Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

7. Foundation of a Squad

… okay, seriously, what the hell was she even doing here?

Huddled in the bushes, out of sight of anyone that might walk by on the sidewalk, Kaoruko Awata let out a tired sigh as she reached for her phone in her costume's pocket, grumbling. There were a few days that she disliked her costume - normally when she had to deal with guys who couldn't help but let their eyes wander, or when she got into a fight and remembered, oh yeah, she had absolutely no protection for her stomach and had to nurse deep purple bruises on her blue skin for days.

But today was the rare time she hated her costume because of her environment. As in, having to deal with twigs and dirt and leaves and praying that there wasn't any poison ivy in here.

Still though, she had been given an assignment by Sir, and she couldn't let him down.

Finally managing to pull out her work phone, she angled it onto the side, subtly poking her hands out of the bush, and began to zoom in with the camera. Yep, just as Sir had told her - two students working on clearing off a beach filled to the brim with garbage, with a tall, skinny guy coaching them. What Sir didn't mention, however, was the presence of a third teenager working with them. Cocking her head slightly, Kaoruko zoomed in a bit closer with the phone's camera, waiting for the brown-haired girl to look in her direction, and then snapping a picture, pulling it back into the bush to double check and nodding in satisfaction that it was clear enough for Sir to make out a few details.

As she continued to snap a few more pictures of the beach and its current occupants, however, Kaoruko couldn't help but frown - normally she wouldn't question the orders her employer would give her, seeing as she was a bit too intimidated by him to even try, but she honestly had no idea what she was even doing here. She didn't know why Sir was so obsessed with what was going on here, three kids doing community service. There was a part of her that was crying on the inside - she'd went through high school, graduation, the gruelling and harsh competition that was sidekick applications, and then Sir's extremely strict and harsh interview, and finally achieved her dream - and now here she was, spying on a couple of kids from the bushes.

It wasn't like this was a villain operation, so what was the point of -

"This is a stupid idea, Set."

Trying to stop herself from yelping too loudly at the sound of a feminine, stoic voice coming up right beside her, Kaoruko quickly brought her head and hands back into the bush. Unfortunately for her, she ended up leaning back a bit too far and collapsed on her back with a small thud, shaking the bush. Fortunately for her, it seemed that whoever was passing by didn't notice at all, so maybe Kaoruko could count on some blessings today.

"I'm just saying, it'll be a nice surprise for Ken!" Another feminine voice, this one a bit deeper and crasser than the one before, responded enthusiastically. "Like, she sneaks around, pretends that she's some secret agent withholding important information - it'll be funny to sneak up on her, won't it?"

"While you do raise good points, and it probably would be funny to scare the shit out of her, there is one point that you aren't considering."

"What's that?"

"It isn't any of our damn business."

"I acknowledge that Ken is entitled to her secrets, and choose to ignore that fact. C'mon, Yui, it's not like Ken's going to beat us up if we swing by. Worse that could happen is that she tells us to go away, and we both know her, it won't be anything personal. If her coach doesn't want us to be here, then we'll apologize and leave."

"You also fail to consider that it's very hot out. I was having a nice day in my house's air conditioning before you broke down my door and dragged me out here. I started sweating literally the moment we stepped outside, so my hatred of you right now is incomprehensible."

"We can go to the beach right after this. Y'know, a different beach than trash city down there."

"Tempting."

"If we swing by my place before we go, I'll wear my two piece."

"You've sold me."

The two teenagers chatting and (maybe?) flirting finally began to fade away as they moved down the sidewalk, letting Kaoruko relax from the position she had frozen in within the bush, letting out a pathetic grunt as she flopped onto the dirty ground. Beginning to grumble, she tried to crawl out of the shrubbery, letting out several yelps of pain as she scraped herself against some stupid branch or thorn in the bush, and flinching when one particular branch swung up and smacked her in the face, making her feel thankful that she was wearing her gas mask so she didn't have to lose an eye.

Finally rolling out of the bush onto the ground, Kaoruko let out a small sigh as she stood up on shaky legs, brushing some leaves and dirt off of her body and glancing around. Now that she was out of that bush, she made plans to finally get back to the agency, so she could give a report of three kids cleaning garbage on a beach, hopefully in an energetic and preppy way so her boss wouldn't tie her up in a tickling machine, and then after that, she could go cry in the bathroom.

However, as she began to approach her bike, her phone suddenly began to buzz in her hand, indicating someone was calling her. Wrinkling her brow, Kaoruko raised the phone screen up to see who it was - and let out a small hiss, wincing.

Okay, Kao, she reminded herself, trying to hype herself up and pressing the green button as she raised it to her ear, remember, enthusiastic.

"Hello, Sir!"

"Bubble Girl," Nighteye's cold voice filled her ear, making her gulp a bit as she reached her bike - oh, boy, he sounded even grumpier than usual, "you left this morning for the assignment I gave you and haven't been in contact with us for a few hours."

"O-Of course, Sir," She straightened up, clearing her throat as she glanced around the parking lot, "I did run into a hold up at a local convenience store, and had to step in to help. I only just arrived at the beach twenty minutes ago."

"Hm … alright, I see that you did have that happen, I just received the paperwork details from the police in my email," Nighteye confirmed, which let Kaoruko breathe a sigh of relief as she heard the sound of keys being clicked on his keyboard, "so you're at the beach now?"

"I was just about to leave. I have the pictures you wanted me to take on the work phone, I was about to send them to you."

"Alright then. So what did you see? And remember what will happen if you give me your report without any enthusiasm."

Kaoruko gulped, briefly flashing back to horrible memories of being strapped to a machine with feathers tickling her armpits, sides and knees, and shuddered.

"R-right. Well, as - as you mentioned this morning before I left, Sir," She recited, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible so as not to earn her boss's ire, "The two teenagers have been working to clear away the garbage on the beach. I did arrive here pretty late, but from the looks on their faces and from how sweaty they are, they've been here for a while. Presumably, like you said, since five o'clock this morning. From what I can see, they've made quite a dent in clearing up the beach," She took a moment to glance back at the mountains of garbage still waiting to be cleared, gulping a bit again, "I've taken a few pictures of the beach for you to compare with the one you took three months ago for comparison."

"So they're making headway … anything else to note?"

"Yes, Sir. There's actually a third person working with them now." She heard her boss shift suddenly in his chair, a clear sign that she had said something that caught his interest. "From what I saw during my surveillance, she's also helping the two of them with cleaning up the garbage. From my spot, I watched them working separately and together to clear away the trash. They were running to get a few tires up the beach to the parking lot, and as I was leaving they were beginning to push a car across the beach."

"Describe the third person to me."

"Not much to describe, Sir," She admitted, remembering the girl she had taken a picture of, "brown hair, a bit smaller than the other two students, a tad bit plump. She was wearing workout clothes and has similar scratches and bruises as the other two. The three of them were quite friendly with each other, so based on body language, I believe this is not her first time on this beach. She also has some kind of gravity quirk, I watched her use it to lift up some garbage, but I wasn't able to see how it worked from my spot or if she did anything."

"So he's taken on yet another student …" She heard Nighteye mutter over the line, not sounding very happy with this new information. Gulping, Kaoruko debated whether or not to say anything else, or just remain quiet and not say a word and pray that she didn't have to get strapped into the tickle machine, less she give into her terror and tell him that she would be quitting the hero business and starting a new career in making bubble liquid. And then, she heard him sigh.

"... very well. Thank you, Bubble Girl, you can come back to the office and work on the paperwork from this morning's convenience store investigation. I'll be out when you get back."

"A-alright, Sir. Is there anything you need me to tell Centipeder when I get back?"

"No, I'll speak to him before I leave. I need to visit someone at once." She heard him sigh again, letting out an unhappy grunt. "This has gotten ridiculous. If I can't talk sense into him, then I'll just bring in someone else who will."

"Uh … Sir?"

"Never mind, Bubble Girl, I'm thinking out loud. You've done good work."

With that, Nighteye hung up on her, making the blue-skinned woman sigh as she slowly lowered the phone. Putting it in her pocket and putting one hand on her bike, she glanced down at her clothing, seeing the rips and tears in her black leggings, and scratches along her stomach and arms. And if she looked carefully, she realized that she had a big scratch on her gas mask.

Yep. She was starting to hate her job.

---

"Alright ... you two ready? We're not going to stop until we get this to the hill."

"H-hold on a sec, let me just adjust my grip … yeah, okay, I'm - I'm ready now."

"Yep! All ready to go."

"Okay ... on the count of three, Uraraka and I push, and Midoriya, you pull. One -"

"W-wait, is it 'one, two, push', or 'one, two, three' and then push?"

"... 'one, two, three' and then push."

"O-okay, just wanted to make sure."

"Uh … yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't sure either."

"Okay, okay, now that we've cleared that up, let's do this."

"Okay. One -"

"Two -

"Three -"

"- PUSH!" Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka all shouted at the same time, and began pushing the SUV as hard as they could. Thanks to All Might positioning them beforehand, Itsuka stood at the back, shoving against the trunk of the car with all her might as her feet sank into the sand; Ochako, standing near the open driver's door, pushed with her whole body to get the car moving, shoving herself forward as best she could while she let out a small whine; and Izuku, at the front of the car and grabbing the bumper, pulled with everything he had, straining as he prayed he didn't fall on his butt and get run over.

Much to their relief, the car began slowly moving as they worked together to move it, meaning that they didn't accidentally leave it in 'park' this time, but they couldn't really celebrate that due to how heavy the thing was, and the fact they were trying to move it uphill.

"That's right!" All Might called out encouragingly, pacing back and forth in his weakened form from his spot near the stairs. "Just get it to the hill!"

All three of them groaning in pain, the trio nonetheless worked together to get the car up the hill and towards the parking lot, going one step at a time as the sun shined mercilessly above them and drenched them in sweat from the heat. It had been three months since Itsuka, Izuku and Ochako had agreed to work together to clear off the beach, and …

… honestly, Itsuka was kind of nervous about the fact that everything was going surprisingly smoothly. Usually because the universe would swiftly kick them in the ass when they didn't expect it.

Indeed, ever since Ochako had joined them, they hadn't run into any other major complications in the last three months while working on the beach, with Itsuka being tasked by All Might to move the heaviest items they could find in the massive piles of trash. Ochako and All Might had sat together to make up her own training plan that day when she had arrived, with the two of them ending up heading to her and Izuku's apartment later that day to talk with her parents about a training plan. Thankfully, Inko had told Taiyo and Miwa where she had been the night before that and what she had talked about with All Might, so they did take it a lot better than the pro hero had expected when Ochako told them that she wanted to train with Izuku at the beach (although, when they had seen the training regiment All Might had prepared for her, Taiyo had nearly flipped the kitchen table and Miwa had given All Might an eerie smile that had haunted his dreams for weeks afterwards), and it was decided that Ochako would be taking on a similar training regiment as Izuku's, and she would be spending an equal amount of time training both her quirk and her body.

Izuku, meanwhile, spent half his day moving stuff out of the junkyard, and half the time trying to shoot out a bolt of lightning - but one of those objectives was going a lot better than the other. After a few weeks of tripping over himself and flopping against the ground, Izuku managed to finally start keeping pace with Itsuka, probably (and mostly) due to the fact that whenever Ochako looked around and saw him flopped on the ground, she'd yell out an encouraging "You can do it, Deku!" and he'd hop right up and start sprinting down the beach. As All Might had predicted, having Ochako on the beach to encourage Izuku benefited the boy greatly, with there being points that he had even outpaced Itsuka and beat her to the truck to dump off his trash.

It wasn't just Ochako's presence that encouraged Izuku either - sometimes Itsuka would let a bit of frustration get to her, but the brown-haired girl's calming presence would sooth her and have her approach her problem from a different angle. Although it was pretty funny to see Ochako herself break down into a swearing, angry mess, which was something All Might nor Itsuka had any idea how to comfort ("You get used to it," Izuku had advised Itsuka while they watched Ochako throw a lead pipe into the sky while yelling profanities, "just let her get it out of her system, and for the love of all that is holy, don't offer her mochi during the rage, you'd think it'd calm her down but it only gets her angrier."). And of course, while Ochako wasn't immune to feeling frustrated or tired, one look from Izuku or an encouraging call from Itsuka would make her jump up, even more fiery than usual, and get back into training with increased vigour.

Although … as it was mentioned, Izuku was doing rather well with the physical training - but as for his quirk training … well, hopefully today will be different.

This had been their life for the last three months, jogging up and down the beach while groaning in pain, training as hard as they could. Itsuka dragged refrigerators through the sand with ropes wrapped around her shoulders, Ochako floated garbage up the parking lot while trying hard not to puke her guts out, and Izuku tried as hard as he could to shoot off a bolt of lightning, and was unsuccessful.

With that said, though, while everything was proceeding smoothly, that didn't mean that things would be getting any easier.

Once spring had turned into summer, the days at the beach turned even more heinous and torturous due to the unrelenting heat. It wasn't just Ochako puking pretty much everyday anymore, although she at least had the excuse of it being due to her quirk. Itsuka was just thankful that she didn't really care to maintain some girly image around Izuku at this point of their training, seeing as one time last week, due to an intense heatwave they were training in the middle of, she didn't manage to reach the garbage can in time and threw up on the ground from dehydration. Thankfully, the sight of his successor's lunch making a reappearance so violently prompted All Might to let them take an extra long break that day and lay down in the water, while he went to the truck to get the mints, ginger ale and salted pretzels he bought for Ochako whenever she needed to get the taste of vomit out of her mouth.

Due to a complete lack of rain, training was getting kind of dangerous, what with Izuku nearly getting his head taken off when he tried weight lifting and his sweaty palms meant the bar he had been lifting with weak arms came down on his neck, with All Might and Itsuka panicking and rushing over to help him; Ochako had fainted at one point due to the unrelenting heat and slammed face first down onto the ground; and Itsuka had slipped and pulled something in her back, prompting her to need a ride home from All Might so her her parents could lay her down on her bed all day long, groaning in pain and praying she didn't break anything.

And that wasn't even bringing into account the training the three of them were also going through with her grandpa, Itsuka shuddered as she shoved the truck with all her might - if she had any remaining doubt about her grandfather going easier on her than the other students, they had been promptly eviscerated by now. Every weekend, after working at the beach in the morning until eleven o'clock, at which time they'd have one hour to eat lunch, Itsuka, Ochako and Izuku would return home with the orange-haired girl right at twelve to head into the dojo downstairs, dressed in white gis, where Teko would put them through as much hell as All Might was, if not more so. At least All Might was pretty nice to them despite the pain he put them through - Itsuka's grandfather had no such kindness for the three of them.

