AN: Lusamine - Momo is actually a really awkward character to find a good mentor for! Her quirk is extremely powerful, and the biggest limit to her quirk is her (lack) of self-confidence.

And I agree, Best Jeanist was actually a really bad fit for Bakugo.

Shoto extends his hand and launches a bolt of fire toward the training dummy, in an attempt to hit the target in its arms.

Unfortunately, his aim was off, and he caught the shoulder of the training dummy instead.

"Shoto! You are better than this!" Endeavor began one of his tirades, "it seems we will have to redouble your training to recover the skills you have lost during your childish rebellion. How can you ever hope to surpass All Might with skills like these?"

Endeavor expects his son to make a quiet apology, and concede to his demands like he has in the past. This time is different, and Shoto surprises him instead. He simply turned toward his father and stared into his eyes.

"After the sports festival, I went to the hospital to talk to mom."

Endeavor felt his rage halt, the rest of his lecture catching in his throat. "You went to see Rei?"

"I have seen her several times, actually."

Shoto turned back towards the training dummy and unleashed another bolt of fire. This time it failed to hit the bullseye, but it at least landed on the paper. "I wanted to ask her if it was ok to use my fire, instead of proving myself with just my ice."

Endeavor felt a rage surging in his chest, anger bubbling to the surface. "There you go again! You are my greatest creation! You are the perfect fusion of our quirks! But then you've let yourself get distracted and held yourself back!"

"Like you let yourself get distracted over your one-sided feud with All Might?" Shoto asked, before launching a third bolt of fire, once again hitting the paper, but missing the target. "After the sports festival, I also talked to Midoriya, and he told me about your conversation with him."

Shoto paused his training as he looked at his hands. He began recalling his conversation with Izuku from the previous week.

"Your quirk is a part of you, just as much as your hands are a part of you. If you refuse to use your fire because of Endeavor, you may as well use a rope to tie one of your hands behind your back. After all, he is just as responsible for your hands as he is for your quirk."

That was the day he asked his mom if she was ok with him using his fire. He still remembers the day she burned him, only to soothe him afterward, sobbing out apologies before Endeavor took her away from him.

Shoto began imagining the feeling of his mother's hands in his, from his first visit to her after the sports festival. It was their first contact since she had burned him, and it filled him with a warmth he hadn't even realized he was missing before that moment.

Wrapping himself in those feelings, he easily formed a small pillar of ice in one hand, and a sphere of fire in the other, before turning towards his father. "And I agree with him. I don't want to be part of your feud with All Might either."

"What?" Endeavor bellowed.

"I still intend on becoming a great hero, and I still intend to be the number one hero, surpassing both you and All Might. So you will get your wish. But I will do it for my own reason, not because of you."

Shoto dismissed the elements in his hands, as he kept his eyes locked with his father's. "I don't know what that reason is yet, but I finally understand why I chose Midoriya as my rival. It doesn't matter what his quirk is, his strength comes from a different source. Even if he held the weakest quirk in our class, he would still be a worthy rival to measure myself against."

Shoto looked back down to his now-empty hands. "Without a motivation of my own, I will never surpass him, and I can never hope to be stronger than either you or All Might."

Endeavor stood there, feeling his anger bleeding away, as he found himself filled with pride. He couldn't help but think about his conversations with Toya, leading up to the tragedy on Sekoto Peak. He was terrified of Shoto following in his brother's footsteps and had let that tragedy consume him, like it consumed Toya.

But staring at his son, he saw a spark of something new growing inside of him. As he saw him standing there, he knew Shoto would not follow in Toya's footsteps, and had taken his first true step towards surpassing him.

Endeavor relented, and for the first time, Shoto saw him with a genuine smile on his face. "In that case, I will continue training your body and quirk, and I will leave you responsible to find your own motivation. You had better find it though, or you will find yourself even further behind this Midoriya."

Shoto felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards. "Don't worry, I will find it."

Turning around, Shoto called up another bolt of fire and launched it at the target, landing a bullseye.

"You look so festive in your costume Himi-chan!" Nejire exclaimed as Himiko stepped out of the room that was to be her apartment for the week.

"F-festive?!" Himiko asked, confused by the older girl's words.

"Now that you've dyed your hair green!" Nejire pointed to her hair. "You have green hair and a red coat! It's like you're ready for Christmas!"

Himiko felt her face heat up. "D-don't ruin my look for me!"

"What?" Nejire tilted her head to the side in confusion, "I think it looks great!"

