Important notice:

I have maintained a biweekly update schedule for this story since spring 2021 when it started. Unfortunately weak autumn/winter 2021 for writing shrunk my backlog of chapters and I have since begun work on first draft my newest original novel. Maintaining the biweekly update rate for All For Some has prevented my from getting really going with that.

For this reason I have decided to slow down the rate of updates to once every three weeks, at least to start with. This chapter is released on Saturday 16th of July. The next one will then be Saturday 6th of August and so on. If writing goes well I might try to push that up again when the anime returns but no promises.

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Comments:

Psy-Kick: Unfortunately you'll have to wonder a little longer. Today you won't even find out how their lunch turns out. :D

Chronolocked: I think there will be larger deviation of the canon by the time Overhaul ark happened.

jamthacreator: Make sure to read the chapter all the way to the end.

RenegadePizza: I like how you describe my version of Izuku.

AnimeFan13579: lots of interesting point but have to consider not just the facts of using afo, but general perception and suspicion people would have.

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Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 38: Shadows of The Past

Izuku followed Todoroki across the arena. Separated from everyone else he felt a thousand eyes on him, more so than during the contest even though the audience was rapidly flowing out. Izuku turned his gaze down to focus on his classmate Todoroki, but on the way his line of sight paused on an entirely different Todoroki instead.

Endeavor certainly wasn't one to keep a low profile with the flames constantly burning around his head and shoulders. The scowl on his face would have been more than a match to Izuku's best 'leave me alone' face, especially with his lack of practice on it for months now.

Izuku realized the scowl had moved to target him. He was now facing eye to eye with the number two so-called hero. All Might might have held the more overwhelming power, but unlike him, Endeavour's stare held true hostility, and being burned alive was frankly a scarier thought than being smashed into a stain on the wall. Izuku kept that thought away from his face and turned to look at the younger Todoroki with minimal acknowledgement of his father.

Todoroki too had faced upwards at seeing his father and glanced back at Izuku with a serious, even angry look in his eyes, though not necessarily one targeted at Izuku. They entered a corridor exiting the arena, out of sight of the masses of people finally, but not alone with other students also heading out the same way. Todoroki looked around and picked smaller corridors until they were almost out of the stadium. They both concluded there was no one else present in that exact corridor at the moment. Todoroki turned to face Izuku face to face, alone for the first time.

"What are you trying to do?"

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked, a bit annoyed by the demanding tone. Then again… The image of Endeavour's scowl returned to Izuku's mind, right next to Tenya's relief at having his engines cooled.

"You sent Ida to my team on purpose. Why?"

"Because he is more patient with people who think they're better off not dealing with anyone else," Izuku responded, completely honest for once. "I don't like how you chain yourself to your father, but you might still be able to leave the shadow he has cast."

"I don't need your help to leave anything."

"You think I'm going to buy that? You begged me to take away half of your quirk just to get rid of it because it ties you to your father, and you have done your best to not let anyone get close since school started. All that while acting like your quirk and power means everyone else is below you."

"We are on different levels."

"Maybe in terms of power in a battle, but that doesn't make you a better or more worthwhile person than others. The way you are going, you are going to be just like your father, if not worse."

The look in Todoroki's eyes hardened, but his mouth moved and there was a small sound, almost like he was gagging.

"Never."

"If nothing changes you will."

"Is that why you acted so… strange before the tournament started?"

"You mean being friendly?" Izuku asked. "If you think it was strange then maybe Tenya was right that it might help you. He got through to me."

"You?"

"You aren't the only one that has been abused and preferred to be alone. Let me guess, all or most people you've ever met only see you as the son of the number two and maybe see you for your quirk."

"So you sent Ida to be friendly with me and not do it yourself?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't have Tenya's patience or even Kirishima's thick skin to help with that."

"And you think you can get me to accept my father by being friendly?"

"No," Izuku responded, his voice sterner than before. "He doesn't deserve that. We just don't want him to drag you down with him. He has already ruined enough lives."

"You don't know the half of it."

"Oh I doubt that. The way he has raised you to look at people, you probably don't even see most of the people he has hurt. Every time a kid gets bullied for not having a sufficiently 'heroic' quick," Izuku made quotation mark gestures with his hands as he said the word heroic, "that is partially your father's fault. Same when someone with a quirk well suited to actually hurting people gets encouraged or not held to same standards as others and has their ego stroked until it rots through. You are in the latter group."