Since Izuku and Ochako were amateurs, Teko would bark at them and scare the shit out of them with threats and harsh punishments when they failed, even having Itsuka demonstrate some techniques on them (she tried not to feel too bad whenever she had to judo flip Izuku to the floor, or punch Ochako hard enough in the stomach that she keeled over and tried not to vomit for the uptenth time that day). And that wasn't even counting the times he would teach them complex kicks and punches, and usually demonstrated on themselves, meaning that Izuku and Ochako weren't the only ones wincing and walking around with bruises - Itsuka had nursed a particularly good one in the side for a few days.

Say what she would about her grandpa, at least he wasn't a biased teacher. Nor a nice one.

At the very least, though, Ochako seemed to have taken a liking to the martial arts training; since the Kendou Dojo taught mixed martial arts, she was started with karate, and while she tended to get hit by Itsuka more than she got to hit her, she rolled with the punches pretty well, and had a strange fiery passion whenever she got to spar with her and Izuku, which had been explained to Itsuka by Izuku that his best friend had always been passionate about competitions. There had even been a point a month ago that she had gotten a good hit on Itsuka and sent the orange-haired girl flying into the wall so hard she almost had a concussion to deal with, with Itsuka having to explain to Setsuna and Yui that no, she didn't get concussed by a mugger when her best friends had seen the nasty bruise on her cheek.

As for Izuku, while he wasn't exactly on the level of Itsuka or Ochako, he did show a bit more improvement than when he had started - at least he could do more than five pushups now. Instead of Ochako's karate, he did take a surprising interest in taekwondo and kickboxing, with Teko emphasizing Izuku's training by having him frequently at a kickstand while teaching the young boy kicking drills and sentencing him to fifty pushups every time he failed.

So yes, training was hell, and she probably puked more times in the last three months than she had in her entire life, but at least they were improving.

And … honestly, the fact that Itsuka had Izuku and Ochako there really helped keep her spirits up. If she had to do this on her own, she probably would be utterly miserable right now, and she knew that the reason she always returned home in good spirits no matter what was because of her new friends' presence on the beach and in the dojo. It was thankful that, after their first rough encounter, Itsuka and Ochako became fast friends, the two girls sitting together whenever they had their lunch break and chatting about whatever was on their minds, while Izuku excitedly got to talk to All Might about the pro hero's adventures over the year, which the Symbol of Peace was more than happy to reminisce about.

As for Izuku, Itsuka always made sure to ask him about his day whenever they met after school, with Ochako giving him a hard glare if he underplayed some bad thing that had happened. Ever since finding out about his school life, Itsuka made a promise to herself to always be in his corner, like he had been in hers when Nighteye came stomping through on the day that they had met. She always made sure to greet him with a high-five, which never failed to put a smile on his face. At the very least, she was relieved that she no longer felt nervous whenever he turned on mutter mode, instead patiently listening with Ochako for the green-haired boy to finish his thoughts before she resumed the conversation.

"One, two, three!"

With Itsuka's call from the back, they continued to push the SUV forward, all of them groaning and straining against the heavy vehicle.

"One, two, three!"

"Almost there," Izuku grunted out loud, glancing down and seeing the large 'X' that All Might had drawn in the sand for them, and prayed that he didn't lose his footing and land hard on his butt.

"One, two, and ... three!"

With three loud grunts, they finally got the SUV directly over the 'X', right beside the hill leading up to the parking lot, and the moment they had it where they wanted, Ochako reached into the hot car for the stick, sweating even more from how intensely hot it was in the vehicle, and put it in park.

"And we're good," She managed to grunt, slipping on her feet and sliding out of the car and onto the ground, laying there in defeat. With a sigh, Itsuka leaned against the back of the car, panting raggedly, and Izuku imitated Ochako and sat down in the sand, laying down and staring with a bleary look up into the blue, cloudless sky.

"Wow," He managed to rasp out, hearing Ochako grumble as she turned her head to glance at him, too tired to even try to do it with dignity, "I think this was the first car we lugged around that didn't almost snap my spine in half."

"You say that now," Itsuka countered in an exhausted voice, flopping onto the ground beside Ochako on her hands and knees and trying to catch her breath, "but we still gotta get this thing up the hill."

"... ah, crap."

"Well, you'll cross that bridge when we get to it," All Might shook his head a bit at the three defeated teenagers on the ground, smiling a bit as he picked up the cooler from where he had put it in the sand and opened it, "I think this is a good spot for us to take a small break. Young Midoriya, before we get the car up the hill, we'll take a moment to have you practice firing off a shot of lightning, and Young Uraraka, I'll have you move the rest of the scrap from the pile over there. Young Kendou -"

"I'll grab the bench," Itsuka guessed, looking pleadingly up at the pro hero and weakly extending her hand and making pathetic grabbing motions, "I know, All Might. Water, please."

All Might chuckled at her desperation, but still placated her and gave her one of the water bottles from the cooler, before handing the other two to Ochako and Izuku. The three of them desperately unscrewed the caps from their bottles, and each took a very long, greedy drink of cold water, Itsuka not even minding some of it splashing down her t-shirt as she drank it all in one long gulp.

Once they were thankfully refreshed, the three teenagers sighed in relief, and finally managed to sit up from where they had been sprawled on the ground, wincing a bit and wiping their mouths and foreheads, while All Might wiped his own forehead a bit (jeez, it was hot out today), and grunted as he moved to take a seat beside them on the ground.

"So," Itsuka finally managed to catch her breath, leaning against the tire of the car they had just dragged across the beach, "is this going to be what our schedule's like for the rest of summer break?"

"Essentially," All Might nodded in confirmation, reaching into his back pocket to grab the papers he had been working on, opening them up and reading what he had been writing a few nights ago, "I'll have to modify our training regiment a little bit more now that your summer break has officially begun, and I'll have to confer with your grandfather a bit more, Young Kendou, before I make any final decisions. But I think that yes, for now this will be basically how we'll be going forward for the rest of the summer - a full day here every day until the weekend, where you'll do mornings here, and then return to the dojo to train."

"Yaaaaay."

"I don't suppose," Ochako tried to say in a joking manner, although they could pick up a faint pleading in her voice, "that we could convince you to let us sleep in another hour if we're talking about revising our schedules?"

"Really?" Itsuka teased a bit, nudging the brown-haired girl with her foot and smirking through the pain she was in. "Three months of this and you're still not used to getting up early?"

"I'm not a morning person!" Ochako defended herself, poking the orange-haired girl back with her own foot, making Itsuka let out a pathetic 'neyuh' noise as they nudged each other with their shoes. "I'm not a psychopath like you two, I can't just jump up immediately at the first alarm at four in the freaking morning, I need to, like - set three separate alarms so I can get up on time."

"That sounds more like a 'you' problem than an 'us' problem."

"Psychopath!"

"In any case," All Might chuckled in a good-natured wayas the two girls stuck their tongues out at each other, shaking his head while Izuku smiled at his friends' antics, "as much as I wish I could let you three sleep in a bit longer, Young Uraraka, I don't want us to divert too far from our original plan now that we have a lot more spare time on our hands - and eventually, once summer break is done, we will be returning to the original plan."

"Booooo," Ochako groaned, flopping onto the sandy ground again and making Izuku and Itsuka snort.

"Basically," All Might shook his head and grinned at the brown-haired girl, "what I think we'll be doing is stretching out how much time we spend here Monday through Thursday, spending all our time here, but on the weekend, we can change things up so that you three can spend all day at the dojo with Mr. Kendou. I'm sure your grandfather would be more than happy to have you three train there all day at the dojo - I'm pretty sure the only reason we've been able to spend as much time on this beach is because he's been satisfied with training you primarily on the weekend."

"And what about the Fridays?" Izuku asked, finally managing to find his voice after drinking the last of his water with a small gasp and wiping his lip, "You didn't mention what we'd be doing then."

"Well," All Might grinned, "I'm sure Young Uraraka will be happy to hear that I'm considering giving you three that day off to recover every week. At least until we get back to our usual schedule."

"Yaaaay," Ochako dully cheered, a bit too tired to do it enthusiastically as she remained sprawled out on the ground.

"Are - are you sure we can afford to take a day off, though?" Izuku asked, feeling a bit worried as he leaned against the car and thinking back to what he'd been coming up with for the last few months in his journal, "It's just that - you know, we don't want to fall behind, and -"

"Midoriya," Itsuka chuckled, drawing his attention to her as she leaned forward from where she had been sitting against the tire of the SUV, "I don't know if you've noticed, but we've been kinda working here non-stop for the last three months. I think us having a single day off every week isn't going to kill us."

"And you must also consider," All Might raised a finger to follow up to her point, "that since the three of you started working on the beach, we've gotten a lot farther ahead than I originally had planned for this time. In fact, I'm a bit nervous that we're going to end up finishing long before the original day I thought we'd be done!"

"Erk." Ochako winced, looking up from where she had been laying down as she realized that was technically her fault. "Uh - sorry about throwing a wrench in your plan, All Might."

"No need to be, Young Uraraka - I'm certain that all three of you will be on track to finish before the entrance exam, and will achieve the results that we set out to. And remember, it's not just the practical you need to be worried about! You also need to study for the written exam as well."

The three of them nodded, understanding what All Might was saying - they'd already begun studying for the entrance exam, with Izuku and Ochako coming back from training every day to sit down in Izuku's room and read through text books of hero laws and the such, and Itsuka had made sure that she was also studying when she wasn't coming home exhausted or to work on her bike.

It was just … Izuku frowned a bit, rolling onto his side. He thought back to the independent training plan he had been writing up for the last few months, and had been trying to subtly follow. It was mostly jogs after dinner when everyone was asleep, and independent weight training, but he knew that it was necessary, due to his lack of progress with his quirk. What he couldn't do with his power, he'd have to make up for with additional physical training. Sure he was feeling more tired and exhausted than Itsuka and Ochako were, but thankfully they and All Might chalked it up to just him feeling tired as usual. He needed to continue to catch up to everyone after years of doing nothing, and how he had wasted three months of quirk training.

He'd just … keep it a secret for now. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he had a feeling that Ochako wouldn't like what he was doing.

"Anyway," All Might grinned at them, leaning back slightly and minding the wound on his stomach as he glanced between the three exhausted teenagers on the ground, and drawing Izuku's attention again, "now that we're on the topic of school - how has that been going for you all? How were your exams?"

"Pretty good," Ochako shrugged, finally managing to properly sit up as well and grunting slightly as she cracked her neck, "exams were pretty easy, but that's because Deku's pretty much been forcing me to study."

"I-it's just because your grades are - uh - actually, never mind."

"No, no, Midoriya," Itsuka smirked, watching with amusement as Ochako slowly turned towards Izuku, her expression turning cold, "go on. What are her grades like?"

"They - uh -" Izuku stammered, obviously trying to find a way out of the trap he just stumbled his way into. "- it's just - uh - er -"

"Careful what you say here, Deku," Ochako narrowed her eyes, "I can always just rip up the new notebook I got you for your birthday if you're thinking that my grades suck. That'll show you."

"I - I don't know how those two are related, but okay, I'll keep my mouth closed."

"Hm," Itsuka pouted, reaching around Ochako with her leg so she could poke Izuku, "I'm still mad about that, by the way."

"H-huh? Mad -? O-oh, yeah, my - my birthday. I really am sorry about that, Kendou."

"A heads up would've been great! From either of you!"

"In my defense, I've been really tired," Ochako shrugged guiltedly, glancing away awkwardly so she could avoid Itsuka's hard stare, "and I didn't even remember it was his birthday until we got home and there was a cake on the table. We had one slice and then immediately passed out."

"Huh," Itsuka raised an eyebrow, "how convenient."

"Kendou, we really are sorry!"

"Meh. Whatever," Itsuka turned away to pout, attempting to hide her smirk as Izuku and Ochako looked like they were trying to find a way to placate her, "I guess this just means that I'm rocking both of your worlds next year for your birthdays. July 15th, December 27th, mark your calendars. And speaking of that, remember: September 9th. Or I'm coming for both of you."

"We got it," Ochako quickly confirmed, "September 9th. Kendou's birthday. We'll remember."

"You'll remember her birthday and not equations we've gone over a hundred times," Izuku grumbled, and then realized he said that out loud and winced when Ochako whipped a glare at him, while Itsuka and All Might watched in amusement.

Before Izuku could find his way out of what was about to be a very brutal murder at the hands of his very sweet best friend, however, All Might's eyes trailed above them to the parking lot, still chuckling a bit - and then the laughter faded away, replaced by him straightening up and blinking a bit. This caught the attention of the three teenagers, with Izuku's panic, Ochako's coldness, and Itsuka's amusement fading away when the pro hero sat up with his brow wrinkled.

"Uh … All Might?" Ochako asked, feeling concerned, "What is it?"

"There's two teenage girls walking around in the parking lot."

"Huh? Really?" Itsuka wrinkled her brow as well as Izuku and Ochako shared a surprised glance, grunting as she managed to crawl up onto her knees, and looked up from her spot near the trunk of the SUV they had been pushing -

- and then immediately letting out a loud squeak, her eyes widening and her face paling in horror, and immediately dipped back into cover.

Izuku, Ochako and All Might watched as obvious panic filled Itsuka's face, looking around at them with widened eyes and reddening cheeks.

"It's Set! And Yui!" She gasped quietly, speaking in a whisper as though the two girls in the parking lot could somehow hear them.

"Wha - wait, it's your friends?" Izuku blinked in surprise, looking around. He knew all about Setsuna and Yui from stories Itsuka told him and Ochako about her childhood and her days at school, but they had never actually met them. Izuku began to get up to look around the car as well, but as he managed to get to his feet, Itsuka reached out and grabbed his wrist, dragging him back down to the ground.

"Don't look, you dummy! They don't know we're here!"

"H-how do you know that?" Ochako asked in a whisper, not really sure why they were whispering but doing so to appease her friend as All Might also tilted his head somewhat. "They can probably see All Might since he's just sitting out in the open."

