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!

20. A New Countdown and Pressing Matters

"Ah! Good morning, Midoriya," Tenko gave him a smile and small wave as he took a seat in the leather chair, sitting down in the small office with a tall window behind him showing off the large grounds of UA, and he gestured to the other chair placed beside his, "please, come on in."

"Uh … alright," Izuku felt himself smile awkwardly, sliding the door shut behind him as he took off his backpack, giving the teaching assistant an apologetic look, "uh … sorry that I got here so early, I know that Midnight asked us to be an hour early, but -"

"Oh, no, it's alright, Midoriya," The dark haired young man laughed, leaning back in his own seat as he picked up his coffee cup carefully with four fingers, "we kind of expected you to get here early to finish up your recovery. Besides, I definitely don't mind talking to you a bit earlier - we weren't expecting anyone to be here any later than seven o'clock, so the fact you're here a half hour early is more a plus to me than anything."

Izuku nodded at that, and quickly moved across the room to sit in the seat opposite of Tenko's, putting his backpack down between his legs. At the current moment, it was still fairly early Monday morning, three days after the attack on the USJ, and quite honestly, Izuku wasn't exactly sure if he wanted to be there - or at least, in this room, talking to Tenko about how he was feeling. Alas, though, as Midnight had said in the group chat on Saturday morning, everyone in his class would have to talk to either her, Hound Dog, or Tenko before they would be cleared to return to class and resume their usual schedules, so Izuku supposed he would just have to deal with …

… talking about his feelings. Or how he was feeling after the USJ.

And … if he was being honest, Izuku wasn't entirely sure if he even wanted to talk about the USJ, especially after what had happened specifically to him. After the nightmare Saturday morning, it turned out that it would be bad dream central for him for at least a while longer - he ended up waking up yesterday morning after a vision of the hooded man choking him to death while Nine laughed above them, and then this morning, he ended up dreaming Nine himself standing over him and calling down a lightning bolt to strike him dead.

It had taken all of Izuku's energy not to give away how shaky he was feeling from the dream this morning to his parents, which wasn't too hard - his dad was a deep sleeper and only grumbled confusedly on the couch when Izuku wished him a good day, and Inko had been distracted talking to Ochako about something Taiyo and Miwa were doing for their anniversary. So thankfully for him, he'd managed to give nothing away about his nightmare as he left the apartment so he and Ochako could meet up with Itsuka at the train station, and head to UA so they could visit Recovery Girl.

So talking about the USJ and what happened? Something he really didn't want to do. But he knew that Itsuka and Ochako would easily find out if he were to skip out talking to Tenko - Itsuka was talking with Midnight right now, and Ochako with Hound Dog - and they would probably drag him back by the hair if they found out he was trying to avoid talking to a teacher. And he also knew that without this session, he wouldn't be cleared to go back to class.

So he let out a small sigh as he leaned back in the chair, and hoped that he wouldn't have to answer any hard questions.

"So," Tenko decided to start their conversation casually, leaning back in his seat and glancing outside at the early morning skies as he smiled gently, "how was your weekend? I know it was pretty chaotic for me, but I assume you had a chance to unwind a little? You know, besides your parents freaking out, probably."

"Ah, it was, uh … it was fine," Izuku answered in a slightly awkward voice, glancing out the window as well, "my, uh - my mom was fine once she saw that I was okay - er, not entirely okay, but - but still breathing -"

"Yeah."

"- and - and my dad actually is home for the next few weeks too."

"Oh!" Tenko blinked in surprise. "That sounds nice. Does he have a bit of time off now?"

"Y-yeah. Work ended up calling him over the weekend and he says that they extended his time off, just to be safe. Mom had to pretty much force him into accepting - he wanted some time off, but not that much time. He's compromising by doing a few assignments from home."

"Ah, well, that's good," Tenko smiled, "it's nice that his workplace gave him a bit of time off. I assume he works overseas? I think All Might told me that at some point."

"Yeah …" Izuku nodded again, twirling his fingers together absently while he tried not to feel stupid - and then he heard Tenko chuckle, making Izuku glance at him out of the corner of his eyes and blinking at the knowing look on his face.

"You're a bit hesitant about talking to a counsellor, aren't you?" He guessed, and chuckled when Izuku blushed and quickly glanced away, looking embarrassed.

"I - uh -"

"It's alright," He waved a hand good-naturedly in the air, "take it from someone who's been in therapy for years, Midoriya - I've been in your shoes. It's hard to talk about how you're doing and how you feel after going through something traumatic. Well, trust me when I say this - I'm not going to be asking you any major thought-provoking or uncomfortable questions. We're here to have a conversation just to make sure you're holding up okay. If I ask you something you don't feel like answering, you don't have to."

"Uh … right," Izuku nodded again, letting out a small sigh and tapping his fingers together, "it's just … uh … well, you know."

"I do," Tenko smiled and nodded as well, and put down his clipboard so he could lean back in his seat, "so in that case, let's talk about something lighter, then - what did you end up doing this weekend? Just to relax. I know Recovery Girl told you to take it easy for the weekend, so did you just spend all your time watching TV? I know I like to play video games in my spare time to de-stress."

"Oh, I - um -" Izuku paused for a moment, going a bit red and still staring out the window as he absently crossed his legs, "- I - I ended up spending a little time at Kendou's."

"Oh?" Tenko blinked, looking intrigued. "I did notice you two have spent a lot of time together this week - it's kind of strange though, since I remember you asking for Thirteen's autograph for your other friend."

"I - huh?" Izuku blinked, finally looking around at the older man in his confusion. "W-what do you mean?"

"Oh, I just -" Tenko looked briefly confused as well, "- well, I was just thinking that you spent a little time at your girlfriend's, but - am I mistaken?"

Izuku stopped in his tracks at that, staring blankly at the teaching assistant for a moment, and then quickly jolted up, fluster mode going from zero to a hundred in an instant as a large blush immediately exploded in his face.

"W-w-wait, you - you think - you think - K-Kendou - she's - you think she's my -"

"Your girlfriend," Tenko nodded, looking suddenly awkward, "but … I assume I'm mistaken?"

"Y-yes!" Izuku immediately nodded, although he quickly winced at the surprised look on Tenko's face. "N-not to say that - I - n-no, Kendou isn't my - she's - she's just my friend!"

"Is that right …" Tenko raised an eyebrow, shrugging and smiling as Izuku wrapped his arms tightly around his head to hide his blood-red face. "Well, if you say so Midoriya - I had heard Midnight saying something yesterday that according to your class's group chat, you spent some time at her place with Uraraka - I just assumed that -"

"Can we please change the subject?" Izuku asked in a quiet, pleading voice, and Tenko let out a small laugh and waved his hand in the air.

