All Might would admit, he had everything calculated but man, was he bad at math.

The following morning came swiftly and before he knew it, he, in his smaller form, and Young Uraraka had already stopped to the diner and ate as Young Midoriya assured him that he'd be fine. When he and Young Uraraka arrived, they were met with a peculiar sight. Young Midoriya had already cleared out a very small pile of trash by himself and was standing on the bare sand, going through some kata. There was nothing complex about it, All Might realized, just very simple forms, but they flowed like honey. Each punch, kick and elbow delivered with devastating precision, not a single hair out of place on his head. Watching him move was a tad bit mesmerizing since Toshinori himself only had experience with some boxing and wrestling.

Then Young Midoriya planted himself, squared his shoulders, cuffed both by his right hip and shouted to the heavens above. "Hadoken!" Toshinori watched on silently as the ball of glowing energy shot from his hands and impacted a small rusted truck with enough force to completely cave it in and tip it over. Thinking to himself that this kid might be a bit more trained than he thought at first due to his quirklessness, he turned to Young Uraraka to see the girl staring with eyes the size of plates.

"That was so cool!" She said suddenly, he words breaking Young Midoriya out of his concentration. His head snapped to them with a loud blush on his cheeks.

"Oh - oh. Sorry, I didn't know you guys would be here so soon." He said shakily.

Young Uraraka wasted little time in voicing her opinions. "First you were all like woosh! Then bam! Then had-o-can" She said while making exaggerated body motions that made the pro hero chuckle under his breath.

Izuku felt like he wanted to die from embarrassment. "T-thanks. I've been uh, training for a long time."

"And quite skilled you are, Young Midoriya! I certainly know that I wouldn't like to be on the other side of one of those." Toshinori said light-heartedly. Young Midoriya's floundering was an funny as it was endearing.

"Neither would I!" Ochako chirped. "Say, what actually was that? I thought you were quirkless." She said a bit suspiciously, but mostly just curiously.

"It's not that bad," Izuku said while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. Ryoya had told him that it felt like a really strong punch with lingering pain, a stark contrast to Ryoya's who's felt like a sledgehammer but the pain lasted much shorter. "And I am quirkless. That was ki." As to demonstrate, Izuku simply waved his hand in front of the girl's face and she watched with rapt attention as black, inky energy followed the appendage before vanishing. She reached out to touch it and was pleasantly surprised at how lukewarm it felt in the crisp morning air. "I'll explain it, but it would take a while, honestly."

"Good thinking, kid. We already started a day behind schedule. You can explain how your powers work in a bit more detail at the end of the day, but for now, let's begin." Toshinori then looked around and gestured to the literal mountains of garbage. "Your first task is just to clear this small portion and gradually work your way down until the whole beach is cleared." He reached into his coat and pulled out a thick booklet and handed it to the brunette. "Young Uraraka, follow this plan to the letter and you'll be ready in no time!"

Izuku wanted to ask ready for what exactly, but seeing how shocked Ochako was at the booklet, let it slide. He asked to see it and gave it a quick scan.

"Ah, this isn't as bad as I thought." Izuku said absentmindedly. "Seems only marginally more intense than what we did at the dojo."

Silence.

'Note to self, look into the kids you talk to before you randomly ask them to train with you.' Toshinori thought. "I - I see, Young Midoriya. And if I may ask, where exactly do you train?"

"At the Shotokan Dojo. It's not super far from here." Izuku automatically responded. All Might made a mental note to ask some people to look into the dojo. He didn't want to suspect any foul play, but Young Midoriya was a bit stronger than he's assume a quirkless person could be. Well, not a bit. A lot. It was almost mind-boggling.

"Ah, never heard of it before. But without further ado, you two can begin. Young Uraraka, you're not allowed to use your quirk on the heavier objects, only the lighter ones. And Young Midoriya, no ki allowed."

By the end of the first day, Izuku was feeling tired, but only marginally. He came to realize that All Might's definition of training was the same thing as Ken-sensei's, which was to just go from one to ten and keep it there. And if you slowed down, ramp it up to fifteen. He dragged his feet slightly through the sand as he continued to pull forward. Wrapped around both arms was a pair of large ropes tied to two moderately sized ovens that he was trying to pull up to a parked truck to be removed from the beach.