To cover her embarrassment, Himiko grabbed the older girl's arm and began dragging her to the elevator. "Come on, Ryukyu's waiting for us on the roof!"

"You don't need to pull me Himichan! I know where we're going, too!" Nejire protested as she kept pace, not even showing a hint of surprise as the two made their way to the elevator.

Once inside, Himiko hit the button for the rooftop. Stepping out of the elevator, they made their way down a short hallway, opening the door at the end of it onto the roof itself, and the waiting hero.

Ryukyu smiled at her two interns with satisfaction. "My, you two look like quite the upcoming heroes already. Now then, it's time to see what you can do. It's time to begin our patrol!"

"Yay patrol!"

"Wait, why are we on the roof and not in the lobby?" Himiko asked, suddenly very concerned. She had her suspicions, but there was one very important detail she was missing.

"Isn't it obvious? I fly during my patrol."

"I know she can fly," Himiko said, pointing a finger at Nejire, "but what about me?"

"Well, for the first part, you get to ride on my back," Ryukyu said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Without giving Himiko a chance to protest, the dragon hero walked to the center of the rooftop, and transformed into a dragon, before looking at Himiko expectantly. Reluctantly, Himiko walked forward and scrambled up her shoulder, before finding a comfortable position to sit on her neck.

"Must be nice," Himiko looked longingly at Nejire, who simply took to the skies and was floating alongside them.

"Don't worry, you'll get your chance to fly later," Ryukyu reassured her, before taking off.

For the next several hours, Himiko found herself flying above the city, while Ryukyu explained how the citizens liked seeing her flying overhead. It was a constant reminder that she was keeping their city safe and a warning to any aspiring villains. There is a lot more to being a hero, but whether she liked it or not, visibility was important.

Himiko thought about what Izuku said as she listened to the dragon hero. Would people be willing to accept her as someone in the spotlight, like they have accepted Ryukyu? Izuku seemed to think so. Not that she was willing to doubt his words, but it was reassuring to hear something similar from the dragon hero.

Eventually, far from her agency, Ryukyu began her descent, landing on the top floor of a parking garage, with Nejire landing next to her. Cautiously, Himiko slid down off her back, moving to stand alongside Nejire while Ryukyu returned to human form. Smiling, she turned to Himiko.

"Now it's your turn."

Himiko's eyes went wide as she realized what was being asked of her. "You want me to transform into you?"

"Yes, we are still going to patrol for a few more hours, and I want to see what you are capable of."

"I don't actually know the limits of my transformation," Himiko admitted, "if I have enough blood, I could theoretically hold a transformation for days. But since my quirk awakening, I don't know how long I can hold a form while using someone else's quirk."

"Well, it's time for you to find your limits," Ryukyu held out her arm, "take as much blood as you need. We are going to see if you can hold your quirk for the next two hours while also using my quirk."

Himiko gulped nervously, as she reached into her coat to withdraw a syringe and a pair of vials. Based on Izuku and Emily's theories, each vial should be enough for her to transform for a couple of hours with regular quirk usage, so hopefully, two would be enough to meet the dragon hero's request. With practiced ease, she inserted the needle into the hero's arm and drew blood, impressed by her resilience. After taking the two vials of blood, the dragon hero showed none of the symptoms of blood loss.

Himiko quickly drank the crimson contents within both vials before storing them in her coat, before she took off her coat and boots, which Nejire quickly retrieved. Then, taking a deep breath, Himiko activated her quirk, turning into a duplicate of Ryukyu.

"Impressive," Ryukyu said as she looked over Himiko, "other than the difference in posture, it would be impossible to tell us apart."

"Yep!" Himiko replied, "it's a perfect copy."

"I see, so now the matter of activating my quirk."

Himiko looked at the dragon hero awkwardly. "So my quirk doesn't actually tell me how to use other people's quirks. I need you to explain it to me."

"Oh? Interesting. I had hoped that you could adapt to my transformation easily. Very well. Search inside of yourself. In the core of my very being rests the power of a dragon, waiting to be unleashed. When I wish to transform I simply seek out that power and call upon it, giving it the freedom to rise to the surface."

Himiko closed her eyes and began searching inside herself. On some level, she understood what the dragon hero was talking about, but rather than a dragon, she saw a shapeless form, a blank slate waiting for blood to give it shape.

Wrapped in Ryukyu's form, she found something had changed within her, and she saw what the hero was talking about. There was a new form inside of her, the power of Ryukyu's quirk, waiting to be released. Taking a deep breath she used it and felt her body changing shape, growing to the same draconic form of the hero in front of her.

