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!

9. Last Minute Preparations

Two months.

As of today, they only had two more months to get ready for the entrance exam.

Itsuka let out a small sigh as she bid goodbye to the warm water, and turned the dial of the shower all the way down, immediately beginning to shiver in the cool air. There was a part of her that thought her grandpa decided to spite them and turned off the heat inside the changing rooms so it was just as cold as it was outside, but she knew her grandpa wasn't that evil. With that said, he was still evil, she sighed as she stretched a bit and winced at the nasty bruise on her hip from training a half hour ago - evil, or maybe just a tad bit sadistic.

As she slowly made her way out of the shower towards the fluffy towel on the bench waiting for her, she heard Ochako continue to hum a song in the stall next to her, making her shake her head as she leaned over and knocked on the door to her friend's shower, smirking when she heard Ochako let out a surprised squeak.

"Sorry to interrupt your singing," She giggled when Ochako let out another embarrassed noise, "but we should probably get upstairs soon, so let's wrap it up, okay?"

"You, uh - you can hear me?"

"Mm-hm. What's the song, by the way? It's starting to bug me, I know that song from somewhere but I can't figure it out."

"Nothing! You shut up out there!"

Itsuka laughed at that, knowing that Ochako would probably need a few more minutes in the shower to hide and get over her embarrassment, and grabbed the towel on the bench, beginning to dry herself off and reaching for the hairdryer she had brought from the bathroom upstairs.

Honestly, it was kind of weird to be using the shower in the downstairs dojo changing room instead of her own bathroom upstairs, but seeing as it was getting pretty close to five o'clock, their guests were going to be arriving soon, and she, Ochako and Izuku didn't exactly have time to take turns in the shower. So after their lesson today, they decided to just use the downstairs changing rooms - listening carefully, she couldn't hear the sound of another shower through the wall, so that must've meant that Izuku was already finished with his own shower.

It had been a pretty exhausting day in the dojo, Itsuka sighed as she used another towel to wrap up her hair while plugging the hairdryer into the wall. Teko, as though sensing that the three of them were close to finishing their cleanup of the beach, decided to up the intensity by having them run two hundred laps in the dojo, followed by two hundred pushups, followed by intense sparring. By the end of the lesson even Itsuka was staggering in exhaustion, having to watch Teko berate Izuku again and again if the boy even slightly fumbled in his step. She was kind of getting to the point where she was tempted to ask her grandfather what exactly his deal was with Izuku, because she had no idea why her grandfather seemed to hate him so much.

But she had to worry about that later - it was ten minutes till five o'clock, according to the time on the wall, and the rest of their guests would be there soon. Hopefully when they got upstairs she could sneak something quick to eat, the three of them had skipped lunch when getting back to her house and she was starving at the moment.

It had been eight months since they had started training together at the beach, and now they were only two months away from the entrance exam. Ever since Izuku had figured out how to use his quirk willingly (she'd say safely, but that was still a work in progress), they had dedicated their time into working harder than ever to make sure they were ready for UA - or One for All, in Itsuka's case. Months of hard work on the beach, ass-kickings in the dojo, and nights spent group studying in cafés with Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka working as a team to get ready for the exam. Thankfully, after the day Gran Torino spent his morning kicking the shit out of Itsuka, there weren't any other interruptions or major distractions; no one interrupting them on the beach, no Nighteyes hidden behind the garbage piles making discouraging comments, nothing to stop them from working as hard as they could to get ready for the end of February.

At least, until the day after Ochako's birthday, just about two days ago, when All Might had ended their session on the beach informing them regretfully that, due to a case sent to him, he would be travelling across Japan for the last two months of their training.

"It's not exactly something I can get into with you three," He explained when they had asked, "seeing as it's still an investigation, but they've asked me to come take a look at the scene of the crime to assist the police. Unfortunately, I won't be able to return until the end of February - perhaps not even until the day of the entrance exam."

With that in mind, All Might made arrangements with Gran Torino to step in as their supervisor in his place, but they could tell that their mentor was feeling pretty down about not being able to see their training through to the end due to this situation up north. Honestly, they were also sad that All Might wouldn't be there to see them finish cleaning the beach, but they understood that he had already put most of his time into their development, and he still had responsibilities as the number one hero.

Still … Itsuka couldn't help but gulp a bit in nervousness. Right at the start, it was implied that once the beach was finished, All Might was going to give her One for All. And if he wasn't going to be back in time, or he wouldn't return until around the entrance exam … that meant that she'd either be flying blind in the exam with a quirk that she didn't have any time to practice with, or she'd have to rely on her own quirk, something that she hadn't really trained with for the last few months, having dedicated all of her time into working on improving herself to receive One for All.

She … well, all else fails, she might be able to use her Big Fist in the entrance exam, but she wasn't confident in her quirk. She frowned as she paused her drying, wrapping the towel securely around her as she pulled the other towel out of her hair and turned on the hairdryer. She hadn't practised much with it, unlike Izuku and Ochako for the last few months, having all the time they needed to improve their quirks and how they used it. She hadn't even activated her quirk all that much, not counting the times she had to grow out her hand to pick Izuku off the ground, or doing as a joking intimidation kind of thing. She hadn't even used it in the dojo, meaning that she was very well practiced with all the martial arts her grandfather had taught her, but there was a difference fighting with her hands when they were as big as she was.

Right now … well, she had to trust that All Might got back in time to give her enough time to practice using One for All. Or else she would be in big trouble.

Before she could worry about that anymore than she already was, however, she heard a knock on the girls' locker room door.

"Itsuka," Her grandfather's sharp voice came from behind the door, "your mother would like you to know that dinner is almost ready. Please retrieve your father and Mr. Uraraka when you come upstairs, I have to clean up the dojo."

"Er - right, grandpa," She called to him, hearing Ochako's shower turn off behind her, "we're almost done in here, we'll grab them before we come upstairs."

At the current moment, it was New Year's Eve, and the Kendous had decided to make it an event by inviting not only the Midoriyas and Urarakas for dinner, but the Tokages and the Kodais and the Kirishimas as well (apparently after dropping Eijirou off after the slumber party in the summer, Hakushu and Eijirou's mom had gotten to talking and became pretty fast friends). So while they had been busy in the dojo all afternoon, Inko, Miwa and Tenohira had been working in the kitchen upstairs to make an absolute feast - during their short break when she had run upstairs to get towels for everyone and her hairdryer for later, she had almost fainted at the heavenly smells coming out of the kitchen, and the only way to resist going into the kitchen to sneak some food was the mental image of her mother throwing her down the stairs if she tried.

So the upstairs floor was going to be pretty busy for the next few hours for their New Years celebration, until everyone but Izuku and Ochako went home - they figured that since they were going to be in the same place until late another time, they could do a repeat of the summer sleepover and go to the beach together in the morning. Thankfully All Might had given them permission to come a bit later than what they were used to due to knowing that they were going to be staying up a bit later than usual.

As the door to the stall behind her creaked open, Itsuka looked around to see Ochako wrapping a towel around her, shivering a bit as she shook some water from her hair.

"Do you think it's possible I can persuade my mom to let me stay in the shower for the rest of the night?" She grumbled as she tried to dry herself off, waltzing over to the pair of clothes her mom had brought downstairs for her earlier, "World is cold and unforgiving, shower is nice and warm."

"Maybe you could," Itsuka chuckled as she turned off the the hairdryer, glancing into the mirror and snorting at her frizzy hair, and reached over to grab her own clothes as well as her hairbrush, "but there's no food in the shower for you to eat, and I'm not going to help you out with that. I'll be too busy stuffing my own face."

"Phooey," Ochako pouted good-naturally, grabbing her sweater and unfolding it, "I could always get Deku to help, you know he wouldn't leave me hungry like you would."

"Uh … would he?" She looked around at her friend, smirking a bit, "I think that would require Midoriya going into a girls' changing room, and I don't think that's a challenge our boy's going to be able to overcome."

"... yeah," Ochako sighed, shaking her head as she brought her sweater over her head, "you're right, but I don't have to be happy about it."

"Well, anyway," Itsuka chortled, grabbing her dress and bringing it over her head, her voice becoming slightly muffled, "back up a bit - what was the song you were singing?"

"Oh, god, please, Kendou …"

"Da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da da da dada," She hummed, trying to think as she tried to match Ochako's singing from before and giggling when her friend headbutted the nearby wall in her embarrassment, "I know the song from somewhere, but I'm just not sure from where. Is it … uh …"

"Kendou, I will pay you to shut up," She pleaded.

"Empty promises! I know you have no money to pay me off."

Ochako giggled at that, flipping Itsuka off over her shoulder as they got changed into their 'having people over' clothing - Itsuka a dress and leggings with a dark cardigan, and Ochako in a skirt and sweater.

"So," Itsuka stretched a bit again, wincing and rubbing the bruise on her hip, "I don't think I asked you this when I was over at your place a few days ago, but has anyone in school been giving you shit lately? Y'know, before the winter break."

"Well ... not really," Ochako shrugged, zipping her sweater up, "I mean - they do shit-talk me whenever Deku or me go down the hall, but it's the usual stuff about me not being able to afford makeup and shit like that, and being Deku's villain sidekick. I learned to tune that stuff out years ago."

"Hm," Itsuka frowned, narrowing her eyes somewhat, "you need me to swing by and throw them across Shizuoka?"

Ochako giggled. "Is that a serious question, or a jokey one?"

"I'm currently fifty-fifty. Depends."

"Well, it's okay," She sighed as she looked around at her friend, seeing Itsuka zip up the back of her dress carefully, "like I said, I just tune them out, they're not exactly smart enough to come up with new material. Besides, if anyone's going to be kicking their asses, it's gonna be me."

"You sure? I'm pretty sure I can take them. Few hundred students vs me, I'd whoop ass."

"No," Ochako giggled, waving her hand, "you're good, but I don't think you can take on hundreds of people coming at you at the same time."

"Oh, come on, I think I'd be fine. I'll just use Big Fist to throw people away. Bakugou, though, I'm slamming him into the dirt."

"I'd love to see it!"

"Well, if what you said about him getting into UA being an inevitability, you will," Itsuka smirked as she slipped her cardigan over her shoulders, "once we're all at UA. I know what you said about him getting in pretty easily because of his quirk, so I'll bid my time and settle for beating his ass in front of hundreds of heroes at the sports festival. I'll be sure to grind his face into the ground while I'm at it."

"Yeah," Ochako nodded, her smile suddenly faltering, "uh … yeah."

Itsuka felt herself blink at that, and looked around - that didn't really come off as enthusiastic. It actually kinda came out like … uncertainty? She looked over to see Ochako hunching over slightly, still staring at the wall as she slowly finished zipping up her sweater.

"Uh … Uraraka?"

"Hm?"

"What's up?" She tilted her head, finishing putting on her cardigan as she turned properly around. "That didn't sound too enthusiastic."

"Huh?" Ochako blinked a bit, as though realizing what she had said, and then let out a weak laugh as she waved her hand in the air and looked around at her friend. "O-oh, it's - it's nothing."

From the unimpressed look on Itsuka's face, however, it was clear that she hadn't bought that in the slightest. Letting her fake smile fall, Ochako let out a small sigh, and raised her hands to gingerly tie it up into a bun as she looked away.

"It's just …" She hesitated, and then slumped her shoulders a bit, "... I'm just kind of nervous."

"Nervous? About what?"

"UA," She admitted, "the - y'know, the entrance exam. It's just - I don't know, it's two months away now, and I'm really - I'm just anxious that I'm gonna mess up the moment we step over the start line."

"Uraraka …"

"I just - I'm not like you or Deku," She muttered, "my quirk's good for floating things, sure, but I'm not fast, I'm not strong, I'm not anything like that. You guys train to get muscles and that kind of thing, and I'm over here just floating stuff. I'm not cool like you guys are, and -"

"Hey," Itsuka suddenly interrupted that train of thought in a sharp voice, raising her hand as though to psychically stop Ochako's words, "none of that. You've been working just as hard as me and Midoriya, and you're freaking awesome. All three of us are gonna get into UA, and once we're there, we'll get to humiliate Bakugou together."