"I just - okay, I don't know that," Itsuka gave them, groaning as she sat down on her butt and put her face in her hands, "but it's possible they don't know we're here, and it's okay that All Might's already been seen because he already dresses like he's homeless, he looks like he'd fit right in."

All Might sputtered indignantly at that, whipping his gaze down to his oversized blue t-shirt and baggy jeans as though to defend his fashion - and then grumbling as he conceded her point.

"Oh, man," Itsuka groaned again, "I wasn't careful enough. Shit, shit, shit!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I just - look, Set and Yui - they've been curious," She explained to the three of them, a bit muffled due to her hands over her mouth and her gaze locked on the ground, "about what exactly I've been doing here. Like - like I told them the story, and I thought it was good enough because they never really questioned it, but - but lately Set's wanted to come visit me while I was working for a while now, and - and I always told her that it's okay, that she doesn't want to swing by a junkyard."

"I-is that right …?" Izuku asked, his eyes trailing away from the orange-haired girl around the SUV absently …

… and then, moving careful around the corner, came the disembodied head of a green-haired girl with sharp teeth and mischievous eyes, barely managing to hide her snickers as her eyes locked on Itsuka's back.

Izuku jumped a bit, his eyes widening at the jarring sight before him, and Ochako let out a small squeak of surprise while All Might raised his eyebrow, but before any of them could point out the appearance of a decapitated, floating head, a similarly disembodied hand came from around the corner to hold up to her lips, making an obvious shushing gesture. Automatically, Izuku, Ochako and All Might closed their mouths, weirded out by the floating decapitated head.

"Y-yeah, I - I haven't told them anything specific," Itsuka continued to explain, the only one unaware of the head slowly floating around her to get closer, "and - and it's not like they've been demanding answers or anything, or getting angry at me. It's just - it's just when Set gets curious about something, she can't just let it go. She wants all the details."

"R-really …?" Ochako glanced at the green-haired head of the girl, seeing it nod in agreement to Itsuka's statement and widening her smirk.

"Yeah … it's just … I don't know how they found us," Itsuka sighed, lowering her hands and tapping her fingers together as the girl's head floated right beside her, her mouth barely an inch from her ear, and looking delighted that the orange-haired girl hadn't noticed her at all, "I've been really careful with not telling them where I've been going, or my bus route, or - or anything like that. Is - is it possible that they might've followed me here?"

"Nah," The girl finally spoke directly in Itsuka's ear in a stage whisper, grinning widely at the genius of her prank, "I just asked your mom where you've been going."

"AAAAH -!"

BAM

"Ow!"

Both Izuku and Ochako winced as Itsuka jumped about a mile high, a shriek escaping her lips - and her elbow came straight up, slamming straight into the green-haired girl's nose with enough force to send it flying away, blood escaping her nostrils as the head slammed into the sand. They heard the sound of a body thumping against the ground around the car, accompanied by a surprised 'hm', and quickly, both of them jumped up to look around as Itsuka whipped around.

Standing there was another girl, with dark hair and a comically straight face wearing a nice blue sundress, staring down at the headless body of a teenage girl in a white t-shirt and shorts, rolling around on the ground with its hands held up to where its nose would've been if there had been a head on its shoulders.

"Oh, crap - Set!" Itsuka gasped, leaping to her feet and running over to where the girl's head had landed, and winced when she saw blood leaking out of her nostrils. "Oh, man, I'm - I'm so sorry! I didn't - you just -"

"Nah, it's good, girl," Setsuna groaned, still looking a bit dazed and sounding stuffed up, "that was my fuck up. Can you just - ow, can you bring my head back to my body? Fucking ouch, I don't think you broke my nose, but it kinda feels like it."

"Y-yeah, of course, hold on a sec -"

It was with that that Izuku, Ochako and All Might moved around the car, blinking at the sight of Itsuka and this dark haired girl helping Setsuna's body sit up, and Itsuka put the head back on her neck. Once it was attached, Setsuna carefully climbed to her feet, letting out a small grunt as she held a hand over her mouth and reached for a handkerchief in her pocket to wipe away the blood on her face, and the other girl gave her friend an unamused look before turning back to Izuku, Ochako and the pro hero in disguise, sinking into a small bow.

"I'm sorry for our intrusion," She apologized on behalf of both of them, not really sounding all that sorry - or, you know, not sounding like anything, her voice being completely devoid of emotion - "Setsuna just wanted to surprise Itsuka, we didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"It's quite alright," All Might waved his hand good naturedly, relieved that he was in his weakened form unlike the last time a teenage girl came to this beach, "we were actually taking a small break when you arrived. So I assume you're both Young Kendou's friends?"

"Mm," She nodded in confirmation, straightening back up from her bow. "My name is Yui Kodai, and this is Setsuna Tokage."

"Hi!" The green-haired girl gave them a wave, finishing wiping away the blood and gingerly poking her nose as she gave them a smile. "And sorry about the prank, I just wanted to make Ken jump a bit. I forgot that she doesn't really do fight or flight, because she always chooses to fight."

"Don't try to sneak up on me, then," Itsuka shook her head, giving her best friend a pout as she pushed some of her hair out of her face, "a-anyway, what are you guys doing here?"

"Set just wanted to stop by to surprise you," Yui explained, glancing around at the mountains of garbage with a raised eyebrow, "normally I'd be satisfied with your explanation, but Setsuna wanted to poke her nose in your business and dragged me along for the ride. We're going to be headed to the beach after this - you know, a much cleaner one than here."

"Yeah, I get that," Itsuka grumbled, and then shook herself out of her little funk to take a step back and smile, gesturing to All Might. "Anyway, guys - this is my coach, Mr. Yagi. He's the one that's been supervising us while we clear away the garbage. He's also the one who came up with my training plan."

"Nice to meet you at last!" Setsuna happily greeted him while Yui gave him a polite nod, while All Might chuckled and raised his hand in greeting. "Ken complains about you all the time."

While All Might laughed loudly and Itsuka swatted Setsuna across the head, the orange-haired girl shook her head while blushing, already regretting the life choices she made that resulted in her best friends coming onto this beach, and turned to Izuku and Ochako, who had taken a step back so the orange-haired girl could do introductions.

"And this," She gestured to the two of them as Yui and Setsuna turned towards them, "is Midoriya and Uraraka, the training partners I told you guys about. Midoriya, Uraraka, this is Yui and Setsuna."

"H-hi!" Ochako tried to greet them cheerfully, wanting to look friendly and approachable instead of like she had been sprawled out in the sand a few minutes ago and gulping down water like she had been stranded in the desert. "I'm Uraraka. It's nice to meet you guys, Kendou's told us all about you two!"

"It's nice to meet you too!" Setsuna gave them another dorky wave, glancing over at Izuku as she did so. The green-haired boy also gave her a weak wave, chuckling a bit awkwardly despite himself and looking a bit red, which, unknown to him, made Setsuna's smirk widen and Yui give him a somewhat intrigued look. Both for completely opposite reasons, and neither of those reasons any good.

"So!" The green-haired girl clapped her hands together and rubbed them, glancing at Itsuka with a teasing smirk. "Before we move on, I suppose we should address the elephant in the room."

"Huh?" Itsuka blinked, looking around at her best friend in confusion. "Elephant? What elephant?"

"Girl," She raised her eyebrow somewhat, putting her hands down on her hips and gesturing with her head towards Izuku, "this guy literally has the same hair color as me."

"And she looks just like me," Yui pointed out as she gestured to Ochako, the brown-haired girl blinking somewhat in surprise while Izuku also looked taken aback.

"Wait, I do?" They both said at the same time.

"Yeah, man!" Setsuna moved forward quickly before any of them could register it, and Izuku went stiff as a statue when someone of the opposite gender that wasn't Ochako moved right up into his face. Itsuka looked around with widened eyes as Setsuna leaned against his shoulder, grabbing his other shoulder to force him to bend his knees and bring him down to her height.

While Yui tilted her head somewhat looking at Ochako while the other girl also blinked a bit, both of them giving the other an unsure look, Setsuna grabbed a lock of her own messy hair and brought up to Izuku's, comparing them briefly before looking back to Itsuka with a teasing grin.

"Not exactly, but close enough!" Setsuna confirmed, shaking her head while Itsuka continued to stare blankly at the sight of her best friend clinging closely to Izuku, feeling her stomach twist in a knot but not quite sure why. "We both have green hair! And you're also hanging out with Yui's clone over there!"

"Do we look alike …?" Ochako wondered out loud, cocking her head somewhat as Yui studied her with equal curiosity, and then glanced at Izuku out of the corner of her eye. "Uh - Deku, what do you think?"

"H-huh?" Izuku jumped a bit at his best friend's question, still feeling like his face was burning as Setsuna continued to have her arm wrapped around his shoulders, the idea of personal space apparently foreign to her as she leaned in closely to look at his hair, frowning a bit. None of them were aware of Itsuka's mouth continuing to thin the longer Setsuna's face was in Izuku's, glancing down at how red Izuku's face was with a pout, and then letting out a small sigh as she raised a fist to her mouth and pointedly cleared her throat.

"Set, can you give Midoriya some breathing room? Please?"

"Hm?" The green-haired girl glanced over at her best friend out of the corner of her eyes, feeling an eyebrow raise again at the sight of a vein starting to subtly clench in Itsuka's forehead, and then glanced at Izuku, seeing him slowly but surely becoming a beet with how red his face was becoming. Realizing that, yeah, she had been pretty in his face for the last minute or so, Setsuna chuckled, patting his shoulder but still taking a step back - she had a feeling that Itsuka was about five seconds from physically making Setsuna move back, and she acknowledged internally that there were some lines that, for her safety, she probably shouldn't cross.

And from the intense look that her best friend was sending her, Izuku seemed to be a tree that's already been peed on.

"Ah, sorry about that, man," She laughed out loud, giving his shoulder one more pat because even though she knew her life was potentially in danger right now due to the glare Itsuka was starting to send her, she couldn't resist making Izuku continue to combust, and making the vein in Itsuka's forehead twitch, "shock overcame me, is all. But we've gotten distracted!"

With sudden, dramatic flair, Setsuna threw herself back and then pointed accusingly right into Itsuka's face, the orange-haired girl looking pretty unimpressed as Yui and Ochako looked over as well, finally getting over how weirdly similar they looked to each other.

"From what I have gathered," Setsuna said in her best dramatic voice, sounding heartbroken and furious, "from the looks of things, you've gone and replaced both your green-haired friend and your nice cute friend with another green-haired friend and another nice, cute friend!"

"H-huh? Cute?" Ochako blinked, her cheeks going a bit red at that compliment while Yui nodded in agreement, glancing down at the tank top she was wearing and giving another approving nod, subtly licking her lips.

"How could you do this to us?!" Setsuna pretended to despair, racing over and throwing herself into Itsuka's arms, her best friend sputtering a bit and automatically catching the dinosaur loving girl while letting out a reluctant giggle at her friend's overly dramatic reaction to this sudden but inevitable betrayal. "I should've known! We haven't hung out in weeks! I know I'm not exactly one to talk since I've been getting ready for UA too, but I should've known that you'd take advantage of the distance between us to slide into other people's DMs!"

"Mm," Yui nodded, also moving away from Ochako so she could hug Itsuka, making the orange-haired girl laugh out loud as her best friends clung to her, "you utter heathen. You've taken your two new training partners and replaced us with them. For shame, Itsuka, for shame."

"Yeah! How dare you break our fragile little hearts this way, Ken?! I thought we've been inseparable since we were kids, but now I have to deal with the fact that we're apparently replaceable in your heart!"

"Yes, it's true," Itsuka was unable to stop her smirk, wrapping her other arm around Yui's waist as she chortled, "I've been having a love affair behind both your backs. I'm cheating on you both. Just not with these two - I've actually been sleeping with the two heating pads I have in my house for months now."

"Wha - Jéan?!" Setsuna gasped dramatically, while Itsuke tried hard to contain her giggles as Setsuna gave her heat pads random names, "And - and Randalf?! Those bastards?!"

"Mm-hm. Yep. Jéan and Randalf. Sorry, you two, heat pads are my new best friends."

"For shame," Yui snarked, "I thought we had something special going on."

"I use them to relieve back pain. You two cause me mental pain."

While the three girls giggled amongst themselves, Izuku trying his best to get his red cheeks to calm down from having a girl directly in his face and Ochako trying to remember if she had a cousin she never met, All Might chuckled a bit at his students' antics but still cleared his throat from where he had been standing at the side, trying to get everyone's attention again. While Setsuna's dramatics had been funny, and All Might had debated running away when he caught sight of Itsuka's face when the green-haired girl had been hugging Izuku, they did need to get back to work, seeing as they still had a few things to do today.

Thankfully, at the sound of his clear 'ahem', it seemed to dawn on Setsuna and Yui that they were technically interrupting them, and hastily let go of Itsuka so they could step back - both to stop making such a scene, and also to take a breath of fresh air. After all, Itsuka didn't exactly smell like roses right now.

"Ah, uh - sorry about that, coach," Setsuna chuckled weakly, glancing around at the older man with red cheeks, "we didn't mean to take all the attention like that."

"It's alright, miss," All Might gave her a smile and thumbs up, "I just wanted to remind Young Kendou, Young Uraraka and Young Midoriya here that if we're going to be getting this car up the hill by the end of the day so I can call the tow company to come get it, we'll have to get our quirk exercises out of the way."

Itsuka, Ochako and Izuku jumped at that reminder - Setsuna and Yui's sudden appearances did distract them from the fact that they still had a few more hours of work to get through.

"Now then," All Might clapped his hands together, "Young Uraraka, you can head over to the lockers we were moving last night - I'll be having you float one while we wrap a few ropes around your shoulders, and I'll fill it up with a few pounds of scrap for you to carry it up to my truck. Young Midoriya, you can make your way to the usual spot, I'll be with you once I get Young Uraraka started."

He then turned to Itsuka, smiling, "As for you, Young Kendou, seeing as you will be the one pushing the SUV up the hill later, you'll be allowed to take a few more minutes to rest. In the meantime, why don't you take your friends up to the parking lot and under some shade?"

"Uh … right," Itsuka quickly nodded, not really liking the thought of her being able to relax while her friends worked but knowing that she did need to save some of her strength for later. Sticking her tongue out at Ochako when the brown-haired girl shook her head in a mockingly-disapproving way at her, Itsuka quickly took Setsuna and Yui's wrists, and started to head back up to the parking lot with her friends in tow. As they left, Ochako followed All Might over to the locker she would be floating, and Izuku let out a small sigh as he began moving around the mountain of garbage to the spot he would be practicing firing off a shot of his power.

