Ahem:

Long live Ukraine.

Boycott everything Russian.

Fuck Putin and anyone who supports him.

Slava Ukraini!

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And now to your regularly scheduled story.

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Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 28: Aftermath

It had all gone to hell, and more times than once. The Nomu was gone, with All Might and all his overwhelming power now facing Tomura… and Kurogiri. Izuku gulped and moved closer behind All Might, uncertain of what he himself was going to do. Tomura and Kurogiri should just have escaped, assuming it was even possible anymore with nothing to stop All Might from getting in their way. Maybe there was something Izuku could help with. He wasn't about to let Kurogiri be caught, and he wasn't too excited about the idea of his adoptive brother in the heroes' hands either.

Tomura's scratching slowed down and he glanced at Izuku just before Izuku got into the dust or steam cloud around All Might. The last thing Izuku did before losing sight was to silently mouth the word 'escape'.

"What's wrong? Not attacking me? Didn't you say you were going to clear this level earlier? Well come and get me, if you dare."

Why was he taunting Tomura? With his overwhelming speed he could and should have taken both of them out already.

"What, are you scared?!" All Might shouted.

"If only the Nomu was here. He'd rush you right now. Pound you to the ground without giving it a second thought." Tomura declared despite the Nomu's earlier loss. There was a short pause.

"You must be kidding. I don't care what he wants. I lead this league. You can go back to playing babysitter after we finish off All Might."

Izuku had to fight the urge to facepalm. And Tomura complained about him talking carelessly?! In either case it was too late to worry about it. Izuku could already hear Tomura running at All Might straight from the front. Izuku bit his teeth together and ran towards All Might's back. It was all or nothing. Even if they succeeded Izuku's life as he knew it would be over.

He wouldn't even have the chance to say goodbye to Tenya and Hitoshi or thank them.

A gunshot echoed in the dome, accompanied by a gasp of pain from Tomura and several other sounds of gunfire. Izuku ground to a halt.

"I have returned. I have fulfilled my duty!"

Izuku would have recognized Tenya's voice anywhere, even from a distance in the middle of a battle. One of the many weights on his shoulders disappeared.

"And I have brought reinforcements!"

More shouts and gunfire filled the area. Many of the knocked-out villains had to have recovered. A few seconds later Izuku slapped his hands on his ears as a literal shockwave of sound hit the area. Present Mic had to be part of those reinforcements.

It was over.

"I may have failed to kill you this time, but your days are numbered," Tomura said somewhere barely audible to Izuku. "All Might, Symbol of Peace, I am going to kill you."

Izuku was only a few steps from All Might, but it was too late to do anything but hope Kurogiri was able to take himself and Tomura away safely and watch the dust settle, literally. All Might's form in front of his got clearer by the second. Izuku's shoulders slumped, and he was about to turn away to join rest of the students until he blinked.

All Might looked different than he used to, smaller, more so on one side than the other. One of his arms already looked thinner than Izuku's and was still shrinking.

"What the…" Izuku gasped. All Might jolted and spun around, unsteady on his feet that just moments ago possessed immense power.

"M… Midoriya," All Might said and looked around. "Please, I will explain later. Don't tell anyone what you saw."

Izuku did not respond, only able to stare. All Might was losing his power. If they had had a few more seconds Tomura might have been able to kill him. The way the man looked Izuku could have most likely finished him right there and then, but… If All Might was that weak, did that mean something had happened to One For All? Had he already given it away? As much as Izuku hated the man he couldn't break his cover to kill him if he didn't even have his quirk anymore.

Whether he still had it or not, this weak form would give Izuku new opportunities later.

"You…" He finally got a word out.

"AAHH!" Hitoshi groaned in pain somewhere nearby. Izuku's head perked up.

"Later… All Might." Izuku said and ran out of the dissipating cloud. It took him only a few seconds to locate Hitoshi a lot further away from where he used to be. One of the clones of the pro hero Extoplasm was standing next to him, helping him up, but Hitoshi was leant forward and holding his side. He tried to take a step but jolted from pain and almost fell, being held up by Ectoplasm. Izuku cursed himself for not paying attention. A wall of concrete emerged between him and All Might.

"For your own safety please stay back young man," Cementos, another one of the pro hero teachers said. "Join your classmates at the front gate. Leave the injured to us. We can take care of… them."

As if Izuku was going to do that. He was running before the hero stopped speaking.

"Toshi! Are you okay?"