"I don't know, Kendou …"

"I know," She insisted, moving across the locker room and giving Ochako a hug from behind. Thankfully, after months of knowing each other, Ochako didn't show any discomfort in being hugged by her friend, merely leaning back a bit and patting Itsuka's arm. "I've had months to see how freaking badass you are, and I know that you're going to ace the shit out of the exam."

"I …" Ochako paused for a moment, glancing away - and Itsuka felt herself smirk as she poked her stomach, making Ochako squeak and look down.

"What the - what're you doing?"

"Feeling the abs," Itsuka chortled, smirking as Ochako hopped back in shock and a bit of embarrassment, "and they're rock hard! C'mon, Uraraka, I know our training regiment isn't the same, but you're still strong!"

"Oh, no, I'm not -"

Feeling even more teasing, Itsuka moved forward and gave a light punch to Ochako's stomach, making her fume a bit.

"C'mon, don't tell me you felt that."

"Of course I felt it, you punched me!" Ochako complained, and retaliated by lightly punching Itsuka's stomach right back. As the martial artist wheezed with laughter and a bit of pain, Ochako finally giggled and started landing light punches to Itsuka's arms and chest, which then prompted a small mock fight between the girls that eventually devolved into giggles as they gave each other another hug.

"Okay, okay," Itsuka tried to control her laughter while Ochako squeezed her waist tightly as payback for the punches, making her eyes bulge slightly, "but you get what I'm saying, right? Just because our regiments are exactly the same, it doesn't mean that you and I aren't still at the same level. You've kicked my ass right in this dojo for months, and I imagine that once we get into UA we're going to get to pound on each other a bit more. I get that you're anxious, and so am I. So is Midoriya. But I believe that we're getting into UA."

"... I guess," She sighed as she rested her chin on Itsuka's shoulder.

"No, no guessing," Itsuka moved back slightly to poke her cheek, "I know. You're going to ace the exam, all three of us are going to UA, and you'll flip off your entire class on your last day of middle school on the way out. I'll have Midoriya record it so I can watch it every time I have a bad day, so I'll feel better."

Despite herself, Ochako snorted a bit, shaking her head. "Okay, let's not go too far, I'm probably not gonna -"

Before she could finish that sentence, though, they suddenly became aware of the sound of the door to the boy's locker room opening, and then the sound of feet moving away from their locker room. Blinking, Itsuka and Ochako looked around in confusion - was someone standing outside the whole time? - but before they could investigate there was a small knock on the door.

"H-hey guys?" Izuku's voice came muffled from behind the door, "I've, uh - is everything going okay in there? I thought I heard you guys punching each other."

"Everything's good!" Itsuka called to him, smiling as she unwrapped her other arm from around Ochako and taking a step back. "Just got distracted by girl talk. We'll be out in a sec."

"... girl talk involves punching each other?"

"Yep, Deku!" Ochako called out with a giggle. "Emotional girl talk punctuated with a fist fight. We're just about done, so just a second!"

"Uh … okay."

The two girls exchanged another smile and giggle as they got back to getting ready, Itsuka checking her hair in the mirror and shaking her head at how frizzy it still was, and quietly accepting that she put enough effort into it, and Ochako finishing putting her own hair up in a neat bun. Soon enough, they were ready, and walked together outside the girls' locker room and back into the dojo.

Standing near the wall was Izuku, dressed up in his white dress-shirt and jeans, and checking his phone, pinching his lower lip as he read something at high speed - probably some hero development he'd missed during his time in the shower.

"Hey, Midoriya," Itsuka asked as she walked over, "did you see anything odd when you came out of the dressing room? We thought we heard something."

"Hm?" Izuku blinked, looking around as he got a look at them, his eyes trailing from Ochako over to Itsuka as he spoke. "Well, uh … I actually did see yoooooour …"

Both girls felt their brows furrow when Izuku's eyes had trailed over to Itsuka - or more specifically, the top of her head - and his voice faltered, eyes widening slightly and his mouth dropping, whatever he was about to say apparently lost.

"Uh … Midoriya?" Itsuka asked, feeling a tad bit awkward by his staring and weird silence. "You okay? What is it?"

"Your - your hair is down."

Blinking, Itsuka raised a hand to the top of her head, as though trying to confirm Izuku's statement. Indeed, instead of her usual ponytail, she had decided to just wear her hair down for the evening, the length of it falling a bit past her shoulders and down her back. Still though, she couldn't help but smirk a bit at the taken aback look on her friend's face, as though he had never seen her hair before.

"Have I seriously never had my hair down around you?" She snorted a bit, using her hand to flip some of it behind her shoulder while Izuku looked a bit embarrassed. "I mean, it's not that weird, Midoriya - believe it or not, my hair isn't permanently tied up in a ponytail."

"O-oh, no, I - I know that, just - you know -" Izuku stuttered for a moment, and then glanced away, going a bit red, "- it's a new look."

Itsuka giggled at that, while Ochako subconsciously reached up to touch her own hair tied up in a bun and frowned a little to herself, although she wasn't quite sure why.

"Well," Itsuka continued on, patting both her friends' shoulders as they started walking through the dojo to get to the door leading upstairs, looking over and seeing her grandpa putting away the broom that he'd been using to sweep, "you're right about it being a new look, Midoriya. This is actually the longest my hair's ever been, usually I keep it pretty short."

"R-really? How short is your hair usually?"

"Really short. Like - well, not like pixie-bob short hair, but never really growing below my jaw," She demonstrated by using her hand to chop at a certain spot in her hair, "I decided to try growing it out last year just to see what it would look like and - I don't know, I just find that I liked it better longer. It's a bit harder to take care of, but I like the ponytail."

"Uh … yeah," Izuku nodded while feeling a bit unsure, not really sure what to say to that as she slid the door open, and they stepped through into the hall. As Itsuka walked over to the garage door to knock on it, he looked around at Ochako, realizing that she had been a bit quiet since they had left the changing rooms. He was shocked to see a small, sad look on her face as she gingerly played with her hair.

"Uh … Occhan?"

"H-huh?" She blinked, coming out of her brief haze to look up at Izuku, seeing him tilt his head slightly as Itsuka poked her head into the garage.

"Are, uh … are you okay?" He asked. "You kinda, er, you've been kind of quiet. Is everything -?"

"O-oh, yeah, it's - everything's fine!" Ochako quickly said, laughing weakly as she waved her hands in the air. "Just - just a bit lost in my thoughts, Deku, no need to worry."

"Er … okay," Izuku slowly nodded, glancing up slightly and blinking. "O-oh, your hair's up."

"Y-yeah," Ochako nodded, glancing away as she subconsciously reached up to pat her brown hair tied up at the back of her head, "just … decided to wrap it up. It's still a bit wet from my shower."

"H-huh," Izuku nodded, glancing away as well, "it's, uh … yeah."

"Yeah."

Izuku and Ochako awkwardly glanced away, not really sure what they were feeling awkward about, while Itsuka turned from her spot near the door and raised her eyebrow, not exactly sure what the hell was even going on there. Thankfully for the three of them, right about then came the sound of the doorbell ringing, making them look around at the door as they heard the sound of shuffling and voices chatting.

"I think that's Set and Yui and Kirishima," Itsuka grinned, taking a moment to close the garage door after speaking to her father, and began walking over to the door, "Uraraka, can you go find Gūdo and pet him until everyone's upstairs? He gets really excited when there's a lot of people over, and I just wanna make sure he doesn't get too loud if he sees everyone coming in at once."

"Cuddle the dog?" Ochako nodded, a smile appearing on her face at the mention of her favourite animal on Earth. "I can do that."

"Pet the dog. Not cuddle the dog. I imagine there's other people who want to pet Gūdo and they won't be able to do that if you're nuzzled up to him all night."

"Too late!" Ochako immediately turned to charge up the stairs, taking them two at a time in order to find Gūdo and cuddle him to death. While Itsuka rolled her eyes and shook her head at her friend's antics, Izuku decided that it might be better for him to make sure that there was still a dog left for other people to pet, and quickly made his way up the stairs as Itsuka opened the door to let the rest of their guests in.

As he stepped through the door upstairs, the smell of food immediately hit him like a wave, making his stomach growl - he hadn't eaten anything since getting back from the beach that morning to train in the dojo, so at the moment he was starving. Making his way to the kitchen, he blinked at the sight of several bowls of various food, including rice, chicken and beef teriyaki, tempura, shrimp, sushi and Izuku could see Miwa finishing up a batch of mochi, which made Izuku wonder how Ochako didn't barrel in and eat one at once - maybe love of dog trumped love of mochi?

"Oh, Izuku!" Inko smiled at her son from her spot at the sink, helping Tenohira clean up some dishes they had used for their prep. "How was it down in the dojo today?"

"Er - it went alright," Izuku shrugged, smiling a bit as he went over and hugged his mom, which made Tenohira let out an 'aww' and Inko giggle a little bit, "Occhan totally kicked my butt in our spar today."

"That I did!" The aforementioned girl called from the living room, before presumably going back to petting Gūdo. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? Is it you? Is it you?"

"Woof!"

"It is you!"

Shaking his head a bit but smiling at his best friend's antics, Izuku moved to grab one of the bowls and plates from the counter to go put on the dining table, although both Inko and Miwa made noises to stop him.

"No, Izuku, we'll handle that!" Inko insisted, "You've had a busy day, so you can just go to the living room and relax a bit, supper's almost ready."

"O-oh, no, Mom, I can help set the table."

"Izuku, no! You've been working down in the dojo all day, so just go and lay down on the couch for a little bit, and while we get it all out on the table, we'll have Taiyo set up the kotatsu in Itsuka's room for you guys to use later."

"Seriously, Mom -" Izuku tried to insist, only for Tenohira to pull out a wet spatula from the soapy water and pointed it threateningly at him, making him gulp and automatically raise his hands in surrender. He was able to run in and fight sludge villains, but the wrath of a mom? No sirree. Thankfully, the sound of laughter from the hall came to his rescue before the three mothers worked together to force him to go relax instead of helping them set the table.

"C'mon, no need to threaten Midoriya now, hon," Hakushu entered the kitchen, grabbing a plate from the counter to bring to the dining room, "sure, he's been working all day, but you three ladies have as well. How about you leave the dishes for me and Taiyo to clean later, and you three can go relax? Once dinner starts -"

"Hey," Tenohira suddenly interrupted, making her husband stop in his tracks, "what's that in your hand, Hakushu?"

"And Taiyo," Miwa also looked down at the object in her own husband's hands, frowning, "what's that?"

Taiyo and Hakushu both gulped, glancing down at their beers in their hands, and looked nervously at both of their wives as they simultaneously crossed their arms, tapping their feet against the ground while Izuku gulped and sunk back, privately thankful that the two mothers' wrath was now directed at someone else.

"I thought we said something about not drinking until after dinner?" Tenohira glared at her husband as he froze, and Taiyo as well suddenly looked quite small as Miwa's eyes narrowed even more than they usually were.

"Er … well ..."

"Midoriya," Izuku jumped at the sound of a new voice, and looked around as Teko entered the kitchen, raising his eyebrow at the incoming slaughter as Inko also nervously backed up, "it appears that my foolish son-in-law is about to be murdered. Go into the living room while I help your mother set the table."

"I - uh - er - I don't know, sensei -"

"Midoriya," Itsuka's grandfather frowned at him, immediately making Izuku stiffen up, "go, or I will force you to do another hundred pushups before you can eat."

"R-right! Yes, sir!" Izuku quickly hurried out of the kitchen, not wanting to be murdered by the older man for daring to try and help, and not wanting to be caught in the incoming crossfire that would be Tenohira and Miwa murdering their husbands.

Once he entered the living room, he let out a small sigh of relief as he slid the door shut behind him. He looked over at Gūdo lying lazily on his back as Ochako tickled his stomach, his best friend giggling as she rubbed his furry stomach. Izuku let out a small chuckle, and walked over to kneel on the dog's over side, scratching his chin as his tail wagged happily.

"Y'know," He chuckled, "I'm honestly surprised you haven't tried to kidnap him yet."

"It's crossed my mind a few times," Ochako giggled as she relaxed against the couch, "but I'm too afraid of Kendou to try getting away with it. I'd be the first suspect she comes afer, and she knows where I sleep. But maybe I can convince her to let me dog-sit sometime? Take care of Gūdo for the weekend?"

