids are winning the big battle!"

"Perhaps," Kurogiri started as his eyes traced Aizawa and Thirteen who were slowly moving into attack positions, "We should consider a tactical retreat. All Might, our main goal, isn't here and the paid help we brought is falling rather quickly, we should be on our way."

Shigaraki grumbled and further scratched his neck, "Fine, but I want to send a message to All Might. Why don't we kill some of his kids first?"

Shigaraki locked eyes directly with Katsuki who felt a shiver go up his spine, but he met the hand man's gaze and narrowed his own eyes back. The two opposing forces stared at each other with such intensity it made a few of the others around them wince. It only lasted for a few moments but to Katsuki it felt like he was staring at the man for years. Then Shigaraki broke the tension.

"Mutt."

Katsuki's eyes widened in horror. In his effort to stare down Shigaraki he'd taken his eyes off the creature. He snapped his head round just in time to catch the Mutt launch off its feet into the air. He could only watch as it soared towards him, arm and claws outstretched. Even if Katsuki moved now it would be too late.

"Get away from my students!"

The Mutt was ripped off course and pulled away from Katsuki. Katsuki himself felt the edge of a great pull on him and turned to find Thirteen using their quirk. The Mutt was flying through the air towards them, desperately reaching out to stop itself but the force of black hole was too much. Thirteen deactivated their quirk and the Mutt crashed into a nearby wall, dust and debris being thrown into the air.

"Ah, allow me." Kurogiri said and the purple mist started to expand.

Then, as quickly as it had started to expand, the mist completely disappeared. The great swarm of it that had surrounded Kurogiri vanished in an instant to reveal a man (still made of mist) in a rather expensive looking suit with a metal plate around where his neck should be. Kurogiri himself seemed rather shocked by the development as he stared down at his hand in what Katsuki assumed

was shock. Shigaraki however seemed less surprised.

"Man Eraserhead, you're so cool." Shigaraki commented with genuine awe.

Katsuki blinked in surprise and glanced to his right. Sure enough, standing next to him was Eraserhead, eyes lit up behind his goggles and hair standing on edge. His capture scarf was suspended in the air with his attention locked onto Kurogiri.

Kurogiri looked over at the underground hero in frustration, "Shigaraki, perhaps we could-"

Before Kurogiri could finish his sentence a wave of ice suddenly swept over the plaza. Shigaraki was able to avoid it but Kurogiri was not so lucky. The villain quickly found himself encased completely in the ice, his mist frozen solid.

Todoroki grunted from his position to Katsuki's left as Eraserhead nodded his head towards him, "Good work Todoroki… now…"

Eraserhead turned to Shigaraki who was now looking incredibly lonely standing next to a Kurogiri icicle and the lone monster, the Mutt still somewhere under a pile of rubble.

"Shigaraki wasn't it?" Eraserhead said with a firm and smooth voice, "You should listen to your colleague, you're outmatched and outnumbered. Not to mention that All Might isn't here anyway, I suggest you leave the way you came before things get ugly."

Katsuki side eyed Eraserhead, he knew the man was bluffing. If they really did have the upperhand he'd be moving to capture and arrest the villains, not simply turn them away. The truth was that while things may be going well in the plaza their current company had all the heavy hitters for the class. The only two pro-heroes on the scene were here, not to mention two of the three students in the class with naturally hard hitting quirks. And God knows what trouble Izuku had gotten himself into.

Shigaraki however seemed unfazed by his situation and simply sighed, "Nomu."

Even with his enhanced reaction times it all happened incredibly fast for Katsuki.

The hulking great mass apparently called a Nomu moved. Yet despite its massive frame it was far faster than The Mutt or anything else Katsuki had ever seen, its speed was comparable to that of All Might himself. The Nomu rushed forward, Aizawa didn't even have time to blink before he was back handed across the plaza. There was a sickening crunch as their teacher was thrown through the air before he crashed down by the stairs. He didn't get back up.

But The Nomu wasn't done. It quickly turned from where it had thrown Aizawa and raised its fist towards Todoroki. The boy had barely even registered the Nomu moving, let alone that he was about to be turned into a fine paste.

Katsuki moved as quickly as he could, he reached out and grabbed Todoroki's elbow, yanking back as hard as he dared without ripping the arm out of its socket. Todoroki flew back, missing the punch by millimetres. But it was still enough to throw them both back.

Katsuki and Todoroki crashed to the ground skidding along slightly until they came to a painful stop atop each other. Uraraka screamed, finding herself alone next to the Nomu which snapped its head towards her having just taken out three people in less than a second.

"URARAKA ,ZERO GRAVITY NOW!"

Aizawa's shout carried throughout the plaza despite his broken body. Not questioning the desperation in his voice, Uraraka instinctively tapped her quirk against herself. Instantly she started to float slightly off the ground. The moment she did there was a massive force which enveloped the plaza. Thirteen had unleashed the full force of their quirk against the Nomu, a bloody and broken Aizawa laying next to them.

The Nomu was taken in by the force, it didn't come flying off it's feet like the other villains did but it cried out as it tensed and tried not to be pulled in by the force. Uraraka remained floating in the air, apparently anti-gravity meant she also wouldn't be affected by black hole seeing as the quirk itself worked by gravity. The effect was for the quirk to ignore Uraraka completely and allow Thirteen to use it to its full potential.

Yet it was still nothing compared to the power of The Nomu.

Once again The Nomu moved. It completely ignored the power of Thirteen's quirk and dove straight in. It wrapped one hand around the arm Thirteen had been using their quirk from and the other around their chest. There was a pause before the sound of tearing flesh filled the plaza. Thirteen's scream caused the three students watching to shudder as The Nomu threw them to the side, their arm being thrown in the opposite direction.

In less than a few seconds the Nomu had taken down the only two pro heroes in the USJ. Katsuki couldn't tell if Aizawa was even conscious, his body was twisted at an awkward angle while he was lying still, the only indication he was still alive was his chest rising slowly. Thirteen on the other hand looked to be in a far worse condition. They were out cold, blood quickly pooling around their body. Chances are if Thirteen didn't get out soon they'd die of blood loss.

Uraraka fell back to the ground with a sickly green and pale face, stumbling back at the scene in front of her. Meanwhile Todoroki and Katsuki finally managed to get back on their feet, though both were unsteady. Katsuki could feel his body urging him just to stop and he was sure the moment he stopped letting his quirk flow through him he was bound to collapse.

Over by the frozen Kurogiri Shigaraki was letting out a joyous laugh, "It's cute how you NPCs thought you could handle the main boss. But Nomu here has been designed as the perfect weapon to kill All Might, you low weak level losers are nothing compared to it."

Katsuki clenched his fists, there was that word again. Next to him Todoroki was eyeing the scene with more and more trepidation, the realisation that they were hopelessly outmatched hitting them both.

"Now then, Nomu, Mutt, take care of these three, I'll get Kurogiri out." Shigaraki said lazily as he wandered over to the frozen man.

Katsuki's eyes widened before everything moved at once.

The Mutt smashed straight out of the rubble that had been containing it, it had a few scratches but other than that was unharmed. It sprinted across the plaza like a dog, heading straight for Uraraka with its fangs bared. At the same time The Nomu launched itself off the ground with one mighty kick, the ground behind it shattering at the force. It shot through the air on the same path as The Mutt. Uraraka wouldn't stand a chance.

Katsuki moved without even thinking, he pushed his quirk into his legs almost copying the Nomu and launched himself off the ground. He had no idea what percentage of One For All he was using but it was enough that he was sure he would end up with hairline fractures all along his legs. As he soared through the air he became vaguely aware of a wave of ice travelling next to him.

He was proven correct when a second later The Nomu, much like Kurogiri, found itself encased entirely in ice. The beast was stopped in its tracks, even with all its strength the sheer size of the

ice that surrounded it stopped it dead.

But The Mutt was still on course to slice Uraraka in half. Katsuki grit his teeth and pulled his arms in, twisting his body so that his shoulder would impact first. A second before The Mutt reached Uraraka, Katsuki rammed into it. The Mutt was thrown off course and through the air, skidding to a stop down the plaza.

Katsuki spun on his heels and grabbed Uraraka by the shoulders, "Round cheeks, you need to get Aizawa and Thirteen out of here!"

If she had heard him, Uraraka made no response. She simply stared at The Nomu encased in (slowly cracking) ice with a look of horror on her face and silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

"URARAKA!" Katsuki shouted and it snapped the girl back to reality, looking up at him, "Use your quirk and get Aizawa and Thirteen to the entrance, moving them any other way could cause further injury. Once you get there try to use any first aid you have."

"R-right," Uraraka said, though her entire body was shaking, "What are you and Todoroki going to do?"

Katsuki grunted, "We're going to distract them."

Todoroki nodded as he jogged up to the pair, "Together we may be able to hold them off long enough until reinforcements arrive."

"B-But…" Uraraka trailed off and glanced at The Mutt which was getting back to its feet.

"We'll be fine Uraraka, just get the teachers out of here." Katsuki assured her with a smile that didn't match the pain shooting through his body.

Uraraka paused before she enveloped him in a quick hug. Katsuki coughed in surprise but before he could hug her back she had done the same to Todoroki, who looked even more shocked before she took off running to where their teachers lay battered and bruised.

Not a moment after she left there was a massive crash and the plaza was full of ice raining down upon them. Katsuki scowled and turned his attention to the now free Nomu, The Mutt walking up next to it.

Katsuki clenched and raised his fists, he felt the presence of Todoroki next to him, "You gonna use your fire?"

Todoroki shook his head, "No, I won't need it."

Katsuki sighed, "Zuzu's gonna be so pissed off when he finds out I died."

Yagi coughed and sputtered blood onto the ground, collapsing to his knees as he held his stomach. He was surrounded by trees, having landed in the forest zone of the USJ. The villain who had punched him just looked down and scoffed.

"For fuck sake, I was hoping for a real fight but we get stuck with the quirkless teacher." They spat and turned away from Yagi.

"Reax, we get paid either way." The second villain said and launched a punch at Yagi's face.

But even without One For All Yagi was still a trained hero. He ducked under the fist, grabbing the villain's arm and shifting his weight. The villain tumbled from the momentum of their punch and fell down to ground with a thud.

Yagi got back to his feet, fists clenched and scanning the area. The second villain just looked at him and sighed. Yagi went to take a step before her when she whistled. The whistle was piercingly high and loud, almost bursting Yagi's ear as he clamped his hands over them.

Not being used to actually having things like his ears at risk during fights Yagi's automatic reaction caused him to be completely defenceless. He found himself taking a kick directly on his injured side. He stumbled back, coughing up more blood as a fist met his nose. There was a painful crack as his face became covered in red as he fell back and collapsed onto the ground.

"Pathetic." The villain said and spat down on him.

Yagi groaned and tried to get up but a quick kick to the gut had him in the foetal position and coughing. The villain was right, he was pathetic. The most powerful hero in Japanese history and here he was being beaten down by two thugs barely worthy of being called villains.

How did it come to this? Just a few years ago he'd been on top of the world, All For One finally defeated, Japan safer than ever and his image as The Symbol of Peace unbreakable. Skip forward to the present and The Symbol of Peace was hunched over coughing his guts up, not even able to stop a ragtag group of nobody villains who had somehow managed to infiltrate the best hero school in the country. It was like his own legacy was crumberling before his very eyes.

Yagi knew the answer of course. On the surface society had thrived, heroes were bigger than ever and organised crime was at an all time low. People with powerful quirks were sought after and trained to become the best heroes they could, standing alongside the hall of fame All Might had created. But beneath it all their country had started to rot from the inside.

Organised crime hadn't vanished, it had just become smarter. It stayed just beneath the surface of noticibitly, gaining as much as it could without the public noticing. And why would famous and powerful heroes go after groups that nobody would care about? To make matters worse said groups went after those their society rejected, people with ugly and villainous quirks. But was nothing compared to outright disgust most people had towards the quirkless.

Yagi had spent months combing through his memories.

He had always praised his fellow heroes for the use of their quirks yet when had he ever spoken up about those born with villainous quirks like Izuku Midoriya?

He had always spoken about protecting those with less powerful quirks yet when had he ever said the same about the quirkless like Katsuki Bakugou?

Whether he meant it to or not All Might had been instrumental in the creation of a society based around powerful and exciting quirks. He had spent several dark nights laying in bed wondering what would have happened to both Izuku and Katsuki had he not met them.

But that wasn't even the worst part. He could deal with the corruption and position of their society, he could live with his role in that. What he couldn't deal with was the fact that right now there

were 20 teenagers, barely old enough to to look after themselves, fighting for their very survival across the USJ. All because he had been too ingrained in his so-called heroic nature to think things through when using his quirk. And now he had wasted all his time and was useless as he laid down in the dirt, his body ached with pain as he tried once again to push his quirk through his body.

Even when he had been on the brink of death after his fight with All For One following Nana's death Yagi wasn't sure he'd even been lower. He had let everything he stood for down, his legacy was finished.

"Sensei, may I ask you a question? With One For All fueling your float quirk you have an incredibly unique and powerful quirk, if it isn't rude to ask, how is it you've never broken past rank 50 in the poles?"

"Oh come on Toshi, you know me better than that. Sure, being a top ten hero would be nice but that's not the legacy I see for myself. It's the smiles that people give me whenever I save them from a disaster, from a fall or even just their cat from a tree. I don't need my legacy to be some best selling book about how I became the greatest hero in the world. My legacy is the countless smiles I've seen over the years."

Yagi had no idea how or why that memory suddenly appeared in front of him. But it was as vivid to him now as the day he had asked Nana that question, it was the day after his first hero rankings and, to his horror and embarrassment, he ranked higher than his own mentor.

Despite her potential power Nana had always been a simple person. Insisting that her three goals were to stop All For One, train Yagi and save people. It was a legacy to be proud of, a legacy that didn't require hero rankings or world shattering battles.

Then it hit him.

Izuku Midoriya, the boy terrified of his own quirk who had proudly used it to get into his dream hero school.

Katsuki Bakugou, the quirkless boy who felt he could achieve nothing was now learning to become the greatest hero of all time.

Yagi didn't need to maintain his spot as the top hero. He didn't need The Symbol of Peace to stand above all else. He didn't need countless books about his legacy.

Because his legacy was in the two boys he'd been training for a year. The two who had made such incredible progress despite all the barriers in their way. The two who Yagi knew in his heart would be far better heroes than he could ever hope to be.

And not just those two, he had two classes in front of him now. 40 young heroes in training under his wing, the next generation of heroes. And he had a chance to show them what a true hero was, to show them that being a good person should always come before being a good hero.

That would be All Might's legacy, not his hero rankings or merchandise. The students he had taken on. The students he was currently letting down. He didn't need to be The Symbol of Peace.

He needed to beat the shit out of these villains who dared to go after his kids..

Yagi clenching his teeth and slowly got to hit knees, grabbing One For All yet again. His body and the quirk rebelled against him, nearly making him pass out but he refused to give in.

'I won't be defeated by a simple time limit you hear me? I don't care if it's not possible, my name is Toshinnori Yagi, I am All Might, the most powerful hero in Japan and I will not let my quirk be the reason I let my students die, so either you work with me or I'll kill us both through sheer force trying to activate you.'

"Come on," one of the villains said to the other as they both went to walk away, "Leave the quirkless guy to die here, I fancy killing some kids."

"No."

The deep voice drew both villains' attention back to the teacher. Yagi was now crouched

down, slowly rising to his feet, thick spouts of steam coming off his body as he seemed to shift beneath his very clothes. He looked up at the pair with a face of pure hatred and fury, no smile to be seen and it froze the villains in their tracks.

Slowly his body started to grow, he reached out and tore his jacket and tie off as his voice grew louder with each word containing another level of pure rage.

"You will not harm a single hair on any of their heads… because… I! AM! HERE!"

Chapter End Notes

Hi all!

First of all sorry for the lack of green boi in this chapter but it would have been twice as long otherwise, don't worry we'll return to our quirk stealling student next chapter

Second of all apologies for how long it took to get this chapter out, I wasn't happy with it so took a while to edit it until I was confident in sending it out

Third of all we've hit 1000 kudos which is completly insane to me considering this story started out as an idea I had when bored, so once again thanks for all the kudos, comments and support!

Izuku's New Quirks

Chapter Summary

As the battle of the USJ continues Izuku finds himself with three new quirks to use

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

The air filled his lungs like a sweet nectar, despite the heat of it caused by the fire around him. His new quirks pulsed within him, their power ebbing and flowing just beneath his skin and their quirk energy swirling around his own. His hunger had engulfed him, practically vibrating at the new quirks it had fed on. And it felt good.

Izuku smiled. He'd been a fool to resist this for so many years, it was like he'd been empty throughout his entire life and now he was starting to fill himself. Around him the three villains lay unconscious, the sheer force at which Izuku had ripped their quirks from them had caused their brains and bodies to shut down. They weren't dead, but they weren't far off. But despite his new three quirks Izuku still felt hungry, he still craved more. He wanted quirks, he wanted fuel for the fire, he wanted power.

Izuku wandered around the burning street, his eye's barely registering anything, his sole focus being on quirks. He snapped his attention to his right, two quirks had just entered his detection range. He smiled and licked his lips, his hunger flared up with joy. Finally he was going to have his own stockpile of quirks.

He focused his attention on the two quirk energies, he recognised them as the hardening quirk and earphone jack quirk of the two people he had been brought here with. His hunger lashed out towards them under his skin, the hardening quirk was a strong quirk while the earphone quirk was practically built for recon. They were both deliciously appealing and would add nicely to his small collection. All Izuku needed to do was get in range.

'NO!'

Izuku's body lurched and he stumbled slightly, his hunger lashed out within him, demanding to be brought into range and allowed to take the quirks.

'NO! I AM NOT A VILLAIN!'

Izuku's mind came crashing back. He staggered forward, gasping for breaths as he forcibly pushed his hunger back into control. The world around him refocused, the roar of the fire filled his ears and the heat filled his lungs. Izuku fell to his knees coughing as all the pain from the fight came back to him. His head throbbed from the effort of taking three quirks and he could tell he was quickly approaching quirk exhaustion. He knew that when it finally came to taking the quirks of villains it wouldn't be easy but he never expected it to take so much of a toll. He was fairly sure he'd need at least a few days before he could comfortably take any more and he'd need at least two days sleep to recover from the migraine that threatened to tear his head two.

"Fuck, Midoriya what the hell happened?"

Izuku's attention was drawn back to the two people standing in front of him. Both of them had singed clothes and were looking at the scene with wide disbelieving eyes. It was Jiro who had spoken and she was staring at him with a conflict of emotions on her face, one side she looked relieved on the other she looked nervous. She was holding Kirishima up over her shoulders as the red head hobbled around on one leg. He himself was switching his attention between the three villains laying in the street.

Izuku coughed, "I uh… took them out?"

"Jesus dude, we were gone for like five minutes." Jiro whispered as Izuku rushed over to help her carry Kirishima.

"I uh… kind of let loose with my quirk a little, I didn't mean to go overboard," Izuku confessed and blushed a little, "I just saw the way you two were hurt and well… I got a little angry."

Jiro snorted as she let Izuku take some of Kirishima's weight, both holding him up under an arm, "If that's what you do with your quirk when you're a little angry I'm gonna make sure I never really piss you of, I can't even see any obvious damage, just what did you do?."

Izuku chuckled awkwardly and avoided the question, he wasn't so sure what Jiro would think if she knew what he'd actually done to take down the villains. Even he himself was a little scared of what had just taken place. He'd never considered how little resistance most of his trainers put up while he took their quirk from them, but what he'd just done was mentally wrestle with three separate bulls.

"Uh guys, as badass as I'm sure it was for Midoriya to take down the villains we should probably

think about getting out of here." Kirshima said as he looked around at the raging fire.

Izuku nodded, "Uh right, Kirishima, how's your leg?"

"Snapped clean in two," Kirishima joked though he winced in obvious pain, "I've activated my quirk to act as a splint but there's no way I can walk on it."

"Fuck… do you have any idea how heavy you are?" Jiro huffed as she adjusted herself underneath him, Izuku too was struggling to hold the boy up on his end, though in the back of his mind his weight theory about Kirishima's quirk gained some traction.

"That's because muscle weighs more than fat and it's super manly to workout so-"

"Kirishima I really don't give a fuck about your workout routine right now." Jiro snapped, her jacks clicking at the boy menacingly who himself scowled at the attitude from the purplette.

"Please, both of you calm down." Izuku asked with a sigh, "Let's work together to get out of here and then we can argue."

"Right," Jiro said and Kirishima nodded in agreement, "So uh… where exactly are we going?"

"We need to head back to the main plaza, not only is it the only exit, it's where our teachers are and where most of the class will head for." Izuku said as a pit of concern filled his chest, it must have shown on his face as Jiro and Kirishima exchanged a glance.

"I'm sure Bakugou is fine, the villains are probably more scared of him than he is of them." Jiro said with a chuckle.

"Yeah man, along with Todoroki your brother is the strongest person in our class!" Kirishima exclaimed with a wide toothy smile and Izuku had to admit it did help slightly.

Izuku nodded his head, "Yeah, you're right. I guess old habits die hard. Now we just need to figure out how to get to-"

Izuku paused and blinked. He then did it a few more times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. But no, what he was seeing was definitely real. The moment he had thought about heading to the plaza a blue line had appeared in front of him that went down the street before taking a sharp left down another path. At first Izuku was confused before he felt himself touching his eyes, he could feel the quirk energy behind them, humming with activation. The villains had mentioned one of them was a guide and at a guess this was their quirk now guiding Izuku..

"I think… I think I know the way." Izuku said as his eyes followed the blue line.

"You think?" Jirso asked a little unsure, "You realise we're in the middle of a massive fire right? I need a little more than you think."

Izuku bit his lip, "It's my quirk, it's showing me the way back."

"Huh? How does that work?" Kirishima asked as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"It's… complicated. Do you both trust me?" Izuku asked as he eyed his two fellow students.

"Of course man!" Kirishima replied with his usual enthusiasm and without hesitation.

Jiro was a bit more apprehensive but eventually just sighed, "Fine but if we burn to death I'm going to kill you."

Izuku nodded and together he and Jiro helped Kirishima hobble down the street. They fell into silence as Izuku guided them down the blue line. Eventually they had to concede he was right, not only were they getting closer to the edge of the dome that contained the fire zone but the paths they were taking were almost completely free of any obstacles. Quite frankly it was like taking a casual stroll.

Well, except for the fact one of them had a broken leg and all three of them were producing enough sweat to fill a small pool.

As they walked Izuku used the silence to ponder over his new quirks. One was fairly obvious, some kind of laser or heat vision. It would be pretty simple use, all he had to do was push the

energy out of his eyes. But until he did use it he had no idea how powerful it would be, he didn't want to get into a friendly spar in class and tear someone in half with it. The quirk he was currently using seemed more passive, he wasn't completely sure how it worked but it clearly showed how to get to a desired location. How he activated it and the specific requirements of the quirk Izuku had no idea, but for now he at least had the basics down: Follow the blue line until you get to where you want to be. The final quirk was the most complex, Izuku at first guessed it was some kind of strength quirk but when he first gained the quirk there was no notable difference to his physical capabilities. It wasn't until he started moving that he noticed for each step he took he felt the smallest amount of energy flow into the quirk. Based on the weird dance the villain had been doing at the time and Izuku guessed the quirk was fueled by movement which he could store and unleash to increase his strength. It was nowhere near the level that the likes of Katsuki could achieve but with enough momentum Izuku theorised he might be able to hit as hard as those with mutant quirks such as Tsu.

His new guiding quirk was proving its use when the three students found the large doors of the exit of the fire zone. They practically fell through, Jiro and Izuku admittedly all but dropping Kirishima on the ground. But the redhead didn't care as all three of them gasped for breaths, taking in the cool air. As they all coughed a little Izuku suddenly realised how hot and sweaty he had become and he could feel his costume sticking to his skin and beads of sweat dripping down his face. He was half debating suggesting they head to the massive lake by the plaza instead.

"So what now?" Jiro asked as she sent her jacks out, keeping a listen out for any nearby villains.

"We should keep heading to the plaza, we need to help Aizawa and Thirteen." Izuku stated as he traced the blue line of his new quirk down the road that led to the main area of the USJ, he missed the look that Kirishima and Jiro exchanged.

"Are you insane!?" Jiro hissed, "We almost got our asses handed to us by three low level thugs and you want to go fight the leaders of them!"

Even Kirishima looked apprehensive at the idea, "I gotta agree with Jiro man. Normally I'd support you and it's super manly you want to help our teachers out, but those guys looked way too tough for a bunch of students. Not to mention my leg is broken, Jiro is covered in nasty burns and you look seconds away from collapsing completely."

Izuku winced, so he really did look as exhausted and beaten up as he felt, still he wouldn't let that deter him, "I'm not saying we should charge in guns blazing but we should at least scout the area and see if there's any help we can provide, even if it's just getting people out of there."

Jiro locked eyes with him and looked like she was going to argue but Izuku's own look of desperation made her pause. The pair of them had a silent conversation with their eyes, staring at

each other for a few moments while Kirishima awkwardly looked between the pair of them. Eventually Jiro relented with a frustrated grunt.

"Fine, but just scouting! I don't care what kind of freaky quirk you got, that massive monster looking thing looks like it could take any of us out with the flick of a finger." She cried and shivered slightly at the thought.

Izuku nodded in agreement, "Ok, we shouldn't have far to go then."

Jiro and Izuku once again hoisted Kirishima up and three limped down the path. The closer they got to the plaza the louder the sounds of battle became. It wasn't until they reached the plaza that they finally saw the full situation. They quickly ducked behind the small wall separating their path from the area of the battle and observed the scene.

"Holy shit…" Jiro whispered and Kirishima nodded in agreement.

Izuku's jaw clenched, it could hardly be called a battle at all. In the distance he could see Uraraka dragging a floating Thirteen and Aizawa up the stairs towards the entrance, the amount of blood trailing them made bile rise in Izuku's throat. Meanwhile Shigaraki was slowly removing the ice from around Kurogiri, presumably his quirk had something to do with disintegration as the ice was turning to dust where Shigaraki touched it. But what really made Izuku's stomach churn was watching Katsuki and Todoroki fight the two monsters the villains brought with them.

Well, fight was a strong word. The reality was more Katsuki using One For All to drag Todoroki around the plaza while the latter produced waves of ice and launched them out to freeze and slow down the two creatures. It was little more than a game of cat and mouse, the large black creature would charge at them, Katsuki would jump and Todoroki would freeze the creature solid. Seconds later the creature would escape and the scene would repeat.

To make matters worse it was obvious the pair were in just as bad a state, if not worse, than the Izuku, Kirishima and Jiro. Todoroki was shivering, chunks of ice forming on the side of his body and his ice waves were becoming smaller and weaker. Meanwhile Katsuki looked like he had been thrown through a meat grinder. He was covered in blood and much of his costume was in tatters. And Izuku knew one hit from the large black creature would probably kill either of them.

For the first time in his life Izuku felt his quirk recoil even despite the raw power emanating from the large black creature. And Izuku couldn't blame it, from this distance he was finally in range to get a good look at the monster's quirk energy. The first thing that was obvious was the fact the creature had multiple quirks, it had several different energies all flowing through it, almost like its

own nervous system made of a variety of colours. Yet each one felt wrong to Izuku, like it wasn't supposed to be there as if someone had just stapled an extra arm or leg onto a body. It made his stomach, and quirk, churn.

Yet despite the situation Izuku rose to his feet.

"What are you doing!?" Jiro screamed at him in a whisper and wrapped her jacks around his arm, forcing him back down beside her and Kirishima.

"I need to go help them!" Izuku hissed back, "Todoroki and Kacchan aren't strong enough to fight alone and our teachers are out of commission!"

"And you think you'll turn the tide!? They're getting their asses handed to them out there, you run in like a madman and you'll be killed!" Jiro whispered back though her voice was rising and there were tears forming in her eyes while her body shook, the signs of fear were everywhere on her.

"He's my brother!" Izuku responded with a near shout, "I can't just sit back and watch him!"

Both Izuku and Jiro were once again locked together looking at each other's eyes with Kirishima awkwardly between the two, not sure how to handle the situation.

"Fuck… FUCK…" Jiro said through gritted teeth and her jacks stabbed into the ground in frustration, "I get it ok! But I just… fuck I just finally made some fucking friends and now one of you is thinking of running to your death! It's so fucking stupid and anoying and-"

Jiro was cut off when Kirishima suddenly wrapped and arm each around her and Izuku, pulling them both in for a tight hug.

"I'm scared too," the redhead admitted in a much gentler voice than what Izuku and Jiro had been using, "But screaming at each other won't help anyone. Jiro, imagine if it was your family out there fighting, wouldn't you charge head first too?"

Jiro deflated at the words, silent tears streaming down her face, "I… yeah I would."

"But Midoriya," Kirishima said, turning his attention to Izuku, "You can't just run in there headfirst, you need a plan."

"Ok," Izuku said, calming down, "Ok… I need to keep the big guys distracted so people can escape. Right now I can hit hard but don't have a lot of protection so I'll need to stick close to Kacchan."

"It's a shame you don't have my quirk," Kirishima commented as he let the others go, "I'd be perfect for taking those hits but my leg is busted so I'm useless."

Izuku glanced over at Kirishima's quirk energy as the boy cradled his broken leg. Izuku shook his head, now wasn't the time.

"You guys should stay here or retreat slightly, most of the zones come out here so you can meet most of our class and organise to escape. Based on the level of thuh here it's safe to assume that everyone else should be ok, I think the only real threat is in the plaza." Izuku said as he rose to his feet.

"Ok but like, how exactly are you going to take on those monsters?" Jiro asked as she looked over the wall and winced as the claws of the thin creature missed Katsuki by a hair.

Izuku smiled and looked down at the pair, "I'm not."

Both looked up at him confused.

"Huh?" Kirishima asked.

"I'm not going to fight it at all… because I'm not the only madman about to charge in."

Katsuki was fucked.

He knew this the moment he and Todoroki started to battle (read run away) from The Mutt and

The Nomu. The reality was that whatever it was, The Nomu's power was on par with a top ten hero. Even with their powerful quirks all Katsuki and Todoroki were really doing was keeping the creatures distracted while Uraraka got their teachers to safety, if they tried to fight one on one they'd be trying to identify them both with dental records. Neither had even really done any damage to two beasts, Katsuki hadn't even landed one punch. And to make matters worse Shigaraki had nearly freed Kurogiri, meaning they were also about to be outnumbered two to one.

Katsuki watched the Nomu break out of another wave of ice before he heard the ice shatter, he grabbed Todoroki and leapt back. A moment later the area they had been standing in was shattered to a million pieces before being covered once again in a giant icicle that encased The Nomu. Next to him Todoroki was both shivering and covered in sweat as he overworked his quirk.

"How're you holding up Scarface?" Katsuki asked as he followed the cracks forming in the Nomu- icicle.

"I-I'm ok but my ice is getting weaker, soon it won't even stop it from attacking us." Todoroki said breathlessly as he reached over and had to physically pull chunks of ice off his arm.

"Fuck," Katsuki responded and clenched his fists, "If we leave they'll just chase Roundcheeks and teachers to the entrance and kill them. Not to mention the rest of the class, they'll all be slaughtered."

"Then what do you suggest?" Todoroki asked and turned his attention to Katsuki.

It was a rookie error, turning your back on the enemy, one that even Katsuki would admit he was surprised Todoroki would make. But make it he did and the second Todorki's back was turned there was a growl from behind him as The Mutt leaped over the pillars of ice and started to launch straight for duel haird teenagei.

Katsuki barely had time to react. He grabbed Todoroki and threw the boy behind him. Then, pushing his quirk into his arm, he met The Mutt face on. The creature tried to take a swing at him mid air but it was easy enough to side step before Katsuki launched his fist into The Mutt's side. Being off the ground with no support meant the Mutt was sent flying through the plaza. Katsuki grinned at the success.

Unfortunately he hadn't considered the few precious seconds he'd been distracted for. There was the sound of shattering ice from behind him and he could feel movement in the air. He didn't even have time to turn around before he felt a pair of hands throw him to the floor.

Katsuki landed with a thud and twisted round. He was met with the sight of Todoroki, standing where Katsuki had been moments ago with a pair of outstretched hands. Todoroki himself looked completely confused at his actions and made eye contact with Katsuki for a moment.

But it was only a moment before a huge black first appeared next to Todoroki and slammed into his side. Todoroki was sent flying across the plaza, his body twisted at an awkward angle before crashing into a nearby wall which collapsed over him. When the dust cleared there was no sign of Todoroki, just a pile of bricks and concrete.

Katsuki's face turned into a deep scowl, "You bastard!"

He leapt off the ground and took a swing at The Nomu. But of course the beast all but ignored it. Before he can even make contact Katsuki is thrown to the ground, pinned down by a foot the size of his entire upper body. He squirms under it, trying to push himself free but it's like trying to fight gravity. No matter how hard he punched, no matter how much he pushed himself it was like trying to break down a wall with sticks.

"FUCK YOU!" Katsuki roars, his voice carrying throughout the plaza and much of the USJ.

The pressure on his chest increases and he coughs up blood, The Nomu staring down at him with emotionless eyes as it slowly crushed him under its foot. There's no choice, if Katsuki doesn't do something he'll be dead in less than a minute. He calls on One For All but this time allows it to flow through his body at full strength, no limit to its power. The pain is immediate, it rips through his body as every muscle and bone he has tensed under the strength of the raw power. Red flames crackle and lash out all around his body as his eyes glow red and his hair waves with flickering power.

Katsuki pulled his arm back, it was going to hurt like hell and Recovery Girl would beat him half to death but it was the only chance he had of pushing this thing off him. He clenched his fists and felt the power in his arm as he pulled back.

"TEXAS SMAAAAAASH!"

Katsuki blinked. That wasn't him.

It was almost like watching a powerpoint with how fast everything moved. One minute Katsuki was looking up at The Nomu, the USJ ceiling behind it. Then suddenly All Might blinked into existence behind The Nomu before the next slide of Katsuki's life showed All Might standing there alone with an outstretched fist.

The entire plaza shook with the force of the punch and Katsuki had to cover his eyes from the dust that was picked up. The Nomu itself finally took some actual damage as it skidded along the plaza, chunks of the floor flying up as it dug its feet in to stop itself moving too far.

Katsuki scrambled back up to his feet, letting One For All fall back to his usual levels. His chest ached and he could feel the strain on his entire body. But he simply spit out a mouthful of blood and glared slightly at All Might who was standing next to him, his tie and blazer long forgotten with the rest of his suit torn up.

"It's about fucking time." Katsuki said to his predecessor who shot the boy an amused smile.

"Yes, my apologies, Young Bakugou. I was having some… issues. But there's no need to worry, because I am here!" All Mights voice boomed across the plaza but unlike his usual smiley outgoing demeanour the man turned to villains and gained a frown that even made Katsuki shiver.

Shigaraki however simply cackled with glee, "Finally! Now then All Might allow me to introduce you to the final boss, it's a bio-"

Shigaraki never got to finish his sentence before All Might launched himself forward. The air around the hero was whipped up to the point it was even more powerful than what Yoarashi could produce with his own quirk. All Might launched himself straight at Shigaraki, clearly going for the leader as he pulled his fist back, ready to turn the villain into a hospital patient.

But The Nomu reacted before All Might could reach Shigaraki. The two colossal beings clashed in the middle of the plaza, their fists connected with equal force. The shockwave from the clash shook the entire USJ, the floor surrounding the pair shattered while windows in the ceiling smashed and glass reigned down below.

The Nomu was once again forced back but only by a few feet. Once again the moment All Might stopped it became motionless. All Might's scowl deeped as he looked over the creature, despite the raw power of the punch it didn't have a scratch on it.

Under the hand covering his face Shigaraki's smile widened, "Shock absorption, that's one of The Nomu's quirks, even if-"

Once again All Might didn't let him finish and again threw himself forward with an immense amount of power. By this point it was obvious All Might was going directly for Shigaraki, take out the leader and the rest of the dominoes would fall. Even Shigaraki was surprised and stumbled back slightly as The Nomu jumped in front of him to meet All Might's punch.

But this time All Might didn't stop at one punch, another shockwave rang out before All Might launched his other fist at The Nomu's head. Quickly the pair became engrossed in the punching match, each meeting each other's fists in the air. They were a near perfect match, pound for pound meeting each other's speed.

The entire plaza was thrown into chaos as a result of the intense battle, shockwaves rang out and caused the wind to whip up. Trees were uprooted and cracks formed in the floor like a spiderweb from where the two titans fought it out.

Katsuki was so engrossed in the battle he almost missed the sound of something from behind him.

He jumped to his left, catching the glint of metal claws in the side of his eye. He landed back, crouching on his knees and fists raised. The Mutt landed a few feet away, swivelling on its feet to face Katsuki. Drool dripped from its mouth as it bared its fangs and its claws tapped on the ground like an animal, the clinking scratching in Katsuki's ears.

He clenched his fists and let One For All flow through him. With All Might taking on the Nomu he might actually stand a chance against The Mutt. But Todoroki was down for the count and one slice from those claws would mean Katsuki would be joining him. The Mutt was no joke, if he wanted to survive this fight he'd need to use everything he had.

"Hey Kacchan…"

Katsuki's head snapped round so fast he almost got whiplash. There, standing a few feet behind him, was Izuku. His brother's costume was burnt in several places and his hair was sticking to his head. But despite that Izuku had a wide smirk on and Katsuki could tell there was something… different about him.

Then, Izuku's eyes lit up red.

"Duck."

Chapter End Notes

Hi all, sorry for the shorter chapter this time, just felt like a natural stopping point! Once again thanks for all the kudos and comments!

The Wonder Duo vs The Mutt

Chapter Summary

All Might, Katsuki and Izuku battle it out with The Nomu and The Mutt

Without even knowing what was going on Katsuki didn't hesitate at Izuku's words and dived to the ground, getting as low as he could. The Mutt briefly snapped its attention from Katsuki to Izuku and tilted its head as if it was curious about the pair. Though The Mutt and Katsuki didn't have to wait long for answers before Izuku's eyes suddenly exploded.

Two beams of red energy shot out of his eyes and roared across the plaza. The Mutt didn't even have time to react before it was hit square in the chest by the red beams. It let out a strangled cry as its claw scraped across the ground while it was slowly pushed back by the force.

Katsuki didn't wait around to be impressed, he rolled out from under the beams and jumped to his feet. He quickly sprinted up to The Mutt and his quirk lit up his body. Moments before Katsuki reached his target Izuku turned off his red beams, leaving the Mutt wide open for attack. Not wasting the opportunity Katsuki leapt into the air, aiming both his feet out for a jump kick. His feet slammed directly into The Mutts chest and sent it rolling down the plaza. Katsuki landed down on his feet, fists raised and renewed vigour flowing through him which made him smile wide.

"Ow… fuck that hurt."

Izuku's voice caused Katsuki to gance to his right, Izuku had run up beside him but was clearly having a reaction to his new quirk. His eyes were bloodshot red and were filled with tears, Izuku himself looked to be in pain.

"Nice quirk." Katsuki commented as he turned his attention back to The Mutt.

"Thanks," Izuku said and shot the boy a smirk, "Hurts like a son of a bitch though."

Katsuki snorted, "At least it doesn't break your bones."

"Point taken." Izuku responded as another shockwave ripped through the plaza.

The boys glanced to their left where All Might and The Nomu continued to exchange blows. The area around the battle was now little more than rubble and even Katsuki had trouble flowing the speed of the fight. Shigaraki had fallen back, unable to get too close to the two titans, while Kurogiri remained partially frozen, unable to provide any real support. Shigaraki appeared to be trying to go on some long monologue to All Might about how The Nomu was bio-engineered to kill him, yet All-Might chose to ignore the man, instead holding a look of pure fury as he clashed with the beast.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow at Shigaraki's words however. Bio-engineered? That would explain why the pair of them were so freaky looking. Speaking of which his and Izuku's own attention was drawn back to The Mutt which had managed to get back on its feet. The skin on its chest had gone from a pale brown to a charred black with sections of it peeling off and even bubbling, meanwhile it looked like Katsuki had completely shattered several of its ribs as blood dripped from its mouth. Despite its non-human features it appeared to be enraged as it stared down at the two brothers.

"Call it," Katsuki spoke to Izuku as the pair eyed up The Mutt.

"It's got multiple quirks," Izuku informed the boy in a near monotone, "Best guess is that they're not natural quirks, matches with what hand-man is saying.. From what I can tell it has all mutant based quirks, various animal like ones like that of Gang Orca, though no emitter type quirks. It's fast, tough and smart but it's predictable."

"Can you take any of its quirks?" Katsuki asked as the boys kept a sharp eye on the creature, both sides frozen and unmoving as they stared each other down.

Izuku shook his head, "No, I've got borderline quirk exhaustion with my own quirk from taking three others earlier. Not to mention how powerful that thing is, I'd need full concentration and at least a few minutes to even take just one of its quirks when I'm at full strength. Plus… its quirks feel wrong… honestly I'm not sure even my hunger wants to take them."

Katsuki raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment, no matter how hard Izuku might try Katsuki would never truly understand the way he felt and saw quirks. He doubted anyone else on the planet saw them the way Izuku did.

"Looks like we'll have to take it down the old fashioned way," Katsuki said with a feral grin as he cracked his knuckles, "Ideas?"

"It's faster than both of us and with those claws it only needs one strike to put us down permanently. But it's got no range and it won't be as strong as you are and there's two of us. Oh, I've also gained a weak strength quirk, I need to keep moving for it to work but it should mean I can keep up with you both to some extent in close combat." Izuku informed Katsuki as he mentally ticked off the list of notes that had appeared in his head as he observed The Mutt.

Katsuki nodded, "In which case, you use those laser eyes to keep pestering it, I'll go in for the big hits with my quirk while we both skirt around its attacks. If we make sure to both continue the assault it won't be able to focus on one of us and we can negate its speed advantage. Just make sure to keep moving, otherwise it's bound to get those claws into you."

Izuku turned to Katsuki and gave him a smirk and mock salute, "Yes sir captain sir."

Katsuki snorted before his grin grew even wider, "Now then Zuzu… LET'S FUCKING KILL THIS BASTARD!"

The brothers moved in perfect sync, launching into a sprint at the exact same moment. The Mutt let out an ear piercing screech that echoed throughout the USJ before it charged forward on all fours, its claws scratching along the concrete floor as it moved.

Despite moving at the same time Katsuki quickly drew ahead with his superior speed as he closed the distance to The Mutt. The creature locked onto him and swung its clawed hand out. But before it could make contact red beams flew over Katsuki's shoulder and hit The Mutt square in the face. It cried out and was thrown off balance, its swing missing Katsuki by a wide margin as Izuku cut off the brief assault from his new quirk.

Katsuki continued forward, getting into The Mutts face. He quickly shot out two jabs with his fists, The Mutt cried out as one landed in its eye while the other slammed into its already damaged chest.

The beast stumbled back, one of its insect-like eyes bent into its head like a deflated basketball. It snapped its attention directly at Katsuki who was forced to dive back when it crushed its jaw together where Katsuki's head had been moments ago.

Katsuki remained light of his feet and dodged another swing before launching another few japs at the beast. Each one seemed to infuriate The Mutt more and more as Katsuki continued his onslaught of attacks. Eventually though The Mutt did recover and with a growl forced Katsuki to take a leap back, his stomach just inches from getting sliced open.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for the brothers) The Mutt hadn't bothered to keep track of Izuku. The beast reared back on its hind legs ready to attack when suddenly a short green boy slid between said legs from behind it. The Mutt had a moment to look down before red beams shot out from underneath it as Izuku slid through.

Izuku swivelled and jumped to his feet, cutting off the beams. He stood next to Katsuki and started to dance on his feet, swinging his arms around as he did.

"You look fucking ridiculous." Katsuki commented as he lined up The Mutt in his sights.

"Could be worse, at least I don't look like a walking fireworks display." Izuku shot back as he moved away from Katsuki, who was surrounded by the energy of One For All, and started to circle The Mutt.

Katsuki snorted before the pair charged at the same time. A quick blast from Izuku threw The Mutt off course before Katsuki launched a punch directly into its jaw. There was a sickening crack as a few razor sharp teeth went flying to the ground.

The Mutt's head snapped back only to be met with a kick from Izuku who had jumped into the air. He kicked The Mutt cleanly in the face before using the beast itself to launch himself further into the air and into a backflip.

Landing on bent knees with hand on the ground to support himself, Izuku instantly looked right back at The Mutt and unleashed his beams. They ripped into the side of the creature, the red energy looked significantly thicker and brighter this time around and Katsuki could smell the scent of burning flesh as The Mutt cried out before Izuku shut his beams off. The Mutt limped back slightly, its attention snapping between the two boys.

"Show off," Katsuki said with an eye roll.

Izuku chuckled before Katsuki charged forward once again, still in pain The Mutt was unable to respond. Charging up One For All to as high as he dared before bones would break, Katsuki pulled back and punched The Mutt with as much force as he could. There was a great bang as his fist made contact with the beast and even a small shockwave as The Mutt was sent flying through the air and crashing to the floor. It crumpled under its own weight and didn't get back up again.

Izuku let out a gasp of air and collapsed to his knees, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and his whole

body shaking slightly, "You know Kacchan, that was pretty showy off yourself."

Katsuki snorted and smirked, "Yeah well-"

"Aaarrghhh!"

Katsuki and Izuku's attention was drawn over to the battle between The Nomu and All Might as the latter cried out. The Nomu had finally managed to get a punch through onto the hero, this wouldn't have been a major issue except the blow hand landed directly on All Mights injury. The man cried out, blood spewing from his mouth as he fell down on one knee.

The Nomu pressed the attack, launching blow after blow against a struggling All Might who couldn't keep up. A fist snapped his head to the side, another smashed into his shoulder and his arm throbbed as it took a blow. More blood coughed up out of the man's mouth before The Nomu changed tactics.

It swung one of its tree trunk sized legs directly into All Mights side. There was a loud crash and boom as the shockwave forced Izuku and Katsuki to raise their arms over their heads. All Might let out a shout before he was launched across the plaza and out into the nearby lake. He hit the lake with such force that for a brief moment it looked like it started to rain in the plaza.

Everyone in the area stared out at the waters which had suddenly turned into a rough ocean storm. Realising All Might wasn't about to leap out of the depths to resume the fight, everyone slowly turned their heads back, Shigaraki and The Nomu turning to look directly at Katsuki and Izuku.

"Fuck," Katsuki swore.

Then everything moved. Izuku instantly let out his red beams with a cry, hitting The Nomu directly in the chest. But unlike The Mutt the creature barely reacted. The Nomu shot forward like a bullet despite its size. Before Katsuki even had time to react the creature was standing over Izuku and plucked the boy up in its massive hand. Izuku's laser eyes were cut off and he let out a scream as he felt the sheer force of The Nomu's grip.

"ZUZU!" Katsuki screamed as his eyes widened in horror and he charged forward.

The Numo didn't even look at Katsuki. It merely threw out its other arm and backhanded the boy.

Katsuki felt several ribs crack as he was thrown through the air and slammed back into the ground. He quickly got himself up, despite the pain and stopped breathing at the sight that met him.

Izuku was firmly in The Nomu's grip, he fought against it but the beast's raw power was far too high for him to have any real impact. Not to mention his eyes were practically nothing but blood red and swollen, clearly having overused his new quirk and he was unable to activate it. Meanwhile, The Nomu stood frozen, simply looking at Izuku with an expressionless face. On its chest it's skin bubbled and burned, yet Katsuki watched as it slowly started to grow back until it was completely healed, as if Izuku had never once attacked it.

Then The Nomu squeezed.

Izuku let out an ear piercing scream which ripped through Katsuki and into his very soul. There was a sickening crunch as Izuku coughed up blood and Nomu's hand started to close. All the while Shigaraki watched on with a look of pure glee.

Katsuki let out a roar and started to charge The Nomu. But the moment he went to run he collapsed as a searing pain shot up his right leg. He fell to the ground and clutched at it, realising with a curse that his leg was in fact broken. He desperately turned and funnelled One For All into his body to force himself to move but even he knew he was going to slowly.

Meanwhile Izuku's entire body was being torn apart, he couldn't breath and his mouth was filled with blood. He could literally feel bones snapping in his body as the pain washed over him, he couldn't feel his legs and his ears popped before the sounds around him vanished completely. He screamed but heard nothing. He desperately started to reach out with his quirk, anything that would help him. He could feel his ribs collapse like cardboard and slice into his lungs, his sight went blurry as the pressure built behind his eyes and his blood seeped through the fingers of The Nomu. Izuku begged with his quirk, with his hunger, to take anything, anything at all as blackness slowly took over his mind.

On the outside Katsuki could only watch in horror as a horrible crunching filled the plaza and Izuku's body went limp in The Nomu's hand. The plaza was thrown into silence as The Nomu observed Izuku's corpse, blood still seeping from its hand. There was a pause before the beast threw Izuku's body off into the distance.

"N-No…" Katsuki whispered, his entire world crashing around him, he didn't know what to do, how to react, what to-

"DIEEEEEE!"

The lake next to plaza exploded, great waves rose into the air as All Might came crashing out. Katsuki had never seen such a look of pure rage on the hero's face as he let out a primal cry of raw anger directed at The Nomu. Even Katsuki flinched back in terror. All Might launched himself across the plaza, the ground beneath him shattering from the force and he pulled his fist back and for the first time Katsuki could see the raw power of One For All sparking along the man's body in the form of pure white sparks as All Might poured every ounce of power he had into the punch.

All Might punched The Nomu with the power of 8 generations of One For All and his unbridled rage fueling him.

Nedzu sipped his tea with a slight frown, not due to the tea of course. The tea was delicious. But rather it was his staff fouling his appreciation of his favourite drink. Privately he had to admit he had been waiting for something to go wrong with Yagi. It had taken the combined forces of Gran Torino, Sir Nighteye and the head of The HPSC to convince him to go along with All Might's plan to teach at UA. And even then it had only been after Nedzu had confided in Recovery Girl that the principle finally agreed.

Afterall top heroes didn't automatically make top teachers and just because Yagi had scraped his way through a 6 month online teaching course to gain a licence didn't mean he was suddenly qualified to teach at a school as prestigious as UA. But Recovery Girl had pointed out that with the exception of her and Torino very few heroes made it past the age of 50 and remained in the profession. And to be the number one hero while at that age was unheard of. So even if he didn't have teaching qualities the man was still an expert in heroics with literal decades of experience.

Yet Nedzu had been surprised by Yagi's approach to his lessons. He'd clearly knuckled down and thought them out providing a balance of theoretical and practical lessons. He was also a natural at keeping the attention of the class even if the topic might be on the dull side. Not to mention even after his secret was revealed he got on well with the entire staff of UA, even Aizawa was gaining a begrudging respect for the man.

But of course eventually it had to go wrong. All Might's time limit was always going to be an issue and he had yet to fully comprehend the true duties of a teacher. It was more than just giving a lecture, it was about guiding the next generation to a better future. And sometimes that required sacrifice. Yet Yagi had yet to appreciate just what that sacrifice meant. Not that Nedzu could completely blame the man.

His ponderings were interrupted when the entirety of UA started to shake. Pictures flew off the walls and Nedzu's tea spilled right out of the cup as his entire office vibrated. Several soft screams

and cries of shock could be heard through his open window as the entire school felt like it was in a snowglobe. Then as quickly as it came it was gone and Nedzu's mind raced.

An earthquake? No, it didn't feel like an earthquake, too fast and powerful.

An accident in the support labs? Can't be, they were designed to take explosions to a near atomic level

A quirk? Impossible, the only person Nedzu knew of who's quirk had that much strength behind it was-

"Code red! Code red!" Nedzu shouted as his hand slammed onto a button on his desk and alarms blared throughout the school and his voice echoed through speakers in every location, "All teachers to the USJ immediately! This is not a drill! I repeat this is not a drill!"

The USJ was nearly torn apart by the power of All Might's punch. The Nomu was thrown across the plaza like it had been spat out of a giant's mouth as if it was an unwanted meal. Katsuki was tossed back by the shock wave as the entire floor of the plaza was torn up and sent flying. Trees were uprooted and torn apart, giant cracks formed in the wall of the USJ and the entire building flickered as the power nearly gave out. The very building itself creaked and dipped at an angle slightly as its foundations crumbled to dust from the power of the punch. Katsuki felt like he had never left the ruins zone.

The Nomu slammed into the ground and bounced slightly before stopping. Yet Shigaraki just let out another raspy laugh.

"Hahahaha, impressive All Might! But even if you can get past The Nomu's shock absorption you're still no match for its true potential!" Shigaraki cried and pointed dramatically at The Nomu which was pulling itself off the ground.

All Might had definitely got past the shock absorption quirk. Half The Nomu's body was gone including one arm, its organs were spilling out onto the floor and there was practically a waterfall of blood pouring from the gaping wound. Katsuki had to hold back vomit when he saw the literal black beating heart of the creature protruding from its chest. Its face was mangled and beak broken hanging off its jaw by a few threads of flesh, it was a miracle the thing could stand up.