"So you don't want me to accept my father, but also refusing him and his power is wrong?"

"Your power," Izuku corrected. "It is your power. You control how it is used and how you view it, and that is all that matters.

"It's not… You wouldn't understand."

"You really think so?" Izuku said and held his arm sideways in front of him. The Dragon Blade lit over his hand. "You were at least born with your power. It's not your father's any more than the rest of you. This quirk belonged to a criminal who thought kidnapping a middle-schooler off the street was a good way to make some money. Wouldn't be surprised if he was a murderer too. The fire itself is certainly more than powerful enough to kill people and can do that in very gruesome ways. The jets in my back belonged to a criminal that tried to murder Hitoshi and Tokoyami, and I don't think we were his first victims."

Todoroki looked at Izuku for a long time as his face twisted between different emotions.

"Doesn't that… disturb you at all?"

"I have thought about it sometimes," Izuku admitted, "but right now they are my quirks. I decide what to do with them, and whether they are used for good or bad depends on my choices. What the original owners think or did with them doesn't really matter. Can you imagine if I refused to use my blades because of who they came from? People might already be dead because of it if I had."

"Well at least you aren't doing exactly what those people wanted you to do."

"If I thought what they wanted would be the right thing to do, I would still do it."

"Then maybe I don't think it is right to use m… the fire."

Izuku's eyes narrowed.

"Fine, if that is what you want, but you are only letting your father destroy you more."

"Maybe, but…"

Todoroki couldn't find the words he wanted to say, and his usually emotionless or arrogant expression was replaced by one of confusion and… perhaps desperation. Izuku wished he had brought Tenya and Hitoshi. They were better at this stuff. Izuku was only better than Todoroki in this situation for the sole fact that he had somewhat recognized his issues, so he wasn't the best person to be giving a lecture on it, but he would just have to make do. Eventually Izuku broke his stare of Todoroki and sighed.

"I can't make you use your fire, but don't expect to win on your ice alone, especially the way you use it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Izuku started, but paused, having gotten an idea. "I'll tell you if you join us for lunch."

Todoroki pressed his lips together before starting to respond.

"I don't think…"

"Endeavour would hate to see his son hanging out with the 'Quirk Stealer' don't you think?"

Todoroki blinked, then seemed thoughtful for a few seconds.

"Are you trying to manipulate me again?"

"The word you are looking for is being friendly. You should try it. I can't teach you to, but you can copy Tenya or Kirishima. Toshi might be more difficult. I don't think you are quick-witted enough with your words to match his style."

Todoroki hummed sceptically. Izuku turned to leave.

"Are you coming? I'll gladly help you piss off Endeavour."

"Fine," Todoroki responded and followed Izuku out of the dark corridor. In moments the quiet privacy of that corridor was replaced by the noise and carnival like activity of the festival stalls around the arena. Izuku glanced occasionally behind him to make sure Todoroki was still following. One such time he almost missed rapid steps coming from ahead of him and barely stopped in time to avoid colliding with a little boy, probably six or seven years old who had ran in front of him and Todoroki.

"Hey I know you. You were at the arena…"

"Asahi!" A young tall man probably in his early thirties ran out from behind other people. As soon as there was no one but the kid between them, the man's eyes locked onto Izuku. He grabbed the kids arm quickly and clearly more tightly than necessary as the kid grimaced.

"Asahi, come away from him. That's the Quirk Stealer."

He pulled the kid away from Izuku and partially behind himself, placing himself between the kid and Izuku, his intent clear.

"Did he touch you?" The man asked the kid.

"No, why….?" The kid didn't get to ask his question.

"Can you still use your quirk? Use it right now."

The kid, still looking confused, held up his hand and it glowed a bright white light, like a tiny sun. Was it just a simple light quirk, or something more like a laser, or a healing quirk with light as a side effect? Seeing this the man focused on Izuku.

"Stay away from my son."

Izuku sighed with the tired expression on his face he often had to deal with people like this.

"In case you didn't notice he ran to us. Also no, I don't go around stealing quirks from kids."

"That is what you would say. Stay away from my son and don't think you can trick us by hiding behind Endeavour's son."