"Maybe," Izuku glanced up at her, seeing her smiling down at the fluffy boy, and grinned. "So, uh … are you feeling better?"

"Huh?" Ochako blinked, looking up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Just, uh … downstairs, you seemed … like something was bothering you," He explained, feeling a bit embarrassed now that he was bringing it back up. "I just … I'm not sure if everything was okay."

"I …" Ochako paused, going a bit red - and then she let out a small sigh and smiled at Izuku. "... it wasn't anything, Deku. I'm serious, I just … well … I guess I have a lot on my mind right now. What with All M - I mean, Coach Yagi leaving and how we only got two months before the entrance exam."

"Oh, uh … yeah." Izuku nodded, feeling himself frown - he himself was feeling a bit intimidated by how close the exam was now. "Yeah … not a … not a lot of trash left to clean up now."

"No," She shook her head, "just a few more hills. I was talking to Kendou about it earlier this week during my birthday party - she thinks we have about a month's worth left to clear at the rate we're going. It might not even take that long if we work hard enough."

Izuku hummed at that, leaning back and absently scratching Gūdo's chin. Ochako glanced up at him, and let out a small sigh as she also adjusted herself in her spot.

"Deku," She asked carefully, "I - well, I know I'm nervous, and so is Kendou, but … but how are you feeling?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean -" She looked awkward for a moment, and then looked down as she muttered, "I mean … you know … with your quirk. Do you think - do you think it's going okay?"

Izuku blinked at that, staring at his best friend for a moment as she continued to absently scratch the dog's stomach - and then he let out a small sigh as he leaned back, sitting against the carpet and closing his eyes as he frowned, hearing Inko chatting with Teko as the two of them began moving the plates and bowls of food into the dining room.

"I … honestly don't know," He admitted, biting his lip slightly. "It - it's either or right now, Occhan."

"What do you mean?"

"I … well," He sighed again, "I don't think it's - y'know, that bad. I can use my quirk at will without any problems anymore, so I don't have to worry about - you know, not getting any points. It's just …"

"... the outpour." Ochako slowly nodded.

"Yeah. The outpour. I can summon lightning, I can blast it out, but I can't control how much I use," Izuku frowned at his hands, "it's either all of it, or none of it. And … and I know Gran Torino's going to come and help us train while All Might's away, but … but I'm honestly not sure what'll happen if the entrance exam rolls around and I still haven't figured out how to use it. I can probably take down one robot, but if using my full power hurts me too much … then I'll probably be done the moment I use my quirk."

"Did - did you try to ask All Might if you talk to that Tenko guy again?"

"I did," He admitted glumly, "but he's also been pretty busy with his job and hero work. I just … I don't want to bother him anymore than I already have."

"Deku," Ochako softly said, leaning over Gūdo to look him in the eye, "I'm sure Tenko wouldn't think you're bothering him."

"I just - I don't know," He shook his head, hearing Teko reenter the living room as he walked from the kitchen to the dining room with plates and bowls of food, "I feel like that's all I've done over the last few months - just ask for help, not being able to figure out anything on my own. It's just - it's stupid. I can figure out other people's quirks in minutes, but the moment I try to figure out my own it's like it's this big enigma. I just …" He sighed again, opening his palm and staring at the old scars, "... I want to figure out what to do without asking for help for once."

Ochako felt her mouth thin at that, leaning forward a bit and about to try and refute that statement - she didn't see any shame in asking for help - but before she could even speak, the door to the kitchen slid open again, and both of them looked up at the sight of a shivering green-haired girl.

"Oh, thank god," Setsuna sighed in relief, shrugging her coat off to put on a nearby chair, and knelt down on the ground beside Izuku so she could bend over to lay on top of Gūdo, the dog looking up with his tongue hanging out of his mouth as her weight fell on him, "you're always so warm, Gūdo. I'm sure you'll be more than happy that I use you as a radiator. I trust you don't mind?"

"Woof!"

"I thought so."

"Don't mind the big baby," Yui stoically said as she walked into the living room as well, waving at Izuku and Ochako as she put her coat down beside Setsuna's and moved to sit down on the couch, "she's been whining for the last five minutes because our parents insisted on talking while we were all on the front porch."

"Is it that cold?" Ochako asked interestingly, looking around at the stoic girl as she leaned back in her seat. "We've been in the dojo all day, so we haven't been able to go outside at all."

"It's not as bad as she's complaining," Yui shrugged, "it's just a cold wind."

"Easy for you to say," Setsuna complained, careful not to crush the happy dog under her weight, "my stupid quirk means that I'm cold sensitive - I can't handle low temperature for very long, I feel so freaking sleepy right now."

"Is that right?" Izuku immediately whipped out his notebook, making the three girls roll their eyes as he began scribbling. "So is that a natural part of your own quirk?"

"Yeah. It's thanks to my quirk genes."

"Fascinating!"

"Yo, Mido-bro!" Eijirou came in next, laughing and squatting down next to so he could punch his shoulder. Izuku let out a small noise of surprise at the hit, but soon grinned and high-fived the other boy; it had been a little while since they had seen each other, not since November when they had gone fishing in a pond near downtown Musutafu, and he was happy to see him again.

"H-hey, Kirishima! How has your winter break been?"

"Busy!" He laughed as he sat down next to him, waving to Ochako as she bid him hello as well. "I've been doing non-stop training for the last few months, so I'm happy with taking a little break."

"Where's Kendou?" Ochako looked around, a bit confused when they didn't see their host anywhere - and then the door slid open one last time, making Izuku look around, and he and Ochako blinked in confusion when they saw Itsuka enter the room carefully - mostly due to the fact a little girl was clinging to her tightly, refusing to let go as Itsuka took careful steps towards the couch.

"Sera," Setsuna groaned as she sat up a bit, watching as Itsuka wobbled awkwardly into the room and tried not to trip over herself, "let Ken go already, she's not going to go anywhere and I'm sure she'll be happy to hang out with you with you clinging to her."

"Mm-mm," The little girl shook her head as Itsuka giggled and patted her green hair, "no."

"It's fine, Set," Itsuka grinned, managing to finally reach the couch and sit down beside Yui, "it's been a while since we've seen each other, hasn't it? I've been so busy lately, I haven't had any time to go visit my favourite dinosaur."

"We see each other at school all the time, Ken."

"Not you. Your sister."

"Ouch! But fair."

The little girl giggled at her sister being put down so brutally, and looked around at Ochako and Izuku, both middle-school students smiling at the tiny girl who looked like a miniature Setsuna, and she gave them a wide, toothy grin.

"This is my little sister, Sera," Setsuna introduced them, finally moving off of Gūdo so the dog could roll over and lay down more comfortably in Ochako's lap, the brown-haired girl happily hugging him to her, "she's a delight when she's not around me. Don't mind her, she's just never hidden that she prefers Ken over me."

"Because she's not dumb," Sera helpfully pointed out, making Itsuka huff and Izuku and Ochako smile at her adorableness, "and she doesn't wear weird makeup, and her hair doesn't turn into weird colours."

"Weird makeup?" Ochako raised an eyebrow in curiosity while Setsuna, unbeknownst to anyone, stiffened up and paled. "What does that -?"

"A-anyway!" Setsuna suddenly hopped back up, making everyone blink and look around at her as she tried to abruptly change the subject. "Now that we're here, we'd better start getting introductions out of the way. Midoriya, c'mon, I gotta introduce you to my parents."

"Uh … okay?" Izuku felt confused as Setsuna moved over to open the doors to the kitchen, the sound of several adult voices filling the room as Eijirou also looked around in confusion. "But why do I specifically have to -?"

"Mom! Dad! My secret twin brother's in here!"

"S-secret twin brother?"

"Issss that right?" An older woman's voice rang out, sounding teasing and curious, and from around the corner came a woman who was obviously Setsuna's mom. Izuku and Ochako blinked somewhat at the sight of her - she looked far more lizard-like than her daughter, with yellow sclera, green-slitted eyes, scales on her face and bare arms, and a forked tongue poking out of her mouth. Her eyes trailed over to Izuku, and her grin, which also contained a lot of sharp teeth, widened.

"Ah, yesss, there you are," She moved into the room, making Izuku gulp as she approached him and put her hands on her hips, observing him and nodding with a teasing grin, "Sssssetsuna's told ussss all about you. Yesss, I can sssee why you were calling him your brother, that hair'ssss very clossse to my own ssssshade of hair."

"Uh ... er ..." Izuku gulped, not really sure how to get himself out of this - and then another man poked his head out from around the corner, a bit scrawnier than his wife but looking just as mischievous.

"Ah! Our mysterious, missing son has finally made his appearance. Sera, this is your apparent secret brother!"

"Huh?" Sera blinked, looking around from where she had been hugging Itsuka to stare at Izuku in shock. "My brother?"

"Oh, no," Izuku whined a bit, glancing between the three smirking Tokages as he felt more than a little terrified, "there's three of them now."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded in sympathy while Eijirou patted the green-haired boy's shoulder, "yeah, they're where Set gets her stupidity from. I wanna say that you'll eventually get used to all the teasing … but I'd be lying."

---

All Might really wished he could've gone to the Kendou's tonight.

The moment the door to his office in Might Tower closed behind him, he let out a weary sigh as he shrunk down to his true, weakened form. Trying not to let his costume drag behind him, he walked over to his desk to take a seat in the comfortable leather chair. He'd just gotten back to his office for last minute preparations for his trip after two exhausting meetings - one with Nezu, who wanted All Might to get acquainted with the inner workings of UA before the Number One Hero was officially announced as a new teacher, and of course, the small, mouse-like principal had went on one of his long-winded tangents that ended up taking hours to get through.

At the very least, though, his meeting with Nezu had gone pleasantly enough. The other meeting with Naomasa … not so much.

Five months had passed, and no one, not the heroes or the police, were any closer to figuring out what exactly happened in the drug warehouse or where the barrels of Trigger had went. He had been quickly brought into the case by Naomasa - from what they had figured out despite their limited knowledge and the lack of witnesses, over twelve metal tuns, barrels the size of himself, had been taken from the warehouse and were now in the hands of someone they had no leads on.

A single syringe of Trigger was enough to make a quirk rampage out of control - and now this mysterious villain had enough Trigger to supply the entire criminal underworld for months.

He knew that a lot of heroes were nervous right now - Trigger, especially a batch comparable to the original creation, would be dangerous in the wrong hands, and since there hadn't been any reports of villains using the drug in the last few months, they were at a dead end. Naomasa had immediately launched a formal investigation with Officer Kaniyashiki and Detective Tanuma, two officers that had been involved in the initial Trigger outbreaks five years ago, and now they were summoning several of the Top 10 pro heroes, including himself, Hawks and Ryukyu, to Hokkaido where the initial crime had taken place, in order to try to find any other leads as to who took the trigger and what '9' was supposed to mean - since there hadn't been any other major crimes associated with other numbers in the last five months.

Which … admittedly presented a problem for All Might, since he wouldn't be able to supervise his students in their last two months leading up to the entrance exam if he was across the country. But he knew he couldn't just blow this off - it was serious, and required immediate attention. And Gran understood that, with Tenko having filled him in on the seriousness of the situation, so he readily agreed to supervise the three teenagers in his absence.

As he sat down heavily in his seat, rolling around to look outside the window at the nighttime skyline of Tokyo, All Might couldn't help but smile a bit in pride as he thought of his successor's endeavors on the beach. As he had predicted back in the summer, thanks to three people working on the beach instead of one, they would get done far earlier than he had expected. He wouldn't be surprised if Gran texted him at the end of January confirming that they had cleared off the entirety of the beach assigned to them. Over the last few months, Gran had come down to the beach a few more times to spar with Itsuka, and while she hadn't been able to defeat him at all, at least she took her losses well.

With that in mind, with Itsuka being the one moving most of the trash alongside Ochako, he knew that as of right now, she was more than ready for One for All. He knew that she was now prepared to take on the quirk without it blowing her to pieces, at least.