Shigaraki frowned, "Huh? Why isn't it healing? You- YOU CHEATERS! WHAT DID YOU-"

All Might's response was to cry out in rage and launch himself at Shigaraki who fell back in fear. Despite it's injuries The Nomu threw itself in front of it's master yet again though it was unable to do anything other than take the direct hit. The Nomu was thrown to the ground with the force of All Mights punch. Yet the hero didn't let up, he stood over The Nomu and unleashed years of pent up fury into the creature, pelting punch after punch into it. A crater slowly formed around the pair as All might roared at the top of his voice.

"YOU KILLED HIM! HE WAS A CHILD AND YOU KILLED HIM!" All Might's voice carried throughout the USJ and shattered several lights, "HE WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY! MY STUDENT! HE WAS MY FAMILY!" All Might continued to shout, slamming fist after fist into The Nomu which had long since stopped moving. The entire plaza and USJ shook with each impact yet the more All Might unleashed his wrath the more steam started to slowly rise from him.

"All Might stop!"

Katsuki's desperate cry with his own quirk carried across the plaza and managed to make All Might pause in his attacks. Tha Nomu was little more than a pile of flesh and bones at this point and All Might's shirt was covered in blood. Katsuki even flinched slightly when All Might turned to him with a ferocious look and wild eyes. But the moment he saw Katsuki, the boy bloody and broken with silent tears on his face, All Might nearly collapsed, the fight leaving him an instant as he realised the situation.

"My apologies Young Bakugou, I got rather carried away. Now then, villains, it's time for you to leave." All Might said, his eyes looked tired but he held a determined look for the villains as he turned to face Kurogiri who had finally freed himself from the ice.

All Might was bluffing. All Might knew it and Katsuki knew it. He'd gone well over his limit and there was a steady amount of steam rising from his body, he was about to change back into Yagi and barely had enough power to stand let alone fight the combined strength of Kurogiri and Shigaraki. Wait, where was Shigaraki?

"Die to you damn hero brat!"

Katsuki snapped his head to his side to be met with the wide manic smile of Shigaraki and an outstretched hand. His whole body froze and his eyes widened as the entire world slowed down.

He'd seen Shigaraki use his quirk on the ice, his entire face was about to disintegrate. Katsuki tried to move but his body wouldn't react, he could only watch as the fingers drew closer.

"Get away from him!"

Katsuki and Shigaraki blinked in confusion before looking to their side. Both had just enough time to allow their jaws to drop and eyes to widen in surprise before Shigaraki was thrown to the ground by a small green haired teenager. Izuku laid two clean fists into Shigaraki as the villain stumbled back in shock, almost unable to stay on his feet.

"How the fuck… you damn cheating NPCs!" Shigaraki growled and swung at Izuku.

On instinct Izuku held up his arm to block the blow. But instead of punching him Shigiraki opened his palm and grabbed Izuku's exposed forearm on his left side. Instantly Izuku cried out as his skin melted away to dust, exposing muscle and bone which also quickly started to turn grey and flake away. Izuku scrambled back but by the time he was out of Shigaraki's grip his entire arm below the elbow had turned to dust.

Katsuki felt bile rise in the back of his throat as he caught sight of the stump that had once been Izuku's arm. Grey flakes were still falling from it, the after effects of Shigaraki's quirk, and there was blood dripping down from the exposed flesh and muscle.

Izuku himself stumbled back, his face pale and eyes wide. He let out a scream that made Shigaraki smirk and Katsuki choke. But he then snapped his mouth shut and grimaced, breathing heavily. Then, his arm started to grow back.

It was small at first and Katsuki only noticed when Izuku's own attention went to the stump of his arm. First the bone started to regrow, a horrible snapping sound as it rebuilt itself. Then his muscles and blood vessels grew around it, wrapping the bone up like a christmas present on halloween. Then lastly came the skin, spreading over the muscle like he was pulling on the sleeve of a flesh wet suit. Finally, a few seconds after it started Izuku's entire arm was back, even to the fingers.

Izuku blinked.

Katsuki blinked.

Shigaraki screamed.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! WHY DOES YOURS WORK BUT NO THE NOMUS DOESN'T!? CHEATERS!"

Shigaraki lunged forward again with an outstretched hand, this time going for Izuku's face. But he was interrupted when a great boom filled the plaza. Shigaraki was thrown completely off balance as he was surrounded by soundwaves that blared into Katsuki and Izuku's ears. At the other end Jiro stood, shaking slightly as the speakers on her legs threw out the powerful attack.

Shigaraki was forced back, several of his hands flying off his costume. Izuku quickly moved to Katsuki, hoisting him to his feet. Jiro unplugged her jacks, she looked completely terrified and her body was shaking like a wind chime but she had a determined fire to her eyes.

Shigaraki glanced at the three students before slamming his feet on the ground, "Kurogiri!"

Izuku and Katsuki raised an eyebrow, it was like watching a toddler throw a temper tantrum because their friends wouldn't play their game.

Kurogiri just sighed and straightened his tie, "Of course Shigaraki."

The villain raised his hands out and the students plus All Might panicked, though Jiro had no idea the real reason was because All Might could do nothing. The mist around Kurogiri started to swirl once again and Izuku and Katsuki could feel the hair on the back of their necks stand up.

Then, before he could open a single portal, Kurogiri was hit head on by a massive tornado. It slammed into his chest and the mist man was launched up into the air. He travelled rather gracefully before crashing down next to Shigaraki, the suit he was wearing tearing in several places.

All eyes followed the whirlwind that was slowly disappearing back to Yoarashi who was standing on the edge of the flood zone, hovering above the ground while Ashido and Asui stood below him. Yoarashi had an angry expression on his face that Izuku and Katsuki had never seen before and was directing it towards Shigaraki and Kurogiri. And, while not as intimidating, Asui and Ashido both held their own determined looks.

There was a crash to everyone's right and their attention was drawn to a wall that had just exploded outwards, rubble flying in all directions. From the dust Iida charged through, his metal suit scratched and bent but otherwise it seemed to have remained intact. From behind Iida Yaoyorozu made her way through the smoke, a bo-staff in her hands. Her ponytail had come undone and her hair was a mess but she appeared to be unharmed.

Iida ran into the middle of the plaza, standing next to Jiro and dramatically pointing at Shigaraki pulling a pose that looked straight out of a Saturday morning children's cartoon, "Villain! I order you to stand down in the name of the law!"

Izuku could literally feel Katsuki's eyeroll.

Before Shigaraki could respond there was a boom from above and it felt like a wash of cool air rushed into the USJ. Everyone's attention was drawn to the top of the stairs leading to the entrance where the complete set of UA staff now stood. Even from this distance Izuku and Katsuki could see the fury on Nedzu's face as he stared down at the situation.

Kurogiri seemed to realise how bad the situation was and how outmatched the last two villains had become, "Shigaraki, quickly we must get out of here."

Shigaraki however didn't seem to care that they were now outnumbered nearly ten to one and instead chose to throw another temper tantrum, "No no no no! It's not fair! They cheated! Cheaters! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

Shigaraki made eye contact with Izuku who felt a chill go up his spine. But before the villain could do anything else Kurogiri seemed to decide enough was enough. Before anyone could react he opened up a portal right next to himself and Shigaraki and dragged the latter through kicking and screaming, literally.

The moment the portal closed Izuku could literally feel the relief wash over everyone, even Katsuki's shoulders untensed slightly. But it only lasted for a moment before pandemonium started once again.

"We must go save the rest of our class!"

"Fuck that, what if there are other villains around!?"

"Shit shit shit, some of you guys look seriously wounded, what do we do?"

"All Might! Are you ok!?"

That last one caught Izuku's attention and he and Katsuki made eye contact with All Might, steam rapidly rising off his body and looking slightly smaller than five minutes ago. He locked eyes with Izuku and Katsuki and they could see the look of panic in his blue orbs. He was about to turn back into Yagi in front of half the class. The teachers were making their way over but not nearly quick enough to stop what was about to happen, not to mention the spreading chaos among the students present. Someone needed to take charge.

"Everybody stop it and calm down!" Izuku's shout wasn't as loud as most but it reverberated around the plaza and stopped everyone in their tracks as they all turned their attention to him.

"We need to remain calm and let our teachers do their job, the best thing we can do right now is evacuate out the front as calmly as we can." Izuku didn't shout but his words were firm enough that everyone seemed to relax slightly.

"Yaoyorozu, Todoroki is under that pile of rubble by the collapsed wall, he's alive but needs serious medical attention. Create a first aid kit and try to help him as best you can until the teachers and Recovery Girl arrive. Yoarashi, help and move the rubble." Yoarashi nodded and ran over while Yoayoroze had already started to produce bandages and supplies before Izuku had even finished talking.

"Iida, Kirishima is injured and needs to be carried out of here. Jiro can take you to him, his leg is broken so be careful when lifting him." Izuku ordered and Jiro and Iida gave him both a nod.

"Of course Class President! I won't let you down! Come Jiro!" Iida cried before giving Izuku a genuine salute and racing over to follow a slightly panicked looking Jiro.

"Everyone else come with me and Kacchan to evacuate, let's leave All Might and the teachers to do their work. Ashido, you can support them by keeping track of our class, making sure everyone is accounted for." Izuku said as Asui and Ashido made their way over to him and Kacchan, Ashido giving Izuku a salute that was far more mocking in tone than the one Iida had provided.

The teachers soon made it down to the plaza and ran over to the groups of students. Vlad King did a quick look over the four making their way to exit and seemed to decide they didn't need urgent

attention. And in all the rapid chaos and movement, nobody noticed a large puff of steam appear in the plaza nor the fact that All Might had vanished and a tall thin man had slinked away from the main group.

"I said I'm fucking fine damn it!"

"You don't look fine."

"ARE YOU CALLING ME UGLY!"

"Kacchan you've always been ugly."

Katsuki scowled at Izuku as Izuku held him by the arm to stop him storming out the back of the ambulance they were sitting in. Because they had of course refused to be seen by separate EMT's. Said paramedic scoffed slightly as she checked the tear in Katsuki's back.

"You know I remember you two." She commented as she thread several stitches into Katsuki's skin, the boy barely flinched, if there was one thing Katsuki held above Izuku it was his inhuman pain tolerance.

"Huh!?" Katsuki asked, twisting his round to look at the woman in confusion.

"The sludge villain incident. You were those two damn crazy kids that got mixed up in it, you probably don't remember but I was the EMT who patched you up then too. Glad to see some things don't change but hey, congrats on getting into hero school… although maybe that's not the best thing to say right now." The EMT made an awkward smile and Katsuki just rolled his eyes as she finished up his stitches.

There were ambulances dotted about the grounds, far away from the USJ due to the remaining villain presence. Nearly every single one had at least one student from Class 1-A in the back being looked over. Several minor healing heroes had been called in to assist and a small tent set up in the centre. Family members of the class had also started to trickle in, many of them cornering Nedzu and demanding answers. The Bakugou and Midoriya household had yet to arrive but Izuku knew when they did it wouldn't be pretty.

Luckily however most of the class had gotten away with little more than cuts and bruises. Katsuki, Kirishima and Todoroki had the worst of it with Todoroki needing to be airlifted to hospital along with Aizawa and Thirteen, Recovery Girl travelling with them to assist. Izuku could hardly look at Todoroki's broken and battered body as Vlad King and Snipe had carried him past the class on a stretcher provided by Yaoyorozu. The rumour was Endeavor had nearly burnt down his entire agency when he was informed.

As well as ambulances the USJ had a near solid ring of police cars and vans surrounding it, several heroes had been called in to assist the clean up although they weren't really required. The canon fodder Shigaraki had hired had been just that, canon fodder, the fact that nearly 200 so called villains had been mostly been subdued by a group of teenagers and two teachers spoke volumes of their capabilities. Most were simply school drop out thugs after a cheap paycheck. But that didn't mean precautions weren't being taken.

So far Izuku had heard nothing about the three quirks he had taken. And quite frankly, he had no intention of giving them back. Those three thugs had attacked him and his friends with the intent on killing them, as far as Izuku was concerned they didn't deserve quirks.

The EMT finally finished Katsuki's last stitch and stood up, "Well, that's you all done. Your quirk is speeding up your healing so you should be fine by tomorrow and those stitches are designed to dissolve harmlessly in your body, just have a good shower tomorrow afternoon and you'll be good."

Katsuki just grunted in response and put his gym shirt over his head, his costume having been taken to the support labs for repairs. He winced slightly though more out of exhaustion than any real pain.

"You on the other hand," The EMT said and turned to Izuku, "Physically you're completely fine, in fact you're better than fine. It's like you just woke up after a perfect night's rest. I dunno what the hell your quirk is but it's pretty much keeping you in peak condition. On the flip side however you have quirk exhaustion, in fact it nearly got to the point your quirk would have needed to shut down and knock you out before you did permanent damage to it."

Izuku's gaze drifted slightly, he had noticed how his hunger had all but vanished since he'd left the USJ, almost like it was asleep. And the EMT was right, honestly he felt better walking out the USJ than he had walking in.

"Young Bakugou, Midoriya!"

Yagi suddenly appeared from between the lines of ambulances, a fresh shirt and pants on as he ran up to the pair. He looked unharmed but utterly exhausted.

"Are you alright my boys?" He asked and looked at them both.

"Of course we fucking are, what, you think those amutures could really do anything to me!?" Katsuki claimed and sat up slightly.

"They're fine," The EMT said with an amused smile, "Blonde kid needs some rest but his quirk is doing most of the work. Green kid has quirk exhaustion but other than that is the living image of a healthy lifestyle. Are you their family?"

Yagi paused and spluttered slightly at the question, "Oh… well-"

"Yes." Both Izuku and Katsuki responded in unison, surprising both each other and themselves.

Yagi too seemed shocked and for a moment it looked like that man was going to burst into tears, "U-Uh… Y-yes, we're family."

The EMT nodded and grabbed several cases, "Ok, good. I'm going to help out the other units. You can take them home."

With one last nod she turned and walked into the maze of flashing lights. Katsuki popped his shoulders as Izuku sighed.

"How is everyone else?" Izuku asked a little nervously, he didn't want to hear about his classmates being hunted but he had a responsibility as class president.

Yagi gave a sigh, "Better than we had feared, worse than we had hoped." They were harsh words but he knew the boys in front of him better than most and they needed the truth, "Most of your classmates are relatively unharmed, a few broken bones and mentally they're shaken up but largely ok. It was really only you two and Todoroki who suffered serious damage."

Izuku shuddered. He may have been completely healed up but the memory of his ribs being crushed and lungs burst like balloons wouldn't be going away anytime soon. Katsuki too frowned though Izuku guessed that was more due to having actually been hurt than feeling any real pain. Taking damage was a failure in Katsuki's eyes.

"And… Todoroki?" Izuku asked, his heart skipped a beat as Yagi paused to answer.

"He's likely to recover," Izuku and Katsuki let out a breath of relief, "But… they'll be complications. His spine was broken and legs twisted and he spent twenty minutes being crushed under a pile of rubble while bleeding out. It's unclear how mobile he's going to be but Recovery Girl is the best healing based hero on the planet, he may even be back in school next week."

Izuku felt his shoulders sag, "Well… it could be worse I suppose and… Aizawa and Thirteen?"

Yagi's face fell considerably and for the first time Izuku could see the wrinkles of age on them, "Aziawa will recover, in time. He was only hit once but it caused a massive amount of blunt force trauma, he nearly lost a lung and is going to need surgery even with Recovery Girls quirk. And Thirteen… Thirteen is going to retire from heroics."

Izuku gasped and even Katsuki looked shocked and a little shaken up.

Yagi gave them a sad smile, "They'll survive and mostly have a decent life to retire on. But they've lost an arm and their nerves are damaged, they may never walk again. Compared to the amount of blood they lost and how long they were hurt before treatment, there's also a risk of brain damage."

The mood was instantly brought down. Izuku looked down in his lap and felt hollow. He'd spent his entire life pushing back against quirk discrimination but for the first time he could remember he felt like maybe some people really were just born with evil quirks who could only do harm.

"FUCK!" Katsuki shouted and slammed his fist into the side of the ambulance, the result was a large dent and the vehicle shaking slightly.

"I'm fucking sorry ok!" Katsuki continued much to Izuku's confusion.

"Huh?" Izuku asked with a tilt of his head, "What for?"

Katsuki shut his eyes tightly and clenched his fists, like apologising was causing him physical pain. Which it probably was.

"I thought… I thought if I took that mist fucker out I'd end things quickly. Be the hero and save everyone but instead… instead I fucked everything up. And now three people are hurt and Zuzu, you almost died because I fucked up. It's all my fucking fault. Despite everything I still can't do anything right! I'm still so fucking USELESS AND WEAK!" By this point Katsuki had tears streaming down his face and Izuku could see the guilt wracking him.

"That's not true," Izuku said firmly, "You did nothing wrong! Right Sensei?"

Yagi paused and gave both Izuku and Katsuki a long look before answering, "You made a mistake Bakugou."

A silent sob racked Katsuki's body and Izuku turned with a furious expression to Yagi but the man held up his hand before they could repeat the incident on top of the building when they first met.

"You miscalculated an attack and took a risk, it was a mistake. One of many you will make in your life. You think I don't make mistakes? This entire day has been one mistake after another for me. Yes, you made a mistake. But your actions also saved lives, Uraraka, Todoroki and myself are all alive because of you. Not to mention the rest of your class. Learn from your mistakes, they're the most valuable life lessons you'll receive. Do that and you'll be a far better hero than I ever was." Yagi finished with a smile and laid his hand on Katsuki's shoulder who angrily rubbed the tears out his eyes and nodded his head. Izuku felt very out of place, like he was interrupting a moment he wasn't supposed to be a part of.

"Izuku Midoriya?"

Izuku blinked and turned to look outside of the ambulance, at its entrance stood a tall broad man with piercing blue eyes. He was dressed in what looked like a police uniform but it was completely black and patches of it look like armour.

"And you are?" Yagi asked with a frown though there was recognition in his eyes.

"Agent Shido, head of The HPSC police unit, security clearance Level 0." The man informed and looked Yagi up and down, clearly indicating he knew who he was actually talking to.

"Uh, yes. I'm Izuku Midoriya." Izuku responded, noticing how Yagi's frown deepened and decided to avoid a confrontation.

"Good," Shido said and reached behind his back, three sets of eyes widened when he pulled out a pair of thick looking handcuffs.

"Izuku Midoriya, you're under arrest for illegal quirk usage and the illegal theft of several quirks."

Inko Midoriya: Attorney At Law

Chapter Summary

As the HPSC tried to arrest Izuku they just have one major obstacle to get through first: his mother

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Katsuki was the first to react.

"Like hell he is!" Katsuki shouted and jumped in front of Izuku, his quirk flaring to life as he narrowed his eyes at the man.

The now identified Shido stepped back slightly, his hand resting on the gun he had in his holster, "Calm down kid, I'm not above slapping a pair of these on you too."

Izuku felt hollow as the scene unfolded, it was like a gaping wound had opened up in his chest and he felt nothing. All he could do was sit there as his mind shut down. For a brief moment his life had been going well, for the first time he felt like he was on the path to becoming a hero. But of course the HPSC had kept their eye on him and apparently they weren't ready to let him go about taking quirks.

"That's enough Bakugou," Yagi said in a commanding tone as he stopped forward between the boys and Shido, an angry scowl on his face, "What's the meaning of this Shido? Midoriya used his quirk just like the rest of the class for self defence and I don't see you arresting anyone else."

Shido frowned at Yagi, the distaste on face evident for all to see, "This is a police matter All Might, it doesn't concern you," The man spat, "But if you must know, Midoriya has taken three quirks from civilians and it appears he has no intention of returning them, thus I'm arresting him to ensure this happens."

"Don't try to fool me into thinking there's a law that specifically covers the technicalities of Midoriya's quirk." Yagi said and refused to budge despite Shido getting more aggravated, "What Midoriya did was in self-defence, you have no right to arrest him."

"Self-defence?" Shido scoffed, "By law self-defence must be proportionate to the attack, I see no circumstance in which permanently stealing someone's quirk is a proportional response."

"They were trying to fucking kill us!" Katsuki shouted from his position in front of Izuku, apparently he had decided he no longer wanted to leave the situation down to Yagi.

"That's yet to be proven," Shido said with a roll of his eyes.

"Has to be fucking proven? ARE YOU BLIND!? THREE PEOPLE ARE IN THE HOSPITAL!" Katsuki screeched, his knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists, even Yagi seemed to have decided this was complete bullshit and made no move to stop Katsuki as he stepped forward.

"Both of you get out of my way or I'll arrest you too. You think All Might is special? Nobody is above the law. I'll make sure all three of you rot in Tartarus." Shido growled as he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the feral face of Katsuki.

"Oh I can't wait to see the public reaction as they watch the HPSC take away All Might and two of my students in handcuffs right after they were attacked by villains. I dare say they may even completely ignore UA's own security incident."

Nedzu had somehow managed to sneak onto the scene completely undetected, even Izuku hadn't sensed his energy. Although right now Izuku couldn't really sense anything, his mind was still reeling from the fact that not only was someone trying to arrest him but All Might looked like he was completely willing to throw punches to stop that happening. He felt both hollow and terrified while also relieved and overjoyed all at the same time. Quite frankly if he wasn't in shock he'd be a complete emotional mess.

"Nedzu…" Shido said with enough venom in it to convince Izuku he had a snake based quirk.

"A pleasure as always Agent Shido," Nedzu responded in a cheery voice and a smile though Izuku could see the flicker of fury in his eyes, "Now, why don't you stop waving that gun around in my students' face. Because I assure you if you continue to do so you'll end up having to arrest his entire class and most of my staff along with him."

"Is that a threat?" Shido asked with narrowed eyes.

"Correct!" Nedzu responded like Shido was a student who had just answered a question right in class, "Now please stop fooling yourself into thinking you have the upperhand here. If we must move forward with this we should discuss this in the privacy of my office."

Shido looked like he wanted to argue but spotted the way Vlad King, Snipe and Ectoplasm were standing not far away with their focus locked onto the scene. He seemed to realise how vastly outmatched he was and slowly holstered his gun.

"Fine, but rest assured Nedzu I'm getting what I want."

"That remains to be seen," Nedzu responded with a vicious grin and turned to Yagi, "Yagi why don't you call Miss Midoriya, a guardian should be present."

Yagi's eyes lit up and he nodded frantically, "Of course, right away."

Shido looked at Nedzu suspiciously, "No funny business rat, you better not be calling any lawyers."

Nedzu's eyes gleamed with something Izuku didn't recognise, "Oh I can assure you it's just an innocent call to his mother."

Izuku was fairly sure he could physically see the tension in the office. It filled every crack in the room and made Izuku choke on it. Katsuki and Yagi had both refused to leave and neither had stopped glaring daggers at Shido. Quite frankly with the power of One For All backing both blonde's up it was a miracle Shido hadn't been turned to dust from the pure hatred both were radiating. Said HPSC agent had propped himself up against the wall in the furthest corner from everyone else, ideally gazing out of the window like he was simply filling in another boring report for the office. Not that Izuku noticed, he had pretty much been running on autopilot the entire time since Shido had arrived. How did his day start with him and Katsuki bickering over who got the last protein bar in the fridge to him, possibly ending up in Tartarus along with his brother and All Might? Only Nedzu had a smile on his face as he poured everyone a cup of tea, not that anyone but he actually touched the drinks.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Shido said while looking at his watch with a yawn.

"What? You got some unimportant reports to be filled out?" Katsuki growled out.

Shido frowned and turned his attention to Katsuki, "Bakugou right? All Might's successor?"

If either Katsuki or Yagi were surprised or concerned by this level of inquiry neither showed it as they continued to pour raw hate off themselves in a double attack against Shido.

"You know," Shido continued, "All Might has a decent relationship with the HPSC, not as good as Endeavor but not bad. If you stop associating with thugs like this boy you may be able to build a similar reputation, perhaps even one closer to that of Endeavor's."

Katsuki stroked his chin in thought, "Didn't Endeavor do a speech at a HPSC recently?"

Shido smiled down at the boy, "Yes exactly, it gave him publicity and he was even paid for it!"

Katsuki paused before he scoffed, "Nah, the fucking idiot looked like a right cuck up there."

Yagi suddenly coughed into his hand, though it sounded much more like a laugh while Nedzu took a rather large gulp of his tea. Even Izuku cracked a smile.

Meanwhile Shido looked outraged, "Why you little fucking-"

There was a crash as the office door slammed open with enough force that for a minute Yagi thought All For One was attacking. However, instead of the greatest supervillain of all time, standing in the doorway was Inko Midoriya looking like she had just clawed her way through the very depths of hell while killing everyone who tried to stop her to get to the office. Behind her looked an equally furious Mitsuki and Masaru as well as a slightly terrified Vlad King who took one look at the scene in the office and quickly ran in the other direction. Both mothers locked onto their sons and ran forward.

"Izuku!"

"Katsuki!"

Predictably both parents looked over their sons with the eyes only a mother could, picking up every scratch, scrape and bruise they had. Which was significantly more for Katsuki than Izuku who didn't actually have a single one. Not that it meant Inko was any less fussy. Eventually, after much insisting from the boys, both mothers seemed to decide that they were fine as a furious Masaru stepped in front of Nedzu's desk.

"What the hell is going on?" And boy did that make Katsuki and Izuku flinch, Masaru never got angry, even Inko was more likely to start screaming and shouting than Masaru, "First we get a call telling us our son's have been attacked by villains and now we're being told one of them is under arrest!? Someone better have a damn good explanation!"

At the mention of the attack Nedzu finally lost his smile, "Yes. First of all I apologise on behalf of myself and UA for what took place earlier today. It was a terrible fault on our part that put the students we value so much in danger. And while your boys were largely unharmed I assure you that I will be using all resources available to me to ensure their safety and that this never happens again. As for the second incident…"

Nedzu trailed off and looked towards Shido who stood up straight and cleared his throat.

"Your son Midoriya is under arrest for illegal quirk usage-"

"ARREST!? ILLEGAL QUIRK USAGE!? OH YOU BETTER BACK THE FUCK UP BEFORE I THROW YOUR ASS OUT THAT WINDOW!" Mitsuki yelled as she rolled up her sleeves and cracked her knuckles.

"FUCK OFF HAD HE'S MINE!" Katsuki shouted, standing up from his chair so fast and with so much force it launched across the room and slammed into the wall behind him.

Luckily before mother and son could murder the man Masaru grabbed both by the scruff of the neck and pulled them back, "Enough, I'm angry too. But this is not our fight."

Both Katsuki and Mitsuku went to argue but were stopped when an aura so powerful, so dangerous filled the room that Yagi nearly activated his quirk on instinct. Even Nedzu cowered back slightly. Shido blinked, he had been about to reprimand the Bakugou's when he turned his head.

He was met with Inko Midoriya, the greatest mother bear to ever exist. She stood in front of Izuku,

completely still and staring directly at Shido. Her face was completely emotionless yet her eyes practically glowed with a rage that could only be described as inhuman. And when she spoke it was like icicles slowly penetrated those in the room whose name didn't rhyme with Izuku.

"Izuku," she practically whispered, "Tell me exactly what happened and don't leave out a single detail."

And so Izuku did. Luckily his mother was an expert at Izuku's mumbling language, second only to Katsuki and was able to keep up as Izuku rapidly retold the tale of the USJ. He didn't leave any detail out though he did downplay the fact he was virtually killed. Throughout the entire story Mitsuki and Masaru became more angry and emotional, Mituski holding Katsuki tighter and tighter. Inko however held no reaction bar a few flicks of her eyes towards her son, quite frankly it unnerved Izuku, he'd never seen her like this. Eventually once he was done Inko nodded at him and gave him a small smile before turning her fury back to Shido.

"I'm curious, when exactly did my son display illegal quirk usage?"

Shido scoffed, "What are you? His lawyer."

Inko gained a very Bakugou like grin which made everyone in the room shiver, "Actually yes I am. Inko Midoriya, attorney at law."

Shido gained a furious expression and hissed at Nedzu, "You lied to me!?"

"Gasp! Miss Midoriya, I had no idea you were a lawyer." Nedzu gave a very pantomime-like performance as he gained a wicked smile.

Shido ground his teeth together and turned back to Inko who had a smug look on her face, "Your son attacked three individuals with excessive force using his quirk which I think you'll find is illegal for everyone except heroes."

"If he had been on the street perhaps," Inko scoffed, "But while on school grounds as a heroics student Izuku had full permission to use his quirk as if he was licensed."

"That's only under the supervision of a teacher; however, by all accounts there were no teachers around at the time of the incident in question!" Shido responded with a smile.

Inko just rolled her eyes, "The USJ facility is far too large for a teacher to monitor every single student at once, therefore it's equipped with cameras for this exact purpose to make sure all students are under supervision."

Shido smirked like he had just caught the canary, "But the camera's were all burnt out when the initial attack occurred, therefore no students were technically under supervision."

"Irrelevant," Inko responded and waved him off, "There was no way for the students to reasonably know that was the case."

"That still ignored the fact they never had explicit permission to use their quirks!" Shido shot back, his voice rising as Inko started to legally back him into a corner.

"Unnecessary," Inko said as the room's attention moved back to her, it was like a tennis match with everyone swapping their attention between the Shido and Inko, "The students were attending a foundational heroics class, of course they would assume they had permission to use their quirks."

Izuku's mouth was hanging open, he had no idea who this person was but it wasn't his mother. His mother was shy, awkward and generally a quiet person. The woman in front of him was fierce, strong and had a mind to match. He remembered a few years ago asking his mother if he could attend one of her court sessions, he thought it might be a good bonding experience. At the time she merely laughed and told him he would be bored to death.

She was a goddamn liar.

"Regardless, the crime of quirk theft still applies!" Shido insisted as he tried to gain back some ground.

"Quirk theft?" Inko asked with a tilt of her head in mock confusion, "I'm afraid I've never heard of this law, could you explain it to me?"

Shido was red in the face as he responded, "Fine, there's no such thing. But under the Quirk Regulation Act Section 145 any self defence done via quirk must be done in proportion to the assault!"

Inko narrowed her eyes, "Sections 120 through to 167 of the Quirk Regulation act are overridden when dealing with The Public Hero Act of which section 34 states that even if intent to kill cannot be proven, heroes may use any amount of force they deem required to take down a villain so long as it does not kill nor cripple the villain in anyway. And in this situation as hero students we go by The Public Hero Act."

Shido slammed his hands on Nedzu's desk, making the rat scowl up at him, "Exactly! Cripple! Your son stole those people's quirks! That's on par with losing an arm, leg or your sight. In fact it's worse, making them quirkless is a punishment worse than death!"

In the back of the room Katsuki growled slightly from the back of his throat. Masaru increased the grip he had on his son's shoulder to stop him jumping out and killing the man.

Inko narrowed her eyes at Shido, "Personal feelings about being quirkless don't matter here. Within the law there is nothing in The Modern Disability Equalities act that defines being quirkless, via birth or otherwise, as being a disability. No matter how strongly you or anyone else feels about it, legally you have no leg to stand on."

The rest of the room continued to watch the legal tennis match with various reactions. Izuku still sat slack jawed at his mothers display, as did Katsuki. Masaru wore a slight smirk, he was one of the few people that had seen this display from Inko before. Meanwhile his wife was watching the woman with slightly red cheeks while biting her lip and muttering something along the lines of 'should've asked her out in high school'. Nedzu was watching the whole scene with a look of pure glee, he had already finished no less than three cups of tea and Izuku half expected him to pull out a box of popcorn. And Yagi… was Yagi drooling?

"Goddamnit!" Shido cried, his hair now frazzled and eyes wild, "It doesn't matter about any of this! The point is three people are in coma because of your son's disgusting quirk and I'm taking him in! Laws be damned, I'm the HPSC member here and I'm the one in charge!"

"Is that so?" Said a new voice that Izuku didn't recognize, "It's funny agent Shido, I don't remember asking you to drop all your other duties and come here."

Everyone's attention was drawn to the door of the office, apparently Inko and Shido's debate had been so intense they all failed to notice it was open and a newcomer had joined them.

Said newcomer was a relatively tall and muscular woman, she easily stood as tall as Masaru and towered over Inko and Mitsuki. She had long purple hair with pink streaks in it tied back in a ponytail. She wore a matching purple dress that had a utility belt around the centre. As she walked

into the office and shut the door her heavy duty boots clanged on the floor with each step.

There were mixed reactions in the room, Izuku and the Bakugou's all looked confused while Inko's eyes widened with recognition. Yagi raised a curious and surprised eyebrow while Nedzu wore a manic grin. Shido on the other hand had gone incredibly pale.

"Ah!" Nedzu said in a sickly sweet tone, "I wondered if you might make an appearance. For those of you who are unaware, allow me to introduce you to the Chairman and Head of the HPSC, Lady Nagant. Ex-hero and generally considered to be the second most powerful bureaucrat in Japan behind the prime minister."

Nagent rolled her eyes as she picked up Bakugou's forgotten chair and took a seat next to Izuku, seemingly ignoring the whole situation.

"Let me guess, you were the one who tipped my secretary off that my Head of Police might be about to tank our entire reputation," she said, though it was with an amused smile, "Do you know how hard it is for me to take an actual break? And you rudely interrupted my first one in about a month.

Nedzu leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers together, "I was just curious as to why one of your employees thought he could waltz into my school and try to arrest one of my students."

"BECAUSE YOUR STUDENT-"

"Shut up Shido." Nagant said and though she didn't raise her voice it had enough authority to silence the man, "Now then, I'm aware of the situation. So allow me to-"

Nagant paused when she made eye contact with Inko, both women wore shocked expressions and their jaws opened respectively.

"It's you!" They both cried pointing a finger at each other.

Everyone, including Nedzu, looked confused.

"You know each other?" Yagi asked, more than a little surprised.

Nagant snorted, "A little, she's the woman who stopped me from killing the last HPSC Chairman."

Five years ago

Nagant had decided she'd had enough. Years of killing, hunting and doing the dirty work for the HPSC had finally gotten to her. Once upon a time she had agreed with what they had her doing, nothing angered her more than corrupt heroes who used the position as anything but what it was supposed to be. Some weren't so bad, money laundering, political bribes, quirk discrimination, that sort of thing. But some heroes pushed the boundary until they became full blown villains, human trafficking, kidnapping and even man slaughter were up there on the things that had convinced her that, despite her own objections, her missions were still important in maintaining the integrity of what a hero should be.

At least that's how it started. She didn't mind getting her hands dirty, she didn't mind that she'd killed more people than half the occupants of Tartarus. What she did mind was that the HPSC felt the need to sweep every single incident under the rug. Just last week Nagant had killed a lesser known hero for putting his girlfriend in the hospital. Yet the press release the next day claimed a villain had attacked the pair in their home and the hero had died defending his lover. His hometown had a parade. A parade in honour of a woman beater.

It was like that every single time. Nagant would kill a hero for some horrendous crime they had committed and the HPSC would leak some false disgustingly sweet story to the press. They had retired to raise a family, they'd gone abroad to support countries who didn't have such rigorous hero programmes or they'd just died a tragic death. All to keep up the illusion that heroes were the pinnacle of their society, the standard that everyone should strive for. Meanwhile the corruption got worse and worse, without any public knowledge of the crimes incoming heroes had no idea that they were being monitored and one wrong move could result in a bullet in the back of the head. Worse, the HPSC made no move to intervene in these situations until they deemed it necessary to call Nagant in.

It was a vicious cycle, kids would see the borderline god like status heroes were held to and sign up to hero school. They'd be praised on their quirks and breeze through their education, never really facing actual villains with the likes of All Might and Endeavor watching the streets. They'd graduate into heroes and be pulled into a false world held together with blood, death and secrets. They'd be so untouchable they'd get cocky, they'd be persuaded into shady deals or just snap one day thinking they could get away with it. Then Nagant would kill them and the HPSC would make sure nobody ever knew, it was a never ending cycle of violence.

One that Nagant intended not to be a part of any longer. She'd already made up her mind, she was going to leave the HPSC and the heroics industry altogether if she had to. And if the Chairman refused? Well then she hoped Tartarus wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be.

She twirled the bullet she had just made in her hands. The one she might use to kill her boss if it came to it. It was child's play really, she was searched every time she walked through security yet they never seemed to consider how she could literally make her own bullets. A quick trip into the ladies room and she'd easily locked herself in a stall and already loaded her gun just in case.

Nagant sighed and was about to go and enact her plan when a slight sniffing caught her attention. She frowned and slowly opened the door of the stall. Standing within the luxurious ladies room was another woman, she was a rather short and plump woman with bright green hair dressed in business attire. A forgotten briefcase lay on the floor next to her as she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

Nagant cursed under her breath, despite everything she was still a hero and couldn't ignore a situation like this. But on the other hand she was, quite frankly, awful with other people. She didn't really have any friends and hadn't dated someone since high school. But plus ultra and all that.

"Uh… excuse me," Nagant said in what she hoped was a soft voice though based on the way the lady jumped suddenly it was probably louder than she intended, "I couldn't help but notice the crying, are you ok?"

The woman calmed down once she realised Nagant wasn't about to attack her and even produced a small smile, "I'm… I'll be fine. It's funny, you'd think I'd be used to it by now."

"Used to what?" Nagant asked with a raised eyebrow and wondered what this small seemingly emotional woman was doing in the centre of the HQ for the HPSC.

"My sons, I just received another call from their school. There's been a fight and the principal wants them expelled." The woman said with a sigh, her tears had stopped at least and she returned the hankie to her pocket.

"Ah, so they're trouble makers?" Nagant asked and her face fell slightly, she always hated dealing with kid punks who thought they were hot shit.

"Oh no, not at all. My Izuku wouldn't hurt a fly and while Katsuki can certainly be a handful he's too afraid of upsetting Izuku to go around punching people who didn't punch first." The woman said as she tried to fix her hair up in the mirror.

Nagant frowned, "So why would the school want to expel them?"

The woman actually snorted, "Because their quirkist bastards that's why."

"Quirkist?" Nagant asked with curiosity, she wasn't a stranger to dealing with quirkism, she did grow a literal gun out of her arm after all, but she was hardly familiar with it too.

"Yes, one of my sons is quirkless while the other is considered to have a villain's quirk. If it were up to the school and even the local authorities neither of them would set foot anywhere near any other children." The woman was gripping the sides of the sink so hard her knuckles had gone white and Nagant could tell this was a difficult topic.

"So why not just pull them from the school altogether and home-school them?" Nagant suggested, it seemed like an easy solution to her.

Yet the woman looked scandalised at the suggestion, "You mean give up? Give our boys a half- assed education by parents who between them struggle to add up our gas bill? No, my boys deserve to be in school with others their age and I'll make sure they get it. Besides, they have no ground to stand on for expulsion. These people are idiots, technically it's their first offence, by law it has to be their third before expulsion can be raised. And I'm sure the CCTV footage will prove our boys didn't start that fight."

"If it's really that much of an issue I could provide assistance, I am a hero after all." Nagant had no idea why she suggested it, she was a hero but barely scraped by rank 100 on most of the charts, she'd doubt she could really have that much influence but something about the situation made her want to reach out and help.

The woman looked up at her with wide eyes, "A hero? Oh Izuku will be so jealous, it might even get his mind off this whole business. Thank you but I'll be ok, those morons will have probably already tried to wipe the CCTV footage not realising it all goes into a central database which in of itself is a crime."

"You know a lot about this." Nagant commented, a little impressed.

The woman shrugged, "I'm a lawyer."

"Ahhh," Nagant responded, the dots in her mind starting to click together, "So let me guess, you're here for a case?"

The woman nodded," Mhmm, I'm on the prosecution team for Thundershock. Honestly it's my first major case and I was already a little nervous before the school rang me."

Thundershock. Nagant knew exactly what the woman was talking about, Thundershock, hero rank 87. Or at least it had been 87, the hero worked by gaining electrical power from supplies around him. Unfortunately he hadn't been paying attention during a villain fight and drew power straight from a hospital. Thankfully nobody had died but several surgeries had to be paused and the entire building shut down for an hour causing absolute chaos in the area. And of course it had happened right in front of the media meaning the HPSC couldn't sweep it under the rug. Not that they hadn't tried.

"You must be an excellent lawyer to land a case like this."

The woman chuckled, "Not really, I was just one of the few people in the company willing to go up against a pro hero and the HPSC. But our boys would have been disappointed in me if I didn't and I want to make them proud."

"Your boys will be proud if you take down a pro hero?" Nagant said, the confusion obvious on her face, every child in the country worshipped heroes, who the hell wants to see them behind bars?

"Oh absolutely. They never really liked Thundershock but the hospital incident was really the nail in the coffin. They always said he was too flashy, only a hero for the camera that wanted to make a scene over saving people. So when the opportunity came up I couldn't let them down and not be part of the team to bring Thundershock down." The woman said with a warm smile on her face, her eyes faded slightly at the thought of her children.

Well that was surprising, this was the first time Nagant had ever heard of children not idolising everything about being a hero, perhaps they were kindred spirits, "Your kids hate heroes huh?"

The woman turned to her and blinked in surprise, "Hate? Oh no not completely, I don't fully understand but they both seem to agree that the hero system is corrupt but that doesn't mean

heroism is bad per say. It's why they both want to be heroes."

Nagant had to give off an amused grunt at that, "They still want to be heroes despite how they feel?"

"Oh you have no idea," The woman said with a giggle, "It's all they talk about to be frank. I think it's odd too but I kind of understand it. They want to become heroes to prove it's still possible to have good heroes and to be in a position to make sure the bad ones can't succeed. It's the same principle as their schooling, we've offered to move them but they claim if they left some other poor souls would take their place and the abuse would just shift."

Nagant felt like she had been hit in the face by All Might himself. These two mystery boys, who had been beaten at every turn. Who were one of the few who saw how their hero society stood upon a fragile podium held up by blood. And yet they didn't back down knowing all this, they knew what a true hero was and were determined to prove it and change the system from within.

They weren't going to run away like Nagant was about to.

She wasn't a fool, she was strong but against the likes of Endeavor and All Might she didn't stand a chance. If she really did end up killing the chairman she had maybe a week until they threw her in Tartarus. And then what? They'd just find someone else to replace her, she'd already heard rumour about some teenager with wings they were training. No if Nagant went through with her original plan nothing would change but her involvement.

But… implementing change from within. The chairman was getting old and Nagant still had plenty of allies in the HPSC. Hmmm.

"Oh good, Mitsuki can sort the boys," The woman said as she put her phone away bringing Nagant back to reality, "It was lovely to meet you and thank you for the pep talk but I must be going!"

And with that the woman ran out the bathroom door leaving a very confused and thoughtful Nagant behind. Huh, this woman may have just completely changed the course of Nagants life and she didn't even know her name.

It had only taken Nagant a year to get rid of the chairman, he was old and many of his deputies

were nipping at his heels for the position. Unfortunately for those deputies they hadn't expected a pro hero to come forward and take the position from them. Nagant had used her influence over other heroes and the press to get public support for her bid for the role, throw in the fact they'd just elected a new PM who wanted public support and she all but walked into the position. Since then she'd been fighting tooth and nail for reform. From harsher and more public sentencing to heroes who broke the law to more rigorous hero licensing exams and mandatory psych evaluations for all hero hopefuls. She had also made sure to distance the HPSC away from heroes themselves. Where once it had been seen as the organisation that heroes worked for there was now a clear gap between the two, heroes managed themselves while the role of the HPSC was to monitor and control the overall industry itself. It meant when heroes were caught out the HPSC could easily push the blame onto the individual and not the industry as a whole. It meant that heroes could be punished without the image of their hero society being impacted too much. Nagant still wasn't thrilled with the situation but it was a hell of a lot better than killing heroes and sweeping it all under the rug.

Nagant chuckled, "Honestly I never thought I'd see you again. I've been meaning to thank you, because of you I'm not currently rotting in a cell in Tartarus."

Masaru frowned, "Is that something you should really be admitting to?"

Nagant waved him off, "What are they gonna do? Arrest me for wanting to kill a certified asshole? Besides, apparently I know a half decent lawyer."

Nagant smirked and gave a wink at Inko who couldn't help but giggle slightly. Shido however looked less amused.

"Chairman I must insist we-"

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Nagant snapped without even looking at Shido who himself grew red with embarrassment and slammed his mouth shut.

"Now then," Nagant said and turned to Izuku, "Izuku Midoriya, correct? And I'm assuming you must be his mother Inko?" Both green haired people nodded in confirmation.

Nagant threw Inko a small smile, "At least I have a name now. So, from what I gather your class was attacked by villains and in the ensuing battle you took three quirks yes?" Nagant asked, directing the question to Izuku.

"Uh- Y-Yes my Lady- I mean uh- Ma'am." Izuku stuttered out and Katsuki snorted at the display, Nagant gracefully ignored it however.

"I see and you have no intention of giving them back?" Nagant asked, her tone and face were completely emotionless, giving nothing away about how she felt.

Izuku sat up a little straighter in his seat and gave the woman a hard look, "No I don't. Those people are villains who attacked my friends, children, and tried to kill us. Had it not been for my friend Jiro the woman would have killed me with her laser eyes."

The statement made Inko and the elder Bakugou's flinch. Nedzu and Yagi both had looks of guilt on their faces, it was a reminder just how close this meeting had come to being about the deaths of two students. The reality of hero work was starting to hit home and Mitsuki had to furiously brush away a few tears as Masaru held her close. Inko, being in lawyer mode, fought through it. She could collapse with shock and fear when she got home later, right now her son needed her.

Nagant tapped her chin in thought, Shido looked like he desperately wanted to start shouting again but thought better of it.

"Hmmm," Nagant said, the gears in her mind all turning at one, "Officially Mr Midoirya here hasn't broken any laws. He clearly used his quirk in self-defence and as a heroics student within school grounds he has permission to use his quirk."

Inko smirked and Shido looked about ready to start throttling people, but Nagant then turned to look directly at Inko, "However… what you won't be aware of is that Midoriya's quirk within the HPSC has been classified as Grade S"

Yagi coughed in shock slightly, desperately grabbing a handkerchief to stop the blood going everywhere. Nedzu's gleeful smile dropped and his fur bristled at the news while Shido's face went from one of pure agony to one of pure elevation. Even Inko's smile dropped and Izuku would swear to the day he died he heard a soft 'fuck' whispered by his mother.

"Huh? What the fuck is the issue with that?" Katsuki asked, voicing the confusion of the four remaining people in the room.

"The Grade S Quirk Emergency Powers Act." Inko said through gritted teeth.

"The what?" Mitsuki barked, not liking the shift of tone the room had gone in.

"The S Grade Quirk Emergency Powers Act was created to deal with the unique situations that often arise during S Grade quirk issues." Nagant explained, "To put it simply when dealing with an incident that involves an S Grade quirk the act gives the HPSC emergency powers to make arrests or decisions based on the threat level said quirk presents. Even if those actions by the HPSC aren't technically backed up by the law. Take All Might for example, imagine he never decided to become a hero and train his quirk. One day he might end up defending himself in a mugging and throw a punch that topples an entire street. Technically within the law that's classed as self defence and he'd get a slap on the wrist and be on his way. With this act the HPSC could however force him into mandatory quirk training and keep him monitored until we were confident he had control of his quirk."

Every face bar Shido's and Nagant (who still remained expressionless) had dropped considerably, from his seat Izuku had started hyperventilating and Katsuki was forced to step forward and keep an eye on him.

"So what you're saying is…" Masaru started.

"The law means jackshit right now. Izuku's quirk grade means they can just override any law under these emergency powers." Inko spat with more venom then even Mitsuku had heard before making both their sons jump in surprise.

"But the emergency powers act can only refer to an emergency," Inko countered, "Defied in the act as either death or permanent physical or mental damage of which I'm sure I don't need to remind you quirks fall into neither category."

Nagant's lips twitched as she leant forward slightly, looking straight at Inko, "No but when your son took their quirks the three villains were knocked unconscious and have yet to wake up. A coma is classed as mental damage under the act."

Inko narrowed her eyes and stood up a little straighter, "It's only been six hours since the attack there is no way of knowing if they are simply unconscious or in a coma at this time."

"No but until that is proven either way we would be within our rights to take Midoriya into custody until such a time." Nagant replied, her eyes gleaming at Inko.

"Illegal." Inko instantly shot back, "Even with the S Grade Emergency Powers you can't keep a minor in for questioning for more than 24 hours, regardless of the situation unless you make an arrest. The Underage Criminal Act of 2146 overrides all other laws, even emergency powers."

"We wouldn't have to keep him in a cell, house arrest is still legal for underage criminals and said house doesn't have to be their registered home. So long as he's provided with a standard living quarters his house arrest could be in the middle of the HPSC HQ." Nagant said, the whole exchange was making Izuku sweat more and more and Yagi was slightly concerned his successor was about to launch himself at the chairmen of the HPSC.

Inko clenched her fists, she was backed into a corner and she knew it. The Emergency Powers act was considered career suicide among Japanese lawyers who take cases surrounding it. The entire point of the act was to basically ignore any laws you could bring forward to fight it. And even if Izuku was a minor his quirk was powerful enough and hated enough that finding support against his treatment within the legal world would be near impossible. The only way to win against it was to sway support within the HPSC.

Which meant Inko had to use the ace up her sleeve.

"Very well," Inko sighed, "Izuku honey, please return the quirks you have taken."

The mood in the room shifted instantly as every pair of eyes turned to Inko in shock.

"M-Mom!?"

"What the fuck Auntie!?"

"Katsuki! But yeah, what the fuck Inko!?"

Yagi and Masaru both wore equal looks of shock, Masaru's eyes quickly filling with disappointment and confusion. Shido once again wore a wide smile and stood up straight with his chest puffed out in victory. Even Nagant raised a surprised eyebrow while Nedzu looked over Inko with a critical eye.

But Inko ignored it all and looked directly at Nagant with a sickly sweet smile. It made Izuku and Katsuki shudder, it was the sort of smile she wore right before she dished out a punishment for the

boys straight from the mind of a supervillain.

"Oh and Izuku, don't forget to return that regeneration quirk you took from The Nomu creature."

The entire room froze. Those who had fought the creature felt a shiver crawl up their spines. All Might had barely taken it down after Izuku had stolen the quirk, let alone if Izuku gave it back. Nedzu looked like he had just watched the grand finale of his favourite TV show and Nagant herself appeared to be fighting back a smirk. Shido once again completely flipped in his emotions.

"No! Absolutely not! He can't return that quirk!" He shouted, once again slamming his hand on Nedzu's desk making the rat scowl even deeper.

Inko smirked, it felt very much like a predator finally getting its prey, "Then he won't be returning his other quirks. You see, regardless of anything else, The Grade S Emergency Powers state that any decision must be universal and cannot be picked and chosen depending on what suits the HPSC. So either Izuku keeps all his quirks or he returns them all including the regeneration he stole from the villain who nearly took down All Might."

Shido's face was going a deep shade of purple as he spluttered and tried to come up with a defence. Nagant however just chuckled.

"Damn you're good. You married?" She asked with a smirk.

Inko's entire demeanour crumbled under the question and she quickly returned to the standard Midoriya state of panic, "Oh… I… uh… No?"

There was a slight growling in the room and Izuku turned to look at Katsuki only to find it was not in fact Katsuki who had growled. Izuku quickly looked around the room to-

Was Yagi growling at Lady Nagant?

Ignoring the situation at hand Nagant finally let herself smirk, "Don't worry, I had no intention of allowing Mr Midoriya to be arrested-"

"WHAT!?"

"- As far as I'm concerned those thugs are villains who were stopped in self defence. There's no law requiring Midoriya to return their quirks."

"This is an OUTRAGE!" Shido suddenly cried, his eyes practically popping out of his skull, "This- this villain stole quirks! He should be locked up! He can't be allowed to-"

"Shido." Nagant said and the warning in her tone was clear, "At this point you're all but attempting quirk discrimination. Continue and-"

"I don't fucking care!" Shido screeched.

"Shido!" Nagant shouted and the man was instantly silenced, "You're fired."

All the colour drained from Shido's face but he still looked determined to fight it until-

"Don't think I'm not aware that your son was one of the thugs who had their quirk taken." Nagant threatened with narrowed eyes, "Perhaps you'd have gotten away with this if it was a just but misguided cause. But I'm sure Miss Midoriya doesn't need to tell you that you have a massive conflict of interest here which would put you behind bars for a long time if I wanted it to."

Shido's face completely fell and he stood there opening and closing his mouth though no sound came out. Most of the room grew smiles and smirks though Nedzu looked like Christmas had come early.

"Oh good!" Nedzu chimed, "In which case.." Nedzu tapped a button on his desk and the wall directly behind Shido fell apart revealing a very angry looking Snipe, Ectoplasm and Present Mic, "Please get out of my school."

Shido looked like he wanted to argue but one glare from Nagant and the man retreated, being escorted away by the pro heroes with his tail between his legs. There was a pause in the room before Nagant started to laugh at the top of her voice.