He skid to a stop next to Hitoshi.

"Yeah… well, mostly. One of those shockwaves from All Might's fight blew me away… and something hit me. It's hurting to walk."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying enough attention," Izuku pleaded.

"Izuku, stop bl… whoa."

Hitoshi didn't even have time to argue, when Izuku crouched in front of him and in a few seconds pulled him over his shoulders onto a fireman's carry. Izuku glanced at Ectoplasm as he got up. If eyes could talk his would have said 'back off, I'm not going to trust him with you.' Not caring about the hero's opinion, Izuku was running before Ectoplasm could say anything.

"Izuku, don't you think this is a bit much?" Hitoshi asked.

"I saw you trying to take a step. You want to try walking up those stairs?"

"Point taken, but are you going to do that while carrying me, after all that fighting?"

Izuku didn't say anything and a few moments later Hitoshi sighed in defeat.

"Well... Could be worse. I prefer overly concerned Izuku over self-blaming Izuku."

"I saw your armguards weren't enough to hold on. I should have…"

"Izuku, if you start, I swear I will brainwash you to leave helping me to All Might."

"Traitor."

"It's for your own good."

"Hey Midoriya!" Kirishima called from the bottom of the stairs. "Are you okay? Did something happen to Shinso?"

"Hopefully it's minor," Izuku said. "Seems All Might forgot not everyone is as invulnerable as him when he threw that thing on the ground next to his students."

"Izuku," Hitoshi sighed quietly enough that only Izuku heard. They started ascending the stairs.

"Need help carrying him up?" Kirishima asked and flexed his arm.

"No, and I think you are the more exhausted one out of us."

"Can't deny that... Do you think everyone else is okay?"

"I fear not, but everyone I've seen so far has done better than I imagined, so… maybe."

"I hope so. A lot of them seem to be up there already and the teachers are going to rescue the rest."

Izuku focused on the top of the staircase, relieved to see Tenya looking down towards them. All Might was unfortunately alive, and Izuku didn't even know if he really had One For All anymore, but at least everyone he cared about had lived and gotten through the attack almost unscathed.

Izuku adjusted his hold on Hitoshi.

"So embarrassing. I should have been more careful. I feel like a sack of rice," Hitoshi groaned.

"Stop it," Izuku said. "If I can't blame myself, I'm not going to let you do it."

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"I am pretty confident Recovery Girl will get you fixed by tomorrow, for training. If you think you aren't progressing fast enough, we can always try to fix that."

Hitoshi gulped and stayed quiet for the rest of the climb up the stairs. By the time they got to the top Eraserhead and Thirteen were being taken to ambulances outside. Tenya waited next to Principal Nezu and another pro hero teacher Vlad King. Izuku hardly recognized their presence, saying anything to Nezu could have been dangerous, and kept walking towards the ambulances gathering outside without a word. Tenya tagged along, bugging Hitoshi about how he felt. Izuku put Hitoshi down only to sit him on an ambulance's open doorway.

Two other ambulances departed, sirens screaming to carry Thirteen and Aizawa to a hospital. Izuku didn't know how to feel about that, especially about Aizawa. Whatever side he was on, part of Izuku couldn't help but respect the fierce fight the man had fought to protect his students even when outnumbered and outmatched. He had done exactly what Izuku had expected from the heroes that failed his mother, maybe more, and his only quirk was to turn a battle into a quirkless one.

"They really showed us what real heroes do," Tenya commented behind Izuku. "That mist guy got Thirteen bad and even after that she helped me see past my misguided ideas of honour and do what was best for everyone."

"You had something to do with the teachers coming when they did," Izuku said. It wasn't even a question.

"I got out thanks to our classmates and ran back to the main campus."

Izuku was impressed Tenya had gotten past Kurogiri, even with help it was impressive, but he couldn't say anything about it.

"You didn't get taken away by the… mist guy?"

"It was close. I and Shoji managed to grab a couple of our classmates before we got taken. After that Thirteen got taken out but she told me to get out to get help. The mist guy almost got me too. If you hadn't made me focus on improving my turns he might have succeeded."

"I see. I'm… glad."

They hung out at the ambulance while the paramedics checked Hitoshi. Other students came out of the USJ dome a couple at a time but didn't have any serious injuries. The only ones being brought to the ambulances were villains in handcuffs that had taken part in the attack. Izuku recognized some faces from the times he had either tagged along for Tomura's recruitment drives or simply looked into what kind of people they had. He had never been so grateful for his helmet.