"Yay! Himi-chan did it!" Nejire cheered from below her.

Himiko probably looked extremely weird as she tried to break into her signature grin while in dragon form, but she didn't care. She was finding new quirks that she was capable of using! She began to wonder if all transformation quirks were similar, and if she would be able to apply the knowledge of how Ryukyu transforms to others, or if each one is unique.

She didn't get very far in her thought process before Ryukyu interrupted her thoughts. "Now lower yourself to the ground, so that we can get on your back," she instructed.

Himiko didn't know if she was capable of blushing or not in this form, but she felt awkward as she knelt, allowing her two companions to scramble up her arm and settle on her neck. The weight felt strange, a new experience alongside all of the other new experiences the form brought her.

"Now remember, if your transformation gives out, I can transform in an emergency, and Nejire is capable of flight. But I did just lose a lot of blood, so I can't guarantee my reflexes are fast enough to catch you."

While she detected a hint of teasing in the hero's voice, Himiko suddenly felt nervous - she didn't want to mess this up. "I'll do my best!"

"Good, that's all I ask, now then, take us to the sky."

Using extra limbs always came with a sense of weirdness to Himiko, so it took her a minute before she was confident enough with her wings before she lifted off. Once airborne, she managed to achieve something akin to hovering.

Ok! I can do this. Himiko told herself. I'm not going to screw this up!

Slowly, carefully, Himiko began accelerating until she was moving at a pace similar to what Ryukyu flew at, as she felt Ryukyu lean forward, yelling directions into her ear. Not trusting herself to talk, she simply turned and flew toward where the hero was indicating.

Once she grew comfortable flying, Himiko began to take in the gaze of the city, and her thoughts began to wander. What would have happened if she never met Izuku? Would someone have taken her in? Would she have gotten help? Or would she still be living on the streets?

She was almost certain that she wouldn't be here, flying above Nagoya as a hero-in-training. Surrounded by people who helped her find herself, and accepted her for who she is, even the damaged parts that would never fully heal. Sure, there was an occasional hiccup; the encounter with Ochako's parents was particularly uncomfortable for her since she knew how close Izuku and Ochako were. Even then, she felt warmth every time she remembered how Inko rushed to defend her, in a way that her biological parents never would.

Himiko soon discovered that time passed much more quickly when she was the one doing the flying, and before she knew it, she was being directed to land on the rooftop of Ryukyu's agency. She lowered herself to the ground and allowed her companions to slip off of her back before she returned to Ryukyu's human form. From there, she proceeded to let that form dissolve around her as she dropped the transformation, a huge smile on her face.

"So, how are you feeling?" Ryukyu asked.

Himiko was about to answer before the world suddenly started to spin, and she started to fall over, only to be caught by Nejire. "Himi-chan, what's wrong?"

Fear gripped Himiko's heart in its icy grasp as she realized what was going on. Somehow, her quirk had used a lot more blood than she realized, and she was feeling the effects of starvation and anemia. To make matters worse, these feelings were bringing back old memories, memories of a locked door and abusive parents.

"B-blood," she stuttered out.

Nejire and Ryukyu looked at each other and nodded in understanding. Nejire had Himiko lean against her as their mentor guided them to the elevator. Ryukyu pushed a button and led them down to the agency's kitchen, where she pulled out a carton of pig's blood.

"UA sent me information about Midoriya's dietary requirements, so I made sure the fridge was stocked ahead of time."

Standing at the counter, Himiko managed to find a glass in a cupboard and took the offered carton, not caring about appearance as she filled the glass with the crimson liquid and immediately downed it. As she gulped down the precious liquid, she felt the edge being taken off of her headache.

"Ever since my diet's been fixed, I've never had that happen before," Himiko admits, as she pours herself a second glass of blood, "normally my transformation just drops when I run out of somebody's blood."

Meanwhile, Himiko began following the steps her therapist taught her. She filled her head with happy memories - of Inko and Izuku, reminding her of her real family, to drown out the bad thoughts that had surfaced.

Once she saw color returning to the younger student's face, Nejire finally asked. "Does it have to do with the fact your quirk has awakened?"

"Probably," Ryukyu speculates, "I can't imagine it's easy for your body to simply copy another quirk factor and use it without some sort of drawback."

"At least now I know," Himiko peered into the carton. "I'm going to need a few more cartons of blood to last the week though."

"Don't worry, I'll order some more tomorrow. Especially since we're just getting started - I am going to push you even harder later this week, but we don't want you to have a backlash. Just let me know how much we should get."