"Hahaha oh man, finally. Do you know how long I've been wanting to do that? He's been on my shit list for two years yet it's almost impossible to make him slip up. Yet not even two hours in a room with you all and the man starts screeching about quirk discrimination. That's twice I owe you, Miss Midoriya." Nagant said with glee and stood up smiling down at Izuku and Katsuki.

"So, you're Izuku and Katsuki huh? You've been on my radar for a while now." She said as she looked them up and down with an analytical eye.

"Why, you a fucking pervert?" Katsuki growled with narrowed eyes.

"Kacchan!" Izuku cried and dropped his face into his hands with a groan.

Luckily Nagant just rolled her eyes, "Hardly. Two S Grade quirks attending the same class and living in the same house? That's either going to go really well or you're going to turn Japan into a wasteland. I'm just trying to make sure it's the former."

"So I'm… not arrested?" Izuku asked, honestly his head was spinning and the past 12 hours felt some kind of fever dream, he wouldn't be surprised if Endeavor walked through the door and professed his love to Nedzu.

"Nope," Nagant said and popped her lips as she said it, "I'll be frank kid, you're powerful and the idea of someone running around freely who can take quirks like their a couple of coins for a pickpocket makes my skin crawl. But from what Yagi here has told me as well as learning that you're the green lawyers kid and I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Just make sure the quirks you intend to keep are from actually villains, not your everyday street thug. I can defend allowing a hero kid to hold onto the quirks of murderers and psychopaths but not some two-bit crook who just wanted a bite to eat."

Izuku nodded as relief flushed through him and he suddenly became aware of how tired he was, "Yes ma'am."

"Good," Nagant said and gave Izuku the first genuine smile she'd worn since walking in the office, "In which case I'll be going. Nedzu, we'll discuss the attack at a later date. Hot lawyer lady, call me. Angry blonde kid, don't kill anyone. Angry blonde kid's parents, make sure your son doesn't kill anyone. Yagi… eat a sandwich man, I'm getting hungry just looking at you."

And with that Lady Nagant turned on her heels and marched out of the office leaving an amused

and confused group behind.

"I think that was the HPSC giving you their unofficial support boys." Yagi said with a chuckle, he too had hated the old chairman and while he didn't agree with Nagant on everything she was a breath of fresh air when it came to the HPSC.

"Indeed!" Nedzu said with a clap of his hands, "It appears Midoriya will not face any further issues with his quirk, most excellent news."

Izuku gave a bitter chuckle, "Honestly I'd rather not face another situation for a while where I need to use it like that."

The adults in the room winced at those words. Yagi's gut filled with guilt, of course he'd always wanted Izuku to start using his quirk but not like this.

"Yes…" Nedzu said a little awkwardly, not sure how to handle the situation, "Well, it has been a… long day, perhaps you should all head home and rest."

Masaru nodded and went to agree when he was interrupted.

"Not just yet," Inko said and turned her ire towards the principle, "After today it's clear to me UA has no real legal staff to deal with issues surrounding their students, correct?"

Nedzu blinked in surprise, he clearly hadn't anticipated this turn of events even with his quirk, "Oh… Yes technically you are correct, we generally hand it off to the HPSC."

"The same HPSC that just tried to arrest my innocent son?" Inko asked with a raised eyebrow.

Nedzu coughed slightly, clearly a little embarrassed, "Uh yes… I see your point."

"Good," Inko said and drew out a pen and paper, "In which case I'll start on Monday."

Nedzu once again blinked in surprise, "You start… what?"

"You're going to employ me as UA's legal counsel." Inko informed Nedzu as she tore a section of paper off her notepad.

"I am?" Nedzu said and pointed at himself in a way that made Yagi snort.

"You are," Inko said to the affirmative and placed a piece of paper on his desk, "And that's going to be my salary, I'll accept no less."

Nedzu reached out and took the piece of paper, his eyes widened when he saw what was written down, "That's uh… a lot of zero's."

"Well you did insist that it was deserved due to my expertise." Inko said as she snapped her brief case shut and offered Nedzu a smile that made his fur stand on end.

"I uh… yes?" Nedzu half stated half asked out of sheer confusion.

"Excellent! In which case I'll see you on Monday, I can't wait to get started. Now let's go home everyone!" Inko smiled wide and with a slight skip in her step turned and headed out of the office, leaving six very confused people behind, Izuku and the Bakugou's not really sure what to do.

"Come along family!" Inko called from the hallway and Izuku and the Bakugou's quickly scrambled out the door to follow her, Izuku giving an awkward wave as they left and the door shut behind them.

Nedzu continued to stare at the door for another few seconds before he chuckled. He turned to his computer and immediately started drawing up Inko's actual employment contract. Honestly, considering the current year group having an actual lawyer on his side wouldn't be such a bad thing.

"Those Midoriya's really are something else." Nedzu said as he typed away happily, increasing Inko's asked for salary by 5%, she was right, she'd just beaten down the HPSC, who knows what she could achieve with Nedzu backing her. She was worth the cost.

"Yagi?" Nedzu asked when he got no response and looked away from his computer to find the man

staring at the door Inko had walked through moments ago and drooling slightly.

"I think I'm in love." Yagi said.

Would Not Recommend

Name: CLASSIFIED added Kyouka Jiro and Eijiro Kirishima to the chat

Name: CLASSIFIED: I just wanted to check in on everyone… I know none of us are really ok right now

Bubbly Bitch: Midori! Are you and Bakugou ok? I tried to find you along with everyone else once things calmed down but Midnight Sensei said you had to go for a meeting with Nedzu?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Oh… uh yeah. The HPSC just wanted a run down of the battle at the plaza, seeing as me and Kacchan were the main ones there outside of All Might

Floaty McFloat: Oh man, I'm so glad I didn't get caught up in that, I'm not sure I could have repeated what happened

Angry Boi: Oi, round cheeks, you better not be hauled up in that shitty little flat alone

Einstein's Daughter: Not to fear Bakugou, myself and Uraraka are spending the night at Ashido's to help support each other.

Bubbly Bitches: That's right bitches we're gonna ignore childhood trauma with ice cream, mochi and gossip

Kyouka Jiro: Sweet, I'm using heavy metal

Angry Boi: Me and Zuzu are gonna punch each other

Kyouka Jiro: …why?

Name: CLASSIFIED: Because Uncle covered the booze cabinet in heavy duty locks and alarms

Floaty McFloat: I'm sorry what?

Angry Boi: What?

Name: CLASSIFIED: What?

Einstein's Daughter: I have concerns

Bubbly Bitch: It's Midoriya and Bakugou, just add it to the list

Kyouka Jiro: So yeah, in summary I got home, had a breakdown, cried to my parents for like an hour and now I'm just laying in my room listening to someone scream about death

Kyouka Jiro: All in all I think I'm handling things pretty well

Floaty McFloat: Eh don't worry, me, Ashido and Yaomomo have all cried like three times at least

Eijiro Kirishima: It's good to get your emotions out guys! A real man knows how to cry!

Bubbly Bitch: Finally! Something you claim is manly which actually is manly!

Eijiro Kirishima: Everything I claim to be manly is manly! But yeah, I had a long talk with my Moms about everything and honestly just getting it all out felt a lot better. Plus imma spend some

time lifting weights, that tends to relax me

Angry Boi: You all need to make sure you have good coping mechanisms for this shit, we're heroes so you can't wimp out after every villain fight!

Floaty McFloat: I think that was Bakugou being nice? Do you and Midoriya have coping mechanisms?

Name: CLASSIFIED: I'm gonna sleep in his room tonight and we're gonna have a slumber party and play video games and shit like when we were kids

Floaty McFloat: OH

Kyouka Jiro: MY

Bubbly Bitch: GOD!!!

Angy Boi: DAMMIT IT ZUZU I TOLD YOU NOT TO FUCKING TELL THEM!

Name: CLASSIFIED: At least I didn't mention our matching All Might pyjamas

Name: CLASSIFIED: Oh

Einstein's Daughter: That's adorable

Angry Boi: ANYONE CALLS ME ADORABLE AGAIN AND I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU

Eijiro Kirishima: Ok but can you do it in the pyjamas?

Angry Boi: I hate you all

Bubbly Bitch: Awww look everyone, Bakugou said he loves us

Air Conditioner: Everyone!

Einstein's Daughter: Yoarashi! I'm glad you're ok!

Air Conditioner: And I you! Everyone, I just got off the phone to my uncle (the hero) and he wanted me to pass a message onto you all! 'I'm sure today was rough, your first villain fight at any

age is scary, let alone when you're first years and you're being attacked on school grounds. But you did it, you won, you made it out. Think about that for a moment, against all odds you won. Now just imagine what you'll all be able to do when fully trained, imagine the lives you'll save.

You do that and you will all make great heroes!'

Eijiro Kirishima: That's so manly dude!

Bubbly Bitch: Congrats Yoarashi, you got me, Uraraka and Yoamomo crying again

Kyouka Jiro: That was double inspirational with my soundtrack behind it

Angry Boi: Pfft, look at you all getting sappy

Name: CLASSIFIED: Kacchan gave me a massive hug after I read that aloud to him

Angry Boi: DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT MY REPUTATION!?

Air Conditioner: Truly, I think all of us will be ok

Kyouka Jiro: Fuck it, you know what? I think we will be

Bubbly Bitch: And now that all the trauma and shit has been dealt with

Bubbly Bitch changed Kyouka Jiro's nickname to (B)Ass

Bubbly Bitch changed Eijiro Kirishima's nickname to Rock Hard

(B)Ass: Why?

Bubbly Bitch: Because I saw the way you were looking at Midori's ass in class

(B)Ass: ASHIDO!

Name: CLASSIFIED: ASHIDOOOOOOOO

Angry Boi: THAT'S FUCKING GROSS, DON'T TALK ABOUT ZUZU'S ASS!

Bubbly Bitch: Nobody can see that ass in his hero outfit and NOT stare

Float McFloat: Someone get Ashido a drink, she's hella thirsty

Rock Hard: It is a really nice ass to be fair

Rock Hard: Oh wait did I actually type that?

Angry Boi: Great! You fuckers killed him! He's passed out in the hallway! I'm gonna have to drag his ass to bed!

Einstein's Daughter: Bakugou don't you have super strength?

Angry Boi: That's not the point ponytail!

Bubbly Bitch: Wait! Quirk! Did anyone see Midori's mystery quirk?

Air Conditioner: Not me, I only arrived at the plaza at the end

Einstein's daughter: Me too

Floaty McFloat: It's a no from me

(B)Ass: Me and Kirishima weren't watching the plaza when they fought, I only ran out once I heard Bakugou cry out. By the time I arrived Midoriya was squaring off against the villain but I

didn't see his quirk

Rock Hard: Yeah, he used it to take three villains out near us but me and Jiro didn't see it happen.

Angry Boi: I saw it and it was fucking amazing

Bubbly Bitch: And you're not gonna tell us are you?

Angry Boi: Not a chance Raccoon Eyes, it's his quirk and his secret to tell

Bubbly Bitch: Maybe his perfectly firm and round ass is his quirk

Rock Hard: God I hope so

(B)Ass: Buddy you really gotta work on your subconscious typing… but… yeah

Einstein's Daughter: I'm glad Midoriya's rear end has taken all our minds off the traumatic events of the day

Air Conditioner: It's incredible just how amazing Midoriya is. Not only is he smart and powerful but apparently he is attractive too! I'm so honoured to have a rival with an ass that has impressed so

many!

Floaty McFloat: …I should've gone to Shiketsu

Chapter End Notes

So yeah, a pretty major change from canon here but I knew I wanted the HPSC involved in this story and figured this was more interesting than some random OC. Anyway, thanks for all the kudos and comments as always!

The Cost of The USJ

Chapter Summary

As Class 1-A recovers from the USJ battle the mental and physical cost of the battle on the students becomes clear

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Hero Analysis For The Future: Stockpiled Quirk Notes

This notebook is for me and Kacchan to analyse and make notes about all the quirks I take (and keep) from villains.

Quirk 1: Pathfinder

More of a passive quirk when activated Pathfinder will show the best route to a location much like a video game waypoint. Not only does it show the fastest route it takes into account hazards, when I used it in the firezone it avoided the worst of the fire and took us down safer streets. However the main drawback is that I need to know the exact location of where I'm going. For example I can activate it to get me from UA to Dagobah beach or get it to help me find Kacchan if I know he's in the gym. But it wouldn't show me how to get to All Might's house for example because I don't know where that is. So it can't locate things, only help me find my way to things I already know the location of.

Quirk 2: Heat-vision

This one is actually pretty simple, I can shoot beams of heat from my eyes. It's important to note these aren't technically 'lasers' not like Aoyama who's quirk is actually a laser beam. Heat vision fires concentrated beams of extreme heat which will mainly work to melt things though it's important to note they'd also cause fires. I do have some control over the intensity however so it is safe to use on actual people. It does have drawbacks though, the main one being that my eyes aren't adapted to handling the outburst of extreme heat completely. Overuse will cause them to burn and go bloodshot, even blurring my vision. While regeneration will stop any permanent damage, overusing them will temporarily affect my sight and will still cause pain. It's worth noting while my eyes aren't completely adapted they do have some heat resistance otherwise they'd melt.

Quirk 3: Kinetic Strength

At first I thought this quirk was based on movement and while that's still the main way to use it it's actually based on kinetic energy produced by my body. Producing kinetic energy will charge up a temporary strength boost with the level of strength depending on the level of energy I'm producing. However the energy is not stored, it simply provides a boost for a temporary time equal to how much energy I created (roughly matched so a 10 minute run would provide 10 minutes of extra strength). Generally the more tired and worked out I am the stronger the boost is.

Quirk 4: Hyper Regeneration

On paper this seems like a powerful regeneration quirk, thus the name, and to an extent it is. From what I can tell this will allow me to heal from any injury, no matter how severe. But it does have drawbacks. First off even if my body healed completely if my brain were to be destroyed so too would my memories and consciousness. I would come back as little more than an empty shell. Therefore head wounds are still just as deadly to me. Secondly the quirk, like all healing quirks, uses energy and though it would take a lot of damage I would still be vulnerable to quirk exhaustion which could cause the quirk to shut down and thus it wouldn't heal me. Finally the quirk needs a pause in damage to heal me. If I were to be constantly attacked the quirk would not activate until there was a brief pause in the attack. Overall a powerful regeneration quirk but I can't rely on it too much otherwise a slip up could cost me my life.

Extra notes on regeneration added after I discussed the quirk with Nedzu and Recovery Girl:

Regeneration is a prime example of how, despite my own quirk, most quirks aren't meant to be taken or transferred. Regeneration works by healing all wounds and restoring someone to their healthy state. In a natural regeneration quirk the quirk learns this as they grow older from after they turn four. However I took the quirk when I was 15, as a result the quirk doesn't realise my crooked and burnt right hand is not supposed to be like that. Therefore while it will heal any fresh wounds to my right hand it will just return it to its 'base' state which as far as the quirk is concerned is how it has been since the accident. This is the same reason that when I offered to give the quirk to Thirteen, Recovery Girl advised against it. The quirk would close all their wounds but because Thirteen didn't have it when they lost their arm the quirk wouldn't realise that there was supposed to be an arm there, it would simply close the wound without re-growing the limb. Nedzu described it like data, the quirk is able to replace all biological data that is 'removed' via injury but it needs access to this data in the first place to replace it, therefore it can't replace Thirteen's arm because it doesn't know what to replace it with. Long story short regeneration will only regrow lost limbs and organs if they're lost while the person has the quirk, otherwise it will just seal the wounds. For this same reason All Might refused when I offered to transfer the quirk, saying I would get more use out of it.

After the attack UA had decided to shut for the rest of the week while they reviewed security and worked with the HPSC to deal with the fallout. All the parents of Class 1-A were also personally contacted by Nedzu to apologise and assure them all measures were being taken to keep their children safe. Nedzu also spoke to Izuku directly, as class president he wanted to let him know that despite everything that had occurred none of the class had decided not to drop out. In fact many of them seemed keen to return, having met the villains they would be fighting, much of his class now realised how hard they needed to train to achieve their goals.

Despite this news however their days off were certainly subdued. Having had her new job confirmed Inko stayed home every day to prepare and also watch the boys like a hawk. Not that she needed to, it appeared Izuku and Katsuki had reverted back to their basic defence mechanism, in that they were attached at the hip. For four days straight one could not be found without the other. At one point Inko even walked past the bathroom to hear the shower running and to see Izuku sitting outside leaning against the door scrolling through his phone.

Three days into this Mitsuki, Inko and Masaru were starting to get concerned. Both boys had been invited out by their friends several times to catch up or simply hang out yet they had refused every time. When asked, Katsuki answered that they simply didn't need their help and pity while Izuku would just mumble about not wanting to be crowded by people. The truth was the boys had grown up as social outcasts and even though they had been branching out they still didn't trust anyone but each other and a crisis like this held the risk of forcing them together inside a mental solid wall.

Eventually Inko and Mitsuki became so concerned they decided to enact a grand plan.

"Kacchan, why does nobody want to talk to me? It's like they haven't even seen the new Beast Jeanist fight!" Izuku complained as he typed out the 5th message to the group chat asking if anyone had seen the hero's new super move, though like his previous four messages it remained unread.

"Maybe they finally realised how much of a fucking nerd you are and have given up." Kacchan responded with a smirk to which Izuku responded by sticking his tongue out at the boy.

It was 11AM on Saturday morning and boredom was quickly overcoming the two boys. Katsuki was sitting on the sofa, flicking through various TV channels though none caught his attention. Izuku meanwhile was laying down on the floor in front of Katsuki, frowning at his phone and his friends' apparent lack of interest in hero fights.

"Please try not to antagonise each other today boys." Mitsuki sighed as she shuffled over to the pair and threw two pairs of shoes at them.

"Huh?" Katsuki said as he caught his trainers, Izuku was less lucky and yelped as one of his signature red boots slapped him in the face, "The fuck is this hag? We going somewhere?"

"Mhmm, yes you are," Inko said as she walked in behind Mitsuki and beamed at the pair, Izuku being the more rule-aiding brother was already slipping on his red shoes, "Your ride should be here any minute."

"Ride?" Izuku asked, confused, his boots already on and good to go, "You mean you're not coming?"

"Nope, we're gonna have a threesome!" Mitsuki barked and threw her arm around Inko.

"EWWWWWW!"

"WHAT THE FUCK HAG THAT'S GROSS!"

"Mitsuki please don't antagonise them," Inko said with a sigh as she ran a hand down her face, "Myself and Mitsuki are just going shopping while Masaru plays a round of golf with his work friend."

"So who's giving us a lift? And where are we even going?" Izuku asked, standing up straight while Katsuki still flopped around on the floor, his shoes long forgotten as Mitsuki glared at him.

"That's a surprise my boys!" Came the cheery voice of Yagi as he followed Masaru into the room and gave a light bow to Mitsuki and Inko.

"Yagi Sensei?" Izuku asked with a tilt of his head while Katsuki silently narrowed his eyes at their teacher, "What are you doing here?"

"Well Inko said you two were getting bored stuck in this house all day while recovering!" Yagi said with a clap of his hands and a wide smile, "So I thought I'd offer to take you out for the day and give your parents a rest."

"Are you calling us a burden?!" Katsuki barked, standing up with his arms crossed and still

refusing to put his shoes on.

"Of course not," Inko said with a gentle tone, "But you two have been cooped up for three days now, some fresh air will do you both good."

"Yeah…maybe…" Izuku said, curling in on himself slightly and stepping closer to Katsuki, a move that did not go unnoticed by the adults.

Katsuki scowled at the adults, his attention snapping between all four before growled slightly, "We're not going to therapy, we're not fucking broken."

At this point all pretences were gone and Izuku all but clung to Katsuki as he stood behind him. Katsuki himself kept his arms crossed and eyes narrowed, glaring at each individual adult. Inko, Mitusku and Masaru winced, this is exactly what they had been afraid of. Yagi however continued to hold his smile.

"I'm not here to trick you into anything, if I was taking you both to see a therapist I would tell you. I'm simply here to take you out of the house for a couple of hours and grab some lunch." Yagi said, unfazed by the looks he was getting from the boys as Katsuki glared at him and Izuku looked over him with an analytical eye as if he was taking apart Yagi in his mind, which he probably was.

"And what if we don't want to go?" Katsuki said defensively, his teeth grinding together slightly.

"Are the idiot and the moron ready yet!?" A gruff voice shouted from the front door before Gran Torino shuffled into the room, "I got places to be! They better not make me wait!"

Yagi turned to Torino to speak to him but was cut off when a red blur shot past the group of adults, blowing their hair up and quickly heading to the front door. Moments later Izuku followed said blur, jumping and leaping off furniture and the walls to soar above the adults.

"Bye Mom, bye Auntie, bye Uncle!" Izuku called as fled out towards the front door, "Kacchan you better not hog the comfy seat!"

Gran Torino scowled as the two boys shot past him and out the front door, "Oi!" he cried, "What!? No hello to your old Sensei you haven't seen in weeks!? You think just because you're hero kids now and you beat up some two-bit thugs, you're some big hotshots!? Whatever happened to respect

your elders!?"

Gran Torino continued to shout at the boys as he turned on his heels and shuffled back out of the house, waving his walking stick around with a frown on his face. Yagi just chuckled at their antics.

"We'll be off then, Gran will make sure neither of them back out before we arrive, I'll have them home in a few hours." Yagi said and went to walk away but was stopped when Inko put a hand on his arm.

"Toshi, thank you for doing this." She said with a soft smile, "This is well above your responsibilities as their teacher and lord knows how difficult those two boys can be."

Mitsuki scoffed, "More than difficult. Besides, let's be honest here, Yagi is far more than their teacher. All we need is for you two to fuck already and he'll be a part of the family."

"SUKI!" Inko cried, her face turning as red as Katsuki's quirk.

Mitsuki cackled while Masaru just sighed and gave Yagi the same apologetic look he always did in situations like these. Yagi coughed and spluttered slightly, his own face going beet red.

"Yes… well… uh… bye!" Yagi all but shouted and ran out the house so fast he almost turned into All Might leaving an exhausted Masaru, screaming Inko and laughing Mitsuki behind.

Yagi quickly got into his truck, giving a sigh as he pushed down the feelings Mitsuki's teasing brought up. Next to him in the passenger seat Gran Torinio appeared to be close to taking a nap while Izuku and Katsuki sat in the back, their eyes wandering around the area. To most it might look like they were simply observing but Yagi knew better and sighed. The reality was the pair were taking in their surroundings, looking for escape routes and threats. It was something he would expect from seasoned heroes such as Torino, not two high school kids.

But this wasn't the time, Yagi plastid a smile on his face and pulled out in his truck, humming a tune as they drove down the road.

"So," Yagi said, looking in the mirror at the two boys, "How have you gotten on with your new quirks, Young Midoriya?"

Izuku's eyes lit up like he was a child at Christmas, "Oh well I haven't really had a chance to practise with them at home obviously."

"Not that you haven't fucking tried…" Katsuki muttered.

Izuku frowned, "I still don't see what the big deal was."

Katsuki turned to him with an incredulous look, "You tried to cut your fucking fingers off!"

In the front of the van Yagi winced though Izuku just rolled his eyes, "How else am I supposed to test my regeneration quirk?"

Gran Torino snorted next to Yagi, "You should know as well as I do you can't train regeneration quirks, despite popular belief. They either work or they don't work. Find out in real combat and not with a kitchen knife."

Izuku didn't seem to agree with this assessment and pouted in the back seat making Yagi chuckle, "And what of your other quirks?"

"Well, heat-vision is too dangerous to use outside of UA." Izuku said as he bit the inside of his cheek in thought, "Pathfinder is useful but I'm not sure how much I can use it in combat situations as I need to know where I'm going for it to generate a path. Kinetic Strength is probably the weakest of all four as the strength boost isn't huge, I'd say it's roughly comparable to Kirishima when he's hardened but it will at least help go toe to toe with some of the tougher villains out there."

"Don't underestimate Pathfinder," Yagi commented, "While you're certainly likely to focus on villain fights, a quirk like that could be incredibly useful in a rescue operation. Knowing the best path back to an emergency medical tent could save many lives."

"Don't let Kinetic Energy make you arrogant," Gran Torino all but shouted from his seat, "I'll be frank kid, it's a weak quirk. Most quirks help to enhance strength and endurance in general. Just because you're stronger than you were a week ago doesn't give you an edge among everyone else, if anything it just means you've caught up to those with mutant or physical quirks."

Izuku clenched his fists and gave a determined nod, "Right, but this is only the beginning of my quirk stockpile."

Torino snorted, "Fair enough kid just remember it's your combination of quirks that makes you powerful, most single quirks are pretty weak. We're not all blessed with some fancy passed down generation quirk."

Katsuki smirked and turned to Izuku, "Ha! You hear that Zuzu? Even with all your fancy quirks I'm still gonna be stronger than you!"

Izuku just smirked right back, "Yeah right? Superstrength? I'm gonna have like five of those!"

"That's because you need 5 just to keep up with me!"

"Pleeeeeease, you don't even have a ranged attack Kacchan."

For some reason the pause that came after that sentence made Yagi's chest squeeze with anticipation and fear. The silence lasted for a few moments before he heard what sounded like Katsuki shooting out a quick breath followed by Izuku.

"EWWWWWWWWWWW! Yagiiiiii Kacchan spat on me!" Izuku whined.

Yagi sighed, "Ah, Young Bakugou-"

"Oi, stop being a cry baby! You were the one who said I didn't have a ranged attack!" Katsuki shouted as both boys glared at each other in the back.

Yagi winced slightly, "Boys perhaps-"

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO BE SO DISGUSTING AND SPIT ON ME!" Izuku shouted back, raising his voice above Katsuki.

Yagi tried to look at them in the mirror, ""Now both of you-"

"YOU TRIED TO LASER ME THE OTHER DAY FOR TAKING YOUR MANGA AND NOW YOU'RE COMPLAINING ABOUT A LITTLE SPIT!?" Katsuki roared back, by this point both boys were leaning into the middle of the back seat and were borderline scrapping with each other.

"Now boys lets both calm-"

"I DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL OF MY QUIRK BACK THEN! I TOLD YOU I WAS SORRY!"

"THEN I'M SORRY THAT YOU'RE SO SQUIRMISH YOU CAN'T EVEN TAKE A LITTLE SPIT!"

"IT'S SPIT KACHAN! WHO LIKES BEING SPAT ON!?"

"I DUNNO! MAYBE YOU DO YOU KINKY WEIRDO!"

"FUCK YOU KACHAN!"

"FUCK YOU RIGHT BACK ZUZU!"

"Are we nearly there yet? You realise I'm 86 and haven't been to the bathroom in at least 3 hours, the old bladder isn't what it once was."

"ENOUGH!"

All three other occupants on the van froze and stared at the driver who had been replaced from a frail and ill looking Yagi to the massive muscular form of All Might. The truck tilted and whined as the added weight caused it to tilt towards the ground. The view of a now fully built All Might crammed into the driver's seat of the truck would have been comical if not for the furious expression on All Might's face.

"You are hero students!" All Might shouted, the truck vibrating as he did, "Stop acting like children and behave or I swear I will turn this truck around!"

There was a puff and All Might changed back into Yagi though he still didn't look pleased. Katsuki and Izuku were looking at him with slack jaws and shocked expressions while Torino was smirking with amusement. The silence in the truck dragged on as Yagi weaved them through traffic, his driving far more aggressive than before. As they calmed down from their shock Izuku and Katsuki made eye contact, it only took a split second before they silently smirked at each other.

"Sorry Dad." They said in unison.

Gran Torino could only laugh as Yagi nearly swerved into an oncoming bus, these kids would be the death of him.

"We're going to Leblanc." Izuku stated rather than asked, he had been to the restaurant enough to know where it was and using his new Pathfinder quirk all but confirmed it.

"Huh?" Katsuki said, waking up slightly from the nap he had been drifting into, "You're taking us out for some fancy meal?"

Katsuki too had gone with Yagi and Izuku to Leblanc several times over the course of their training, though despite the quality of the food the upidiness of the place made the blonde uncomfortable and Yagi had apologised more than once on Katsuki's behalf. Not that Katsuki cared.

"Actually no, we were simply the transport and enforcement to get you out of the house." Yagi said as he pulled up and flicked his ID to the attendant though by this point the man recognised the group.

"You're not coming in?" Izuku asked, a little surprised, though Katsuki didn't seem bothered and jumped out of the truck.

"Nah, we have some business at a nearby police station so we offered to take you in place of your parents to make sure you got here." Torino commented as he let out a yawn and fell back into his seat.

"So what? You expect me and Zuzu just to sit down and have a pleasant lunch in this posh boy club?" Katsuki said with a scowl as he and Izuku stood by the truck, behind them the attendant frowned at the words.

"You could consider it brotherly bonding." Yagi suggested with a chuckle.

Both boys shrugged in response and Izuku spoke, "We usually just punch people or each other, in fact I think most of our bonding happens in villain fights."

The horn of the truck blared in the alley as Yagi face planted the wheel, "Please," he begged, "Just go inside."

"Whatever." Katsuki said with an eyeroll and grabbed Izuku's wrist dragging the boy through the doors as Izuku gave Yagi and Gran Toriono an awkward wave goodbye.

"What do you think this is all about?" Izuku asked as he wiggled out of Katsuki's grip and the pair walked up the lavish stairs to Leblanc together.

"Isn't it obvious?" Katsuki said with a scoff, "They all think there must be something wrong with us because we haven't broken down in tears yet over the USJ."

"Oh," Izuku said as his eyes faded away with his attention, "Are we broken?"

"Absolutely," Katsuki responded with a snort, "But who gives a fuck? We took down the villains and didn't cry about it after. Just because we don't let it all out to some therapist doesn't mean we're fucked up in the head."

Izuku just shrugged, "Maybe it's like Lady Nagant said. We are both S Class so they likely want to make sure we're not gonna become villains."

"Only an idiot would think you could be a villain." Katsuki said in a gruff voice but he did send a reassuring smile so slight only Izuku would be able to pick it up.

"Then there's a lot of idiots in the world." Izuku mumbled to himself though Katsuki still caught it

with his enhanced hearing.

"Damn right there is and we're gonna fucking show them all who's boss." Katsuki huffed and pounded his chest.

"Still," Izuku continued, ignoring Katsuki's very gorilla-like display, "It seems off that they'd just.. Haul the two of us to Leblanc, I mean we've been here loads of time together and-"

"Ah! Midoriya! Bakugou! You made it!"

Both boys blinked in surprise and turned their attention to where Yaoyorozu was standing by the large double doors that led into the seating area of the restaurant.

"Yaoyorozu?" Izuku asked with a tilt of his head, "What are you doing here?"

Yoayorozu approached them and gained a confused expression at Izuku's question, "What do you mean? We were all getting worried, you are ten minutes late after all?"

"Ten minutes late to what?" Katsuki asked, narrowing his eyes slightly in suspicion.

"To lunch of course!" Yaoyorozu said and clapped her hands together, "Didn't your parents tell you? Yagi contacted everyone's parents from class and suggested trying to organise some social groups over the weekend to help get our minds off… well, you know. I was the one to suggest a meal out with our friends but it was All Might who booked the table for us."

"Who's us?" Katsuki asked as they followed Yaoyorozu through the doors and into the restaurant, his suspicion lessening slightly but still not gone entirely.

Yaoyorozu appeared to ignore him however as they made their way through the many tables in the restaurant. As per the norm whenever they came to Leblanc Izuku winced at the quirk energy around him and had to push down his fanboy tendencies down as he walked within a few feet of some of Japan's greatest (and in his and Katsuki's opinion some of its worst) heroes.

However thoughts of quirk energy and fake heroes were cut short when they approached a far

corner of the restaurant. There, sat around a large round table Was Yoarashi, Ashido, Uraraka, Kirishima and Jiro with three more spaces clearly meant for Yaoyorozu, Izuku and Katsuki.

"Huh? What are you fuckers doing here?" Katsuki asked, failing to hide the mild shock that overcame him.

Ashido rolled her eyes at him, "We're here to train… Obviously we thought it'd be cool to have lunch out! Plus can you believe this place! A secret restaurant for heroes!"

"I know, I never knew something like this existed! It took me like 30 minutes to be verified for entry, they even called Aizawa to confirm it!" Kirishima said and the redhead was practically vibrating in his seat, much to the annoyance of Jiro who was sitting next to him.

"Calm down man," she complained, lightly hitting him with her jacks, "It's just like being backstage at a concert, you need to play it cool."

"I'm surprised you're not freaking out more Midori, being our local hero nerd and all." Ashido said with a giggle as she reached out to stop Jiro stabbing Kirishima in the eyes.

Izuku chuckled as he and Katsuki took the two empty seats between Kirishima and Uraraka, "I did the first time I came here, I barely even ate anything. But now I'm kinda used to it."

Katsuki snorted, "That's only because you realised they serve and I quote 'Katsudon straight from my dreams'."

"Woah woah woah woah!" Ashido said, silencing all other conversation at the table, "You mean you two have access to the most exclusive place in Japan and I'm only now just learning about it!"

Even Jiro and Kirishima had stopped their little fight to look at the two boys with slack jaws and wide eyes.

"What?" Izuku asked, shrinking slightly at their stares, "You guys already know me and Kacchan had training from a pro-hero, he took us here at least once every two weeks while training over summer."

"Two weeks?" Yaoyorozu asked, surprised.

"Yeah? So what?" Katsuki bit back, "Airhead is from a legacy family, you must come here all the time."

"Actually…" Yoarashi said a little awkwardly, "My Uncle isn't high enough in the rankings to be allowed more than 5 bookings a year."

"Huh?" Izuku asked, confused, "5 bookings a year? What do you mean?"

Yaoyorozu's jaw joined Jiro and Kirishima's on the floor, "Midoirya, are you not aware that heroes only have a limited amount of times they can visit Leblanc throughout the year to stop overcrowding? Even heroes in the top 30 normally only have 12 a year."

Ashido slammed her hands on the table, "Just who the hell trained you two!?"

"Ashido!" Jiro hissed and grabbed the pink girl, forcibly pulling her back into her seat, "Would you be quiet before we get kicked out!"

Ashido huffed and stuck her tongue out at Jiro who simply rolled her eyes in response.

"Man, I can't believe how far ahead you guys are, I mean you fought side by side with All Might at the USJ. It's like you're in a completely different league to the rest of us!" Kirishima said as he flexed and hardened his hand, a slightly downtrodden look in his eyes.

"That's not true!" Izuku blurted out, instantly deciding he hated the way Kirishima looked like a kicked puppy, "You were just caught off guard at the USJ! And besides, sure me and Kacchan have some extra training but our quirks are more volatile than yours is. We need to train to make sure we control them, you on the other hand can really push your quirk without the risk of it going haywire. I'm sure once we're a few weeks into the year you'll catch up! It's like Yagi said, currently my quirk mainly has offensive capabilities but compared to you I have almost no defence."

Kirishima paused before giving Izuku a smile so bright it caused something to flutter in his chest. Huh, that was new.

"Thanks class pres! Honestly I can't wait to get back to class, I feel like I haven't had a chance to really show my stuff yet!" Kirishima exclaimed.

Ashido snorted, "Heh… stuff."

Jiro groaned and nearly flopped her head on the table, "Did we really come to some fancy ass restaurant just to discuss school?"

Yoarashi beamed down at everyone, "I for one am excited to get to it! I too wish to catch up to Bakugou and Midoriya's level!"

Jiro just glared at him while Katsuki turned to Uraraka who was next to him and frowned. She hadn't spoken once since they'd arrived and was staring with wide unfocused eyes at the menu she held with a white knuckle grip in her hands.

"Oi roundcheeks," Katsuki barked as he prodded said cheeks with his finger, "You die or something? The fuck is wrong with you?"

Slowly Uararka turned to look at Katsuki, her eyes still wide and disbelieving, "It's so… expensive."

One by one the rest of the table also looked down at their menus, the only three people who didn't react were Yoayorozu, to whom money was no object, and Katsuki and Izuku who already knew how expensive this place was.

"Holy shit…" Jiro whispered as she read down the menu.

"Oh man… I uh… I don't think the money my Moms' gave me is gonna cover this." Kirishima said with an awkward chuckle.

"Yes… I must admit I wasn't expecting it to be quite so- WHO CHARGES THAT FOR A SALAD!" Yoarashi suddenly explained as every face paled across the table.

Katsuki just rolled his eyes and looked out into the restaurant, finding the nearest server, "Oi asshole!"

"Kacchan!"

Said server's head spun round with a scowl on their face but it quickly vanished when they saw the table and was replaced with a sigh, "Bakugou, Midoriya, it's always good to see you both and I see you have… friends…?"

Katsuki narrowed his eyes at the server's surprised tone, "Yeah, we got friends, what of it?"

The server snorted in response, too used to Katsuki's attitude, "I just never thought you'd ever allow anyone else into the weird thing you two got going."

"Pffft, whatever," Katsuki said as Izuku shrunk back slightly, "Do us a favour and put everyone's meal on the normal tab."

"Sure, let me know when you're ready to order." The server said before walking off to serve another table that Izuku swore had Best Jeanist sat at.

"Oh. My. God!" Uraraka cried as the server left before she jumped up and wrapped her arms around Katsuki, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Half of this stuff looks so good and I was so worried about paying!"

Katsuki blushed slightly under the assault and tried to pry her off him, "H-Hey! Get off me! I don't need a hug cause we're paying for your meal!"

"Nope!" Uraraka declared as she just wrapped her arms around him tighter, "You deserve all the hugs Bakugou!"

"W-what about Zuzu!? He's also part of this!" Katsuki cried out and continued to fight Uraraka with no luck.

"Tough!" Uraraka said and didn't loosen her grip, internally Izuku pondered how someone with

super strength couldn't force a five foot something girl off him, this would definitely make good black mail material later.

"Wait," Jiro said, "Are you guys sure your parents won't mind paying?"

Izuku shrugged, "It's not our parents tab, it's the hero who trained us and he did say we could use it any time."

"JUST WHO THE HELL IS THIS HERO!?" Ashido shouted at the top of her voice and all but leapt out of her seat, far too fast for Jiro to react and reel her in.

"OI!" A shout came from across the restaurant, "Some of us are trying to enjoy our lunch you know!"

The table of teenagers all turned their attention to the other side of the seating where a muscular woman in jeans and a t-shirt had stood on her chair to shout across the room. Izuku nearly toppled out of his seat when he recognized her even out of her hero costume.

"Rumi please…" Said the blonde woman who was sitting with the rabbit hero and Izuku nearly started to hyperventilate when he recognized her as Ryukyu.

"Who the fuck let these kids in here anyway?" Miruko shouted before scanning the crowd as if the culprit was hiding among them.

At the table nearly everyone had paled and started to shrink back from Japan's number one female hero. Nobody in their right mind would dare stand up to a pissed off Miruko, especially not first year hero students.

Except of course for one person.

"Oi Bunnybitch!" Katsuki shouted as he too clambered onto his chair to the utter horror of the rest of the table, "Why don't you mind your own fucking buisniess and settle down!"

"Kacchan!"

"Settle down!?" Miruko cried as a wide smile grew on her face, "Kid are you even old enough to shave yet!? Sit down and I'll get you your bib to eat at the kiddies cafe down the road."

"Rumi!"

Izuku could practically see steam flowing out of Katsuki's ears and felt his brother's quirk flare up, "WHO YOU CALLING A KID!? I'LL BEAT YOU ASS DOWN ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!"

"HAH!" Rumi shouted and slammed her fist into her palm, "YOU WANT A FUCKING CHALLANGE THEN COME TAKE IT KID!"

Both parties were desperately trying to fight off the grip Izuku and Ryukyu had one them. At the other end of the table Jiro slammed her head down onto the hardwood, the loud smack making both Ashido and Kirishima jump.

"Can we at least get drinks before we're kicked out?" Jiro groaned.

In the end Izuku and Ryukyu managed to calm down their respective hotheads and while many of the other heroes wanted the teenagers kicked down they all quickly shut up when they were told it was All Might who had booked the table for the students. The rest of the lunch actually passed without any further incident bar a few squabbles. In fact if anything Izuku and Katsuki could honestly say they had enjoyed themselves though still didn't get the point in it all.

However, when Yagi collected the boys to take them home he couldn't help but notice how much more relaxed the pair were and the small smiles they both had the entire journey back.

The first Monday back at school after the USJ was creepily… normal. Izuku wasn't sure what he expected when his alarm went off that morning yet he felt no different to any other day. His stomach grumbled for breakfast and his hunger hummed beneath his skin, excited to go back to the place full of powerful quirks. The one major change was that Izuku could also feel his four new quirks just beneath his skin. Despite the situation in which he gained them the thought made him smile, he'd finally be able to show the rest of his class what he could do. But first he needed to get dressed.

The rest of the morning also passed relatively normally. Kastuki shouted about being late while Izuku trudged around with a slice of toast hanging out his mouth as Masaru watched the whole scene with a soft smile and cup of coffee before Inko and Mistuki woke up just in time to kiss the boys goodbye. Even the train to school was painstakingly dull as Izuku tried to get a quick nap in.

All in all it was like nothing happened, as per the usual Izuku and Katsuki were the first to arrive and Izuku took his normal place leaning against Todoroki's desk until the boy arrived chatting away to Katsuki. It wasn't until Todoroki arrived that the real impact of the USJ hit the brothers.

"-I think working on my ranged combat would be best for now, heat-vision is my strongest attack so training it up will be the most useful." Izuku said as he and Katsuki discussed their incoming lessons for the day.

"Don't get too focused on one aspect, it might be weak but Kinetic Energy could be useful as your base quirk if you buff up a little." Katsuki responded as he leaned back in his chair.

"What do you mean?" Izuku pouted and prodded his bicep slightly, he might not have been the walking mountains that were Yoarashi and Katsuki but he had spent nearly a year now training with All Might.

"Pfft, you might not be as lanky as dunce face and tape boy but you're well behind shitty hair and four eyes," honestly Izuku had to spend half his time chatting to Katsuki working out who he was referring to, "Maybe aim for the same physique as shitty hair, his quirk actually works in a similar way, it's tough but doesn't amplify his physical strength that much so he needs to make sure he can punch hard enough to back his quirk up."

Izuku nodded along with Katsuki's thinking, it made a lot of sense, but he decided to ponder the conversation and turned to greet the new energy that had just walked up outside to the door.

"Good Morning Todoroki, I hope that you… are…"

Izuku trailed off as Todoroki walked into the classroom, Katsuki nearly fell back in his chair before he let it fall back on all four legs with a bang. Though the sound did nothing to Izuku who could only stare at Todoroki as he paused as he got into the classroom.

Honestly Todoroki looked completely recovered from the battle, he looked as healthy as ever. His

dual coloured hair shone slightly in the morning light, his face lacked any fresh cars or bruises and his uniform was as always immaculate and free of any creases or dust. What made Izuku and Katsuki silent however was when you got down to Todoroki's legs. On his left his uniform remained tailor fitted but on his right… Apparently the damage to Todoroki's leg had been worse than they expected.

Todoroki's right leg had been amputated.

His school pants whet about halfway down his thigh before they had been cleanly cut. After that Todoroki had a robotic leg. It was clearly expensive and high quality as it looked almost made out of solid silver and was polished to a perfect finish. There was a joint at his 'knee' and 'ankle' and the foot looked like any other human foot except it reflected the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

Izuku and Katsuki could only stare as Todoroki gave them a polite nod and walked over to his desk, his new metallic foot clanking every time he took a step. Silently the boy slid into his chair and started to empty his bag of his notebooks and supplies, like it was every other morning before lessons started. Katsuki and Izuku shared a concerned glance.

"Todoroki… I uh…" Izuku started but trailed off, having no idea what to say.

"Yes?" Todoroki said and looked up at the two brothers with a mild amount of surprise.

"Your fucking leg!" Katsuki blurted out, making Izuku wince slightly.

"Ah," Todoroki said, turning away from the pair to look back at his desk, "Yes, I assumed people would notice."

"Are… are you ok?" Izuku asked in a quiet voice, he was tempted just to take Todoroki's quirk and push regeneration into him but he knew it was too late. He hated the limitations of transferring regeneration but as Yagi had pointed out, quirks weren't designed to be transferred, it was only Izuku's adaptable quirk factor that allowed him to wield all types of quirks so easily and even then some worked better than others.

Todoroki paused before he answered in a voice that held almost no emotion, "I… I think so?"

Katsuki frowned, "What do you mean you fucking think?"

Todoroki didn't look up from his desk as he spoke and he suddenly sounded very vulnerable, "My father did not take my injury well… he hasn't come home since the incident and has stayed in the office. He now considers his dream impossible."

"His dream?" Izuku asked.

"Yes, to have a child that will surpass All Might as a hero. I can no longer be that child. Without my leg my ice will no longer be as effective as it once was, I can only produce it from my upper body and not directly onto the ground like I once did." Todoroki spoke in monotone yet despite that Izuku could still tell that something was off about the boy.

"What about your fire?" Katsuki asked and even his voice lacked its usual bite behind it.

Though he didn't look at them, Izuku could see Todoroki's face shift into a frown, "I still refuse to use his fire. So I shall just have to rely on my weakened ice."

Izuku and Katsuki glanced at each other, even despite their own issues they were completely out of their depth dealing with Todoroki's obvious trauma.

"My sister asked if I still wanted to attend UA," Todoroki said when neither Izuku or Katsuki broke the silence.

"What did you tell her?" Izuku asked with a soft voice, then tension in the room weighed down on all the three occupants.

"That I wasn't sure." Todoroki admitted and Izuku could see his shoulders physically sag as the words.

But before either of the brothers could respond the classroom door swung open before Sato and Hagakure walked in, chatting amongst themselves. Todoroki instantly stiffened up and his face fell back into its usual state. No emotion could be seen from the boy at all and it was like the past five minutes had never happened as the rest of the class started to trickle in.

Izuku shot a glance at Katsuki and the two had a silent conversation with Katsuki shrugging his shoulders and sighing slightly. They weren't going to get anything out of Todoroki in the middle of homeroom so there was no point pushing it.

Izuku nodded in goodbye to Katsuki and quickly shuffled over to his own desk. Jiro, Ashido and Kirishima soon joined him in their corner and they chatted happily until the day started.

"So who do you think is gonna teach us with Aizawa being in the hospital?" Kirishima asked as he gazed towards the podium.

Before anyone could answer the question the classroom door was kicked open. Izuku instantly snapped his head to the doorway to see who was teaching them only to find himself staring straight into the hallway. Izuku (along with the entire class) slowly lowered their heads until they came face to face with a particularly grumpy looking Aizawa.

The class watched in silence as the man reached down and wheeled himself into the classroom. All eyes focused on the wheelchair Aizawa was using to move himself around, both his legs were in casts but other than that he appeared to be ok, albeit looking slightly more exhausted than usual.

"Are you paralysed!?" Kaminari shouted out, causing over half the class to flinch, though Aizawa just rolled his eyes.

"Hardly, I suffered some pretty severe damage to my legs and Recovery Girl used most of her energy on her other patients, I'll be back on my feet in no time." The fact that one of those said patients was also sitting in the room went unsaid.

Aizawa got to the front of the class and swivelled around to face everyone, "Now, before we get into it today I want to apologise."

Most of the class looked surprised by this with even Katsuki raising a curious eyebrow. Izuku himself furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"I know Nedzu has spoken to all your parents," Aizawa continued, "But as your homeroom teacher I wanted to apologise to you all directly. What happened at the USJ is on us here at UA, we became complacent in our security and our lack of judgement backfired on you. I can assure we have already updated our security protocols to make sure this doesn't happen again. Still, you went through something you shouldn't have because of our mistakes and I, as well as the rest of the

staff, deeply apologise for that. I know you've had some days off to recover but if any of you ever need to talk I'll be here and if any of you feel the need Hound Dog can provide free counselling. If you don't want to talk to your teachers please remember you also have two student representatives."

Izuku and Ashido both gave affirmative nods of agreement despite the intense looks they were getting from the rest of the class. The air felt thick to Izuku's lung and he swallowed, it was a reminder of how close they'd come to having a smaller class.

"Good," Aizawa said and with one word the entire mood of the class shifted and Izuku felt himself breathing again, "Now, you may have won one battle but your next battle is about to begin."

And the mood was back, Izuku sucked in a breath as did most of the class. He felt his chest constrict and panic rise within him. He also, concerningly, felt his hunger flare up within him, eager at the thought of opportunities to take more quirks.

"You have just a few weeks to prepare for your next fight," Aizawa said and his eyes narrowed as he looked over the class, "The UA Sports Festival."

Chapter End Notes

So just to doubly explain because I know a lot of people were asking: Izuku can give regeneration to someone to keep them alive but it won't regrow limbs as it doesn't understand that there is a limb missing. Basically quirks weren't designed to be taken and transferred so Izuku just flipping them between people isn't always going to work out.

Anyways, thanks for all the kudos and comments as always!

Whatever It Takes

Chapter Summary

As Class 1A prepares for the sports festival Izuku comes to a realisation

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku closed his English textbook with a groan. He loved Present Mic he really did but the man's constant energy could be exhausting in a classroom setting. Even Izuku could only get so excited over verbs and nouns. Despite Mic's overabundance of energy about grammar the moment he walked out of the classroom a few minutes before the lunch bell the class erupted into excitement.

"Oh man, I nearly forgot about the sports festival!" Kirishima exclaimed and pumped his fist in the air, "I can't wait to show the pro's what I'm made of!"

"You better bring it Kiri!" Ashido matched Kirishima's enthusiasm with her own, "I might not have a hard hitting quirk but you can bet I'm putting on a performance."

"Ugh," Jiro groaned and slammed her head on the table as Kirishima and Ashido eyed each other with mock looks of fury, "I'll try my best but the festival is always geared towards combat oriented quirks over those of use with more passive quirks."

"Not always," Izuku said as he started to pack his stuff away, his stomach already grumbling at the thought of lunch as Jiro's jacks pointed in his direction, indicating she was in fact paying attention, "Admittedly the last round is always focused on combat but five years ago the first round was a scavenger hunt and two years before that the group event was rescue scenario. They just don't get as much media attention but the pro's are always watching… the important ones anyway."

Slowly Jiro lifted her head off her desk, her eyes critically analysing Izuku who squirmed slightly under the look. She paused before a smile grew on her face.

"Yeah, maybe you're right Midoriya… Alright! I might not win but you can bet I'm gonna bring the fight!" Jiro declared mimicking Kirishima's fist pump though a little more awkwardly.

"You must be excited too Midoriya! I mean just think about all the heroes who will be watching!" Kirishima said with a wide toothy smile.

"Uh… Y-yeah, I can't wait." Izuku stuttered out and forced a smile onto his face.

Truthfully he was dreading the sports festival. On the one hand he had watched the festivals ever since he was a child, to be competing in one now felt surreal and like a dream come true. To be able to stand on that podium, show his parents who he was, make everyone proud and prove to the world he was a hero. It was something he'd dreamt of since he could think. But he knew full well getting onto that podium meant he'd need to use his quirk to its fullest, otherwise he didn't stand a chance against the likes of Katsuki and Yoarashi, even if he did have four stockpiled quirks. But that meant revealing the true nature of his quirk to not just his classmates but to the world.

In the back of his mind Izuku ideally wondered if his biological father watched the sports festival. Izuku had rarely pondered who his father was, his mother had been honest with him about the fact that she only ever found out what she suspected was a fake name. Izuku had come to terms with his mysterious parentage a long time ago, but something about going on national TV and showing off his quirk to the world left a bad taste in his mouth.

Before Izuku could spiral into another angst session he was pulled back to reality by a jerk to his seat. He frowned and turned around to face Ashido who was glaring at him having just kicked his chair.

"Check your phone!" She hissed.

"Huh?" Izuku answered in confusion though he grabbed his phone anyway.

1-A and 1-B Dictators

Big Sis Energy: Hey guys, we're really sorry, I tried to stop them but Monama got them all riled up!

The Art Of War: Sensei announced the sports festival today and mentioned a bit of friendly competition with 1A

Big Sis Energy: Long story short Monama and few others turned it into some big rivalry about how we needed to help knock you down a few pegs having defeated the villains at the USJ

The Art of War: About two thirds the class rounded up to come 'declare war' on you guys, they also picked up some general education kids along the way. Just be prepared for a crowd outside

your door

Pink Mistress: Well shit, thanks for the heads up guys!

Green Overlord: Yeah! We'll try to keep the worst of our class at bay!

Green Overlord: Wait… what happened to my nickname?

From behind him Ashido giggled to which Izuku just rolled his eyes, at least he was starting to get used to her teasing.

"YOU DON'T STAND A FUCKING CHANCE AIRHEAD! BOTH YOU AND ROUND CHEEKS ARE GOING DOWN!"