"Alright then - so what else did you do this weekend? You did mention that your dad came home."

"Y-yeah - his - his bosses pretty much forced him to take an extra long vacation, so we - we spent some time together catching up. N-not that he's complaining too much, I - I know that I freaked him and my mom out." Izuku glanced guiltily down at his knees, while Tenko gave him an understanding look and leaned forward.

"That's always the hardest part about being a hero," He gently assured him, "worrying your loved ones. I know that Hana's had her own fair share of worries about me whenever I have to go out into the field."

"H-huh." Izuku slowly nodded at that.

"Yeah … but y'know, speaking of Hana," Tenko decided to change the topic, sensing that the student's mood was going down and wanting to lighten things up, "if we're still discussing how our weekends went - mine, uh … well, it pretty much started with her running over my foot."

Izuku slowly nodded at that - and then he blinked as what Tenko said registered.

"I - I'm sorry? She - she ran over your foot?"

"Yeah!" Tenko laughed, shaking his head sheepishly, "Turns out that someone from the school called Hana to tell her what happened on Friday, and she got really worried about me since I mostly do my work at the USJ. When I came home she was crying and trying to make sure that I was okay, and I may have … poked a little fun at her," he winced, glancing down at his shoe as though painfully remembering what he had gone through, "and she responded to that by running over my foot with her wheelchair."

Izuku was unable to suppress a small, amused chuckle at that, and to his relief, Tenko laughed along with him and nodded.

"Yeah, my sister did not appreciate me joking around - but in any case, once I got her calmed down, she and I spent most of the weekend at the hospital with Thirteen. She's fine, by the way," He quickly assured Izuku when he saw the briefly worried look on the teenager's face, "she should actually be back in class for tomorrow - she's just got a few lacerations she'll have to deal with, and she's pretty much banned from any strenuous hero work until she's fully recovered. She's going to be doing a mostly hands off approach at the USJ for the next few weeks - but luckily, that's where I come in."

"Oh, that's - that's good."

"It is," Tenko nodded, although his smile did fall as he leaned forward a bit, "er … and sorry, Midoriya, but while we're on the topic of the USJ …"

Izuku faltered at that, but Tenko was quick to raise his hand before any assumptions could be made.

"I'm not going to ask for any details about what happened," He quickly assured him, "but I just wanted to … confirm something with you."

"I …" Izuku hesitated again, and then sighed and nodded, "… okay."

"Well, there was just, uh … something that I noticed while we were doing a review of the place while Cementoss was repairing the facility. We found several marks on the ground - marks that matched lightning strikes. I was just wondering … well, I'm to take it that those marks were from you, right?"

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, a bit confused for a moment - marks on the ground that matched lightning strikes? Why would he ask if it was Izuku that did that? He assumed that they had already heard what Nine had been capable of -

- and that was when it suddenly came to place, making him stop in his tracks.

Oh. Oh, of course, he felt himself go a bit red as he realized it. That was right - during his fight with the hooded man, Izuku had been propelling himself around with his quirk, and did fling his lightning pretty much everywhere. So …

"Uh … y-yeah, that - that was me."

"I see," Tenko slowly nodded, tapping his four fingers against the chair briefly as he used his other hand to reach for his coffee, "so … in that case, Midoriya, does that mean that you've - y'know, overcome that mental barrier of yours? When we first met, you were having troubles with using your quirk - and I know from the entrance exam you had a support item that you used for your quirk. But when Aizawa reviewed your first battle trial, I noticed that you didn't use your quirk at all against Uraraka or Kendou."

"Y-yeah."

"So … in that case, since you used it at the USJ, does that mean that you used it against some of the villains there?" Tenko asked, and then paused, his cheeks going slightly red, "Uh - if you do want to answer that, by the way, if you don't want to. If you're uncomfortable -"

"N-no," Izuku shook his head, surprising himself, "I - I think I'll be okay. It's just …"

At that, he paused, feeling his brow crinkle - quite honestly, at the time he hadn't really put much thought into it, but he did raise a point that he used his quirk against someone else - specifically, the hooded man. But … but Tenko was asking if he'd overcome the mental barrier that was preventing him from using his quirk.

And …

"I … did use my quirk," Izuku said in a quiet voice, aware of Tenko leaning forward interestingly while sipping on his coffee, although the conflicted look on the teenager's face did hold his tongue until Izuku was finished speaking, "but … well … it was against someone who was trying to kill me, and I - I mostly just bounced around with it. And - and the only time I did use it against someone else was when that guy tried to kill Occhan, and - and he just kind of bounced back up after I used it - w-which might've been a good thing," He suddenly realized, feeling himself go pale, "because I - I might've tried to - to -"

"To kill him?" Tenko gently asked, and Izuku, finding himself suddenly at a loss for words, nodded, beginning to feel his stomach twist in a knot - but before he could even think about how he was supposed to respond to that, Tenko reached out to pat his hand, keeping one finger up.

"Is that something you feel guilty about, Midoriya? Using your quirk to try and kill the villain who was - well, harming Uraraka."

"I … I don't know," Izuku shook his head, feeling himself begin to tear up as he glanced down at his knees, "I … is that … is that wrong? That I don't know how I - how I feel -"

"- trying to take someone's life?" Tenko finished for him, giving him a sympathetic look while Izuku looked anywhere else but him. "Midoriya, trust me when I say this - I've been there. I've been in that mindset, where the only way out is seemingly to kill someone else - it's hard to think straight. Add in your injuries, honestly, it's amazing you were even able to move around. But please, just remember," The guidance counsellor leaned forward, giving him a serious look, "taking the life of a villain should always be the very last resort. Heroes are held to a higher standard than, say, police officers - but there have been times that heroes have had no choice but to kill villains."

"R-really?'"

"It's not a pleasant part of our job," Tenko grimaced, not entirely sure if he should be sharing this with a student only in his first week of school, "but sometimes we're not able to bring in villains, whether they're too dangerous or holding someone hostage or is just … too out of control to properly contain. It's a hero's job to protect everyone above all else, however, and as much as society would like to say otherwise, that includes villains. So killing someone should always be the last resort - and from what I gathered from your classmates from their talk with the police on Friday, you had a choice between saving your friend and letting a villain kill her. No one is going to fault you for that."

Izuku slowly nodded, not entirely sure if he was convinced, but still watched as Tenko sat back and let out a sigh, sipping on his coffee.