To his side, he could hear Ochako wheezing as she ran back and fourth from a large tire pile, taking one out at a time to carry down the street to be removed by street cleaners.

All Might was there the entire time, either taking notes down and giving Ochako some words of encouragement whenever she looked like she was slaking off, or simply staring at him, baffled. Could it really be that surprising that he was that strong? After re-confirming with All Might that he was, in fact, not using ki, since there lacked his normal green lightning and the black energy of raw ki, he continued to haul the appliances.

After one last tug, Izuku turned to sit down, taking deep, measured breathes and wiping the sweat from his brow. "Hey now, Young Midoriya. Do you think you have time to be taking a break?" Honestly, All Might thought the kid would never stop. Young Uraraka had already taken several before Young Midoriya even came close to slowing down. Whatever they were teaching the kid at the dojo was surely paying off in spades.

"Sorry," Izuku apologized, "Just getting a bit of rope burns on my hands." He palms felt raw and it was getting harder to keep dragging such heavy objects.

"Really?" All Might chuckled. "If you can't handle such minor inconveniences, you'll never be ready to become the Symbol of Hope. A symbol needs to be able to keep pushing through hard times with a smile."

Izuku gave All Might a dry look. He knew what he was doing. All Might knew that Izuku knew what he was doing. But it worked anyway. Izuku sighed and got back to his feet. "You're right, sir."

All Might laughed while coughing up a bit of blood. It was then, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Young Uraraka laying spread eagle in the sand, desperately trying to catch her breath. "Taking a quick nap, Young Uraraka?" The hero joked.

"It's... a whole... lot, All Might." She gasped out.

"Well, if you're having that much problem with a few suicides with a tire or two, you'll never be ready to inherit my power." He said easily, before freezing.

Ochako went as stiff as a board.

Izuku stumbled while carrying the two ovens, and had it not been for his impeccable balance, he would've fallen face first into the sand. "Inherit your power?" The greenette said slowly and cautiously.

All Might inwardly swore. Forty years of keeping it a closely guarded secret, only to immediately slip up on the second day of knowing this kid. 'Quick, Toshinori, you've been avoiding the media easily for years, you can come up with something believable.' "Um," All Might said intelligently. "Pretend you didn't just hear that?" Brilliant.

But it was much too late, since Young Midoriya was looking between the two with a raised brow. Toshinori broke out in a light sweat and Young Uraraka looked like she was about to have a heart attack. Well, shit. May as well get on with it.

Izuku was... well befuddled would be the best word. After a brief introduction to All Might's quirk, which apparently wasn't even his originally, but was passed down to him and called "One For All", Izuku took time to digest it.

"So, let me get this straight, because this goes against everything I thought I knew about quirks." Izuku said slowly, gauging for reactions. "So your quirk is transferable."

"Yes," All Might nodded.

"It's called One For All and it's a stockpiling quirk that is passed down from generation to generation."

"Yup."

"You're the eight holder of it, and Uraraka-san will be the ninth."

"Doing great so far, Young Midoriya."

"And you're giving it to her because she displayed heroism so inspiring, you just couldn't help it." Izuku finished, keeping his face and tone as neutral as possible.

"Right on the money." All Might confirmed with a thumbs up.

"...I need to sit down for a second." The greenette rubbed his temples and made his way towards the one of the piles of garbage, trying to wrap his head around the whole ordeal.

"Uh - um, you do that?" All Might said meekly. "What about you, Young Uraraka?"

Ochako, who'd been leaning forward on her own pile after catching her breath, simply gave All Might a look. "I'm fine, All Might. Just a bit tired."

"Understandable, young lady. You were able to make quite a few trips up here today. But I feel you probably could've made more if you had spent a bit less time gawking at Young Midoriya."

Ochako flinched as she looked down at her feet and away from All Might. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. He just seems so much... better than I am." All Might raised a brow at that, waiting for the girl to continue. "I just mean, he is already so much stronger than me. Yesterday, he was tellin' me about how he fought that villain and how he was at the mall collapse and stuff. It was really inspirin' ya know? Quirkless people aren't really the luckiest out there, and yet look at him."