Yep, Izuku frowned as he reached the familiar stretch of beach with the car on the other end, this was the part of his day that he had been looking forward to the least.

About five minutes later, as Izuku paced the small spot he tended to use to fire off a blast and looking through his journal, flipping through the pages detailing his independent training plan and wondering if it were possible to squeeze in his homework at dinner so he'd have a bit more time to train, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him and looked around to see All Might approaching him, carrying a fire extinguisher. That at least made sense to Izuku - since Itsuka's friends were still here, the pro hero shouldn't risk them seeing him in his true form, and should stick to the good old fashioned way to put out a fire. They'd learned their lesson with Ochako's first time coming to the beach, after all.

"Alright, Young Midoriya," All Might grunted as he put down the fire extinguisher, taking his place on the large tractor tire he usually used to sit down and watch, "now that we've got that all out of the way - whenever you're ready."

"I - right," Izuku nodded, sighing as he put his notebook away. As he always did, he turned to face the car he used as a target, spreading out his legs a bit, taking a deep breath, and raised his arms up, palms facing the car. Closing his eyes, Izuku took another breath, and then pointedly inhaled, and exhaled.

Three months full of failures and anxiety from this, he was determined to fire off a blast of lightning today.

From the rare times he used his quirk in the past (so pretty much only three times), Izuku knew the emotions he needed to draw from in order to shoot out a bolt of lightning. He needed to rely on fear, on panic, on adrenaline. He took another deep breath, trying to push away the terrifying mental images of a young Katsuki bloody and wounded on the ground.

Ignore the memories of the harsh burn on his mom's arm.

Ignore the memory of the pain he would go through when he fired off a blast.

He needed to push it all away, and focus on the fear and anger he felt whenever he used his quirk.

And yet …

… yet …

… nothing.

After about a minute of just standing there, hearing the sound of waves crashing against the beach and feeling All Might watching him, Izuku knew that it wasn't going to happen. Again.

Usually, he would react by dropping his arms dejectedly, opening his eyes and giving All Might a guilty look while explaining that he couldn't do it. But today, he couldn't help but feel frustrated.

All Might watched as Izuku dropped his arms down, turning away from the car and opening his eyes, letting the pro hero see the guilt and frustration he was feeling at the moment as he swung his arms around, obviously displeased by this lack of progress. At the very least, though, All Might understood, letting out a small grunt as he stood up from where he was sitting on the tire.

"Nothing again, huh?"

Izuku let out a small hum, biting his lip and turning away. At this, All Might raised an eyebrow - he had never really seen Izuku this frustrated, the only times he really saw him upset was when he was dehydrated and emotional, straining against something he couldn't move and giving it a small punch before the pro hero would tell him to take a small break and come back to it with a clearer head. This, though, was a bit new to him - he had seen Itsuka and Ochako angry before, and both of them were very scary when that happened, but he'd never seen Izuku this upset before.

"I just … I'm sorry, All Might," Izuku finally sighed as he turned to give the pro hero an apology, looking down at his shoes as he clenched his fists and scowled a bit, "I just - I don't get it. I don't - I don't know what's wrong with me, and why I can't - why I can't fire off a blast."

"It's alright, Young Midoriya," All Might assured him, walking forward and patting his shoulder in a reassuring way, "I'm not like I'm angry at you for not being able to -"

"It's not that!" Izuku suddenly snapped, stomping his foot and whipping his gaze up to glare at All Might, the pro hero blinking in surprise - but then Izuku immediately closed his mouth, his eyes widening as he realized that he had just shouted at his hero. It didn't take long for horror and shame at what he had done to appear on his face.

"I - I'm so sorry, All Might, I - I didn't mean to -"

"It's alright," All Might said again, giving the boy a smile as he gave his shoulder a squeeze, "I was actually beginning to wonder if you would ever give me the same kind of attitude Young Kendou and Young Uraraka give me. And it's alright to feel frustrated as well - I know I would be if three months went by and - well - there wasn't much progress."

There was a small pause, where All Might wondered briefly if he was unintentionally rubbing salt in the wound, but then Izuku let out a small sigh, nodding, and slowly turned to walk over to the tire All Might had been sitting on. The Symbol of Peace watched as Izuku sat down gingerly, hunching over and staring at his scarred hands in worry and a bit of anger.

"I just … I don't get it," He muttered, "I - I don't know what's wrong. I hate that I can study a hero for a few hours and know exactly how their quirk works, that - that I can work with Occhan and Kendou and know how they can experiment with theirs - but with mine, I'm always at a loss. I hate that can't just - get it."

All Might slowly nodded at that, walking over to take a seat beside the young man, hunching over as well as Izuku continued to stare at his hands and vent.

"It just - it doesn't make sense. I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm everything that I usually am when I use my quirk - I'm feeling all the emotions I would usually feel - and there isn't even a spark," Closing his hands into fists, Izuku let out a defeated sigh and looked away. "I just … I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Hm," All Might hummed, leaning forward as well as Izuku continued to stare dejectedly at his hands, "well, Young Midoriya, we both know that you … well, let's just say that you don't have good memories of your quirk. Which … may be why you're so hesitant to use your quirk, even when you want to."

"Huh?"

"I have put some thought into why you're not able to shoot out a bolt," All Might explained, cupping his pointy chin as he looked out to the waves, "and I believe that … well, you may have a mental block when it comes to your quirk. You associate your quirk with bad things, and thus you subconsciously limit yourself. The only times you've used your quirk is in extreme situations, or when you're too surprised to stop yourself - and we know that we can't exactly throw you at a villain, and we can't just surprise you into using your quirk forever, you'll have to eventually be able to use it yourself. When you try to use your quirk, you … well, you mentally stop yourself. I'm not quite sure why that's so, but I think that's what's happening."

"Then …" Izuku sighed again, taking a second to bite his lip and then looking up at his mentor desperately, "... then how do I get rid of that mental block? If - if I am subconsciously stopping myself from using my quirk, I need to get rid of it. How do I - how do I do that?"

"I …" All Might hesitated briefly, and then let out a small sigh as he sagged his shoulders. "... I'm afraid I don't quite know."

At that, both of them fell silent, Izuku glancing to the ground again in obvious defeat, and All Might grabbed a handful of his loose pants and squeezed in frustration.

Admittedly, there was something … well, familiar about this that kept poking in All Might's brain. Something about Izuku's situation reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He knew that Izuku … he needed help with getting over the mental barrier that years of being bullied, of being told that his quirk was villainous, had been put up in his mind. That would have to be the next step in using his quirk, and after they overcame that barrier, he would be able to better teach Izuku on how to use it.

Izuku … he needed to talk to someone, and not All Might, who would just try to give him a pep talk, and not Itsuka or Ochako. An outside source. Something … something along the lines of a therapist, he thought with a frown, but that would require a lot of secrecy and string-pulling, and he had a feeling that Izuku would object to something that would take up time he could use training. And that might also mean that there would be more people who knew what they were doing on this beach, and enough people knew already. Izuku's parents, Ochako's parents, Itsuka's parents and grandfather, Principal Nezu, Nighteye, and now Setsuna and Yui. All Might couldn't risk more people coming to this beach and finding out what they were really doing. And Izuku having to explain what he was doing to a therapist would be less than ideal.

No, what Young Midoriya needed was …

… was someone who could truly empathize with him. Someone who knew exactly what he was going through. Someone who wouldn't just suggest Izuku fire off a blast every day and hope that he would be able to do it. Someone Izuku could relate to.

Someone like …

… and then All Might blinked.

Of course. Of course! How could he have forgotten! There was someone who could talk to Izuku about this, and could give him advice. He had been pretty busy with work for the last few months, All Might hadn't thought to contact him outside of weekly texts, but - but he of all people knew the importance of secrecy. If Izuku needed to take the necessary step to get rid of this mental block … then he would be able to help him.

"Young Midoriya, I may have an idea."

"H-huh?" Izuku jolted out of his angsting to look around at All Might as the man got back up with a grunt. "An idea? About - about my quirk?"

"It'll take a bit of doing," All Might admitted, stretching his back slightly, "and I'll need to make a few phone calls and set up a meeting - but I believe that there's someone you can speak to who can help you out with your mental block."

"W-wait, really?" Izuku stood up as well, blinking in shock. "Who?"

"Someone … well, someone who has gone through something similar to you," All Might explained briefly, seeing Izuku's eyes widening again in shock and curiosity, "but it'll take a while to contact him, he's been pretty busy with work. But … well, let's put it aside for now," He shook his head before looking around, "we still have a full day of weight-lifting to do if we're going to get that car up the hill. Let's relieve Young Uraraka from her exercise and go retrieve Young Kendou."

Izuku looked like he wanted to question the pro hero further on this mystery person, but he knew that All Might had a point that they still had a lot to do today, so he followed the Symbol of Peace around the mountain of garbage to go retrieve his other training partners. He might not have liked how vague All Might was being, but at the very least, he seemed to know what he was doing.

While ignoring all the other times All Might had no idea what he was doing.

---

"Is, uh …" Setsuna looked uncertain for a moment, pointing behind the other two girls at the struggling Ochako coming up the stairs, "... is she good?"

Wrinkling her brow, Itsuka looked around to see Ochako slowly making her way over to the truck, taking several ragged breaths as she heaved a locker as big as she was over her shoulders, ropes wrapped around her to prevent it from floating off. Not that it would, anyway, seeing as it was filled to the brim with heavy scrap metal, which, combined with using her quirk, was probably why Ochako was struggling right now.

"Oh, geez, uh … Uraraka?" Itsuka called out to her, wincing a bit as Ochako stumbled over her feet, nearly falling and face planting on the asphalt. "Are you okay?"

"Mm' guhd," Ochako managed to get out, slurring and looking up with a tired but determined look on her face as she kept walking forward, "jus' gimme a sec, I'mma geh eht."

"Uh … right," Itsuka slowly nodded at whatever her training partner just said, "just yell if you think you're going to get crushed, and I'll come over and help you."

"Mm-hm."

Giving Ochako an unsure thumbs up, Itsuka turned back to her best friends, Setsuna and Yui also giving Ochako pitying looks as she tried her hardest not to die. As they stood under the tree to get out of the heat, however, Itsuka thought back to something Setsuna had said earlier, and subconsciously cleared her throat, drawing her friends' attention as the orange-haired girl suddenly felt an unexpected wave of guilt.

"Hey, uh … about something you said earlier, Set. I'm not - I wasn't - actually neglecting you guys, was I?" She asked unsurely, taking a step back so her friends didn't have to breathe in her stupid odor from working on a beach all day. "I know I've been spending a lot of time here recently, but I wasn't -"

"Oh, no, girl, I was just pulling your leg, I'm not actually mad about it." Setsuna giggled as she leaned against the tree, Yui nodding beside her. "We get that you've been pretty busy lately, and it's not like Yui and I have been just sitting around hanging out without you."

"Mm-mm," Yui shook her head, "I've been working on improving my quirk too. We don't mind that there hasn't been a lot of time for the three of us to hang out."

"It's just ... I didn't realize that we hadn't spent much time together lately," Itsuka muttered, going a bit red and absently petting her ponytail, "and - and I know you were joking, Set, but I'm not trying to - to replace you guys with Midoriya and Uraraka or anything like that, it's just -"

"Itsuka, like Set said, we're not actually mad about that," Yui reiterated, glancing back at Ochako as she slowly made her way over to the truck on the other end of the parking lot, "we just find it kind of funny. Uraraka honestly does look like me, doesn't she?"

"Er ... kinda?" Setsuna shrugged, also glancing back at the brown-haired girl skeptically, "I was just joking about her being your clone, Yui. There isn't, like, an obvious resemblance between you two, I just pointed out that you guys have pretty much the same hairstyle and body shape."

"Oh come on. She looks just like me."

"Um ... I guess so," Itsuka shrugged as well, not really seeing the resemblance between her best friend and her training partner either, while Yui shook her head exasperatedly.

"You're both ridiculous. I'm going to have to go home and recheck my entire family tree to make sure she's some long lost cousin of mine. You know, after I get her number."

"Why would you want her - oh, god," Setsuna scoffed, shaking her head as she realized what Yui was implying and smirking at the stoic girl, "you wanna hit on them both, don't you?"

"A tad bit," Yui freely admitted, while Setsuna laughed and Itsuka suddenly straightened her back, the blank stare that she had when Setsuna had been leaning on Izuku back on her face, "they're both hot. Uraraka's pretty sexy, and Midoriya's a bit awkward, and a nerd, but he's cute enough that I wanna fluster him a bit."

"Oh, girl, I feel that," Setsuna laughed again while leaning back against the tree, "he's a cutie, isn't he? A bit on the plain side, but not plain enough that I wouldn't wanna get up in his business and -"

"Okay, that's enough of this conversation," Itsuka interjected, with something in her voice that made both Setsuna and Yui smirk a bit ("Yep, definitely peed on," Setsuna muttered under her breath), "Yui, please don't flirt with Midoriya, you might actually make him explode. And leave Uraraka alone too, she might actually be a cousin of yours and you do not wanna flirt with family."

"Perhaps," Yui shrugged, "but if she's not my cousin, it's free real estate."

"You two, I swear to -"

"Ah, sorry about that!" A deep voice suddenly called, and the three of them turned to see All Might and Izuku returning from the beach, the disguised pro hero giving them a wave as he glanced over at Ochako dumping the garbage into the truck with a large crash, and the brown-haired girl let out a sigh of relief as she released her quirk, bending over to put her hands on her knees and pant raggedly. Itsuka watched her in concern for a moment, hoping that she wouldn't throw up and keeping her eyes on her face, seeing as the tank top she was wearing showed a small bit of cleavage - and then she wrinkled her brow as she suddenly felt suspicious, and looked around.

Yep, sure enough, Yui was staring unashamedly, tilting her head as she checked out Itsuka's training partner. Frowning and narrowing her eyes at her, Itsuka reached over and lightly punched Yui's shoulder to get her to knock it off, making the stoic girl pout and rub her arm as the other three joined them.