"Well … that got a little bit dark," The guidance counsellor laughed awkwardly, glancing back over at Izuku, "so, ah … back to our first topic, Midoriya. You were saying that you used your quirk to save your friend."

"Y-yeah," Izuku nodded again, feeling himself frown as he folded his hands together, "and … but honestly … you're asking if I - I overcame my mental barrier, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"I … well, if I'm telling the truth … I'm … not really sure if I did," He decided to just be honest, glancing away while biting the corner of his lip, "I'm not - I know I used it against the - the hooded guy, but - but I'm not sure if that means I can – if I can use it against anyone else. It's - I'm just not sure if -"

"No, no, I understand what you're saying, Midoriya," Tenko nodded, grimacing slightly, "it's a lot different to use your quirk against a classmate instead of a villain. So … hm …"

As the room faded into a small silence, Izuku glanced over at where Tenko was staring down at his knee, obviously in thought as he absently drummed his fingers against his chair's armrest - and then he slowly nodded to himself, evidently thinking of something as he glanced back up at Izuku with a small smile,

"In that case, Midoriya," He leaned forward, "I … may have a way that we can see how you'd react to using your quirk against someone else - without the threat of hurting them."

"W-wait, really?" Izuku blinked, feeling his mouth drop open slightly as he immediately sat up in his seat. "How?"

"Well, it'll take a bit of talking around on my part," Tenko grimaced slightly, "and it might have to be at an odd time, like at lunchtime or having to pull you out of an afternoon class - but I'll run it by your substitute teacher beforehand, and go from there. If all else fails, we can always arrange to do it on a weekend - ah, but in any case, we can handle it another time. Anyway, why don't we call it here?"

He put his coffee back down as he stood up, taking a moment to stretch his arms above his head. Blinking, Izuku hurriedly stood up as well as Tenko smiled down at him

"I'll probably have to get ready for your other classmates swinging by soon," He put his hand down on Izuku's shoulder, "so I think I'm comfortable saying that you'll be alright to resume classes today. But if you do need to talk to anyone else, either me or Hound Dog or Midnight, don't hesitate to drop by, alright? We'll always be happy to listen."

"I …" Izuku paused, not really certain if this was something he wanted to do again, but still nodded, trying to smile back at Tenko as the older man led him out of the office, sliding the door open for him, "... I will. Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Tenko chuckled, holding the door open for him to step through, "you have a good rest of your day, Midoriya."

Once Izuku had stepped through, Tenko slid the door closed behind him. With a small sigh, and feeling relieved that it had gone a lot better than he had expected, Izuku looked around as he stood there in the hallway, and thankfully, it appeared that he wasn't the first one who had gotten done talking to the teachers.

Ochako was leaning against the opposite wall, checking one of her notebooks for something, but the sound of him walking towards her caught her attention, looking up at him and smiling as she put the notebook and pen down. She opened her mouth to say something, but then a yawn suddenly escaped her lips, making her close her eyes and open her mouth widely - although she was quick to get control of herself and pout at him when he chuckled at the look on her face.

"Shut up," She half-heartedly punched his shoulder, giggling as he feigned a mortal injury and held his shoulder, "so you were in and out too, huh?"

"Well … not really," Izuku shrugged, leaning against the wall with her, "Tenko-sensei is a … well, he's a fast talker, I guess. We talked about the weekend, the USJ, my quirk, and - well, he also said that he was gonna reach out to me another time, so he might be saving everything for later."

"Oh! So you got another appointment?"

"I … don't know," He sighed, raising a hand to scratch at the bandage on his cheek, "and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about … you know, more therapy."

"Deku -" Ochako frowned at him, and Izuku quickly raised his hand with a sheepish smile.

"I know, I know," He quickly assured her, "I shouldn't be … y'know, reluctant about therapy. It's just … it's hard, y'know? Just to open up about … everything."

"Yeah," Ochako slowly nodded, letting out a small sigh as she put her notebook back in her backpack, "I … yeah, I get that, Deku. Honestly, I shouldn't talk - it was awkward enough talking to Hound Dog too."

"Oh, right, you were - you talked to him," Izuku put his hands in his pockets, "so, uh - how did it go?"

"It was, uh … okay," She shrugged, a weak smile appearing on her face as she fixed some of her bangs, "it was kinda hard to make out what he was saying some of the time, but I still got cleared to head back to class. He seemed kinda angry that he wasn't able to talk to you, though - any idea why?"

"Huh? Oh," Izuku suddenly realized, feeling his face turn red as he glanced away, "you, uh - you remember what I told you about the entrance exam? When I was - when I was falling with Hadou?"

"Yeaaaah …?" Ochako raised her eyebrow, frowning at the reminder of Izuku's stupidity while he at the very least had the sense to look sheepish.

"Well, it was, uh - it was Hound Dog who ended up saving us - he caught us right out of the air. And he was, uh - well, he wasn't happy with me. Kinda shouted and howled at me before I passed out."

"I mean," Ochako tapped her foot against the ground while she gave him a knowing, unamused look, "I don't exactly blame him - you did do a pretty stupid thing, Deku."

"Mm-hm," Izuku slowly nodded, a smirk appearing on his face, "it was pretty stupid, Occhan. Almost as stupid as climbing up a zero-pointer and tricking it into punching itself in the face."

"... damn it," Ochako mumbled, going red and pouting at him, "I hate it when you throw my words back in my face. My only relief is that it only happens, like, once a year."

"Well, I'm gonna enjoy -"

Before their bantering could continue, however, the door that they had both been standing in front of began to slide open. Blinking, Izuku and Ochako looked around to see Itsuka exiting the room, sighing as she slid the door shut behind her. For some reason, her cheeks had a tinge of red as she awkwardly glanced around, and saw them blinking at her in surprise.

"Uh … Kendou?" Izuku asked, feeling a bit concerned at the look on her face, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Itsuka sighed, shaking her head and walking over to them as she lightly smacked her cheeks, "Midnight-sensei just … likes to poke and tease. I probably shouldn't be all that surprised. Anyway, I assume you guys are done talking to the teachers too?"

"Yeah, we're both good," Ochako confirmed, moving to adjust her pink backpack as she smiled over at her, "and Deku here was just beginning to tease me, so thank god you got here when you did."

"Oh?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow, looking over at Izuku as he chuckled, "Did he now? Well, I'm glad to save you from that then, Ochako - don't want our boy here getting an ego, now do we?"

Both girls giggled over the implication that Izuku could grow anything even resembling an ego while Izuku shook his head, smiling as they began walking together down the hall towards the stairs.