Then they brought out the man whose quirk Izuku had stolen. He was conscious but staggering, needing to be supported by the police officers escorting him.

"It's gone, it's gone. He took it," he muttered until he saw Izuku and his eyes widened. "YOU! You took it! You took it! Give it back!"

Despite being barely able to walk and wincing from pain with every step before, the man was now trashing against the police and his handcuffs so much that Vlad King ran from the entrance and restrained the man with his own hardened blood.

So that was one quirk Izuku was not interested in getting.

"What is up with him?" Vlad King asked and followed the man's stare right to Izuku. Izuku met their gazes if only for a moment, turned around and opened his costume, pulling it down enough to reveal his upper back now with two slight bulges with slits where the shoulder mounted jets opened up. Izuku had no idea how they actually worked but after tensing his shoulders for a few seconds he could feel the jets at least open up.

"SEE, see! He took it! Give it back!"

"You took another quirk?" Tenya asked. Izuku pulled his costume back on.

"Yeah…" Izuku said. "That's what he gets for trying to kill us."

"GIVE IT BACK!" The quirkless man screamed in the background like he was channelling the spirit of Bakugo.

"Why would I?" Izuku said not even looking at the screaming man. "He can't take it back. Even if he tries through courts, didn't I mention he tried to kill us? Would be a shame if I had to push for the maximum sentence. I assume the school has no problem with self-defence on school property when the school failed to keep us safe."

Izuku tilted his head to look at Vlad King, who had come closer and had been joined by Principal Nezu.

"As long as the situation is settled in a legal manner, the school has no problem with your actions on this matter. Of course, that assumes you use the power responsibly as long as you might have it. Do you have anything to add detective?"

Izuku blinked and looked to the side. He barely stopped himself from showing recognition of the man dressed in a long light-brown jacket that he only knew from pictures after his father's warning. Izuku slightly tugged on the Calm Mind quirk within himself as he came face to face with Detective Tsukauchi.

"I don't think there are any precedents I could comment based on."

"Right," Izuku said and turned to Hitoshi and the medic checking him. "How is he?"

"I don't think anything is broken or seriously damaged," the medic responded and looked at Hitoshi. "I'll get you something for the pain, but if your classmates help you to the bus, I think your school nurse can handle the rest more effectively than the hospital could."

"No worries. It would be impossible to stop them from helping."

"It warms my heart to see students supporting each other," Nezu said. "If everyone is okay, I'd like all of you to gather with your classmates, unless the detective needs to talk to you about anything?"

If he hadn't already activated the Calm Mind a little bit, Izuku might have tensed just enough for someone like Nezu of Tsukauchi himself to notice.

"I don't think that will be necessary. We will interview all of the students about this incident of course, but this isn't the best time for that. If everything is okay here, I need to help with restraining the villains."

The man lifted his large hat and walked past them. At least they weren't as blatant as trying to get one over on Izuku right after a large villain attack. Izuku focused on Hitoshi.

"Tenya," Hitoshi said, "help me up before Izuku forgets I'm not a sack of rice."

"Not a sack, more like a little bag," Izuku teased. "You still need to bulk up."

"Thank you. You are a real master of motivational speeches," Hitoshi responded.

"Anything for my friends."

"To be fair, Izuku still wants to bulk up too," Tenya commented.

"We should all get stronger, although," Izuku glanced back, trying to see the bumps of the jets that had formed behind his shoulders, "I might need your help with controlling my movements with this quirk, Tenya."

"I'd be happy to work with you on that, although… while I haven't yet seen how the quirk works, I think it might be more similar to my brother's engines since both quirks are on your upper bodies."

"They do seem similar actually," Izuku admitted. "By the way, are you going to help Toshi up, or do I have to carry your bag of rice?"

"Right, sorry," Tenya said quickly and moved to support Hitoshi in getting up, and they went to join the rest of their class and board the bus. Most of their classmates seemed relieved and tired. Kaminari stared into nothingness with a stupid expression on his face. Kirishima was slouched against his seat. If he really beat the group of villains that had been prepared for he, Tenya and Shoji, all by himself, he had more than deserved his rest. Whether that made him a powerful ally or a major threat, Izuku didn't want to think about.