"Pretty sure he is behind me," Izuku said, channelling a bit of Hitoshi in his tone. "Now if you excuse us, or not, we need to get lunch before the final tournament. Your son seems to be excited about it and it would be a shame to disappoint him with a weak performance."

Izuku walked around the father and son without giving the man a chance to throw any more empty accusations at him. He only glanced back to make sure he hadn't lost Todoroki in the incident. The two-faced classmate was still following him, looking back as they went. When he turned his head to face forward his expression was thoughtful and he glanced to the sides with new comments about the 'Quirk Stealer' being made around them. People had been surprisingly able to miss Izuku's presence in the buzz of the festival, but the overprotective father had dragged their full attention straight to Izuku and people in his way parted to the sides. Todoroki took advantage of the extra space and with a few faster steps caught up to Izuku.

"Is this… usual?"

"Since the media found out about me. This is pretty much how most people realise they are too close to me for comfort," Izuku paused. "Seriously speaking, you should probably consider if you want to be seen with me like this."

"Would it annoy Endeavour?"

"Definitely," Izuku's tense expression eased a little, "that man already recognized you as his son, probably only as his son."

"Then I think I want to stay around, at least until the tournament begins."

"I… appreciate the company," Izuku said. "Speaking of which, we need to find the others.

"And you need to keep your promise. You were going to say something about my ice."

"Not the quirk itself, probably" Izuku responded, welcoming the distraction. "Have you ever tried to control it more?"

"I can control it just fine."

"You can use it and draw out a lot of power, or ice in this case, but that doesn't mean you have mastered it. I could draw a lot of power-from my jet quirk after a couple of days training, but I still can't use them much without landing on my face. You can create a lot of ice but so far you have only shown enough control over the quirk to point it at a general direction and know roughly where to stop it. There is usually no precision or finer control, or at least you have never shown any."

"I can use my ice well without… landing on my face."

"You might be taking my comparison too literally. What I am trying to say is if the way you use your quirk is because of limitations in the quirk or the way you have been taught to use it. When your father made your train, how much about your training was on drawing out your quirk's power or just getting stronger?"

"Isn't that the whole point of training?"

Izuku sighed. "So he did. You are refusing to use half of your," Izuku emphasised the 'your'-part, "quirk and he has even managed to mess up how you use the other half."

"I still don't understand."

"When you use your quirk you just make more ice until you get what you want. I doubt that is anywhere near the full potential of your quirk or even that half of it. You don't even try to control how the ice forms in any detail. Everyone thinks you are insanely powerful but, simple power isn't everything. If your enemy can avoid or destroy the large ice attack you are going to be in trouble right away with little options. When Toshi avoided your attack in the battle training on the second day all you could do was to repeat the same attack until he ran out of space in the room."

As Izuku glanced at Todoroki the two-faced classmate at least seemed thoughtful, following his words. He turned to face forward again.

"Hi," a pink-haired girl with strange goggles said, her face right in front of Izuku's. He barely stopped in time to not collide with her. She didn't seem to mind and kept talking quickly.

"My name is Hatsume. You are the guy who wants to buy quirks?"

Izuku took a moment to process the girl's words and the feeling he had seen her before. She was wearing a UA gym uniform so…

"You were in the competition."

"Sure was. I'm from the support course. Do you really want to buy quirks?"

"Yes," Izuku responded slowly.

"Cool, will you buy mine?"

Now Izuku was really taken aback and if he was surprised, he couldn't even imagine how Todoroki had to feel.

"Why would you give up your quirk?" Todoroki asked as if on que.

"We'll for money of course. That is the whole point of selling stuff. If my quirk can fund more of my babies why not sell it?"

"Babies?" Izuku and Todoroki asked at the same time.

"My inventions, support items and others," she announced loudly, getting more exited with every word. "Surely you saw some of them during the obstacle race at least?"

"No," Izuku and Todoroki answered at the same time.

"Ah well, I only bothered with the sports festival to be seen by businesspeople that could invest in my babies, but when you said you'd buy quirks, I figured I could make more babies with that money. So how about it? You can have my amazing quirk for just thirty million yen."

"Hold on," Izuku said. "You haven't even told me what your quirk is yet."