"Well," Itsuka sighed as she rolled her neck, "I guess all we have to do now is go to class - give you a little bit of time to get ready for everyone wanting to make sure you're okay, Izuku."

"I'm … not really ready for that," He admitted, going red as he scratched the bandage on his cheek again - only for Ochako to pout and reach out so she could smack his hand away, making him yelp.

"Deku, you know what Recovery Girl said - no itching."

"R-right. Sorry, Occhan."

As mentioned before, part of the reason why they were so early for school, besides having to head in to talk to the guidance counsellors, was because he and Itsuka had to visit Recovery Girl bright and early so that she could finish up their healing. Both of them felt a bit tired from her using her quirk on them, but at least the stiffness that had plagued them all weekend was finally gone, and Itsuka could lift both arms above her head without fear of injury. For his part, Izuku was instructed to keep the bandages around his face for the time being - both in an effort to give his injuries a little more time for recovery, and to not immediately freak out his classmates with the scars on his face.

Which … did kind of hurt, but at least he understood.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for the trio to make their way upstairs to their classroom, but to their surprise, as Itsuka slid the door open and looked inside, it turned out that they weren't the first ones to arrive early.

"Ah! Kendou, Uraraka, Midoriya!" Tenya raised his hand happily in greeting from where he was seated at his desk, prim, proper, and ready for the day despite the bell not going to ring for another hour and a bit, "I see that you all had the same idea as I did - getting a bit of a head start arriving early! I was beginning to wonder when we would all begin to be cleared by our teachers to return."

"Oh - hey, Iida," Itsuka raised her hand in greeting as they walked in, glancing around at the otherwise empty classroom, "you're … the first one here? Wait, when did you even get here?"

"Bright and early! As heroes in training, it is imperative that we arrive in the classroom as early as we can so that we are ready to learn how to become heroes! But in any case -" Tenya turned to Izuku, his eyes automatically trailing over to the bandages on his face, and a worried look passed over the bespectacled student, "- Midoriya, I'm glad to see that you're up and about. Have you already visited Recovery Girl? I recall that you mentioned that you would be arriving early today specifically to see her after our talk in the group chat yesterday."

"O-oh, yeah, I'm - I'm fine now, we went to see her before we visited the other teachers," Izuku confirmed, walking over to the other side of the room and putting his bag down on his desk, "I'm just keeping the bandages on so that - uh - so that the scratches on my face have a little more time to heal over."

"I see!" Tenya nodded, satisfied with that answer as he put his hands down on his desk and looked around at Ochako as she sat down in her seat behind him, "It's very good to know that you are not neglecting your own physical health, Midoriya, and that you're free to return to class now. In any case -"

Before he could go on, however, the four of them were suddenly aware of the door opening again, and everyone looked around in surprise as another one of their classmates made their presence known so early in the morning.

"Yo," Kyouka raised her hand, moving into the classroom and looking around at the other four sitting in their seats - or at least, Izuku, Ochako and Tenya were in their seats, as Itsuka decided to sit down in Katsuki's currently empty desk in front of Izuku, "you guys are here early."

"So are you," Itsuka pointed out, smiling up at the rocker girl as she put her bag down on top of her desk, "have the same idea as us to get here early?"

"Yeah, I'd rather not have to wait in a line," Kyouka shook her head, letting out a small grunt as she stretched her arms above her head, "I'm gonna head over to Hound Dog's right now - just wanted to drop off my bag before. Have you guys talked to him yet? Any tips for what to say so I can get out of there early?"

"Jirou, that's not the kind of behavior you should have when talking to someone about your mental health!" Tenya quickly gestured to her, while Kyouka turned to give him a deadpan look. "What we went through on Friday was highly traumatic, so you should not make light of -"

"Dude," Kyouka held out a hand to interrupt him, raising an eyebrow, "I was only attacked by some assholes and helped bury them under a mountain. Compared to everyone else, I got the least amount of - y'know."

"I mean," Itsuka shrugged, getting Kyouka's attention back to her, "just because you didn't have it as rough as other people doesn't mean you didn't go through some crap of your own, Jirou. There's nothing wrong with taking a few minutes to talk to Hound Dog."

"I … well, I guess you got a point," She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, absently playing with one of her jacks, and then her gaze turned to Izuku as he looked up at her, "just don't like talking about feelings. Anyway, Greenie - how are you doing after last week?"

"Uh - 'Greenie'?" Izuku wondered out loud, blinking at the odd nickname she had apparently given him yesterday while Itsuka snorted and Ochako giggled, "I'm - uh, anyway, I'm - I'm doing a lot better, Jirou. T-thanks for asking."

"Mm-hm," Kyouka nodded, and then glanced back around at Itsuka as the class representative absently reached for her water bottle in her bag. For a moment, Kyouka was quiet as she tapped her foot against the floor, clearly thinking of something - and then she cleared her throat and glanced away.

"Hey, uh … Kendou. You're friends with … Yaoyorozu, right?"

"Hm?" Itsuka blinked, looking back up at her, "Uh … yeah, we're friends. Why?"

"Oh, ah - no reason," Kyouka quickly shook her head, although there was a weird tinge of pink on her cheeks as she suddenly looked anywhere but at the two students sitting before her, "or - uh - well, no, there's - there is a reason, just … uh … anyway. We - um - we walked home together on Friday, but I forgot to ask for her number to hang out. You guys, uh - do you mind if I eat lunch with you today? J-just so I can make sure I can thank her for - uh - walking me back to the station last week."

"Hm? Oh!" Tenya straightened up, smiling, while Izuku looked a bit confused by Kyouka's reasoning and Itsuka and Ochako shared a small, suspicious glance, "Well, I certainly don't see why not, Jirou! It's quite admirable that you would want to personally thank Yaoyorozu for walking you to the station, especially after what we all went through on Friday."

"Y-yeah. Thanking her for - yeah. That."

Before Itsuka and Ochako could even think to give Kyouka a very pointed look while she avoided looking at everyone, her ears looking weirdly red, the sound of the door sliding open again got their attention, and Izuku straightened up at the appearance of a man walking into the classroom, wearing white armor not unsimilar to Tenya's own hero costume, who flashed the five students a surprised smile when he saw them.

"Ah! Good morning, guys," Tensei smiled, walking over to the podium to put his stack of papers down, "I see that you all took a leaf out of Tenya's book and decided to get here a bit earlier. I was starting to wonder if I was gonna have to talk to my brother for the next hour before everyone swung by!"

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?!" Tenya chopped his hand indignantly at his brother while he chuckled.

