AN:

Violets are blue, roses are red,

Hey it's me and I'm not dead.

"That'll be 12,000 yen, please."

Mitsuki looked down and fished through her purse to get her wallet.

"This couldn't wait until later, Izuku?" Katsuki asked.

Izuku watched as Mitsuki produced a credit card. "Eh, it was on the way to the next target. Figured we may as well get it while we're here." He then walked closer to the counter and tugged at Mitsuki's sleeve. "I can pay you back for this, Auntie." He whispered. "Remind me to write you an IOU a little later."

Once she had her receipt from the cashier, Mitsuki responded by bending down to touch his hair. "Don't need it, don't want it, old timer. Thanks anyway."

It was gonna take Izuku a lot longer to get used to the size of his younger body. He had managed to get to nearly 2 meters after hitting his twenties, and retained that height all the way to his dying day. Now he and Katsuki basically had to look at the ceiling to make eye contact with any adults. They were barely up to Mitsuki's thighs in height, not even to her waist. It was as fascinating as it was irritating. He tried to disregard these thoughts by checking the bag the cashier had just given Mitsuki. Inside were two burner phones. Something to keep communication going for the time being.

"I'll try to contact Gentle a little later tonight. I'm gonna see if I can set this up by the time we reach our next target. School should be getting out shortly." Izuku heard the bell on the door chime as his group left the electronics store.

"Why go after this kid now anyway?" Mitsuki asked. "You said yourself she had a decent career."

"We're kind of on a time crunch here." Katsuki responded, now checking his own burner phone as they walked down the street. "Hero exams are January. We've got 4 months to give her the 10-month shtick that All Might gave Deku."

"We won't need the full workout, Kacchan. Just enough training that she'll get into school this time." Izuku let his mind run through different scenarios. He could use a similar elevator pitch as he did with Gentle, but it would have to change slightly. She'd probably be a bit less keen on the talk of destiny and dreams. But then again, that was kind of his job as the Symbol of Hope. He'd just have to make sure she knew he was serious about it.

"You're pretty quick at grading. Any plans to become a full-time teacher?" She said, reaching for another test.

"Maybe someday. Right now my kids need a dad, and they need it a lot more than U.A. needs another Hero on the books. These yearly quirk exercises and whatever I can contribute to the work studies program will have to suffice for now." Izuku took notice of an answer that was very well worded, and added a smiley face to the checkmark next to it. "Honestly, I was surprised to see you over here. Weren't you running the art program at Ketsubutsu last I heard?"

"I've transferred around for a while. I started at Isamu, but the travel bill from there to my agency was racking up too high. The principal over there transferred me to Seiai, and that fizzled out for obvious reasons. I also worked in Seijin and interviewed at Shiketsu before transferring to Ketsubutsu full-time. After All Might and Eraser both passed on, Nedzu sent me an invitation to help Vlad and Enji run the Hero Course. So… Here I am."

"That's a pretty impressive résumé. If you don't mind my asking, what spurred you on to travel around schools so much?"

She sighed. "Like I said, the other schools weren't right for me. But… I also." There were some brief pauses here as she looked for the right words. "I kinda wanted a chance to look around all the hero schools. See for myself what I missed out on back in the day."

Izuku looked up from his answer key and glanced at the homeroom teacher, bemused. "You didn't attend a hero school?"

"Well… No. I um, actually…"

"Hey, listen." He interjected. "Nobody's forcing you to open up. But if you do want to talk about it," he motioned around the room as he spoke, "judgment free zone. I won't think any less of you, whatever it is."

"You really mean that, don't you? Alright. I didn't get any quirk counseling as a kid. Nobody had the time, nobody had the resources to help me control it. The only thing I was told was 'don't let it go off in town' and 'don't let it go off in the house again'. When high school came along, I didn't know what I was doing."

"Didn't do so well on the exams then?"

A short, mirthless laugh. "I didn't even get to the practical, Deku. I panicked during the written portion and let my quirk go off right there in the classroom." She donned a pained expression as she spoke. "Nobody died, thank god, but the walls were demolished. I ripped my own clothes to shreds in the process. I destroyed all the desks, got a bunch of splinters out of it. Everybody in my way got either sent flying or got crushed by… you know. They had to call Recovery Girl over from U.A to make sure nobody had any long-term damage. Not a damn school on the mainland would take me in after that."