"Oh, I didn't. It is really handy, especially for a hero looking for villains or people to save. It is called zoom. My eyes can zoom into distant things. I can see things up to five kilometres away."

"Doesn't sound that powerful," Todoroki said.

"What did I just say about power?" Izuku responded and rubbed his chin, thinking about the quirk. It could certainly be useful in some situations, especially combined with his Hellfire Arrow or other long ranged or vision-based quirks. Still he had to be careful to not carelessly blow his quirk budget on something that could turn out better or worse than expected. He focused on Hatsume again.

"That's what your quirk can do, but how about its limitations? Are there any costs or side effects?"

"Not really, might take some time to learn to focus properly and you probably don't want to move while zoomed in initially if you don't want to trip."

"Seems logical," Izuku responded. "It is a decent utility quirk even if a bit situational. I'll pay ten million."

"That's not enough, not going to fund many babies. I'll need at least thirty."

"It is useful, but not that exceptional of a quirk. I'll pay fifteen."

"Not enough babies. I'll need at least twenty."

Izuku pressed his lips together.

"You said you invent a lot of… babies. Are you any good at it?"

Hatsume smirked and showed him a thumbs up.

"The best."

"So," Izuku started. "If you are really the best it probably wouldn't be too hard for you to solve a little acoustic challenge. I'll pay you fifteen for the quirk and another five million if you can come up with what I need."

"Depends on what it is that you need?" Hatsume asked, but Izuku already had an open notebook on hand he showed her. She looked at it for a long time as her eyes widened and there was a grin."

"Yeah, that is possible, but it is going to be twenty million plus materials, and I want the fifteen for my quirk first."

"Agreed."

"So, what now?"

"I'll get us a contract…" Izuku brought his hand to his pocket only to realize he didn't keep his phone with him during the contests, "later. It'll probably need your parents' agreement."

"Leave that to me. You just make sure you have the money ready."

"It already is," Izuku assured. Hatsume gave him another thumbs up and started walking away.

"Good luck for the tournament. I already dropped out of the contest, so I'll go work on that other thing. See ya."

"She would give up her quirk?" Todoroki said, seemingly unable to wrap his head around the idea.

"You just asked me to take your quirk away yesterday and I didn't even offer to pay you."

That shut Todoroki up, or perhaps he was just too confused with his feelings on the topic to get any words out.

Izuku continued walking past the festival stalls with a confused Todoroki. People were still looking at him like he was a plague patient, but at least the surprise encounter had raised his spirits. He mostly succeeded at keeping his expressions under control while excitedly imagining all the possible applications of the Zoom quirk. It might have even made finding his friends in this crowd easier, not that he could see very far among all of the people. Also Kirishima's hair was like a signal torch shining from the camera flashes of a small crowd surrounding him, Tenya, and Tokoyami. Izuku looked around but didn't find Hitoshi. Kirishima was the first to notice him and started waving.

The crowd around them started quickly scattering as Izuku waved back, his hand almost brushing against one of the bystanders. The woman stared at him for several seconds, then jolted away, like a cartoon character that only falls after a delay once they realise they have walked off a cliff.

At least it cleared Izuku's way to the trio. Each of them noted the people's reaction with tense glares, but seemed to at least have been in high spirits. Tenya had a full litre bottle of orange juice to refuel his engines and Kirishima had finally gotten a change of clothes to replace those torn up when he climbed through a giant robot.

"Did they leave?" Dark Shadow asked, peeking out of Tokoyami.

"Yes," Tokoyami responded.

"Good, too flashy. You should keep Midoriya around as long as there is a crowd. He's a really good scarepeople."

Somehow the dark quirk creature always managed to pull Izuku's lips upwards even talking about subjects that usually did the opposite, but something was still missing. There was no clever comment about the effect Dark Shadow had on him.

"Where's Toshi?"

"I am not sure," Tenya responded. "He said he saw someone familiar and disappeared just as people started noticing us."

"Unfortunately," Dark Shadow interrupted. "He might have been a good scarepeople too."

"Can you stretch up and see if you can spot him?" Izuku asked, pointing up.

"Sure thing," Dark Shadow gave his equivalent of a thumbs up and started raising upwards, stretching up as a narrow black line from Tokoyami. He got surprisingly high. Izuku thought back to the lift Dark Shadow had given in the cavalry battle as he looked at Tokoyami.