Speaking of Ochako, All Might let out a small laugh as he leaned back in his chair. If he were being honest, he hadn't seen her development and improvement coming at all. When they had first met when he had saved her and Izuku from the sludge villain, he knew that she had been a fiery young woman, but he couldn't help but be surprised at how hard she threw herself into improving her quirk and body. Over the last few months, she had worked on her quirk enough that she had increased her weight limit - instead of the three tons she was capable of before, she could now lift up to seven tons! And that was before she even entered UA, where she would increase it more! Not to mention the training at the Kendou dojo that she had taken a particular liking to - the one time when he had visited to watch his students spar, he had winced at how enthusiastic she was throwing Izuku around like a ragdoll, while Teko nodded in approval and Itsuka tried not to laugh too hard at the horrified look on All Might's face.

He may have inadvertently created a monster.

And last but not least, Izuku. All Might smiled a bit to himself at the thought of the young man. Tenko's advice had done him wonders - after their conversation, Izuku had figured out how to fire off a blast of lightning at will. While the first few days of practising had been pretty shaky, Izuku had worked hard to overcome the mental barrier, and soon had no problems firing off one blast of lightning every day. While it wasn't an easy task to do, due to the full power of his quirk injuring his hands every time he used it, at the very least he was doing much better than when he had started. And while he hadn't exactly taken to the training in the dojo like Itsuka and Ochako had, he showed improvement there as well.

It was just ...

All Might felt his smile fade from his face as he looked out the window, seeing the shining lights of Tokyo shine into his office. While Izuku's developments were nothing to scoff about, and he was definitely much better than he had been when he had started ... there was still one major problem they needed to address.

The output of his quirk.

Izuku knew how to fire his quirk, yes, and he knew enough about how it worked that he could enter the entrance exam and probably get good marks against the robots - but he still had a problem with controlling just how much power he released in one blast. He had no control over how much power he released - and that may present not just a problem in the exam. If Izuku got into UA, and his quirk continued to blast out at full power, they may run into the risk of getting other students hurt, and that would put a dent in Izuku's now recovering mentality. He'd just begun to get over injuring his friend and his mother, but if he ended up injuring his classmates as well, they may be sent back to square one.

It was difficult for Izuku to control how much power he blasted out, and since All Might was leaving for the last two months of his training, he might not have enough time to help Izuku find a solution before the entrance exam.

He briefly considered bringing Tenko back in to help Izuku out, but he knew that Tenko had his hands full with his own job, and there was no way he could deal with working at UA and heading out to the beach every day to help out Izuku in his absence. There was another part of him that considered sending Izuku to Nezu for a talk as well, as the principal would probably have his own ideas how to help him out - but All Might shuddered and shook his head. If Nezu got his paws on Izuku, he'd probably decide that turning Izuku into a logical, scheming monster took presidence over Izuku learning how to use his quirk. So having the principal step in would be the last resort.

No, what Izuku needed right now ... was a way to help him lessen how much power he released in a blast, to lessen the risks of him injuring himself or someone else. He needed something that would allow him to use his quirk safely. Something that would let him practice with his quirk without the risk of burning his hands every time he used it. He needed ...

... a support item.

All Might's eyes widened at that thought, sitting forward in his seat. That was it! Until Izuku figured out how to control the amount of power he put in his blasts, he needed some kind of stopper. A support item that he could figure out how to use easily. Something that ... perhaps ... a kind of support item that would let him pour electricity into it, and then fire out of. Something along those lines.

But … where exactly would he find one? All Might had no doubt that with his own fortune (something so large he didn't really bother to look at anymore, just knowing that he had it) he could find a support item that would suit Izuku's needs. But one so specific? And in so little time? Where could he -

- wait.

Wait a minute, he did know somewhere he could commission something so specific. Or more specifically, someone.

Sitting up straight as the answer came to him like a bolt out of the blue, All Might quickly rolled his chair back to his desk in order to type in his laptop, trying to look up the app that would show him the various time zones around the world, and hoping against hope that it wasn't too late to call. Thankfully, after looking up their time, he was relieved that it would be the afternoon over there, meaning that he wouldn't be bothering his old friend - he knew I-Island moved around the ocean frequently, so it was difficult to find out what time zone they were in at the moment.

One quick visit to FaceTime later, All Might dialed the number and sat back, hoping that he wasn't interrupting anything important. To his relief, it only took about two rings for his friend to pick up.

"Toshi!" David's large grin greeted him as soon as the call connected, All Might smiling as well as he waved. From what he could see, David was in his lab, the sun beginning to set in the distance behind him as he got up from his workbench. "This is a surprise! Usually you email me beforehand to let me know that you're gonna call."

"Yes, well ... forgive me if I'm interrupting anything, Dave, I just had a problem, and I figured that you were just the man for the job."

"Oh come on, Toshi, I'll never actually complain about you calling me out of the blue." David put something down on the bench as he picked up the laptop All Might was connected to, walking away from his workbench. All Might patiently waited until David put the laptop down on another desk, sitting in his own chair and scratching his goatee. "Anyway, I'm kind of flattered, Toshi - it's been years since you've reached out to me specifically for a problem. Something going on with one of your suits?"

"No, no, your suits are as great as ever," All Might chuckled, leaning back in his seat and brushing one of his bangs out of his eyes as he tugged on the loose costume he was currently wearing, "this is actually about someone else - someone I've been helping out."

At the curious look on David's face, All Might began to explain what he had been up to for the last few months. He was, of course, pretty careful telling him most of the details - he didn't want to alarm his old friend with the fact that he was making Itsuka his successor, nor giving any hints to the true nature of One for All due to All Might wanting to keep that secret close to his chest - he was still trying to figure out exactly when he was going to let Izuku and Ochako in on the secret themselves, mostly due to Gran's warning that they'll pick up on something strange with Itsuka eventually. Instead, he told a condensed version of what he was doing, helping three middle-school students get ready for the entrance exam for UA High School, and then bringing David up to speed on Izuku's predicament and the backstory on that.

By the time he was finished explaining everything, David was slowly nodding, taking off his glasses to wipe at a smudge on the lens.

"I see ..." He put his glasses back on, adjusting himself in his seat, "so you're thinking that a support item would help out this Midoriya kid?"

"Essentially," All Might nodded, "a support item that would ... well, honestly, I haven't put that much thought into it, I actually just thought of it a few minutes ago. I thought that if I could talk to you I could figure out what exactly we needed."

"Well," David raised his hand to cup his chin as he thought, "from what you've described … I think that a support item that would help him discharge the electricity in shorter bursts would be what this kid needs. Do you remember Elecplant, back when we were in college? His costume absorbs his quirk's electricity, and then releases it through his hands. And Electricka, one of the heroes over in Japan too - she has gauntlets that can convert her electricity into whips."

"Yes," All Might agreed, "I had those same thoughts as well, David. But Young Midoriya - well, his quirk isn't a typical electrical quirk."

"Oh?"

"That's right. Typically, electric-type quirks can charge electricity and emit it out of their entire body." He explained. "But his quirk isn't like that - I've had him practice it for months, and it's only ever emerged from his arms and hands at full power. He can't generate electricity, he can only fire out a blast of lightning from each of his hands."

"I see," David slowly nodded, biting his lip, "so the support item you're thinking of isn't a stereotypical electric support."

"Well," All Might shook his head, "I was just thinking … well, I'm not going to say that Young Midoriya will need a support item forever. Just until he learns how to use his quirk. You mentioned something about a support item that would let him charge his power and release it in shorter blasts, and … well, maybe that's the way to go about it. Do you think that's the best option right now?"

"Hm ... well, first of all, how much power is in a single bolt of lightning?"

"I'm ... admittedly not sure," He scratched his hair sheepishly, "but I figure it's about the same firepower as a regular bolt of lightning."

"In that case ..." David furrowed his brow, leaning over to type on his work computer to double check something, "... a single bolt of lightning would be ... around a billion volts."

"... ah." All Might weakly nodded, gulping a bit.

"That would take ... well, for a theoretical support item, that would take a ridiculous amount of power to contain without exploding. I don't think many of my own inventions would be able to withstand that, at least the ones I still have. I'm pretty sure this student of yours must have a body capable of summoning that amount of power without giving himself brain damage, seeing as a regular human being only has about 100 watts of electricity within them on average - pretty much enough to power a light bulb. At most, some humans have enough ability to output over 2,000 watts of power, if they were sprinting for instance - but that's just me googling, I'm no expert on electricity and biology."

Letting out a small sigh, David leaned back in his own chair, giving All Might an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Toshi, but right now I don't exactly have something like that. And even if I was, I'd have to start from scratch, and I don't think I'd be able to complete it by the end of this entrance exam - at least, nothing that we can safely rely on."

All Might slowly nodded, understanding that it was a long shot anyway, and opened his mouth to thank David anyway for thinking about it - when he saw David suddenly stop, his mouth briefly hanging open as a thought clearly came to him. Blinking a bit in confusion, All Might watched as David looked off to the side as though he had thought of something, which piqued All Might's attention.

"Dave? What is it?"

"Sorry, Toshi, just - I thought of something," Turning over to his other computer, David quickly typed something in and looked at the screen, blinking a bit as he read something over, and nodded to himself. Quickly, he stood up from his desk, and picked up the laptop he had been using to talk to All Might.

"I don't think I can make something from scratch that this Midoriya kid can use to help his quirk," He reiterated, giving the pro hero behind the screen a small smile, "but I just checked something Melissa had sent to my email, and I think she's been working on a project that kind of fits the description of what you need."

"Melissa?" All Might blinked, a smile forming on his face as he sat up. "She's been working on something?"

"Yeah! I'd send it to you to read, but I think it would just be easier to go and talk to her directly. She's been cooked up in her lab all day and she could use a break. I'd actually buff up if I were you, I'm sure she would love to chat with you for a bit."

"Of course!" Quickly, All Might buffed back up to his true form, smiling widely at the prospect of seeing his niece - it had been a while since they had talked directly and not through text or email, and speaking to her was worth a little strain, seeing as he was running on fumes already.

About a minute later, All Might watched as David walked through a pair of sliding doors, calling his daughter's name as the laptop was turned around. He got a good look at the slightly messy lab, going a bit pale at the amount of empty energy drink cans on the table, before the camera was finally aimed at the foot of a large mechanical device that looked almost like a generator. Once the camera was pointed at the floor, All Might had to suppress a chuckle at the sight of a pair of legs sticking out from under the machine, one foot tapping on the floor.

"Melissa?" David called to her, "Are you at a good place to take a break?"

"Uh - kinda?" A sweet voice came from under the machinery, her foot reaching over to try and drag a wrench under the device, "Why, is something going on?"

"Not much - I actually have Uncle Might on the line, he was wondering if he could speak with you."

"Huh? Uncle Might?!"

All Might's grin widened at the sudden excited gasp, and from underneath the machine slid out a young woman, face covered in dark grease and goggles wrapped securely around her eyes. Her long, wavy blonde hair was wrapped in a messy ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of overalls with an All Might t-shirt underneath. The pro hero himself leaned back in his seat with a laugh as Melissa pushed the goggles up to her forehead, reaching over to grab her glasses from the nearby desk so she could properly see.

"Uncle Might!" Melissa giggled excitedly as she leaned down beside where David was now sitting, both Shields smiling into the camera as the pro hero on the other end of the line let out a booming laugh. "Oh, gosh, it's been so long since I've actually seen you! How are you?"

"Quite well!" All Might clapped his hands together happily, and then gave the young woman a teasing grin as he wagged his finger. "I see that you've been keeping yourself quite busy, though - isn't it your winter break right now? I thought you'd be taking this chance to celebrate the new year with your friends."

"Nah," Melissa shook her head as she grabbed a clean cloth from the side, wiping at her face to get rid of some of the grease, "I've been keeping myself busy with my submission for this year's I-Expo. I'm working on a generator that can power the entire island in case of a massive blackout, one that improves on the ones we already have. I've only knocked out the power to the building twice already."

"You don't seem to be very ashamed of that, though. Ha, ha!"

"Well, I'm not foolish enough to think that I'm going to get the results I want during my first try," She shrugged sheepishly, "I just have to handle Papa yelling at me if I knock out the power before he can save his work."

David shook his head and narrowed his eyes slightly at the utter lack of guilt in his daughter's voice, but he still chuckled and decided to get back on track.

"Melissa," He explained, "Uncle Might was actually calling me about something specific, and I thought you could help him out."

"Oh? What's going on?"