"Young Uraraka, I understand." All Might said then he paused, his shadowed eyes getting the smallest bit larger. "Wait, did you say mall collapse?" Ochako gave the man a questioning look but nodded nonetheless. Then All Might clicked his tongue as though he just figured out the answer to a difficult math problem. "Ah, that's where I remember him from. He was the brave young man who helped to rescue those citizens that day." 'And yet, I told him he couldn't be a hero, when he already proved his spirit. Way to go, Yagi.'

Ochako had an expression on her face that Toshinori couldn't place and she glanced back to Young Midoriya, who'd just gotten back from where ever he'd been. She looked at him closely, then to Toshinori, then to herself before her body slumped ever so slightly and she went back to cleaning.

'That's not a good sign.' Toshinori thought to himself. 'I'll need to give her more encouragement. As for Young Midoriya, I'll have to apologize to him for not remembering him there. I was too caught up on that strange villain with that imposing bloodlust and that karate man who stopped him. I need to ask Naomasa is he ever figured out their identities.'

When Izuku got to school that day, he was a bit tired. After finishing the day and once again offering to walk Uraraka to her station, Izuku jogged home and crashed in bed. Ryoya wasn't there, and a quick text confirmed that he was just heading to school like normal, which Izuku was happy about. He didn't think he could handle being interrogated this early in the morning.

After getting to school, Izuku noticed that his friend was even more done with life than he normally was. While that wouldn't usually be an issue, Ryoya seemed to be done with life even at the most minor inconvenience, the fact that he was laying face down on his desk with his hair all over the place made Izuku slightly worried.

"Um, Ryoya?"

Ryoya just groaned in response.

"You good, buddy?"

"No," He said with his voice muffled. He didn't even bother raising his head. "I met Ken-sensei's friend Terry this morning and I'm apparently going to be training with him for the next few months. It's like there's two of them now." Ryoya slowly raised his head and looked at Izuku was slightly bloodshot eyes. "Kill me."

"You're just being dramatic," Izuku waved off with a smile. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

Ryoya gave Izuku a flat look that could kill grass. "Imagine a large, blond haired, blue eyed man who says far too much American colloquialisms while thinking that the best way to deal with any issue is to punch it in the face."

Izuku didn't have to imagine. Though it was scary to think about that between the two of them, they knew three men who fit that exact description. Why was it always the blonds?

"Got that image? Now imagine two of them, and both trying to 'show you the basics'." Ryoya ran his hand through his hair and yawned, and one again, Izuku likened him to a cat. Then Izuku shuddered. Dealing with Ken-sensei when he was unsupervised by Ryu-sensei was a harrowing experience, but two of them? Izuku suddenly felt his friend's pain.

"You'll be in my prayers, friend." Izuku said soothingly.

"I blame you for this, really. If you hadn't decided to abandon me to train elsewhere like some damn shonen protagonist, this experience would be less terrible."

"...by that do you mean that you would throw me at him first and after I got beat up, you would come in with moral support? Which, might I add, normally consisted of you asking me why I let him punch me in the face?" Izuku said, completely deadpanned.

"Don't change the subject." Ryoya scowled, but didn't deny the accusation. "Just... you better get stronger after this. It only took a few years, but now I can confidently say that you and I are completely equal in skill and power. Hell, you might even be inching ahead of me. But if I find out that you've cut our training to go do something counter-productive, I'll burn all of your All Might merch."

Izuku gasped, scandalized that Ryoya would even say such a thing. "You wouldn't..."

"What's stopping me?" The tan boy challenged with a raised brow.

"I - If you do, I'll tell Momo that you secretly do like when she does your hair and it was you who stole her shampoo."

There was a pause and a brief moment when the two boys stared at each other with such intensity, it felt like the room was shaking. Maybe it was. Then Ryoya spoke. "...touché."

About two months in, was when things got very interesting.

The morning started off normal enough. Young Midoriya arrived earlier than Young Uraraka did, which was to be expected, but lately, the girl had been trying wake up earlier to match his timing. He didn't know when or why the girl had suddenly developed such a competitive drive, but it was as inspiring as it was scary. She had also tried to keep pace with Young Midoriya when it to actually moving the trash which she had with varying levels of success. She largely couldn't keep up with him in terms of pure stamina, Young Midoriya was simply a freak of nature in that regard, but on some days, she actually managed to move as much trash as he did. While doing so, she increased her overall weight limit on her quirk and put on a pretty decent amount of muscle while trimming the small amount of fat she had.