"Tokoyami," he said getting all four's attention, "have you ever tried to fly with Dark Shadow, let him carry you?"

"Fly?" Tokoyami responded. "No, I doubt that would work since he is already tied to me."

"Tied maybe, but he's clearly not dependent on that to move. You don't seem impacted as he moves and he helped keep us up during the cavalry battle. You should experiment more on what you can do."

Tokoyami scratched his beak, considering the proposal as Dark Shadow came down and pointed towards the main building.

"That way, behind the ice cream stall with some other people."

"Show the way," Izuku said. "Hopefully he's not getting ice-cream right before the tournament."

Dark Shadow started moving and they followed. After a few steps Izuku glanced at Tokoyami.

"Sorry if asking Dark Shadow's help is intrusive."

"It could be since we are bound together, but we were supposed to find Shinso and go have lunch together so it really doesn't matter. At least he isn't threatening you anymore."

Dark Shadow was already in front of the ice cream booth waving towards its back. What was Hitoshi doing there? Izuku walked a bit faster and was the first to pass Dark Shadow. He stopped at the corner of the booth.

"What's wrong? Afraid the school sees the villain you are if you get in trouble with quests?"

"Look who is talking. You are too afraid to even talk to me," Hitoshi responded. It was quiet for a long moment after that. Izuku peeked around the corner. The three people talking to Hitoshi had their backs towards Izuku but he recognized the middle one who had spoken. They were the bullies from when he had first met Hitoshi. Part of him wanted to hug them for their role in that.

"Stop smirking," the head bully said and swung his fist against empty air. Hitoshi's head yanked to the side and there was a drop of blood on his lip. Now all of Izuku just wanted them to suffer. Their mistake.

"That's still all you got?" Hitoshi asked in a mocking tone. "You know I've fought Endeavour's son and trained with a couple of people that could turn either of our bones to dust in a single strike. You think you can threaten me like this?"

There was a long silence, just long enough to make sure Hitoshi couldn't use his quirk.

"I can make sure you won't be in any shape to stay in the tournament and if you try to stop me you'll be in trouble for assaulting a festival visitor. You might have managed to worm into UA with that other villain, but do you think they are going to keep you after that?"

"I could ask you the same. You might go to a B level hero school but how would they feel about their student being caught starting fights in another school? Not that you'd have much chance graduating without a quirk anyway."

"Without… wh…?"

"Hi," Izuku said, making sure to keep his hand open, ready to use All For One if he so chose. The trio spun around so quickly one would have thought they had super speed quirks. Izuku continued: "Still a bigoted bully I see."

The other two bullies took a few steps to the side, visibly tense, but at least the head bully was brave or stupid enough to stand his ground.

"You… you really are a Quirk Stealer."

"Considering how careful you are with your words when talking to me," Hitoshi started, "it's surprising you'd start like that with Izuku."

The head bully bit his teeth together until the window for brainwashing had passed.

"It… it doesn't matter. If he even tries to steal my quirk you're both done. We'll tell people you assaulted us and who do you think they are going to trust, villain?"

"If you want to play that game, I suspect they might be more willing to trust the brother of Ingenium and a son of Endeavour more than some second-rate school bully," Izuku answered.

"Oh hi Todoroki," Hitoshi said. "Surprising to see you here."

Todoroki didn't answer anything in words but probably nodded or something before Hitoshi moved his attention back to the bullies.

"What the hell did you do to get people like them to side with you? Is this some new kind of brainwashing or… I guess you could have made them do something to blackmail them with. Just something more to show people what you are."

"Or maybe we just like him more than you," Izuku said. "Which isn't a high bar."

"Yeah," Dark Shadow declared, looming somewhere above Izuku.

The head bully gritted his teeth. He squeezed one hand in a fist like preparing to use his quirk again. Izuku's gaze turned dark, and he raised his open hand, ready to elevate the guy from a bully to a quirkless dead man walking if he attacked Hitoshi again.

"Don't do anything stupid if you want to see tomorrow."

"Izuku," Hitoshi said, carefully now focused on Izuku rather than the bully. It was fear in his voice that got Izuku to listen, and it was not fear of the bully. "Don't… do anything rash. Let me handle this. I… I need to handle this."