Hearing that made Izuku's heart break, and reminded him of his first day in Mr. Aizawa's class. 'No matter what your intentions are, you would be nothing more than a liability. Sorry, Midoriya. With your power, there is no way you can become a hero.' Had circumstances been different…

"I had to learn the job in a backwater dump in the middle of nowhere." She continued, setting her pencil down and meeting Izuku's gaze. "Didn't debut until I was 22. Never even got a job as a sidekick. I just happened to get a lucky break that pushed me into the limelight. That's why I spent so much time chasing the press. I wanted everybody to know people like me were out there. If they knew about it… I don't know, maybe they'd have some better accommodations for the next kid with a quirk like mine. But even then, I was still destroying a bunch of stuff because I still didn't know how to handle my own strength! The whole time before the war, I was working 3 jobs to pay for all the property damage. I couldn't even keep a steady agency running because I kept smashing it by accident."

Izuku scooted his chair over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I didn't know. I'm so sorry that all happened to you, but… I'm proud of you for coming this far. You've done some amazing things in your time, you know?"

She smiled. "Thanks kid. That means a lot from Mr. Number One Hero." She playfully patted his hand, then leaned back down to face her papers, still eying Izuku from the side. "You won't tell anyone about that story, right?"

"Your secret's safe with me, Takeyama-sensei."

"We're friends, Midoriya. You can call me Yu."

Izuku put a hand to his chest in faux surprise. "Imagine that. Me on a first name basis with the Mt. Lady."

Possible Hero Names?

* Tall Girl

* The 50 Foot Woman

* The Extra Tall Drink of Water: Giant Girl

* Ms. Big

* The Elevated Hero: Titanic

* The Gigantic Hero: Stature

* Enormous One

* -Lady Liberty- Too American? Cashing in on All Might's gimmick?

She scratched most of them out on the page. Corny and lame, the lot of them.

"Hey, you going to the party this weekend?"

"Duh! The whole class is going!"

Yu kept her gaze averted and tried to ignore the fact that she didn't even know a party was happening this weekend. She shoved her notebooks in her bag and headed out of the classroom before anyone could notice she was gone. Then again, it couldn't hurt to try to start some conversation, right? She held her head up high and tried to greet a few people as she went down the hallway.

"Hey Haruto!" He gave her a side glance, then continued walking. "Mei, I like that bow!" Mei didn't even bother turning around. "Hey Rin, would you like to–"

"I'm busy." Rin said, rolling her eyes.

Yu tried to ignore the laughter from Rin's friends as she made it to the entrance. They were probably laughing about something else, right? She continued assuring herself of this as she pushed the door open into the street and walked down the stone steps.

She wanted to take her mind off of her problems but, of course, she'd have no such luck. As she walked down the street, she saw some kids playing baseball with their quirks. The kid pitching seemed to be able to fire large blue energy balls from his palms, which he was using for the pitch. The kid holding the bat was spitting fire from his mouth and laughing about it. The one with the catcher's glove seemed to be stretching his arms and neck wildly like he was made of rubber. Another kid was watching the game from under a tree and, as he sat and wrote in his notebook, he seemed to be turning his whole body a deep red color. As red as the apple in his other hand. Must have been nice to have friends and hang out like that. Must have been nice to be allowed to use…

'OH MY GOD! YU TURN IT OFF! NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, YOUNG LADY! YOU COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE WHOLE HOUSE!'

Yu bit into her cheek slightly to get back to the present. Whatever had happened then wasn't going to affect her now. Just a few more months before high school started. She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice anything in her way until she felt something small collide with her waist and legs. She looked down to see a small child in front of her. The kid had dark green hair and the widest green eyes she had ever seen. He had to be like 5 or 6. Yu didn't have much experience with kids. Was this kid gonna start crying?

"Sorry kid, wasn't watching where I was going." She said. "You alright?"

The kid didn't say anything. He just kept staring for a moment, his gaze unfocused. Yu wondered for a moment if she had given him a concussion by bumping into him. He didn't seem concussed though. Maybe he was lost. It seemed like a hero would ask about that, right?

"Kid? Do you know where your parents are right now?"

The kid finally cleared his throat and fixed those huge eyes on her. "Don't worry about the little collision; it's my fault just as much as yours. I'm on a bit of a field trip right now. Just out with a friend and his mom. But erm…" He looked like he was trying to find the right word. "Do you mind walking with me for a little while?"

Yu wasn't sure what to say to that. Did she know this kid from somewhere?

"Okay." She said slowly. "You want someone to talk to or something?"

"Something like that." Green-haired kid moved out of her way and started walking along beside her. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. What's your name?"

They walked quietly for a little bit, until Yu decided to break the silence.

"So what are you doing in town?"

"To be honest," he said, "you could almost call it intuition."

"What's that mean?"

"I guess I should give a little context, huh? So I've got a quirk – it's called Solomon, and it has this funny little thing where it lets me know where to go sometimes. It always leads me to interesting people. I'll see somebody special, and be able to talk to them. I go wherever my quirk stuff wants me to."