Ojiro glanced at Izuku nervously and inched closer to the window as the trio settled in front of him. Izuku would have preferred the back seats, but the open-plan front area was easier for Hitoshi to get to. Several others gave Izuku looks that weren't as bad, but they obviously knew what had happened. Izuku reached back to scratch the newly morphed part of his body. At least they stayed pretty flat when he wasn't using them, not really visible under regular clothes.

"Hey, Midoriya, Shinso!" Dark Shadow shouted, appearing from within Tokoyami, opposite to the trio on the bus. "Fumi was really worried for you. Don't do stupid things like that."

Tenya looked at the quirk creature and Izuku, one after the other.

"Did something happen between you? Didn't Dark Shadow hate you before?"

"If I hated someone for no reason and that someone saved your life, do you think I would still hate them after that?" Izuku responded.

"No, you'd probably buy them a house."

"House?" Dark Shadow asked and looked at Tokoyami. "Can we do that?"

"No."

"Just a little one. He saved you."

Tokoyami closed his eyes and muttered something too quietly to hear as the bus got going.

"Speaking of houses, Kirishima," Izuku said, getting the redhead to look up at him, "do you think you'll be okay to train at my place tomorrow, or will you need the day to rest?"

"Eh, I guess. I might be really sore, unless Recovery Girl can fix that too."

"The more reason you should come," Hitoshi said. "Izuku's house has great baths. Can't think of anything better for sore muscles."

"Sounds good," Kirishima responded and rotated his shoulder.

The rest of the afternoon went by pretty uneventfully. They arrived back at the main campus, Izuku loomed over Recovery Girl as she healed Hitoshi, and then they waited in their classroom until Nezu came to tell them they could go home, saying all of them would see the school councillor and a detective during the next week. Thankfully for Izuku they didn't call parents to pick them up, though the school seemed to take the students' traumatic experience a bit too lightly. For once Izuku didn't feel like criticizing the school. He just got into his car and collapsed on the seat between Hitoshi and Tenya.

At least they were both okay. With Recovery Girl's treatment, even Hitoshi no longer showed any signs of injury.

Not everyone was that lucky though.

After making sure the two got home safely, Izuku walked down to his basement where Kurogiri was already waiting for him and opened a warp gate. Izuku looked at the Nomu before stepping through.

"Are you okay? I didn't see you get hurt at USJ."

"I am unharmed, young Shigaraki, but I cannot say the same for your brother. Be careful."

Izuku gulped. Kurogiri wouldn't say that without reason.

"Thank you," Izuku said and stepped into the warp gate.

He emerged into the medical room he had become intimately familiar with before receiving the regeneration quirk. Tomura was laying on the bed in hospital garbs and with heavy bandaging on his arm and legs. At least he was healthy, or angry enough to rise to a sitting position as Izuku arrived.

"YOU! You dare show your face here after helping the heroes?! Because of you All Might still lives!"

Tomura's outburst was loud enough that Izuku took a few seconds to respond while Tomura continued.

"You put your little friends ahead of destroying the Symbol of Peace and now the league has been decimated!"

"And you think it is my fault?" Izuku scoffed. "Your league," Izuku emphasized, "got beaten up by fresh first year students. Kirishima alone beat the group that was supposed to keep three people busy. Kurogiri," Izuku hesitated. "Some of the students were capable enough to get one of them outside. The Nomu couldn't beat All Might, and heroes arrived before you had the chance to finish him."

Tomura bit his teeth together.

"And never threaten Kurogiri again, unless you would like to be quirkless from now on," Izuku added. The misty Nomu moved his head slightly, but he was as expressionless as ever.

Their father chuckled nearby, where he was sitting by a computer.

"Interesting, you think Tomura would have defeated All Might himself with more time. He can be destructive, but if that was enough to kill All Might we would not have needed the Nomu."

"I thought the same," Izuku said and looked down. "I have never actually seen All Might's power first-hand. I… When I did, I lost hope we could win even though Tomura still had the Nomu then, but at the end… I snuck into the dust cloud behind All Might after the Nomu was defeated, to be close at hand in case I needed to step in and help Tomura and Kurogiri. I was there when the heroes arrived. I saw All Might, but he wasn't himself. Almost as soon as Tomura and Kurogiri left he started… shrinking. He became skinny and sickly looking, like his power had simply left him. Tomura could definitely have defeated him in that state, but…"

Izuku looked up again.

"He might not even have One For All anymore, and I have no idea who he might have given it to."

His father brought his hand up to his cheek, just like Izuku tended to do when deep in thought.