Izuku looked at Hitoshi for a few seconds and lowered his hand.

"If you want his quirk, just say so."

Hitoshi looked down and shook his head, but he was smiling as he did so. It made Izuku ease a little. Hitoshi might have struggled with Kirishima, but what chance would this guy have if he started a fight?

"You really should leave," Hitoshi told the bullies. "I left you behind. I have no interest in wasting any time on you. Go live your lives somewhere else."

The head bully squeezed his fists but turned a bit towards his friends, seemingly leaving.

"You will pay for this," he muttered.

"No," Hitoshi responded calm and cold. "We aren't in junior high anymore and I don't let people like you hold me back anymore. You can't bring me down now, and if you try you're the one who's going to fall."

As Hitoshi spoke he walked around the head bully until he was between Izuku and the bully so Izuku couldn't easily end the bully if he tried something.

"I used to be alone and people like you made me hate my quirk. These people changed that. They accepted how I was born. You aren't their problem, and you're not my problem anymore either."

The bully waited for long enough to respond to avoid Hitoshi's quirk.

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

"The thing you have always feared I might."

The head bully's mouth immediately pressed shut like it was glued, realising what Hitoshi suggested. He held his fist ready again. Izuku smirked, knowing what was coming.

"Surprise," Hitoshi said in a regular calm voice. The head bully yelped and jolted like someone had screamed in his ear when the Surprise quirk hit. This was followed by him freezing still as Hitoshi's brainwashing caught him.

"Checkmate," Hitoshi said. "Now what should I do with you. You would do something to make my life miserable just for the sake of doing it."

"Ho… how?" one of the other bullies could barely speak

"He would never respond to you," the other said.

"Like…" Hitoshi said, "this."

The remaining bullies reacted to Hitoshi's quirks just as their ringleader had. After a few seconds Kirishima stepped past Izuku to wave his hand in front of the head bully before staring him in the eyes, their faces almost touching.

"I still can't wrap my head around how you can do that, but I guess at least this is better than punching them."

"Coming from you," Hitoshi smirked, "it is probably the most positive thing anyone has ever said about my quirk."

"So, what are you going to do with them now?"

Hitoshi looked at the trio for a long quiet moment.

"Nothing. Abusing my quirk is exactly what they would want me to do and worrying about them would just hold me back. I'll release them after we leave and hopefully we won't meet again."

"What if you do?" Todoroki asked from behind the group.

"Not sure. Ignore them, brainwash them again, or borrow one of Izuku's lawyers if he doesn't send them to a hospital first."

"Better be quick then," Izuku said. Hitoshi smiled.

"Anyway, I have more important things to worry about in my life and it's not like they are a part of it anymore. I don't want to waste time on them."

"You don't want to take revenge on them?"

"I'd be lying if I said no, but becoming a successful hero like I want to be is the best way to prove them wrong, and maybe that's enough. At least I don't want to risk any of that because of them."

"Right," Todoroki said and turned away, seeming thoughtful. With that over Izuku glanced at the three brainwashed bullies one more time.

"Toshi," he said, getting the brainwasher's attention, "do you realise what you did here?"

"I think I did, but since you are asking…"

"How many times did you use your quirks?"

"What do you… twice. Why?"

Izuku smirked.

"And how many people did you brainwash?"

"Thre…" Hitoshi paused and glanced at the brainwashed bullies like making sure he had counted right.

"You caught two of them at once. You've never before managed to brainwash more than one at a time."

"Well… I have only tried anything like that recently."

"Maybe you just needed some extra motivation, or three. That's good. Makes you less vulnerable to groups."

"That is great, well done," Tenya showed a thumbs up. "Now, there isn't much of the break left so I recommend we head for lunch without further delay."

"Agreed, I'm starving," Kirishima declared. They started moving, leaving the three bullies behind, and Izuku who turned to face the head bully one last time. He leaned next to him to talk into his ear.

"Your head is pretty foggy right now, but you should remember at least some of this. Stay away from Hitoshi. I could put you in jail or send you to a hospital or take your quirk, or all of the above, but those are the least I could do to you. If I hear you are trying to go after him again in any way, you will pray you got off with one of those, and that will be the last thing you will do, ever."

Izuku left the bullies staring into nothing and jogged after the others before they would start asking questions.