Now Yu was curious. "Does it talk to you about this stuff? Is it one of those sentient quirks?"

That got an interesting reaction from Izuku. He let out something between a genuine laugh and a play-it-off laugh. "I'm not even sure how to answer that. I guess you could say my quirk has some level of conscious awareness, yeah." It seemed like there was more he wanted to say about that, but he cleared his throat and changed the subject. "The thing that I don't tell many people is that it lets me look at the people it leads me to and get a bit of information about them. Little tidbits about their life, and stuff that's gonna happen someday."

"Why call it Solomon then?" She asked. "Why not 'prophet' or 'mind reader' or something?"

"Because this quirk also gives me wisdom beyond my years. I don't know the answer to every problem, but I've got the mind of an adult and the experience to back it up. That's the part of it that was active when I had my quirk registry done."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Now, look, I really am sorry that I bumped into you – believe me, it was an accident – but when I was walking towards you, I saw a few flashes of information about you."

"I'm one of those special people you talked about?"

"Yep."

Wasn't that nice? This random child's quirk thought she was special. She wasn't sure what it saw in somebody like her. "Well I'm flattered. What kind of stuff did you see, exactly?"

"Well Takeyama… I saw that you have a gigantification quirk. That's a pretty cool quirk, by the way."

"For demolition and fan service maybe." Yu muttered.

"No really! I think your quirk has a lot of potential for hero work. You want to be a hero at some point?"

"Yeah, but who doesn't? It's the glamorous route." She stepped over a puddle, while her new follower walked around it without even looking down at it. "What about you, Midoriya? You wanna be a hero at some point?"

Midoriya smiled. Damn, that smile was bright, even in passing. "It's been my dream as long as I can remember." His smile turned fond, almost like how Yu's grandpa looked when he talked about the old days. "When I was little, I saw a video of All Might saving a bunch of people from a fire."

"You're still little." She said with a small smirk.

"Well… Littler." He clarified. "But with All Might, as soon as he stepped onto the field, everybody calmed down. Like, he just reassured them by being there. They trusted him so much. And when he talked to people, he made them feel better every time. He knew just what to say." He sighed. "When I saw that, I knew I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to inspire people the way he did. I wanted to be a symbol of hope too."

By this point both of them had stopped walking. Yu just kept looking at the kid. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or hug him.

"Something tells me that you aren't entirely in it for the glamour yourself, Miss Takeyama." He said.

She had mostly been taught to keep her feelings on these sorts of things close to the chest, but somehow she felt like she could trust this kid. He just seemed familiar in a way.

"I guess… It would be nice to use my quirk a bit more." She said.

"True, true." Midoriya nodded. "I imagine you wouldn't get to use it very often in day to day life."

"And there's a very good reason for that." Yu said quietly. She continued walking from there, measuring her steps slightly so the smaller boy could keep up.

'Oh, Yu, no! My couch! Look at my couch! It's all flattened now! Why can't you get a hold of yourself? Help me clean up this mess! You know how much a couch costs these days, Yu?'

"You know, there was a movie I saw a while back." Midoriya started. "It was from before quirks came to be. It was about a princess who had these cool winter powers. She could make snow and ice and stuff. Not too different from quirks today."

"Yeah?" Yu couldn't quite figure out where he was going with this.

"Yeah. But anyway, when she was a kid, she and her sister were playing around with the powers, and she had a bit of an accident. She hit her sister in the head with some ice and nearly killed her. She just tried to repress from then on. Never even talked to her sister again. Her parents gave her some gloves that kept her powers from going off. And she just locked herself in her room for the rest of her life. The first time she had to be around people again, she panicked and froze the whole kingdom."

Oh, that's where he was going with that.

"But then," he continued, "she figured out how to control her powers. She got away from everybody else and practiced. Got pretty good at it too. Then she reconnected with her sister, and she lived pretty happily with everybody. She got to use her powers freely after that." He then looked away with a wince. "There was a pretty bad sequel made after that – not that the original was high art either, but that's not the point."

"I'm guessing I'm supposed to be the princess in this scenario?"

"Pretty much. In one of the flashes, I saw you taking a test at school. I think it was a hero school of some kind. You… Kinda panicked and grew big there."

She stopped walking again. Oh no…

"Did… Did I break a bunch of stuff?"

"Just a couple desks… A–And some walls… And your clothes… And some kids' bones…"

Yu closed her eyes and inhaled sharply. "Are these flashes of yours concrete?"

"I don't have a ton of experience yet, but… I haven't been wrong before."

"Then it's hopeless. I'm doomed before I even start."