"Y-you -" Izuku briefly stammered, his eyes going wide as he bolted up in his chair, and raised a shaking hand to point at the teacher before them as he finally found his words, "- you're - you're Ingenium! The speed hero, Ingenium!"

As though he had a super speed quirk himself, Izuku suddenly moved - one moment he was sitting at his desk, and the next he was standing in front of the podium, making Tensei blink in surprise as the student held out his notebook and pen.

"C-can I have your autograph?"

As the notebook was held in front of him, Tensei looked taken aback and a bit amused. Tenya slowly blinked as he wondered how Izuku managed to get over to his brother so fast. Kyouka tilted her head and raised her eyebrow. Itsuka held her hand against her face and groaned lowly. Ochako was not surprised in the least.

"Sooooo … I assume you're Midoriya?" Tensei guessed, chuckling when Izuku suddenly realized what he was doing and quickly went red, but the pro hero still reached out to take the notebook and pen from him. "It's nice to finally meet you - I would've introduced myself to you on Friday, but you were unconscious most of the time I was at the school, and you left before I could come back to the main building after our search of the grounds."

"Uh - y-yeah, that's - that's me."

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're up and about! I was wondering if you would have to spend a little more time with Recovery Girl, but since it seems like you're alright, we can start classes soon. I've got a few ideas about potential exercises we can do this week - it's been a while since I've been at UA, so I'm not entirely sure what the schedules are like, but -"

However, before Tensei could elaborate a bit more on what he was planning their class to do, the door to the room slid open once again. Everyone quickly looked around to see who had also decided to arrive a bit earlier - and Itsuka and Ochako felt their lips thin as their new visitor immediately snapped her gaze to Izuku.

"Oh!" Nejire blinked in surprise, before a large smile appeared on her face, "Midoriya! You're already here!"

"Y-yeah, I am," Izuku nodded, smiling awkwardly at Tensei in thanks as the substitute teacher handed him back his notebook, his autograph now the latest addition. He then turned to watch Nejire carefully put her bag down on her desk before moving around it towards him, "We, uh, decided to get here a bit earlier so that we can finish our treatments with Recovery Girl. So, uh - how are you, HadooooooUGH!"

The reason for his yelp was mostly due to Nejire suddenly stepping into his space, that wide, happy grin on her face widening slightly, and immediately wrapped her arms around Izuku and brought him in for a hug. Izuku immediately froze in horror as she pressed herself against him, his face exploding into a massive red blush while Nejire let out a happy hum and squeezed him tight. Both Ochako and Itsuka sputtered, Itsuka having chosen to take a sip from her water bottle and immediately having to fight not to spit it out, and Kyouka, with one glance down at the orange-haired girl's face, decided that now was the perfect time to finally get over to Hound Dog's, quickly speed walking past a surprised Tenya and right out the back door.

"Oooooh, it's so good to see you!" Nejire giggled happily, finally moving away from Izuku so he could have some room, only for the red faced boy to squeak when she reached down to grab his hand in both of hers and began dragging him back to his desk, "I actually wanted to give you a big hug back on Friday, but Kendou and Uraraka were hugging you first, and there wasn't any room for me! So consider that hug my 'I'm glad you're okay' hug! But I'm not upset about not hugging you on Friday, emotions were running high! I know when we got home, I pretty much cuddled Yuuyu to sleep, and then again when we woke up, and then when I got back from peeing. I know Yuuyu likes to complain, but I also know she likes hugs! I'm not sure if she's a tsundere for hugs or something, but she never resists the cuddles. Or would that be considered being a 'tsundere'? Because she's half hot, half cold about it? I dunno! Wait, what were we talking about?"

"Uh - uh - uh -"

"Oh, right! You being okay! It's good to see you're moving around! How's your face feeling? Oooooh, there's still a lot of bandages around it!"

Nejire continued to blabber on as she put the frozen and red faced Izuku back in his seat, and then moved to sit down in Hanta's empty seat beside him so she could continue talking. Ochako, meanwhile, stared blankly at Nejire's back, slowly tilting her head while the emotion drained from her eyes. Itsuka, sitting in front of them, felt her aluminum water bottle groan as she squeezed tightly on it, not entirely sure which quirk she was using to slowly crush it. Tenya awkwardly cleared his throat, not entirely sure what was going on but knowing that he probably shouldn't be a part of it, and quickly began rummaging in his bag for something to read. Tensei glanced between the three girls and Izuku, and felt himself chuckle awkwardly.

"Oh, jeez," He muttered, shaking his head and shuddering to himself, "now this part of high school I remember."

---

As time went on for the next hour or so, the rest of their classmates began to pour in as they got finished with their talks with either Hound Dog, Midnight or Tenko. All of them, much to Izuku's embarrassment and awkwardness, expressed their relief that he was okay, from Setsuna ruffling his hair, to Eijirou wrapping an arm around his shoulders and laughing while shaking him, to Yosetsu coming up to his seat and apologizing for leaving him behind to fight the Consortium (which Izuku quickly waved his hands in the air and frantically told him it was alright), to Momo giving him a kind smile and patting his hand, to Yui patting his arm and then moving back to her seat while flashing Tenya a look, who flushed red for some reason and avoided looking her directly in the eye.

By the time everyone had returned from their talks with the teachers, cleared to begin taking classes again, Izuku's face was pretty much stuck being red, not even noticing Itsuka having to get out of Katsuki's desk when he arrived and growled at her (while Itsuka gave him a clearly unimpressed look) and Nejire pouted but still returned to her own desk when Hanta arrived. Still, at least he wasn't the exact center of attention, with everyone talking and laughing together while greeting each other after their strenuous last day the week before, from Setsuna winking at Hanta and making him sigh in exasperation, to Reiko and Dark Shadow conversing while Fumikage groaned in annoyance at his quirk, to Kyouka poking Denki with her earphone jack, making him wince slightly and whine.

However, the sight of Pony and Mezo arriving together, spotting Izuku in his seat, and then quickly moving around the desks so that they could lower themselves into apologetic bows ended up drawing the attention of the entire class, making a lot of conversations slow down as they looked around at them.

"Uh … guys?" Izuku tilted his head in confusion, while Katsuki merely huffed at the pair of them and looked back around at his notes on his desk, "Are - what're you doing?"

"W-well, Midoriya-san," Pony mumbled, her long blonde hair hanging over her face, "I - well, we - we wanted to give you an apology."

"Er - an apology? F-for what?"