"Considering the injuries I gave him, I wouldn't be surprised if his ability to use One For All was waning anyway, but that would be a reason to finally find a successor. Losing his ability to be a hero might be the only thing that could push All Might to pass on the quirk. That would be both a good and bad thing for us. On one hand we do not know who has the quirk. At the same time, the inheritor would be less experienced with One For All and would be an easier target. Besides making them easier to defeat it might make taking the quirk easier, and if you are correct about All Might's state, then his defeat is only a matter of time. We only need to push him to his limits first."

"It might not be that easy," Izuku said. "It wasn't just the Nomu. I saw news about him stopping many crimes during the morning before fighting the Nomu."

"I didn't say it would be easy," his father said, "and we need to find out who has the quirk first. Izuku, you might need to… get closer to All Might and be friendly with him."

Izuku pressed his lips together, trying not to groan. Eventually he gave up and let out an unhappy sigh.

"I doubt I could avoid talking to him anyway. All Might noticed that I saw him. I didn't give him much time to talk, but I bet he'll try to talk to me on Monday, if not before.

"So, you are already ahead on that, good. Tomura."

The seething man turned his head at hearing his name.

"Today was a failure, but not the end. Take all the time you need to recover and rebuild the league. Make it stronger, with people worthy of joining you who will follow you through all that needs to be done. I will continue to support you, but you must be able to lead on your own."

Tomura muttered something incomprehensible and let himself fall back to a laying position.

"Izuku," their father continued, "keep doing what you have been doing. We need to know if All Might has passed on One For All or not, and to whom. I know this might be especially hard for you, but you need to control your feelings about him."

"I know. Thankfully I have Calm Mind for that."

His father nodded. "Never forget why you are doing this, the better world you want cannot come to be while the so-called Symbol of Peace exists to hold up the current one, be it All Might or his successor."

"I know, I'll do it… but I would rather fight another Nomu."

"That can be arranged," his father said, "but I would prefer if you got the previous one back. From Tomura's and Kurogiri's report it sounds like the Nomu is likely still alive either somewhere out of sight or captured by the heroes and police. It lacks the intelligence to resist capture on its own. Tomura will need time to recover so I will count on you to release it. All Might might know what happened to it, or his police friend."

"So, I need to get information about it from them and then break in where-ever it is being held to bring it back."

"Yes, consider it your first major mission that you are in charge of, besides spying on UA. This is a mission for Shirokuro, not Izuku. If you need something you can request it, but I want to see you handle things and make decisions yourself. I believe you are more than ready for this."

Izuku opened his mouth to make a request.

"You can have Kurogiri to help, of course."

Izuku closed his mouth, the request rendered pointless.

"You have trained hard and gained new quirks that Izuku Midoriya can use, but you lack real experience, especially from the dark side of this society. Which reminds me. How do you feel about the new quirk?"

Izuku glanced over his shoulder even though he couldn't see the jets morphed into his back.

"I haven't had a chance to test it, but after the initial pain I haven't noticed many negative effects."

"Your body is starting to adjust to new quirks faster now that you have been getting them more often, but you can use most of them only as Midoriya the hero student. Do you feel up to a challenge?"

"What kind of challenge?"

"You have practiced supressing quirks with your regeneration, but now with the Shoulder Mounted jets it is even more critical to not be exposed by a clear mutation. I have a quirk that could be extremely useful to you as Shirokuro, but being able to supress its effects constantly when you don't want to use it is critical. The person who was originally born with this quirk begged me to take it away, offering everything he owned in exchange and became my loyal follower for the rest of his life when I did."

Izuku gulped.

"I'm not sure. I haven't even really trained with all of my previous quirks. What is the quirk like?"

"It is called Killing Intent," his father responded, "and if you have read manga, you should be able to figure out most of its effects. Essentially it makes people believe you are about to kill them. The effect can vary from unease to paralyzing terror depending on how convinced they are of your ability to do so, and some other factors. Used correctly, people don't even realize they are being impacted by a quirk."

"And the quirk is always active?" Izuku asked.

"The original owner was never able to fully suppress it, but with All For One it is quite easy to control."

"I can see why he wanted to get rid of it. A quirk people fear is bad enough. One that literally makes people fear you… You must have saved his life. Too bad he… already died?"

"You shouldn't feel bad about that part. I think he would be about… a hundred years old if he still lived."

"Right," Izuku said. "I always forget how old you are."

"Watch your words young man."