Katsuki's shout drew most of the class's attention as the boy smirked at both Yoarashi and Uraraka who were giving him equal looks of determination back. Yaoyorozu sat next to three giggling slightly while Todoroki either ignored or chose not to notice what was going on right next to him. Izuku chuckled, he knew Katsuki was going to give it his all and from the looks on their faces so were Uraraka and Yoarashi. He'd never seen Uraraka look quite so fierce.

But then Katsuki threw his rucksack over his shoulder and started making his way to the door of the classroom. Exactly where Izuku could see at least three dozen separate quirks waiting for them.

"Shit."

Izuku scrambled out of his seat and all but flew across the classroom, Jiro letting out a yelp of surprise as he used her desk to launch himself. He landed directly in front of the door and swivelled round to smile up at a completely frozen Katsuki.

"Uhhh… Hey Kacchan!" izuku said dumbly and gave the boy a little wave.

Katsuki blinked in surprise before frowning, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Uh…" Izuku opened his mouth with a response but apparently his brain didn't get the memo as he failed to form any comprehendible words.

"He has an announcement!" Ashido announced suddenly, appearing next to Izuku.

"He does?" Katsuki asked?

"I do?" Izuku asked, making Katsuki look at him like he'd just confessed his undying love for Present Mic.

Ashido shot him a glance that Izuku managed to piece together in his mind.

"I do!" Izuku declared with slightly too much enthusiasm.

"Everyone!" Came a shout from within the room and all three students near the door turned to watch as Iida tried to slice UA in half with his arms, "Please pay attention! Our class president has an announcement!

Izuku flinched as the entire class silenced and turned their attention to the green and pink haired duo blocking their way to lunch. A dangerous position to be in when 18 hungry hero students wanted to leave. Ashido and Izuku shared a nervous glance before Izuku cleared his throat.

'Come on Izuku, you haven't spent hours pretending to give hero speeches in the shower for nothing.'

"Everyone," Izuku said in what he hoped was a semi confident tone, "I just wanted to say that with the Sports Festival coming up I uh… I hope to see you all try your best! And uh… well… in terms of the other classes… we should… we should… uh…"

"We should support a healthy rivalry but remember we're all students, hero or otherwise and so let's try to remain on friendly terms!" Ashido managed to finish up before Izuku made a complete fool of himself in front of the entire class.

Most of the class seemed to nod in agreement at their request though there were also a few who rolled their eyes or scoffed at the idea. Katsuki himself frowned slightly before rolling his eyes.

Pfft, whatever. Now will you two move, I'm starving." Katsuki said and pushed past the pair before either could react.

"Kacchan wait!" Izuku desperately cried and tried to grab Katsuki's elbow, but it was too late, Katsuki reached out and pulled the classroom door open.

"What the fuck? Katsuki exclaimed as he took a step back slightly as dozens of eyes stared at him.

"Hello!" Ashido cheered as she jumped in front of Katsuki before the boy could explode, "We're class 1A!"

Izuku sighed with relief, if there was anyone that could diffuse the situation it was Ashido. The girl offered a bright and friendly smile in contrast to the scowl that had appeared on Katsuki's face. Though the crowd didn't seem to share her enthusiasm.

"Huh, pink skin, how interesting." Came a borderline snarl from the crowd.

"W-What?" Ashido stuttered, her smile faltering.

From the crowd pushed forward two people. The first was a tall lanky boy with blonde hair and a smug smile. The second student was so short Izuku at first thought that an elementary school kid had sneaked their way into UA. However the uniform showed otherwise, the short boy appeared to have purple balls on his head instead of hair and was giving Ashido a look that made something stir in Izuku's chest.

"Please Mineta," The smug boy said with a slight scowl at Ashido, "The 1B girls are far superior to what 1A has to offer. None of them have quite so… distinguished features."

At this point Ashido's face fell completely and she even took a step back from the pair. Izuku scowled and he felt his hunger practically roar within him, begging to be let loose at the two students who had just insulted Ashido. And for once Izuku was inclined to allow it. But before Izuku got the chance two other people pushed their way out of the classroom.

"Yo what the fuck dude!?" Jiro said with a scowl as she and Kirishima stood protectively in front of Ashido.

"Yeah man, that's not manly at all! Ashido is a great looking girl, any guy or girl would be lucky to have her!" Kirishima declared as he took his place next to Jiro with an uncharacteristic scowl on his face.

"Pfft, you were right Monama," Mineta said with an eyeroll, "They really are arrogant."

"Arrogant?" Kirishima asked as Izuku stamped on Katsuki's foot before the boy could prove that Mineta might actually have a point.

"Absolutely, you think just because you faced some villains it means you're better than us?" Monama sneered at them, giving them all a disgusted look.

"Because we faced… Dude, do you think we WANTED to fight villains?" Jiro said with a disbelieving look.

"Yeah man! It wasn't like we asked for it, I mean I got my leg broken and everything." Kirishima said as he subconsciously lifted his leg up, in the back of Izuku's mind he saw flashes of Todoroki and his new robotic leg.

"Pfft, how pathetic," Monama said and Izuku felt his hunger nearly lash out of control at those words as Kirishima's face fell, "You're supposed to be hero students and you faltered in your first fight."

Izuku could see Kirishima's frown deepen as he clenched his fists, his hands hardening automatically. His knuckles were white and Izuku suspected if he hadn't hardened his hands Kirishima would have drawn blood. His face had morphed into one of pain and guilt and with a start Izuku realised how Kirishima must have felt about the whole situation, being taken out of the fight halfway through.

"Hey man, that's not even remotely fair. We were fighting real villains, Kirishima held out as best he could and managed to protect me and Midoriya." Jiro said as her frown deepened and she folded her arms (and jacks) glaring at Monama.

"Pfft, protect you? Were you even worth-"

Suddenly Monama was silenced as Izuku's hand was placed on his shoulder. Everyone around them looked on in surprise, not even realising Izuku had moved. The moment Izuku touched Monama his hunger latched onto the 1B members quirk, even though Izuku could take at range touching someone made taking their quirk child's play. Not that Izuku stole Monama's quirk, instead he latched onto it and pulled slightly, just enough to make sure Monama could feel it but not enough to actually remove the quirk from him. Monama paled considerably as he felt his quirk go haywire within himself.

"I would be very careful about finishing that sentence." Izuku said in a low and quiet voice that only those in the immediate vicinity could hear.

"W-What are you…" Monama stuttered out but was unable to finish as Izuku gave a particularly rough tug on his quirk.

"Now then!" Izuku said, switching to a cheery voice as he smiled out at the gathered students, his hand still on Monama's chest, "Hello everyone, I'm Izuku Midoriya, Class President for 1A. Now I can understand the interest in our class after the USJ incident however if you have any intention of mocking my classmates over what was a very traumatic experience then I can assure you I'll make sure you're in Nedzu's office by the end of the day. So if you just came here to mock or stir up trouble I'm going to kindly have to ask you to leave."

Most of the gathered crowd coward slightly at Izuku's words and a few looked away guilty before turning and walking away from the classroom. A few brave souls however gave him hardened looks and refused to budge, this included Mineta.

"As if, Monama why don't-"

But Monama apparently had also decided to leave the situation as he grabbed Mineta by the wrist and yanked the small boy back.

"Mineta lets go!" Monama hissed though he never took his fear-filled eyes off Izuku.

Mineta only had time to cry out in surprise before Monama all but dragged him away down the hall far from the crowd. With the pair of them exiting it led to a majority of the students moving away, most apparently only there for the show. All that was left was just under a dozen students which Izuku could tell were all from General Education based on their uniforms.

"What are you fuckers still doing here?" Katsuki barked and for once it seemed most of class 1A agreed with him as several angry scowls were being sent towards the students blocking their way for lunch.

"We came to see the competition," Said one boy in a bored tone and Izuku almost had to a double take, for a moment he thought Aizawa had disguised himself as a student and dyed his hair purple, "Afterall, you are the class to beat in the sports festival."

"We are?" Uraraka said as she looked down at herself, as if she expected to have found herself switched into another body.

"Of course we are," Katsuki said and narrowed his eyes at the purple boy, "We beat back an army of villains, if they beat us they can technically say they could've done the same. Which gives them precedent to join the hero course."

The purple boy raised an eyebrow at Katsuki, "I'm surprised someone on the hero course bothered to know that information. But yes, if someone from the general education course does well enough they can replace someone on the hero course who fails to impress. So consider this a declaration of war."

Apparently this declaration of war was directed mainly at Katsuki as the purple boy looked him dead in the eye as he said it. Izuku, as well as most of the class, tensed as Bakugou's eyes narrowed and his shoulders visibly tightened.

But Katsuki simply smirked at the boy, "Fine. You want a war? You got one, but you better bring your absolute best because anything less and we'll fucking crush you."

To the purple boy's credit he didn't flinch back from Katsuki, though that may be because he wasn't aware Katsuki could crush his skull with his bare hands.

"Noted." The boy said before he turned and departed the way he came with a walk that was far too

casual for a boy who had just declared war on 20 hero students.

With their apparent leader gone the rest of the general education students slowly disappeared, though a few sent some last minute glares at the now very confused class. Nobody was really quite sure what had just happened or how to handle it as 20 students stood awkwardly flowing from their classroom through the door and into the hallway. The silence was eventually interrupted by the sounds of Uraraka's stomach.

"Pleaseee can we go for lunch now," she whined,

"Whatever, come on Round Cheeks." Katsuki said and grabbed Uraraka's hand and pulled her towards the lunch hall causing the girl to squeak in surprise.

The rest of the class quickly followed and Izuku was easily drawn into a discussion with Yoayorozu and Yoarashi about what their afternoon heroics lesson might consist of.

Meanwhile however Jiro and Kirishima were staring at the spot Izuku had been standing moments before as he spoke to the crowd. Both had unfocused gazes and had mild blushes on their faces, completely unaware the rest of their class had gone on ahead.

They were snapped out of it when Ashido appeared between them, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders as she glanced at both of them with a shit eating grin.

"Scared and horny right?"

As it turned out their practical heroics lesson for the day was a mock infiltration mission. They were split into four random teams of five for the exercise which consisted of making their way through a bunker filled with enemy robots to rescue a hostage. The robot's weren't exceptionally tough but the point was they needed to make sure no harm came to the hostage during their mission. Therefore a simple drawn out fight wouldn't work, not to mention they need to actually work out ways to get into the base. Even Katsuki couldn't punch through a steel bomb door.

However, that didn't stop the first team, consisting of Katsuki, Yoarashi, Ashido, Sero and Iida from choosing force over tactics. To their credit they managed to smash through the bunker, with Ashido melting most of the physical obstacles, within 10 minutes with Iida charging into the centre

room and grabbing the hostage before fleeing the scene leaving the rest of his team to fight their way out. Not that Katsuki complained about it.

The second team consisted of Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Uraraka, Shoji and Ayoama and had taken a much more cautious and tactical approach. Utilising Kaminari they had first fried all the security systems in the bunker meaning all they had to worry about were the robots. Though they still chose to largely sneak around them using Shoji as recon. In the end they had grabbed the hostage before fighting their way out much like the first team, Uraraka floating with the hostage away from the main battle.

The third team had honestly been rather disappointing, mainly because it contained Hagakure, Todoroki, Ojiro, Tokoyami and Koda. Using rats Koda was able to scope out the bunker and confirm its layout at which point Hagakure went in solo and managed to sneak past all the guards, grab the hostage and get out without raising the alarm. It meant the rest of her team simply hung back and waited but it was a credit to just how good Hagakure was at stealth.

Finally it was down to the last team with Izuku, Jiro, Kirishima, Tsuyu and Sato. They had quickly decided that stealth was their preferable option. Luckily Izuku had been watching the other teams and so was able to use his pathfinder quirk to find the best route to the central room, when asked by his team mates he simply stated it was a part of his quirk, which they accepted. Combined with Jiro performing recon and keeping an ear out for the robot patrols, the team had made it halfway into the base without any issue.

"Ribbet, well, it seems we've hit our first major issue." Tsuyu said as the five students looked up at the giant steel door blocking their way.

"I thought you said your quirk would find us the route without obstacles?" Sato asked Izuku with a frown.

"I thought it did…" Izuku mumbled with his own confused frown, all his research had told him pathfinder would guide him to his destination unopposed, well, call him crazy, but Izuku found a locked door made of a foot of solid steel to be quite opposing.

"It looks like it needs some sort of code," Tsuyu commented as she played around with the digital pad next to the door, careful not to touch it and set off any alarms.

"Uh, how exactly are we supposed to find that?" Kirishima asked as he scratched his head, looking up at the door.

Jiro sighed, "My best guess is one of the robots posing as a general will have a code. Which robot it is and where it is could be anyone's guess, it could take an hour or more to find it."

"Reckon we could break through it?" Kirishima asked Sato as the pair pushed against the door, trying to feel how thick or strong it was. Long story short, it was strong.

"Not a chance, even if we used all our strength and kept pushing or attacking it it would take too long and generate too much noise." Sato said with a sigh as he stepped back from the door.

"Looks like we're gonna have to retreat," Tsuyu said, "It's not like we can melt it."

Melt!

Izuku's eyes widened, he'd been half listening to the conversation, trying to work out why pathfinder wasn't working. He was sure the quirk wouldn't take him down an impassable route. Unless of course the quirk didn't think the door was impassable. To an extent it had to have some form of awareness to know the routes it suggested, so it wasn't impossible to think that while at first the steel door may seem like an impossible thing to get through maybe pathfinder knew of a way that it wasn't.

"Everyone stand back." Izuku commanded which caused his team to turn to him in surprise but they didn't question him and retreated a few feet behind him.

"This might attract some attention, Jiro, keep an ear to the ground." Izuku said and Jiro nodded, sticking one jack into the floor and pointed the other down the corridor they were in.

"Uh dude," Kirishima said and furrowed his eyebrows, "What are you-"

Before he could finish, red hot beams of heat shot out of Izuku's eyes. They pierced one corner of the door, the steel instantly creaking and bubbling under the extreme heat as it melted down onto the floor. Slowly Izuku started to move his gaze, cutting out a hole in the steel door inch by inch. As the beams ripped out of his eyes he could feel the heat on his face, regeneration was stopping him from losing his eyes completely but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Izuku grit his teeth and clenched his fists as he slowly worked around the door. Eventually he made it full circle and cut off his beams, instantly collapsing to his knees and panting.

The door whined and hissed from the heat before it slowly fell back and slammed down onto the ground on the other side. The crash echoed throughout the hallway and made Izuku wince at the noise, there was no way that was going unnoticed. But at least they had a way to move forward now.

"Well, that'll work, ribbet." Tsuyu said as she leapt next to Izuku, giving him a nod before she leapt through the new hold in the door and down the corridor.

"You good Midoriya?" Sato asked as he ran up and slapped Izuku on the back, it probably would've made the boy collapse if he wasn't used to Katsuki doing the same.

Izuku looked up at Sato and offered him a shaky smile as he got back on his feet, "Yeah, I'll be ok, that just takes a lot out of me is all."

Sato nodded before making his way through the door and following, "Nice work though, awesome quirk man!" he said and shot Izuku two thumbs up.

Izuku sighed and rubbed his eyes, luckily he hadn't temporarily blinded himself and regeneration had already gotten rid of the worst pain. But they still stung, he really needed to train so he could use heat-vision for longer.

"Ok guys, I don't think we're too far off now." Izuku said and looked behind him to face Kirishima and Jiro, but when he did he froze.

Both had pale faces and their eyes were locked onto Izuku. Said eyes were filled with recognition but of course they were. Kirishima and Jiro knew exactly what quirk Izuku had just used. They had been on the receiving end of it less than a week ago. It wasn't an experience you could forget. The corridor was plunged into silence as the three students stared at each other and Izuku felt his heart practically stop, his breath caught in his throat and he felt like someone had grabbed his soul through his chest. Even his hunger had died down, seemingly aware of the tense situation.

"Ribbet, are you guys coming? We shouldn't be far now." Tsuyu called and instantly all three students let out breaths they hadn't realised they were holding.

"R-right!" Kirshima stammered out and shook his head violently, "Lets go guys!"

Grabbing Jiro by the hand Kirishima pulled her through the doorway leaving Izuku behind. Izuku furiously rubbed his eyes as he slowly lowered his breathing. It wasn't that they still hurt but rather he refused to cry knowing the entire class was watching. Because when Jiro and Kirishima had run past him they shot him a look that Izuku knew all too well.

They were afraid of him.

Up in the control room for the exercise there was utter silence as the rest of Class 1A witnessed Izuku melt through the steel door for the exercise. All Might himself stood at the front by the control panels monitoring the team's progress as well as controlling the robots. Though he appeared to be focused on the exercise he was making sure to keep one ear open to the conversation of the class. Especially after that display from Izuku.

"THAT'S his quirk!?" Ashido cried out, breaking the silence as she waved her arms out in front of her.

"Yeah? What of it!?" Katsuki barked at her as he side stepped to avoid her flailing hands.

"It's fucking awesome!" Ashido shouted and squealed at the screen currently focused on Izuku.

"Language!" All Might reprimanded though he didn't look behind him and most of the class didn't acknowledge him.

"Odd," Yoayorozu commented with a frown, "I don't remember his quirk being like that back at the entrance exam."

Yaorashi nodded from where stood next to her, "True, but still! What an impressive quirk, no wonder Midoriya is practically top of the class!"

"Oi! I think you'll find I'm at the fucking top Airhead!?" Katsuki shouted and glared at Yoarashi though Yoarashi just smiled even wider at the accusation.

"Pfft please," Uraraka said with a giggle, "You're like fourth at most, Yaoyorozu, Midoriya and Todoroki are easily ahead of you right now."

"I will soon drop." Todoroki said quietly from the back of the class though in the confines of the control room it easily carried to everyone's ears.

Most of the class winced, though the topic had not been brought up verbally Todoroki's new leg was hard to miss. His costume had been seamlessly changed to adapt to it but all it took was a glance to see it. A few of the boys in the changing room had made to ask him about it but one glare from Katsuki and a polite cough from Izuku had silenced them.

"Is that really an S Grade quirk?" Ojiro asked with a sceptical look in his eye and Katsuki ground his teeth together when a few other people nodded in agreement.

"Oui! If anything it is like a worse version of my own quirk." Aoyama said with a smug grin and flapped his cape around slightly.

"As if man," Sero said with a chuckle, "You can't even knock someone out, Midoriya just melted solid steel."

Aoyama's face fell and it looked like Sero had just insulted his first born child. Katsuki just grunted and rolled his eyes at the whole situation.

"Oooh, I get it now!" Uraraka said from beside Katsuki as realisation dawned in her eyes.

"Huh? Get what?" Katsuki asked, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"That's why two are like, always training together. You're the opposite of each other!" Uraraka declared like she'd just had a eureka moment.

"One's big and angry and the other is small and shy?" Ashido asked, her confused face matching Katsuki's.

"No not that… be yes that too," Uraraka said, "Bakugou is completely close range while Midoriya

is completely long range. They're each other's perfect counters! They're quirks are practically opposites!"

Nobody in the class noticed All Might flinch at those words or the guilty expression that flashed across his face.

Jiro and Kirhsima didn't bring up Izuku's quirk in the entire time between their lesson and the Sports Festival. Mainly because everyone was too busy. Yagi (and 'All Might') really ranked up their lessons in preparation, pushing them to their limits nearly every single day. But that didn't mean the class slacked in the evening, everyone was also doing their own training at home, every hour spent free Katsuki and Izuku either worked on their quirks or tactics, coming up with counter plans for each of their classmates and trying to guess what the three events might be. As a result Izuku didn't really have much time for his friends, not that they still didn't all sit together at lunch and chat occasionally in their group chat but there was never the opportunity for Kirishima or Jiro to question or treat Izuku any differently.

Still, that didn't mean the rest of the class didn't react to Izuku's 'quirk'. Ashido and Uraraka were the most excited by the discovery and launched dozens of questions at the boy. Yoayorozu and Yoarashi were less loud in their reactions and were more confused than anything, not really understanding how Izuku's quirk worked. But again, with the anticipation of the sport festival they quickly lost interest in favour of training. As did the rest of the class as, in true teenage fashion, the excitement over Izuku's quirk was forgotten by the next morning.

And so over the next couple of weeks Izuku, Katsuki and the rest of Class 1A threw themselves into training. Izuku got to grips with his new quirks while Katsuki managed to increase his percentage of One For All from 5% to 8%, it wasn't much but with the amount of power behind One For All it made a significant difference to his fighting performance. And before anyone knew it the day had arrived.

The 20 students of Class 1A were milling about in their waiting room before the festival and heavy tension filled the air as a few of them received last minute good luck texts from their families and friends. Nobody said a word however as they all mulled over what was to come, the only sound was the muffled cheers of the crowd as Mic welcomed them all to the stadium. Izuku himself sat in the corner away from everyone, flexing and playing with his right hand. Nedzu and Aizawa had agreed to let him keep one of his gloves for the festival provided it was just a standard glove.

"Midoriya."

Izuku jumped slightly at the sound of his name and looked up to find Yoarashi standing above him though unlike usual he didn't have his signature wide smile on his face. In fact if anything he looked far more serious than usual and had an intense look in his eyes and in the silent room had drawn everyone's attention over to the pair.

"Y-Yoarashi, is everything ok?" Izuku managed to get out, not used to his friend's intense aura.

"We have faced each other multiple times now, The Recommendation Exam, Aizawa's assessment and multiple lessons with All Might. In nearly every single one you have come out on top of me," Yoarashi said in a tone that caused Izuku to sweat a little, "But today I'm going to throw everything I have against you as my rival. I won't hold anything back in my quest to win here today."

Izuku's mouth opened and closed several times as he stared up at the boy, his mind trying to catch up with the situation he was in.

"Woah, man Yoarashi, that was intense!" Kirishima said with an awkward chuckle.

"Yeah, it almost sounds like you're declaring war on Midoriya dude!" Kaminari said to which Yoarashi's eyes lit up.

"Yes! Exactly!" Yoarashi declared and nearly every face in the class dropped, "Midoriya as my rival I formally declare war on you for this Sports Festival!"

Somewhere in the room Ashido snorted while Izuku gulped and managed to stand on shaky legs to face Yoarashi.

"O-OK Yoarashi, let's do it!"

"Alright! Let's show those pro's what we can all do!" Kirishima cried with a signature fist bump.

"Hmm, declaring war huh?" Katsuki said as a feral grin grew on his face, "You know what, I like it! In which case I declare war on every single one of you fuckers! You wanna beat me, you better bring your a-game! Especially you Scarface!"

Katsuki dramatically pointed directly at Todoroki who looked up from where he had been sitting silently, his robotic foot just visible under the end of his gym uniform. Todoroki looked at Katsuki with his usual lack of expression as a long pause stretched out among the class. Eventually Todoroki simply nodded his head.

"I will try my best despite the circumstances."

Izuku sighed, he really needed to speak to Aizawa about Todoroki, the boy was clearly bottling up years of trauma and recent events had the risk of letting it all come crashing out at any moment. For now though Katsuki seemed satisfied with that answer and gave the class a smug grin.

"Jiro," Shoji said as he walked up to the girl and put his hand on her shoulder giving it a slight squeeze, "As recon heroes people like us often struggle to show off in these events but I say together we do our best to show that recon heroes can excel just as much as combat based heroes."

"R-Right!" Jiro said laughing nervously.

"Myself and Dark Shadow shall too be setting out to prove those with sentient quirks can work together and not be a constant tug of war for power," Tokoyami said as he closed his fist over his heart.

"Yeah!" Dark Shadow exclaimed as he flew out from Tokoyami, "We're gonna whoop all your asses!"

"Hey Koda!" Hagakure called, waving her uniform around to get the boys attention, "Just because we're Grade E doesn't mean we can't win! Let's give it our all!"

Koda withered under the sudden attention but produced a small smile and thumbs up in response to Hagakure.

"All right! Let's get out there and show those fuckers who's boss!" Uraraka cried while Iida tried to reprimand her for her language, Katsuki however had never looked more proud of someone.

"All classes to your starting positions, I repeat, all classes to your starting positions."

Izuku took a deep breath and turned to the rest of his class, "All right everyone, let's show them all what 1A is made of."

A few cheers rang out through the class and even the less enthusiastic members of the gave nods in agreement. They left their waiting room and headed for the large hallway that would lead out into the stadium for the sports festival. They would be the very last class introduced and as they all waited Izuku could see over a hundred other students in front of him, excitable chatter filling the hall. Just in front of his own class stood 1B, a few turned to sneer at the class but there were also some who turned and gave more friendly greetings.

One by one each class was introduced by Present Mic. With each class the cheers of the crowd grew larger and larger as they got closer to the hero students, it made Izuku wince internally but he knew the score. Even with their declaration of war it was unlikely most of the general education kids would be able to compete with hero students who had been training for weeks. Eventually 1B was welcomed to the field with defeating applause and 1A shuffled forward just by the entrance. Izuku took a few deep breaths to calm himself as his hunger vibrated under his skin, even at this range it could sense the sheer amount of quirks around him.

"And finally please welcome the class that's already made headlines for their bravery and fighting prowess against The League of Villains! Class 1A!"

Present Mic's voice amplified all over the stadium as Izuku's legs went into autopilot and guided him out. The moment they got out into the open Izuku could feel his eardrums vibrate with the noise, next to him Katsuki scowled and Jiro had to cover her own ears. Izuku looked up into the crowds and gulped, that was a lot of people, not to mention the literal millions who would be watching live.

"This is… a lot…" He mumbled as the collective group of first year students made their way to the stage where Midnight was standing.

"Good," Katsuki scoffed, "That means more people will watch us decimate these extra's."

"Now then!" Midnight shouted with a wide smile and swing of her hips which made most of the boys (and a good chunk of the girls) in the crowd shiver with delight, "Welcome to this year's first years Sports Festival! Along with Cementoss I'll be your referee for today while Present Mic as always will be providing commentary throughout the game!"

"That's right, Midnight!" Present Mics voice came roaring through the many speakers surrounding the stadium, "I'll be giving all you folks in the stadium and at home a play by play of

today's events. But I won't be doing it alone, with me to provide a full commentary on the games is UA's very own Eraserhead!"

There were a few confused cheers from the gathered crowd, most didn't know who Eraserhead was or if they did know who he was they had no idea what the hell a man like Aizawa was doing up there with Present Mic.

"I'm only here because I'm being paid… and I lost a bet." Aizawa grumbled much to 1A's amusement.

"Now then, before we begin, let's hear from this year's student representative!" Midnight cheered with a crack of her whip.

Izuku frowned in confusion slightly, he wasn't aware of any student representative, nothing had come up at any of their student council meetings. He somehow managed to find Kendou who shot him a questioning look to which Izuku just shrugged, apparently neither hero president had any idea who this so-called representative was.

"Please welcome to the stage Katsuki Bakugou!"

Oh God.

Oh fuck.

Oh Jesus Christ.

Katsuki was the student representative!? The boy whose favourite method of communication was to shout insults across the room at everyone!? Of course, he'd gotten the highest on the entrance exam, Izuku supposed it made a kind of sense. With a sudden horror realisation Izuku saw that Katsuki had already left his side and was halfway up the stage to the microphone.

Well, at least they had a good run.

There was complete silence as Katsuki walked up to the microphone and literally scowled at the

gathered crowd. Next to Izuku Uraraka winced slightly at the expression.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad…" She reassured a borderline hyperventilating Izuku.

"I'm gonna crush every single one of you, your fuckers aren't even worth my time."

"Nevermind."

Izuku could only sigh as a series of boos rang out not just from the students but also the stands, even Midnight looked a little shocked at what Katsuki had said. The only person not to have boo'd was Ashido who had nearly collapsed from laughter.

"Oi! I ain't finished!" Katsuki shouted into the microphone and surprisingly it did shut up the crowd, "I'm going to crush most of you because most of you aren't really trying to be heroes. You're just fakes, only in it for the fame, money and reputation. Just like some of the pro's sat watching this whole event."

Katsuki was interrupted as another round of boo's erupted from the stadium in all directions, even Ashido had winced at his latest words. Although Izuku on the other hand had stopped cringing so much and raised an eyebrow, they had always talked about this sure, but he'd never expected Katsuki to just come out and say it in front of millions of people.

"Oh shut the fuck up!" Katsuki growled, "I don't care what you all think. Cause I'm only here to be a real hero and to show the world what a true hero is. That's why I'm gonna win, because I know what a real hero is supposed to be and I know the only people who are really gonna challenge me today are those who know the same. So if you're just in this for the paycheck, I promise you won't stand a chance against those of us here for the real reason."

Katsuki let out one final growl for good measure before walking off the stage, leaving a stunned crowd in complete silence as the blond shoved his way back through the crowd to Izuku, glaring at anyone who dared look his way.

"That was some speech," Izuku commented as Midnight returned to the microphone.

Katsuki scoffed, "Idiots should've told me beforehand."

"And it looks like our first event is an obstacle course!" Midnight announced and Izuku realised she had already spun the wheel on stage to decide the event, "This event is simple! Simply run the obstacle course in a race, those who come in the top 42 places will move on to the second event!"

"And just a reminder for 'those' students, you actually need to complete the obstacle course to gain a place in this one." Aizawa's stern voice announced and both Izuku and Katsuki had to snort.

Slowly the gathered students moved over to the doorway that led to the course, immediately Katsuki frowned, "That's way too small for how many of us there are."

Izuku nodded in agreement, "So what's the plan?"

Katsuki didn't respond straight away, staring straight ahead as the countdown started from the minute mark. Eventually though he spoke without looking at Izuku and Izuku himself didn't recognize the expression on Katsuki's face.

"I meant what I said," Katsuki said in a low and steady tone, "I'm going to win and I'm going to take down every single person here to do it. That includes you Zuzu."

"H-Huh?" Izuku stuttered out in shock.

Katsuki finally turned to him, "I know if you give it your all you'll give me the greatest fight out of everyone here. But only if you give it your all. That speech up there, that's what I'm fighting for, that's how I showed them what I'm fighting for. But what about you?"

"I…I…" Izuku's mind went blank as he struggled to form any kind of response, his heart felt hollow and everything around him numbed.

Katsuki chuckled and reached out to ruffle Izuku's hair, something he hadn't done since they were kids, "Just think about it, I'm gonna get ahead. Good Luck little brother."

"You're only a few weeks older…" Izuku grumbled as Katsuki started to make his way through the crowd, shoving a few people out of the way and getting more than a few dirty looks.

Izuku glanced at the clock, 30 seconds left. Ok, his current stockpile wasn't the best for manoeuvrability but he had natural talent that would at least see him through to the top 40. Then knowing UA for the team event he'd need to join up with people with strong and versatile quirks and then he… and then he… and…

What the fuck was he doing?

Katsuki was pushing his way to the front, he was more than willing to go all out to prove his strength. Jiro and Shoji had fierce looks on their faces, ready to break the stigma of recon heroes. Uraraka had never looked so determined and intense as she glared at the competition, she was prepared to injure herself over this event. Even some of the gen ed kids had an aura about them that Izuku knew all too well from his classmates.

And Izuku?

Izuku was thinking about staying on the side-lines to hide his quirk. To cower back in fear because he was scared of the reaction his classmates and the world would have to it. But wasn't that the whole reason he wanted to be a hero? To show them all that the quirk didn't make the man. Izuku thought about the people watching the festival, of the small child clutching their All Might plushie desperately hoping every year to see a quirk like theirs. A quirk that wasn't pretty to look at, that most people looked at with fear. And the disappointment of never seeing a quirk like that among the hero classes.

And Izuku had the gall to call Todoroki out on not using his fire side.

His entire class was ready to throw themselves into this event and Izuku had let them down. He'd let his parents and Yagi down. But worst of all he'd let the so called 'villain kids' down he'd always swore to stand up for.

Izuku clenched his fists, he was done. He was done hiding because of how society might see his quirk. He was here to stand up for what he believed in. He was here to show the world that villain quirks could be used for good. If Katsuki could make a statement so could he and he'd do it by winning the sports festival.

And he didn't care how many or whose quirks he had to take to do it.

Chapter End Notes

Chapter End Notes

Hi all, thanks for all the kudos and comments! Just wanted to give you the heads up I'm going away for a couple of weeks so the next chapter will be delayed but I'll get it out to you all as soon as I can!

All For One Unleashed

Chapter Summary

As people around Japan settle in for the sports festival Izuku decides it's time to unleash his quirk

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

All For One was… frustrated. In his quest to turn Tomura into his perfect successor he had decided to take a step back from directly being involved in any of his plans such as the USJ attack. He even insisted on only being told minimal details, it would make it so much more entertaining. Not that he had expected Tomura to succeed of course, even with The Nomu All Might was far too strong for the plan to have actually worked. All For One would have been disappointed if All Might had fallen in his first battle with Tomura.

No, All For One was frustrated because when the League of Villains attacked the USJ they had wiped out all the security, including the cameras. Which also meant All For One was unable to watch the battle unfold, a rather disappointing turn of events. So he had to rely on Kurogiri's report which had been less than stellar due to the man being encased in ice for half the battle. And even then what he had reported had hardly been good news.

The first issue was The Nomu had apparently malfunctioned, its regeneration factor had failed, much to the doctors chagrin. Their best theory so far was that All Might had simply done so much damage so quickly that not even the regeneration quirk could keep up. Sadly the body was now with the HPSC and even with his spies All For One had no access to it, Lady Nagant was annoyingly good at her job.

Then there were All For One's mystery students, Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou. Kurogiri was able to give him a brief rundown of their powers yet it if anything it made pinpointing the ninth wielder of One For All even more difficult. Bakugou appeared to have the most similar quirk to All Might in that it appeared to be an immense amount of strength and endurance. But All For One was well aware of how his counter quirk worked and that it may have simply been a coincidence. On the other hand Izuku Midoriya apparently had at least two quirks, one was a simple heat-vision while the other appeared to be similar to the regeneration quirk of The Nomu. It was possible the boy had a copy quirk but that didn't explain why it was classified. It was entirely possible that One For All had amplified his quirk to appear as two when in reality it was still one quirk, much like the Todoroki boy.

It was most curious.

For weeks the situation had been nagging All For One, something about it all just didn't add up. He just knew he was missing a key part of the puzzle.

But hopefully he would discover that today through the sports festival. He had a steaming cup of his favourite tea and had made himself comfortable in his life support throne as dozens of screens shone down upon him. Tomura couldn't cut the feed this time.

As the Bakugou child finished his speech All For One raised an eyebrow, that was unexpected. Perhaps this year's festival would be more interesting than expected.

Mitsuki groaned as her head hit the coffee table with a resounding crack as Katsuki finished his speech. Next to her Masaru flinched, calculating the cost of a replacement coffee table in his head already as well as several other pieces of possible furniture. Not to mention the amount of wine that would need to be replaced after the day was up.

The UA Sports Festival had always been a chaotic day in their house, for obvious reasons. But this year was the first year their own sons were competing. And if there was one thing that Masaru knew the boys got from their mothers it was their competitiveness.

Inko giggled from her place alone on her favourite armchair, a box of mochi opened on one of the arm rests and a glass of red wine in her hand, "That's a bold statement from Katsuki, it'll cause a lot of the attention to be on him… which means Izuku can sneak in the win easily."

Mitsuki raised her head, from where she sat next to Masaru on the sofa, off the coffee table. Internally Masaru whined at the spider web of cracks now within the wood. Mitsuki narrowed her eyes at Inko and straightend up, her glass of white wine held tightly in her hand.

"Don't be so naïve Inko, Brat 1 is just making sure he can take out all the big guns first so he can get ahead early on. He'll be miles ahead of Brat 2 by then!"

Inko just casually waved her off and rolled her eyes (which if anyone on the planet other than Inko had done that to Mitsuki they would have died there and then, not even Katsuki or Masaru would dare), "Katsuki's enhancement quirk might be strong but Izuku has four quirks now, not even Katsuki can match that versatility."

Suddenly Mitsuki was on her feet and Masaru had to reach out to stop the coffee table from being tipped over completely, "Katsuki doesn't need versatility when he can just smash through his opponents!" Mitsuki shouted.

Slowly the argument became more intense as Masaru sighed and reached for his bottle of Sake. It was going to be a long day.

Aizawa frowned deeply as he tried his best to stretch out in the confines of his wheelchair. Next to him Mic glanced in his direction and bit his lip in concern.

"You know you really should have taken Midoriya up on his offer to swap your quirk with regeneration to heal your legs for you." Mic said with a hint of disapproval in his voice.

Aizawa grunted, "I already told you and him no. Midoriya needs to get used to the feel of his four new quirks as quickly as possible. He can't waste time on healing me, not when we have Recovery Girl already."

"It would have taken a few minutes Sho." Mic said with a sigh.

Aizawa didn't respond as the two watched Katsuki walk to the microphone and an awkward silence overcame them. A rarity for the two friends. The truth was Aizawa was more dedicated to his students than any other teacher, sometimes to the detriment of his own health. His friends didn't mind how dedicated he was but that didn't mean they liked seeing him in a wheelchair because he was too stubborn to accept help from one of his students.

"Sheeesh!" Mic said as Katsuki finished up his speech, "That was a little on the nose don't you think?"

Aizawa snorted, "This is Bakugou we're talking about. I kind of liked it actually, best speech a student has given in years."

Mic rolled his eyes and mumbled something about problem children being paired with problem teachers before he leaned back into the microphone to help Midnight announce the next event.

Aizawa too leaned forward and observed the screens in front of him as the students got in position for the start of the race. He started snapping his attention to his own class and was presently surprised to see most of them had worked out the initial trap with the tight corridor. He watched as Kirishima, Sato and a few others pushed to the front, that was fair, they all had physical quirks which could just push through the crowd.

He saw Asui, Uraraka and Ojiro move to the sides, smart, they could all get overhead of the crowd and use the walls to move forward while avoiding the stampede. He saw the glow of Yoayorozu's quirk as she created several small gadgets in preparation, meanwhile Ashido was letting small amounts of acid drip off her while Todoroki severely cooled the air around him, both causing most students to step away from them. Aizawa nodded in agreement, there were no rules about using your quirk before the race started.

Then he caught sight of Katsuki, the boy was already pushing his way through the crowd. Several people glared and shouted at him but he ignored them all, it wasn't like any of them could do anything. Katsuki was by far the physically strongest person in the first year of UA, anyone who did try to stand up to him was easily pushed aside. Looking closer Aizawa expected to see him smirking but instead Katsuki's jaw was clenched and he had an almost neutral expression on his face bar his eyes. His eyes were locked onto the doorway at the start of the race and even from this distance Aizawa could see the fire behind them, the unwavering determination and intensity that All Might never shut up about. Aizawa had only briefly seen it before during the USJ (before he was backhanded into a wall) but hadn't fully appreciated it. This was a Bakugou he had yet to fully experience.

Naturally after looking at Bakugou Aizawa's attention switched to his other big problem child and he sucked in a sharp breath. Midoriya was well behind the rest of the year and seemed to be having some kind of mental crisis. The boy had wide eyes and was shaking slightly while holding his head in his hands. Aizawa had never seen him like this and knowing Midoriya's quirk it could all end in disaster. He was about to ask Mic about it when Midoriya paused. His body stopped shaking and he took his hands from his head and seemingly stared down at the open palms. Then his face calmed, his features schooled and he clenched his fists. He knelt down slightly and looked out into the crowd of first years with narrowed eyes and Aizawa could see his mouth moving rapidly. Aizawa recognized the signs that Midoirya was rapidly analysing the quirks he could feel.

Aizawa's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Was Midoriya about to do what he thought he was? He and Yagi had discussed putting the pressure on after their internships but in the middle of the sports festival?

Aizawa's surprised face morphed into a wide smirk. This year's sports festival might actually be interesting for once.

'You're still welcome to join us and the boys after the festival to celebrate!'

Yagi smiled down at the text from Inko and shot a quick reply back promising that he would and that he'd even bring the boys back with him. He tucked his phone into his pocket and leaned back in his seat. The teachers box was filled with light conversation as the school staff all watched out into the stadium with anticipation.

Yagi observed the stadium through the large windows of the box, from this distance the students were little more than a sea of blue and white gym uniforms. The screens dotted around the room showed them in more detail as Yagi's eyes switched between each one.

In the middle of the room sat Nedzu in what Yagi could only describe as a throne. It was significantly higher and larger than everyone else's chair and had a wide control panel in front of it that Nedzu would use to monitor and control the festival. To his left Powerloader had a similar albeit smaller set up to aid Nedzu in the intricacies of the festival. The rest of the staff were spread out among the room in soft leather chairs. Apparently The Sports Festival was as entertaining to them as it was to the masses as several had snacks and drinks with them to watch it all unfold.

Yagi couldn't hold the snort that escaped as Katsuki wrapped up his speech, Nedzu too watched on with an amused smile. Most of the other teachers however looked on with open jaws and shocked expressions.

"The press are gonna have a field day with that…" Snipe mumbled.

Nedzu simply waved him off, "It's nothing we can't handle, besides with the excitement of the tournament and All Might here presenting the medals most people will forget about Bakugou's rather… unorthodox speech."

"Alright," Vlad King said loud enough to silence the room, "Let's begin!" he announced and reached into his pocket, pulling out several bank notes.

Yagi frowned and tilted his head, begin? But Midnight had yet to announce the first event down in the stadium.

"Put me down for no support students getting past the first event this year." Ectoplasm said as he

fished some notes out of his own pockets, "Sorry, it's just that the Gen Ed kids this year seem more determined than ever." He continued when Powerloader shot him a look of betrayal.

"I'll put 2000 on 1-B making up the entirety of the final 16 for the battles." Vlad King said with a wide smug grin as he slammed his notes down on the table at the back of the room.

The entire room groaned bar Yagi, "Really Vlad? The same bet you make every year?" Powerloader said, "1-A has three S class students Vlad… THREE!"

Vlad King merely crossed his arm and raised an eyebrow, "So? My class is full of skilled individuals, quirk grade isn't everything."

"No but that won't stop Bakugou from punching a hole in your students." Thirteen said with a slight chuckle from the corner of the room where they sat in their own wheelchair.

They had only been back teaching for a few days. While their days as a hero were over Nedzu insisted Thirteen was still able to teach. And so Thirteen continued to be the resident rescue expert at UA, the main difference was they now chose to teach in smart pants and a blouse as opposed to their old hero outfit.

"What do you think Yagi?" Hound Dog asked with a grunt, "You're the heroics teacher for both classes, you must have some opinions?"

Yagi, who was still getting over the shock of the teachers having a betting pool for the sports festival, jumped slightly as all attention turned to him, "Oh… well… hmm," Yagi thought back to all the lessons he'd taught of both classes, "Currently 1-B has the edge on 1-A in terms of skill and training. Generally speaking they know their quirks better and are already theorising about how to use them more effectively in combat and even new moves. Meanwhile 1-A are still getting to grips with using their quirks in combat, some of them are still even struggling to fully utilise their quirks, let alone come up with new moves for them."

"AHA!" Vlad King shouted and his smile was so wide it was almost psychopathic in nature, "Did we get that on recording? Nedzu, send it to Aizawa straight away!"

"But," Yagi said and Vlad King's eyes widened in panic, "1-A does have the more basic power over 1-B. The average quirk grade in 1-A is nearly two ranks higher than 1-B. Plus as much as I hate it they do now have actual battle experience." Everyone politely ignored the way Thirteen

physically flinched, "To be frank, I'd say it comes down to a battle of skill vs natural talent and power."

Vlad King's face dropped considerably but before he could change his mind Snipe swiped the notes from his hand and added them to the growing pile.

"Hmmm, you know I think this year may be one of the best yet." Nedzu commented with a gleaming smile as he watched the students get into position.

"Yagi, any bets?" Snipe asked as the pile of money grew with each teacher.

Yagi paused before smiling, "Bakugou and Midoriya to face in the final battle."

Everyone groaned.

"God, he's as bad as Vlad with his favourites."

Endeavor sighed as he leant back in his pristine chair, the fireproof leather hissed slightly against the heat coming from his body but otherwise remained unharmed. By this point he'd visited this box so much that UA more or less reserved it for him. Over twenty years Endeavor had been attending the Sports Festival with his family. Originally all 6 seats had been filled but gradually that had diminished until only three were regularly occupied every festival by himself, Fuyumi and Shoto. Shoto, he had of course made attend every year as part of his training and Fuyumi had always joined because Shoto was going.

Now though Endeavor sat alone, despite the fact it would be Shoto's first time in the festival Fuyumi had opted to watch it from home with Natsuo. She had sent Endeavor a brief text informing him. She was unable to do it in person as Endeavor had not been home or seen any of his children in nearly a week.

He'd failed.

His dream was dead in the water, his lineage would never surpass All Might now. Touya was dead,

Fuyumi and Natsuo lacked the power and his last hope, Shoto, was an amputee at 15. Endeavor had been furious when he'd all but charged into the hospital, he assumed the boy foolishly had decided not to use his fire in some petty attempt at spite and had been ready to let his feelings known on the matter.

But when he'd slammed the door open to Shoto's hospital room all emotion had left him as he saw his youngest child surrounded by doctors and nurses, tubes and wires attached all over his body. Blood had covered the hospital floor as the doctors tried to stem the bleeding while every single one shouted at each other. It had only lasted a minute until Recovery Girl showed up and shuffled Endeavor out of the room.

It reminded him of Touya.

Endeavor remembered his first internship, by that point All Might was already the Number One hero. Endeavor had interned with an old hero who was basically the HPSC's lackey. When Endeavor had asked how he could become the number one the hero had told him to be efficient. Don't make a media storm, just get the villain and move on. It was how he'd operated his entire career. But it had never been good enough, All Might was just too strong and Endeavor was too weak.

And now so was Shoto.

Perhaps there was a chance, but as Endeavor watched his son walk over to the starting line, his robotic leg reflecting the sun's beams he could only slouch in his seat.

It was starting to smell. Even without his nose Stain could practically taste the stench in the air. It lingered like an unwelcome guest in the small apartment. Though Stain supposed he had nobody to blame but himself. Afterall dead bodies left in bathrooms did tend to rot. Not that Stain felt any sympathy for the man, he'd come across the owner of the apartment as he tried to force himself onto an innocent woman. Stain had stopped it from a distance, followed the man home and slit his throat once he got in the bath. The temporary accommodation while he was in Hosu was just an added bonus.

Stain ran his fingers over his final blade, he'd just spent the past few hours sharpening them until even a slight touch would slice flesh open. They'd need to be sharp to get through Ingenium's famous armour. Stain had spent weeks studying it and working out where he could slip his swords in through the gaps. It would be a tough fight but Stain had done his research.

The man was a well respected hero but that didn't mean he wasn't a fake. The Iida family may be a legacy family but it was only after Ingenium's massive agency that the wealth started to flow in. He may be popular but he used that popularity to become one of the best selling merch heroes in the country, on par with those in the top ten.

And for that reason Stain was going to put an end to his hero career.

Today was the perfect time to do it, Ingenium, being the generous boss he was (Stain thought with a snarl) had given all his sidekicks the day off to watch the UA Sports Festival. Which meant it was one the rare times he would patrolling alone.

Speaking of the Sports Festival Stain looked over at the TV in the corner of the room, the noise providing a pleasant background sound as he prepared. He watched the dozens of students walk out onto the field and frowned when the two hero classes came out last. It sickened him, treating heroism like a career choice. Fake heroes training more fakes, it was disgusting.

He absentmindedly returned to his preparations as the student representative got on stage to make their speech. It would probably be some over the top dramatic thing about trying their best and showing the world who they are. Pointless.

'You're just fakes, only in it for the fame, money and reputation.'

Stains hand swiped the remote from the table it sat on so fast he almost broke it. He turned up the volume until he could hear the rest of the boy's speech clearly. To his amazement the teachers didn't try to shuffle him off or cut the feed, they just allowed the speech to play out as normal. Stain watched as the boy finished and was able to follow him through the crowd until he came to a stop next to a green haired boy, the two seemed to say something and chuckle together.

UA was allowing students in with views near to Stains own? That was a development he hadn't seen coming, UA's own first year student representative attacking the hero industry in Japan.

Stain glanced at the open window he normally used to leave the apartment and contemplated for a few moments. Inginuem wasn't going anywhere, perhaps he could take one day off to watch the festival. It looked like it might be an interesting one afterall.

The electronic beeps from the countdown echoed across the sports stadium despite the roar of the crowd. With each one that got closer to zero Izuku felt the tension rise in his body, the vibrations of his hunger steadily grew in anticipation. He could feel the rest of the crowd flex their quirks and he breathed.

Then the clock hit zero.

Like a burst dam the crowd surged forward towards the corridor to start the race. Up front Katsuki lit up One For All and barrelled through the crowd like a bowling ball. He moved so fast and strong that few people were able to react in time to try and stop him while those that did attempt to block him found themselves thrown to the ground or even the air. Several had to scramble away for fear of being trampled by the stampede that followed the path Katsuki created in the crowd. It didn't take long for him to break through the front ranks and tear off ahead of everyone else, with his speed he quickly gained an early lead.

Meanwhile Izuku hung back slightly and allowed the crowd to surge ahead. He didn't need to wait long for a vast majority of the students to end up stuck in the pile up in the doorway. Izuku could feel people trying to use their quirks to break through to no avail.

"Ok," Izuku said to himself, "I need to get to the other end of this hallway."

The moment he thought it a bright blue line appeared in front of him. Izuku smiled and quickly followed it into the crowd. Pathfinder provided him with a route where he was able to duck and weave between people. It was a little embarrassing when at one point he realised the quick was telling to crawl between people's legs but to hell with it, he had a race to win.

Izuku paused however when about halfway through the massive crowd Pathfinder encircled a student. The line continued on in front of Izuku before it wrapped itself around the student like a snake. Izuku paused in confusion, what was Pathfinder trying to tell him to do?

As he watched the student breathed outwards and Izuku saw his quirk energy move, it was like a cloud of air, floating within him but when he breathed out the quirk energy followed, solidifying and forming a solid wall made of air. The student was using his quirk to try and push the crowds back and make some space. As he used it Izuku's hunger flared up and Pathfinder shimmered slightly.

Wait.

Did Pathfiner want him to steal the quirk?

Izuku didn't have the time to question it so he just moved to autopilot. He ran forward with an outstretched hand, his quirk already reaching out and pulling against the energy. The moment his hand touched the back of the student it was like the quirk solidified and Izuku easily pulled it into himself.

The air walls the student had previously made vanished and he suddenly turned round to face Izuku with a shocked expression, "What the hell did you do!?"

Izuku winced, "Sorry!"

Before the student could say anything else Izuku felt the quirk energy within himself and pushed out with it as he let out a breath. Rather than copy what the student had been doing, Izuku looked straight up and created a platform of solid air. Using the kinetic energy he'd gained from all his crawling he launched himself up and grabbed onto the air platform and hauled himself up on top.

"H-Hey!" The student cried and Izuku had to hold in a flinch from how panicked he sounded.

Now that he was standing over the crowd Izuku could see the end of the tunnel. Katsuki was the only one really out of the crowd and was already well ahead by this stage. Refusing to be left behind, Izuku breathed out more air, creating small platforms for him to walk on and ignore the crowd. He drew a fair amount of attention as he ran over the top of them, particularly from members of his own class who didn't recognize the quirk.

Izuku was just about to reach the end of the crowd when great spears of ice started to shoot out from the front. Izuku had to dive to the right, barely creating an air platform to land on in time.

Getting back onto his feet Izuku could see several spears of ice throughout the tunnel now. They shot out from the end like a row of jagged teeth, several had smashed into walls and Izuku could see more than a few students on the floor. Up ahead he could see Todoroki hot on Katsuki's heels, his arm had a slight sheen of ice on it. It appeared that without his foot touching the ground it was hard for Todoroki to use his signature ice wave move so instead he had just thrown out several massive spears to disrupt the crowd behind him.

The side effect of this however was that the spears were far more unstable than Todoroki's usual

ice and only seconds after being formed the spears collapsed. Several people screamed as the ice crashed onto the students below, at least half the crowd was caught in the avalanche.

Izuku had a perfect view of it all from atop his air platform. It was like a blizzard of biblical proportions had rolled in. Many students were stuck under piles of snow and ice and those that weren't found it near impossible to clamber over the ice. But despite that Izuku could see several of his own classmates and others making it through and out of the corridor. Izuku too quickly left as he threw air platform after air platform down.

"WOW! What an incredible start to the race," Present Mic shouted, even the field itself had speakers dotted around it seemed, "Katsuki Bakugou has taken an early lead, using his enhancement quirk to more or less barrel through everyone else. Being the strongest in the year the rest of the students will need some clever tricks to pull him back. Meanwhile Todoroki is hot on his heels having delivered a massive attack back at the crowds to give him an edge."

"It was a sound tactic in theory," Aizawa said and sounded almost disappointed, "But his ice spears also helped to break up the crowd clogging the way thus making it easy for those who avoided the spears to make it through."

Aizawa was proven correct when Izuku and most of the hero students suddenly emerged from the tunnel. Izuku jumped down from his air platform and let go of the quirk, allowing it to naturally return to its original owner. He joined the rest of his class in sprinting along the dirt track. It was difficult to say who was in third as at least 10 of them were more or less neck and neck.

