Izuku POV

I was flying over Hosu, looking for any sign of Kaina, when I spotted a fire raging nearby. I quickly flew down to see what was happening and spotted a big creature that looked similar to the Nomu from the USJ.

Seeing it about to attack a hero who was on the ground, I flew down, landing on the thing, my claws easily tearing through it. Looking around, I saw a few other Nomu fighting the other heroes. A smile crept onto my face as I charged towards the creatures.

——

No one POV

Ryukyu was flying over the streets, looking for any sign of civilians in the area so she could get them to safety. Once she got everyone out of the area, she began to fly back to help take care of the Nomu situation.

Once she arrived, she saw something she wasn't expecting. Izuku was blocking a punch from a Nomu while an injured hero was on the ground behind him. Suddenly, his free arm shot forward, tearing through the flesh of the Nomu, its limp body falling to the ground.

She landed, seeing that the area was clear. Izuku turned around, seeing the hero on the ground and began reaching his hand out. "Hey, you alright?"

The hero began to crawl back. "Ah! S-Stay back!"

Izuku sighed to himself and turned to see Ryukyu watching him. "Ryukyu, where's Lady Nagant?"

"She's out with Emerald Force and Miruko looking for Stain. What are you doing here?"

Izuku walked up to Ryukyu. "I got a bad feeling and flew here. Kaina texted me that you were taking her here. Do you know which direction she was headed?"

"No, I didn't see. She left with Miruko while I was helping civilians." Izuku turn to fly away, looking for the three when Ryukyu, put a hand on his shoulder. "After this, we need to talk about a couple things."

Izuku was confused but nodded before taking off into the sky. Once he was high enough, he began looking around for any sign of where Kaina or Izumi could be. Then he felt his phone go off and looked at it, seeing a text from Kaina with a location. Izuku looked at it and it only took a second for him to realize what it meant before looking around for where it was.

——

Izumi was running through the alleyways, looking for Stain. She felt nervous about fighting someone who had already killed many heroes and injured many more beyond the point of being able to fight again.

Izumi clenched her fists as she tried to remain focused on her mission and heard the sound of a struggle. She quickly rushed over to find Iida was on the ground with Stain standing over him, his sword stabbed into Iida's shoulder.

"All of you fake heroes deserve to die." Stain pulled his sword out of Iida's shoulder, aiming it at his head.

Before he could kill him though, Izumi came rushing in, kicking Stain into the wall behind him, the bricks cracking from the impact. Izumi moved between Stain and Iida, waiting for the vigilante to get up.

Iida was angrily shouting at Izumi to leave but she wasn't paying any attention. 'That… that was the easiest time I've had controlling One for All. Ms Miruko's training is really paying off.'

Stain got up off the ground and glared at Izumi. "So there's more of you fakes here."

Izumi steeled her nerves and prepared to fight the killer vigilante. "You're not killing anyone tonight, Stain. I'm gonna make sure of it."

Stain quickly threw knives at Izumi, which were quickly deflected with her telekinetic powers. "Hm. Multiple quirks then?" Stain liked his lips and grabbed his sword, pointing it at Izumi. "You'll still die like the rest."

"Izumi, you need to leave! If you stay here, I'll arrest you too for vigilantism!"

Izumi looked back at Iida, about to yell at him, when she felt a huge pain in her shoulder and looked to see a knife was stuck in her. She looked back at Stain and saw another knife flying towards her and quickly used her telekinesis to deflect it to the wall.

'Damnit! Only one arm. Just remember, focus. You don't need to beat him, only stall until help arrives.' Stain jumped towards Izumi, aiming his sword at her.

——

Kaina was running on the rooftops of buildings, looking for alleyways were Stain could be hiding. As she was running, she began to hear yelling that sounded like… "Iida? Why is he yelling? Unless…" She took off in the direction of Iida's yelling, hoping she was wrong.

When she arrived, she saw Izumi dodging Stain's sword as he was trying to cut her in two. 'Hm, looks like Miruko's training is paying off. But she can't keep that up forever.' Kaina quickly sent her location to a few people.

Kaina loaded her gun and took aim. With a quick shot, she broke Stain's sword, shattering the blade. Quickly tearing another piece of hair off, she loaded her gun, keeping ready to fire again.

Stain looked at the hilt, discarding it. "So there's an infestation here, huh?" He looked up at Kaina as she kept her steely gaze at him, not a hint of emotion seen on her.

Stain threw another of his knives at Kaina, but she simply shot threw it, the moment it left his hand, shattering it and nearly shooting Stain. "The next shot won't miss, Stain. So I'd recommend you take your next actions very carefully."

Stain looked at her, judging her words. Before he could do anything a figure jumped over Kaina, and quickly fell down, aiming a kick at him.

He couldn't react in time as the figure unleashed a destructive kick, destroying the ground underneath them along with the walls around them, knocking Stain out.

"You alright, Izumi?"

Izumi immediately perked up at hearing the voice of her teacher. "Yeah. J-just a little injured, Ms Miruko."

She walked up to the girl, pointing a finger at Izumi's shoulder. "You call that "a little injured"?" Izumi lowered her head, looking at the ground. "*sigh You're way too much like Izuku sometimes. Always running into trouble and putting too much on yourself."