"Well, right now he's training a middle-school student to take an entrance exam," David quickly brought her up to speed, "and he's having a problem with his quirk. It's an electrical type, but instead of generating power throughout his entire body, he can only release it through his hands. He can't control the output either, so he's unleashing literal bolts of lightning, which can injure himself and anyone he might hit."

"Is that right ...?" Melissa tilted her head a bit.

"From what Uncle Might was telling me, he wanted to get this student a support item that could store some of the power and unleash it in smaller blasts. Both to lessen the risks of injuries to other people and himself. I haven't been working on anything like that, but it reminded me of something you told me you were working on a few weeks ago - one of your projects."

Melissa wrinkled her brow in confusion, as though she were trying to remember what her dad was talking about - and then she blinked.

"Wait - do you mean -?"

"Yeah, the - I think you called it the gauntlet."

All Might raised his eyebrow in intrigue as Melissa quickly nodded, getting up from where she had been sitting beside her father, and moving across the lab towards her workbench.

"Yeah … yeah, hold on a second, Uncle!"

She reached her desk and began searching through her sketches and blueprints for whatever she and her dad were talking about, letting out a small 'oops' when she sent a few of the cans clanging to the floor. Just as All Might began to look around and gulped about how many empty pizza boxes were lined up against the wall, Melissa let out another small noise as she found what she was looking for, lifting up a blueprint to quickly read through it. Once she was finished, she nodded and hurried back over to her father, smiling widely.

"Uncle Might, I might have an answer for you."

"Is that right?" The pro hero sat forward, hopeful.

"I've actually been working on a new device in my spare time," Melissa explained as she sat back down next to David, both of them leaning in again, "I haven't thought up a name for it just yet, but I'm thinking of going with 'Full Gauntlet'. I've been designing it as a gift for you, Uncle Might - what I've been going for is a support item that would be strong enough to withstand three of your punches while it's wrapped around your wrist. Of course, I had considered that you really don't like using support items - this is more of a challenge for me to see if I could build a device that could keep up with you."

"Mm-hm …"

"But," She clapped her hands excitedly together, "from what you told me, this Midoriya person has problems with the output of his quirk. If I tweak the design, I can make it so instead of absorbing the shock of your full power, it can store some of the energy this person can pour out. So instead of firing off a blast with no restraint," She lifted her hand up as though to demonstrate, "I can design the Full Gauntlet to absorb the lightning, and let him discharge it safely."

"Huh ... and would you be able to create such a device? We will need it in a short amount of time."

"Hm …" Melissa leaned back, thinking, "if I put aside a few projects I've been thinking of starting, I can have it ready in about two months. Would that be okay?"

"It'd be cutting it a bit close," All Might grinned, "but that sounds perfect, Melissa. But I wouldn't want you to push all your projects to the side just to help me out."

"It's alright, Uncle Might," She smiled, "if it's to help you, I'm more than happy to put a pause on my projects. It sounds like this person really needs help figuring out his quirk, right? I can't let them down. And once I finish it, I'll have you give me his address and send the Full Gauntlet directly to him."

All Might slowly nodded, and felt himself smile. It wouldn't be perfect, of course, cutting it very close to the entrance exam - but it was better than nothing. He gave the two Shields a smile as he leaned back, nodding.

"Very well, Melissa," He grinned, "Young Midoriya is in your hands."

---

"Izu-nii-san," Sera asked as Izuku walked back into Itsuka's room with his plate of food, not noticing him going a bit red at the nickname, "did you bring me my juice box?"

"I, uh - I'm not actually your brother, Sera," He gulped a bit nervously, stopping at the door and hoping that he could prevent this misunderstanding from going any further than it already has, "I'm actually just …"

He faltered, however, when he saw the happy look fade from the little girl's face, replaced by a bit of hurt and tears beginning to well in her eyes. Feeling himself shake, he let out a tiny sigh, and walked over to the kotatsu everyone was seated under, and brought the grape juice box from his pocket and put it on the table next to her drawing books and crayons.

"Sorry," He muttered, "yes, here's your drink. I am your brother. Please don't cry."

"Yay!" She clapped her hands happily, immediately grabbing her drink so she could remove the straw from the plastic while Setsuna laughed.

"Yeah, sorry about that, Midoriya," She giggled from her spot on the bed - at least her top half, her waist and legs were currently relaxing under the kotatsu, "I told my parents about our hair looking pretty similar and they've been kind of obsessed with that for the last five months. On the plus side, it seems like your mom doesn't mind that you're getting adopted by us, so welcome to the family!"

"I - yeah. Hooray." Izuku slowly nodded unenthusiastically, putting his plate down on the table and sitting down. Indeed, his mom had been pretty amused by the Tokages' mock-tearful joy at finding their 'long-lost son', so he knew that tonight wasn't going to be the last time he heard this joke.

It had been just about an hour since all of the guests had arrived, and they all began their New Years' party. Very quickly, after the Tokages had teased him into a blushing, stuttering mess, Izuku had been introduced to the families of his other friends - Yui's dad, a single father who worked in real estate, ended being a little more timid than his stoic daughter but still rather polite, shaking his hand and complimenting Inko's cooking. Setsuna's parents, meanwhile, were clearly where the green-haired girl got her mischievous and teasing nature from, both of them assuring Sera that he was indeed their child as the little girl went into more and more shock, grabbing Izuku's hand and not letting go while his face burned in embarrassment. At least Eijirou's moms were pretty nice, albeit a bit loud and just as intense as their son was.

After Itsuka had rescued Gūdo from Ochako's clutches, the eighteen people had gathered around the dining table, with even Itsuka's grandfather joining them, and toasted to a new year. And right after that, Taiyo managed to escape his wife's unamused glare (Ochako predicted that it would be a couch night for him unless he got back into her good graces before they went home) to go set up the Kendous' kotatsu in Itsuka's room. It was clear that the house was more than a little filled up and the dining room didn't have enough room for everyone, so the teenagers and Sera were excused to eat their dinner in Itsuka's room, mostly so everyone wasn't too crowded.

"Oooh, I didn't know there was shrimp tempura," Setsuna looked eagerly at Izuku's plate, moving her upper body to hover over the table, "gimmie, Midoriya, I am in need."

"Set, Midoriya's just as exhausted as Uraraka and me," Itsuka groaned from where she had slumped on the table beside Sera, the little girl doodling in her book, "please let him eat in peace, you've traumatized him enough tonight."

"Fine, fine," Setsuna shook her head, settling her upper body down to lay at the back of Itsuka's bed, propping herself up on her elbows to watch everyone else sitting under the table, "I'm just being lazy, Midoriya, don't let me stop you. Enjoy your dinner."

"Wow," Eijirou blinked in surprise as Ochako continued to tell him about their hard day, moving slightly to the side to let Izuku slide his legs under the warm blankets, taking a moment to break his chopsticks in half, "that sounds … uh … pretty rough, Uraraka. You had to actually run two hundred laps?"

"Mm-hm," Ochako laid her head down on the surface of the table, "two hundred laps, and if you slow down even a little bit, Kendou-sensei would just come up behind you with a wooden stick and hit you in the back. I couldn't feel my legs by the time we were done, and then we had to do pushups. Like, two hundred of those too."

"Jeez," Eijirou winced in sympathy, "I guess I made the right call not applying to join his classes."

"Well, those aren't too bad," Itsuka looked around at him as she ate from her bowl of rice, a few pieces of food sticking to her lip and chin from how fast she had been eating, "the usual classes aren't as intense as ours, at least. We're training for UA, so my grandpa's not really giving us a break now that we're a month away."

"How is that going for you, Kirishima?" Izuku asked him as he took a bite of his own dinner, "I think you mentioned the last time we saw each other that you've managed to finally harden your entire body?"

"Hah, that's right, man!" Eijirou grinned, clenching his fist and activating his quirk, hardening up his entire arm as he flexed, "I'm good to go for the practical exam! I've heard that it's usually combat focused on robots, so I think I've got this one in the bag!"

"And what about the written part?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow. "You've been studying for that, right?"

She got her answer from how Eijirou noticeably winced, and Yui and Setsuna raised their eyebrows at him.

"Kirishima, you've gotta study too," Itsuka told him in a deadpanned voice, "it's cool if you ace the practical exam, but you've also gotta make sure you don't end up flunking the written exam. I got a feeling that UA's not going to enroll you only based on how well you can punch a robot in the face."

"Yeah … yeah," Eijirou slumped a bit, looking sheepish, "I get you, Kendou, I'll take some time to study too."

"Anyway," Yui looked around at Setsuna on the bed, relaxing back a little bit while playing footsies with her under the table, "speaking of UA, how is your costume development coming along?"

"Pretty good!" The green-haired girl clapped her hands together as she sat up, "I've already sent them some of my hair for them to use for the costume, they're going to start working on it Monday."

"Huh?" Izuku looked around at her, intrigued. "You're already making your costume? I thought UA covers that kind of expense after we've been enrolled."

"That's true," Setsuna's upper body floated off the bed and over the table, reaching for Yui's notebook while using her other hand to ruffle her little sister's hair, "but my costume's gotta be made of a different material for the sake of my quirk. I can split my body apart, but my clothes definitely can't. So my parents helped me get in contact with a costume company, and they agreed that, if I send them a bit of my DNA - like a few strands of my hair - they can design a costume for me that'll be lined with those fibers, and it'll split apart with me."

"Really …"

"Yeah, like - here, Yui helped design it," She flipped the notebook open to put down on the table, prompting Izuku and Ochako to look over the drawing. They leaned forward to have a look at the picture of Setsuna in a purple bodysuit, with fingerless gloves, two orange, three piece wrist-guards, and a black belt.

"All the parts are going to be encoded with my DNA so it'll split apart with me," Setsuna explained, "or else I'm gonna have to deal with the fact that I have to strip naked whenever I want to use my quirk - and I already know it's going to be a pain in the ass to get this thing on, I do not wanna know how hard it's gonna be to get it off."

Izuku gulped a bit and blushed at that specific thought, glancing away and sweating as she got a good look at his red face and giggled teasingly, while Itsuka and Ochako looked over at him with unamused gazes. Still though, he looked back down at the design and tried to calm down his embarrassment, wanting to get a bit more information about her costume.

"So, uh … so does your costume have to be skin tight for your quirk?

"Nah, it can be a thick material if I send them more of my hair," She there said hair behind her shoulder as she moved down to float her upper body beside him, grinning a bit, "I just want it to be skin tight."

"Uh … and … and why is that?"

"Because I am sexy," Setsuna smirked, "and I wanna show it."

"Hm," Yui nodded, "that you are, Setsuna. Very sexy."

While Izuku and Eijirou chuckled awkwardly while the green-haired boy's face burned bright red, Setsuna winking teasingly at him and making Ochako's frown deepen and Itsuka's eyes narrow even more, Yui took that moment to slide the notebook back to her and began flipping through the pages, eventually finding what she wanted and sliding the book back towards Izuku and Ochako. The two of them looked over and saw a new sketch being presented to them, a figure that was obviously meant to be Yui dressed in a red bodysuit with white trims, a weird looking hat with a metallic fin attached to the back of the strap, and a white skirt.

"I want to look cute," Yui explained in her usual deadpan voice, "so this is my costume.

"Er … right," Izuku decided to ignore that first part in fear that so much blood would rush to his head tonight that he would pass out, and looked over the costume design. "I - well, I guess since your quirk is touch based just like Occhan's, you don't really need anything specific for your costume."

"Mm," She confirmed with a nod, "since my quirk is touch-based, I don't really need any support items, so I can do whatever I want with the design. And since I really like Ultraman, I decided to base my costume off my favorite anime."

"Careful, girl," Setsuna joked, "or Tsuburaya Productions is going to come after your ass and sue you to oblivion."

"It's a homage. If they're butthurt, that's their problem."

"Anyway," Itsuka shook her head at her friends' antics, sliding the notebook over from where Izuku and Ochako had been looking at and flipping through it to find the last sketch, "I also had Yui draw my own costume for me. I'm many things, but I'm definitely not an artist; best I can do is stick figures."

"Ooooh," Izuku bounced a bit, feeling excited as she opened the page she was looking for and slid it back over for him and Ochako to look at.

"Now then," She giggled, "for your viewing pleasure."