"How exactly are we supposed to stop Bakugou?" Kaminari shouted from Izuku's left as the boy pouted while he ran.

"Less talk more run!" Jiro cried from somewhere behind Izuku.

Up ahead Katsuki allowed a small smirk to grace his lips. A race? The only person who had a chance of taking Katsuki on in a race was Iida and he lacked the strength and versatility for the obstacles in their way. Katsuki was practically a shoe in for first place.

His smirk however was wiped off his face when the ground started to shake. Katsuki skidded to a stop in the dirt when several zero pointers from the entrance exam appeared on the racecourse in front of him. They completely blocked out the sun as they locked onto the sole student on the course.

"Looks like Bakugou has encountered our first major obstacle! He may have faced these giant robots in the entrance exam but that was only one!"

"And because he's charged ahead… they all only have one target."

Katsuki cursed under his breath as a giant first slammed into the ground where he had been standing moments ago. Dust was thrown up into the air and the entire dirt track shifted under the force of the punch.

Katsuki scowled, he had of course taken one of these down before but it had broken both his arms, something that wouldn't work here. He was stronger now but he still doubted anything but 100% of his power would easily take down these giants. As he thought he was also aware that his lead was narrowing with each passing second he didn't move on. He could try to run between them but even he would struggle to maintain that level of speed while dodging their attacks. He could of course just wait until the rest of the year started to show up, that would take the focus off him and make it easier to get through.

But he was Katsuki fucking Bakugou.

He jumped back as another giant first slammed into the ground. He looked up at the zero pointers as they towered over him, almost completely blocking out the sky. He could barely make out the birds flying overhead.

Wait.

Over!

Katsuki smirked, he'd probably get at least three lectures from his mother, Yagi and Izuku but to hell with it, sometimes crazy and insane plans really pulled through.

As the last zero pointer to attack him started to raise its fist Katsuki let out a maniacal laugh and ran forward. Using One For All he leapt into the air and landed right onto the back of its hand. The metal crumpled slightly under his fingers as he got his grip. He felt the wind whip through his hair as the robot lifted him high above the ground, he glanced back behind him and saw the ground getting further and further away.

Ignoring the slight churning of his stomach at the feeling of being over a hundred feet in air, Katsuki turned his attention to the rest of the arm of the zero pointer. Clenching his jaw he started to scramble up the arm as fast as he dared, the metal crunched between his fingers as the wind picked up and tried to throw him off. Slowly he made his way up the forearm as the zero pointer appeared to gaze down at him.

"Would you look at that! Bakugou appears to be part spider-monkey as he literally climbs up over the zero pointers!"

"I just hope he's worked out how he's going to get down once he's on the other side."

As Katsuki got further up the arm of the robot he suddenly found himself cast in a massive shadow. He looked up just in time to see a giant robotic hand attempt to swipe him away like a bug. Katsuki barely had enough time to jump out of its way before it slammed down onto the arm, trying to quash the student beneath it.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THE BRAT DOING!? IS HE TRYING TO GET HIMSELF KILLED!" Mitsuki screeched as they watched Katsuki nearly splatter under the giant hand.

"It is a risky manoeuvre…" Masaru said, he was leant on the edge of the sofa, hands gripped together and knuckles white as his wife sat next to him, shaking slightly as they watched their son.

"Oh Katsuki… be careful…" Inko muttered as she clutched her heart, not even 10 minutes in and the event was quickly becoming too much for her.

"DAMMIT NEDZU! Do you want to be doing a press conference tomorrow about a dead student!?" Powerloader shouted as his hand blurred over the control panel in front of him.

Nedzu only responded with a maniacal laugh as his own hands moved swiftly across his control panel, "Well we have to do something, the zero pointers don't have a protocol for dealing with this scenario."

"That's because I never expected anyone to climb the damn robots!" Powerlouder responded with a panicked cry.

Yagi could only sigh as he watched his successor clamber up a giant robot like it was a treehouse.

Katsuki continued to crawl and climb up the arm of the zero pointer until he reached the equivalent of its shoulder. He wobbled slightly as he got onto his feet, up here he could barely hear anything bar the faint roar of the crowd as the wind howled in his ears. Looking back further down the racecourse he could see Todoroki leading the pack out of the tunnel. He saw Izuku jump down from some invisible platform and join the front of the small crowd making their way down the track.

Katsuki smirked, it looked like Izuku was finally starting to use his quirk. Maybe he would actually have some competition afterall. Now he just needed to figure out how to get down. As he stood atop the robot in thought, its head turned towards him. Katsuki could see his reflection in its many blinking lights and gave the robot a one-fingered salute.

(Back in the teachers box Yagi facepalmed.)

It was only when he continued to look at his reflection he saw the massive fist heading straight for him. Katsuki barley ducked in time as the fist flew over his head and slammed into the head of the zero pointer. The massive robot shook and swung back on its feet, Katsuki held on for dear life as the entire machine nearly collapsed back.

The zero pointer managed to remain standing however, albeit with a now misshapen head which sparked along cracks that had formed in its metal. The second zero pointer that had punched it moved back slightly, its attention still locked onto Katsuki who clambered back onto his feet. He looked down and saw chunks of the robot land on the ground, it had almost taken him down with it.

Wait.

"Hey! Fuckface!" Katsuki shouted and waved his arms around at the second zero pointer.

The robot focused on him and started to pull its arm back. Katsuki stood firm and let One For All

flow though his body at its highest safe percentage. He watched as the huge metallic fist flew towards him and ducked at the last second.

There was an almighty crash as it once again made contact with the other zero pointer's head. This time however the head was torn clean off the shoulders of the robot and sent flying back. Moments later the body, with Katsuki still holding onto the shoulder, followed. The entire robot fell back and Katsuki went with it. The crash created when the collosal machine hit the ground reverberated for miles and could even be heard within the city.

Katsuki maintained his grip on the robot the entire way down. The body of the zero pointer crumpled beneath him as they landed and softened the fall slightly before Katsuki let go. He was flung through the air and dust cloud that was created by the crash before landing painfully on the ground and rolling along the track before coming to a stop.

Katsuki let out a groan before getting himself up to his feet. A quick pat down indicated he had no broken bones but plenty of cuts, scraps and bruises. Looking back he could see the massive dust cloud the zero pointer had created. As it slowly faded away it revealed the remains of the robot, its body was twisted and broken, metal, wires and parts speared out of it like the quills of a porcupine. Behind it the other zero pointers had turned to look at Katsuki but apparently he had passed some kind of invisible line as they turned around to face the other incoming students. Katsuki smiled and continued on down the race.

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! DID YOU SEE THAT!? ERASER DID YOU SEE THAT!?"

"No, I went temporarily blind for 5 minutes."

"KATSUKI BAKUGOU JUST CLIMBED OVER THE ZERO POINTERS AND MADE THEM FIGHT EACH OTHER LIKE A REAL LIFE MONSTER MOVIE! I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING SO COOL IN THE FESTIVAL BEFORE, CAN ANYONE STOP THIS BEAST OF A STUDENT FROM DOMINATING THE FESTIVAL!?"

"Don't count everyone else out yet, Bakugou has a strength and enhancement quirk, perfect for dealing with the tunnel and zero pointers. But the rest of course will be more of a challenge and will give the rest of the year time to catch up."

Back with said the rest of the year Izuku watched as Katsuki purposely let one zero pointer punch the other and smiled to himself. Of course Katsuki was pulling some insane moves to absolutely dominate the festival. Izuku skidded to a halt with most people when faced with the zero pointers, one may have been dealt with but the rest still presented a massive problem.

Todoroki however didn't even slow down, with a wave of his hand a massive ice spear shot out and flew through the air. It pierced the chest of the closest zero pointer sending it back before Todoroki repeated the motion with another two robots. All three came to a slow stop as they started to fall down. Izuku, and pretty much the rest of the group, scrambled back to make sure they were out of range. Yoarashi however didn't seem phased.

"It's my turn Midoriya!" He cried as he shot past Izuku doing his usual flying move and started weaving in and out of the zero pointers, too fast for any of them to hit.

The three from Todoroki's attack finally hit the ground and Izuku had to shield his eyes from the dust that was thrown up. There was a smash from one of them and Izuku watched as Kirishima and another student broke out from the chest of one of the robots. Apparently they had near identical quirks.

"Uhh… anyone got any ideas?" Uraraka asked as about a dozen or so students looked up and the remaining zero pointers.

"Kaminari, can't you like… shock them?" Jiro asked as she glanced behind her nervously, the rest of the year was quickly catching up and the group who had made it out of the tunnel first were losing their lead.

"Huh? What? Not a chance," Kaminari responded with a shake of his head, "I mean potentially I have the power to do it but at that level I'd probably fry my brain and cause permanent damage to my body, it's not like I could quickly heal from that mid race."

Izuku blinked and turned his head to observe Kaminari's quirk energy. It was predictably like he was a power bank with electricity sparking within him. There was a massive amount of power within him but Kaminari's body was unable to handle it. They'd all seen in class what happened if he went overboard. Izuku could only guess the consequences on his body if he went overboard.

This was gonna hurt.

Izuku bit his lip and walked over to Kaminari, "Sorry about this." He said and grabbed Kaminari's wrist.

Kaminari turned round to him in confusion but his face paled as Izuku easily drew the quirk into

himself, "M-Midoriya?" Kaminari stuttered out, his voice laced with fear.

Izuku fought back a wince and watery eyes but he ignored Kaminari and turned to face the zero pointers. Finding the central most one he ran forward. With each step he felt kinetic energy build up but rather than increase his strength Izuku morphed it with his new quirk and soon electricity began to spark around his body. As he ran Izuku poured more and more energy into the quirk, feeling it cackle and blast under his skin.

"Izuku Midroiya is charging straight at the zero pointers! Has he got a plan!?"

"From what I just watched him do… I suggest everyone takes a step back on the field."

Izuku grit his teeth as he finally made it to the zero pointer, the robot seemed to look down at him in curiosity as slammed his hands against the first metallic part he could find. With a cry he let loose and poured Kaminari's quirk into the robot. The power ripped out of him and electricity flew everywhere, it slammed into the ground and scorched the earth and flew high into the air like a fireworks show.

Instantly Izuku could feel it rip apart as his body and mind, the pain was near unbearable but he continued to push out. The zero pointer began to jerk and turn as its whole body sparked, its systems were overloaded and its structure started to break apart. Izuku poured every ounce of energy he had into the attack, ignoring how his mind started to go blank, how his skin tore apart from the energy and his legs collapsed beneath him as his bones started to turn to ash. With one final scream he poured everything into the robot.

Up ahead Katsuki could see the next obstacle: a large canyon with pillars and ropes in between. Annoyingly he couldn't yet jump as far as Asui and would have to clamber along the ropes, it would be slow and the opportune time for others to catch up with him. So he needed to-

BOOM!

The explosion ripped through the course. Snapping his head back the way he came, Katsuki was met with a massive fireball which sparked with electricity. Several flaming chunks of robot went flying in all directions. The shockwave tore through the course and knocked the wind out of Katsuki and uprooted several trees. Several of the camera robots were smashed and destroyed from its force.

As the scene calmed Katsuki watched as the fireball and smoke died down and smirked, "Now we're fucking talking Zuzu."

There was utter silence in the Bakugou-Midoriya household, even Inko couldn't bring herself to sob. They watched as the feed from UA flickered and was forced to switch between several camera's before it found an undamaged one to focus on the explosion Izuku had just caused.

"I didn't… I never suspected he could…" Mitsuki could barely form a sentence as they watched the aftermath of Izuku's power.

"Oh my baby…" Inko whimpered.

Not a word was spoken in the teachers box as the shockwave smashed into the stadium, shaking the glass and silencing the crowd. Both Powerloader and Nedzu had frozen, their hands hovering over their control panels.

"How…?" Midnight said, her voice filled with terror, "How much…?"

"10 million volts." Nedzu informed her as he regained his senses and went back to his control panel, "About double Kaminari's maximum output, most likely he used it in conjunction with Kinetic Energy to power it. It's a good job he has regeneration or he'd be charred remains right now."

Yagi swallowed hard and used all his effort to push down the pit of fear that had formed in his stomach. Midoriya was a good kid and would be an even better hero. But Yagi was once again reminded of the power he held within him. The power of All For One.

Mic's throat made a strangled sound from next to Aizawa as they watched the feed of the race. Presumably he had tried to comment on how Midoriya had just caused an explosion that had shaken the whole city but was as overcome with shock as everyone else.

Even Aizawa was watching with a slack jaw. He knew of course the potential Midoirya had to be powerful, Yagi reminded him of it on a near daily basis. But to see Midoriya unleash it like that…

They had all vastly underestimated how the day was going to play out.

Izuku was aware of darkness. No that wasn't it, it was nothing. Well, nothing except for the man made of electricity that stood(?) before him. Said man turned to him and gave what Izuku could just make out as a smile.

"That was awesome man, shame I can't get used like that without you."

Izuku wanted to respond but as quickly as he came the man was gone and Izuku became aware of light. He couldn't see anything but he could tell it was there. Then he could smell, smoke and dirt mainly. Then came an assault of noise, burning fire, the roar of the crowd and shocked whispers around him. Then he could feel. Pain mostly but he didn't have lungs to scream yet. He could only lay there as he felt his body repair and regrow.

He realised his eyelids were back and he opened his eyes. He was met with a bright blue sky filled with smoke. He felt his neck snap into place and he used it to lift his head and look down. His left arm was regrowing while his right straightened out. His gym uniform was charred and nearly falling apart and he could see how his chest was caved in. But a moment later it popped out like a balloon and Izuku gasped for breath through his new mouth. His tongue flopped out as it finished reforming and he ran it along the new teeth that emerged from his gums.

Finally Izuku hauled himself onto his feet. He looked around, it was like a warzone. The ground was torn up and bits of smoking robot lay everywhere. Even the zero pointers outside of the blast had been thrown to the ground and lay unmoving. Fires were spread out everywhere and Izuku flinched as several smaller bots came out and started to try and put them out.

Izuku could see Katsuki, Todoroki and Yoarashi ahead of him further down the racetrack. If they had been distracted by the explosion it had only been briefly as all three were nearing the next obstacle.

Looking behind him Izuku froze. Every other student had stopped moving and was looking at him with a mixture of awe and fear. None more so than Kaminari who jumped slightly when Izuku put

his quirk back. Yoayorozu had half a cannon sticking out of her stomach but it had long been forgotten as she looked at Izuku with a pale face.

"THAT! WAS! INCREDIBLE!" Present Mic screamed through the speakers and caused every student, including Izuku, to jump in alarm, "Izuku Midoriya completely obliterated the zero pointers we threw at them! We thought they would be challenged but between him, Bakugou and Todoroki it was like throwing cardboard monsters at them! This has to be the most exciting race I've ever seen."

"Or at least it would be if everyone bar the top three started competing again."

It was like Aizawa had flicked a switch and instantly Izuku's impressive feat was long forgotten as the student body started to run down the track again. Izuku included.

However they were all forced to stop when they came to the canyon. Izuku cursed under his breath, if he'd kept the air quirk from earlier this would have been childs play. Up ahead he could see Katsuki nearing the end of the canyon already though Todoroki was hot on his trail. But Yoarashi was about to storm ahead, simply flying over the canyon.

Izuku frowned as several people passed him, Asui simply leaped from one pillar to the next while Uraraka cancelled her gravity and floated across. Even the more flexible students like Ashido were managing to clamber along the ropes far more quickly than Izuku could hope to. He could copy them but with all his thinking he had fallen behind several people.

He crouched down next to one of the ropes and felt it in his hands. It looked like some kind of reinforced steel rope. There was no way Izuku could win if he simply clambered across. So he needed to be creative.

He grabbed the end of the rope a little way down and looked at the end attached to the bolt in the ground. He felt the energy flare up behind his eyes and pushed it out. Red beams shot out of his eyes and made contact with the end of the rope. Slowly the rope melted away and Izuku felt its weight transfer to his hand.

He cut off his heat-vision and stood back up straight. He took a deep breath and looked down into the canyon. He couldn't see the end. But so long as he held on he should be fine.

Izuku stepped over the edge of the cliff.

He could practically hear his mother scream as he started to plummet down into the canyon. After a few moments thought the slack on the rope finished and he felt it tug against his hands. He held on though and started to swing through the canyon. There was a sickening crack as he made contact with the pillar the other end of the rope was attached to and he felt several bones break.

But he kept his grip and hung there for a few seconds as his body clicked back into place and healed. Once done he placed his feet against the end of the pillar and using the rope pulled himself to the top. It wasn't the quickest method and people were getting ahead of him but it was better than nothing.

He repeated this three more times, each time more painful than the last until he eventually made it to the other end of the canyon along with several of his classmates.

Up ahead Katsuki had finally reached the final obstacle, a goddamn minefield. He paused to consider his options. He didn't have the same level of resistance as Kirishima or the rapid healing of Izuku so he couldn't just run across. He needed a way to figure out where the mines were and avoid them.

As he was thinking he felt a woosh of air as Yoarashi flew past him, "Too slow Bakugou!"

Katsuki's eyes widened, "Airhead wait!"

But Yoarashi didn't hear him and went to hover over the minefield. Unfortunately Yoarashi's wind was so strong it caused the mines he flew over to activate. The explosion rang in Katsuki's ears as Yoarashi was thrown back and onto the ground covered in glitter.

"Ow." Yoarashi said as he lay dazed and looking up at the sky.

Katsuki snorted, "Damn things are sensitive."

He needed a way to easily tell them apart. Katsuki closed his eyes and focused One For All in his senses. When he opened his eyes again everything seemed clearer and more colourful. Like he'd just turned the biological HD settings on himself. He looked over the minefield and smirked. You'd probably never notice it if you had normal eyes but Katsuki could see the slight change in dirt where the mines had been buried. Which meant he could easily dance along the path.

By the time Izuku made it to the mines Katsuki was over halfway across, jumping from safe spot to safe spot. Todoroki was close behind him however, using his hand to create a safe pathway of ice to move across before repeating the motion. Yoarashi and a few others were also getting across the minefield ahead of Izuku

Izuku bit the inside of his cheek, at this rate he'd never win. Sure, technically he could just run across the minefield, the injuries would heal but the force from the explosions would throw him off and he'd end up being tossed around like a ragdoll. He needed weight for that plan to work.

"A minefield!? Are they mad?" Kirishima said, suddenly appearing next to Izuku and panting a little.

"No way even my quirk could resist that." Send a second student with silver hair who ran up to the other side of Izuku who recognised him as the student with a similar quirk to Kirishima's.

Huh.

Weight.

Izuku slapped his hands on their backs, "Follow the path I create." He advised and before either could respond they felt their quirks depart their body.

The moment he felt both quirks within himself Izuku ran towards the mines while at the same time combining and activating the quirks. It was an odd feeling as the quirk energy washed over him, his movements became more stiff and he could feel his footsteps become heavier with the added weight of the quirks.

"It looks like Todoroki is catching- WHAT THE HELL!? IZUKU MIDORIYA LOOKS LIKE HE'S SUDDENLY BECOME MADE OF DIAMOND!"

Izuku blinked in surprise as he overheard Present Mic's announcement. A quick glance down proved that Mic was in fact correct. Izuku's skin looked to be made of solid sparkling diamond that shifted as he moved. Apparently whatever the mineral composition of the two quirks was it meant they combined to form something akin to diamond.

Izuku's musing however was interrupted when he stepped on a landmine.

He felt the explosion travel up his leg and vibrate his bone, easily causing several small fractures and muscle tears. But with the weight of diamond he was barely thrown off course and regeneration started to instantly heal his leg.

Izuku continued to charge forward down the minefield, explosions beneath him with every step he took. He felt his legs get torn apart again and again before healing. He grit his teeth and tried not to cry out. But the weight from the diamond quirk meant he was able to keep a steady pace and he quickly passed the rest of the (shocked) students including Bakugou who sent him a furious smirk as he passed.

The moment he cleared the field Izuku let go of the two hardening quirks and ran full sprint towards the finish line. Kinetic Energy slowly giving him a speed boost. He could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel, the finish line, and he was in first place.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN THAT EASY ZUZU!?"

Izuku had to duck as he felt the power of Katsuki's quirk energy behind him. A red blur shot past him with a maniacal grin but Izuku refused to give up.

As Katsuki jumped over him Izuku reached out and managed to grab the boy's ankle. He pulled down as hard as he could and Katsuki slammed into the ground into a tumble. Izuku didn't stop and ran past the rolling boy.

"It's neck and neck between Bakugou and Midoriya! This race is about to reach its climax people!"

Izuku breathed heavily as he ran when suddenly Kastsuki appeared next to him. Before Izuku could react he felt himself backhanded into the wall with a One For All fueled attack. He slammed into the wall and felt several bones break, clearly Katsuki was taking advantage of knowing Izuku could heal.

As his bones started to repair, Katsuki stormed ahead of him. But Izuku had something Katsuki didn't. Range. Heat-vision broke though his eyes and down the tunnel. Katsuki turned with panicked eyes but the rays didn't hit him. Instead they ripped into the ceiling of the tunnel above Katsuki and massive chunks of rock and concrete rained down upon the boy. Katsuki raised his

arms but he was bombarded with the falling pieces.

Using the advantage Izuku ran forward with his now healed body. Each step was filled with tension as he waited for Katsuki to break free. Predictably, behind him, Izuku heard Katsuki smash out of the pile of boulders and with a roar came charging at Izuku.

The finish line came into view and Izuku leapt forward with everything he had. At the same time Katsuki appeared next to him from his own jump and both reached out their hands as far as they could.

Then, before Izuku could even register it, both soared over the finish line and fell down to the grass of the stadium. They both rolled forward before coming to a stop and getting on their knees and looking at each other with wide eyes.

"Wait…" Izuku said.

"Who…?" Katsuki asked and both boys whipped their heads around to the large screen in the centre of the field.

"WHAT A FINISH!" Present Mic screamed and the crowd roared along, the noise so loud Izuku could feel the sound vibrations in his body, "We've never had such a close finish before!"

"As you can all imagine we need to view this in slow motion."

The roar of the crowd was stolen by the tension as the screen lit up with a video feed of the finish line and it felt like all of Japan was holding their breath. Everyone watched as Izuku and Katsuki both appeared next to the line, moving so slowly it was almost like a powerpoint. But then, at the end, everyone watched as their hands crossed the finish line. One however was less than an inch in front of the other as it passed across the white line.

"IZUKU MIDORIYA WINS!"

All For One hadn't ended up touching his tea, it lay cold next to his chair. His eyes were laser

focused on the screen showing the Midoriya child. He'd watched him throughout the race. He'd thought seeing the boy use some type of air quirk meant he surely had a copy quirk. But then he'd blown up the giant robots, impressive but confusing. Then he'd used the heat-vision quirk that he'd supposedly copied weeks ago. No copy quirk lasted that long.

Then it was regeneration.

Then finally some type of diamond skin quirk.

Four separate quirks. Nobody had four naturally occurring quirks. It wasn't possible.

All For One felt the smallest amount of something he hadn't felt for years. Concern.

Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

Chapter End Notes

Hi all, thanks for being patient with me getting this chapter out while I was away! Hopefully it was worth the wait! I've also done some thinking and decided to give Bakugou his own polycule. So the relationships going forward will (eventually) end up as: Izuku/Kiri/Mina/Jiro Bakugou/Todoroki/Uraraka

Thanks for all the kudos and comments as allways!

Ten Million Points of Bullshit

Chapter Summary

With the second event of the festival coming Izuku must deal with the consequences of his quirk and find a team with a suicide wish

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku watched as the golden 1st place symbol blinked next to his name, his shocked (and pink glitter covered) face next to it. The crowd was so loud Izuku half expected the stadium to collapse from the soundwaves they were producing. Underneath Izuku's own name he could Katsuki's with a blinking silver 2nd place next to it. Slowly the two boys looked away from the screen and came face to face. Izuku's mouth twitched slightly and Katsuki frowned.

"Don't."

Izuku's mouth started to move slowly.

"I'm warning you Zuzu!"

Izuku formed a smirk with his lips.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!"

Izuku's eyes gleamed with a sparkle that had caused Inko more than enough grief over the years, "So how's the weather down in second place Kacchan?"

"DIEEE!"

Katsuki's shout and subsequent charge and tackle of Izuku caused some murmurs within the crowd as they watched the pair roll about on the grass. Both shouting at each other as they tried to seemingly rip out each other's hair.

"Damn problem children…" Aizawa muttered through the speakers.

"Don't panic everyone! This is just some family love between the hero courses two brothers!" Present Mic reassured the crowd, some of whom chuckled along at the pair's antics.

"Bakugou, Midoriya!" Aizawa barked, "Stop rolling around like toddlers! Save it for the rest of the festival!"

Begrudgingly the pair stuck their tongues out at the nearest camera but obeyed and stopped 'fighting'. Standing up they both patted themselves down.

"While we have our winners it looks like the race is heating up for the rest, looks like Midoriya cleared a path through the mines meaning this is a complete free for all…"

Izuku zoned Present Mic's voice out as the race continued. For a moment Izuku closed his eyes and smiled, allowing himself a small amount of self pride at having not only used his quirk but used his quirk to win the first event of the sports festival. His moment of pride was interrupted when a fist punched his arm.

"Ow! Kacchan!" Izuku whined and rubbed his arm slightly, despite the fact the pain almost vanished immediately with regeneration.

Katsuki however was giving him a wide smirk, "Fucking finally! I told you if you just started using your quirk you'd dominate the class!"

Izuku chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, though I'm assuming most people in the crowd still haven't quite got the hang of what it is."

As he spoke Izuku indicated to said crowd who were still roaring at the top of their lungs. Somehow Izuku just knew that if they all knew the truth about his quirk their reaction wouldn't be so enthusiastic.

"Eh, fuck em," Katsuki said with a shrug, "The important thing is you're finally showing what you can do, any real hero is gonna see the value in that."

Izuku wasn't so sure but he wasn't about to let another bout of teenage angst ruin the fact he and Katsuki had won the obstacle race by nearly half a minute. Practically a year in terms of racing.

"And Inasa Yoarashi literally flies past Todoroki to snatch third place with Todoroki coming in fourth!"

True to Present Mic's words Yoarashi soared past the finish line with a wide smile and slightly ruined costume and headed straight for Izuku and Katsuki. Behind him Todoroki came running past the line. He paused once across and looked around. He made brief eye contact with Izuku before looking away and walking off to the side. Izuku couldn't be sure but he swore the boy looked just the slightest bit disappointed.

"Midoriya! Bakugou!" Yoarashi cried as he flew up and landed next to the pair, "I can't believe you beat me once again Midoriya, maybe you just have a thing for races!"

"He didn't tell you? Half his training before UA was running around buildings and forests." Katsuki said.

Izuku shrugged, "Still, it was a tough fight you, Katsuki and Todoroki were in the lead for most of it, if it hadn't been for my regeneration getting me through the minefield one of you would have won for sure."

"AH HA!" Yoarashi cried suddenly making Izuku and Katsuki jump before he pointed a finger in Izuku's face, "Your quirk! Regeneration!" He cried triumphantly.

"O-Oh." Izuku stuttered in surprise, realising what he'd said, "I… uhhh"

Yoarashi paused for a moment however before frowning, "Wait… then why can you shoot lasers from your eyes?"

"It's uhhh… complicated?" Izuku offered meekly.

Before Yoarashi could question further there was a commotion from the end of the race and all three turned to find a massive crowd of people breaking through the tunnel and over the finish line.

Apparently Izuku really had cleared a path as it was impossible to tell who was getting what place as people literally clambered over each other, quirks firing off in all directions.

On the podium Midnight frowned, "It's going to take us some time to determine who won here… we'll be taking a short break between the events! Just enough time for a quickie!" she finished with a sly smirk at the camera.

Izuku saw Kirishima and the other boy from before make their way through the crowd and with a start he released their quirks. He watched the energy naturally find its original owner and saw Kirishima jump in surprise slightly when his quirk returned to him. The red head quickly started to scan around and Izuku found himself nervously stepping behind Katsuki.

"Oi nerd!" The blond said and Izuku looked up at him, "You should really go change your gym outfit." Katsuki said with a smirk.

Izuku frowned in confusion and then looked down at himself. Now that the glitter had started to fall off the evidence of the explosion and mines was clear to see. His top was practically gone, only a section around his left shoulder remained fluttering in the slight wind and his pants had been turned into shorts with tears all the way through. He was glad he hadn't worn his red shoes for the event because his gym shoes had disintegrated allowing the soft grass to get between his toes.

Izuku let out a very undignified squeak and took off towards the changing rooms leaving a cackling Katsuki and chuckling Yoarashi behind.

"That's how Midoriya's do it!"

"That was blatant cheating! Brat 2 nearly blew up the stadium!"

"Oh dear, jealousy doesn't look good on you Mitsuki. You should be proud, second place suits the Bakugou's."

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY MIDORIYA!? AT LEAST BAKUGOU'S DON'T FLOOD THE HOUSE EVERYTIME WE GET EMOTIONAL!"

"WELL AT LEAST US MIDORIYA'S CAN FEEL MORE THAN ANGER!"

"I'M ONLY ANGRY BECAUSE YOU THINK MIDORIYAS STAND A CHANCE AGAINST BAKUGOUS!"

"OH YEAH BAKUGOU!? I'LL TAKE YOU ON RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Masaru sighed, had he really finished his bottle of sake already?

Endeavor watched Shoto walk away from the rest of his year. Fourth place. He'd lost to another legacy child and two complete unknowns. Now Endeavor recognised them, Midoriya and Bakugou, the two that had beaten Shoto at the recommendation and entrance exam respectively. When the race started he thought maybe Shoto had a chance.

But he'd been horrendously wrong.

Endeavor watched as Bakugou dominated most of the race, treating each obstacle like nothing more than a speed bump in the road. Meanwhile Midoriya had shown more power than most pro heroes could offer, causing an explosion Endeavor was certain more than half his sidekicks wouldn't be able to match. Watching it all, Endeavor had come to a crushing realisation.

Even if by some miracle Shoto could surpass All Might he would always be outgunned by the two powerhouses in his class.

The Todoroki line was always destined to be second (or in this case third) in the line of heroes to those blessed with more powerful quirks. And there was nothing Endeavor could ever do to stop it.

He felt empty.

Izuku rubbed his eyes as he stepped out of the 1A changing rooms. Bar the USJ he had never used

his quirk so much in such a short span of time and it was catching up to him. He had a budding theory that due to using multiple quirks Izuku was more susceptible to quirk exhaustion than most people. He'd have to watch himself going into the second round or he'd be too exhausted if he made it to the third round to fight.

Izuku was too lost in his thoughts as he left the changing room to notice the two quirk energies approaching him. He only became aware of the two people in the corridor with him when a pair of hands grabbed the front of his fresh gym shirt and threw him against the wall.

Izuku found himself looking back at the steel quirk boy from earlier as well as the other student who's quirk he'd borrowed during the start of the race. He could've tried to push them off, he could've used heat-vision or simply stolen their quirks. But when Izuku looked up into their eyes full of fear and hate he was suddenly 8 years old again being forced to sit in the corner of the classroom.

"What did you do!?" The silver haired boy spat at Izuku who winced under his glare.

"W-What d-d-do you m-mean?" Izuku cursed at himself internally it had been months since his stutter played up this badly.

"You know exactly what we mean." Said the brown haired boy from behind the one pining Izuku to the wall.

"I just-just used my quirk on you like everyone else was doing." Izuku insisted though his voice came out weak and shaky.

"No," the silver haired boy said and increased the pressure on Izuku's chest, "What you did was… was… it was-"

"Villainous." The brown haired student said, "You… you did something to our quirks, something monstrous."

Izuku's eyes widened as he felt his chest hollow out, "N-No… I only borrowed them t-to win. I'm not a-a v-v-vi-"

"Shut! Up!" The silver haired one said and slammed Izuku against the wall, causing the air to be

thrown out of his lungs, "Do the teachers know? Does UA have any idea what kind of… thing they've let into the hero course?"

"There are pro heroes here, we could hand him over to them. Explain that we may have even found a spy." The other boy suggested and at this point Izuku started to lose control of his breathing as his body trembled.

"Good point, we can-"

"What the hell are you guys doing!?"

Izuku's head suddenly snapped round to the side and despite his state he could see Kirishima walking down the hall towards them. At first the boy had a look of confusion on his face but the moment he locked eyes with Izuku and saw the situation he was in Kirishima wore an expression Izuku had never seen on his friend's face before.

Rage.

"Get the fuck off him!" Kirishima shouted and used a hardened arm to yank the silver boy away from Izuku.

Apparently it had been all that was holding Izuku up as his legs promptly gave out and he slid down the wall and onto the floor.

"Get off me man!" The silver boy said and pulled away from Kirishima who scowled at the pair.

"Dude, aren't you hero students, do you know how unmanly it is to bully someone?" Kirshima said with enough venom that Katsuki would have been proud.

From behind his friend the brown haired boy scoffed, "Yeah, but he's a villain," he said and pointed to Izuku who winced, "It happened to you too didn't it? We should report him to the teachers and pro's, they'll know what to do with him."

Krishima waved his arms up in the air, "Are you serious!? You really believe the teachers don't

know what his quirk is? Besides, Midoriya is about as far from a villain as you can get! I saw him nearly cry two days ago because he read a story about a dog getting hit by a car!"

"Maybe he's just faking it all?" The silver haired one said and crossed his arms though even he didn't sound convinced himself.

Kirishima glared at the pair with such hatred that even Izuku felt his stomach squirm, his hands were hardened and he was clenching his fists so hard they actually started to crack, "Leave."

The pair didn't need to be told twice and with one quick glare at Izuku they turned and hurried back out into the field. The moment they left Izuku felt a weight lift off his shoulders but at the same time it was like everything crashed to the front of his mind, he found himself silently sobbing on the floor as he pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around himself.

As he sat there Izuku became aware of another presence sitting next to him. The next thing he knew he had an arm wrapped around his shoulder and was being pulled into Kirishiam's chest. Izuku wasn't sure how long he spent sniffling into Kirishima's chest, probably less than a minute but by the time he recovered he had a hard blush on his face, not that he tried to move away.

"S-Sorry." Izuku mumbled.

"Huh?" Kirishma said, blinking in surprise and looking down at Izuku, "What have you got to be sorry for man?"

Izuku clenched his fists and sat back up, pulling away slightly from Kirishima (who pouted slightly, though not that Izuku could see), "I'm supposed to be a hero student but I broke down at some stupid words from two teenagers."

"Hey," Kirishima responded with a smile and a slight nudge, "You're a teenager too man. Besides I've seen you fight real villains, you're tough when it counts."

Izuku sighed, "Thanks, it's just… they reminded me of when I was a kid. When everyone… When the only friend I had was Kacchan."

Kirishima nodded and they fell into silence, the muted noise of the stadium travelling through the walls and just about managed to stop it getting awkward as they both sat there, staring at nothing.

After a few moments Kirshima sighed and seemed to be thinking carefully.

"So," he said cautiously, "You can take quirks huh."

It wasn't a question and Izuku wouldn't have expected it to be, Kirishima had been too exposed to his quirk by this point to not put the dots together. And of course the reality was that now that he'd started using it people were of course going to figure it out.

"Yeah," Izuku responded with a quiet voice, "It's called Quirk Absorption."

"I guess I kinda already figured," Kirhsima said, "I mean when I saw you use the heat-vision in training I knew it had come from the villain we fought. I won't lie, I was curious so I did some research at home, I thought maybe you had some super powerful copy quirk. But everything I could find said copy quirks just couldn't work that way. Then today when you took my quirk I knew, I felt it just kinda… disappear. It was weird and then when I watched you harden your body it all just clicked together."

"Yeah uh… sorry about taking your quirk." Izuku said with a wince.

"You gotta stop apologising man, it was a competition and you were just using your tools. Besides I took your advice and still came 12th. I have to ask though, what's the maximum amount of quirks you can take?" Kirishima said with a warm smile though it did nothing to stop the dread in Izuku's gut.

Fuck it.

"There isn't one," he replied, "I can take as many quirks as I like and hold onto them for as long as I like. It essentially leaves the other person quirkless. I can also combine the quirks I have to make new quirks and transfer quirks between people. And while touching makes it much easier I can take quirks at range, my current limit is about 12 metres."

Izuku paused and shut his eyes, looking down slightly. He waited for Kirishima to say something, to shout and get a teacher or just simply walk away.

"Man, that's AWESOME!"

Kirishima's enthusiastic reply made Izuku snap his eyes open and he almost leapt back when he realised how close Kirishima was to him. He was looking at Izuku with a wide smile and sparkling eyes and Izuku felt like he was looking directly at a dog. A dog he would protect with his life.

"You could stop so many villain fights before they even really start!" Kirishima continued, "Like the villain is all getting ready for the big battle and you just turn up and yoink! Suddenly they don't have a quirk to fight with anymore!"

Izuku couldn't help but smile slightly, "I uh.. Can't just yoink quirks, it takes a little more time and concentration than that but yeah… that's the idea."

Kirishima chuckled, "Man, no wonder Bakugou is so aggressive, I'd hate to grow up with a quirk like that for competition. Even with a quirk as powerful as his enhancement."

Izuku had to withhold a snort as Kirishima got up off the floor and stood over Izuku, offering him a hand and a smile.

"Come on Midoriya, I have a sports festival to win."

This time Izuku did snort as he reached out and grabbed Kirishima's hand, as the other boy lifted him up Izuku smirked slightly.

"If you're lucky I'll let you have second place."

Kirishima grew a wide smile and laughed, slapping Izuku on the back, "Ha! Bakugou was right, there is a bit of fire in you."

Izuku laughed and the pair wandered back out onto the field. It was obvious that the first event had whittled down most of the year. Compared to how full the field had been during Katsuki's speech there were now less than 50 students standing milling around waiting for the next event. A quick glance up at the screen showed 42 names that would be moving on.

"Midori!"

Izuku and Kirishima looked to the side to find Ashido running over to them with a slightly less enthusiastic Jiro behind her.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Ashido squealed as she jumped up and wrapped her arms around Izuku, making the boy blush and stutter, "The way you blew up that robot was amazing! You literally made the whole year stop and watch!"

"It was pretty rad," Jiro said as she joined the group.

"U-Uh thanks," Izuku said awkwardly as Kirishima pried Ashido off him, "Did you guys get through too?"

"Obviously," Ashido said with a slight smirk and a roll of her eyes as she stepped back from a now freed Izuku.

Jiro snorted, "All the hero course kids go through as well as one general kid and someone from the support department."

"All that big talk from the legion of general students outside our door didn't really amount to anything." Ashido said with a smirk as she watched the stands fill with said students.

"It was always going to be an uphill battle for them, half of the hero course has been training for years to get here while the other half have quirks naturally suited to heroics. Most of the general studies have neither." Izuku commented, the stats an automatic figure in his head due to his research back when Katsuki was quirkless.

"Then there's the people with both like you." Jiro said with a friendly smirk.

Izuku blushed, "I-I'm not that bad."

"Dude you're a recommended student who blew up a giant robot." Jiro said with a deadpan look.

Izuku spluttered and blushed furiously much to his friends' amusement. However their teasing was brought to an end when the snap of Midnight's whip silenced the gathered crowd.

"Now then!" She shouted, "Congratulations to the 42 who made it through to the second round but we're barely past the foreplay of this event!" Midnight finished with a sly smirk and a wink.

Izuku shuddered slightly, "Sometimes she really makes me uncomfortable."

"Same here man," Kirishima said from next to him as Midnight licked her lips and gazed at the gathered students, "Like, I know it's part of her hero gig but it's so weird how it drives everyone mad."

Izuku nodded in agreement, neither boy saw the looks Ashido and Jiro were giving them as they spoke.

"Now it's time to decide on the next event!" Midnight declared and dramatically pulled the lever next to her to start the wheel.

The entire student body present waited with baited breath as the wheel slowly came to a stop.

"Looks like it's time for a Cavalry Battle!" Midnight declared as the crowd roared with anticipation.

Izuku tilted his head, "Cavalry Battle?"

"Yeah man! Guess it's a team game this time!" Kirishima said with a fist pump.

"Didn't you ever play it growing up as a kid?" Jiro asked and Izuku winced slightly.

"I uh… guess not," Izuku mumbled, team games were hardly his expertise considering his and Katsuki's upbringing. Team sports back at their old school normally meant the rest of the class playing while Izuku and Katsuki were given a worn out ball to throw between themselves.

"The rules are as you'd expect," Midnight continued, "Students will need to make teams of anywhere between 2 and 4 people. One person must be the rider and mustn't touch the ground during the round. Each team will receive a headband worth the collective points of their team members, the goal is to defend your own points while trying to steal the points of other teams, only the top four teams will make it through to the final round! Points are determined by your place in the race, 42nd will receive 5 points, 41st 10 points and so on in 5 point intervals."

"I get it," Jiro said, "They're making sure the top scorers don't dominate the festival completely. Those who won the first round instantly become a massive target in the second round and will have a tougher time than those just trying to sneak in the points."

"Gonna suck to be you Midori, you're basically being presented as a snack to everyone. But I already knew you were a snack of course." Ashido said with a wink causing Kirishima to groan and Jiro to roll her eyes.

To his credit Izuku only sported a light blush as he worked out his point value in his head, "It won't be so bad, there's only 5 points difference so the top 5 or so from the race will all have a lot of attention on them."

"Oh, there is just one twist however!" Midnight said with a wide and dangerous smile that made Izuku shiver slightly, it got even worse when she seemed to find him in the crowd and looked directly at him as she spoke, "The person who came in first place will have a points value of ten million!"

That was some Harry Potter snitch level bullshit right there.

Instantly Izuku could feel every eye in the stadium turn to him. He suddenly felt like a sheep surrounded by wolves who were drooling over their last meal. Even his hunger shivered back slightly at the attention. Izuku gulped, things had just gotten a lot harder.

"You have 15 minutes to form your teams! Good luck!" Midnight said and gave the students a wink and a crack of her whip.

The air around Izuku grew instantly awkward and stale as Jiro and Ashido not so subtly glanced at each other.

Izuku sighed, "Go on, it's fine."

"Sorry Midori…" Ashido said with an apologetic smile, "It's just well…"

"Practically the entire field is gonna be going after whatever team you're on and we don't have the most offensive quirks to keep up with that level of attention." Jiro finished for Ashido who winced slightly at the bluntness of Jiro's words.

Izuku just shook his head however, "It's fine, besides, you deserve your own chance to shine without piggy backing onto my ten million points."

"Thanks, Midori! Guess we'll see you on the field of battle!" Ashido said with a smirk and ran off time to find a team, Jiro gave him a peace sign and too walked off though with much less energy than Ashido.

Around him the rest of the students milled about forming various teams, a hive of activity while Izuku stood rooted to the spot, with no idea what to do. Jiro was right, he essentially had a massive target on his back, any team he joined would be under constant fire. Nobody wanted that. Even now he could see other teams being formed and glancing his way, whispering plans on how to presumably take his headband.

Not to mention Izuku was finally getting a feel for his quirk and was looking forward to testing it out further into the festival. But there was no way he could fool anyone he was on a team with about the true nature of his quirk which meant he either needed people who knew about his quirk or who wouldn't react wildly in the middle of a battle.

"Looks like we'll need to hunt down some other team members."

Izuku blinked in surprise and turned to find Kirishima still standing next to him, beaming at him with a wide smile and further confirming Izuku's theory that he had been a dog in a previous life.

"Huh?" Was all Izuku could respond with.

Kirishima chuckled and slapped him on the back, "Come on man, as good as you and I are, I still think we should try and form a full team of four."

"Wait," Izuku said, looking up at Kirishima with wide eyes, "You want to be on the same team?"

Kirishima gave him a toothy smile in response, "Absolutely man! You're pretty much the top of our class by this point and besides," Kirishima leaned in close to Izuku and whispered the next part, "Doesn't matter what team I join, you can just steal their quirks and do it anyway."

It was hard to fight the smile that threatened to break out over Izuku's face. Sure, plenty of people knew about his quirk but few outside of Katsuki were excited by it. His parents tended to ignore it, his teachers tolerated it and despite Yagi's best efforts Izuku was not oblivious to the fear his quirk struck in the man. But Kirishima had just found out the unedited raw truth of Izuku quirk and was genuinely excited by the possibilities.

It felt good.

"Ok," Izuku said with his own smile, his enthusiasm picking up considerably, "Well maybe then for our other teammates we should-"

"OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY CYBORG AIN'T NO WAY I'M LETTING YOU JOIN OUR TEAM!"

Izuku and Kirishima turned to find Katsuki marching across the field towards them. He had paused to shout in the face of a girl with pink hair, presumably from the support course based on the equipment she had. For a moment the pink girl looked like she wanted to argue but one look at Katsuki and she shrugged before moving on to find another team. Katsuki finished his march and stood over Izuku and prodded him in the chest.

"You got a plan nerd?"

Izuku frowned, "For what?"

"For dinner tonight…" Katsuki said will a roll of his eyes, "Obviously for the fucking Calvary Battle!"

"You mean you wanna team up?" Izuku asked, slightly surprised.

"Of course I fucking do." Katsuki said it like he was explaining it to a toddler.

"But Kacchan, I'm worth ten million points?"

"Exactly," Katsuki said with a feral smile, "Which means all these fuckers are gonna come straight for us meaning I can beat the shit out of every single one."

Izuku snorted while Kirishima chuckled, "Man, looks like we just need a fourth then."

Katsuki seemed to suddenly become aware of Kirishima's presence and turned to him with a slightly surprised expression, "The fuck are you doing here shitty hair?"

Kirishima appeared to be the only other person besides Izuku however who was immune to Katsuki's attitude, "I'm on the team! With Midoriya's quirk we're bound to get through."

Katsuki suddenly tensed, his eyes snapping between Izuku and Kirishima. With a start Izuku realised Katsuki had no idea about the conversation he'd had with Kirishima and panicked slightly when Katsuki stopped in front of him defensively.

"Kacchan wait-"

"You know what his quirk is?" Katsuki asked Kirishima in a harsh tone.

Kirishima for once lost some of his naturally happy outlook and his face dropped, "Uh yeah, I figured it out but we literally just spoke about it."

"Kacchan please it's fine-" Izuku was once again cut off as Katsuki shrugged him off.

"And?" Katsuki practically spat at Kirishima.

"And what?" Kirishima asked, more than a little nervous.

"What do you think about Zuzu's quirk?" Katsuki said and Izuku could feel how One For All was flaring up and all but ready to attack Kirishima if he said the wrong thing.

"Oh… well, like Yagi said, the quirk doesn't make the man but… Midoriya's quirk is awesome! There's no way we'll lose in a team with him." Kirishima responded, his wide smile instantly removing any tension between him.

Katsuki paused and for a moment Izuku thought the interrogation was going to continue but then he saw Katsuki's shoulders relax, "Alright fine, you can be on our team."

"All right!" Kirishima declared and Izuku let out a sigh of relief.

"So, you got a plan or what nerd?" Katsuki asked as his attention turned back to Izuku.

Izuku paused to think, in terms of versatility they currently had the best and worst match up for it. Technically Izuku was the most versatile person in the year, so long as he managed to take the quirks required for it. On the flip side, while both were fairly strong members of the year, Katsuki and Kirishima were more or less exclusively restricted to close combat. They'd make a good defence but their offence was more or less exclusively down to Izuku. Then again, everyone on the field would be coming for them anyway, a strong defence wasn't such a bad idea. What they really needed was a good counter attack. Which gave Izuku an idea.

"Ok, I think I know who we need but it's gonna be tough to convince them."

Katsuki grunted, "Just get shitty hair to give them the puppy eyes you, Raccoon Eyes and Punk Ears always melt around."

Izuku blushed furiously.

"Hey, I don't have puppy eyes!" Kirishima said and pouted, proving that he definitely did have puppy eyes.

"Let's just go find them." Izuku grumbled while a still pouting Kirishima and snickering Katsuki followed him.

They weaved their way through the crowds, a few already formed teams looking at Izuku with hungry expressions. A few Class A students however saw the current team make up and paled when they realised Izuku and Katsuki would be working together. Some however, namely Todoroki and Yoarashi seemed to spy the team make up and take it as a challenge. Izuku spotted who he was looking for standing alone with a look of focus. That was good, it meant they hadn't dedicated themselves to a team yet.

"Tokage." He said as they approached the girl.

Tokage turned to him with surprise and a confused frown but her face split into a smile when she saw Izuku, "Hey Midoriya! Congrats on the win, the way you blew up that robot? Not too bad."

Izuku chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "Thanks, congrats on getting through too."

Tokage shrugged, "Thanks but 39th place is hardly anything to brag about. Honestly I could've done way better."

Katsuki scoffed, "Then why didn't you?"

Tokage rolled her eyes, "Because Monama got this stupid plan into Kendo's head about making sure the entire class got through by all hanging back and working together."

Kirishima frowned, "Didn't it work though?"

Tokage sighed, "Sure, but 1A also all got through no problem and took the top 4 spots. Which means all the attention is still on 1A."

"Well," Kirishima said with a smile, "If you want attention you could join our team!"

Tokage snorted, "There's attention and then there's suicide. I want to be seen but I want to survive the next round too. I've already got two decent offers for teams anyway."

Izuku nodded, "Let me guess, you're debating if you should join the more offensive or defensive team that's offered you a place."

Tokage raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah, how did you…?"

"It's pretty much the only two real tactics here," Izuku explained, "You either form a team with enough points that you just need to keep everyone else off you to get through or you pretty much focus on constantly taking headbands and hope the timer stops when you have enough points. I'm not sure what it's like in 1B but 1A only has a few versatile quirks which could play at both and even then you could hardly focus the entire team on one quirk."

Tokage paused before giving Izuku a curious look, "That might all be true, but that doesn't change the fact your team mainly offers a massive target on my back. Besides, are you going offensive or defensive?"

Izuku smirked slightly, "Actually, we're the only team that CAN cover both offensive and defensive."

Tokage spent a few moments looking at each of the three boys, "Ok I'll bite, how?"

"Well for starters, out of everyone in our class Kacchan and Kirishima have the best defence." Izuku explained and motioned to the pair.

"My quirk is called Enhancement," Katsuki said with a bored tone, "Pretty much an advanced super strength quirk which means I'm stronger, faster and tougher than anyone else on the field."

"And my quirk is called Hardening!" Kirishima exclaimed with triple the amount of enthusiasm and raised a rock solid arm to show off his quirk, "Basically it means I can harden my entire body and take pretty much whatever anyone throws at me."

Tokage nodded and seemed to go over it in her head, "I get it, these two have great defensive quirks and close combat while my quirk is incredibly versatile, especially considering the rules of the game. In fact I'd go as far to say my quirk is perfect for this."

Izuku nodded, "Agreed."

"Buuut," Tokage drew the word out, "I'm still not incredibly offensive, which means you must be

hiding some kind of super freaky quirk to make up for what the three of us lack."

Izuku paused and took a breath, he knew this was going to happen but to hell with it, he had a tournament to win.

"My quirk is called Quirk Absorption," Izuku said and next to him Katsuki and Kirishima both froze up, "it allows me to take and use people's quirks."

Tokage frowned, "You mean like Monama's copy quirk?"

Izuku shook his head, "No, I don't copy the quirk, I take it completely, it leaves the person essentially quirkless. Unlike copy quirks I can also take as many as I like and keep them indefinitely while using them to their full potential."

Tokage paused as Izuku could practically feel the tension ebbing off Katsuki and Kirishima. He himself felt his heart constrict slightly in his chest as he awaited her reaction.

Tokage let out a low whistle, "Damn Midoriya… I get it, with you on our team it pretty much doesn't matter if we focus on defensive or offensive because you can just take the quirks needed to do both."

"Exactly," Izuku said and silently let out a sigh of relief when Tokage didn't immediately run for the hills, "So, will you join us?"

Tokage paused before answering and glanced behind her where several members of her class were giving her suspicious looks for talking with the enemy.

"It'll probably piss of my entire class and I'll end up labelled a traitor but you know what… fuck it," Tokage said and turned to the three with a wide smirk, "I ain't gonna sit here and hang about in the background anymore, I'm gonna fucking shine on the back of those ten million points."

"Hell yeah!" Kirishima said and pumped the air once again.

"Just don't hold us back," Katsuki said with a grunt, "The pro's are watching afterall."

"Exactly," Tokage said with excitement, "All eyes are gonna be on us. I assume you have a plan?"

Izuku simply gave her a wicked smile.

Aizawa opened his eyes and watched as the countdown hit the final minute mark to decide on their teams. He let out a frustrated yawn, a 14 minute nap was barely worth it. Next to him Present Mic had a wide smile as he looked out onto the field, the teams having finally all been formed.

"Some interesting teams out there this year, I even see some mixed 1A and 1B teams which is always rare."