All in all, they were progressing at an accelerated rate. They were set to be done at least a month or two ahead of schedule which was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, that meant that Young Uraraka could receive One For All before the entrance exam and had time to really mold it into her own. But on the other hand, Toshinori wasn't the best trainer when it came to actual fighting. His own training boiled down to 'just try not to get kicked in the stomach at Mach 1 for two hours', which wouldn't really translate well when training a teenage girl.

Then something odd happened. Young Midoriya was seemingly showing Young Uraraka something regarding his electrical based energy and how much of a boost it gave him. Amidst his demonstration of carrying a washing machine, since apparently Young Midoriya went plus ultra in literally everything, the machine slide on his hands, and when he moved to put it down, he found that he couldn't actually let it go.

"Huh?" Izuku tugged his palms but they didn't budge. He tried again, this time with more force and raising his ki a bit more, but not only did this only make the pull on his hands even stronger, a loose screw came up from the sand and landed flush against the back of his right hand. Then it dawned on him. He let go out of ki and immediately, his hands fell off the machine and the screw hit the sand. Going for a quick test, green lightning surrounded his hands and he gave them a quick rub together before holding his palm fifteen centimeters above the metallic object. Both All Might and Ochako watched on in amazement as the screw flew back up to his hand. "I'm magnetic!" Izuku shouted. "Oh my god! I have to test this!"

After that massive revelation, Izuku couldn't wait to get to the dojo after school. It seemed like all of his usual fatigue just wore off when he stepped foot inside carrying a jar of loose metal objects he took from Dagobah. As expected, Ryu-sensei was standing off the side with his arms crossed overseeing Ryoya's training. And what was that training you may ask?

"BURN KNUCKLE!" A large, muscular man wearing blue jeans, a red sleeveless jacket, white shirt with the sleeves torn off (seriously, does no one in their friend group wear sleeves? Did their arms get so big that they gained sentience and refused to be covered?), and a red hat yelled while he punched Ryoya in the stomach with a fist burning with bright blue and white flames. His rival slammed into the opposing wall of the dojo with a loud bang and hit the ground unceremoniously, landing in one miserable pile on his back.

"...why is it always fire? Why...? First it was getting kicked with fire... now it's getting punched... why?"

Izuku watched his friend slowly fall into despair and sweat dropped at the scene. "Should I uhh, come back later?"

"Izuku," the tone of Ryoya's voice alone was to dry paint. "Have you finally come to kill me?"

"Wow, Ken. You're right! He is really fun to fight!" Terry said with a smile and a thumbs up. Just the sight of seeing him and Ken stand next to each other was enough to make Izuku feel like he'd aged ten years. He really would have to make it up to Ryoya for this later. He wouldn't wish such torture on his worse enemy.

"Um, no? I came to show you guys something. I unlocked a new aspect of my power!" Izuku said cheerfully, completely ignoring Ryoya's pained groan.

"Is that why you brought that jar of garbage here?" Ryu asked while pointed to aforementioned jar and Izuku nodded.

"Look!" He enthusiastically opened the jar and spilled all it's contents on the floor, causing Ken to yell.

"Oi, you're gonna have to pick that up! We just made Ryoya clean his saliva off the floor!"

"...god I hate all of you..."

"You don't mean that!" Ken said cheerfully. "Anyway, what gives, Izuku?"

"Watch." Izuku activated Denjin Renki and rubbed his hands together then he pointed his palms towards the scrap on the floor and everyone watched as all the metal shot up and wrapped around his hands, forming a rudimentary metal gauntlet.

"Ah, electromagnetism." Ryu said, sounding impressed. "Must say, you're the first person I've ever seen with that. I've seen people with metal based ki before," he inwardly scowled at the memory of that villain, "but never one who converted electricity into something like that. Good work."

"Yeah! That's incredible!" Ken said with a dazzling smile and thumbs up. "Nice to see your training is paying off! You better put in extra time, Ryoya! Izuku has taken the lead!"

Ryoya, to his credit, didn't budge. He kept a completely neutral expression before literally dragging himself over to the bench and his phone.

Super Street Fightin' Friends

Hot-Stuff: 3D-Printer are you busy?