"Well, All Might chuckled as they finally joined the three girls under the shade, Ochako stumbling over and snatching the water bottle Izuku had been offering her out of his hand to greedily drink, "now that we've gotten our quirk training out of the way, it's about time we get that car up the hill so we can get it towed. Would you two like to stay and watch?"

"Thank you for the offer," Setsuna bowed again, while Itsuka groaned a bit at the reminder that they needed to get it up the hill and shot a glare at the SUV waiting for them, "but Yui and I were just stopping by, we didn't mean to stay this long. But now that we're here, could we actually ask you a favor, coach?"

"Oh?" All Might put his hands on his hips, smiling a bit at the nickname.

"See, I'm actually training to go to UA myself, through recommendations," She explained, tapping her fingers together while Izuku looked interested by that tidbit and Ochako wiped her sweaty forehead, "and next week I'm going to be going through a few exercises that's probably going to take up the rest of my time this summer. Since we won't be able to hang out much after I start since our schedules won't line up, I was wondering if Itsuka would be able to get a day off so we could have one last hurrah? It's completely up to you, of course, we don't want to inconvenience you."

"Hm," All Might thought for a moment, slowly nodding as he tapped his finger against his chin, "I will have to talk to Young Kendou's grandfather, of course, but … well, as I mentioned earlier, we are pretty far ahead in training. I don't see the harm in letting the three of them have one night off to relax this week."

Setsuna and Yui let out cheers, Setsuna enthusiastically and Yui stoically, while Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka breathed sighs of relief.

"In that case!" Setsuna pumped her fist, "We gotta do something fun, like a night out on the town, Ken. We can hit up the arcade, or go see a movie or something like that. And of course," She flashed a grin to Izuku and Ochako, "that invitation extends to you two as well."

"H-huh? Us?" Izuku blinked, while Ochako also looked up from where she had been hunched over in surprise, "O-oh, no, we - you guys don't have to do that, we shouldn't intrude on -"

"I mean, we can't exactly tell you guys not to intrude on us since that's pretty much what we just did," Yui shrugged, "and you two seem pretty cool. Well, cool enough to hang out with Itsuka, and she's supremely cool, so that means you two have to be awesome too."

"I mean …" Itsuka trailed off, smirking a bit while Izuku and Ochako rolled their eyes, which made her giggle while Setsuna and Yui shook their heads at her.

"In any case, you two are more than welcome to come hang out with us."

Setsuna nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! And if we're making it a thing, we can invite a few more of our friends too! Like Mina, I know she'd love to come hang out with us for a night out on the town."

"Mina? As in Ashido?" Yui looked around at her. "Your ex?"

"You're willing to hang out with her after your breakup?" Itsuka asked in surprise.

"Okay, first of all," Setsuna smirked again as she raised one finger into the air, "our breakup was actually pretty amicable. She wanted something serious, and I didn't, so we talked it out and agreed to just be friends. Second of all, even if we broke up, she's still very sexy, and told me that if I ever wanted to hit her up and go to some club, she'd one hundred percent be down. And third of all, fuck y'all."

"That third point was unnecessary," Yui tilted her head while Izuku and Ochako laughed awkwardly behind them.

"Anyway," Itsuka shook her head, looking back to Izuku and Ochako with a smile, "if you guys feel like putting up with Setsuna and Yui a bit more, you're more than welcome to come hang out. Actually …" The orange-haired girl trailed off again, glancing down at her feet for a moment, before she smiled a bit wider, evidently having thought of something as she looked back around at her friends.

"Instead of a night out, why don't we do a night in?" She offered the group, "I know that my parents, Uraraka's parents, and Izuku's mom are actually going out for a group date this Saturday, and I'll have the house to myself - you know, besides my grandpa, but he usually turns in right after training anyway. Why don't we have a girls' night until my parents come back? My dad can give you two a ride home, and we can order pizza and watch movies."

"That sounds pretty good to me!" Setsuna clapped her hands while Yui nodded and Ochako tried to look as enthusiastic as she could although her heart did start beating a bit faster from nervousness - honestly, the words 'girls' night' did make her feel nervous, as she was only used to hanging out with Izuku and Itsuka, but she knew it would be unwise to turn down an opportunity to make more friends, and Setsuna and Yui seemed cool enough. To her side, Izuku smiled as well.

"Er - that sounds pretty fun," He gave a small thumbs up to the four girls, "I bet you guys are gonna have a great time."

"... us guys?" Setsuna repeated, quirking an eyebrow when he blinked. "Dude, you're a hundred percent going to be there too. In fact, I demand it."

"I - huh?" Izuku squeaked, going red and quickly wrapping his arms around his head. "I - oh, no, you guys don't - I don't have to -"

"Mm," Yui nodded as well, glancing up at his arms and giving an approving nod, "you're the guest of honor at our slumber party. You aren't allowed to skip out."

"O-oh, no, I'm - I'm flattered, but -"

He was about to try to protest, to convince them that they didn't have to accommodate him, that he was okay with just going home after training and having a night to himself, when he suddenly became aware of someone tugging on his shirt. He glanced over to see Ochako giving him a small glance, and Izuku was able to see the small hope and request in her eyes.

Slowly, Izuku lowered his arms from around his head, looking at her as she gave him a small, pleading look, and he realized what she was trying to say. Oh, god, of course she wanted him to be there - Setsuna and Yui seemed cool, but they were still pretty much strangers, and - and Ochako was in a similar boat as him, only having Itsuka as a friend to connect him to these two girls. She might want him there so she didn't feel too awkward.

In that case …

"I, uh …" Izuku cleared his throat, still a bit red but trying to take a deep breath, "I guess that … that if you insist …"

Setsuna grinned in victory while Yui nodded, although both girls raised their eyebrows at the small interaction between him and his best friend there, with Setsuna muttering something that sounded like 'wait how many people have peed on this tree', but Izuku figured that he must've misheard.

"Okay!" Ochako tried to cheer up again, pumping her fist as she smiled widely, "I guess that means we'll both be there! I'll take every opportunity to cuddle Gūdo as much as I can."

"Oi," Itsuka smirked a bit, "I certainly did not agree to that. He's my special boy, remember? It's bad enough you always arrive early to the dojo so you can pet him before we start."

"He's a good boy! The bestest boy! You can't blame me for wanting to arrive a little early to play with him!"

"A 'little early' is like - ten minutes before we start. You show up a whole ass hour before my grandpa's even ready for us. Anyway," Itsuka got back on track while Ochako stuck her tongue out at her again, "Midoriya, of course you're invited to our little party, there's no way we'll leave you out of it."

"I - I guess."

"Although," Her smile faltered, as though remembering something, "I guess that … it might get a little awkward if you're the only guy there with four girls. It's not like we don't talk about girly stuff, so I don't want you to feel excluded."

"In that case," Yui shrugged, "we find another guy to come hang out with us. Simple as that."

"And do you know another guy?" Itsuka crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Because I sure as hell don't, and I'm pretty sure Setsuna doesn't either. It's not like we can just invite someone from our school to hang out either, I'm pretty sure they'd take that as an opportunity to try to hit on us."

Yui and Setsuna glanced at each other, both of them uncertain as Itsuka raised a pretty good point. They took a second to try and think of a guy that wouldn't hit on any of them or be gross, and at first, no one exactly came to mind - and then Setsuna blinked.

"Actually," She smirked a bit as she looked back over at Itsuka, "I think I would know a guy."

---

"S-seriously, Tokage, I don't know about this," Eijirou stammered as Setsuna and Yui continued to push him from behind down the street towards the Kendous' dojo, the taller boy taking hesitant steps as the girls behind him continued to shove him forward, "I don't really know Kendou, we - we only talked a few times, and - and I - I'm not sure -"

"Nonsense, nonsense," Setsuna tittered, continuing to push him forward, "I know you two definitely talked that one time a few months ago, you guys are practically buddy-buddy."

"... a few months ago? Did, uh … did she tell you what I was doing?"

"Uh … no?" Setsuna blinked, tilting her head and giving him a suspicious look while he went a bit red. "What were you doing?"

"N-nothing!" He quickly straightened up, no longer needing the girls to push him along as he began speed walking down the sidewalk towards the dojo, face turning redder and redder. Yui and Setsuna exchanged a skeptical look, and then shrugged - they supposed that would have to be something they interrogated him about later, or else they could just ask Itsuka if he was jerking off and she caught him. That might explain the reaction.

Indeed, the guy that Setsuna thought wouldn't be gross, or hit on any of them, was one Eijirou Kirishima. Itsuka had been right that their list of guys that they could trust to come hang out with them and not slobber all over Yui was pretty sparse, mostly because most of their friends were other girls and the majority of the guys at school were too busy ogling Yui to trust them. But then Setsuna had thought of Eijirou, who, in addition to having a reputation at school for standing up to bullies (to moderate or no success, but it's the thought that counted) showed utterly no interest in Yui, and decided to chance it and run over to his house, inform him that he was getting invited to hang out, and grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him along to the train station to meet with Yui.

It was a shame that Mina couldn't make it, seeing as she was on vacation right now with her family, but the pink girl made up for it by asking Setsuna if she wanted to go to the beach at some point when neither of them were busy so they could flaunt their stuff, which made Setsuna very happy and Yui very interested in what they meant by 'stuff', so the green-haired girl let it slide. So in the end, it would be her, Yui, Setsuna, Izuku, Ochako and Eijirou hanging out for a few hours into the night, while Itsuka's parents went out on their big group date with Ochako's parents and Inko, and Itsuka's grandfather would retreat to his room for the rest of the evening and pretend he didn't exist.

"Alrighty," Setsuna checked her phone again as they moved through the gate of Itsuka's home and towards the doors to the dojo, "it's nearly four o'clock, and Itsuka told me that's the time they're usually done. I already texted her earlier, she says we can just stroll right on in."

"So, uh ... this is a dojo, huh?" Eijirou looked up at the large building, gulping a bit in nervousness as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Mm," Yui nodded from behind him as she finished putting her short hair in a ponytail, "it belongs to Itsuka's grandfather, they live on the floor above it. It's actually the house he grew up in, and the house her mom grew up in too."

"Huh …"

"Well, since we got the okay to just walk in …" Setsuna nodded to herself, smirking to herself as she thought that now was the time for a dramatic but quiet entrance (she did not want to get bopped on the head by Grandpa Kendou's shinai again, thank you very much), and grabbed the two paper doors of the dojo to slide open.

As the three of them walked in, they were greeted by … quite the odd sight. Izuku was standing on one end of the dojo, obviously bracing himself to start running as he hopped up and down while wearing a gi, while on the other side of the dojo, Ochako and Itsuka bent down, cupping their hands while Teko stood behind them carrying a long wooden stick, easily taller than anyone here. Setsuna, Yui and Eijirou fell silent at the sight that greeted them, blinking a bit at Itsuka's odd hunched appearance, and stopped to watch.

"Now go!" Teko barked loudly as he held the stick with the wooden block hanging off of it in the air.

Letting out a small yell to hype himself up, Izuku began charging quickly across the dojo, determination etched on his face as he ran. Ahead of him, Itsuka and Ochako braced themselves, getting ready to support his weight as he approached them. The three teenagers at the door watched as Izuku, with surprising grace, hopped up, his bare feet landing in the girls' cupped hands, and with two identical grunts, Itsuka and Ochako threw Izuku up into the air, giving him enough take off for him to twirl in the air as he threw out his leg.

With another yell, Izuku kicked out, wanting to break the piece of wood dangling off the stick clean in two -

- and completely missed, letting out a small yelp as he fell back down to earth and landed hard on his face, slamming down onto the wooden floor with a loud 'BAM'.

All four girls in the dojo cringed at the hard landing, while Eijirou hissed and let out a sympathetic, "Ooh, that's gotta hurt."

"Wrong! Yet again!" Teko threw the stick away to clatter against the ground, glaring down harshly at Izuku limp form as Itsuka and Ochako bent over worriedly to check that he was okay. "You hesitated the moment you were in the air! Again! Where did the confidence from the run up go?! Had we not been finished right now, you would be doing a hundred pushups to further emphasize your failure!"

"Yes, sir," came Izuku's muffled and weak groan from the floor, his tone laced in pain.

"Good grief," The dojo teacher growled, shaking his head in disappointment - and then he looked over at the entrance and saw Setsuna and Yui at the door, Eijirou slightly hiding behind them so the scary sensei wouldn't immediately notice him.

"Ah. Hello, Setsuna, Yui. I see you brought a stranger to my door."

"That we did, Grandpa Kendou!" Setsuna happily said, grabbing Eijirou by the arm and pulling him around to the front so Teko could better see him, Eijirou gulping nervously. "We're here for our little party tonight, and we brought Kirishima here so Midoriya doesn't feel too awkward, surrounded by a bunch of gossiping girls."

"Hm," Teko nodded a bit at that, crossing his arms across his gi. "Very well, then. I believe we are done for the day. Itsuka, we will be working on your core strength next week, it is still lacking. Uraraka, more judo flips while utilizing your quirk. Midoriya," He threw a glare down at the boy on the ground, seeing him sit up and rubbing his nose, "we'll be working on that kick until you can do it in your sleep."

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. I will be using the bath in my own room, so you three do not need to wait to shower. Please don't disturb me for the rest of the night."

With that, the old man walked over to the door that led upstairs, opening it and vanishing further into the house without another word. With that, the small trio by the door walked over to the small trio on the floor, with Ochako helping Izuku back up to his hands and knees and checking his nose to make sure he didn't break it when he landed. Once Izuku was back on his feet, the six teenagers glanced at each other, realizing that introductions needed to be made.

"Midoriya, Uraraka, this is Eijirou Kirishima," Itsuka introduced the black-haired student before them, the pointy-toothed guy raising a hand in greeting, "he's one of our classmates from over in Class 1. Kirishima, this is Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka," She gestured to the two teenagers in their white gis as they also gave him an awkward wave, Izuku while he cupped his sore nose, "they're my training partners while I'm getting ready for UA."

"Oh, cool, you guys are going for UA too?" Eijirou looked interested at that, giving them a grin as he put his hands back in his jean pockets. "I'm gonna be applying too. I never really thought about teaming up with other people to train, though."

"W-well, I thought it would've been nice since - y'know, I knew them and knew they were training," Itsuka chuckled, glancing around at the door that would lead upstairs, "sorry about - y'know, not thinking of inviting you too, Kirishima."

"Don't take it personally, man," Setsuna chuckled, "we got left out to dry too."