Aizawa raised his eyebrow in curiosity before he too looked out onto the field and started to scan the teams. He sighed when he saw that the general student, Shinso, had simply brainwashed three people to be on his team. If he simply told them the truth about his quirk, Aizawa had no doubt they'd snap him up for their team. He hoped Shinso might be a candidate to move onto the hero course but he had a list about three pages long of mental issues to get through before he could do that.

As Aizawa scanned the teams he once again found himself pleasantly surprised, most of his students had formed teams based on tactics rather than friendships, a smart move. He noted however that Todoroki's team, consisting of himself, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari and Iida was perhaps the most well built. Good, that meant even despite all the problems and confusion going on for Todoroki right now he was still giving the tournament his all.

The rest of the teams also generally looked to have been smartly created. In fact it looked like-

"Oh god fucking dammit!"

Next to him Mic nearly spat his coffee out all over the control panel in front of him. He coughed and choked on the coffee for a few moments before turning to Aizawa with a wild expression.

"What!? What is it!?"

Aizawa simply sighed and pointed out into the field. Mic followed his line of sight until-

"Oh," Mic said, a little dejected, "Yeah, that's gonna cause hell."

The pair watched as Midoriya, Bakugou and Kirishima helped get Tokage from 1B onto their shoulders with Midoriya taking the front of their formation while Bakugou was on the right and Kirishima on the left.

"Bakugou and Midoriya on one team," Mic said with a frown, "If we're lucky the attention of the ten million will mean they'll have a hell of a fight on their hands."

Aizawa just turned to Mic and gave him a deadpan expression.

Mic sighed, "Yeah, the rest of the field is toast."

Yagi chuckled as Cementoss whined about his loss in the betting pool. Vlad King looked exceptionally smug as he happily reminded everyone that his class had all made it through. He seemed to ignore the fact 1A had also all made it through and got the top 4 spots with 1B taking 5th as their highest score.

Yagi looked over the screens as the teams on the field got together. He saw that the lone support girl (Hatsume if he remembered) had teamed up with Yoarashi, Uraraka and Jiro. Jiro took the place of the rider and appeared to be fitting some kind of jetpack on. Yagi raised his eyebrows, if it really was a jetpack combined with Uraraka and Yoarashi's quirks and they had just essentially created a team that could fly.

Slowly Yagi looked at each team in detail and like Aizawa was pleased by the tactics being shown. Then of course he found his two mentee's. An interesting combination though he expected Izuku and Katsuki to work together of course. They might have no problem going head to head during the individual stage but given any opportunity to work together and the pair considered it blasphemy not to.

Though their two teammates were a surprise. Kirishima made sense, Yagi had no doubt Izuku

could see the defensive capabilities of his quirk. Throw Kirishima in front of an attack and he could block anything, even Katsuki didn't have that level of resistance. It was also a great relief to Yagi, he'd watched Izuku borrow the boy's quirk in the first race which meant there was no way he didn't know the true nature of Izuku's quirk. The fact he was still chatting with Izuku and smiling as they waited for the event to start meant he had no issue with it. Good, Izuku and Katsuki needed friends like that.

The bigger surprise was Tokage from 1B, of course Izuku knew her from the recommendation exams but 1B and 1A rarely worked together in the Sports Festival, especially in their first year. Of course Tokage had an excellent quirk for the event, she could practically fly by this point in her training meaning she could separate from the team without touching the ground and being disqualified. Yagi watched as the team completed their formation before Kirishima and Tokage both gave Izuku a high five with wide smiles.

Wait.

Wait one fucking minute.

Did Izuku just?

Was he?

He wasn't?

Was he really that crazy?

Fuck of course he was and Bakugou would only encourage it.

The rest of the staff jumped suddenly when Yagi let out a violent cough and painted one of his handkerchiefs red. The shock of Izuku's plan was so much that Yagi couldn't help it.

"You ok Yagi?" Snipe asked with concern.

Yagi waved him off, "I-I'm fine *cough* sorry, I just… well I…"

"He figured out Midoriya's plan." Nedzu said excitedly while a huge smirk covered his face.

"Plan?" Snipe asked as the entire staff turned their attention to the screen focused on team Tokage.

"TOKAGE!?" Vlad King screamed, "What is she doing joining 3 members of 1A!? Has she no shame?"

Powerloader snorted, "Yeah, what a maniac for joining the team with two of the strongest members of the year on. Plus with the ten mil there's no way the pro's won't notice her."

"I'm surprised Midoriya isn't the rider though, he has the most versatility out of all of them." Cementoss commented.

"True that," Snipe said, "But he's gonna struggle to take quirks on the battle this time. Too much movement happening for him to have the time to keep someone within his range long enough to take their quirk and he can't exactly-"

The entire room froze as everyone else's brain caught up with Yagi's own realisation.

"Oh…" Thirteen said to the silent room.

Nedzu let out a mad cackle, "Oh I'm having so much fun this year!"

Chapter End Notes

Hi all, thanks for all the kudos and comments as always. Just a note: I know this is pretty OOC for Tetsutetsu but again, I just feel the story would be boring if it was all sunshine and rainbows so sadly a few characters need to take the hit and become assholes unlike their canon counterparts

Field Testing

Chapter Summary

The Calvary battle begins and Team Tokage must rely on risky plans and untested quirk theory to get defend their ten million points

"Woah, this feels really weird." Kirishima said as he flexed his hand in front of his face and stared at it like it was an alien part of him he'd never seen before.

Bakugou scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Stop making a big deal out of it, you'll get used to it."

"I gotta say, this plan of yours is insane Midoriya." Tokage said from her position as the rider, a headband tied around her with far too many numbers on for the team to be fully comfortable.

"It's risky," Izuku admitted, "It leaves us vulnerable for the first minute…"

"But when it works this'll be like fucking child's play." Katsuki said with a feral and excited smile.

"Let's do it, team!" Kirishima said, like he was their unofficial mascot, which he probably was.

Izuku gulped as he watched the countdown slowly begin for the event to start, each team was dotted around the stadium and nearly every single one had their attention on team Tokage. Todoroki was giving them a look so cold it made Izuku shiver. He glanced around and caught Yoarashi's eye who gave him a wide smile and a wave but even so Izuku could feel the intensity coming from him. He wanted that ten million as much as anyone else.

Izuku reached into himself and felt the hum of his stockpiled quirks, it helped calm him slightly as he felt their power flow through his body. Even his hunger seemed to have mellowed slightly, possibly from being fed throughout the race, and vibrated comfortably within him.

"You ready boys?" Tokage asked from her position.

"Hell yeah!"

"Abso-fucking-lutely."

"I hope this works."

Then the countdown finished.

Izuku didn't even hear the loud beep finish before the chaos started. In almost perfect sync every team turned their attention to the ten million and started to charge. Izuku instantly activated one of his quirks, sending their plan into motion as he watched nearly 40 people charge directly at them.

"Ok..," Tokage said with no small amount of alarm, "Maybe surviving for a minute was harder than we anticipated."

"Just fucking run!" Katsuki shouted as the boys turned to flee.

Before they could however they felt their feet sinking into the earth. Izuku looked down in panic as his feet disappeared into the ground, he tried to shift and move but it was like quick sand, the more he struggled the further he went in.

"Dammit, it's Honenuki!" Tokage cried and Izuku looked up to see the 4th recommendation student turning the ground into a borderline liquid, "His quirk turns the ground soft and liquid like, you essentially sink in and get trapped by it.

"It's fucking solid though right?" Katsuki asked and Izuku felt One For All flare up behind him.

"Yeah, it's like quick sand. Tokage explained.

Katsuki nodded, "Then everyone hold the fuck on and don't let Dino-girl here touch the ground!"

Izuku knew what was about to happen and made sure to hold onto Kirishima and Tokage as tightly as possible. Katsuki bent his legs as his body lit up with red fire and sparks. Then, with One For All

fuelling him, he jumped.

The soft ground around Katsuki exploded like mud with chunks of it flying in all directions. Katsuki flew through the air and as he did he made sure to pull Kirishima and Tokage with him who subsequently pulled Izuku. The team soared through the air and over the heads of several frustrated teams before crashing down on the other side of the field. They landed awkwardly with Kirishima stumbling and falling to his knees and Izuku was fairly sure he nearly broke an ankle. Luckily, Katsuki was strong enough to keep Tokage off the ground while the other two boys recovered and stopped them getting disqualified.

"Good job Kacchan!" Izuku shouted over the roar of the excited crowd.

"Don't get too comfortable we've got incoming!" Tokage exclaimed.

Indeed the rest of the teams had only been momentarily distracted by the jump before they all changed course and resumed their charge straight for team Tokage.

"Hey Midori! Kiri! Who said you guys were allowed to pick up other cute girls!?"

Ashido's call snapped Izuku's attention to his right where he saw at the front of her team charging forward. Sero sat atop her, with Tokoyami and Aoyama on either side behind Ashido as they all grinned at the ten million points.

"Oh no you fucking don't Raccoon Eyes!" Katsuki shouted and pumped as much of his quirk as he dared into his leg.

He lifted his leg up and brought it down with enough force to shake the ground around them. Tokage wobbled slightly from atop the three boys but remained steady. The moment Katsuki's foot hit the ground it started to crack and break, said cracks flew out in front of him in a wave destroying the ground and causing Ashido's eyes to widen in alarm.

"Eep!" She cried out and veered off to the side, avoiding the destroyed ground.

As her team turned, Aoyama tried his luck and shot out a beam. But it was off course and Tokage simply ducked as the beam flew over her head before Aoyama was forced out of range by Ashido's change in direction.

"Nice moves Bakugou!" Tokage cried with a smirk.

"Ha!" Bakugou responded with a smirk of his own, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

"TOKAGE ABOVE YOU!" Kirishima shouted desperately.

Tokage didn't even look up, simply ducking on instinct. Jiro's earphone jacks missed the headband by less than an inch. There was a curse from above them before the air around them shifted and briefly picked up like a storm. Izuku looked up and gaped.

Team Jiro had literally flown above them. Jiro herself had a jetpack on while the pink haired girl Bakugou had shouted at seemed to have some type of hover boots. Behind them Uraraka floated, being dragged along as she looked a little green. They were being led by Yoarashi who had a massive whirlwind underneath him keeping the entire team in the air and guiding them.

"NICE FUCKING TRY AIRHEAD!" Katsuki shouted with a wicked look and deranged eyes.

Yoarashi only matched it with his own enthusiasm, "Don't count us out yet Bakugou! We're only a few minutes in!"

"TOKAGE!"

Once again team Tokage only had a moment to snap their attention to their left to find Kendo running at them with her own team behind. Izuku didn't recognize the girl that was acting as their rider but he didn't like the look of her horns.

"I see you decided to try your luck with 1A! We'll see how far that gets you!" Kendo shouted as a smile graced her lips.

"The fuck? What is with these extras and announcing their attacks? It's like they're trying to add dramatic effect…" Katsuki mumbled.

Tokage eye's widened when she caught sight of the horn girl, "Fuck it's Pony! She has ranged attacks!"

The three boys panicked and went to move but it was too late. Pony smirked as her two horns fired off her head. They sliced through the air heading straight for the headband around Tokage. Said girl only had time to raise her arms before the horns made contact.

There was a sickening noise as the two horns made direct contact with Tokage's forearms.

"Team Tokage is under constant attack!" Present Mic all but screamed next to Aizawa who sighed and leant back, the action down there was far too chaotic and fast passed for him to interrupt Mic with anything useful, "Everyone wants a slice of that ten million points! Team Jiro narrowly missed a chance and loses the element of surprise. But it looks like team Pony is coming in from their right! It's Kendo against Midoriya! President against president! Looks like Pony is going for a range attack! But Tokage isn't using her quirk to stop it! All she can do is raise her hands to try and block and- WAIT WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"

Aizawa nearly leapt out of his seat as he watched the action unfold. The moment he saw it he knew exactly what had happened and for a minute completely forgot that he had a microphone in front of him.

"Fucking Problem Child!"

"COME ON KENDO! SHOW TOKAGE WHY LEAVING 1B WAS A MISTAKE!"

Vlad King's shout made Yagi wince slightly. Don't get the man wrong, he was equally as excited by the match as everyone else, despite it being made up of students it genuinely was exhilarating to watch, but he enjoyed a more silent viewing. He took a sharp breath however when he saw Pony's horns head straight for Tokage. He knew from his lessons with 1B Pony's horns were both hard and sharp, easily able to smash through concrete and even cut steel if she put enough power behind them. Tokage arms would be sliced clean off. He watched with terror as the horns made a perfect hit and then-

"What has he- *cough*!" Yagi jumped out of his seat with a start as a bout of violent coughing

overcame him.

The rest of the staff all looked confused bar Nedzu who cackled madly, "YES! I knew he could do it! I knew it would work!"

Yagi turned to the principal with an incredulous look, "He's never done that before! It's a theory but he's never attempted it!"

"The best theories are practised in the field Yagi!" Nedzu declared with prideful eyes.

"That's not the field! It's a tournament where he risked killing a classmate!" Yagi cried.

"Don't be so human, Yagi! Sometimes life needs a bit of risk!"

"What the hell is going on!?" Powerloader shouted.

Kendo's eyes went wide and she dug her heels into the ground, bringing her entire team to stop. Not that they protested because they too had equally wide eyes and looks of shock.

"What the fuck?" Kendo whispered and despite the noise of the stadium Izuku heard every word.

He watched as Pony's horns fell down in front of him, both cracked and broken. He looked up where Tokage slowly lowered her arms. Said arms had grown slightly and instead of smooth skin they were now jagged and hardened and had torn the sleeves of her gym uniform. Tokage looked down at her arms with initial shock before her face morphed into a wide grin, showing her jagged and now emphasised sharp teeth.

"Hahahah!" She cried and held up her arms, "You were right Kirishima! Your quirk really can take any blows!"

Kirishima practically had sparkles in his eyes as he looked up and watched Tokage use his quirk, "My quirk is so cool…" He whispered.

Transferring Tokage's and Kirishima's quirks had been a big risk, Izuku knew this and he also knew he was likely going to get a lecture from Yagi and Aizawa about it. They knew it worked in theory but he'd never done it so they had no idea what would happen when Tokage used Kirishima's quirk, it could have very well have torn her skin apart. But despite the risks Tokage had insisted and Izuku figured he could always shove regeneration in her in a worst case scenario. Luckily though it appeared to be a seamless transition.

Izuku took advantage of team Pony's shocked shock and turned to them, activating his heat-vision as he did. Kendo was immediately snapped out of her shock and forced her team to fall back. Izuku's beams missed them by a few feet as it scorched the ground where they had once stood.

"Projectiles to our left!" Kirishima shouted from behind Izuku.

"It's Mineta!" Tokage screamed, "If those balls touch us, we're finished!"

Izuku looked to his left and indeed could see a wave of purple balls soaring through the air and heading straight for them.

"Kirishima!" Izuku called and reached behind him.

Kirishima grabbed Izuku's hand and Izuku felt the redhead's current lack of quirk. He pushed one of his own quirks out and into Kirishima, now that he knew it was safe, all bets were off.

"What do I do!?" Kirishima cried frantically as he waved his hands around, trying to activate his new quirk.

"Just look at what you want to hit and imagine activating your own quirk but through your eyes!" Izuku informed him.

Kirishma nodded and turned and his face scrunched up in concentration. A few moments passed as Izuku watched the balls head towards them and he started to panic, maybe it wasn't as easy to use as he thought. But a moment before he went to shout at Kirishima two hot red beams shot out from said boy's eyes. They easily sliced through the incoming balls causing them to pop as Kirishima let out a whoop.

"Oh hell yeah! Offensive quirks rule but OW FUCK ME THAT HURTS!"

Kirishima cut off his heat-vision and scrunched his eyes shut causing Izuku to wince, "Sorry, I should have given you the heads up."

Kirishima opened up his eyes and, despite how bloodshot and swollen they had become, gave Izuku a wide smile, "No worries man this is amazing!"

"That's not fair!" Came a sudden whine from the distance and Kirishima and Izuku turned to see Mineta and another 1B boy on the back of a massive student covered in fur, clearly he had some sort of mutation quirk that turned him into a borderline beast. Said beast was charging full throttle at them carrying the other two members of his team from 1B

Kirishima smirked as Mineta whined and let out another burst of heat-vision. The beast student cursed and was forced to leap out of the way, missing the beams by inches. Yet their heat still caused his fur to burn off and skin to bubble. He let out a loud curse and limped back into the retreat.

"Oi Shitty Hair be careful!" Katsuki roared, "Those beams can be strong enough to cut limbs off if you're not careful."

Kirishima flinched and gained a horrified expression, "R-Right sorry, I'm not used to offensive quirks like this."

"It's alright," Izuku said and shot a smile behind him, "Just think about lowering its temperature and the quirk will do the rest."

"Yeah, please don't kill any of my classmates!" Tokage said though her smile and excitement felt like it negated any concern she had.

"Five minutes in and Team Tokage is under constant and heavy attack! But they're keeping up a strong defence!"

"They've backed themselves into a corner however, eventually they either need to break through or another team will make it through a crack in their defences."

Aizawa was right, they had been forced into one corner of the field and were surrounded by teams who kept trying their luck.

Hagakure's team consisting of Sato, Shoji and Koda managed to get in close on their right. It was only because he could sense Hagakure's energy that Izuku managed to get Tokage to duck just before an invisible hand swept her headband away. Katsuki had let out a powerful kick right in Shoji's side (it was a good job the hands Katsuki had ripped off could regrow as well) and the larger boy was forced to push his team back out into the field to recover.

Meanwhile Tokage was making good use of Kirishima's quirk as she came under fire from several ranged attacks. Ayoama's laser burned her gym uniform while acid from Ashido bubbled and hissed against her hardened skin.

Kendo's team was back and attempting another move and was keeping Kirishima busy as he periodically let off heat-vision to slice through the vines being sent their way by a 1B girl Tokage identified as Shiozaki.

Then the heat really turned up.

"MOVE!" Katsuki practically screamed and pushed their entire team to the side with One For All.

Tokage wobbled from her position while Izuku and Kirishima landed awkwardly and nearly fell to the floor. But a moment after they had moved a massive ice wall formed next to them where Katsuki had been standing. Not even a few seconds later and a second wall appeared on Kirishima's side, essentially trapping Izuku and his team right in the corner of the field.

"FUCK!" Toakge cried as she frantically looked around for an escape, despite knowing full well there wasn't one.

Up ahead Izuku saw Todoroki and his team quickly making their way towards them. Iida was of course leading the charge while Kaminari was sparking behind him as Yoayorozu started to pull a creation out of her forearm.

"Bakugou! Think you can jump over these walls?" Kirishima asked as he tried to melt them with heat-vision, unfortunately his eyes were nearing their limit, unable to adapt the same way Izuku could and the ice was thick.

"I can fucking try!" Katsuki responded and bent his legs.

"No!" Izuku shouted in a commanding tone, making the boy pause.

His teammates looked at him before all glancing at the incoming Team Todoroki. To make matters worse Izuku glanced up and saw Team Jiro coming in from the sky. They were going to be hit on two fronts.

Tokage bit her lip, "You got it ready?"

Izuku nodded, "I just need a couple more seconds…"

"You realise we don't have a fucking couple of seconds right?" Katsuki growled from behind Izuku as they watched the two teams quickly approaching.

Izuku grit his teeth, he was so close. He just needed to…

"Team Todoroki has Team Tokage cornered and their closing in along with Team Jiro! I don't see how Team Tokage can- HEY WAIT A MINUTE WHERE THE HELL IS MIDORIYA'S ARM!?"

Everyone who could hear Present Mic turned their attention to Izuku. His left arm was perfectly fine, clenched and ready for the incoming attack. But on his right he had no arm, only the sleeve from his gym uniform flapping in the wind.

Izuku smirked.

The Cavalry Battle was far too fast paced for him to take any quirks at range and they'd have to get dangerously close to opposing teams for him to be able to reach out and touch them. In these circumstances he would have needed to depend solely on his stockpiled quirks. If they truly wanted to defend the 10 Million Izuku had needed a way to overcome this major issue.

And Tokage's quirk was the perfect answer to it.

Around the field several students felt sections of Izuku's floating arm slam against them, from fingers to his elbow to chunks of his bicep. The movement they did Izuku let his hunger run wild and pulled.

It was exhilarating, he'd taken quirks before, he'd taken several that morning. But never had Izuku taken so many at once. It was ecstasy, his hunger swam with delight and his whole body shivered as the power of quirks filled him. Even around him his three teammates could feel the shift in the air, it crackled with power as Izuku gained a wide smirk.

"Oh yeah… that feels good," He said in a tone that made Kirishima and Tokage shiver and caused Bakugou to gain a wicked smile.

"You ready nerd?" Izuku simply nodded his head in response, "Good," Katsuki gained a feral look in his eyes, "Then lets fuck shit up."

Up ahead Team Todoroki was quickly closing the gap with Iida providing a boost of speed. Yoayorozu had opened her gym shirt and was slowly pulling out a thick looking pole. They were close enough that Izuku could overhear them.

"Kaminari are you ready?" Todoroki called.

Kaminari paused and looked down at his hands, "I… I…"

"Kaminari now!" Yoayorozu called and she slammed the newly created pole into the ground as Iida skidded to a stop a few metres from Izuku, an earthing rod to counter Kaminari Izuku realised.

Except nothing happened.

"Kaiminari what are you doing!?" Todoroki shouted from atop the team.

"I… I can't… my quirk…" Kaminari stuttered, it was amazing he was still standing next to his team considering the state he appeared to be in.

"Kaminari, now is not the time! Use your quirk!" Iida ordered as Katsuki sent him a villain grade grin.

"I DON'T HAVE MY FUCKING QUIRK!" Kaminari screeched in sheer panic which quickly infected the rest of his teammates who's faces snapped from confusion to panic to horror as they all turned to find feral smiles on every member of team Tokage.

Izuku raised his right foot.

Honenuki's Softening combined with Ashido's Acid .

Izuku slammed his foot down and instantly the combined quirk started to spread out in front of him across the ground. But unlike Softening the combined quirk didn't turn the ground into a semi- liquid, instead it turned it into pure acid that spread out around Team Tokage. It hit the ice walls either side of them and instantly they started to bubble and melt into the ground.

Iida's eyes went wide as the acid approached his team and he quickly pushed them back, the scramble nearly causing their whole structure to collapse. Yoayorozu was forced to abandon her grounding rod as if fell into the acid and disappeared with a violent hiss.

Izuku smiled.

Maintain Softening, cancel out Acid and swap in with Kaminari's Electrification.

The moment Izuku switched out the quirks the acid around them vanished and was replaced with a wave of sparking electricity. The ground crackled and snapped as the quirk spread, it clashed with the ice walls either side of the team and caused them to shatter. As they did they revealed several teams on the other side who had been trying to break through to get at the ten million points.

Several grew wide smiles as they saw said ten million revealed. Those smiles only lasted for a moment however before they found themselves caught in a wave of electricity, many teams being shocked to their knees. Up ahead Iida attempted to turn and flee the incoming wave but his metal engine pipes attracted the attention of the quirk and it lashed out and two sparks caught the back of Iida's leg. The teen cried out as the electricity spread throughout his team, all of them winced and collapsed slightly bar Kaminari (which Izuku filed away for further analysis).

"Move!" Izuku yelled to his team and shut his quirks off, the ground around them returning to normal with nearly every team they could see temporarily stunned.

Kirishima and Katsuki all but pushed Izuku and Tokage forward as the team charged passed the rest of the incapacitated field.

"Midoriya I need my quirk back!" Tokage shouted from above Izuku.

He didn't even turn to look at her, Izuku simply held up his now reformed right hand and Tokage latched onto it. Izuku pulled Hardening out of her, she let it go easily without a fuss and as one quirk flowed into him Izuku pushed another out. They might have tested the theory of transferring a quirk but Izuku wasn't ready to see the result of multiple quirks in a body not designed like his was.

A moment later izuku felt the wind pick up as Team Jiro dived down from the air above them. The second Tokage had her quirk back she instantly split apart. Not a moment later Jiro's jacks passed through where Tokage's head had been before she split it and ducked the top of her head to the side. Jiro let out a curse as her team flew by, Yoarashi guiding them back up into the air.

Izuku watched them and noticed how green Uraraka looked. He sifted through his gathered quirks until he found the one he was looking for. It felt weird, latching onto it, it was the first mutation quirk he'd stolen. He had expected it to be far more difficult than it ended up being, the quirk had all but floated over to him the moment his elbow slapped the student in the back of the head. He felt his throat and mouth muscles morph as they adapted to the quirk energy. It wasn't painful per say but it wasn't pleasant either as he felt his jaw and tongue change as they adapted to the quirk so that he was able to use it.

When he felt his throat and jaw stop moving he assumed his body had finished morphing to what the quirk required and he looked up he just hoped his aim still held up when he wasn't shooting from his eyes. He wasn't exactly sure how to work a mutation quirk so he took a wild guess.

Izuku stuck out his tongue.

His now enlarged tongue whipped out of his mouth and shot through the air out in front of him. It felt weird, feeling his new tongue stretch and extend constantly out. Uraraka caught sight of it at the last moment and her eyes widened in both surprise and fear. Unfortunately she didn't have time to move before Izuku's tongue slapped into her stomach.

Asui's Frog.

It was all she needed to suddenly start spewing her guts everywhere in the air and was forced to deactivate her quirk. The added weight appeared to be too much for the support items and Yoarashi to keep the team afloat and they were forced to land awkwardly on the ground, it wasn't quite a crash but they came dangerously close to Jiro falling from the top and the team being disqualified.

"Nice hit Midoriya!" Came Tokage's vice right next to him and Izuku turned to see her mouth and one eye floating right next to his head.

He smiled, "Youth quirk ish amazthing Tokagthe, can you getth the headband out ofth here?" Apparently Asui had spent a long time learning to talk with her tongue flopped out of her mouth.

Her eye and mouth shook slightly in a way that Izuku guessed was her shaking her head, "No can do, my range isn't great currently and the further I move the top of my head away the less control I have, its moves slow and not where I want it to. It'd make too easy of a target so it's better to keep in close and you guys keep defending."

"Right," Izuku said as his tongue disappeared back into his mouth and he pushed the quirk back down into his core, his throat and mouth returning to their usual set up, "Kacchan, Kirishma did you get that?"

"Of course I did nerd!" Katsuki shouted with a feral smile, "We gotta fight off any extra stupid enough to come near us!"

"Team Tokage unleash a devastating attack to carve a path out of their predicament and onto the field! Looks like they've also just ramped up their power and are ready to start dishing out the pain!"

"It was a brilliant albeit risky tactic, if it failed they'd have had a massive uphill battle to stay in the game. But they've not only increased their own power and ability to defend their points they've simultaneously crippled half the other teams on the field. I'm almost impressed."

"Looks like the rest of the teams have decided to forget about the ten million though and it's become a free for all! Team Tetsutetsu narrowly misses an attack from Team Sero."

Izuku frowned slightly as he listened to his teachers' commentary, it didn't go unnoticed by him

that they were subtly not actually informing everyone exactly what Izuku's quirk was. And for some reason that made his gut twist. And not in the way he liked when he listened to a certain punk girls favourite band.

Izuku led his team out into the centre of the field, around him he could feel quirks flying in all directions as the rest of the teams started to battle for smaller points values. They were now over a third of the way in and people were starting to realise only one team could end up with the ten million points. Izuku skidded to a halt with his team now on the other side of the field, they finally had some room to breathe. Half the teams were still incapacitated from Izuku's attack (some overcoming being shocked and others trying to figure out where their quirks had gone) while the other half were at each other's throats.

"Ow fuck," Kirishima hissed from behind Izuku, "Damn this heat-vision is amazing but it hurts like hell."

Izuku glanced behind him and blanched. Kirishima's eyes were swollen and almost completely red, steady streams of blood were coming from them and his eyebrows and eyelashes appeared to be burnt off.

"Shit. Sorry Kirishima, here let me swap it out." Izuku said and reached his hand out which Kirishima fumbled for.

Izuku pulled heat-vision into himself and pushed regeneration into Kirishima, he tried not to frown at the feeling of his most background quirk leaving him, almost like a constant hum that left his body. But he sighed in relief when the moment it entered Kirishima his eyes started to swell back to normal and his burnt skin regrew.

"Ahhh, thanks man." Kirishima moaned with a wide smile and his bright eyes returned, "Damn man! I feel better now then when we started the battle!"

Izuku snorted, "Careful, the quirk exhaustion from it is a bitch."

"Oi Dino Girl," Katsuki barked at Tokage, whose head was still floating around the team in several parts, "How are we looking?"

"Most people seem to have given up on us. I'd say by the looks of things Midoriya has brought about 3 or 4 teams to a complete standstill out of shock while the rest are just trying for one of the

other three spots. Hopefully we can- SHIT MONAMA ON OUR RIGHT!"

The three boys flipped their attention to their right side where team Monama was rapidly approaching their flank. Without hesitation Izuku let out heat-vision. But the brown haired boy whose quirk Izuku had stolen was at the front and apparently he'd learnt a thing or two.

The boy threw down a massive wall of solid air which he used to make a tight manoeuvre and change his teams direction to avoid Izuku's aim. They moved to a point where Izuku could only hit them with heat-vision if he turned and sliced Tokage and Katsuki in half.

"TOKAGE!" Monama cried in outrage, "YOU'LL PAY FOR JOINING 1A!"

"I can't stop them!" Izuku warned.

"Good!" Katsuki cried, "Let them come and get fucked up!"

Not a moment later and Team Monama were upon them. Monama reached up to yank their headband but the top half of Tokage's head retreated beside Kirishima. Meanwhile Katsuki tried to ram the person with pitch black paint skin that had clashed with him. Only to find said person disappear into the shadows on the ground and for Katsuki to end up smashing the earth beneath his feet.

"Dman, that's a useful quirk Tokage! I think I'll help myself!" Monama mocked and reached out to grab Tokage's attached arm.

Izuku couldn't help but watch in fascination as Monoma's quirk energy went into action. As he had charged at them Monama's quirk energy was… well it was basic, a simple white orb in the middle of his chest. But when he touched Tokage a tentacle shot out from the orb into her body and made contact with her quirk. Tokage's own quirk energy consisted of a green orb in the middle of her chest, when she broke parts of her body off this orb would gain a line which connected said body part back to the quirk energy. The moment Monama's quirk touched Tokage it began to change, its colour went from white to green and lines shot out of it, perfectly replicating the quirk.

Monama smirked and instantly started to use said quirk as his left arm slipped off from his body. It raced round and tried to grab the headband from Tokage but quickly found itself in a wrestling match with Kirishima. Watching the redhead fight with a floating arm would have been amusing if Izuku didn't have his own problems.

The final 1B student of the opposing team attacked Izuku as they clashed. His arm started to spin and Izuku only reacted just in time as he activated Kirishiama's quirk and raised his hardened arms. The spinning hand made contact with Izuku's forearm and there was a loud screech as the two quirks clashed.

Izuku grit his teeth as he felt hardening crack slowly, the constant force of the drill attack too much for regeneration to activate as breaks started to form on Izuku's arm, blood trickling out of the cracks. Luckily it appeared the opposing student was no better off as he scrunched up his face in pain as his hand pushed against the forearm, it was quickly becoming a battle of endurance. Either Drill boys hands would break or Izuku's hardened skin would crumble.

Locked in a battle of endurance with the student, Izuku was unable to do anything as what was left of Monama reached out to him with a wide smirk, "You've shown off a lot of power, I can't wait to see what your quirk is."

Izukue's eyes widened as Monama's hand grabbed onto his shoulder. He watched as another white orb pulled out of Monama's chest and sent out a tendril towards Izuku's, quite frankly, mess of energy. The black hole of his actual quirk still sat in the middle of his chest but as it slowly rotated it seemed to spew out nearly a dozen other quirk energies that spread throughout Izuku's body as he used them.

He watched as the tendril from Monama's quirk travelled down through his shoulder and towards the centre of his chest. His hunger seemed to vibrate towards it and if Izuku didn't know any better he'd say it almost felt like it was curious. Izuku had to confess, even in the heat of the moment he was partly curious as to how a copy quirk would react to his own quirk.

As it turned out, badly.

Monama's tendril made contact with Izuku's pile of quirk energy. As Monama's quirk took effect Izuku could literally feel it pull at his various quirks and start to replicate them all apart from his original quirk, he momentarily felt Monama's quirk pull on it but his hunger quickly shut that down. Izuku filed that information away for later it appeared his quirk couldn't be copied. His stockpiled quirks were a different story however, he watched as a massive amount of copied quirk energy flew straight into Monama.

Said boy's eyes widened and he let out a feral scream that made both teams jump slightly in shock. Monama clutched at his stomach and letched forward, there was a pause before blood was suddenly pouring from his mouth and creeping out of his ears and eyes. It covered his own team and splattered onto Izuku, Tokage and Katsuki. Monoma's skin seemed to light up slightly and

became hot to the touch. Inside his quirk energy had been thrown into chaos, a massive spiral of multicoloured energies out of control in his chest. It was like watching an explosion within Monama.

"MONAMA!" One of his teammates cried in horror.

"What the fuck did you do to him!?" The brown haired boy with the air quirk screamed at Izuku.

Izuku however was unable to fully respond as the member of their team with the drill quirk didn't seem to be concerned about Monama's state and continued to attack Izuku.

Monama's screaming eventually subsided when he fell unconscious, falling back against his team who managed to keep him upright.

"M-Monama?" The front boy asked with panic in his voice.

"Monama will kill us if we stop attacking! Keep going!" The drill boy attacking Izuku shouted.

Izuku panicked for a few moments but a quick glance at Monama and he saw that the boy's quirk had returned to normal indicating he was ok, just knocked out. With his conscious (mostly) cleared Izuku returned to the threat at hand. His arm was really starting to hurt and they needed to push this team off quickly. He sifted through his gathered quirks, it was a good job he had a knack for quirk analysis and that Tokage had given him a rundown of all of 1Bs quirks otherwise he'd have no idea what some of these did.

He reached out with his hand not currently being drilled and pushed another quirk into it. Once again his body morphed to adapt to the new quirk, it was painful and more awkward than with Asui's quirk but that was probably down to lacking regeneration. The theory was further proven when holes appeared along Izuku's arm that shot out blood and chunks of flesh as they opened up and caused Izuku to cry out.

1B Bondo's Cemedine

Drill boy glanced at him in confusion for a second before glue spurted from the new holes on Izuku's arm and coated the boy's spinning limb. It only took a few moments for the glue to harden and the spinning to come to an abrupt halt as it hardened and coated Drill boy's skin.

"Ah fuck, what the hell!?" Drill boy said, looking down at his trapped arm in confusion.

Izuku didn't waste any time, he let both hardening and cemedine fall back into his core. He hissed through when the holes from cemedine didn't close and continued to ooze blood mixed with glue. But he didn't let it slow him down as he reached out for another 1B quirk Tokage had recommended he get. Feeling it rush down into his arms Izuku reached out.

1B Awase's Weld

In all the chaos it was easy to plant one hand on the unconscious Monama and hit his other three teammates with his other hand one after the other. Each time he did there was a slight glow and Izuku could feel the quirk energy confirm he'd been successful.

"Kacchan!" Izuku called as the blonde boy finally managed to grab hold of the shadow quirk user, "Weld worked, get them the hell out of here!"

Katsuki gave him a wicked smile and reached back with a sparking red arm. The brown haired boy tried to stop him by creating a massively thick wall of air but Katsuki smashed through it like cardboard before he landed a direct hit on Monama.

Izuku was certain he heard several ribs crack as the boy was shot into the air by Katsuki's punch. Unfortunately, the rest of his team had been welded to him and were also thrown into the air. The entire team spiralled through the air and crashed onto the ground in a painful twist of limbs.

"Team Monama's rider hits the ground meaning they're disqualified! Team Tokage is really out for blood, they've kept the ten million and wiped out an entire team! With just ten minutes left on the clock can anyone stop this rampage!?"

"Don't stop moving you fucking extras!" Katsuki yelled at the team as they swerved to avoid Sero's incoming tape. Izuku threw out a large blob of Ashido's acid and forced said team to retreat back.

"How are you holding up Tokage!?" Izuku asked and glanced behind him.

Tokage's upper body was still split into several pieces but they were moving significantly slower than before, "I haven't ever been split for this long before and in this many pierces," her floating mouth said as it hovered between Izuku and Katsuki, "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up."

"Get yourself back together Dino Girl, no point trying to separate yourself if it just means you're too slow to avoid an attack." Katsuki barked as his eyes scanned the area for enemy teams, luckily it seemed most had decided the ten million was too well defended and were trying for the other high points team. Unfortunately for Team Todoroki with Team Jiro back in the air with Uraraka recovered, that meant they were the primary target. Waves and spikes of ice shot out all over the field as Iida had to swerve to avoid three separate incoming teams.

"Right!" Tokage replied and reattached her body with a sigh of relief.

"Team Mineta coming up behind us!" Kirishima called, "That big monster guy is really charging, Midoriya you got anything!?"

"Try this one." Izuku said and reached his hand back.

Kirishima grabbed it and Izuku once again pulled regeneration back into himself and swapped it with another quirk he'd taken from a fellow classmate. He let out a wince and sigh as regeneration got back in place and immediately closed the holes created by cedemine and healed the damage from the drill attack. Not to self, mutation quirks will permanently damage and change his body without regeneration there to correct it back to its normal state.

"How do I-" Kirishima began to ask but was interrupted when a shadow popped out of his chest.

Said shadow was a perfect replica of Kirishima's upper body in its hardened form, its shoulders and hands were jagged and had solid instead of smooth lines. It's hair was spiky and it had two bright red eyes and even had a bright red mouth full of black teeth to match. Izuku shuddered slightly, and here he thought Tokoyama's quirk couldn't get any more Halloween themed.

"D-Dark Shadow?" Kirishima asked the shadow in surprise.

"Yes!" Dark Shadow replied excitedly, "Well actually no. I'm Dark Shadow but I'm your Dark Shadow not Tokoyami's Dark Shadow."

"Huh?" Kirishima asked, clearly lost by the complexities of a saitient quirk.

Dark Shadow shrugged, "Try not to think about it, anyway, why am I out here?"

"Oh yeah!" Kirishima said and his face went from one of confusion to a bright smile that made Izuku's stomach turn, that or using multiple quirks was starting to get to him, "Think you can help with that?" Kirishima asked and jabbed his thumb behind him to where Team Mineta were fast approaching.

"Oh hoho!" Dark Shadow shouted in delight as he watched the beast student smash the ground as he charged at them with a roar, "Now that's a challenge I can appreciate!"

Dark Shadow let out a roar of his own and charged straight at 1Bs beast. The two clashed in the middle of the field and even Izuku could feel the shockwave that was created by their collision. The two colossal fighters started to exchange blows as Dark Shadow let out a mad cackle of glee while Kirishima cheered him on.

"Midoriya, pay attention we have incoming!" Tokage cried from above.

Izuku snapped his head back to the front and saw that they were running in a direct path to collide with the gen ed student team. Izuku frowned as he watched them approach. The Gen Ed students' quirk energy was a soft purple colour and seemed to rest in his brain, much like Nedzu's. Except it had three long trendiles which went from the students' quirk energy into the heads of the three others holding him up, each one with a blank look on their faces and diluted eyes.

"I dunno what kind of freakshow you're running!" The boy shouted at Izuku and his team, "But those quirks you're using are disgusting! You don't deserve to be heroes!"

The words made Izuku's insides bubble with rage, even his hunger started to become more aggressive. Even if Izuku had taken several quirks, this boy had no right to just go about insulting people's quirks. It reminded Izuku of what people used to say about him.

Behind Izuku Katsuki had also noticed the blank looks on the faces of the students carrying the guy with purple hair. Though he couldn't see the quirk energy like Izuku could he was able to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. So when he heard the boy mock Izuku and Izuku's subsequent look of rage he knew it was too late.

"ZUZU WAIT-"

"Hey! You can't-"

Izuku felt foreign quirk energy enter his mind almost immediately, it spread over him like a sheet being thrown over his body and he slowly felt his thoughts dull and slow. His perception of the world weakened and before he knew it he felt like nothing more than a passenger in his own body. There was now a fourth tendril from the gen ed student to Izuku.

"A brainwashing quirk! Man I bet that tastes exquisite," Came a voice next to Izuku that was both gruff yet soft.

Izuku didn't turn to look at the voice, he didn't even really see it. But next to him he sensed a figure, much like how he sensed quirk energy. The shocks continued when Izuku realised the figure looked like him, he was lean with freckles covering his body though his hair was white, longer and more messy than Izuku's yet stood up like it was spiked. His eyes also didn't contain pupils and were just filled completely with the same green of Izuku's own eyes. His mouth was also wider and larger than what was normal for a person and was full of sharp jagged teeth, though not like Kirishima's, these teeth were messy and looked like they had been clumsily placed in the beings mouth.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked, though he didn't actually use his mouth to speak.

The being waved him off, "Doesn't matter, it would just confuse things."

"Oh," Izuku said, surprisingly uncaring as he watched the gen ed student, said student had gained a furious expression and appeared to be shouting at Izuku, though no sound reached Izuku's ears, "He looks mad." Izuku said to the being.

The being chuckled through it sounded more like a paper shredder, "He's pissed because he's trying to order us to move but it's not working."

"Why?" Izuku asked and scrunched up his face though his body didn't react to the movement, "His quirk worked on us."

"It captured us sure," The being said, "But it doesn't look like it works fully. Best guess is that

we're too used to having foreign quirk energy inside us so it's child play for me to pretty much ignore his manipulation."

"That makes sense," Izuku said as he thought about it, "That probably means mind reading quirks or any psychic based quirks won't work on us as well, our body is too adapted to foreign quirk energy for it to have any effect." As he spoke Izuku realised he had no idea who 'us' was.

"That'll be useful, I'd hate to be ordered around. Anyway, I'll take care of this. Keep up the good work though, this day is literally a feast, the best day of our life!" The being said and gave Izuku a wide smile that nearly stretched in a full circle across his face and showed thousands of teeth.

Izuku felt his hunger lash out at the gen ed's quirk and push it from their mind. The outside world came crashing back like a bomb. Izuku could feel the wind rush against his face, the dirt beneath his feet and hear both the gen ed student and Katsuki screaming at him.

"ZUZU DO SOMETHING YOU BIG FUCKING IDIOT!"

"I SAID ATTACK YOUR TEAMMATES!"

Izuku frowned and looked up at the gen ed student who suddenly stared down at him in shock with his mouth agape, "Wait… H-How did you-"

Before the student could finish his team came within Izuku's range to play with their quirks, taking advantage of the close proximity Izuku reached out and pulled on the brainwashing quirk. He knew there was no way he'd ever be able to take it with his current stockpile and the chaos of the match but a slight pull had the desired effect.

The quirk instantly cancelled out and the tendrils that led down to the people carrying the gen ed student (Asui, Shoda and Ojiro) snapped back to reality. Apparently they hadn't been as aware as Izuku had been while brainwashed as they all quickly became confused and crashed into each other. The entire team quickly fell and the gen ed student toppled from the top, rolling onto the ground.

"Team Shinso's rider hits the ground in a dramatic fall! Another team disqualified after trying to take on Team Tokage!"

"The hell was that Midoriya!?" Tokage angrily snapped from above him and Izuku winced.

"S-Sorry! He had a brainwashing quirk!" Izuku apologised.

"It's not the nerds fault, he's already swimming in a dozen quirks and that guy knew how to get him riled up." Katsuki defended though he gave Izuku a slight huff to indicate privately he was less than impressed with Izuku's slip up.

"A brainwashing quirk huh? That's a nasty one to fight but looks like you pushed through it!" Tokage shouted and gave Izuku a lopsided smile when he glanced back at her.

"Yeah, how the fuck did you do that?" Katsuki demanded.

Izuku honestly barely knew himself, "I think my body is used to having foreign quirks in it so it was just kinda… able to ignore it. Then all I had to do was push the quirk energy out of me like I usually do when returning a quirk. I think it also means I'm immune to most physic quirks too."

"Damn Midoriya!" Tokage said with a chuckle, "I dunno who the hell is writing your anime protagonist of a story but they really need to nerf you."

Katsuki scoffed, "Are you kidding Dino Girl? What kinda lame ass story is that? Next you'll be saying I should be breaking my bones with every attack while Zuzu stockpiles one quirk every other fight. Fuck that shit."

Fuck that shit indeed.

"Team Mineta taken care of!" Dark Shadow declared as he flew back to the group, behind him the beaten form of 1Bs beast was knelt down on the floor, their fur matted and blood coving parts of their body.

"Good job Dark Shadow!" Kirishima shouted with a whoop and a thumbs up, Dark Shadow crossed his arms in pride before he disappeared back into Kirishima's chest.

"Ok, we've got just a few minutes left, I think we can do this." Tokage said as she eyed the

devastated field, most teams by this point were simply hanging by the sidelines, having already accepted defeat.

"ARE YOU FUCKING MAD DINO GIRL! WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU SAY THAT!?" Katsuki screamed at her, practically frothing at the mouth.

Suddenly Team Todoroki skidded to a stop in front of Izuku who slammed his own feet into the dirt as the two teams faced off against each other.

"DAMMIT! YOU HAD TO OPEN YOUR BIG FUCKING MOUTH!" Katsuki bellowed at Tokage with a look of pure hate, the girl simply rolled her eyes in response.

Izuku narrowed his eyes at Todoroki's team. They looked exhausted, Iida was sweating and his engines were steaming. Yoayorozu could barely stay on her feet as she wobbled slightly, she was clearly suffering from quirk exhaustion. Meanwhile Todoroki was covered in a thin layer of ice, he was breathing heavily and Izuku could see his breath, he looked ready to collapse. But Kaminari… physically Kaminari looked fine, albeit worked out like everyone else, but the moment he made eye contact with Izuku his eyes widened in fear and he hid behind Iida. Izuku grit his teeth and pushed his emotions down.

"What are you doing Todoroki?" Izuku called out and Todoroki frowned at him.

"I want the ten million points," Todoroki replied and Iida nodded his head in agreement.

"Think about this Todoroki," Izuku said carefully, his eyes on the clock above the stadium that had just hit the two minute mark, "Your team looks exhausted and your down a quirk," Kaminair flinched at Izuku words while his other teammates looked at Izuku in confusion, "Meanwhile we're pretty much still dishing out our A-Game here," Izuku said and Katsuki cracked his knuckles in agreement, "Are you sure you want to come after us?"

Izuku's question made Todoroki pause as he looked over Izuku's team, internally Izuku knew it was a bluff. Physically his team may have sustained minor damage but everyone bar Katsuki was nearing quirk exhaustion. Tokage's energy ebbed weakly and she hadn't split a part of herself off since she'd reattached, too exhausted to maintain control if she did. She was also sagging slightly as Kirishima struggled to hold her up, using multiple quirks in quick succession was hard enough for Izuku, let alone someone whose body wasn't designed for it. Izuku himself could feel the quirk energies within him becoming more volatile as pain spread throughout his body. He'd never held this many quirks before and the strain was showing, he had always assumed like any other quirk that if he really did want to hold an unlimited amount he'd need to train for it because right now he

wanted to crawl up into a ball and die from the ever growing pain. The only one who wasn't suffering on their team was Katsuki though Izuku couldn't tell if that was due to the massive amount of power behind One For All or the massive amount of power behind Katsuki's stubbornness.

If Team Todoroki decided to charge there was a good chance they might be able to grab the headband from Tokage and with how little time was left if that happened Izuku's team had no hope of getting any points back to win. But Izuku prepared anyway, he grabbed as many quirks as he could, pushing their energy out into his body. His skin hardened and sparked while acid hissed under his feet, his eyes turned red and flushed with power. Around him his teammates could literally feel the energy ebbing out of him as they all prepared to charge.

Todoroki paused, "You're right. There's no point in attacking you."

To say the rest of Todoroki's team and Team Tokage were shocked would be an understatement. Katsuki let out an undignified noise that sounded like a surprised grasp but that was more of a grunt. Tokage nearly fell over Izuku as she leant forward for the charge that never happened. Kirishima actually looked behind him, half expecting it to be a trick and see an incoming surprise attack. Izuku himself cut off nearly all his quirks at once and just blinked at Todoroki in confusion.

Iida turned to look at Todoroki with shock, "But Todoroki! I have a move that could guarantee us victory! We can beat them!"

Todoroki looked at Izuku and then Katsuki. Then his face fell into something Izuku knew all too well. It was a look he and Katsuki had seen on each other's faces constantly growing up. It was a look of utter defeat and hopelessness.

"No." Todoroki responded with a sigh to Iida, "We're not strong enough. We can't beat them."

BEEEP!

"And that's time!"

Todoroki Family Drama

Chapter Summary

As Izuku prepares for his first fight he finds himself dragged into family drama and questioning his choices as a ero

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Team Tokage and Team Todoroki stared at each other in silence. Around them the crowds in the stadium went wild, quite frankly none of them really understood what had happened down there but they knew powerful quirks had been thrown around and that was enough. The entire stadium and field shook with their roars, even Present Mic's commentary was being drowned out by the cheers. Out on the rest of the field most of the teams grew disappointed faces as they all looked up to the giant screen that displayed the results.

1st Team Tokage

2nd Team Jiro

3rd Team Todoroki

4th Team Pony

Iida was the one to eventually break the tension between the two teams who had somehow ended up in a standoff despite the match having finished. He sighed and stepped forward as Todoroki climbed down from his position atop his team.

"Congratulations," Iida mumbled and wandered off.

"Hell fucking yeah!" Tokage cried from above Izuku, shattering the tension that had gathered in the air.

She jumped down and turned to the rest of the team with a wide smile, "Now THAT is taking the spotlight. No way the pros won't notice me now."

"Hell yeah!" Kirishima yelled with an excited fist pump.

"I guess you extras were tolerable," Katsuki grunted though Izuku could see the way his mouth twitched at the ends which in the world of Katsuki meant he was practically beaming.

"Congratulations to our four victorious teams!" Midnight announced, silencing the crowd, "This leaves us with our final 16 ready to move in the third and final round! A one on one fight tournament!"

Behind Midnight the screen switched from the Cavalry Battle results to the first round of battles for said tournament.

Round 1

Izuku Midoriya

Ibara Shiozaki

Round 2

Eijiro Kirishima

Pony Tsunotori

Round 3

Momo Yaoyorozu

Denki Kaminari

Round 4

Shoto Todoroki

Mei Hatsume

Round 5

Kyouka Jiro

Ochako Uraraka

Round 6

Tenya Iida

Itsuka Kendo

Round 7

Inasa Yoarashi

Setsuna Tokage

Round 8

Katsuki Bakugou

Reiko Yanagi

Shiozaki, the girl with the vine hair. Izuku's mind already started running through the options to take her down. She was a powerful foe but he'd seen Kirishima slice her vines easily enough with heat-vision which would give Izuku an edge. Running through the tournament his head Izuku frowned as he realised he'd probably have an uphill battle to get on the podium, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki were all strong opponents where the best tactic would be to take their quirks. A tough feat against any of them. Izuku's frown deepened as he looked further along the lines.

"You see it too huh," Katsuki commented as he walked up and stood next to Izuku, "Only way we can face each other is if we both make it to the final."

Izuku hummed in response, truth be told he'd never thought about the fact he might end up having to go toe to toe with Katsuki during the tournament. He'd been so focused on his quirk and everyone else the thought had slipped his mind. But now that he was aware of it he wasn't sure what to think. They'd fought before during training but not like this. Izuku supposed he should just not worry about it until he made it through the other battles first.

"But before those begin they'll be a series of interlude activities for those students who didn't make it this far! Those in the tournament may choose to relax and recover for the next hour between events instead if they wish!" Midnight cracked her whip and instantly people started to run about the field heading towards the various events.

Izuku watched them for a few moments until he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned in surprise to find Kaminari right behind him. The boy was shaking like a leaf and couldn't look Izuku in the eye as he stared at the floor, his gym uniform sticking to his body from the vast amount he sweating despite the event having ended and it being a relatively cool day.

"H-H-Hey Mi-Midoriya," Kaminari stuttered out, his voice quivering with each syllable, "C-Could I uh- I-If you don't mind! Could I… M-My quirk…"

Izuku's eyes widened with horror as he realised he could still feel the near dozen quirks he had just beneath his skin, "Right! Of course… uh Kirishima?"

Kirishima gave him a wide smile and thumbs up, holding out his hand. Izuku reached out and grabbed said hand, pulling the borrowed quirk back into himself. Once he had all the quirks back he'd taken for the battle he closed his eyes and focused. Slowly he pushed them out one by one and made sure they found their way back to their original owners. Next to him he heard the relieved sigh of Kaminari.

"Sorry Kaminari," Izuku said once all the quirks had been returned, "I guess I forgot to…"

Izuku trailed off as he turned only to find Kaminari practically sprinting away from him. To make matters worse Izuku could literally see other students staring at him while small groups whispered and pointed. Some looked terrified, a few looked envious, but most looked disgusted. Izuku was suddenly feeling overwhelmed, the loud crowd around him, the pointing from his classmates and-

"Great job Midoriya!" Tokage said as she slapped him on the back and gave him a wicked smile, "You know even without that broken quirk your tactics are pretty impressive. Anyway, I best go do damage control about me joining a 1A team. Luckily you knocked out Monama so the worst of it is in the infantry. Good luck boys."