3D-Printer: Umm, no? Why? We aren't supposed to be training with each other again until tomorrow.

Hot-Stuff: Good, I need you to hire some assassins to end my suffering. Please and thanks

Dino-City: All right, placing bets. Who caused it this time? Izuku or Ken? My bet is on Izuku.

ME: But why though? I haven't done anything recently!

Dino-City: No, but you've been training with someone new recently and it was only a matter of time before you came back with some new tricks.

Hot-Stuff: Izuku has upgraded apparently. Whoever this mythical person is he's training with helped a ton since he now is electromagnetic.

Hot-Stuff: Do you know what this means?

ME: That your happy your rival is keeping up his end of the deal and trying to become the best hero he can be?

Hot-Stuff: Well, yeah of course. I'm really happy and proud of you. But this also means that he'll start hitting me with metal objects. And I don't think I'm mentally ready to deal with that.

3D-Printer: Um, Ryo-kun? Can't you create fire? I seem to remember that heat can affect magnets by either strengthening or weakening their attractions.

Hot-Stuff: Oh thank god, what would I do with out you, Mo-chan

3D-Printer: Live a life of confusion and despair?

Hot-Stuff: yes

When Izuku looked back up from his phone, Ryoya was still on the ground, but at least now, he was propped up against the wall. He smiled and his eyes seemingly lit up. It was small and tired, but genuine. "I can't wait until our next spar. Gonna see if you're able to withstand the heat."

"Was...was that a pun?"

Ryoya's face fell instantly into one of despair. "Oh no, they're rubbing off on me..." He whispered painfully. Then he took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. "Let's just get back to training."

By the third month, Young Midoriya and Young Uraraka had made a pretty sizable dent in the beach. He could see large areas of sand now and could actually feel the ocean breeze completely unobstructed. They were moving so fast actually, that All Might gave them a whole three days off and when they returned, they were told not to move anything and strictly focus on sparring.

And so, that's what they did.

Uraraka-san was getting frustrated, that much was obvious. Each and every attempt she made to attack him was either dodged, blocked, countered or parried. She was eager, he noticed. But overly so, since she didn't seem to really plan out her attacks, instead just throwing herself at him and hoping to get lucky with all five fingers.

She would have no such luck.

Izuku watched her moves closely. This was a supposed to be a friendly spar to gauge where she was at currently and see where improvements could be made. But somewhere along the lines, Uraraka's competitive drive over took and she started trying to attack with reckless abandon. 'Dodge the swipe, parry the follow up. She's gonna try to kick me, but her form is all off, so if she does, she'll be off balance, send a light palm strike to the ribs to show where she left herself open.'

And that's exactly what happened. Izuku dodged left, deflected Uraraka's punch with the back of his hand and then watched as she sloppily tried to kick him. As he expected, she was off balance so it was easy for him to deliver a light leg sweep that was held back enough to keep her on her feet and then a follow up palm strike to her ribs. As he thought, she fell over on her backside, despite the relatively light impact and cursed under her breath in the sand. Had it not been for Izuku's ki enhanced senses, he might not have heard her. When she didn't get up immediately, Izuku walked over and extended a hand. Then he heard light sniffling.

"Uraraka-san? Are you okay?" He asked, slightly panicked. Oh no. He just made a girl cry. His mother was going to kill him.

"Huh? Y-yeah. I'm fine." She lied while putting on a fake smile. All Might was by them in an instant.

"What is the issue, Young Uraraka? Young Midoriya seemed to be pulling his punches quite a bit." All Might said with his voice and face filled with concern.

Ochako flinched at that. She looked like she wasn't intending to say anything further, but then Izuku spoke. "I'll just uh, give you two some space." He said as respectfully while walking away.

Once he was out of earshot, Uraraka seemed to let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Now, want to try that again, Young Uraraka?"

"All Might, be honest with me... do you think I'm a good choice for your successor?" Ochako whispered.

All Might was taken aback by the sudden question. "Of course!" He said with absolutely no hesitation and his voice filled with conviction. "What brought this on?"

Ochako sniffled and wiped her eye. "Well, it's just that..." She looked over in the direction where Izuku had walked to see him nervously sitting on the sand, watching them with concern. "...he feels like such a better option." She finally said honestly.