"Mm." Yui nodded in agreement. "I'm still reeling from the betrayal."

"Shut up, you two. Anyway, I know my parents left to go pick up Mr. and Mrs. Uraraka and Inko a few minutes ago, so we can get started with our showers - we kinda stink. Midoriya, Uraraka, it's up to you guys who can go first, I can wait - I shouldn't leave Setsuna unsupervised, she'll cause chaos if left unattended."

"Harsh! But true."

"O-oh no, you or Deku can go first," Ochako immediately offered before Izuku could even open his mouth, glancing off to the side with a familiar look on her face that Itsuka picked up on immediately, "I can wait until you both are done, it doesn't -"

"You just wanna pet Gūdo."

"He's the best boy."

"Yeah, yeah. Well, as long as I'm not in the shower when the pizza arrives, since I have to be the one to pay for it, we can go in whatever order we want."

"Er - anyway," Izuku chuckled awkwardly, looking around at the small group as they began making their way out of the dojo and up the stairs, Ochako running ahead of them so she could find Gūdo and cuddle the hell out of him, "I, uh - sorry if I'm a bit - a bit slow on the update, but I don't think anyone said what we would - what we'll all be doing tonight."

"I mean," Setsuna laughed, walking over and putting her arm on his shoulder, smirking when Izuku predictably froze up and Itsuka gave her another blank look with a vein beginning to pulse in her forehead (she knew she was playing with fire but she couldn't resist), "I'm not sure if we'll be doing it the whole time … but I definitely want to start with an activity with everyone here that involves a significant amount of smashing and screaming."

"... a-and … and what … what would that be?"

---

"GAME!"

"Fuck!" Setsuna growled as she tossed her controller aside, glaring at Itsuka as the orange-haired girl raised her hands into the air and basked in her victory. "You borrowed this game from me, how are you better at it than I am?!"

"It's not my fault you suck," Itsuka tittered as she leaned back on the couch, Ochako pouting at her from her spot on the floor as Gūdo let out a happy woof at her putting down the controller and scratching him behind his ears, "the odds are simply in my favor tonight."

"I hope you get hit in the face with a tire while you're working at the beach, and it breaks your nose."

"Oh, please, if anyone's going to get injured on that beach, out of the three of us, ninety percent of the time it's Midoriya."

Izuku sputtered at that, but still nodded reluctantly and conceded her point as he put down his own controller on the coffee table.

It had been about an hour since their little party started, and it had been spent playing video games on the large TV in the living room, with Itsuka bringing out the game station she had in her room for everyone to gather around on the furniture to play. After a round of Hero Cart that had everyone wanting to rip each other's heads off, they settled on playing a few rounds of Smash, everyone playing at once and shouting each other down as their characters squared up and knocked each other out of the arena. Ochako had been surprisingly competitive (surprising to Setsuna, Yui and Eijirou, of course, Izuku and Itsuka weren't that shocked) once she learned the controls, laughing loudly and yelling at Izuku to 'get dunked on' whenever she knocked his character out of the ring; Setsuna absolutely sucked at the game, and was a sore loser about it, evidenced by her attempts to push her sock-covered foot in Eijirou's face and distract him; and Yui had been silent but very deadly, narrowing her eyes whenever Izuku ended up fumbling into knocking her out of the ring and quietly vowing vengeance.

Still though, other than Itsuka threatening to throw Setsuna's head into the trash bin where it belonged, it had been quite fun playing video games and hanging out with her friends as they ate pizza and drank sodas.

"So you guys are from over near Shizuoka?" Eijirou looked interestingly at Izuku and Ochako as the six of them grabbed some more pizza from the box on the coffee table, deciding to take a break from video games and chat, "That's pretty cool, I've checked out a few gyms over there - it looks like a nice neighborhood!"

"Well, Deku's the one who was born and raised there," Ochako giggled a bit as she gestured with her head towards her best friend, both of them sitting on the floor while Gūdo rested his head on Ochako's lap, "I moved there from Mie when I was four."

"I'm in the same boat," Setsuna chuckled as she grabbed her third slice from the box, "born over in Saitama and moved here when I was six."

"Same," Yui nodded, "born in the Shimane prefecture, moved here when I was eight."

"Yeah," Itsuka chuckled, "Kirishima and I are the only Chiba babies here."

Everyone chuckled, and went back to eating some more pizza while they lapsed into a small silence. Soon, though, Izuku glanced back over at Eijirou as the black haired boy leaned back in his seat, and awkwardly, he cleared his throat.

"Uh - so Kirishima," He tried his best not to come across as two awkward as he leaned over, gulping a bit when Eijirou looked over at the sound of his name, "you said that you were applying for UA too?"

"Ha, that's right, man," Eijirou grinned, flashing him a thumbs up, "I always admired Crimson Riot, and - I don't know, I think being a hero's always been what I've wanted to do. Seems like the manliest way to live, you know?"

"Crimson Riot?" Izuku's eyebrows shot up in curiosity and a bit of excitement. "The Chivalrous Hero? I read up on him a while back! I watched a few of his interviews when I was - I think I was eight. Anyway, he always used that word, didn't he? 'Manly'."

"Yeah, man!" Eijirou grinned back, the four girls in the room glancing at each other with eyebrows raised as the two guys geeked out. "Honestly, Crimson Riot's one of the reasons I want to be a hero. Did you ever see the interview he gave that one time, the one where he talked about feeling fear when throwing himself into danger?"

"Yeah, I remember that one! He said something about - what was it - oh yeah, about what chivalry was to him!"

"Yeah! 'It's not about having confidence or knowing fear, I'm a hero, and that's why I protect people'!" Eijirou mimicked the bombastic hero, laughing a bit with Izuku while the four girls rolled their eyes. Still though, it didn't take long for Eijirou's face to sober up a bit, leaning forward in his seat. "Honestly, when I was deciding to apply for UA, I was feeling … I don't know, I was feeling pretty insecure about myself."

"Really?" Itsuka blinked at that, leaning forward in her seat as well. "That's surprising - you're usually so confident whenever you confront some bully. That's why I wasn't too surprised to hear that you were applying for UA."

"Yeah," Eijirou chuckled, "but honestly … well, it's kind of a long story, but I used to think that I was a coward. I was actually about to give up on trying for UA, but I ended up watching that interview, and … honestly, the part where he talked about feeling fear when putting his life on the line, and - and how he believes in living a life with no regrets … that's what I want to be. Someone who believes in living a life without any regrets."

Clenching his fist, he looked back up at Izuku, seeing the boy blinking a bit at this and Ochako looking impressed. "So I'm gonna leave behind the part of me that feels cowardly, and follow my dreams."

"Whoa," Ochako blinked, and then flashed him a smile and a thumbs up. "That's super cool! Really manly!"

"Isn't it?!" Eijirou wiped a tear from his eye, while Itsuka, Setsuna and Yui chuckled a bit - they knew from what they had seen of him in school how awesome he thought manly things were, so it was nice he found someone who thought the same in Ochako.

"Yeah, that … that really is cool," Izuku nodded, giving the other boy a smile, and then hesitantly reached towards his back pocket, "so Kirishima, do you mind if I ask you some questions about what your quirk is? I, uh, I like analyzing quirks as a hobby, but you can say no if you don't want to tell me."

"Nah, it's cool, man!" Eijirou grinned, putting down his slice of pizza and raising his arm up. The others watched as, with a sudden hardening noise, his forearm, wrist and hand suddenly stiffened, becoming rock-like and pointed as Izuku leaned forward.

"My quirk's called 'Hardening'," He explained, a bit weirded out by Izuku abruptly pulling a notebook out of nowhere and beginning to jot down notes but deciding not to point it out, "it's pretty much what it says on the lid, it lets me harden up my body. Few months ago, I could only really harden up my forearms and chest, and not even that much, but ever since I really started training I've been able to make myself harder, and now I'm trying to harden up other parts of my body."

He completely ignored Setsuna's increasingly quiet giggles, while Itsuka rolled her eyes again and Ochako tried her hardest to remain calm and polite while fighting down her own giggles.

"Anyway, it's nothing really flashy," Eijirou chuckled, deactivating his quirk and looking down at his hand while patting his wrist, "I bet when I train it up enough it'll be really strong, but honestly it doesn't look like much."

"I think it's really cool!" Izuku gushed, making Eijirou blink in surprise as the boy closed his notebook and beamed up at him. "It's definitely a quirk that could pass as a pro's! You'd be perfect for combat situations if you can train to harden up your entire body."

"H-huh, that right?" Eijirou let out another chuckle, obviously a little flattered by the compliment as he raised a hand to sheepishly scratch the back of his head. "But you also gotta think about popularity as a hero too. It's cool to be able to fight with my quirk, but I also gotta appeal to people, y'know?"

"That's right," Setsuna agreed with a laugh, finishing her crust and detaching her hand to grab another slice of pizza from the box, while drawing Izuku's attention to it at once with his eyes widening, "it's not just villains you gotta worry about, it's being liked by the public. Otherwise, you won't make it very far in the polls."

"S-so that's also a transformation quirk?" Izuku raised the notebook to his face again, pen in hand and making Ochako giggle a bit as she continued to pet Gūdo and Itsuka shook her head. "That's what I thought when I saw you at the beach."

"Yep! I guess it's my turn for the quirk interrogation," Setsuna chuckled as she reattached her hand to her wrist, smirking at Izuku as he readied his pen. "My quirk's called 'Lizard Tail Splitter'. It lets me split my body apart into thirty five pieces."

"R-really?" Izuku began to jot down notes while staring at her in fascination. "Is there any limits to that? Are you able to detach one of your limbs one at a time, or all at once? Can I see?"

"Sure!" Setsuna agreed happily, hopping up and putting down her slice of pizza before lifting her arms out, spreading her legs. The group watched as Setsuna slowly and dramatically split her body apart, making Izuku's eyes go wider as she detached her head, her upper torso, her waist, her arms, her forearms, her hands, her fingers, her legs, and her feet and toes, floating in the air like a weird parody of the Vitruvian Man.

"Kinda freaky, right?" She giggled a bit at Itsuka's squicked out reaction, which wasn't anything new to the green-haired girl, she always looked kind of grossed out when Setsuna detatched every part of her body, "I can move these pieces pretty freely, and as long as they aren't away from my body for too long, I can control them."

"But then what happens if they are away for too long?"

"I lose control of the body part," Setsuna explained as she began putting herself together, "and I have to regenerate the part. It's, uh … it's not really all that fun, that part - when I was a kid it took weeks, and it can get painful depending on the part that's separate."

"So how fast do you regenerate your body parts now?"

"Just a few hours, a day at most. And I have a limit to that too, so I can't split too many parts apart."

"That's really interesting," Izuku muttered, raising a hand to tug at his lip as he wrote, "with proper training, you could learn how to split yourself apart even more, and not just limit that to limbs … that's a really versatile quirk. A-and what about you, Kodai? What's your quirk? O-only if you want to say, of course."

"I can shrink stuff," Yui shrugged, demonstrating by grabbing her empty water bottle and beginning to shrink it, making Izuku and Ochako blink as the bottle shrunk to fit in the palm of her hand, and then she pressed her fingers together to regrow it. "I can also grow stuff, but not that big."

"Wow," Izuku's eyes practically sparkled, scribbling quickly in his notebook, "you guys have amazing quirks."

"A-ah, it's not that amazing," Eijirou chuckled sheepishly, blushing while Yui smirked a bit at the compliment and Setsuna tipped her water bottle to him with a grin, "I bet there's lots of people that have better quirks than I have. Y'know, people like All Might or Crimson Riot."

"All quirks are amazing!" Izuku insisted, putting his notebook down as Ochako leaned back in her seat beside him and Itsuka stood from her spot on the couch so she could go grab Gūdo his bone. "At least, I think so. I know that there's this big thing about heroes with powerful quirks being the only ones that can be successful and get far in the polls, but just because some quirks aren't capable of destroying buildings doesn't mean they aren't awesome in other ways."

"Well, thank you, Midoriya, for thinking so." Setsuna giggled, and then pointed to his notebook curiously. "So you just jolt down people's quirks in that book?"

"Er - not just that," Izuku seemed to realize how weird he must've looked for the last few minutes, blushing and dialing it back a little while Ochako smiled at him, "I also have notes about heroes in here, and uh … and other … sorry if I crept you guys out with my muttering."

"Nah, it's all good, fellow greenie."

"Mm. It's okay with me too."

"Yeah, man!" Eijirou grinned and leaned forward to take a closer look at the book. "So you got other heroes and their quirks written down in there? Like, as analysis?"

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, smiling down at the notebook as Itsuka returned with Gūdo's squeaky toy, the dog barking excitedly and scrambling off Ochako's lap to wrestle it from his master, leaving the brown-haired girl reaching out tearfully to the dog while looking absolutely heartbroken, "I got a new notebook for my birthday, so I'm trying to finish writing up my notes in this notebook before I move onto that one."

"Really?" Itsuka raised her eyebrow, letting Gūdo take the toy from her and walking over to Izuku, kneeling down and looking down at the book, "I never really had a look at this - do you mind if I have a look?"

"O-oh, yeah, go ahead," Izuku blushed a bit but still handed her the notebook, Itsuka smiling as she sat down beside Izuku and Ochako and began flipping through the pages, looking impressed by the drawings, "I let Occhan read from my notebooks all the time, so I don't mind people looking."

"Notebooks? Plural?" Yui leaned back slightly. "That's a lot of analysis."

"Y-yeah, I've been writing since - since I was a kid," Izuku chuckled a bit while Ochako giggled and leaned back.

"The first ones were in crayon," She informed the other two girls, making them let out small 'awws' and Izuku turning even redder.

"Wha - Occhan! They didn't need to know that!"

"So," Setsuna smirked, while Itsuka closed the book and handed it back to Izuku with a small grin, "you two have known each other since you were kids?"

"Yeah," Ochako nodded, smiling, while Itsuka giggled a bit at Izuku's suddenly sitting up, as though he knew where this was going, "since we were four."

"Oooh, that means you got the juicy stories from Midoriya's childhood."

"Erk!"

"That I do!" Ochako also grinned, leaning forward while Izuku tried to reach out and cover her mouth, but Itsuka was quick to grab his wrists and hold them back, giggling sinisterly. "I've got all the deets."

"In that case, let's hear!"