"Well," Mezo sighed, a deep shame in his voice as he likewise kept bowing before him, "back at the … USJ … Tsunotori wanted to come and help you with that hooded guy, but … well … I was the one who told her to hang back. Had I not …"

"It's my fault you got hurt," Pony teared up, still staring down at her hooves, "if I had just come and helped you …"

"W-wait, guys, no!" Izuku quickly shook his head, sitting up in his seat and waving his hands frantically in the air while their other classmates gave both bowing students a surprised look. "Seriously, it's - it's okay, I don't blame you guys for not stepping in! It was all the villains' fault anyway!"

"Besides," Momo spoke up, sitting behind Izuku and giving both Pony and Mezo a sympathetic look, "assisting Midoriya would have only put you both in danger of that lunatic as well. It's for the best that you stayed behind and helped Aizawa-sensei."

"Yeah!" Denki nodded, looking momentarily panicked as the two bowing students looked unsure, "We didn't need you guys to get as beat up as Midoriya did! No one wants to see that!"

"Dude," Kyouka glared at him, "what did we say Saturday?"

"Salt in the wound." Fumikage shook his head.

"N-no, it's - it's alright, guys, I'm not offended," Izuku quickly shook his head, returning his gaze to Mezo and Pony as the larger boy still looked unsure as to whether or not he deserved to be defended, and Pony continued to tear up, "b-but seriously, guys, don't - don't blame yourselves for what happened. It was the Consortium's fault that I got injured, and - and we managed to beat them back, so -"

"'We'?" Katsuki huffed, not looking back at Izuku but scowling. "All I remember was you getting the shit beat out of you, Deku - the hell did you actually do?"

Izuku winced at that, while Itsuka and Ochako glared at Katsuki from their seats.

"Really?" Setsuna raised her eyebrow as she leaned back in her seat, "Midoriya did nothing? Because I seem to recall that he saved freaking All Might's ass from that Nine dick."

"Yeah," Mina huffed, "what'd you end up doing again?"

Fortunately, before Katsuki could wheel around and snarl at the two girls - tensions between the entire class and Katsuki had clearly not gotten better since last Friday - the door to the front of the classroom opened again, and everyone looked around, immediately silencing themselves, as Tensei strolled back in, giving everyone a smile and waving. Before he could speak up, however, he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone screaming at the top of their lungs somewhere on campus - a scream loud enough to rattle the windows, making them all blink in surprise.

"Hm?" Tensei raised an eyebrow, looking out the hall with a curious look, "that was Mic's voice - wonder what he's screaming about. Well, anyway, that's not important," He slid the door back closed, and looked around at the sitting students, "hey there, guys! It's good to see you're all back from talking to your teachers. Sorry that it took a bit longer than usual to get class started, but …"

He paused, however, as his eyes trailed around the classroom, blinking at them - and then he asked, in a confused voice, "Er … is it just me, or is everyone not sitting in their assigned seats? Like - uh - Awase, why are you on the other side of the room? Shouldn't you be sitting in front of Tenya?"

"Uh …" Yosetsu blinked, taken a bit aback, while the rest of the class likewise looked around in confusion.

"Well," Itsuka shrugged, giving the substitute teacher an innocent smile as he turned to her, "we just … kinda sat down in the seating plan Aizawa-sensei laid out for us. We kinda thought it was weird we weren't in alphabetical order, but … well …"

"Huh," Tensei nodded, letting out a small sigh, "that definitely sounds like Shouta, alright … well, how about this? Before we start class, if you want, we can fix up your seating arrangements - I'll let you guys know where you have to sit."

With everyone glancing around at each other and shrugging in a 'why not?' kind of manner, there was the sound of chairs scraping against the floor as everyone got up and grabbed their stuff in order to move into their actual seats, with Pony giving Izuku a wave goodbye, telling him sadly that she would miss sitting behind him - only to end up looking sheepish when she ended up sitting in the seat to his right, both she and Izuku unable to stop themselves from chuckling a bit. Itsuka, meanwhile, rolled her eyes as she had to just move up a seat ahead, with Yui turning to look at Tenya now sitting to her right, and he tried not to gulp as she leaned back in her seat and gave him a blank, yet somehow amused look.

In the end, only Izuku, Ochako, Tenya, Mina and Tsuyu didn't have to move at all, with everyone putting their bags down in their new assigned seats. To Izuku's slight relief, Katsuki ended up having to move up a seat so that he wasn't directly in front of him - only for a new problem to arise for him as the new person sitting right in front of Izuku immediately wheeled around to face him with a big smile.

"Hi there, new neighbor!" Nejire giggled, spinning around fully in her seat and resting her arms on Izuku's desk while he went red and glanced away, Momo letting out a small, amused sigh as she took her new seat right behind him, "What a coincidence, huh? I was just thinking this morning how nice it was to sit beside you before Sero kicked me out of his seat, but it turns out that we're going to be sitting close by anyway! How cool is that?"

While Nejire continued to blabber on, Katsuki gritted his teeth furiously at the class chatterbox sitting right behind him. Meanwhile, Ochako drummed her fingers against her desk while scowling, and Itsuka casually bent her mechanical pencil in half while staring at Izuku and Nejire blankly, which made Eijirou, sitting right in front of her, gulp nervously at the frown on his class rep's face.

"Alright!" Tensei clapped his hands together, smiling happily at the students now that order was somewhat restored as he leaned against the podium. "Now that that's out of the way, let's get homeroom started! I do have a few announcements to get through before I can dismiss you, so let's get it out of the way so we can get to work. First of all, for those who might need the reminder, I'm Ingenium - I'll be subbing for Aizawa for the next week or so, before I have to go back to work and another one of your teachers will have the time to fill in."

"Er - Iida … sensei?" Mina wrinkled her brow at that, as though not exactly sure if she liked how she described him, but still shrugged and carried on. "How is Aizawa-sensei? The last time we saw him, he was in pretty bad shape, and you guys said that …"

"Oh, you guys don't need to worry about that," Tensei smiled kindly at her, leaning against the podium as he looked around, "the doctors at the hospital were able to help him in time - he's just on mandatory bed rest at the moment, and he'll be spending the next few weeks recovering. The school can afford to let Aizawa rest for -"

He was interrupted, however, by the sound of the door beginning to slide open again. Everyone looked around to see what appeared to be a mummy standing at the door, wrapped in bandages not just around his neck but his entire face, wrapped up so tightly it would be a miracle for him to see, while both his arms were done up in casts. But the long black hair on top of his head made it pretty clear who was not in bed resting at the moment.

"Good morning," Aizawa said in a muffled voice.