Himiko looked at the hero, then down at the half-empty glass in front of her, and finally back to the hero. Despite her waning headache and dark thoughts, she felt a smile forming on her lips.

"I'm looking forward to it!"

"That was rough," Emily complained as she collapsed onto a couch, rubbing her side, "what's the point of having support gear if you're not allowed to use it?"

"Majestic does have a point," Izuku called out as he was pulling his meal out of the microwave, "if you don't have the fundamentals down, then it doesn't matter what your support gear does. It should enhance your inherent skills, not be used as a replacement. Besides, what would happen if you faced an opponent who disabled or destroyed your support equipment?"

"That's easy for you to say! Your quirk lets you go flying around the arena. My quirk doesn't even let me propel myself around like Blasty's does."

"Did you forget how many times I slipped and slammed into the wall?" Izuku countered.

Emily sighed. "I just never realized how far back I was when it came to training my body."

"Too many heroes have grown complacent thanks to All Might," Izuku pointed out, "which is why the gap between the top heroes and everyone else has grown so large. So many heroes are ok with simply being good enough."

Emily waited for Izuku to continue, but nothing came. Curious, she peered over the couch, only to see that he had pulled his meal out of the microwave and was preparing to eat. With a groan she stood up and made her way to the fridge, pulling it open to grab one of the prepared meals that Majestic had made available.

"You and Himi are so similar, always pushing yourselves. It's why I need to get better." Emily softly said to herself as she closed the door to the fridge.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Emily sighed. "I just wish I wasn't so sore after training."

Izuku gave her a sympathetic look. "My training was rough, but in the end, it was worth it."

"Of course it was! You got that crazy quirk out of it!"

Izuku blushed and rubbed the back of his head. You don't know how right you are.

"I-I just got lucky. If people weren't so quick to write me off, you know I would have gotten it sooner."

"Story of your family," Emily heated her meal in the microwave before she collapsed into a chair at the table.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked.

Emily looked at him as she grabbed a pair of chopsticks and pulled them apart. "Everyone kept underestimating the two of you, and look at you now," she twirled one of the chopsticks in her left hand while she pointed the right one at Izuku. "Both of your quirks are crazy powerful. It makes me a little jealous."

"W-well, who knows what would happen if your quirk awakened?"

Emily frowned, "You know how rare those are. Even in a life-or-death situation, there's only a slim chance of it actually happening. Otherwise, everyone would put themselves in mortal danger to try and force their quirks to awaken."

Izuku felt the pieces of the puzzle click into place. "You're pushing yourself this week because of Himi, aren't you?"

Emily squawked and dropped one of her chopsticks. "Wh-what makes you say that?"

Izuku smiled. "Well, your reaction told me everything I need to know."

Emily squeaked as she retrieved her chopstick. "You know your sister was the first one to call me on my bullshit - she always was one step behind the rest of the class. Her quirk doesn't give her a direct advantage in combat the way most of ours do, and we both know how she does on tests. But! She has that drive of hers, pushing herself to prove she deserves to be in our class just as much as the rest of us. In many ways, she's just as stubborn as I am."

A faint blush dusted Emily's cheeks as she thought about Himiko. "And then her quirk awakened. You know just as well as I do that she's not going to let that make her complacent. I just - I don't want to be left behind."

Izuku was giving Emily a funny look, trying to work out the deeper meaning in her words when his phone went off. Looking at his phone, he saw it was a message from Ochako. Smiling, he looked at the message before typing out a quick response.

"Sounds like you're not the only one pushing yourself," Izuku said as he set his phone down and looked at Emily. "Uraraka was also complaining about how hard Gunhead's training was today."

"Yeah well, not all of us tortured ourselves for ten months. Compared to that, anything you do this week would seem easy."

Izuku laughed. "I guess you're right. Maybe you should try some intensive training over summer break?"

Emily glared at him. "I am going to push myself, but I am not going to torture myself."

Izuku laughed and shook his head as they dove into their meals, eating in relative silence. Once they were both finished, they moved to the common area and pulled out their quirk analysis notebooks. Nezu had assigned them homework to analyze the quirks of Majestic and his sidekicks, and they were looking forward to a couple of relaxing hours going over the new quirks before calling it a night.

AN: Sorry for the delay on this! Real Life got in the way, and I wasn't happy with how the chapter looked last night, so I decided to give it another day before releasing it. Hopefully I will be back to my regular Sunday release next week.