Both of them chuckling a bit, Izuku and Ochako bent over bent over to have a look at the drawing. Right away, they felt their smiles widen - it was such an 'Itsuka' design. It looked like something a martial artist would wear - a knee-length qipao, turquoise-colored with yellow highlights, and a double-breasted corset. Izuku also took note of the domino mask, wide enough to not impede her vision, and the pair of navy-blue boots. He glanced up at Itsuka and pointed at them questioningly, while she snorted and waved her hand.

"The support company I've been researching works on comfortable heeled boots for heroines," She explained, "so they'll be a lot more comfortable than they look."

"And, uh …" Izuku glanced back down at the picture, and went a bit red as he cleared his throat. "... I, uh … I don't see …"

"I'll be wearing short-shorts under the skirt, don't worry."

"Oh, thank god," He sighed in relief, while Ochako raised an eyebrow at him and looked back up at Itsuka.

"So you're doing heels too?" She asked.

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded as she leaned back, "they'll be reinforced, and I know that I tend to use my fists more, but being able to land a pretty good kick's not something I'm just going to ignore. What about you, why are you putting heels in your costume? If you're floating yourself and return your gravity while you're up in the air, wouldn't that just mean -"

"- I get a broken ankle for my troubles?" Ochako finished for her, smiling a bit as she gave a pointed look at Izuku, who blushed a bit. "Deku said the same thing. I'm actually making a design that can break my falls in case I floated myself. The shoe sole is gonna be equipped with a cushion for absorbing shock, and the heel is actually just going to be a spring that's going to help soften the shock if I jump from a high distance and land on my feet."

"I mean, that makes sense," Setsuna shrugged, "plus, our costumes can't just be for practicality, they've gotta have a bit of appeal too. It's easier to get noticed if you look good instead of - y'know, like a walking and talking armory."

"Yeah. So anyway, the design for my costume is pretty much done, and we're going to submit it to the quirk registration during the month after the entrance exam. Like Deku said, if we do get in, UA will cover the design's expenses."

"Yeah …" Itsuka hummed, reaching around Ochako so she could scratch Gūdo's ears, the dog laying behind her and chewing on his squeaky toy, "... so Uraraka's got her design good and ready to go - how's yours going, Midoriya?"

"Oh, uh …" Izuku paused for a moment, scratching his cheeks sheepishly, and shrugged a bit, "... I'm … still working on it."

"That right?"

"Yeah. I've, uh … well, I've been doing a lot of research," He explained as he put down his chopsticks on the plate, feeling a bit awkward with everyone now looking over at him, "and I've found that a lot of electric-based heroes have costumes that help them generate electricity. My problem, though, is that my quirk isn't a typical electrical quirk. Typically, electric-type quirks can charge electricity and emit it out of their body, which lets the electrocute any villain they need to. But my quirk isn't like that, it tends to generate …"

Itsuka and Ochako watched as Izuku's voice went quieter and quieter and then faster and faster, and felt completely unsurprised when he began a mutter spree, reaching up to pinch his lower lip as he stared down at the table. Setsuna, Yui and Eijirou merely blinked, not really used to the odd sight as they exchanged a small glance, and watched as Itsuka reached over the table to poke Izuku's cheek, drawing his attention.

"H-huh?"

"Midoriya, we caught none of that," She giggled, "care to repeat?"

"Oh, uh - s-sorry," He blushed a bit, and shook his head. "Anyway, uh - basically, I'm having trouble with how much power I pour into my quirk when I use it. It's either all of my power, or nothing."

"Really?" Yui tilted her head, "That sounds like it could be dangerous."

"It is," Izuku nodded glumly, staring down at his hands, "every time I use my quirk it numbs the hell out of my hands, and … and I never really can use it more than once. I don't know, I … like I told Occhan earlier, I'm kind of frustrated that I can't figure out what's going on with my quirk."

"I mean … isn't that what UA's for?" Setsuna tried to comfort him. "It's not just teaching us how to be heroes, it's helping us try to understand our quirks."

"Well," He sighed, "I don't think UA can really help me out if I can't -"

"This is boring," Sera suddenly said, making the other middle-schoolers blink and look around at the little girl as she used a crayon to draw in her book, while looking over and seeing her sister's costume sketch, "can I draw in your costume, Setty?"

"No, you don't," Her older sister laughed, pulling the notebook away in case she got any ideas, "I don't think the boring government people will be okay with my hero costume being colored in crayon. But you know what, you're right, Sera, this conversation is super boring."

"Yeah," Sera nodded in agreement, "and you're not sexy, Setty. You're really ugly."

While Itsuka guffawed and Setsuna leaned over to flick her little sister's ear in annoyance, Izuku chuckled a bit as well at the little girl's bluntness, leaning back in his spot under the kotatsu - until Gūdo suddenly got up, whining as he used his paw to pat Izuku, making the boy blink and look over at the dog scratching him.

"Hm? What is it, boy?"

"Uh oh," Itsuka looked over at her dog as well, realizing what was bothering him as Gūdo turned in a circle and hurried towards the door, "I know what that means. Looks like someone's gotta use the bathroom."

"Huh?" Sera looked around, "Gūdo's gotta pee?"

"Pee and poop, maybe."

"Ew! That's gross!"

"Yep, super disgusting," Itsuka giggled, grunting as she started sliding out from under the warm table, "so if you'll all excuse me, I better go let him out so he can do his business."

"Do you want someone to come with?" Ochako offered, with Izuku also moving to get up just in case their friend needed some company, and unaware of Setsuna and Yui glancing between the two of them with raised eyebrows.

"I mean, I am just going to let my dog out so he can go to the bathroom," Itsuka pointed out with a small giggle, "but if you guys wanna get some fresh air, you can come with."

"I'll do that," Izuku nodded, moving out from under the table with his best friend to join Itsuka, "I could use some fresh air after being inside all day."

Itsuka nodded, and together, the trio moved out the door to leave the upper floor and head downstairs so they could let Gūdo outside for his small bathroom break. As the three of them moved out of sight, Eijirou watched them leave, and then cleared his throat awkwardly, looking around at the two other girls as Setsuna continued to pinch her sister's cheek while Yui patted her head.

"So, uh …" He cleared his throat again while feeling his cheeks go a bit red, glancing back at the open door, "... this is, uh … maybe a weird question, but … do you guys know what's … you know, going on with, uh …"

"Are you asking us if we know what's going on with those three?" Setsuna sighed, pouting a bit. "Because trust me, buddy - I got no fucking clue what's going on there."

"Setty! You said a bad word!"

"I did. And you're not gonna tell anyone, are you, squirt?"

"Mm-mm. For three cookies."

"Your ... sister knows how to blackmail?"

"Yes, she does. This little scoundrel. I'm so proud."

While Sera was rewarded for her blackmailing behavior, out at the front door, Itsuka looked around at the sound of the adults talking and laughing in the dining room, letting Gūdo scratch at the door for a moment - she could hear Taiyo and Hakushu laughing loudly about something while Setsuna's mom was saying something that sounded very teasing to Inko as the green-haired woman sputtered in embarrassment.

"Mom, Dad," She called to her parents as she zipped up her coat, "I'm gonna take Gūdo outside to use the bathroom. Midoriya and Uraraka are gonna come with me."

"Alright, sweetie! Just be sure to dress warm, it's chilly out."

"Sounds good!"

With that, Itsuka opened the front door to go downstairs, letting Gūdo charge ahead while the three teenagers followed him, Izuku and Ochako putting on their coats as they went. As Itsuka closed the door behind her, she let out a sigh as she followed them down the stairs, hearing Gūdo continue to whine as he tried to get outside. Sliding the door open, they all shivered in the cold air as they stepped outside, letting the dog run ahead to find a good place to do his business.

"Alright," Itsuka sighed as she slid the door shut, pulling the plastic bag from her pocket for whenever her dog was finished, "so we'll let him do his business, and once we're back inside I'll head to the closet and grab the futon for later, Uraraka."

"Awesome," Ochako nodded, shivering slightly and rubbing her hands together.

"Uh … the futon?" Izuku looked around curiously, imitating Ochako and rubbing his hands together to generate some warmth. "I thought the last time we stayed over, you guys just shared a bed?"

"Eh - well -" Ochako coughed, looking away and pretending her red cheeks were due to the cold while Itsuka likewise did the same, "- just - y'know, for - just so I don't take up much room, Deku. Y-you know how it is."

"Uh … right," Izuku slowly nodded, not really sure what that was about but deciding not to bug them about it as he took a small look around. While it was pretty cold out, there wasn't much snow on the ground anymore - it had snowed a little a few days ago on Ochako's birthday, where he, Inko, her parents, Itsuka and All Might had come to her apartment with gifts and cake (Ochako had pretty much cried when Itsuka gave her a Thirteen stuffed toy, and squeezed the life out of Izuku when he gave her an autograph from Thirteen herself, with the boy refusing to name his source but that not really mattering as Ochako was still ecstatic anyway). In any case, most of the snow had already melted, with there only being a few small hills left in the backyard with the wooden swing set and a few wooden shinais with obvious teeth marks propped up against the fence.

"So," Itsuka moved to sit down on the wooden porch, bringing her hood up to hide her face from the wind, "I never did hear your thoughts on my costume, Midoriya."

"H-huh? Your costume?"

"Yeah," She nodded, "we kinda got sidetracked with the talk about shoes, so it got dropped. So - what's your verdict?"

"Er - well - okay," He shrugged a bit awkwardly, moving to sit down beside her as Ochako also took a seat on the other side, all three of them huddled slightly together to combat the cold wind as Gūdo tried to find himself a good place to poop in pace, "so … a knee-length qipao?"

"Yeah," She nodded, leaning forward slightly, "see, I figured that with my quirk, I didn't need anything major to support me - thanks to my quirk, my arms are naturally strong enough to hold up the weight of my hands when they grow up to full size, and thanks to training on the beach I'm going to be pretty strong anyway. So yeah, no need for any kind of support items."

"Hm," Izuku slowly nodded, frowning a bit as he looked away - and then Itsuka raised an eyebrow and poked his shoulder.

"What's with the 'hm'?"

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked in confusion, looking around at her. "What do you mean?"

"You hummed. He hummed, right?"

"Yeah, he did," Ochako nodded in agreement, "what's up, Deku?"

"I … uh …" Izuku hesitated, glancing between the two girls as they gave him a curious look, and then he let out a small sigh as he felt his face turn red, although it probably wasn't from the cold, "... is it … is it okay to … to recommend modifications to your design?"

Itsuka blinked at that, sitting back a bit with a bit of interest, although Izuku seemed to interpret that look with something negative, as he quickly raised his hands to wave frantically in front of him.

"Y-you don't need to - to listen to me, of - of course, I just -"

"No, no, it's okay, Midoriya," Itsuka giggled, shaking her head, "if you have a thought about my costume, you can just tell me, you know? That is why I asked for your opinion."

"I - uh - well - it's just - I tried to give Occhan some advice as well," He explained sheepishly, while Ochako squeaked and went red, "and she floated me and ran out of the apartment."

"Is that right …?" Itsuka asked dryly, looking around at Ochako as she raised her hands as though to defend herself.

"He wanted me to have more padding," She tried her best to explain, "and eventually he wanted to trash the entire design and retry the design from scratch, after we'd already worked for hours on it. I had to flee and hide it while he calmed down, he was muttering a mile a minute, it was terrifying."

"Hm," Itsuka smirked, "well, unlike Miss Float-and-Run here -"

"Screw you, Kendou."

"I love you too. Anyway, Midoriya," She giggled as she looked around, letting Ochako pout and push her middle finger against Itsuka's face, although not enough to hurt as Itsuka likewise imitated her, Izuku smiling weakly at the sight of the two girls pushing their middle fingers against the sides of each other's faces, "it's a hundred percent okay for you to recommend some modifications. What did you have in mind?"

Izuku let out a small, awkward laugh, glancing down at his knees, but then he took a deep breath and adjusted himself.

"I … okay," He shook his head a bit, raising his hands to smack his cheeks and hopefully get some warmth going, "so … uh, I guess first of all … I wouldn't do heels."

"No?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow, leaning back, "Why not?"

"Just because of - well, I'm - I'm not saying that the boots don't look nice, and I understand what you're going for," He clarified, "it's just - you really rely on combat, you know? It's just, those boots don't seem very - I mean - it looks like they could fly off if you kick hard enough."