Toshinori's eyes widen a bit in surprised and he spurred her to continue, which she did.

"He's just been so amazin'. He's quirkless and he's so strong. He's always smilin' like you said a hero should and stuff. Sometimes, he even inspires me to push harder because he's also so positive. I guess he just makes me feel not good enough."

Toshinori, in retrospect, should've seen this coming. Why else would Young Uraraka suddenly go from zero to one hundred in her training? He'd assumed she was just naturally that driven, but upon finding out that it was based in a lingering feeling of inferiority to Young Midoriya made his non-existent stomach churn. "Young Uraraka, I'm sorry. I should've been more observant."

His apology caught her off guard, but before she could respond, he raised a hand to silence her. "No, I have no excuse. I thought your recent competitive streak stemmed from something else. Had I known it was this, I would've corrected you sooner. Do you remember the day I chose you as my successor?"

Ochako nodded, as if there was a way for her to forget. The villain attack on the bridge, her dashing out to touch two cars to prevent them from falling over. She barely managed to hold them both for a few seconds, but that was all the time she needed since All Might came swooping out of nowhere to pull the families to safety.

"Yes, Young Midoriya is driven, and strong. But he is not you. You both have the same heroic spirit that will take you very far in this world, but there was something I recognized in you that I didn't in him. And that was a genuine desire to help for no other reason than to help."

"But - but, he's just like that!"

"Maybe he is, but Young Midoriya has told me before that he was partially driven by spite. He wanted to be the strongest hero simply because others told him he couldn't. It's an admirable quality, that determination. But it's not the same fire behind your eyes. You say you wanted to give your parents the life you think they deserve right?" All Might asked with a raised brow to which Ochako nodded. "You could've done that in any other field. Heroes aren't that highly paid, especially newer, younger ones. I'd say that you'd even need to be within the top twenty to earn a handsome pay, but anything below that, is only very slightly above average. But you knew that didn't you? You knew that there were better options, yet you still wanted to be a hero. It is you, Young Uraraka, who wants to help your parents while using your gift to help others. If that isn't reason enough for you to be my successor, I don't know what is." All Might finished confidently.

Ochako, hearing all of that, from the Symbol of Peace no less, made the girl tear up again. But this time, with happy tears. "Thank you, All Might." She said with a smile and sniffle. "I didn't know how badly I needed that."

"And I'm sure Young Midoriya would agree with me. He's always done nothing but sing your praises since you both have started."

And that was true. Whenever Ochako stumbled, it was always Izuku there right at her side to help her with whatever she was doing. When he felt exhaustion after a hard day's work, Izuku would be there with encouraging words and a smile that helped her go just that little extra distance. When she felt nauseous from quirk overuse, it was him who offered to get her some water and rub her back until she felt better.

"You are more than worthy of inheriting my power, Young Uraraka. And I looked forward to the day you do."

"Thanks, All Might."

The hero smiled gently. "Now, let's get back to training. Young Midoriya looks likes he's about to have a heart attack."

The fourth month, Izuku realized, is when things took a dramatic turn. The day started out simple enough. Him and Uraraka were moving trash for a few hours, then finishing the morning with a spar. He'd still hold back a lot of course, she was a beginner and he wasn't, but she was improving pretty rapidly. And he'd feel bad for the poor villain that ran across this girl. Whatever issue she seemed to have seemed to vanish, and she never outright cried in front of him again, which was good. She stopped trying to compete with him, which was nice, since he'd seen how tired she was when doing so. Even though, at times, it was very impressive.

"Ah, Young Uraraka, Young Midoriya. You both have been progressing ever so steadily. I'm sure in the next few months, the beach will all be clear and we can move on to step two of your training!" If you asked All Might a month ago what step two was, he'd look at you and laugh for assuming he planned that far ahead. But now, having spoken to Young Midoriya about potentially enrolling Young Uraraka at his dojo, the future seemed bright.

"That's good." Izuku said, casually tossing two truck tires over his shoulder and into the recycle bin. Then he paused, blinked twice and his head snapped towards the direction of the beach's stairs.