"S-sorry."

Miruko just looked at Izumi for a second before putting a hand on the girl's uninjured shoulder. "Come on, we need to get you to a doctor and get you treated." Miruko looked over her shoulder at Stain then up to Kaina who was still on top of the building. "Hey, you got something with you to restrain this guy?"

Kaina jumped down, easily landing next to the rabbit hero. "Yeah. I've got some cuffs in one of my pouches. Thanks for coming when you did. I really didn't want to have to shoot him."

Kaina pulled out a pair of cuffs, locking them around Stain's wrists. Izumi used her telekinesis to carry him and the injured out, Iida yelling being ignored.

——

On the street, Miruko had Izumi lay against a brick wall while they waited for the police and ambulance to arrive. As they did, everyone noticed someone running from around the corner, seeing it was Shoka. She ran up to the group, panting a bit.

"I… I got a text from Kaina with a location. Is everything okay?"

Izumi nodded. "Yeah. Everything's fine now. We dealt with the situation already."

Shoka nodded before seeing Izumi's shoulder and freaking out, running up to her best friend. "Izumi, holy crap! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Shoka looked at Izumi worriedly, nodding.

The group waited for the arrival of the police, Shoka sitting by Izumi's side, Kaina spotted something flying towards them at high speed. At first she thought it was Izuku, but as it got closer, the more it looked like a Nomu. The same kind that attacked them on the train.

She quickly prepared to take it down but stopped. The Nomu crashed into the ground, leaving a crater. As the dust kicked up, a pair of blood red eyes could seen peering through.

Izuku slowly walked out of the dust cloud, his eyes returning to normal the moment they saw Kaina standing there smiling at him. "Well, you certainly like to make an entrance, don't you Scale face."

"I got your text with the location. I flew here as fast as I could and saw that thing headed here too. What happened?"

Kaina shrugged. "Not much. Just took down Stain." As she looked at Izuku, she noticed the blood on him. "Wait, are you…"

Izuku looked down and saw the blood. "Oh, no I'm fine. This is just Nomu blood. Don't worry." Kaina nodded, walking up to Izuku, kissing him.

"Good."

——

Izumi was laying in her hospital bed, looking out the window of her room thinking about the fight with Stain. As she was, her door opened and Miruko and Izuku walked in.

Izumi looked at the two, smiling a bit. "Hey Ms Miruko, Izuku. Why are you two here?"

Miruko walked up, sitting in the chair next to her bed. "You did well, kid. You managed to stall for time until help could arrive. But you lost focus and got hurt. Luckily it wasn't anything serious and you should heal up by tomorrow thanks to the doctors here."

Izumi nodded. "Yeah." Izumi looked at her shoulder. "I might have been able to fight him normally if I didn't get the knife in my shoulder. I only lost focus for a second and took my eyes off my opponent and could have died. I don't think he was trying to kill me though. If he was, I probably would have died to that knife."

Izuku walked up to her. "Well, that probably means he saw something in you that he wanted to test. You've really changed a lot since we first saw each other again. He probably saw what I see in you, the heart to be a true hero. Someone who saves for the sake of saving innocent people. But you were still reckless."

"What? But if I didn't go in, Iida and Native would both have died!"

"Yeah, they probably would have. But the reckless part was running in, not even knowing if backup was coming or not. You didn't make any attempt to contact anyone. Your lucky Kaina heard Iida's yelling and decided to investigate. If anything different happened, you would have died."

"Would you have done anything different?! Even if I did die, I would have done it, trying to save someone!"

"That by itself isn't an issue. What is, is that you weren't prepared to fight that opponent and would have died!" Izumi angrily stared at the ground and Izuku sighed to himself. "Thinking like that grows complacency. You can't stop moving forward and getting stronger, alright? But… I'm proud of you."

Izumi's eyes widened in realization of what she heard. She looked up to see Izuku about to leave her hospital room, standing in the door way.

"Keep doing what you're doing, yeah?" He took one quick glance back at the injured girl before stepping out of the room and closing the door.

"He's only saying that because he cares, you know." Izumi looked at Miruko, who was looking at the door then to her. "He was worried that you wouldn't be able to continue as a hero after that knife injury and was extremely relieved to learn you'd be fine."

Izumi thought about what she said. 'He… really cares.' She began to grip her sheets tightly. "I won't waste what I have. I won't throw my life away. I'll keep moving forward until I'm as strong, no stronger than Izuku so I can keep him safe, like how I should have when we were kids. It won't make up for what I did to him, but it's the best I can do for him for being so kind to me."

——

Izuku was walking through the hospital halls, thinking about Izumi, Kaina walking closely behind him, worried. "Everything's okay, Izuku. She'll be fine."

"I know. She's just… too much like me." Izuku stopped in the middle of the hallway, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I could feel it, you know. When Izumi got stabbed? I felt it. I don't know why. It's never happened before."

Kaina walked up to Izuku, putting her hand on his. As they stood there, Ryuko walked up to the couple. "Izuku, it's about time we talk about something." Ryuko led him and Kaina through the halls, towards a private room where Rumi was already waiting.