"Occhan, please, don't!" Izuku begged, but alas, Ochako only let out a sinister giggle, about to open her mouth to begin telling everyone the horrific tales of his childhood, with Setsuna and Yui looking interested and Eijirou unsure if he should rescue Izuku from this or not, and the green-haired boy managed to free one of his hands from Itsuka's grasp, while still incredibly red in the face, and pointed dramatically at her.

"You talk, I'll tell them about the mochi ice cream incident!"

"..."

"..."

"... you wouldn't." Ochako slowly turned to glare at him, beginning to pout as he continued to point his finger in her face.

"I can, and I will! Don't make me do it!"

"You wouldn't. You're too nice. You like me too much to embarrass me like that."

"Excuse me," Setsuna raised her hand, smirking widely, "mochi ice cream incident? Midoriya, do tell."

"Deku," Ochako's eyes flashed dangerously, "you breathe a word of what happened that day, I will float you into the stratmosphere."

"You don't talk, I don't talk!"

However, before this standoff could continue, and Izuku could threaten her with words and Ochako could threaten him with violence, they suddenly became aware of the sound of Izuku's phone chiming in his pocket. His eyes not leaving Ochako's, Izuku reached into his pocket, fetching the phone and glancing out of the corner of his eye at who was texting him - and then quickly turned his full attention to the celluar device, eyes widening.

"Oh. Uh -" He glanced between Ochako and Itsuka, gulping a bit as he lowered the phone, "- it's - uh - it's Coach."

Both Ochako and Itsuka blinked at that, glancing down at his phone in his hand - All Might was texting him? About what? The girls exchanged another glance, not really sure what All Might would be reaching out to Izuku about, and the orange-haired girl let out a small sigh as she let go of Izuku's other wrist, letting him sit back up as she started climbing to her feet.

"C'mon." She gestured with her head towards her training partners before looking back up at their other guests. "We'll be right back, guys, we just need to make sure Coach isn't texting us about anything serious."

With that, Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako got up to move out of the living room, flashing the other three the peace sign and smiles, and moved around the corner. Gūdo let out an inquisitive whine, and got up to follow the three of them out of the living room.

As they walked down the hall, Itsuka let out a small sigh as she led the other two away for some privacy. She didn't really want to lead them in there, but they clearly needed privacy - they didn't want to accidentally slip up on anything and let Setsuna or Yui or Eijirou know who they were really being trained by, and she didn't trust Izuku or Ochako enough to not slip up on saying All Might's name, so she reluctantly led them over to her room, opening the door and gesturing with her head.

"In here."

Izuku and Ochako glanced at each other, and walked into Itsuka's room.

As they walked through the door, Izuku glanced up, and felt his cheeks go red, realizing that this was the second girl's room that he had ever been in, besides Ochako's. It was actually quite different from what he was used to, now that he was thinking about it; Ochako's room was pretty bare, with a dresser, desk, bed and small desk to eat and sit at, and a little TV that Taiyo had bought her for her birthday a few years ago, which had driven the poor girl to tears when she had got it.

Itsuka's room, however, was a bit different. For one, there were several posters of motorcycles decorating the walls, of various types and models from both modern day and past. It was incredibly tidy, with the bed made and tucked in behind a few fluffy pillows. A large TV stand stood at the other end of the room, with a TV large enough to keep in their living room on top of it while having some video games and movies organized in neat piles beneath it. On the desk were a few notebooks and textbooks stacked properly and neatly.

It looked very nice - but Izuku didn't have long to admire it, since Itsuka closed the door behind her, apologizing to Gūdo as the dog whined about not being let in, and she sighed as she turned back to Izuku.

"Alright," She walked over to him, glancing down at the phone in his hand, "what did All Might send you?"

"H-huh? Oh, r-right," Izuku quickly nodded, gulping a bit as he unlocked his phone to check what their teacher had sent him. Ochako and Itsuka, meanwhile, looked over his shoulder as he lifted the phone for them to read the message.

ALL MIGHT

Good evening, Young Midoriya! I hope you're enjoying your night off with the rest of your friends. I wanted to let you know that, in regards to our conversation a few days ago about your 'mental block' so to speak, I did manage to get in contact with the person to speak with you about it. As I said before, I believe that our first step to overcoming this block is to find someone that can empathize with you, and I think speaking to this man will be beneficial to you.

With that said, he has been pretty busy, so to accommodate him, you and I will be going out for coffee with him tomorrow morning. This will mean that Young Kendou and Young Uraraka will be going by themselves to the beach for a few hours until we return. I will, of course, text them instructions on what to do while we are out, and I believe that will keep them busy until we return at around lunchtime. With that, I'll be coming to pick you up from the Kendous tomorrow morning before you three leave for the bus, and you and I will be taking the train.

"Huh," Itsuka blinked, reading the message again to make sure she didn't miss anything, "so it'll just be me and Uraraka tomorrow."

"Wait," Ochako wrinkled her brow, looking up from the phone to her best friend, "'mental block'? What does that mean, Deku?"

"O-oh, uh -" Izuku cleared his throat, putting his phone back in his pocket to look around at his training partners, "- me and All Might were - we got to talking Wednesday, about - about my quirk, and he thinks that - that the reason I haven't been able to fire off a shot yet is because I'm - I'm mentally preventing myself from doing it."

"Really?" Ochako looked worried, folding her hands together. "Is - is there anything we can do about that?"

"I'm - I'm honestly not sure," Izuku admitted, frowning a bit as he glanced down at the floor, "but if - if All Might thinks that I should meet with this guy he's recommending, I probably should. I can't just - I need to overcome this stupid block."

"Right," Itsuka slowly nodded, giving him a small, worried look, and glanced at Ochako. The brown-haired girl was also frowning, giving Izuku a more openly concerned look as she opened her mouth to say something - but before she could speak, they heard Setsuna's voice calling for them.

"Hey, Ken? Sorry to interrupt, but Gūdo's chewing on something I don't think he should be chewing on."

"Agh," Itsuka groaned, shaking her head as she moved around Izuku to the door, "that fucking dog."

"He's the best boy."

"He's a menace."

As Itsuka moved out the door, calling for Gūdo, Izuku let out a weak chuckle, about to follow her out - but then he felt a hand reach out and grab his sleeve. Blinking, Izuku looked around to see Ochako continuing to give him a worried look.

"Deku," She said quietly, "are you sure you're okay?"

"H-huh?"

"I just …" She hesitated, and then glanced back down at the floor, "... after what happened a few months ago, when I started training, I - I promised myself that I would be more honest with you. I just - I want to make sure you're okay. I know that you've been really - you've been really frustrated with your quirk, and - and you've been really tired lately, I just - if there's something bothering you, you can tell me."

"I …" Izuku hesitated, feeling himself falter briefly. Thoughts of his independent training plan suddenly flashed in his mind - he hadn't brought it up to anyone, especially Ochako, but … but for that reason, he hesitated. He had only realized, after he had handed Itsuka his notebook earlier, that it was the one with the plan in it, and for a moment he had briefly panicked before Ochako had distracted him with trying to tell Setsuna and Yui stories of his childhood, but from the looks of things she hadn't seen it.

He knew that he shouldn't hide it from them, but …

"... Occhan, I'm - well, I can't say I'm fine," He sighed, giving her a small smile as he turned around to face her, "with this - this mental block and stuff - but I think I'm - I'm okay. I'll go see this - this guy All Might wants me to meet, and - and hopefully I can overcome this stupid block."

Ochako carefully looked into his eyes for a moment, and he was afraid that she would catch on to his hesitation - but then she sighed, and gave him a small smile.

"Okay," She patted his shoulder, "let's go back to the party then, Deku."

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... you tell them about the mochi ice cream incident, they'll never find your body."

"You tell them about the time I cried when we went to the circus, I will."

"That story will get out eventually, Deku."

---

Thankfully, other than having to watch Itsuka chase Gūdo around the house for about ten minutes before she managed to pry his mouth open to make sure he wasn't accidentally poisoning himself, their party went relatively well, considering. Once Itsuka had slapped Setsuna's fifth slice of pizza away from her, reprimanding her for not letting everyone else eat, they ended up watching a movie together in the living room, a horror movie that Yui had brought, which ended with Izuku and Ochako subtly clinging to each other while Itsuka tried hard not to jump too much at all the scares, and Setsuna and Yui had a ball of a time while Eijirou tried to nervously laugh his way through the movie.

Soon after the movie finished, though, Mr. and Mrs. Kendou returned home from the big date, and the older man confirmed that he would be giving three of their guests rides home - Izuku and Ochako had already made arrangements to stay over so Itsuka and Ochako could just travel to the beach together tomorrow morning, and the brown-haired girl didn't have to worry about staying up past her usual bedtime due to getting home via train, as they didn't want to disrupt their sleep schedule too much.

As they left, Eijirou gave Izuku a big high five, and convinced him to exchange his contact info with him, wanting to text him a bit more about the other heroes in his notebook since he was interested. This, of course, resulted in Izuku crying a literal geyser of tears, much to Eijirou, Setsuna and Yui's surprise and Itsuka and Ochako's predictability. At the very least, Setsuna and Yui also took a liking to Ochako and promised to text her a bit more over the summer.

Once they were off in Mr. Kendou's car, the trio brushed their teeth, got changed into their sleeping gear, and got ready for bed - they had to be awake early tomorrow, especially Izuku since All Might was going to swing by to pick him up. It was quickly decided that Ochako and Itsuka would be sleeping in the latter's room, while Izuku got the pullout couch, Izuku bowing in thanks to Tenohira when she had suggested it and brought out a few pillows and blankets for him to use. Although he did pale a bit when Itsuka cheekily mentioned that Gūdo tended to sleep outside of her room, so he would have to deal with the dog licking his face and disturbing his sleep. Both Izuku and Itsuka rolled their eyes when Ochako flashed him a jealous glare as the two girls departed for the orange-haired girl's room, leaving Izuku behind with the dog happily wagging his tail as he hopped up onto the couch Izuku was going to be sleeping on.

"Alrighty," Itsuka let out a sigh as she closed her bedroom door behind her, looking over and seeing Ochako standing awkwardly near the dresser, "so that's Midoriya and Gūdo taken care of, they'll have some fun. So I guess that just leaves us."

"Uh - yeah. Just - uh -" Ochako glanced around as well, gulping a bit as she looked back to the other girl, "- where am I going to sleep? Do you have a futon I could borrow?"

"Huh?" Itsuka blinked, looking around at her in confusion, "I thought we were just going to share the bed."

There was a good ten seconds of silence at that, until both girls suddenly realized how Itsuka had phrased that, and they both felt their faces immediately go red.

"Uh - wait, I didn't - I didn't mean it like that," Itsuka quickly backtracked, glancing away while her cheeks suddenly felt very hot, "I just thought - usually when I do sleepovers with Yui and Set, we all share the same bed, but I wasn't thinking about -"

"O-oh, no, it's okay!" Ochako waved her hands so fast in the air it looked like they were blurring, feeling the stickers on her cheeks burn. "I just thought - usually Deku and I when we - when we stay over, we tend to - we don't -"

"N-no, it's okay, I'll grab you a futon -"

"No, the - I don't mind sharing the bed with -"

"It's okay, really -"

"- it's fine!"

After about another minute of Itsuka and Ochako talking over each other about how fine it was to share a bed/grab a futon for Ochako, the two girls stumbled to a stop, glancing uncertainly at each other with noticeably red faces and then back to the bed. After another pause, Itsuka let out a small sigh, and walked quickly over to her bed. Laying down on one side, she glanced back up at Ochako, and awkwardly patted the spot next to her.

Gulping, Ochako walked over stiff as a board, and before either of them knew it, they were laying down beside each other on the bed, awkwardly staring at the ceiling and avoiding looking at each other.

And then Itsuka snorted.

"Sorry," She giggled, raising a hand to hold over her mouth when Ochako glanced at her, "this got really weird."

"N-no, I'm just weird," Ochako giggled as well, shaking her head and raising her hands to rub her hot cheeks. "I've never really - you know, I've never had a sleepover with another girl before, this is kind of new for me."

"So you've only stayed over at Midoriya's?" Itsuka rolled onto her side to look interestedly at her friend. "I gotta say, I'm curious about who takes the futon and who takes the bed. I have a feeling he's the type of guy who wouldn't want you to sleep on the floor."

"No, he would not," Ochako shook her head, smiling ruefully, "usually we have to fight over who's sleeping in the bed. One time I didn't give him a choice, and I just laid on the futon and rolled over and went to bed. You wanna know what he did?"

"Oh, no."

"He slept on the floor! Just grabbed a pillow, laid down on the carpet, and glared at the ceiling. I've never come closer to kicking his ass."

"Oh, my god," Itsuka laughed, shaking her head, "what a stubborn guy."

"Yeah," Ochako shook her head, still smiling affectionately while thinking of her best friend, "he's a dummy sometimes."

"Anyway," Itsuka adjusted herself so she could lay down, giving Ochako an expectant smile, "what did you think of Setsuna and Yui? Were they cool?"

"Y-yeah, they're really nice," Ochako adjusted herself as well to lay down, "Setsuna's … well, she's very …"

"Loud?" Itsuka guessed, smirking. "Yeah, she's enthusiastic, I'll give her that. I've had to chop her neck a few times in the past so she'd shut up."

"Yeah … and … uh …" At that, Ochako faltered, and Itsuka glanced over to see her cheeks going a bit red. "... Kendou, can I ask a maybe dumb question about Yui?"

"... yeah?"

"I did, uh … I noticed that she was …"

"Oh, no," Itsuka suddenly got it, groaning and shaking her head, "she was checking you out, wasn't she?"

"... a little?"

"Damn it. Sorry, Uraraka, I forgot to tell you," She sighed as she sat up slightly, watching Ochako's face turn a bit redder, "she's a notorious pervert. Like, she checks out me and Set all the time, and sometimes she comments about it. I'm really sorry if she made you uncomfortable - if it makes you feel better, she never does anything, she just likes looking. I can talk to her about not doing that anymore if you don't like it."

"O-oh, no, it's - it's okay, I didn't mind," Ochako quickly assured her, her cheeks continuing to burn as she gave her an awkward smile, "it's just - you know, she wasn't really subtle about it."