"AIZAWA-SENSEI?!" Came the collective shrieks of the majority of the class, with Itsuka's jaw dropping open, Setsuna immediately holding her hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter and not get harshly punished, Tenya quickly wiping his glasses with a cloth to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and Pony staring completely gobsmacked at their teacher, immediately convinced of his utter immortality.

"He's way too much of a pro!" Denki shivered as Aizawa began to slowly make his way over to the podium, walking stiffly as Tensei gave him an exasperated look.

"So you're feeling better now, Aizawa-sensei?!" Tenya shot his hand into the air.

"Can you really call that alright, though?" Ochako gulped nervously.

"My well-being doesn't matter," Aizawa shook his head, attempting to nudge Tensei away from the podium with his wrapped up arm as the armored hero shook his head and likewise attempted to guide the injured teacher back out the door where he came, "more importantly, we have matters to discuss."

"Aizawa, how did you even get out of the lounge?" Tensei grumbled, shaking his head at the slightly smaller man as he put his hand down carefully on his shoulder, "I thought Mic was going to make sure you stayed put before he left for his classes."

"I found a spider," The bandaged teacher explained, and the students could practically hear the smirk in his voice, "so Mic's currently on the other end of the campus - I dropped it on his hand."

"Wait, so that's why we heard him screaming a few minutes ago? C'mon, Aizawa …"

"Ooooooh, that's mean, sensei!" Nejire giggled from her new seat, bouncing as she fully took in Aizawa's injuries, "I'm not too big around bugs either, but like - only really gross ones, like centipedes! They have too many legs. And spiders! They have lots of legs too. Well, actually, I might just have issues with bugs with lots of legs. I like bugs without many legs, like snails! And worms! Mostly because they come out when it's rainy, and I really like the rain - well, except for last week's -"

"Hadou," Aizawa interrupted her, already sounding like he was regretting coming to the classroom after all, "keep it on the inside."

"Mm-hm!" Nejire quickly nodded in confirmation, raising her hand so she could mime zipping her lips together while Katsuki let out an annoyed growl and Izuku smiled weakly at her.

"Anyway, why aren't you in your seat?" Aizawa tilted his head at her, and then his gaze turned to the rest of his exasperated class as he blinked. "Why are … none of you in your seats?"

"Aizawa …" Tensei groaned.

"Whatever, it's not important right now," The bandaged man shook his head, sighing as he managed to duck underneath Tensei's attempts to get him back out the door, and returned to the podium where he turned back to the class, "the real fight isn't over yet. In fact, it's about to begin."

"A fight?" Katsuki sat up, attention caught.

"Don't tell me …" Izuku gulped.

"M-more villains?" Pony whimpered, clasping her hands together tightly.

Aizawa took a moment to let them all look very nervously up at him, wondering what other hell might be waiting for them - and then he leaned forward, and in a deadpan voice, said:

"In two weeks, UA will be holding their annual sports festival."

"But that's so ordinary!"

"The sports festival!" Eijirou shouted, throwing his hands into the air and making his seatmates jump in surprise at his enthusiasm as he stood up. "Hell yeah! I've been looking forward to this since - mmph!"

The reason for his grunt, of course, was due to Itsuka leaning forward in her seat with her hand enlarged by her quirk, and wrapped it around his head and arms, stopping his enthusiastic shout as she looked up to the front of the classroom, aware of Yui taking advantage of her rising in her seat to check out her butt and rolling her eyes (and was unaware of Ochako glancing over at her and gulping, turning away with a blush).

"Hold on just a second," She shook her head at Eijirou as she released him, and then looked back up to Tensei and Aizawa at the front, "is it really okay for us to have a sports festival just after the villains snuck inside?"

"Yeah," Kyouka nodded, looking concerned, "what if they decide to attack again?"

"You guys don't need to worry about that," Tensei smiled, putting his hands down on his hips as he looked around, "even if villains hadn't invaded the school, the sports festival is still probably the most secure event of the school year, even more than the festival in the fall, mostly due to the fact that we're letting in not just reporters, but other heroes and support companies. We make sure to do a very thorough pat-down before they're even allowed to step one foot on the campus."

"And even then," Aizawa shook his head stiffly, "security will also be strengthened to five times that of the previous times we held the festival, in order to demonstrate that UA's crisis management protocols are sound. Our sports festival is too big to be cancelled because of a few villains - this is probably going to be the greatest opportunity you will all get."

"R-really?" Pony gulped nervously, "I'm not sure that a sports festival of all things should …"

"Huh?" Izuku blinked and looked around at her, feeling confused for a moment before he suddenly realized it. "Oh, that's right, Tsunotori - since you're American, you've probably never seen UA's sports festivals before."

"Uh … not really, no."

"Well then, for those who might not know," Tensei smiled kindly at Pony's embarrassed look, "UA's sports festival is one of Japan's biggest events."

"Yeah," Setsuna nodded, drawing Pony's attention as she looked behind her, "like, they replaced the Olympics - those games they played decades ago where the entire world competed against each other. People used to get whipped up into a frenzy about them."

"But over time," Itsuka took over while Yui nodded behind her, "when quirks began emerging, the Olympics generally got smaller in scale and tradition, and eventually they were pretty much shrunken down to a much smaller deal than they once were. As far as Japan's concerned, the sports festival at UA took its place."

There was a small silence in the classroom as everyone looked around at the three girls in surprise, and Tensei chuckled.

"Well … yeah, that's pretty much it!"

"You seem … really well educated about the sports festival," Izuku noted in a surprised voice while Itsuka blushed and shrugged her shoulders sheepishly.

"We did a presentation about the sports festival back in middle school," Setsuna giggled as she leaned back in her seat, "learned the ins and outs of the festival, how it benefits students in general studies and business courses, the works. We aced the hell out of that assignment, by the way."

"Mm." Yui nodded.

"In any case," Tensei continued to say at the front, "all the top heroes around the country will be making their way here so they can grab front row seats and have the opportunity to scout you guys! Typically after graduation, it's expected for a fresh new pro hero to join an agency as a sidekick, although they do have to be careful so they don't miss their chances to become independent afterwards and essentially be sidekicks for the rest of their careers."

"Huh," Kyouka slowly nodded, and then looked over at Denki, "Kaminari, that sounds like something you'd do."

"Huh?! Why me?!"

"Naturally, you'll gain valuable experience and popularity if you're picked up by a big-name hero," Aizawa took over the explanation for Tensei, "but the times you can show off what you're capable of is limited. If you expect to become pros, then the path to your future will begin at this event."