"Hm … okay. So what do you think I should do about that?"

"Maybe, uh … maybe getting something sturdier? With laces."

"Laces. Like work boots?"

"K-kinda. Maybe not something as hard on your ankles, but - yeah."

"Okay," She slowly nodded, biting the corner of her lip, "okay, I'll keep that in mind, sure. Anything else, or are you just insulting my taste in shoes?"

"I'm not trying to - ugh, anyway," Izuku shook his head, not taking the bait as Ochako leaned back and enjoyed the show, "I'd - I'd also add in some elbow and knee pads."

"... okay, shit, why didn't I think of that?" Itsuka realized, raising a hand to smack against her forehead, "Okay, yes, elbow and knee pads, those definitely."

"And … uh, well, this is just me," He gulped a bit, blushing, "but maybe you could make the qipao just a bit longer, to reach your knees? And I'd also put in some more support for your stomach and chest, maybe some kind of protection? Like a kevlar vest?"

"Okay, okay …"

"I'd - well, I would advise keeping the general design of the qipao and the mask. And maybe … well, did you think of adding gloves? Or - well, I should probably ask if you even can wear gloves with your quirk."

"I mean, not really," She shrugged, "I think the best I would do is break the glove, and … well, I'd rather not do that. But I guess if I can get the same kind of material that Mt. Lady uses for her costume …"

"Y-yes!" Izuku nodded quickly, smiling. "Some protection for your knuckles and hands."

"Okay, okay … anything else?"

"Uh … no, I - I think that's everything,' He shook his head, suddenly feeling self-conscious as he leaned back, "I just - sorry, I - I know I pretty much tore your costume design apart -"

"Midoriya," Itsuka tapped his forehead, smiling sweetly, "I told you it's fine. You've actually given me a lot to think about. And … honestly, it's nice that you're looking out for me."

"I … are you sure?"

"A hundred percent," Itsuka smiled sweetly at him, "thank you."

Izuku tried his best to smile at that, while Itsuka continued to give him her sweeter smile. For a moment they stared at each other, temporarily forgetting the cold -

- and then Ochako sneezed, causing both of them to jump briefly and surprise and look around at her as she squeaked and went bright red.

"I - uh - oh man, sorry, guys, I -" She stuttered, going bright red and shakingly raising her hands to her face. Both Itsuka and Izuku let out small noises of surprise as she began floating off the porch, groaning in embarrassment, and Izuku quickly reached up to grab her foot before she floated off into the sky in her humiliation, but before any of them could say anything, the door behind them slid open again, causing the trio to look around.

"Ah, you're all still out here," Teko nodded as he stepped out into the cold, looking around the backyard, "I would've thought the dog had already done his business."

"Er -" Itsuka blinked, realizing that they hadn't been looking at Gūdo for a few minutes, and looked around for her dog - and thankfully, she spotted him just as he finished awkwardly bending over, barking at Itsuka excitedly as she let out a small gasp.

"Ah, Gūdo, did you take a dump?" She asked in a sing-song voice as she hopped up from her spot and hurried over to clean up after him. "Yes, you did, yes you did, you gross doggy!"

As Itsuka cooed over her dog, her grandfather sighed as he walked down the porch, standing near one pillar and looking up into the sky as Izuku helped Ochako back to earth, seeing her press her fingers together to stop floating herself. As she settled back onto the porch, Izuku let out a small sigh of relief and sat back - unaware of the small look on Ochako's face, glancing between him and Itsuka with a small frown, although even she didn't know what exactly she was frowning about.

It was a similar feeling to what she felt back in the dojo a few hours ago, when Izuku had complimented Itsuka's hair. It kind of felt like there was lead in her stomach - but what was this feeling? Why did she feel this way, like she was … what was this feeling?

However, before she could dwell on that a bit more, their sensei let out a small sigh, leaning against the pillar.

"So," He crossed his arms, "you both are nearing the end of your training."

"Huh?" Ochako blinked, looking around in a bit of surprise at the older man. "Oh, uh - y-yeah. The entrance exam is in two months."

"Hm," He nodded, "and are you prepared?"

"Uh -" Izuku hesitated, and then let out a small sigh and leaned down, "- we - we think so, anyway."

"You think so? Or you know so?"

Both teenagers blinked at that, looking up at the older man as he turned his stare from the sky to them with a hardened expression.

"At this point, neither of you should be hesitating," He pointed out, "you have been training here and on the beach for eight months now, you should now be confident in your abilities. Or else I will feel that I have done nothing but waste my time and effort."

"I - er -" Ochako stuttered, while Teko fixed her with a look.

"Uraraka," He addressed her, "I overheard what you told Itsuka in the changing room today. About not being confident in yourself regarding the coming examination."

"Erk! You - you heard that?" Ochako blushed, while Itsuka, who had been heading onto the porch to throw the plastic bag in the trash can, looked surprised and looked around at her grandfather.

"Indeed. From what I overheard, you're anxious that you will fail before you even step over the finish line. You are comparing yourself to Itsuka and Midoriya here, and believing that you're inadequate."

Ochako bit her lip and stared down at her lap, while Izuku looked around at her in shock and concern.

"Do you believe that?"

"I …" Ochako hesitated, and then gave a small nod.

"Well then, put those foolish thoughts aside," Teko scoffed, "in fact, abandon them outright. You are more than capable of getting into UA. I would stake my reputation on that. I have trained you personally for the last eight months - I would tell you that I believe you would trip over yourself at the starting line. Be confident in yourself, Uraraka. You've come a long way, and you should be proud of your accomplishments. Take pride."

Ochako didn't answer that, continuing to stare at her knees while Teko turned his gaze to Izuku.

"Midoriya," He said directly to him, "I overheard what you were talking about in the living room as I was getting supper to the table. You're concerned about your quirk."

"I -" Izuku hesitated for a moment, taken aback, but then his shoulders sagged and he nodded. "Y-yes, sir."

"Mm. Concerned about how much power you're using," Teko slowly nodded, looking back up at the sky, "And you do not wish to impede on anyone else? That is what I heard. You do not wish to ask for anymore help, and to accomplish this on your own."

"Yes, sir"

"Hm. Do not be foolish."

"H-huh?" Izuku looked up, seeing Teko narrow his eyes somewhat.

"There is nothing shameful in asking for help," He made clear, "and I would consider you a fool if you believe so. The entire point of you learning under me is that I teach you more than just how to fight. I wish to teach you determination, discipline. There is nothing wrong with wanting to stand on your own, but even I admit that I need help sometimes - although you did not hear that from me. What I am getting at, you two, is that your fears are unfounded. Uraraka, you simply need to believe in yourself and your accomplishments, and Midoriya, do not be afraid of a hand extending to you. I believe both of you will succeed."

"But - are you sure?" Ochako said in a small voice. "We just - we've taken so much of your and - and Coach Yagi's time, we don't - we don't want to let either of you down.."

"Do not," Teko shook his head, "and do not believe you're taking advantage of us, either. You three have worked hard to get into UA on your own merit. Just because you had myself and Yagi assisting you, that doesn't mean that you should think that you're taking advantage of something. You three will get into UA not because we helped you, but because of your own accomplishments and improvements."

Izuku and Ochako blinked at that, taken aback by how much praise he was putting on them - maybe he was frustrated by how low their self-esteem was - and glanced over at Itsuka, who had been quiet for the last few minutes, to see if she had any reaction to this -

- but then they felt themselves falter at the look on her face.

For some reason, she looked even more shocked than they were at what her grandfather said, her mouth dropping open slightly - and then it zipped closed, and her expression fell. Izuku and Ochako felt concerned when she glanced down to the ground, her lips thinning into a small frown, and they were about to ask if she was alright, but before they could do that, Teko sighed and stood up properly.

"In any case," He nodded, "it's cold. Come in soon. I will not accept you three becoming sick as an excuse to skip out on your training in this dojo. Gūdo, come."

"Woof!"

With that, the older man turned on his heel and made his way back into the house, followed by the happy, tail wagging dog as Teko opened the door and held it open for Gūdo to skip inside, and shut it behind the both of them, leaving them out in the cold air. Once silence fell on the porch again, Izuku and Ochako looked back as Itsuka slowly closed the garbage can outside the house, not looking at either of them.

"Our own accomplishments and merit." She muttered to herself.

"Uh … Kendou?" Ochako tilted her head a bit as she called for her friend softly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," She said in a quiet voice, looking around at them with a small, somewhat fake looking smile, "yeah, I'm - I'm fine, guys. Just … something my grandpa said kind of … yeah. I'm … there's something I'll have to ask All Might tomorrow before he leaves for his trip."

"Uh … right."

For a while, they were quiet again, until Itsuka let out another sigh.

"... so guys."

"Y-yeah?" Izuku looked around at her as she slowly walked back to her, sitting back down beside him and staring up at the sky. "What's up?"

"You know how we … we only have a few hills left to clean up on the beach?" She asked in that quiet voice, leaning back slightly as she studied the stars twinkling in the sky. "A few more weeks worth, I think All Might said yesterday."

"Er … yeah. What - what about it?"

"Wanna say fuck it and clean it all tomorrow?"

That made both Ochako and Izuku sputter in shock, looking around at her in surprise as Itsuka gently smiled to herself.

"There's not much left," She pointed out, "and we know All Might's letting us arrive later than when we usually would. But he never said anything about us arriving earlier than we usually do. Like … we can wait for everyone to leave, go to bed, and then leave at two in the morning instead of four."

"I - uh -" Ochako glanced around, and then back at her friend, "- isn't it - isn't it a lot to clean up?"

"It is." Itsuka gave her.

"And - and won't All Might be upset if we go over his head?" Izuku gulped nervously.

"He might," Itsuka nodded, still staring up at the sky.

"And … and you still want to do it?"

"Yeah," She grinned a bit, "yeah, I do. After all," She turned to look at the both of them at last, "Plus Ultra, right?

She stayed quiet for a moment as she gauged their reactions. For a moment, Izuku and Ochako looked conflicted, glancing between each other and then back to her. And then she saw the corner of their lips begin to quirk up. She watched with her gentle smile turning more and more confident as they slowly nodded, beginning to grin as they looked between each other and then their training partner again.

"Okay," Izuku grinned, raising a fist for her to bump, "Plus Ultra."

"Plus Ultra!" Ochako cheered.

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, tapping her fist against Izuku's and then Ochako's, "Plus Ultra."

---

"Whoa, whoa, whoa ... seriously?!"

At six o'clock the next day, All Might had woken up a bit earlier to travel from Tokyo to Musutafu, wanting to drive there for his last day before he had to go on his trip. He wanted to get there an hour before his students arrived, so he could go around and look at what they still had to do before the entrance exam. He'd even stopped by to buy his students breakfast, wanting to surprise them. With the entrance exam scheduled in two months, All Might had spent the entire drive back to the city coming up with plans on how they can use the rest of their time to clear off the beach, and giving his students enough time to recover before the exam.

What he hadn't expected to find, however, was a gigantic mountain of garbage in the parking lot, with Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako sitting on top of a car placed at the top and smiling smugly down at him (or at least Itsuka and Ochako were - Izuku was unable to fight down hie excited grin). They were all sweaty, dirty, tired and panting … but they grinned proudly down at what they had done, sitting comfortably on top of the mountain.

It didn't take long for All Might to put two and two together, his eyes widening, and running over to the stairs, the sun peaking out in the distance, and feeling his jaw drop at the sight of an entire beach completely and utterly cleaned off.

Feeling himself begin to shake, All Might took a shocked step backwards, eyes sweeping from one side of the beach to the other as though attempting to find any garbage that his students might have missed, and finding absolutely nothing.

"They - they even cleaned up outside of where I told them to!" All Might muttered to himself, his eyes wide and his entire body trembling from the shock. "Not a speck of dust left over ... two months before we were supposed to be done! Not a can, a bottle, not even a speck of dust left! Oh my ... oh my ... GOODNESS!"

As he unconsciously swelled up to his full size, his excited yell echoing throughout the beach, Itsuka and Ochako laughed giddily, high-fiving each other. Izuku himself bounced a bit in excitement as All Might wheeled around in his true form, his smile as wide as theirs as he put his hands on his hips and looked up at them.