She felt a small hand reach out and grab her own. "Don't give into despair just yet. That's one possible future, but it doesn't have to be final."

"Midoriya, the entrance exams are in January! How do I get it under control by then?"

"Practice." He said. "Start small. Find some spot where nobody else is around, somewhere with wide open spaces, and work on transforming. Once you've gotten it on command, once you're comfortable with your body at its tallest, start moving things around. Get used to your own strength. Then try fighting with it. Learn to throw a punch. Learn to measure your attacks so you don't hurt anybody. Then go down to that hero school and show them that you've got what it takes to be a hero."

"You make that sound easy!" Yu said, her voice rising a bit. "How am I supposed to do everything in 4 months?"

"If you want, I can help you with it."

"… You?"

"I can take notes on your progress as you go. I can give you some tips on it. I can tell you the stuff I've studied from other heroes. In fact…" He drifted off for a moment. "I bet I could get my aunt to make you a suit to practice in. She's a fashion designer, she could get you some of that size-changing fabric."

Yu held up her hand at that. "Wait, there's fabric that changes size?"

"Yeah! You know Ryukyu? Her whole outfit is made with that stuff so it doesn't rip when she turns into a dragon. I bet my aunt could get a roll of it so you don't tear your own clothes all the time!"

She looked at the kid incredulously. "Why? Why do any of this? We just met."

His excitement faded for a moment, and Midoriya spoke a bit quieter. "Because I've seen what happens to people when they don't get help controlling their quirks. I've seen what happens when they hide it until they can't anymore."

For a split second, he almost looked haunted. What exactly had this kid seen?

"Can I please work with you on this? I just want to help however I can."

Yu thought it through for a while. The two of them stood on the sidewalk with only the sounds of light traffic to be heard.

"Alright, Midoriya. I'll… Try working with you and see what happens."

He smiled warmly at that. Was Yu gonna need sunglasses hanging around with this kid? So happy…

Midoriya pulled out a cheap-looking cell phone and began typing into it before handing it over to Yu. She sighed and started putting in her contact information.

"Oi, Deku!" Another voice called.

Yu watched another tiny child run up, this one with spiky blonde hair and red eyes. Did he call Midoriya 'Deku'?

"You planning on living here? Train's leaving soon!"

"Right, of course!" Midoriya turned to Yu and extended his hand. "It was really nice meeting you today. I'll try to text a bit later and let you know when I can meet for practice."

She bent down slightly to shake his little hand. He had a surprisingly firm grip for a kid that size.

"Alright, goodbye!"

Midoriya and the blond ran around the corner and disappeared from sight. Yu sighed and crossed the street to continue back to her house. Could she really be a hero with her power? No harm in trying, she supposed. If nothing else, she'd at least get an interesting friend out of the ordeal.

"You need to watch where you're going, huh nerd?"

"In my defense, I haven't seen her in about 20 years. When I saw her walking towards me, I just kinda froze up."

"Is that gonna be a reoccurring thing with you?" Katsuki asked.

"Let's hope not." Izuku cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's find your mom and head home. There's one more place I want to check before we call it a night."

To be continued…

AN: You may be asking yourself, why did seeing Takeyama cause him to freeze up? I'm very curious to hear your theories, but I'm willing to give you my reasoning from when I wrote the chapter.

So… It's very difficult to gauge what Midoriya's reactions to things are like at this point in his life. Most of the most traumatic things that happened to him, such as the Aldera bullying and the civil war, is stuff that happened a lifetime ago. He's grown up. He's had a family. He's had time to process the deaths of everyone he knew. By his own admission, he's done at least some amount of therapy over the years.

When I started writing these solo missions, I tried to get into his headspace and figure out which ones would make him need a moment to recompose himself. I think if he ever sees one of his key hero mentors (such as All Might and Aizawa) again, it'll take a lot of restraint to avoid having a breakdown like the one he had with Inko. If he sees his wife again, he'll have the fortitude to not break down then and there, though he will likely come across as a little odd and a bit stiff, but he will start sobbing the first chance he gets.

In Mt. Lady's case, it was more what she represented than Mt. Lady herself. He and Mt. Lady kinda got their start on the first day. Her first debut was same the day he encountered All Might and started down this path of destiny. She was one of the heroes who failed to rescue Katsuki, spurring Izuku into action and getting All Might to see his potential. She was also a semi-frequent face during the first year at U.A and in the war effort after she had her mini character arc. I figured if anyone would get that subtle pause reaction and not the full emotional crisis, it would be her.

Thank you folks for being patient as I slowly learn to balance my ever-changing work schedule with my creative endeavors. See you next time! Bye!