With a wink in their direction Tokage sauntered off with a wide smile on her face despite the glares she was receiving from several of her classmates. Izuku shuddered as several of those glares turned to him and he glanced away from the crowds.

"I… I think I'm gonna go for a walk," Izuku mumbled, despite not looking at them he could feel practically every student in the field staring at his back.

Katsuki looked at him and paused, seemingly considering arguing with Izuku before he shrugged, "I get it, just don't miss your first fight nerd. You taking Shitty Hair with you?"

Izuku frowned as did Kirishima when they glanced at each other, "No? What makes you think that?"

"Because you're still holding his hand."

Izuku let out a very undignified squeak before he ran off towards the changing rooms leaving a blushing Kirishima and cackling Katsuki behind.

Todoroki walked through the halls aimlessly, he didn't really know where he was going or what he was doing, he was just… walking. When he'd woken up that morning he wasn't sure what he'd expected to feel going into the festival. Excitement like most of his class? Anger at his father as per the usual? Dread at the competition? He'd expected all of that, what he hadn't expected was to wake up and feel… nothing. He'd just felt like it was another day at school. His sister had wished him good luck when he'd left the house but apart from that it felt like any other day.

He had expected his father to call him, or meet him outside the house to give him one last chance. Win the sports festival with his fire or give up on being a hero. Todoroki had spent hours last night coming up with his rebuke. But it was never needed, Endeavor hadn't even sent him a text.

Todoroki should have been thrilled, his father was finally stepping back and allowing him to be the hero he always wanted to be. Yet for some reason it made him even angrier, was he suddenly not good enough for his father? Why did the fact that the father he hated ignoring him even make Todoroki so angry? The overall conflicting emotions and confusion only made Todoroki even more annoyed. The entire situation was frustrating and he was half wondering why he'd even bothered putting in the effort today.

As he walked down the empty halls the sound of his metal foot clanging against the floor echoed throughout the hallway. It made his normally stoic face frown. Because that was another fucking joyful thing in the life of Shoto Todoroki. What really pissed him off about being a 15 year old amputee however was the fact that it proved his father right. Maybe if he'd used his fire he

wouldn't need to hop into the shower every morning.

All in all the result was that Todoroki didn't give a fuck about the Sports Festival. He had nothing to gain by winning it and he had nothing to lose by losing it. The only reason he was still even trying was that he knew his sister was watching and if nothing else he still wanted to work hard and achieve good grades in school.

He had already accepted that he was unlikely to win the festival.

Apparently Endeavor had been wrong in telling him as he grew up that he would easily be the most powerful student in school and eventual hero with his quirk. Todoroki was of course nowhere near the bottom of the class but he had yet to come to the top in anything. Academically he was constantly beaten by Yaoyorozu, Bakugou soared above him in physical heroics lessons and Midoriya was practically a year ahead of the rest of the class in classroom heroics. Even outside the classroom he was never going to be as social as Ashido nor be a focal point of the class to lean on like Kirishima.

He was just… there.

Todoroki was pulled out of his thoughts when he turned a corner and came face to face with the man at the centre of his thoughts. Endeavor paused when he sighted Todoroki in front of him and his face went through several emotions so quickly Todoroki couldn't keep track. But he could somehow tell his father was more… subdued. He was wearing his hero outfit but wasn't bothering with his usual flames, Todoroki had only ever seen him without them around the house before. He also looked tired, he had bags under his eyes and his usually immaculate hero outfit was out of place in some areas and had gathered dirt in others.

"Father…" Todoroki greeted cautiously, this wasn't an Endeavor he recognised.

"Shoto…" Endeavor responded and his shoulders sagged slightly, "I see you're still not using his fire."

Internally Todoroki smirked and clenched his fists, he knew his father would latch onto that, "Yes and I don't intend to. I'll get through the festival with my ice alone."

Endeavor paused before speaking and Todoroki stood patiently waiting for the outburst.

"I see," Endeavor said with next to no emotion, "Well your ice has certainly come a long way. Good luck Shoto."

Todoroki blinked in surprise as Endeavor turned to walk away from him. The sight of it filled Todoroki with… with unbridled rage. He clenched his fists and his normally stoic face turned into a scowl with narrowed eyes.

"That's… that's it!?" He hissed at his fathers back who whirled around with a look of surprise as his son's tone.

"Wh-What?" Endeavor asked, the normally calm and collected hero stuttering slightly under the intense gaze and harsh words of his youngest child.

"Why don't you care!?" Todoroki continued, his voice shaking slightly, "Ever since I was four all you've told me is how strong I need to become to beat All Might. Everyday you trained me until I got to UA and now… now you suddenly don't give a shit!?"

Endeavor paused and looked at Todoroki before his face slowly shifted from expressionless to a deep frown. Flame flickered around him and he stood up straighter, stepping towards Todoroki. Suddenly the defeated figure from before was gone and the Endeavor Todoroki loved to hate was back.

"Is this not what you always wanted, boy?" Endeavor spat at him, yet Todoroki didn't even flinch, "To be able to do whatever you wanted, to be free of me? Well congratulations you got it. You want to become a hero only using your ice and be second rate? Fine. If losing a leg didn't convince you then I certainly won't."

Todoroki's eyes widened and he took a shocked step back at Endeavor words. His shock only increased when he heard a soft gasp behind him.

Hero Analysis For The Future: Stockpiled Quirk Notes

This notebook is for me and Kacchan to analyse and make notes about all the quirks I take (and keep) from villains.

General Observations and notes

Mutation Quirks

So as it turns out I can take mutation quirks. However while my biology and physiology will change so that I can use the quirk my body can't fully adapt to the changes. For example if I stole Ojiro's tail I would grow a tail but doing so would shatter my spine and rip open my lower back. This can however be negated with regeneration which will heal the damage done to my body as the mutation takes effect. I'm also able to not instantly activate the mutation, I can keep the energy within my body until I want it to take effect. Therefore I should never activate a mutation quirk without regeneration otherwise the risks could be severe. I was lucky today that cedemine only essentially created open wounds on my arm that regeneration healed when I got it back, Asui's quirk might have caused permanent damage if I didn't use it with regeneration.

Izuku sighed happily, making notes on quirks had always relaxed him, even if it was notes on his own quirk. He'd quickly run to the 1A changing rooms to grab his notebook and phone before finding a secluded hallway towards the back of the stadium where he was confident nobody would stumble upon him.

He knew he'd have to face the music (so to speak) soon enough, there was no way his classmates didn't know what his quirk was by now after his actions in the Cavalry Battle. He knew he was dragging out the inevitable but sue him, if he could delay facing years of childhood trauma and an angry mob of UA students by an hour or so he was going to. As he scribbled further notes on his quirk his phone buzzed next to him.

Kacchan: You good?

Zuzu: I'd say 50/50? Is it bad I'm looking forward to my fights to distract me from 'coming out' to our classmates?

Kacchan: Nah, just don't be fucking late. Half the fun of the festival is gonna be watching you backhand these extras out of the ring with a yawn

Zuzu: That's mean Kacchan, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Or classmates are strong

Kacchan: Yeah, you're right. We best be careful, we're going up against people who can make their hands big and run fast. How are our S Grade quirks supposed to stand up against that sort of

power?

Zuzu: I'm gonna suggest to Present Mic he use a picture of you for the English word for arrogance in class

Kacchan: Fuck off. Don't forget your fight is in 20 minutes, I'll go sit with the extras in our seating area

Zuzu: Are… Are they talking about me?

Kacchan: I ain't got a fucking clue, Shitty Hair asked me if I wanted to join the scavenger hunt so I told him to fuck off and went for a piss

Izuku snorted and put his phone away. He supposed he should go and 'hype' himself up for his first fight. Getting up from the floor he started to wonder towards the direction of the field. He considered putting his notebook away but the opportunity to add notes to it during his classmates' battles was too tempting. There was a risk they might find it creepy but that was hardly at the top of his concerns right now.

He made his way through the winding halls, humming softly to himself. He waved to a few cameras he walked past, knowing full well Nedzu would be watching and turned a corner towards the exit.

"- losing a leg didn't convince you then I certainly won't."

Izuku couldn't let the gasp escape his lips when he was confronted with the scene in front of him. Todoroki was glaring at his father who was matching said glare with one of own, their faces morphed into a look that would make any Bakugou proud. Both their quirk energies were flaring up and they'd clearly been shouting at each other. But Endeavor's words to his own son had rocked Izuku to his very core. He might have not had the happiest upbringing and while he didn't technically have a father he could still never imagine any of his parents speaking to him like that.

Todoroki's head snapped around and he caught sight of Izuku standing there watching them. His face switched from anger to dread almost instantly. Meanwhile Endeavor looked at the new arrival with furrowed eyebrows. His flames still snapped and flickered over his body but his attention had been drawn away from Todoroki.

"Midoriya?" Todoroki asked and Izuku could tell he was putting in a lot of effort to keep his voice steady, "What are you doing here?"

Izuku gulped, all his confidence from the first two events vanished as he was faced with two angry Todorokis', "I was uh… clearing my head before my fight…"

"I see…" Todoroki said and visibly relaxed once he realised Izuku hadn't been spying and had just stumbled on to the scene, "Perhaps you should get going then."

Izuku paused before answering as his eyes moved from Todoroki to Endeavor and back again, "Are you ok Todoroki?"

Todoroki blinked, seemingly genuinely surprised by the question, "I… Yes… I'm ok, thank you Midoriya."

Izuku still wasn't convinced however and narrowed his eyes slightly, "Do you want to walk to the stadium together and-"

"YOU!" Endeavor suddenly shouted, making both boys jump, "You're the recommendation student!" The number two hero finished before he marched over to Izuku who flinched and stepped back slightly.

Endeavor was almost as large as All Might in his muscle form and the flame hero towered over Izuku, forcing him back against the wall. Izuku could literally feel the heat from the flames on the man's body while every instinct was telling him to run. Even his hunger was lashing out slightly at how powerful Endeavor's energy was. Izuku may have gotten used to One For All but with that exception Endeavor's quirk energy was miles more powerful than any other persons he had come across.

Izuku gulped, "I uh… Y-Y-Yes, I'm a r-recommended student."

Endeavor frowned, "Yes… You're the one who has beaten Todoroki at every turn. What is your quirk!?" Endeavor demanded in a way that almost made Izuku collapse.

"W-What?" Izuku stammered out and behind him Todoroki scowled at Endeavors back and stepped forward.

"Father I'm not sure-"

"Silence!" Endeavor spat and Todoroki froze, in all his years his father had never spoken to him like that with such… desperation and disgust.

Endeavor turned back to a rapidly shrinking Izuku with wild eyes, the man looked panicked, "How? How is it fair that people like you and All Might exist? How are people like me supposed to achieve anything when the world gives quirks to people like you that define all reason!?"

"I-I-I…" Izuku couldn't speak, he couldn't breath, his body shook with terror. Endeavor stood over him like a God of Fire, one movement from his hand and Izuku knew it would turn him to ash, regeneration or not. Something wasn't right with the man, he sounded desperate, like someone looking for religious answers and not questioning a teenager on their quirk and his belonged to someone receding in an insane asylum and not a top ten hero.

This time Izuku did fall back against the wall and slid down. He should've known. He never should have used his quirk. People would of course hate him. It was disgusting. It was horrible . It was-

"Hey, leave him alone!"

Izuku suddenly became aware of another presence in front of him, blocking his view of Endeavor who stepped back in surprise slightly. Izuku regained focus of the scene and was met with another student standing between him and Endeavor, holding out her arms and blocking him from getting to Izuku. Her purple hair was a slight mess and her jacks were pointed menacingly towards the hero but Izuku could see them vibrate slightly with nerves.

Endeavor looked at the new arrival with confusion before a frown took over his face and he stepped forward, hand outstretched towards Jiro, "Move aside girl I need to-"

"Endeavor!"

Four heads snapped to the side to find the figure of All Might walking down the hallway towards

them, his massive frame barley fitting within the confined walls. His fists were clenched and he did not look happy, in fact he was glaring directly at the number two hero as he marched towards the group. It was a glare which made the three students present flinch and would have done the same for every other person on the planet bar the number two hero apparently who only scowled deeper as he caught sight of his rival.

"All Might," Endeavor growled, "What are you-"

"No," All Might said and despite not shouting his voice reverberated throughout the hallway, filling it with a fury that coated his words and made Endeavor snap his mouth shut, "Whatever your issues with me are you don't treat my students like that. If I see you doing it again you'll finally have a chance to see if you can beat the top spot from me with your own fists."

Despite his general overconfidence and arrogance even Endeavor paled slightly at the thought. He wasn't a fool, regardless of how hot he could make his flames, All Might could still backhand him hard enough to get a free holiday to Hawaii.

"Young Jiro," All Might said, making said girl flinch slightly though he kept his eyes trained on Endeavor, "Is Midoriya ok?"

Jiro turned and crouched down in front of Izuku, her face was pale but her violet eyes quickly found his green ones and they filled with worry, "Hey, Midoriya… hey, it's Jiro. Just breathe, it's ok just breathe."

Izuku realised he was still shaking and gulping desperately for air, his hunger was going haywire, desperately latching out for the top two heroes' quirks. He closed his eyes and focused, getting his hunger under control as he tried to steady his breathing. He felt two soft hands take his own and give them a light squeeze as he took deep breaths, thumbs rubbing over his palms. Slowly his body stopped shaking and he opened his eyes to find Jiro giving him a small smile with his hands in her hands.

"T-Thanks Jiro," Izuku said and gave her a soft smile in return, "I'm ok now, thank you Yag- All Might Sensei."

All Might nodded and gave Izuku a thumbs up but again didn't break his staring contest with Endeavor, "Excellent, thank you Jiro. Now then, I suggest you three move on, your matches will be starting soon."

Jiro didn't need to be told twice, Izuku felt himself being hauled to his feet and dragged away from the heroes with a surprising amount of strength from the small girl. Todoroki looked somewhere between utter confusion and primal fury but decided to follow the other two students anyway.

Jiro led the pair through many winding halls, her jacks scanning out like radar. Which was more or less what Izuku assumed she was doing considering they didn't come across another person the entire time. Eventually after a lot of walking and being dragged around they found themselves not far from the infirmary within the stadium.

Jiro paused before turning on her feet and looking up at Izuku, "Is this ok? Are they out of your range?" she asked.

Izuku paused and blinked in surprise, "Huh? Range?"

"Your quirk," Jiro said, "I know you have some kind of range or something to feel other quirks and I'm guessing with how powerful those two are it wasn't easy to be around."

Oh.

"Oh." Izuku said slowly, "I.. uh… y-yeah, I'm out of range. How uh…?"

Jiro scoffed, "How did I know your quirk lets you take other quirks?"

Her question caused Todoroki (who was standing a little awkwardly not far from the pair) to freeze and lock onto Izuku with wide eyes. Izuku gulped but chose to ignore Todoroki's reaction.

"I mean, if I hadn't figured it out from your heat-vision and the USJ you pretty much just announced it all to the class in the cavalry battle. I'm fairly sure Kirishima doesn't have a Dark Shadow quirk dude." Jiro continued and gave Izuku a bit of a smirk, "I figured you'd tell me when you were ready, I didn't wanna push. One thing though… it's a wicked fucking quirk."

Izuku felt another weight off his shoulders and a burst of warmth in his chest at Jiro's words and smile, though the more he looked at her the more he felt heat rise to his face.

"Oh, uh… Thanks," Izuku mumbled, trying not to blush, "But how did you know about my range?"

This time it was Jiro's turn to blush as her cheeks reddened and she broke their eye contact, "Oh… well um… Your heartbeat increases whenever you're around strong quirks. It happens mainly with All Might and Bakugou but I notice it whenever you're around anyone with an A Grade quirk or higher."

Izuku's face grew a deep red, he wasn't aware that his heart raced when he could sense quirks. Let alone that Jiro noticed. The pair stood there awkwardly, neither knowing what to say as they shone red and looked anywhere but each other.

"I'm going."

Todoroki's monotone voice snapped the pair out of their state and they turned to see his retreating back. But before he got any further Izuku stepped forward.

"Todoroki wait."

The boy paused and turned his head to look at Izuku but didn't say anything.

Izuku paused before sighing, "I just… I get it."

Todoroki frowned, "Get what?"

"Why you don't use your fire," Izuku explained and Todoroki stiffened, "I… I used to hate my quirk. I still do to an extent." As he spoke Izuku realised he was still holding Jiro's hand who gave him a slight squeeze in silent support, "But since then I've realised a quirk is just another tool in my arsenal, another way for me to help people and become a hero. So no matter how much I might hate my quirk I'm still going to put everything I have into using it and becoming the best hero I can be. And so should you."

Todoroki stood frozen staring at Izuku who himself had stood up straighter, determined not to break eye contact with Todoroki or shrivel back from what he believed. After a few moments

Todoroki simply turned and walked away.

All Might watched his three students walk away and he waited with his enhanced hearing until their footsteps eventually faded. He then waited a little longer to account for Jiro's hearing. This wasn't a conversation that needed to be heard by others. The entire time the two pro heroes glared at each other. The area had become several degrees hotter and All Might's body was so tense that if he sneezed he might well tear half the stadium down.

All Might had been 23 when he returned from America. He'd been 25 when he became the number one hero. He was now 55 and had never lost the top spot, the longest hero to remain at a number one anywhere in the world in history. The previous holder had been the number one hero in India for 5 years.

All Might had already beaten this record when he was 33 and a flame hero by the name of Endeavor had gone from rank 1678 to rank 48 in the hero rankings in one year. The greatest jump by any hero previously and still a record that had never been beaten. And, though the top 50 ranks were a different ball game altogether, said hero became the number 2 by the time All Might was 35. He remembered that day at the hero rankings.

"Congratulations Endeavor!" All Might said with a wide smile and slap on the back at the man next to him on the stage, "The top ten are usually dominated by physical augmentation quirks, it's good to see an elemental quirk user make it so high!"

Endeavor slowly turned his head towards All Might and stared at the man briefly before a deep scowl appeared on his face.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" He spat.

All Might's eyebrows rose in surprise and he sputtered slightly.

"I'm warning you All Might that spot is mine! I'll be the number one hero for longer than you could ever hope to be, even with my elemental quirk!"

That day was the start of a long and bitter rivalry between the top two heroes. They very rarely had any direct interaction, operating in different areas of the country throughout the years. And not

even S Grade villains usually required the presence of both top two heroes to deal with. All their interactions throughout the years had been awkward and cold, Endeavor never wanted anything to do with All Might and wasn't afraid to make that fact known. Previously All Might's tactic had been to kill Endeavor with kindness.

That was until Nedzu had told him to buff up and head to the most south east corridor where he'd caught Endeavor practically ready to attack two of his students. It had taken all of All Might's willpower not to punch Endeavor onto the moon when he'd seen the sight.

"Endeavor…" All Might started through gritted teeth but before he could continue the other man scoffed.

"I have nothing to say to you All Might," Endeavor said and waved the man off as he turned to leave, "Just make sure to stay-"

"Do you think you can just walk away Enji Todoroki?"

All Might's voice was so cold that it wouldn't have surprised Endeavor if it had extinguished his flames. As it where Endeavor froze mid step, his flames flickered and nearly died from the rage that was emanating from behind him. Slowly he turned and while his face remained steady internally he flinched at being faced with a furious All Might.

"For 30 years I have tolerated your bullshit Todoroki," This time Endeavor's face did show visible shock, there wasn't a recording in existence of All Might swearing, "For 30 years I have stood by and smiled while you made a mockery of being a hero. I tolerated it because despite your abysmal PR and downright atrocious attitude you put away more villains than the next 5 heroes combined. But if you ever go anywhere near my students like that again the press will have a field day as I drag you into Tartarus myself."

Endeavor's eyes narrowed and he stopped forward, the intensity of his flames increasing (a few floors up Nedzu frowned when his camera feed of the interaction was cut off due to the damage from the heat), "So what? You've stood on the sidelines and watched for all these years and done nothing? And now you suddenly choose to speak out? What made you wait so-"

"Did you really think a school full of pro heroes wouldn't notice the signs of abuse on your son?" All Might growled out, interrupting Endeavor mid sentence, there were serial killers and villains who had never received such hate wrapped around the number one's hero's words.

This time Endeavor's flames did die out, whether from shock or All Might's fury All Might couldn't tell, but he'd be lying if the look of fear that flashed across his rivals face didn't bring him some semblance of joy. His hero career might be fading and his time limit down to under two hours but at least he had this.

Endeavor's face paled and he stuttered slightly, "Wh-What are you talking-"

"He flinches every time a teacher approaches him during training. He has next to no social skills despite growing up with multiple siblings. Every time he receives praise in some form he looks confused and suspicious and if all that wasn't enough he absolutely refuses to use the side of his quirk he inherited from you." By this point All Might was nearly shouting, he knew that this went beyond Endeavor's actions but he didn't care. The man was right, for 30 years All Might had stood back and ignored too much.

There was a long tense pause as Endeavor absorbed All Might's words then, slowly, colour returned to his face, his flames reignited and he scowled.

"Then why haven't you done anything? Why haven't you put me in handcuffs and hauled me away? Isn't it what I deserve?"

All Might ground his teeth together and leant in close to Endeavor, their faces inches apart. The flames licked at his costume and skin but he didn't care.

"Two reasons. Firstly, because despite it all Todoroki genuinely doesn't seem to want you arrested, doing so would only risk bringing further pain to your children. And it's them who I care about, not you. And secondly, because despite how much of an aberrant father and even worse human being you are… You're a damn good hero, there are literally thousands of people alive today because of you. Streets that once upon time people would be terrified to walk down young men and women can stroll through in the dead of night because nobody would dare commit a crime in Endeavor's city. I might put hope in the heart of every person in Japan but you put the fear of God in every villain. So as much as it disgusts me, as much as it fills my throat with bile, I can't do anything to you because quite frankly Japan needs Endeavor."

All Might was amazed that by the end of his rant he hadn't just punched Endeavor. He hated it, he hated how a man who represented everything All Might despised about their society had made it to

the top. He hated how this man, who had abused his youngest son, was praised by millions across the county. He hated how no matter how much influence All might had, Endeavor was still all but untouchable. But most of all he hated how much of that was his fault. Because Endeavor was right, for 30 years all he'd done was stand aside and smile as hero society became more and more corrupt and now he'd created a system where he couldn't even bring a man like Endeavor to justice for fear of the irreversible damage it would cause to their society. Especially at a time when All Might was close to retiring and villains were on the rise.

Endeavor's mouth opened and closed, looking very much like a fish that had been caught in a net. All Might didn't wait for a response as he towered over the man, despite not being that much larger than him.

"But despite that I swear to you Endeavor that if you lay a hand on a single one of my students then I don't care about the consequences. And if you ever think of going after Izuku Midoriya or Katsuki Bakugou again I'll make sure the only way to identify you is from your blood splatter."

With a final growl All Might turned and marched away, leaving the number two hero confused, terrified and wondering where this All Might had been for 30 years.

"You really don't have to come with me Jiro, I'm sure you want to go hang out with the rest of the class in the stands." Izuku said awkwardly as he walked down the corridor, Jiro matching his step near perfectly as she twirled a jack around her finger.

Jiro shrugged and rolled her eyes at him, "Dude, my friend just had an Endeavwhore induced panic attack, I ain't about to abandon you so I can sit and listen to our class complain about their performance. Besides, you've basically been the main character for this entire festival, if anything interesting is gonna happen before the fights start it's gonna be with you."

Izuku couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he led Jiro round a corner and paused in front of a large set of double doors. He sighed in relief slightly when he felt only two quirk energies inside. Jiro walked up next to him and raised a curious eyebrow in his direction.

"I just have to know," Izuku said and stepped forward, pushing the door open.

"You don't have to explain yourself to me dude," Jiro reassured and followed him inside.

Beds lined up either side of the room but only one had the curtains drawn, a TV stood in the corner, a livestream of the festival on. A quick glance up showed Izuku that the recreational activities were coming to end. He needed to wrap this up and get ready for his first fight.

"Please don't tell me you're here to inform me you've lost regeneration? You having that quirk has cut my work down by at least 16%."

Recovery Girl's panicked voice could be heard before the woman herself could be seen. She swirled around in her chair and eyed the two new arrivals critically, looking out for any injuries. She visibly relaxed when she didn't see any signs of obvious battle cars on either student. But then she narrowed her eyes further.

"Please tell me you're not here because Jiro is pregnant."

Both students fluttered in surprise and red erupted across their faces. Izuku nearly collapsed from the shock, he was fairly certain he'd nearly lashed out and stolen every quirk within a 3 mile radius on instinct. Next to him Jiro's jacks shot out so hard in surprise she smashed into one of the pieces of equipment causing it to spark and die. Recovery Girl just watched the whole scene and sighed.

"I guess not…"

"Uh… N-No," Izuku stammered out as he tried to regain control of his voice, "It's actually… well… I uh…" His eyes glanced to the bed surrounded by curtains and Recovery Girls face dawned in realisation.

"Ahhh… I see… So much like Toshi," She mumbled and next to Izuku Jiro frowned slightly, "Monama will be fine, he needs some rest but physically he'll have no lasting damage."

Izuku's shoulders sagged and he suddenly felt a lot lighter, he'd been able to avoid it in the heat of the battle but what had happened to Monama had quite frankly terrified him.

"Do you uh… know what happened?" He asked.

Recovery Girl and her eyes glanced at Jiro who just sighed in response, "You really don't think I

know about his quirk by this point?"

Recovery Girl snorted and shrugged, "I'm not an expert on quirk theory but from what I can deduce Monama essentially suffered a catastrophic case of quirk exhaustion."

Jiro frowned, "That didn't look like any quirk exhaustion I've seen before."

"Because it wasn't like any quirk exhaustion that's ever happened before." Recovery Girl said with a grave voice that made the two students shiver slightly, "Copy quirks work by temporarily replicating the quirk factor of the quirk they copy. Now, based on the theories we've come up on Midoriya's quirk here my guess would be that copy quirks essentially replicate the quirk fuel of the quirk. It explains why they are so limited, the extra energy is unstable and so the copy quirk can only hold onto it for so long and so many at a time. But when Monama attempted to copy your quirk…"

Izuku sighed, "He didn't realise he was copying nearly a dozen quirks and their combined energy."

"Bingo," Recovery Girl said with a tap of her cane, "The sheer amount of energy overwhelmed him, think of like a balloon popping, his quirk couldn't take it and imploded before shutting everything down to make sure he survived."

"I still don't see how that's the same as quirk exhaustion though?" Jiro said with a tilt of her head.

"Think of it this way," Izuku said and turned to her, "Let's say you have a limited amount you can use your quirk before suffering quirk exhaustion, say 100% is when you hit your limit. Monama tried to copy nearly a dozen quirks, he jumped from 50% to 150% in a moment and his body couldn't handle it."

"Actually it was more like 300% but you've got the right idea." Recovery girl finished.

Izuku winced and felt the familiar pit of guilt forming in his stomach. Yet again someone had suffered because of his quirk, because of-

"Oi!" Came a noise to his left and he felt two sharp objects prod him in the cheek.

"O-Ow!" Izuku whined as he flapped his hands around against the assault of two ear jacks, "Jiro. C-Cut it out."

"Nope," Jiro said and popped her mouth with p, her hands were on her his and she was glaring at him, jacks moving about threateningly.

'I didn't realise how hot she was' Izuku's mind suddenly announced to him and for once the Gods smiled on him and he didn't mutter it aloud.

"Ahsido was right," Jiro said, pausing her attack and folding her arms to glare at him, "I can feel your thoughts and it's not your fault. It was a monitored battle situation where you used the tools you had. There was always a risk going in. Hell, Kirishima nearly sliced at least three different people in half with that heat-vision quirk."

Recovery Girl shivered slightly, "Don't remind me, that really would have been a disaster. But she's right sonny, what happened wasn't your fault. Even Nedzu admitted he had no idea a copy quirk would react so violently to Quirk Absorption. It was a freak accident with no blame to go around, the important thing is you're both alright."

Izuku sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "I guess…"

Jiro once again prodded him with a jack, "There's no guessing about it. Stop overthinking it, otherwise you'll stand their mumbling during all your fights."

Izuku blushed and Recovery Girl rolled her eyes, "Good, now please leave my infirmary before you somehow break a bone you can't heal from."

Jiro and Izuku were quickly ushered out of the room and found themselves once again in the hallway. Even here they could hear the crowd cheer loudly and a quick glance at the clock showed Izuku he had less than 10 minutes to his first fight.

"You got a plan?" Jiro asked as they started to walk back to the stadium.

Izuku nodded, "Shiozaki shouldn't be too difficult to take down. Her vines can't resist heat-vision

so I have the advantage on range and physically it's a safe bet that I'm stronger than her so I just need to close the gap."

Jiro hummed along with him, "See that's my issue with Uraraka, she's better than me at hand to hand. If I let her get close I'm done for but I don't really have range. I could always try breaking the ground with my heartbeat…"

"Don't do that," Izuku interrupted with a shake of his head, "You'd create debris that she could use her quirk on. Those vibration attacks you used for the entrance exam? That's your best tactic."

Jiro glanced up at him with a horrified expression, "Midoriya, those were strong enough to shatter robots, let alone a person."

Izuku shrugged, "Didn't you just tell me not to worry about hurting someone in a monitored battle? Besides the worst case scenario I can just throw regeneration in her and hey presto, your Uraraka will be reset to factory settings."

Jiro snorted, "Your inner Bakugou is coming through."

Izuku chuckled but before he could respond they turned a corner and came face to face with a tired looking teenager with spiky purple hair. Izuku blinked at the newcomer before realisation overcame him and he scowled. Next to him Jiro's eyes widened and she glanced awkwardly between the pair. The purple gen ed student too seemed to realise who was talking and gained his scowl.

"Oh," the boy said with disdain, "It's you."

Izuku frowned, "Hey you know what you said about peoples quirks isn't-"

"Oh shut the fuck up."

Izuku's mouth snapped shut on instinct, mainly out of surprise and next to him Jiro let out a slight gasp. He suddenly realised how much hate was pouring off the boy in front of him.

"I don't need a lecture about quirks from a powerhouse like you." The boy spat, "I bet you feel really comfy knowing you can easily dominate half the students here. You have no idea what it's really like, to be called a villain everyday of your life because of your quirk."

Jiro physically winced.

In the stands Katsuki felt the sudden need to scoff and scowl.

As he marched back to the staff lounge All Might felt an unwarranted amount of second hand embarrassment.

In the announcers box Aizawa had the urge to faceplant the desk for no apparent reason.

"Well uh… actually…" Izuku started but was cut off.

"Save it, you're the one that cost me my place in the tournament. You can't even begin to comprehend what that meant to someone like me. You have a nice flashy quirk, you'll be a success no matter what you choose to do." The gen ed student ranted at Izuku who stepped back slightly, surprised by the amount of venom coming his way.

"You're an idiot dude."

Both boys snapped their attention to the Jiro who was glaring at the gen ed student with more hate than Izuku had ever known her to possess.

The gen ed student didn't seem phased and grunted, "Let me guess, another hero prodigy who thinks their quirk-"

"My quirk is literally just a weird set of ears." Jiro snapped back, "You know what I can do? I can hear better than most people and vibrate my ears. Know what my classmates can do? Shoot lasers, throw fire and smash concrete with their bare hands. So don't give me some fucking sob story about how your quirk didn't get you into the hero course. You wanna be hero? Then start fucking training, you look like a soft breeze could knock you over."

The gen ed student frowned, "I don't need to train, my quirk-"

"Is one thing about you!" Jiro said, exasperated and waving her arms around, "What if someone like Midoriya here is immune to it? What if they don't trigger it correctly? You can't use one tool and expect to get every job done. You wanna whine about how unfair the hero course is? Fine, just don't expect to get anywhere near it if you're just gonna sit back lazily and depend on your quirk all the time."

The gen ed student blinked in surprise as Jiro glared at him. For a minute Izuku thought he might retaliate but he simply huffed before turning and walking away from the pair. Leaving both slightly confused.

Jiro rolled her eyes as the students retreating form turned a corner, "Don't listen to him Midoriya, he's-"

"He's right." Izuku whispered but he knew Jiro could hear it like a shout, "Not about the stuff you said, you're right he needs to train more than his quirk. But about the villain stuff, about my quirk."

"You don't owe anything to that moron," Jiro said as she folded her arms, still glaring at the space the student had been moments ago as if his ghost still lingered.

"No I don't," Izuku confirmed, "But I owe it to myself. I became a hero because I wanted to prove to everyone that my quirk could do good. Not just mine but that nobody's quirk was inherently villainous."

"Midoriya you are proving it," Jiro reassured with a rare yet warm smile, "If you hadn't noticed you're using said villainous quirk to pretty much bulldoze your way through the sports festival."

"I know and I know most of the class by now will figure out what Quirk Absorption is but the crowd and everyone watching don't. As far as they are concerned they just see flashes of light and a powerful hero student." As Izuku apoke he looked down at his hand and watched the energy of his quirks twist and turn just beneath his skin.

Jiro bit her lip. He could tell she wanted to argue but couldn't figure out how. Because he knew he was right. He could go out there and never reveal the truth to the public. He'd have a mystery quirk just like All Mights, it would be like a game to the press. He'd only ever have to deal with local

fallout from people he worked closely with. It was an easy road.

But it wasn't the road Izuku wanted to take.

"You should go join the rest of the class, I have something to do before my fight." He said to Jiro who raised a curious eyebrow.

"You're gonna fuck shit up aren't you?"

Izuku gave her a wide smile, "I'm gonna fuck shit up."

"Ladies and Gentleman it's time for our 3rd and final event! That's right, it's the event you've all been waiting for. Our young heroes are finally going to go head to head in our grand tournament as they try to climb the tower to first place! The rules are simple, the two students must battle it out until either one cannot continue, is unable to move or is knocked out of the ring! Are you as excited as I am Eraserhead!?"

"Doubtful."

Izuku really should have worn ear plugs, it was like standing in the middle of Present Mic's quirk. His whole body vibrated with the crowd's shouts, claps and cheers. Across Japan and the world over a billion people were doing the same as Izuku walked out onto the field. He tried not to think about the millions of people looking at him right now and assessing his worth as a hero as he approached the square arena for their battle.

Honestly he had felt pretty stupid when he'd stood in front of a security camera and explained his plan to it. But he knew Nedzu would be watching and he knew he would pass on the request to Present Mic and Aizawa. Izuku just hoped his teachers would listen. Legally he was fine, even with a classified quirk it was still his quirk. Katsuki could stand in the middle of Tokyo and tell passers by all the secrets of One For All and legally speaking the HPSC could do nothing. As Izuku and Shoizaki walked onto the stage, Present Mic's voice seemed to gain more excitement, which the crowd met with even more chaos.

"For our first match we have the heroine with God on her side, it's Ibara Shiozaki!" The crowd let out a few whoops and cheers, "Her opponent? None other than the UA mystery student who won't

let anyone near his top spot, it's Izuku Midoriya!"

The roar from the crowd for Izuku made what Shioaki had received look like a polite clap. Glass shook and birds flew for the hills from miles away. Around the world young children danced and cheered in hero outfits, teenage girls (and some boys) cooed over the cute boy who had backhanded half the student body while heroes across the country practically drooled at the thought of a new intern with an immense amount of power.

"The crowd goes wild for Midoriya and it's no wonder! Isn't that right Eraserhead?"

There was a substantial pause in Aizawa's response and Izuku knew the man was debating Izuku's plan. Izuku looked up to where he knew the pair were sitting and gave the box a firm nod.

"I suspect it's down to the fact that we haven't really told anyone what his quirk is."

"That's right! We've seen literally thousands of twitter posts all trying to guess what his quirk is! Some say energy manipulation, others say he is a powerful mutant and a couple even claimed he was a god!"

"Don't be so ridiculous. Midoriya is not a god, he was simply using multiple quirks."

"Wait!? Multiple quirks!? How is that possible Eraser!?"

Izuku almost facepalmed at the very pantomime like performance.

"Because he had borrowed his classmates' quirks. Izuku Midroya's quirk is called Quirk Absorption, to explain, it allows him to take people's quirks."

"Gasp! You mean like a copy quirk?"

"No. Quirk Absorption leaves the other person quirkless, it takes their quirks completely. Izuku Midoriya is able to take any quirk he likes and keep it… permanently."

The crowd went silent.

Chapter End Notes

Am I aware that I'm making everyone wait another chapter for the reactions to Izuku's quirk? Yes. Yes I am

Thanks or all the kudos and comments as always!

The Unknown Becomes Known

Chapter Summary

As The Sports Festival plays out to millions the truth of Izuku's quirk is revealed

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

It was impossible.

It wasn't a case of 1 in a million or even 1 in a billion, there was no way the laws of reality could allow it.

All For One was a quirk that defied how quirks worked, the power and genetics required for it were so delicate yet at the same time the wielder had to be so robust that even when it first came into creation all those years ago it was the closest thing the world had ever seen to genuine miracle (not that it could be considered such a blessing).

All For One knew how his quirk had first appeared, he'd researched it for the best part of a century. His mother had a powerful copy quirk, she was able to take up to 20 quirks for 24 hours, the most powerful copy quirk in history, not that it was known to the public. Meanwhile his father had officially been quirkless but after nearly 40 years of investigation All For One had concluded he actually had an unknown quirk, much like his youngest son. Though he couldn't say for sure, All For Once believed his father had some kind of enhancement or stockpile quirk, much like Yochi. This, combined with his mother's powerful copy quirk created All For One. A combination and reaction so rare that the possibility of the quirk ever coming back into the world again naturally may as well be zero.

So how was it that All For One was watching a 15 year old UA student use it like he'd taken it off a store shelf?

And not just use it, he was crushing with it. His team in The Cavalry Battle had been nearly untouchable and he had smashed through the obstacle race with at least 5 separate quirks from what All For One could count.

In a rare state of ever increasing dread All For One desperately used one of his quirks to sift through his memories from 15 years ago, each day lasting less than the blink of an eye but playing

through his mind as clear as day, like watching a film. He watched his younger self kill, maim and relax until-

There!

He watched himself walk into a slightly seedy bar not far from the closest airport to his then base of operations. The lights flickered and while a few clientele looked up at his arrival most ignored him. He'd forgone his usual suit and wore a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Heroes wouldn't frequent a bar like this and even if they did unless All Might himself walked through the doors none of them would take a second glance at him.

Young Tomura had been… difficult the past few days, he was admittedly only 5 but the brat just wanted to sit around playing video games all day. Any attempt by All For One or Kurogiri to get him to train was met with tears, screaming and sometimes decayed furniture. All For One hated children, he'd never had any remote interest in being a father, yet if he wanted to make sure his legacy continued he needed to get a child when they were young and easily manipulated. So he had to bear it.

And despite his thousands of quirks, immense power and a God-like presence he was still at his core human (barely). And sometimes he just needed a break from it all. Though admittedly it had been 30 years since he'd ventured into a bar and back then someone had insulted him so he'd stolen all their quirks, killed them and burnt the bar down. Hopefully this time would be more pleasant.

He sat at the bar and sipped pleasantly at the expensive whisky they had, not that it was at all of any real quality. It was just a shame it was impossible for him to get drunk. As he sipped a woman came up and sat next to him ordering a specifically strong gin and tonic. The pair sat next to each other, sipping in silence before a heavy sigh came from the woman.

All For One turned to her with a curious eyebrow and was able to get a good look at said woman. She was short but slender and wore clothes that hugged her body nicely, she had long green hair that, while not uncommon in a world of quirks, All For One found unusual enough to appreciate the beauty of it. She had soft features and bright green eyes which glanced over to her drinking companion when she caught him staring.

All For One offered a rare smile as they made eye contact and the woman returned it with her own shy version.

"Hello," She said softly and blushed slightly.

A quick pry with one of his many empathy quirks and All For One felt the woman's emotions come flooding towards him, loneliness, depression, a little guilt and a light smearing of lust directed at himself. He smiled with perfect white teeth, it had been decades since he'd engaged in such 'luxuries' but once again he was still human and he still had desires.

He replied to the woman with a silky smooth voice, "Good Evening, may I buy you a drink?"

He had left the hotel room in the early hours of the morning, not before using a quirk to alter the woman's memories of course. Not enough to raise any suspicion within her mind but just enough that if anyone questioned her on the matter she would only ever be able to give very basic details about the man she spent the night with. She would be able to recall his build and height but not hair or eye colour.

It had been a brief escape from his constant war with One For All.

Apparently however, it had been far more than that because the wretched affair had produced a child. The greatest supervillain in history had a son. A son who had not just inherited his quick but a presumably evolved version.

All For One had watched the boy take and use mutation quirks, something he was unable to do. It also solved the mystery of the USJ, presumably he had stolen the Nomu's super regeneration which in itself would allow him to use any number of quirks with little consequence. Something that had taken All For One years to slowly build up. And it didn't even look like he needed to touch his victims to steal their quirks.

To put it simply, he would have been the perfect person to inherit All For One's legacy.

All For One wouldn't have even needed to retire his quirk, not like he needs to do with Tomura. He could have trained his son and created the perfect weapon, a villain who can simply walk by a hero and take their quirk. No limit on what he could take and how much he could take. It was All For One's dream personified in a small green haired son.

A son he was watching become a hero.

A fury built in All For One's stomach as he watched his son battle the vine girl, easily pushing her out the ring with a heat-vision quirk. His child… doing good! It made him sick, his own flesh and

blood spouting the nonsense that All Might, Nana and so many others spoke about with no real meaning. His son should be making chaos and tearing apart society like a God.

All For One didn't blame the boy, he probably had no idea about his true heritage or the truth of his quirk. Nor did his mother, if All For One were to guess she would have just assumed the one night stand she had produced a son with a powerful quirk but didn't really understand said quirk.

No, All For One somehow knew exactly who to blame for his son taking such a disgusting path. He knew exactly who had managed to get their vile hero fingers around his precious boy and get him into UA and in the same class as the 9th wielder of One For All no doubt.

All For One knew exactly who had snatched his perfect legacy from him and it filled him with a fury like no other. Here he was thinking he managed to one up the man by getting Nana's grandson on his side. Here he had thought he'd held all the cards, holding the power of new and up and coming villains while a slowly decaying hero frantically searched around for a successor and new generation of teenage heroes. Yet all this time All For One had been duped, as he sat on his throne with a smile, looking at his increasing army of Nomu's and villains he's nemesis had operated behind his back and managed to snag a secret weapon that was rightfully All For One's.

Thousands of quirks bubbled to the surface beneath his skin, the energy cracked in the air and screens in front of All For One flicked and died. The walls shook and sparks erupted from the machinery around him. People in the streets above for miles around were suddenly overcome with an irrational level of fear and panic and even animals turned and fled away from the ominous energy that filled the area.

All For One let out a primal scream of rage as he let loose with any quirk that came to the surface, the walls cracked, screens shattered and machines exploded into fire. All For One didn't care if it brought in the attention of the heroes, he would slaughter them, he would kill anyone in his way as his thoughts of rage and anger focused on one person. One person he wanted nothing more to rip apart for taking his son, his legacy, his perfect weapon from him.

"AAAALLLLL MIIIIIIGHT!"

Inko's breath stopped in her throat as she listened to the words from the Eraser man. She knew of course that this would be Izuku's plan, she had briefly met the teachers of UA since taking the job as their legal council and she knew none of them would breathe a word of Izuku's quirk to anyone without his or Nedzu's permission. Which meant this was all part of Izuku's plan to become the symbol he always spoke of.

On the sofa even Mitsuki and Masaru had frozen as the sound from the TV stopped coming through, as if it had suddenly broken but all three adults knew the sound was working perfectly.

On the screen the live images on the stadium suddenly switched back to the newsroom where the commentators for the households chosen channel sat, mouths agape as they watched the two students battle.

"Did… Did he just say that boy could…" The blonde female commentator stuttered, her eyes wide and unbelieving.

"No, it can't be. Check we haven't been hacked and given false audio. There's no way a quirk like that exists." A male brown haired reporter insisted, snapping at fact checkers presumably off screen.

"It's right," Said the final newscaster with a thick head of black hair on his head, "The HPSC confirmed it within seconds. Izuku Midoriya, hero student. Quirk: Quirk Absorption, gives him the ability to take and return quirks, there is no time limit on the quirk."

"And they allowed that into the hero course!?" Brown hair screeched.

"Clearly, he even came in on recommendation, supposedly by a top ranked hero." Black hair said as he was fed more information from the team out of shot.

"What!? That's an outrage!?" Brown hair continued to rant, "A hero vouched for that thing to get into the hero course! That boy is obviously a-"

"Shut! Up!" Blonde hair hissed at her colleague, a furious expression on her face before she cleared her throat and turned back to the camera with a smile, "Well it looks like Izuku Midoriya will certainly be using that quirk to fight for the top spot as he charges against his opponent. Let's return to see what Present Mic has to say about the fight."

Inko nearly leapt out of her seat as she felt a hand on her forearm. She snapped her head away from the TV to find a very nervous looking Mitsuki crouched down next to her who squeezed Inko's arm lightly. It was at that point Inko realised she was shaking and her breathing was ragged. She took desperate gulps to calm herself and she realised she had silent tears running down her face.

She looked at Mitsuki and spoke with a broken voice, "H-He… He's going to be ok right? M-My baby is going to be ok?"

Mitsuki winced at the words, tears forming in her own eyes as she leaned out and gave Inko a tight hug, "You know our boys," She said, "It doesn't matter if the entire world is against them, they'll take them all on."

The mothers held each other tightly, silent tears on both their faces as Masaru continued to watch the news coverage with a grim expression.

He knew it was coming, he'd heard Izuku telling his plan to Nedzu but Yagi still took in a sharp breath and gripped the side of his chair tightly. The silence from the crowd outside echoed into the staff box and the teachers sat in silence, watching their two students line up to fight with grim faces.

Nedzu was the first to break the gathered tension, "That was not the best reaction to Midoriya's plan…"

Yagi scowled, maybe it was the leftover anger from dealing with Endeavor but he felt a pit of disgust form in his stomach at the crowd, he could practically feel their judgement seeping in through the open windows.

"Young Midoriya shouldn't have to deal with this sort of reception." Yagi growled out which caused a few surprised glances from his peers.

"Calm down Yagi," Nedzu said with a stern voice, though his eyes held no malice towards the man, "I know you have an attachment to the pair but this was always Midoriya's plan, we knew this from the beginning."

Yagi sighed, "Doesn't mean I have to like it," He grumbled.

"Yagi," Thirteen asked from their corner with a curious expression, "You've been a hero longer than any of us. Cards on the table, no bullshit, what do you think is going to happen?"

Yagi gave Thirteen a long and tired expression, suddenly feeling very much his age. He wanted to say everything would be fine, that Midoriya just needed to prove himself as a hero. But he knew it wasn't the truth.

"It's going to have a ripple effect if nothing else," Yagi said with a sombre tone.

"How so?" Snipe asked.

"Whether we like it or not, heroics as an industry has been pretty stagnant in how it operates for at least two decades now. Flashy quirks, big personalities and exciting costumes." Yagi responded and Vlad King scowled slightly.

"Are you saying that's a problem?"

"I'm saying that's a fact," Yagi snapped slightly but sue him, today had already been rough enough, "And the fact is Midoriya doesn't fit into this pre-existing method of heroics. That wouldn't be so bad if he was going to end up like Eraserhead and operate in the shadows unknown to most of the public…"

"...But Midoriya is one of the most powerful people in the year. By the time he's fully trained up even if he didn't aim for the top ten he'll be too powerful to actually stay out of it." Thirteen said, their face falling slightly and looking out at said boy with sad eyes.

Yagi nodded, "A random hero student with a villainous quirk will be easily missed, people can just ignore their existence. But to be frank, Midoriya isn't most people, he's a top student who got in on recommendation, even if he doesn't win the festival I think we all know he's going to get a top position. And all that is before someone eventually digs up the fact I was the one who recommended him. The Number One Hero recommending the student who goes against everything said hero represents? It's going to be a case of an immovable object meets an unstoppable force."

Even as the words left his mouth it made Aizawa feel sick, his stomach churned in disgrace, his own body punishing him for what he had just done. The casts that he bore due to the USJ suddenly felt tight and constricting, like a snake depriving him of oxygen so that he could not say anymore words. But it was too late, the sentence had already left his mouth and the silence from the crowd was clawing its way into his mind and already making him regret agreeing to this plan.

But he knew that wasn't fair. Midoriya wasn't like him, he'd never be able to hide in the shadows, operating away from the public eye and avoiding any level of scrutiny or controversy. He was too noble, too willing to jump out and help whoever he could without concern for the consequences. There were many students who could be flexible with their hero careers, Jiro could go underground or rescue, Yoayorozu had the skills to go either limelight or investigation. But Midoriya? Midoriya was destined to be a limelight hero.

"You ok?" Present Mic asked Aizawa as he briefly covered the microphone while Midnight started the fight.

"I just threw one of my students, a 15 year old boy, into the open jaws of the media and society. No… I'm not ok."

Endeavor blinked and snapped his attention down into the stadium below, briefly snapping out of his sulking while alone in his box. He watched the two students, one being the Midoroya boy, bow to each other in complete silence as Eraserhead's words sank in. Endeavor himself mulled over the reveal as he watched the pair begin to fight. It was obvious from the start that Midroya would dominate the Shiozaki girl, she sent endless vines at him but his heat-vision cut them down like paper.

The ability to take others' quirks.

Now that really was a power that could rival Endeavor and All Might. It might not be so terrifying in a 15 year old boy but with time and training and… well… There really was no chance of seeing a Todoroki in the top spot was there? If Endeavor couldn't manage to top All Might there was no way Shoto would be able to out class that kind of power, hell he'd struggle to even come second with that Bakugou child in the mix.

Yes despite how loathed he was to admit it Endeavor could see the value in such a hero. He wasn't blind, once upon time he couldn't walk past a street without seeing an All Might fight playing. Nowadays, while they might always be a big spectacle, the amount of All Might fights had greatly reduced. Endeavor could hazard a guess as to why, the man was in his 50s, even with all that power he was still human (at least presumably so) and he wasn't what he once was. All Might was slowly moving towards retirement and Endeavor knew when that happened all hell would break loose. Not even the top 50 heroes combined would be able to fill the void All Might left, villains would come out of the woodwork like cockroaches and they would be after blood.

They would need people like Midoriya and Bakugou if the next generation ever had a chance of fighting back.

Which was why when Endeavor heard the silence that met Eraserhead's voice he grunted and rolled his eyes at the reaction of the crowd, "How pathetic of them."

"Overhaul!"

Overhaul sighed as his name rang out down the hallway, bouncing off the walls and attacking his ears. He'd just spent 9 hours straight in the lab with Eri, surely his subordinates could at least wait until he had a glass of water before dragging him off to some other crises? And really, he was so close to perfecting the weapon that all he really wanted to do was grab a quick lunch before returning to Eri.

He turned around to glare at the person who had called his name, a lackey that he had no hope of knowing the name of. The man's eyes widened as he caught sight of Overhaul's unhappy expression and he quickly took a hasty bow, not that Overhaul cared either way.

"Out with it then." Overhaul snapped at the man who nearly died from the sheer shock.

"I-It's Kurono s-sir, h-he urgently requests your presence. Says it's about the sports festival." The man managed to force out the sentence eventually, only choking on his words slightly.

Overhaul raised an eyebrow, if anyone else had asked for this request he'd probably kill them on the spot, he despised the UA Sports Festival on a cellular level. It was like a sick zoo, watching children throw around their diseases like backyard toys during the summer. He allowed his subordinates to watch only so that they could get a sense of any incoming threats from hero society, but he avoided watching it at all costs. Kurono knew this better than anyone and so if they were asking for Overhaul something beyond interesting must have happened. Perhaps they'd been lucky and Endeavor has been killed by a rogue quirk.

Overhaul simply nodded at the grovelling man beneath him and walked through the many winding halls underneath their base until he reached the meeting room he knew his generals and leaders would be waiting in. Swinging open the large door he was greeted with the sight of his eight bullets, Irinaka and Kuruno in front of a large TV where he saw two students battling it out on a concrete area. He watched as the girl threw out long green vines at the boy only for them to be

sliced apart with red beams from the boy's eyes. He frowned under his mask at the display.

A few of the occupants of the room turned around at the sound of the opening door with curious expressions but they quickly turned their attention back to the TV once they saw who had entered, wisely choosing not to comment on the unusual presence of their leader at the event. Kuruno stood at the very back, only vaguely interested in the battle of literal children, but he was one of the few who didn't react to Overhaul's arrival even as the man walked over to stand next to him.

Overhaul side-eyed his most trusted lieutenant, "This had better be-"

"The green haired boy has the ability to steal quirks."