"You three have been sneaking around, have you?" He teased, wagging a finger at them - although it wasn't hard to see how excited he was at the moment. "I thought you were going to have to work on this for the next month or so, and yet you've surprised me!"

"Well," Itsuka clapped her hands together, glancing away with a smirk, "we thought that if we put in a few hours of hard work this morning, we'd be able to get a little ahead of the curve. So? How's the beach look?"

"Pretty good, I'd say," All Might laughed proudly, gesturing with his hand for the three teenagers to climb down and talk to him. "This is … you three have gone beyond! My only regret was not being here to see your faces when you finished up! What a beautiful sight to be greeted by the moment the new year began."

As the trio hopped carefully down the trash mountain, wiping their foreheads as they managed to get back to solid ground, All Might approached them and put his hands on both Itsuka and Ochako's shoulders, with Izuku standing between them, and gave them a proud smile.

"Good work."

Truth be told, Izuku wasn't the only one who teared up at their mentor's praise. Itsuka had to pointedly glance away while wiping her eyes, and Ochako quickly looked down to the ground to hide her grin as the pro hero took a step back.

"Ah, what's this?" He teased. "I thought Young Midoriya was the only one around here with leaky eyes."

"I'm sleep-deprived," Itsuka weakly said, her voice a bit choked up, "I've been up since one in the morning. You see nothing."

"Ah, but I see everything! You surprised me, you entertainers! Teenagers sure are amazing!" He laughed again, and then reached into his pocket, taking his phone between his thumb and index finger and pulling it out. "Now then, take a look at this!"

The three teenagers glanced up as he flipped the phone around, showing them the photos he had searched for. The first one they saw was Izuku laying on the ground, scrawny and exhausted. A flick of the pro hero's finger later and the next picture was Itsuka, hunched over with her hands on her knees, and then the third photo was of Ochako, bent over a trashcan and puking up her guts while Izuku held back her hair.

"These are …" Izuku realized, while Ochako blushed a bit in embarrassment.

"These pictures," All Might explained, "were taken of each of you nine months ago, when we got started. When we started clearing away this beach, I think we can all agree that you three had a pretty rough start - even you, Young Kendou. But now look at you!"

He threw his hand down, making Izuku blink and look down as well - only to inhale sharply when he realized that All Might was gesturing to Itsuka's stomach, exposed thanks to her having her sweatshirt open and showing off her muscular stomach with her crop top, and then All Might gestured over to Ochako, making Izuku look around and see his best friend's now toned arms. Gulping, Izuku returned his gaze to the ground, feeling weirdly hot around the collar.

"Take pride in yourselves," All Might grinned. "You've not only done this city a great service by clearing the beach, you've worked hard, trained even harder, and now I fully believe you three are ready for the entrance exam! But let's not lower our guard just yet! The entrance exam is in two months, and that's not a lot of time, despite what we may believe. You still have the written exam to study for, and trust me when I say this, it's far from easy! As well, while our training on the beach has concluded, you still have the dojo to train in to keep your skills sharp!"

When the three teenagers nodded in confirmation, All Might chuckled and put his hands on his hips again. "But with that said, I believe the time has come for us to unwind a bit. You three need to recover from the intense training I've had you under for almost a year now, and with our new free time, you three have every opportunity to study for the exam."

With that out of the way, All Might then turned to Izuku. "Now then - for another development! Young Midoriya, I believe it'll be smart for you to continue frequenting this beach to fire off a blast of lightning. Gran is still available to come and monitor you. I know that you've had your concerns that you aren't able to control the output of your power - but I believe I've come across a temporary solution."

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, looking up at the pro hero in surprise. "You did?"

"Indeed! I was brainstorming last night, and I think I came across the answer. I believe that a support item that can help you release the electricity you emit in smaller blasts is the solution for now until you learn how to properly control your quirk. I've contacted an old friend of mine, and he and his daughter have agreed to help build you a support item."

"I - oh," Izuku felt himself shrink a little, going a bit red. All Might reaching out to another friend to help him made him feel embarrassed, and he was about to open his mouth to assure All Might that it was okay, that he would figure something out - but then he stopped.

"There is nothing shameful in asking for help, and I would consider you a fool if you believe so."

Teko's words echoed in his mind, causing him to hesitate - and then he let out a small sigh, and tried his best to smile.

"I - okay, All Might," He nodded, "I'll - yes, I'll take all the help I can get."

"Excellent! Keep in mind that I only contacted them just last night, and they'll need some time to build the support item. She believes that she'll have it done in time for the entrance exam - I've given her your address, so it should be delivered to you with instructions."

With that said, All Might turned slightly to Itsuka, who straightened up a bit, and then cleared his throat.

"Now then, now that we're done, I'll be more than happy to take you three out for a proper breakfast to celebrate - but first, Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka, do you mind if I talk to Young Kendou alone for a bit? There's just something we have to cover before I head off on my assignment."

Izuku and Ochako glanced between each other, and then at Itsuka, who had taken a step back and given them an encouraging nod before they both agreed and began walking over to All Might's truck - it made sense, at least, All Might wanting to specifically talk to his successor about her accomplishment.

As soon as they were alone, All Might turned to Itsuka, who was looking expectantly up at him.

"So, uh ..." She cleared her throat, "... I did it."

"Yes, you did," All Might chuckled, reaching out to pat her shoulder, "you've completed the Aim to Pass: American Dream Plan. After all of your hard work, you've gone further beyond what I had even thought was possible, Young Kendou. I am very proud of you!" Laughing, he patted her back a bit hard, making her stumble a bit, before moving to straighten up. "Now then! It's time for your award ceremony."

Raising his hand to one of the tufts on his hair, he pulled out a single long hair, and put his hand on his hip. "This is something I was once told: 'Something that you receive because you're lucky and something that you are given because you are recognized are different in essence.' Take that to heart. There is a difference between being lucky and deserving; one's an accident, the other, a reward. Never get the two confused. One for All is power that you earned because of your own valiant efforts."

Itsuka slowly nodded, looking at the hair he was beginning to offer her.

"Now then -"

"W-wait a second, All Might."

The pro hero felt himself falter when Itsuka took a step back, staring down at the hair with a slightly apprehensive look.

"This - this is how you give me One for All, right?" She tried to clarify, "You're - you're about to give it to me."

"Indeed," He nodded, "One for All is now yours. I know that this is a bad time to give it to you, seeing as I'm about to head across the country, but Gran Torino will be here to help coach you through using it. He'll be as good as, if not better than me to instruct you."

Itsuka stared at the hair for a moment, clearly thinking - and then took a slow, deep breath.

"Young Kendou?"

"... I don't want it."

Those four words were enough to take All Might completely off guard, his confident grin fading at once as he stared down at his successor in shock, taking a step back. Thankfully, Itsuka picked up on that reaction, and quickly waved her hands.

"I mean - I - shit, I said that wrong," She shook her head, looking a bit nervous, "what I mean, All Might, is - I don't want it yet."

"Yet?" All Might tilted his head in confusion. "Young Kendou, what do you mean?"

Itsuka gulped a bit at that question, but she still took another deep breath and tried her best to smile up at her mentor.

"Last night," She explained, "my grandpa was talking to Midoriya and Uraraka about the entrance exam. They were feeling ... y'know, a bit nervous about the exam, and he told them that ... that they'll get into UA not because you two have been helping us, but because of our own accomplishments and improvements. But I realized ... well ... that technically doesn't apply to me."

Looking down into her palm, she bit her lip. "I feel like ... taking One for All now, I'm going to have an advantage over them. They're going into the exam with their own quirk, and accomplishments, and you're going to literally give me another quirk to help me. I feel like ... taking One for All, and practicing with it for the next two months, I'm going to have an advantage over my friends - over Midoriya, over Uraraka, over Set and Yui and Kirishima and everyone there that's trying with their own power."

"Young Kendou -"

"I know that I'm being dumb," She smiled a bit in spite of herself, "but this is something I've thought of for a while, ever since Nighteye came down to this beach and told me to my face that I wasn't worthy. I don't want you to think all the effort you've put in me is for nothing, All Might, I do want One for All ... but I want to use the entrance exam as my final test."

All Might looked confused yet intrigued as she slowly nodded to herself.

"What I'm saying," Itsuka clenched her fist, looking up at All Might with a steeled gaze, "is that I want to get into UA just like Midoriya and Uraraka are, like Set and Yui and Kirishima are. I want to get in on my own merit. I want the entrance exam ... basically, I want this to be the way I prove that I've earned it."

All Might raised an eyebrow. "You mean ..."

"I want to get into UA," She clarified, "without using One for All. Just with my quirk. If I can do that ... if I can get into UA just using my own quirk ... then I think I'll be ready for One for All."

All Might studied his student for a moment, clearly unsure as to whether or not to agree to this - he fully believed that she had earned One for All, and wasn't sure why she wanted the entrance exam as her own final test for One for All - and yet, he couldn't help but smile at the determination in her gaze.

"... I don't think I'll be able to talk you into taking One for All now," He grinned, "can I?"

"Nope," She giggled, "I think you training me for eight months should let you know that I'm a lot more stubborn than you."

All Might at least agreed with that, throwing his head back and laughing as she laughed a bit at herself as well.

"Very well, Young Kendou! You've convinced me. You'll get into UA with your own quirk ... and when you get your results - which I know will be positive - then I will finally give you One for All."

---

Two months later, the day had come.

The sun rose in the early February morning. A sense of excitement and nervousness filled the air as the gate of UA beeped twice, and the large group of middle-school students from schools all around Japan, dressed warmly in their coats and looking around nervously, carefully walked through the gate, as though fearful it would suddenly close on them. But no, they managed to step through the gate, and walked up towards the large glass building shaped like an 'H'.

There was an air of nervousness and excitement throughout the school grounds - this was what several of the students moving up the path to the school to take the entrance exam dreamed of for years. Students nervous about writing their exams in order to enter the general course. Eccentric-looking students nervously hoping their inventions would be acceptable under the examiner's watchful eye. Pompous and important looking students striving to enter the business course and flaunt their stuff. And of course, several students hurrying towards the main door to the UA hero examination, hoping to sit down and take their written exam, before heading out on buses towards the facilities they would use for the practical exam - and that would determine if they would make the cut and get into the hero course.

Indeed, everyone was nervous, quiet and walking forward in determination …

… and wishing that the girl behind them would shut up.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Look over there, Yuuyu, that boy's wearing a mask! Do you think it's because he's sick, or he's trying to look cool?"

"..."

"Ooh, the building's a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I wonder how many floors it has? I think it's fifteen, I just counted, but why would they need so many floors? And why are four buildings put together? I like that it looks like an 'H', but how many students are gonna be here? Why do we need so much room?"

"..."

"Plus, why do you think it has to be one big building when the campus is so big? Is it because they don't want to give up the 'H' building, or -"

"Nej," Yuuyu Haya groaned, looking back around at her friend as they strolled through the gate, trying to awkwardly avoid the pointed glares the other students were giving them, "I know you're really curious, and I love you, but you gotta keep it inside today."

"I can't!" Her best friend gushed, hopping up and down and looking around excitedly. "There's so much I want to know about everything! Look over there, a few people are getting on that bus, are we late? Maybe the practical exam comes before the written one? Or maybe they're the recommended students? That one boy has red hair and white hair, kinda like the Canadian flag! Does his quirk have something to do with syrup? Oooooh, look over there, Yuuyu! That pink girl has horns! Do you think they can come off? Or maybe they're a headband? Oh, look at that tree, I think I can see some leaves starting to bloom! Or maybe my eyes are weird. Maybe. Ooh, and that guy looks really tired! The purple haired guy! Do you think he's sleepy?"

Yuuyu cringed even more, shooting an apologetic look to the guy with stuck up purple hair giving an unamused look at the girl who wouldn't shut up, and weakly pulled her best friend along, face going even redder.

"Nej, seriously," She pleaded, "tone it down just a little bit. Everyone's gonna be gunning for you once the practical starts."

"Ooooooh, but I can't help it! This is a dream come true!" Her best friend bounced around excitedly, looking up at the sky as blue as her hair. Yuuyu let out a defeated sigh as the excitable girl ran ahead a bit, looking around at her best friend as she practically shivered with glee.

"This is going to be great!" Nejire Hadou balled one hand in an excited fist. "I can't wait to get to know everyone!"