All Might and Ochako, having sensed the boy's panic, tensed. They both slowly turned to see what he was looking at and saw a tall, tanned teenager with a slender, but muscular build, long, messy black hair tied into a ponytail and the most piercing golden eyes Toshinori had ever seen. He had a completely straight face as he scanned the beach and then looked back to Izuku, who just nervously laughed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"R-ryoya? What're you doing here?"

"Honestly, I was just in the area since Ken-sensei wanted katsudon tonight and the shop nearby has good pork." He said easily, raising his hand to show his plastic bag of goods, not actually looking at Izuku, but everything around him. "Then I sensed you and wandered here to make sure you aren't dying."

Izuku chuckled at that, and Ochako giggled. But All Might gave no reaction. He was frozen in place as memories of the past assaulted him.

This was the boy from the mall! The one who oozed killing intent. He seemed different now. More relaxed, calmer. He'd have to play this carefully.

"Ah, good morning, young man." He said casually, placing himself between his students and Ryoya. That got the tan child to raise a brow. "How may we help you?"

"Don't worry, Skeleton-san. I'm not here for long." He said in an unusual tone and All Might could feel himself being sized up by the teen. "I only wanted to make sure that one," he pointed to Izuku. "wasn't doing something that could get himself killed."

"Stop saying that like I do that often!" Izuku responded with an indignant huff. Ryoya just ignored him and rolled his eyes.

"Uh-huh. Anyway, now that I know where you've been, I might swing by again at some point." Well, that wasn't ominous at all. "I won't say when, but you can just sense me coming."

"Someone's finally gotten the hang of Ken-sensei's flare for the dramatic." Izuku said cheekily and Ryoya glared at him for it.

"Whatever. See you later, Izuku. Pink Cheeks-san, Skeleton-san." And with that, Ryoya left and so did all the tension in All Might's shoulders.

"Pink Cheeks-san?" Ochako echoed.

"Yeah, don't mind that. He usually has nicknames for people either as a joke or when he doesn't know your names." Izuku explained casually.

"Who was that?"

"That was my best friend/rival, Ryoya Harushi."

"Y-you have a rival?" Ochako honestly couldn't believe it. Izuku himself seemed like such an outlier to what she thought possible for quirkless people, so it came as surprise that he had someone that rivaled him in power.

"Yep! He's wicked strong too! I actually have a losing record versus him in our spars."

Before Ochako could digest that little bombshell, All Might cleared his throat and then wiped some blood from his chin. "Ah, Young Midoriya, you'll have to get us introduced at some point." Toshinori said easily and with a smile. 'Good, I finally have a name for the face. I'll have Naomasa look into him for me.'

"Um... sure? Ryoya's not exactly the most friendly person in the world, but he's not so bad once you get pass the awkwardness."

"Is he training to be a hero too?" All Might asked.

"No." Izuku said with an annoyed huff, making both people look at him with surprise. A kid in this day and age, apparently as strong as Young Midoriya not trying to be a hero? That was beyond odd.

"I see." He'd definitely have to look into this boy. The power he displayed that day reminded him far too much of a man he had the displeasure of running into fifteen or so years ago. A man with blood red hair, tanned skin and glowing red eyes. "He ever tell you why not?"

"...no."

Yes, Toshinori will be looking into this.

A/N: Next chapter might honestly be the last before the UA exam. Which will be fun. Ryoya has a few more months to make his decision on if he wants to be a hero or not, but so far, things aren't looking so good.

Also, Izuku's power route finally revealed. Shotokan can only carry him so far, and with this, we can see the leaps and bounds he'll start to take. Ochaka has lingering insecurities like any normal teenager would, and All Might does his best. And enter, Ryoya. He's been getting trained (read getting his ass kicked) by Terry for the last few months, so who knows what his progression has been.

And this is likely the last time you'll see me mention ships. But it's between Momo, Rumi, and Tooru now. I'm leaning towards one, but we'll see how it goes.

Ryuujin96: Thanks. I'm trying to take a more realistic approach to Izuku and Ochako in this, even more so now since Izuku's not the same kid as he is in canon. He's more confident in himself and carries himself differently. And yeah, Izuku won that one. If you can't tell who's currently stronger between the two, that means I've done my job. Thanks for the review!

solbandgus: Well, there ya go. That's the big surprise I had in mind for Izuku's power route. And yeah, Ochako's situation is a bit different, but it won't play a super big role here. Thanks for the review!