"Heh. No, she is not. Don't worry about feeling signaled out, though - I know she was looking at Midoriya like that too, I caught her a few times," Itsuka grunted as she rolled over to grab her phone and set the alarm for the next morning, while also hiding her small scowl at remembering Yui looking at Izuku's arms and chest - and unaware of Ochako faltering at that, a similar frown crossing her face before both girls shook themselves out of whatever the hell that was and sat back.

From there, a small, comfortable silence fell as both girls rolled onto their backs and stared up at the ceiling. While Ochako closed her eyes and let out a small sigh, Itsuka's gaze flickered back to her, glancing down at her cute pajamas - a black tank top and pink pajama pants with little '13's everywhere. Letting out a small sigh, Itsuka rolled back onto her side.

"Hey, Uraraka?"

"Yeah?" Ochako's voice sounded a bit tired, as though she were starting to fall asleep, but she still opened her eyes and looked around at her.

"Back, uh … back a few hours ago, when All Might texted Midoriya. I heard, uh … well, I heard you asking Midoriya if he was okay." Ochako blinked at that, while Itsuka brought her hands together in apology. "I just - well, I was wondering if you thought there was something wrong. You know him better than I do, after all, so I just thought …"

For a moment Ochako looked surprised, but then she let out a small sigh and rolled back onto her side to face Itsuka.

"... maybe?" She muttered, glancing away and biting her lip. "I just … I've noticed that he's - he's been really tired lately."

"Huh … so déjà vu?"

"A bit," Ochako reluctantly giggled, "but - but I think I might just be imagining things, you know? It's not like I'm not exhausted every time we get back from the beach. It's just …"

"What?"

"... I overheard Mama Inko and my mom talking," She muttered, "and apparently, Deku's been going for late night runs. And he ordered some exercise gear."

Itsuka wrinkled her brow at that, sitting up slightly.

"Exercise gear? Like what?"

"Yeah - like weights and grip strength machines and that kind of stuff."

"Huh …" Itsuka glanced off to the side, thinking, "... I mean … it's not like it's weird for him to exercise outside of the beach, sometimes I do some weight lifting … but … if he's overworking himself …"

"H-huh? Overworking himself?"

"Yeah. Like - like All Might's training plan was designed with each of us in mind, and it adjusts all the time depending on what we've been doing," Itsuka explained, seeing Ochako narrow her eyes somewhat, "you know, to make sure we'll make it in time for me to take - I mean, for the entrance exam. If he hasn't been sticking to that plan … and if he's overdoing it …"

"Deku …" Ochako growled a bit, looking around at her door as though Izuku were standing there to witness her Danger Pout. Before she could get up, go to the living room and shake him awake to demand answers, however, Itsuka reached over and patted her wrist, drawing her attention back to the girl she was sharing a bed with.

"We can talk about it with him when he gets back to the beach tomorrow," She assured her, "no need to interrogate him right now, we'll lose a lot of sleep. Besides, it might be better to be gentle with him, y'know? We don't have to yell at him every time he messes up."

"... yeah," Ochako nodded, guilt starting to show on her face from her reaction, and laid back down. "Yeah, I - yeah. Sorry, Kendou, I just …"

She hesitated again, glancing down at her knees while Itsuka waited for her to finish talking, and then she let out a small, sheepish chuckle.

"... I worry about him," She admitted, "it's really stupid, I know, it's just … whenever I think of him being dumb and doing something stupid, or getting himself hurt, I … I just panic and do whatever I can to get him to stop."

"I get it," Itsuka smiled at her, laying back down and curling into herself, "you don't have to explain, Uraraka. It doesn't take a genius to see that you really care about him."

"Of course I do," Ochako giggled a bit as she also laid back down, going a bit red, "he's my best friend. And y'know, up until I met you, he was my - my only friend. I know that I can get kinda stupid and overprotective of him when he does stupid things, but I can't help it."

"Yeah," Itsuka grinned, "we know our boy is smart, but he can be really stupid. Like that one time he tugged on that table and almost got himself buried underneath all that garbage?"

"Oooh, don't even remind me," Ochako groaned, covering her face with her hands while she shook her head, "we tell him not to do it, and he does it anyway and almost gets himself killed! I gave him the silent treatment all night when we got home."

"Oh, god!" Itsuka chortled.

"I didn't even look at him!" Ochako laughed. "Like - whenever he tried to apologize I literally turned away from him."

"Good god, woman, that's brutal."

"Yeah, yeah," Ochako giggled, letting Itsuka swat her shoulder, "well, eventually I heard him out, he apologized, I hugged him, and that was that."

"You know, I'm envious," Itsuka pressed the side of her face into the pillow while the two girls giggled, "you get to hug him all the time and he hugs back just fine, but I just tap his shoulder and he goes so red I'm afraid he's going to pass out from all the blood rushing to his face."

"Yeah," Ochako laughed, also tucking her head into the pillow while they stared at each other, "Deku's a weirdo, isn't he?"

"That he is," Itsuka grinned, "our weirdo."

"Yeah."

For a moment they were content with staring at each other with soft smiles on their faces, laying on their sides for a moment - and then it drew on Itsuka that their faces were weirdly close. As in - wait a second, when did they get so close together? They were practically sharing a pillow at this point.

Clearing her throat, Itsuka chuckled awkwardly and rolled back up to sit up, looking over at the lamp beside the bed that was their only source of light in the room.

"W-well, anyway, we should, uh - we should get to sleep," She cleared her throat again while reaching for the lamp to turn it off, "we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

"O-oh, yeah," Ochako suddenly picked up on the awkwardness as well, gulping a bit as she rolled back over so her back was to Itsuka as the light clicked off and cast them into darkness. "G-goodnight, Kendou."

"Goodnight, Uraraka."

It didn't take long for them to go to sleep, both of them laying on their sides with their backs to each other as they tried not to feel too weird, and before long they were both dozing off, the sound of two light snores filling the room as they forgot the awkwardness of them sharing a bed. No, the awkwardness part would come when they woke up the next morning. As it turned out, Itsuka completely forgot about the times she slept in the same bed as Setsuna and Yui, or with Gūdo, and how she apparently became … quite the cuddle bug when that happened.

So it was both of their surprises when Itsuka's alarm went off at 4:00 in the morning so they could start getting ready to head out to the beach, and both girls woke up to Itsuka having apparently rolled over and spooned Ochako in their sleep, with both girls going bright red when they realized the state they woke up in and awkwardly coughed as they both sat up, trying to giggle their embarrassment away.

Thankfully, at least, they forgot all about how they awkwardly woke up the moment they got out to the living room to rouse Izuku, only to be greeted by the most adorable sight either of them ever saw. Apparently, Izuku didn't mind Gūdo sleeping in the same room as him, as they walked out to the couch to find the green-haired boy cuddling the large dog as he slept, the mountain dog happily wagging his tail at the sight of his master and the other girl who loved to pet him. That meant Izuku got to wake up to Itsuka and Ochako snapping pictures of him and the dog on their phones, making him squeak and shrivel up in embarrassment, wrapping his arms around his head and rolling around in shame while Itsuka cooed over her dog and Ochako beamed at the picture of Izuku cuddling Gūdo, immediately making it her phone's wallpaper.

After that, they grabbed a light breakfast, getting dressed and refreshed in the bathroom, and by 4:35 they all moved outside into the morning air. It didn't take long for All Might to jog up to them in his true form, wishing them a good morning in a loud voice that made Itsuka hiss and shush him, much to his shame. Soon enough, Izuku and All Might walked off to the train station, with All Might suspiciously mum on where exactly they were going (although the large grin on his face made Izuku nervous), while Ochako and Itsuka got on their bus to head down to the beach.

Once they had arrived in the parking lot, Itsuka checked her phone, seeing All Might had texted her instructions for the both of them to follow until he and Izuku got back, and Ochako leaned over Itsuka's shoulder to read it.

"Okay," Itsuka mused as they walked into the parking lot, not looking up as the sun began to rise in the distance, "so we've gotta get the four fridges from down the way over to the parking lot, and All Might left us ropes to use. I guess … honestly, I don't wanna risk either of us getting crushed while All Might's not here, so we can work together on those."

"Mm-hm," Ochako nodded in agreement, "I'd rather not - y'know, get crushed and maybe die when All Might's not here to bail us out."

"Same. So in that case -"

"At last."

Both Itsuka and Ochako jumped at the sound of a man's voice just ahead of them, both of them whipping their gazes up in shock as they finally noticed the car that had been parked right near the entrance to the beach - but at the sight of the man leaning against it and watching them with a weary look, Itsuka felt her lips thin and her eyes widen.

"I was wondering when you were going to arrive," Nighteye narrowed his eyes as he sat up from where he had been leaning against his car, tapping his foot against the ground as he surveyed the two girls, "it's ten minutes after five."

"I - uh - N-Nighteye," Itsuka gulped a bit, feeling more than a little apprehensive at the sight of her biggest critic as Ochako gave the tall man an unsure glance. "What - uh - what are you doing here?"

"Where is All Might?" Nighteye ignored that question, looking around with a narrow glare. "And Midoriya?"

"They - uh - they're not here right now. They - they had something to do this morning, they - they won't be by until - until later."

"Hm," Nighteye closed his eyes, taking a moment to breathe through his nose, until he nodded curtly and opened them back up to glare at Itsuka.

"Very well. I wanted All Might to be here for this, but I suppose that's not an option right now."

"Uh … you wanted him to be here … for what, exactly?"

"Since All Might isn't here," Nighteye put his hands in his pockets, turning to give Itsuka a judgemental look that Ochako didn't like one bit, "I'll be the one instructing you today. I can assure you that he won't mind me taking over your training for one day."

"I - uh - I don't know -"

"With that in mind, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

"... uh … okay?" Itsuka gulped, slowly sliding her backpack off her shoulders while Ochako continued to look between her and Nighteye with narrowed eyes. "And … who is -"

"Ah, stop intimidating the girl so much, Nighteye."

Both girls jolted at the sound of another voice coming from behind the car - this one was much gruffer than Nighteye's, a bit weathered but still extremely tough sounding. They were a bit confused, though, as they looked around for the source of the new voice but saw no one - until they suddenly heard the sound of footsteps on the asphalt, accompanied by the sound of something wooden tapping against it. Almost as though someone was walking with a cane.

And around the corner of the car came someone that made Itsuka and Ochako both blink in confusion.

It was obviously a hero, of course, dressed in a white bodysuit, wearing a yellow cape, a belt with the letter 'G' inscribed on it, and very thick yellow gloves and boots with a black domino mask. What they didn't expect, however, was that the man wearing it would be very small and very old, walking carefully with a wooden cane. He was short, very short, only coming up to Itsuka's leg - but she gulped at the tough look on his face, looking a bit wrinkled with a trim beard lining his jaw.

"This," Nighteye introduced the two girls to the elderly hero, "is Gran Torino. He will be overseeing your training today."

---

... what.

What.

WHAT.

"No way," Izuku's jaw had dropped, staring up at the building in front of him with wide, bloodshot eyes as All Might chuckled beside him, clearly pleased with the young man's reaction. At the moment, they were standing in front of a large blue gate on the sidewalk, the sides of said gate lined with five large round holes that would probably shoot out a metal bar to keep intruders out, the sun gently shining in the distance behind them.

For Izuku, however, his eyes were locked on the giant building standing before them - a large, glass building shaped into the letter 'H', with trees decorating the sides of the path before them. A brick path leading down to the building, with busts of various heroes' heads lined up before them, and three giant doors, red with gold trimmings that were decorated with the letters '1' '2' and '3', and above that, a gold logo that he knew all too well.

This ... this was ...

"... UA." Izuku breathed out, slowly melting down as he stared at the majestic sight before him, his hands raising to grab two fistfuls of his hair. "I - I'm at UA. This - this is UA."

"That it very much is!" All Might laughed bombastically, in his true form as he patted Izuku's back. "The school is currently on their summer break as well, but we can't go on campus without permission. While the hero students are currently off at camp and the other departments are on their summer break, there are still a few students on site, so we can't exactly go in and walk around. That goes double for me - I fear we'll get swarmed by fans if we even step one foot on campus."

"B-b-but," Izuku managed to stammer out, still feeling weak in the knees as he stared up at his dream school and trying to collect his jaw from where it had landed the ground, "then - then what are we doing here?"

"Well," All Might shuffled on his feet, putting his hands in his pockets, as he looked around "do you remember our conversation a few days ago, Young Midoriya, about how you were afraid of your quirk?"

Izuku numbly nodded.

"Well, it took me a little while to remember, but then I remembered that - well, I knew another young child that had difficulties mastering his quirk. I had the thought that perhaps, if you spoke with him for a bit, you could get some pointers from him about how to overcome this mental block."

"Y-Yeah …?"

"Indeed! Now then, I should probably text him and - ah! Well, speak of the devil, here he comes now."

Jolting a bit, Izuku quickly looked down from the large glass building before them at where All Might was gesturing to, and looked around. Coming out of one of the large doors at a light jog was a young man who didn't look that much older than Izuku did. He obviously wasn't a student - he wasn't wearing one of their uniforms, anyway, but he also wasn't wearing a hero costume. Instead he wore a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and red shoes not that different from Izuku's own pair as he made his way over to the two men standing at the gate. Izuku didn't really recognize him either - his hair was black with white roots, kind of giving Izuku the impression of a skunk.

"Well, well, well," All Might laughed as the young man finally approached them, slowing his jog to a stop as he gave the Symbol of Peace a smile, "I was actually about to text you that we had arrived!"

"Well, I was actually watching for you through the window," The man laughed, giving All Might an embarrassed grin, "Midnight-sensei was teasing me that I was like a kid waiting for Santa."

"Ha!"

"So," The man looked down at Izuku, giving him a small smile, "this is the student you were telling me about?"

"Indeed. Young Midoriya," All Might patted the boy's shoulder, "this is a former student of UA that had difficulty mastering his quirk in the past. RIght now, he's currently working as a teaching assistant - and I believe he'll be a great help to us in order to overcome your mental block."

Izuku gulped a bit in nervousness, but still extended his hand out to the teaching assistant, wanting to make a good impression. The man grinned and accepted his hand, giving it a firm shake - but Izuku blinked when he glanced down and saw that he had taken his hand, but left his middle finger extended. As though he didn't want to touch Izuku with all four fingers.

"It's nice to meet you, Midoriya, I've heard about you from All Might." The young man smiled at him. "My name is Tenko Shimura."