Had it been anyone else who had interrupted him or even with any other piece of random information they would have been nothing more than a bloodstain on the wall. As it was the moment he had been interrupted Overhaul's hands had twitched towards each other but he stopped when he heard the information about the boy. He turned his attention back to the screen as he watched the pair battle it out.

"What a disgusting quirk." Overhaul commented as the boy managed to get in close and lay several punches on the girl.

"Is it not useful?" Kuruno suggested and turned his attention to Overhaul at last, "The ability to rip a quirk from someone? A more secure way than our current plans certainly."

"I see the point," Overhaul agreed, "But the quirks don't vanish, they need to go somewhere, we couldn't build that into a bullet and even if we could it would take decades longer than with Eri."

"Still," Kuruno responded, a hint of disappointment in his voice, "Had we discovered the boy earlier it may well have been a useful route to look into. Currently Eri makes bullets which can be reversed, this boy's power seems far more permanent."

"It's the pinnacle of quirk sickness," Overhaul spat, "The ability to manipulate the disease which has spread through our race. It's everything we should hate."

"Of course Overhaul, we'll leave the boy be." Kuruno responded smoothly, not a hint of fear in his voice at Overhaul's brief lapse into anger.

Overhaul nodded and turned to leave before he paused and sighed, "You make a point Kuruno. Keep an eye on the boy but don't get close enough to arouse suspicion, we don't need that sort of attention on us. But… should Eri ever fail, at least we have a backup plan."

The entire room of nearly thirty people stopped moving at the announcement from Eraserhead. The only sounds that filled the large room were that of that of the footage of the sports festival and the clinking of a teacup against a fine china plate.

"Whoever isn't back to work in the next 30 seconds won't be around to see who wins this event."

Re-Destro's calm but firm voice had the desired effect and around the room people went back to typing and note taking. Computer screens lit up the surrounding area, all of them in a semicircle in front of a massive screen playing the sports festival. Meanwhile above them all on a balcony like some sort of king stood Re-Destro, enjoying a cup of tea with two of his lieutenants as he looked down at the activity. It was practically a tradition by this point, Skeptic would gather his best data hackers and team members to record and discover everything they could about the students taking part in the festival. UA was a top school and the heroes coming out of it could be valuable assets to the army, and it was far easier to persuade a young and innocent student to join their team than it was an already established hero.

And so Re-Destro, along with Trumpet, would join Skeptic and his team on the hunt for potential recruits every year. Their success was honestly mixed but every now and then the festival would throw out a real bone for them to gnaw at. It seemed this was one of those years, not only was the Bakugou child interesting, his speech was very unorthodox, they now had this Midoriya child.

"A quirk that can take other quirks, my it's practically the peak of quirk evolution. Assuming the boy can handle the vast amounts of power potential." Re-Destro commented as he smiled slightly, watching the boy fight.

"That's assuming it's true." Trumpet said with narrowed eyes at the screen.

"It's true," Skeptic said and showed his two companions a data feed on his tablet, "HPSC confirms it. It's called Quirk Absorption, allows him to take and return quirks, no time limit."

"That's… powerful," Trumpet said with obvious awe on his face, "He could redistribute quirks at

will, he'd be perfect for the army! What do our sources in the HPSC have to say about him?"

"Nothing," Skeptic said with a frown, "All the information about him is classified at Level 0, even we don't have spies that high up."

Re-Destro frowned, the taste of his tea quickly souring, Nagant was an ever growing thorn in his side. He was losing more spies in the HPSC than he was gaining.

"We should keep our distance from the boy." Re-Destro informed the pair who turned to him with surprised looks.

"What? Why?" Trumpet asked, "He could be invaluable, imagine it! He could take quirks of those underserving and bestow them upon those who have earned the right to a quirk! He would be the perfect weapon and could help pull even more to our cause!"

"Tell me Trumpet," Re-Destro said as he handed his tea to a random subordinate, the taste now completely ruined, "Have you heard of the rumours of The Symbol of Evil?"

Trumpet paused, his face paling slightly, "I've heard bits and pieces. Some say he was the world's first supervillain who died over a hundred years ago. Others say he's All Might's secret arch- nemesis who lurks in the shadows even today. Though nobody can seem to agree on anything, not a name, quirk or even time period when he lived."

"Even to the best data miners including myself he's only a rumour. The HPSC has next to know reference about him yet there is an unknown S class Supervillain in their files many assume to be this so called Symbol. Though not even I can crack through the code, it's one of the most protected files in the world." Skeptic contributed as he went through several HPSC files as if to prove his point.

Re-Destro hummed and nodded, "Those are just a few of the rumours one can come across when digging for information… Though to get anything concrete is nearly impossible, even the HPSC don't know much about him."

"So… what was the point of asking then?" Trumpet said with furrowed eyebrows.

"Because while the HPSC doesn't know the facts… I do." Re-Destro said, much to the shock of

his two companions, "The information has been passed down my family since Destro himself. Because it was this Symbol of Evil who took out Destro all those years ago."

Skeptic's eyes widened, "You mean this Symbol of Evil killed Destro?"

"Possibly, though I must admit I don't know all the facts. I do know his name… All For One. He rose to power shortly before Destro died and the original army collapsed. Maybe All For One attacked directly or maybe Destro just couldn't find the room to exist against what was in essence, his replacement as the worlds premium supervillain. The Yakuza too were forced to shrink back and go into hiding, unable to operate under All For One's new empire. I'm afraid outside of that I have no further concrete information on the man. Only that he supposedly ruled the underworld for decades before his grip on it loosened until it faded away completely at the time of All Might. Perhaps he died long ago and his lackeys held onto power for as long as they could. Maybe he really did survive all this time just to be killed by All Might. Maybe heis secretly still around and controlling us all from the shadows. I do not know." Re-Destro finished up with a grim expression, for all the power he held throughout Japan he was well aware it was nothing compared to the rumoured Symbol of Evil. It was said the man could once bring down entire countries with but a word.

Skeptic shivered slightly while Trumpet still looked confused, "Ok, but what has that got to do with this Midoriya boy?"

"Because," Re-Destro said and turned to Trumpet with a grave face, "The one other thing I know about All For One is that it was said he wielded multiple quirks. An impossibility even among the most powerful quirk users today. Unless of course he was able to…"

"...To steal quirks!" Skeptic said with a gasp and Trumpet paled.

"You're… You're not suggesting this boy is somehow related to the greatest supervillain of all time?"

Re-Destro shrugged, "Perhaps, perhaps not. But I would rather not go and prod possible family members of the most powerful person of all time."

Trumpet nodded in agreement while Skeptic sighed, "It's a shame, he could've been a real asset if we knew more about him."

"Indeed," Re-Destro said with a frown, he had virtually no information on the boy and he didn't like that, "We have no spies within UA, correct?"

"Correct," Skeptic confirmed, "Nedzu is like a God within those grounds. It's impossible to penetrate that school, it's locked even tighter than the HPSC."

Re-Destro gained a small smirk as he picked up a freshly made tea brought to him by another unnamed servant, "No fortress is impregnable. We have the possibility of some fine recruits this year. I want you to find the cracks in UA's defences and abuse them as much as we can. I want to know everything there is about this Midoriya boy, he may be the weapon we finally need to complete our plans."

Trumpet and Skeptic nodded and instantly got to work. Meanwhile Re-Destro took a sip of his freshly brewed tea and smiled, it tasted sweet.

"What the fuck!?" Mount Lady practically shouted, her snack long forgotten, half way into her mouth as Eraserhead had spoken.

The rest of the heroes in the break area didn't seem bothered by her shout as they too were focused on the TV displaying the festival as they watched the match begin. Every single one of them was frozen, watching the battle play out in silence much like the crowd.

"That's… an interesting quirk." Kamui Woods said cautiously, finally breaking the silence in the crowd.

Mount Lady scoffed, "I'll say, kid could be a damn powerhouse if he wanted," She said as she returned to her snack, the battle on the TV already forgotten, "Creepy though if you ask me, I can't imagine-"

"THAT'S HIM!" Came a shout which made every hero in the room jump and windows shake form the volume, "THAT'S THE KID FROM THE SLUDGE VILLIAN BATTLE, THE LITTLE FUCKER STOLE MY QUIRK I KNEW IT!"

Death Arms stood up so fast his chair flew out behind him and smashed against the wall into a nice pile of firewood. The hero was practically frothing at the mouth, his eyes bulging out as he locked

onto the screen. His hands slammed down on the table between Mt Lady and Kamui causing a spider web of cracks to appear in the wood.

"What the hell Death Arms!?" Mt Lady cried as she desperately tried to save her snacks from the collapsing table.

"I KNEW THAT CHILD WAS A VILLAIN I KNEW IT! I DON'T KNOW WHO THE HELL GOT THAT CHILD OFF WITH THE POLICE BUT I'LL SEE THEM BEHIND BARS TOO!" Death Arms screeched as several of the lower ranked heroes quickly fled back out into the food stalls.

"Death Arms calm yourself, he is just a child after all, villainous quirk or not." Kamui said as he stood up and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Death Arms just shrugged it off, "Which is why we need to arrest him now before he causes harm to the public! Kamui! Call the police!"

Mount Lady sighed, "Can we at least wait until the festival is over?"

Stain raised an eyebrow at Eraserheads comment. He liked Eraserhead, the hero didn't care about fame or money. But he was also known to be aloof and had as much of an attitude problem as Endeavor did when it came to other heroes. The fact he also aided in the training of more fakes only cemented in Stain's eyes the man was still one of the countless fake heroes. The fact he had all but just thrown one of his students to the dogs doubled that sentiment.

Stain was well aware of the discrimination against so called villainous quirks, the man himself had a quirk that required him to consume blood after all. It was one of the reasons he dropped out of hero school, his classmates always looked at him with such disdain. It was likely this Midoriya child would suffer the same fate. Despite the obvious power of his quirk.

Stain had watched him interact with the Bakugou child, the one who had caught his initial interest. They were close, easily best friends, perhaps even brothers. It would add up, if Midoriya had suffered discrimination against his quirk, especially from pro heroes, then it explained why someone like Bakuogu, with an obviously traditional and flashy quirk, would be so anti-hero despite trying to be one. It was admirable, the pair still wanted to be hero heroes despite the situation.

Yes, these two definitely were not fakes.

Unlike most of the other students participating. He might not have gotten a good look at all of them but Stain could see the signs, arrogance, immatureness and pridefulness. Not a single true hero among the rest of them, they were simply child soldiers being used to prop up a corrupt society. It almost made Stain turn the TV off. But he stayed, leaning back on the faded blue couch in the apartment, after all, he didn't want to miss anything from Midoriya and Bakugou.

He would never admit it to a living soul, not even Izuku but Katsuki's heart skipped a beat and went straight to his throat as he heard Aizawa over the intercom. He instantly knew of course Izuku must have come up with the plan, there was no way Aizawa would do something like this without Izuku's explicit permission.

"That's some fucking entrance Zuku…" He mumbled to himself.

Around him he practically felt the entire class freeze. The casual conversation that had been going on around him stopped like someone had suddenly cut off the sound of the universe. Katsuki made sure not to physically tense or react to it. He remained where he sat up at the front, one chair empty next to him reserved for Izuku to his left and Uraraka on the end next to his right. After Izuku's empty seat sat Jiro and Kirishima with Yoarashi and Ashido sat behind Katsuki and Izuku's empty seat. The rest of the class were scattered about the stand which was clearly designed for double the amount of people in 1A.

The sounds of the battle below rang through the stadium not because they were loud but because no other noise could be heard. Not one conversation, not one gasp or even a cough came from the crowd. Even Present's Mics commentary had stopped as everyone simply observed the fight below.

Katsuki clenched his fist, it was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to start shouting and punching damn extra's to remind them that Izuku wasn't some wanna be child supervillain. But Katsuki knew full well that if he started pummelling his classmates, not only would he risk being expelled, he knew Izuku would be furious. Besides, he could just wait until heroics class to officially beat them.

"Did… Did Sensei just say…" It was Hagakure who eventually broke the tense silence among the class.

"Midoriya can steal quirks." Ojiro said as a foul look appeared on his face, like he had just bitten into a rotten apple.

"W-Wait… You m-mean h-he's gonna steal all our quirks!?" Sero gasped and grabbed each of his mutated elbows as if Izuku would suddenly pop out from behind him with a set of surgeon tools.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, Izuku had been in a class with them for weeks. If he really wanted their quirks he could have taken them ages ago.

"He's not gonna take your quirk moron," Jiro said with a scowl and turned round to face Sero, "This is Midoriya we're talking about, the guys about as soft as a bunny rabbit."

"Yeah come on man, Midoriya only borrows quirks. He always gives them back." Kirishima argued with a wide smile, he was perhaps the only member of the class currently who didn't have either a frown or nervous look on their faces.

"It certainly explains why he's been so versatile all this time." Yoarashi mumbled and for once Katsuki wished the boy would speak at his usual volume, if anything it would snap the class out of it.

"Ooooh I get it," Ashido said as she leaned forward, balancing herself between Katsuki and Kirishima with a hand on each shoulder much to Katsuki's annoyance, "Ever since the USJ it's like he upped his weight training or something, before in hand to hand were were fairly equal but then a few days after the USJ he hit me in the stomach it was closer to Iida or Kirishima than little Midoruya."

Katsuki snorted, "You really can't take a hit from the pipsqueak?"

Ashido rolled her eyes and shoved him slightly, "Not all of us are designed to be punching bags like you and Kiri."

Katsuki frowned, "The fuck did you say-"

"I'm sorry," Ojiro interrupted, "But are we just gonna ignore what we just learned?"

Katsuki's eyes narrowed, he didn't like where this was going.

"You mean about Midroiya's quirk?" Urarkaka asked as she turned away from the fight and knelt on her seat, "I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious by this point? He did hit me with Tsuyu's tongue after all."

"Indeed," Tokayami agreed, "I must confess it was… unpleasant to be without Dark Shadow but we have been reunited once again and I must admire Midoriya's skill in the last event."

"You-You can't be ok with that!?" Sero said and flailed his arms about slightly.

"I'm not, ribbet," Asui said quietly, uncharacteristically looking down and she appeared visibly shaken, "He took my mutant quirk, I couldn't… I couldn't DO anything, my tongue wouldn't respond and I could barely walk. It was like he'd stolen my knowledge of how to be me… it was horrible ribbet." As she finished, sounds of soft sniffles filled the air and Katsuki hoped to God Izuku would never find out about her reaction.

Either Side of the girl, Yaoyorozu and Hagakure put their arms around her to reassure her. A few of their other classmates looked at the girl with sympathy and some gained looks of anger.

"Do not worry Asui!" Iida yelled suddenly on his feet and arms chopping the air as if he was about to jump down and join in the battle below, "We will take this to teachers straight away. Midoriya will of course be punished for using his quirk in such a villainous way!"

There is fucking was.

There was that fucking word.

Kastuki had just been waiting for it to come up and it made him grit his teeth together and send a glare at Iida so intense that the entire Iida family around Japan suddenly felt an air of hatred around them.

"What the fuck Iida!" A shout came from beside Katsuki and he was a little shocked to turn and find Uraraka practically climbing out of her seat, a furious expression on her face, "Aizawa literally

just announced his quirk. I'm fairly sure the teachers know about it!"

Uraraka tried to scramble over the top of her chair, narrowed eyes directed at Iida with intent to kill. Katsuki's eyes widened and he leapt forward, wrapping his arms easily around the much smaller girl's torso. She struggled against him but Katsuki's strength enhancement quirk would be pretty terrible if a small girl could wrestle away from.

He had no idea how the fuck it got to the point HE was holding Uararka back though.

"I didn't mean to offend Uraraka!" Iida insisted, apparently the near feral girl trying to claw her way towards him didn't phase the boy, "But it's clear that Midoriya presents a real danger to our class, we should take our concerns to the pro's. As heroes in training it's our responsible to raise concerns for potential-"

"You better hope to god you weren't about to call Midoriya a villain." Jiro said as she rose out of her seat along with Kirishima and Ashido, "Because we all know that's absolute bullshit."

"Maybe we should all just calm down," Sato tried as he too stood up from his chair, at this point more members of the class were standing than sitting, "I'm sure none of them meant anything by it, but having your quirk taken sounds quite traumatic, we should listen to people concerns."

"What concerns!?" Ashido shouted and crossed her arms, "We use our quirks on each other all the time in training, how is this any different?"

"I mean yeah but I'm not all that scared of Shoji punching me, but having your quirk ripped away from you it's… it's something else man," Kaminari whispered with a shudder as he refused to look anyone in the eye, he was clearly terrified of Izuku and the thought made Katsuki's stomach churn.

"I think you're all overacting," Kirishima insisted, out of everyone he was perhaps the sole class member who wasn't scowling, "Midoriya is our friend and class president, he's been nothing but nice to all of us."

"I agree!" Yoarashi announced making Uraraka and Katsuki leap back slightly as he returned to his usual volume, " Midoriya is my best friend and I trust him completely! He has always shown he has the true heart of a hero!"

"Perhaps…" Yoayoruzu said carefully as she eyed Katsuki and Ojiro who were glaring at each other while Iida and Jiro looked seconds away from a fight, "We should seek the advice of a teacher, Uraraka is right, they will have known about Midoriya's quirk since the start of term. We can tell them of our concerns and see what they recommend, All Might will probably be the best option."

"Why All Might? Wouldn't Aizawa Sensei be better?" Hagakure asked as if they were discussing the weather and not reporting Izuku to the teachers for simply having a weird quirk.

"Well for starters All Might is our heroics teacher, he's the one who supervises our practical lessons after all." Yoayorozu explained, "And besides… You've seen the way Midoriya… looks at him."

Katsuki froze.

Of course Katsuki knew what she was referring to, he'd known Izuku his entire life. But he hadn't realised anyone else had noticed it, he wasn't even sure Izuku himself knew he was doing it. He had his hunger under such control these days that he rarely had any issues losing control around powerful quirks. But that didn't mean he was in complete control. Every morning Katsuki would barge into his brother's room to wake him up. Izuku would practically shoot out of bed and look at him with unfocused and wide eyes for a split second before yawning and complaining as usual. He did the exact same thing whenever All Might walked into class, his eyes would snap over the teacher for the briefest of seconds before snapping back to whatever he had been looking at before.

"What look?" Uraraka asked, pausing her desperate scramble to be free of Katsuki.

"It's like… he's hungry." Yoayorozu said and shuffled uncomfortably, "I thought perhaps it was a tick but now… I assume he is… drawn to All Might's powerful quirk."

"Pffft, come on," Sero said waving Yaoyorozu off, "There's no way Midoriya could steal All Might's quirk, his limits surely couldn't allow it."

Ojiro rolled his eyes, "If that's the case it's even worse, his quirk sounds pretty useless to me, I mean it's like a villain being quirkless."

Katsuki finally snapped.

"He doesn't have any limits."

He didn't shout, he didn't scream, he didn't stand up. He simply sighed and turned back to watch the fight where Izuku was dominating Shiozaki in hand to hand.

"Zuzu can take as many quirks as he likes for as long as he likes. Doesn't matter what the quirk is or how powerful it is. He doesn't even need to touch you to take it. If he really wanted he could walk into these stands and take every single quirk in the class."

Katsuki's voice was calm and steady and his body still, the only visible movement were his eyes as they followed the action below. Even those who had stood to defend Izuku felt a shiver down their spine as it truly registered what the teenage boy was capable of.

"HOLY SHIT!" Sero shouted, causing near everyone to jump slightly, "He's going to steal All Might's quirk."

Katsuki actually choked on air from the sheer lunacy of that statement. Even if Izuku could take All Mights quirk was his class really that stupid to think that The Number One Hero in Japan could be beaten by a 15 year old kid?

"That actually makes sense!" Ojiro said, realisation dawning on his face.

Apparently they really were that stupid.

"He'll get close to All Might in class and then one day he'll take his quirk and attack us!

Katsuki nearly jumped from the stadium just to make sure this was real.

"Seriously, are you deluded?" Jiro asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Midoriya is obviously not going to steal All Might's quirk."

Ojiro narrowed his eyes, "And you do you know?"

"Because if Young Midoriya was going to take my quirk he would have been better off doing it when we met before term started when I recommended him to UA."

The entire class grew wide eyes and swivelled around to see All Might standing in the entrance to their seating area. He towered over the students and gazed down upon them with a stern and disappointed expression.

"A-All Might Sensei," Yoayorozu said, clearly embarrassed about having been caught gossiping, "What are you doing here?"

All Might raised an eyebrow at the class, "It may be a special event but you are still students and this is still a school. The teachers are making sure to do the rounds to make sure none of you get out of control."

Katsuki didn't miss the way All Might's eyes lingered on him.

Iida cleared his throat, "Well Sensei, we were just discussing-"

"I know what you were discussing Iida, in fact I'm fairly sure the classes sat either side of you know what you were discussing," The disapprovement was practically leaking from All Mights mouth.

At least a few of the class had the decency to look embarrassed when they realised their internal conflict was probably now going to become common knowledge among the school.

"Sensei, you recommended Midoriya?" Todoroki asked and with a start Katsuki realised the boy had been silent this entire time, sat alone at the very back corner closest to All Might. He hadn't asked the question with any form of malice but rather genuine curiosity.

"Indeed I did Young Todoroki!" All Might said and his frown turned into a bright smile, "I met Midoriya and Bakugou a year before the entrance exams, I knew instantly they would both make such fine heroes! And so over the next year we trained hard and when the time came I decided to recommend Midoriya for UA, it's just a shame I was unable to do the same for Young Bakugou."

All eyes turned to Katsuki with varying levels of awe, Todoroki on the other hand frowned before looking away seemingly deep in thought. Katsuki scowled at all the eyes on him and grunted.

"The fuck you all looking at?"

"Dude…" Kirishima whispered.

"You and Midoriya were trained by ALL MIGHT!?" Uraraka screeched as she grabbed Katsuki and shook him by his shoulders.

"Fucking, get off me round face!" Katsuki said as he wrestled with the girl, "He just said that didn't he?"

Jiro groaned, "Someone really needs to nerf you two."

"That doesn't change how I feel," Ojiro said and crossed his arms, glaring slightly at All Might. Katsuki had to give the guy credit, as stupid as he was at least he was willing to stand up to Japans top hero for what he believed in.

"That may be Young Ojiro but your feelings don't matter," All Might said a little harshly and even Katsuki raised a surprised eyebrow, Ojiro spluttered but before he could say anything All Might continued, "You are training to be heroes, sometimes that means going against your feelings. You'll have to do and say things you disagree with for the greater good, you'll need to work with people you hate and sometimes take down people you love. Your duty is to the citizens of Japan and their safety, you are their first and last line of defence. So it doesn't matter if you don't like it, you grin and bear it."

"But Sensei-" Iida tried only to be cut off by All Might's raised hand.

"But nothing Iida, Midoriya has a right to study here as much as the rest of you. You don't have to like it but you have to respect the fact that he is going to be a hero along with the rest of you. If you still have concerns you may discuss it with myself or Aizawa in private. But if I even get a whiff that any of you are treating Midoriya poorly because of his quirk you'll be in detention until Hawks retires as a hero. Now, enjoy the matches and good luck to those of you competing!"

With a thumbs up and a wide smile All Might turned and marched out of the 1A stands. Slowly the tension between the class ebbed away and everyone retook their seats, awkwardly watching the fight below which appeared to be wrapping up.

All Might may have been able to temporarily silence the class but Katsuki knew the issue was far from over.

Chapter End Notes

Apologies if people are disappointed this chapter is literally just reactions but it would have been incredibly long otherwise.

Thanks for all the kudos and comments as always!

The Ruined Reputation of Class 1A

Chapter Summary

With Izuku's quirk out in the open all he can do now is sat back and watch the rest of the fights unfold

Chapter Notes

Hi all, sorry this this chapter took so long to get out, I just struggled to get through it and rewrote it several times. Even now I'll be honest it just feels like an awkward filler chapter. But it is what it is.

Anyway, thanks for all the kudos and comments as always!

In the end Izuku's first fight was… disappointingly easy. He didn't want to put down another student but it was clear Shiozaki had never really fought someone who had a strong ranged attack like Izuku did. When she sent out her first wave of vines that Izuku cut down easily enough with heat-vision she should have countered and tried something else. But she had responded by trying the same thing over and over while Izuku slowly closed the distance between them. Once he was close enough the win was easy, even without kinetic energy boosting his strength it was obvious he was stronger and better skilled in hand to hand than the 1B girl. It wasn't too long before Izuku managed to flip her over his shoulder and out of the ring.

"Shiozaki is out of bounds, Midoriya wins!" Midnight shouted with the crack of her whip though her voice held little enthusiasm.

There was no roar of the crowd. There was no excitement in the audience. There wasn't even a cough as Izuku sighed and reached out his hand to Shiozaki who lay crumpled in the grass. She gazed at his hand for a moment before reaching out and accepting the help.

She dusted herself off and gave Izuku a bow, "That was a good fight Midoriya, I had not realised how used I had become to the lack of ranged attacks in 1B. Thank you for pointing out such a glaring weakness."

Izuku shrugged at her, "Honestly you shouldn't feel too bad, it's only because your vines were cut so easily by heat-vision that it worked as well as it did."

Shoizaki nodded at Izuku before looking him up and down with a critical eye that made Izuku squirm slightly. She then glanced up at the silent cloud before looking back at him and offering a small smile.

"You should ignore them, God gifted you these powers for a reason. It's all part of his great plan." Shiozaki assured him.

Izuku offered a small, if awkward, smile in response, "Thanks Shiozaki… uhh God bless?"

Shiozaki giggled, "Yes, you too," She said and walked off the stage, head held high.

Izuku watched her go for a moment before turning and walking towards his exit off the field. He tried not to let the silence of the stadium get to him. But he could hear every step he made, feel each beat of his heart and he knew that every eye was on him. Judging him, deciding if he was a hero or villain. He felt his heart constrict and he clenched his fists, he wouldn't cry in front of everyone, not here. He wouldn't break down… he wouldn't… he would…

"Hell fucking yeah Zuzu! That's what I'm talking about!"

"You go Modori! Show them why you're the best!"

"That was so manly dude!"

"That was pretty rad Midoriya!"

"Midoriya you make ass whooping look so cool and easy!"

"Don't think that you'll beat me after that fight Midoriya! You may be my friend but you're also my rival!"

Izuku (as did everyone else) snapped his attention up to the Class 1A stands. There standing at the railings were his friends. Ashido and Kirishima were practically jumping up and down waving at him and even Jiro, who preferred to be quiet and in the background, was standing next to them smiling down at him and she offered him a peace sign when she saw him looking their way. In the

middle of them stood Yoarashi, standing tall like a giant with crossed arms and even from this distance Izuku could see the wide smile on his face and the challenge in his eyes. Next to him Uraraka was practically falling out of the stands as she leaned over the railing to wave at him with Katsuki having to grab a hold of her gym uniform to stop the girl tumbling over the edge. Said boy was scowling at her but nodded to Izuku when he caught sight of him looking their way, it wasn't much but for Izuku it portrayed more emotion than the rest of his friends combined.

Izuku felt his shoulders relax and his heart start to beat normally again as he allowed a smile to light up his face. He rolled his shoulders back, stood proud and waved to his friends who cheered even louder at their acknowledgement. He made sure to wave to a nearby camera too. His parents wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he didn't.

His head held high and a small smile creeping onto his face, Izuku marched off the stage towards the exit and remembered what Recovery Girl had said to him. She was right, Izuku didn't need the world to cheer him on, he had his parents, brother, teachers and now friends to do that and that was all he needed.

Though he did still let out a sigh and relaxed once he found himself in the safety and seclusion on the corridors of the stadium. One fight down, another possible three to go and somehow Izuku just knew they would only get harder.

But before that he supposed it was finally time he faced his classmates, at least Katsuki's fight was last so he would at least have his brother with him. Despite his concerns he picked up the pace slightly, they only had a few minutes between each fight and he didn't want to miss any of them. He could practically feel his notebook calling to him from where Jiro was holding onto it.

He was moving so fast that he very nearly bumped right into someone, only managing to hit the brakes on his legs at the last second. Said person still noticed him however and turned to look down at him, quickly gaining a scowl as Izuku's eyes widened.

"M-Monama!" He squeaked out, "I uh… I'm sorry about what happened!" He shouted out with a low bow that could rival Yoarashi.

Monama rolled his eyes and prodded Izuku's chest with a finger, "You got the jump on me once but never again you hear me!? Next time I'll make sure to put you 1A jackasses in your place!"

"O-Oh… ok." Izuku responded, not really sure how to deal with that statement.

Monama let a humph and turned on his heels, stalking away from Izuku towards the 1B seating area. He only made it five steps forward before he paused, sighed and turned back round to face Izuku with a deep frown as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"I don't like you." Monama stated.

"Understandable," Izuku said automatically with no thought to what he was saying at all and nearly slapped himself in the face because of it.

Monama raised his eyebrow at the unusual response but didn't comment, "I don't like you because you're part of, and the president of, 1A. A bunch of self centred over the top drama queens who can't handle not being in the spotlight."

Izuku frowned, he absolutely did not agree with that assessment but knew if he countered it would just start an argument with the boy he had nearly killed 2 hours ago. So for once he decided to keep his mouth shut.

"Ok?" Izuku asked, not exactly sure what was going on here.

"My point is it's not about your quirk," Monama continued, "Having a copy quirk is only slightly better than being quirkless. So I get it. Your quirk has nothing to do with why I don't like you. I despise you for your personality and who you are, not because of your quirk."

With a final huff Monama turned around and marched away from a very confused Izuku. On the one hand, Monama seemed to hate him. On the other hand, it was the first person Izuku had ever encountered who didn't hate him for his quirk. Izuku didn't know if he should smile or frown. He decided on a confused shake of his head and continued on his journey towards the 1A stands.

Apparently though his confusing interactions with the students of 1A weren't quite over yet as he approached the 1A stands he saw the same purple haired Gen Ed student pacing just outside of the way in. As Izuku approached the student caught sight of him and his eyes widened as he quickly ran over.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted out and stumbled forward slightly as Izuku stopped walking, "I didn't know!"

Izuku blinked, "Didn't know what… uh?"

"Shinso," The purple boy supplied, "I didn't know you also had a villain's quirk, I would have never said those things if I had known!"

Izuku frowned slightly as Shinso bowed in front of him, "Shinso I don't have a villain's quirk and neither do you."

Shinso came up from his bow with a confused face, "But Eraserhead said-"

"I have a quirk," Izuku interrupted, "As do you, we have quirks like a lot of people do. What our quirks do doesn't matter, it's our actions with them that determine if we are villains or heroes."

Shinso sighed and his whole body sagged, "If your upbringing was anything like mine you should know that's not true."

Izuku shrugged, "It's what I choose to believe, it's also what my friends believe and that's all that should matter."

Shinso frowned slightly, the coldness of their previous encounter starting to return, "Clearly you haven't suffered on the same level as me then."

Izuku's quirk actually twitched at the words that sliced at him like knives, "Suffered!? Shinso I just announced my fucking quirk to the world, I'm about to walk into my class stands knowing they might all despise me now. Hell, a year ago a hero tried to arrest me just because of my quirk!"

Shinso winced at the words and seemed to realise he'd taken things a step too far, "I didn't… I just mean that there's no hope of me getting into the hero course now, I've made no progress in the weeks since the entrance exam."

Izuku sighed and took a breath to calm himself, "Shinso what's your workout regime?"

Shindo tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, "I uh… don't have one?"

"Right," Izuku continued, "And how is your hand to hand combat?"

"I've never… never been in a fight." Shinso said and Izuku would admit he took a little pleasure in watching the boy squirm slightly, "I think I see your point."

Izuku nodded, "Look, I get it, I know I got lucky but even without a recommendation for the exam I still would've trained and tried my best. I get life sucks with quirks like ours but you can't sit back doing nothing and be surprised when you don't walk into a spot on the hero course when everyone else is giving it their all. Jiro was right when she said you need to train more than your quirk."

Shinso sighed, "I… You're right. I guess I just… I figured most hero kids would underestimate a quirk like mine."

Izuku actually snorted slightly, "Shinso we're talking about a class where half the students could kill if they weren't careful. Trust me, nobody on the hero course will underestimate your quirk."

Shinso sighed, "That's fair…. I uh… thanks I guess. I'll think about what you said, train more than just my quirk."

Izuku nodded and with that his new… friend? Walked away back to the General Education seating area. Izuku sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, Shinso was a stark reminder that if All Might hadn't intervened Izuku may well not be in the position he was now.

Said position being he was about to walk into his class with them all knowing what his quirk was at long last.

Izuku's inner debate about his life being cursed or blessed was becoming more difficult to decide.

Shaking his head of his internal strife Izuku steeled himself and walked towards the entrance of the 1A seating area. He didn't know what was about to happen but he was prepared for anything.

As he walked through the entrance he spied an empty seat next to Katsuki (his own presumably) and his friends seated around the brooding blonde. The only two missing was Kirishima, who he

assumed had left for the next fight already and-

"You lied to me."

Izuku found his sight of the seats and stadium below blocked and sunlight around him darkened as a large shadow was cast over him. He found his new view to be that of the UA Gym Uniform which sat atop tall and broad shoulders. Izuku slowly looked up to find Yoarashi staring down at him with an expressionless face. His eyes were locked onto Izuku and they could have contained anything from delight to hatred to lust for all Izuku knew. Izuku gulped as the conversation within the class cut off immediately and all eyes turned to the pair standing in the entrance.

"Yoarashi I-" Izuku started but was cut off.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ALL MIGHT WAS YOUR RECOMMENDATION!?"

Yorashai's mouth turned into a wide smile and his volume seemed to shake up not just their class but the entire stadium as cheers and rowdy groups started up again after the eternally long awkward silence left from Izuku's fight disappeared.

"I… what?" Izuku asked with a frown on his face.

"The big oaf came and told everyone he trained us and he was your recommendation, guess he figured it was gonna come out sooner rather than later." Katsuki explained without turning around to look at anyone.

Izuku nodded, he supposed that made sense. Chances are the media were going to be digging up everything they could find on him so it was bound to be common knowledge eventually. Izuku supposed it was better his class find out before it was all over the news.

"Oh. Well I didn't really uh… want to draw attention to myself…" Izuku mumbled.

Someone in the class scoffed, "Yet he pulls that stunt?"

Izuku winced but Yoarashi's smile didn't falter, "No wonder you are so far ahead of me! To think

you're the first student to ever be recommended by All Might! Maybe he'd be open to an internship…"

"You can't internship with teachers moron!" Katsuki barked from the front.

"Are you naturally this much of an asshole or did you have to work on it?" Uraraka asked Katsuki with a smirk to which the boy just scoffed.

Izuku chuckled and led Yoarashi back to their seats, "Honestly the main thing All Might did was give me a confidence boost. You should have seen me before UA, I was a nervous wreck."

As Izuku took his seat next to Katsuki he suddenly felt himself be enveloped in a hug from behind and became aware of someone's breath hot on his neck. The close contact caused him to blush furiously and splutter in panic.

Ashido giggled in his ear, "As opposed to the suave and confident person you are now?"

Izuku groaned and managed to shrug Ashido off, "Can't you go one day without the teasing?"

"Nope. Ashido responded with a wide grin and a wink as she popped the P with her lips.

"All of you hush," Jiro complained though her attention was locked out into the field, "Kirishima's fight is about to start."

Next to Katsuki Uraraka leaned over his lap with a shit eating grin at Jiro, "You look pretty excited for Kirishima's fight Jiro… any particular reason why?"

Jiro blushed suddenly and leant back in her seat slightly, though it was obvious she was still watching this stadium with excitement, "N-No. It's just that Kirishima is my friend!"

"I wouldn't have anything to do with the fact Katsuki was telling us about how Pony's horns could easily tear his clothes off?" Uraraka suggested with a wiggle of her eyebrows at Jiro who was doing a wonderful impression of a tomato.

"Kirishima might end up shirtless!" Izuku declared with enough excitement to make Katsuki turn to him with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk while Uraraka turned her shit eating grin on him like a weapon of mass destruction.

Izuku let out a squeal as he realised what he'd blurted out and covered his mouth with wide eyes which caused Katsuki and Uraraka to burst out laughing. Izuku ideally wondered when Uraraka had picked up Katsuki's ability to mock other people.

Izuku was nearly thrown out of his seat when Ashido suddenly clambered over the top of him and placed herself in the empty seat between himself and Jiro.

"Ashido!" Jiro groaned as the pink girl swung her arms around Jiro and Izuku respectively.

"Hey, if Kiri is going topless I want a front row seat!" Ashido said with a wink at Jiro who dropped her face into her hands.

"I too would like to see the results of Kirishima's workout routine! He showed me his exercises and I want to know if it would be effective for my body type!" Yoarashi said with a wide smile.

"Oh Yoarashi, you sweet innocent child. They're not excited because of his work ethic." Uraraka said and patted Yoarashi's arm while he gave everyone a confused look.

"They just want something for the wa-"

"SHUT UP KACCHAN!" Izuku shouted and quickly covered his brothers mouth while Uraraka cackled with glee, Jiro and Ashido blushed furiously and Yoarashi just looked completely lost.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes at Izuku and went to move the boy's hands away from his mouth only for it to quickly evolve into a scuffle between the pair. By this point their friends were pretty used to it and they all simply leaned back and kept up the soft chatter between them as Katsuki and Izuku battled to death via slaps and curse words.

The battle was declared a draw however when Kirishima and Pony walked out onto the field. The return of the signature cheers and roars from the crowd would have made Izuku bitter after their

reaction to his fight had it not been for the fact Izuku was one of the people cheering the loudest along with his friends.

In the end Kirishima's fight was… fairly one sided. Maybe it was because he was now looking at it from the view of someone who had been trained to fight as opposed to a wide eyed child but Izuku suddenly realised how messy the one on one battles were.

The issue for Pony was that Kirishima already knew his hardening could withstand her horns. So the moment he activated his quirk he knew he was safe with a full frontal charge. Pony tried her best and Izuku could tell she was giving it her all but her horns just bounced off Kirishima and before long he was in her face. Just like with Izuku and Shiozaki, the 1A class member turned out to be far more skilled in hand to hand than their 1B counterparts. A few quick jabs and one hard shove later saw Pony laying in the grass with Kirishima standing over her offering her a hand up.

The crowd loved it with Midnight cooing over the sportsmanship and with it all the tension and awkwardness from Izuku's fight had leaked out of the stadium and dissipated. Kirishima returned to the class with a wide smile and many congratulations, it was a far warmer welcome than Izuku had received.

As it turned out the rest of the first battle rounds were more or less the same, with one person dominating the other. Kaminari predictably went for an all out shock against Yoayorozu who easily created an insulated sheet to block it. At which point she all but guided a dumbfounded Kaminari out of the ring.

Todoroki and Hatsumi (the support course student) were… interesting.

"That's a lot of support equipment, even for her…" Izuku mumbled as he subconsciously scribbled down notes in his notebook without him even looking at it.

"Oh yeah, she came looking to speak to Todoroki before your match Midoriya but he pretty much gave her the cold shoulder." Uraraka commented as she tapped her chin.

"Guy could brood for all of Japan if he wanted." Katsuki said with a scoff as Izuku rolled his eyes.

"Maybe you two could pair up for the international championships."

"I DON'T FUCKING BROOD!" Katsuki screamed and Kirishima sighed.

"Can we get through one match without you two shouting at each other?"

Kirishima received a double glare in response that made him gulp with fear.

The crowd was all cheers and claps as Todoroki and Hatsume walked onto the field, one as stoic as ever while the other had a large grin on her face. As per the routine Midnight announced the start of her fight with the crack of her whip.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Allow me to-"

Fwoosh!

Slam!

Presumably Hatsume had thought Todoroki would let her speak, instead the moment Midnight started the match he launched a massive pillar of ice straight at her from his arm. Even with all her support equipment Hatsume lacked the reflexes that came with being a hero student. She took a hit right on her chest, her support equipment smashing to pieces as she was thrown out of the ring so hard she crashed into the stadium wall before falling to the crowd in a heap of tangled limbs and sparks.

"H-Hatsume is out of bounds, Todoroki wins!" Midnight declared and the crowd erupted into hushed whispers.

Kirishima winced next to Izuku, "Damn… Todoroki didn't have to go that hard."

"It was pretty overkill of him, especially considering she was just a support student." Ashido said and bit her lip nervously as she watched Todoroki walk off the field.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Stop being a bunch of pussy's, it was a fucking fight, he just finished her quickly and efficiently."

Though in theory Izuku agreed with Katsuki, afterall despite her being only a support student they shouldn't underestimate Hatsume, he wasn't sure that was the actual reason Todoroki had won the battle so violently. It was subtle but Izuku could pick up on the tension in his shoulders, the way his jaw was clenched as he left the stands for the fight earlier. Todoroki was holding a lot of emotions inside him and if he wasn't careful the boy would explode with dire consequences.

"Well, I guess that's us then…" Jiro said as she and Uraraka stood up and paused to stare at each other.

"This suddenly got very anime…." Ashido whispered as she leaned forward between Izuku and Kirishima.

Jiro crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Uraraka, "You better not hold back Floaty."

Uraraka just smirked right back, "Well then you better put up a fight Ears."

Katsuki barked out a laugh, "You fucking call that trash talk?"

Both girls gave him a two fingered salute (which only made him laugh harder) before they left for their fight.

As it turned out, Uraraka and Jiro's fight was the longest and most intense fight so far. It was one of the first decent match ups, both their quirks were non-combatant so it came down mainly to hand to hand fighting. In this Uraraka was a surprisingly deadly opponent, she only needed one clean hit on you with all five fingers and the lack of gravity would disable pretty much any opponent. But Jiro had the near perfect counter, her jacks could extend out to meet Uraraka in the middle and were too small for Uraraka to get a five finger touch on them.

It quickly became a close fight with the upper hand switching with every punch or kick thrown. The crowd grew wild, having finally got to see a decent fight after the previous ones had all ended within a few minutes. Izuku too got picked up in the excitement, finally able to watch a real fight that would help him update his notes.

In the end Uraraka came out on top. Jiro attempted another stab at the girl but rather than block or dodge Uraraka let both ends of the jacks pierce her shoulder. Blood spurted out and Jiro gasped in surprise but Uraraka simply grit her teeth and grabbed Jiro's jacks, wrapping them around her arm.

With a yank she pulled the girl forward and Jiro stumbled in surprise. One slap on the face later found Jiro floating in the air and Uraraka throwing her out of the ring.

"Tough fight," Ashido said from behind Izuku, "I hope Jiro doesn't take her loss too bad."

"Nah, Jrio is chill." Kirishima reassured her.

"That was an excellent fight!" Yoarashi cried and unnecessarily stood up, not that any of his friends reacted to it at this point, "You can really see how far they have both come with hand to hand combat!"

"Finally some good fucking fighting." Katsuki grumbled though Izuku swore he watched the boy smile softly when Uraraka came back to the stands.

Jiro was in fact chill with her loss, claiming that she never expected to get this far in the first place and was just pleased she and Uraraka put on a good show. Uraraka also had a wide beaming smile on her face as she retook her seat, the bandages around her shoulder seemingly not bothering her and the entire class gave them all smiles and congratulations (something Izuku realised with a start hadn't happened to him).

After that the matches returned to their more one-sided nature. Kendo put up a decent fight against Iida, getting a few good hits in, but the boy was just too fast for her and before long she was pushed out of the ring.

Tokage and Yoarashi's fight was equally over quickly, the moment Tokage split up her body Yoarashi created a powerful whirlwind which drove the pieces apart in random directions. Tokage was forced to reattach herself and attempt to take Yoarashi, a man the size of a small tree, in hand to hand combat. The match ended as expected.

Finally it was Katsuki's turn to fight, which was good because Izuku half expected the boy to start punching their classmates at one point with his agitation. Watching everyone else have their flights before him had caused the boy to fidget to no end. It got so bad that at one point Izuku was about to reprimand him when Uraraka beat him to it.

"Bakugou I swear if you don't stop kicking your legs imma float you into the sun!"

Surprisingly unlike the shouting rebuke Izuku expected (and that he most certainly would have received) Katsuki just grumbled but actually calmed down. Maybe Uraraka also had a secret quirk they didn't know about.

Perhaps his agitation explained why Katsuki was so… brutal during his fight. Izuku had had a brief chat with Shoda about Yanagi's quirk, it was essentially a form of telekinesis. Which already gave the girl a weakness in a one one one arena fight, there wasn't really anything around for her to use her quirk on. Except Katsuki of course.

Maybe her plan would have worked against someone like Jiro or Kaminari, someone small and who didn't weigh a lot. But against Katsuki, who had One For All flowing through him when Yanagi attempted to push him over with her quirk, all she achieved was a slight rustle of his clothes.

There was a brief pause after this before Katsuki launched himself forward. One punch to her gut and Yanagi cried out and hunched over. A second punch to the side of her head and Izuku winced as it snapped to the side, a black eye already forming as she toppled over. Finally a heavy kick into her side launched her out of the ring and onto the grass. She lay there trembling and clutching her stomach as the medic bots ran over to help her up.

Katsuki briefly glanced down at his opponent before he turned and marched out of the field. The crowd slowly started an awkward clap much like with Todoroki, none of them really sure how to take the violence of the two overpowered teenagers.

From her place leaning forward, between Izuku and Kirishima, Ashido sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Between Bakugou, Todoroki and you our Class Reputation is really taking a hit today."

Izuku wilted in his seat at her words, "I uh… sorry… I didn't… I just…"

Ashido seemed to suddenly realise what she'd said and her eyes widened in panic, "I didn't mean that- I just meant… Well it's… shit."

Ashido flopped down against Kirishima who gave the pair an awkward smile as Jiro bit her lip behind him and Izuku just sighed, "It's fine… I kind of figured this would happen. Maybe I should uh.. Step down as president…"

Ashido looked up from Kirishima's shoulder with a scowl and slapped Izuku on the back of the head, "And leave me in all those meetings alone? Not a chance."

Izuku grumbled and rubbed the back of his head while Kirishima shrugged Ashido off his shoulder and stood and the girl leaned back briefly with a pout at losing her human cushion. This only lasted for a moment however before her golden eyes slowly moved over to Jiro. There was a brief pause before Ashido leapt forward and leant on Jiro, who let out a squeal as she was assaulted by the pink girl.

"Guess it's our turn Mirdoriya!" Kirishima said with a wide smile and thumbs up, "You just better not go easy on me!"

Izuku gave him a soft smile, "I would never."

Both boys went to leave for their fight. As Izuku went to leave however, Tokayami (who had been coming back from the bathroom) walked in and the pair accidently bumped shoulders.

"Oh!" Izuku said and stepped back, "Sorry Tokayami I didn't sense you coming."

Tokayami waved him off, "No harm-"

Izuku suddenly found a tight grip on his wrist as his arm was all but pulled from his socket and lifted in the air. As this happened he was also pushed back and found himself surrounded by shadows.

"Midoriya, I demand you give Tokoyami his quirk back this instant!" Iida commanded as he tightened his already steel-like grip on Izuku's wrist.

"W-What?" Izuku gasped, more in ludicrous shock than anything else, "I didn't take his quirk!?"

"How can we trust you?" Ojiro asked as he stood next to Iida and blocked Izuku in against the wall.

"I-What?" Izuku asked, his shocked face turning into a frown, "Why would I take Tokayami's

quirk?"

"Because of your hunger." Ojiro said and Izuku's veins went cold, he hadn't told anyone about that, not even his friends.

"I… How did you…?" Izuku whispered as he went very still.

"Yaoyorozu figured out the affliction," Iida informed him.

Izuku's eyes widened in shock and he managed to find Yaoyorozu within the class seats, she made brief eye contact with him before she flinched and looked away. Izuku felt like someone had stabbed him right in the chest, he was prepared for them to know all about his quirk but his hunger… that was a secret he was barely comfortable letting even Katsuki know about.

Izuku yanked his hand out of Iida's grip and sighed, "I have my hunger under control, you don't-"

"That's so not cool Iida!" Kirishiama said and shoved the boy back, standing protectively in front of Izuku, "You know Midoriya man, he wouldn't do something like that."

"Kirishima please I don't need-"

"How do we know he wouldn't do something like that? He hid his quirk from us for weeks and we should trust him?" Ojiro said with a scowl at Izuku who steeled his eyes in response.

"That is completely uncalled for!" Yoarashi cried and shouldered his way in front of Izuku with Kirishima, cutting Iida and Ojiro off, "Midoriya would not go around using his quirk outside of training."

"And even then I don't like the idea of-"

"And as you can see," Came the voice of Dark Shadow as it flew overhead from a frustrated looking Tokayami, "Clearly Midiroya didn't steal our quirk!"

Izuku was starting to get frustrated, this isn't what he wanted. He didn't want his classmates to fight over him, he could defend himself. He could deal with the fallout of his decision, he didn't need nor want Kirishima and Yoarashi to start a fight on his behalf. He just wanted to watch the sports festival.

"Guys I don't want-"

"How do we know that? We should ask the teachers about a way to monitor him!"

"It's fine I'm in complete control of my-"

"Like a dog!? Dude, are you gonna start asking Ashido to wear an acid proof suit too?"

"Kirishima I think you're going too far, let me just-"

"Please, I'm sure there is a way around Midoriya's issues that will-"

"ENOUGH!"

Izuku's shout silenced the whole class and caused the boys surrounding him to take a step back, Yoarashi and Kirishima wincing at his furious expression. The entire attention of the class was on Izuku and he narrowed his eyes at them all.

"Ojiro, Iida, I can assure you I have my quirk under control. I've been dealing with this shit for a decade," Izuku spat out his sentence like a piece of rotten food and it caused Iida to flinch, "So you don't need to worry about me taking your quirks, I assure you, you'd know if I tried."

A few people in the class shivered at the veiled threat from Izuku though nobody spoke up, "And Kirishima, Yoarashi, I appreciate you standing up for me but I don't want you starting fights with our classmate because of it."

Kirishima glanced away guilty, "Sorry Midoriya it's just-"

"I don't want to hear it Kirishima," Izuku said and held up his hand causing Kirishima to look like a kicked puppy, "I've dealt with the blowback of my quirk for years, I don't need you or anyone else to defend it."

Before anyone could get another word out Izuku marched out of the seating area and down the hall towards his side of the arena. Slowly the class returned to an albeit awkward sense of normality, if they felt guilty about what happened Ojro and Iida didn't show it and returned to their seats like nothing happened.

Yoarashi and Kirishima on the other hand stood staring at the doorway Izuku had just walked through, neither sure how to handle the situation.

"It's not your fault." Said a monotone voice behind them and the pair turned to discover Todoroki had walked up to them, though he too was looking at the exit where Izuku had just left.

"What do you mean?" Kirishima asked.

Todoroki paused for such a long time the pair thought he wasn't going to respond.

"Neither of you can really understand what it's like growing up and hating your quirk," Todoroki said quietly, "To then have people suddenly defend the very thing you focused all your hate into for years…"

Kirishima didn't see the way Yoarashi's eyes widened in surprise and the mild horror that glanced across his face at Todoroki's words.

"What are you saying?" Kirishima asked.

Todoroki finally turned to the pair, "I'm saying I think we may all misjudged Midoriya and Bakugou

Back with Izuku he marched through the halls with a fury that could be felt by those with empathy quirks for miles. If he paused to think he didn't really understand why he was so angry. He knew his class would react badly and he could handle that. He didn't need his friends to fight for him but why did the way they defended his quirk feel so… wrong? Just the thought of Kirishima praising Quirk Absorption made Izuku clench his fists.

He was so focused on his anger he nearly missed Katsuki strolling towards him coming back from his own fight. The blonde caught sight of Izuku and his face lit up slightly with a small smirk tugging at his lips.

"Hey Zuzu, you better show Shity hai-"

"Not now Kacchan!" Izuku barked out at his brother.

Katsuki nearly fell over in shock at the venom in the words and his eyes widened and followed Izuku as he walked past him. Anyone else and Katsuki would have unleashed a barrage of insults. But all he could do was stop and watch as Izuku disappeared round a corner, his footsteps violently echoing throughout the halls.

Well.

That was probably a bad sign.

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All For Two and Two For All

Quirk Diagnosis

The Worst Number One Hero

All Might's Offer

The Quirk of a Villain

A Pair of Lunatics

Gran Torino

Aizawa's Recommendation

How To Kill The Principle of UA

Chapter Title: REDACTED

The Entrance Exam

Quirk Energy

Blood Brothers

Izuku's Piggy Back Ride

Quirk Grades

Gran Torino's Influence

Izuku Midoriya: Evil Overlord of 1-A

Katsuki's Big Mouth

The Battle of The USJ Begins

All Might's Legacy

Izuku's New Quirks

The Wonder Duo vs The Mutt

Inko Midoriya: Attorney At Law

The Cost of The USJ

Whatever It Takes

All For One Unleashed

Ten Million Points of Bullshit

Field Testing

Todoroki Family Drama

The Unknown Becomes Known

The Ruined Reputation of Class 1A