Ochako, who had been sitting in her seat and listening attentively, immediately sat up at that statement, drawing Izuku's attention as he looked around at her.

"That's something you need to remember," The bandaged teacher leaned forward, his eyes narrowing behind the gauze on his face, "you have one chance a year, and a total of just three chances. No aspiring heroes can afford to miss this event. So if you understand that, do not slack off on your preparations."

There was a small silence in the classroom as everyone glanced amongst themselves, gulping - they didn't need to get lectured to know that the sports festival was a much bigger deal than they had initially thought. Izuku found himself staring at Ochako as she slowly nodded, and then looked up as she clenched her fist, evidently fired up as she glanced over at Izuku and grinned at him. He had to suppress a chuckle as he grinned back - he knew that vicious smile enough to know that her blood was probably boiling right now, looking forward to the upcoming competition.

"Alright then!" Tensei suddenly clapped his hands together again, grinning and getting the class's attention back on him again. "With that out of the way, homeroom is dismissed. If you guys will excuse me, I gotta get sleepypants here right back to the teacher's lounge. I'll see you guys in the afternoon so we can go over what we'll be covering for the next week, in addition to times that you can train independently or together for the sports festival."

"Watch it, Iida," Aizawa growled, but did not resist as Tensei began pushing him back out the door, waving to the class. Once they were out and Present Mic came in, looking far more shaken than they'd ever seen him and whipping a glare at Aizawa for scaring the shit out of him, everyone sat up as Mic whirled around to the class, a grin suddenly appearing on his face.

"Alright, listeners!" He made a weird gesture with his hands that made them all wince from the cringe, "Now that the mummy man is out of here, it's time to get cray-cray with English. Anyone got any questions for me before we begin?!"

"I do!" Nejire suddenly shot her hand up into the air, and Mic pointed at her.

"Lay it on me, Hadou!"

"How big was the spider Aizawa-sensei put on you?"

Mic paused, and then visibly wilted.

---

Shortly after Present Mic's traumatic flashback, in which the students had sadly watched him shiver at the very descriptive ways Nejire had seen spiders in the past explained to him in exquisite detail (only stopped by Itsuka walking over and covering her mouth with her hand), classes had resumed as normal, with Mic writing down English phrases for them to correct in a far more visibly deflated way than they were used to, Midnight strutted in to start teaching art history, and Cementoss had come in afterwards to help teach modern literature. It was only after the bell rang for their lunch break that the excitement from this morning returned.

"I don't know about you guys," Eijirou threw his hands into the air again as he grinned, "but this has got me so freaking pumped up!"

"It's like Aizawa said," Hanta likewise seemed to share the excitement, elbowing Eijirou half-heartedly, "if we put on a good enough show and stand out, this'll be our first step to becoming heroes!"

"That does depend on how we stand out, though," Fumikage hopped onto the cabinets at the back while Reiko leaned beside him, both of them watching as everyone got ready to head out for lunch, "which means that not only must we actually try and put in effort to get them to notice us, we must be careful not to embarrass ourselves."

"I mean, either way you're automatically lucky, Shouji," Denki sat down on his desk while giving the masked boy a sheepish look, "your appearance already stands out - uh, no offence."

"None taken. Even so," Mezo shook his head while Pony sat down in the opposite seat with her own lunch, "there's no point in that if I can't show off my usefulness. I have to work hard."

"Don't worry," Kyouka smirked at Denki as she passed by the small group sitting together, "I imagine you'll find ways to stand out too, Kaminari. Y'know, for all the wrong reasons."

Denki shook with indignancy.

"Huuuuh," Izuku felt himself sweat a bit nervously as everyone talked excitedly between themselves, walking over to Itsuka's desk as she got out her own lunch, "everyone seems pretty excited, huh?"

"And you aren't?!" Tenya chopped his hands at him, beginning to wiggle around strangely and drawing Yui's interested and slightly exasperated gaze. "We enrolled in this school for this exact opportunity! This is our chance to add our names to the ranks of heroes, so of course we are all in high spirits!"

"You've got a funny way of showing it, kero," Tsuyu noted as she began moving out the door with Mina, "a little bit weird."

"I mean, don't you feel the same way, Midoriya?!" Tenya chopped at Izuku, making him jump slightly as Nejire absently imitated Tenya and started doing his little 'dance', with Setsuna giggling beside her.

"I - of course I do!" Izuku quickly nodded as Itsuka got up with an amused sigh, watching as Momo and Kyouka joined their small group with Kyouka glancing up at the taller girl with a tinge of pink on her cheeks. "Of course I'm excited, it's just - uh - well …"

He let out a small chuckle, and looked around at Ochako, who was still sitting in her seat with her hair shadowing her face, giving nothing away.

"… I know someone who's even more excited, so I'm keeping myself calm."

"Hm?" Momo tilted her head curiously as the other girls and Tenya looked around at her. "Uraraka, are you alright?"

"Guys …" Ochako muttered, making the small group look at her in confusion as she stared down at her desk - and then they, with the sole exception of Izuku, recoiled as she raised her head to show the utterly intense look on her face. "… let's do our best at the sports festival."

"Uh …" Itsuka leaned back slightly, caught off guard as Izuku didn't look surprised at all, "… are you okay, Ochako?"

"Hm?" Setsuna blinked, looking around at her best friend. "'Ochako'?"

"Everyone!" Ochako suddenly jumped out of her seat, her chair clattering against the ground as she shot her fist into the air and made a passing Yosetsu jump in surprise. "I'm gonna do my best!"

"Uh - r-right!" Nejire quickly said, likewise pumping her fist in the air.

"You … go, girl!" Setsuna half-heartedly raised her hand in the air.

"Mm," Yui nodded, raising her hand in the air like she was going to ask a question as Ochako wheeled around at Eijirou, who was also looking confused.

"I'm gonna do my best!"

"R-right! Kinda inconsistent characterization, but okay!"

"Er …" Itsuka stared at her training partner in confusion as she leaned over towards Izuku, who was smiling a bit embarrassedly but keeping his hand in the air for Ochako's sake as she continued to get pumped up, "… is she okay? She's kinda …"

"Intense?" Izuku guessed, nodding and smiling, "Yeah, she's … really pumped up for the sports festival. Do you guys remember when we played video games back in the summer?"

Itsuka, Setsuna, Yui and Eijirou paused, thinking for a moment about their sleepover nearly a year ago when they had played video games, and how Ochako had gotten … rather scary when they had competed against each other. Shaking her head with a sigh, Itsuka moved forward, and gently wrapped her arms underneath Ochako's armpits to begin dragging her cheering ass out of the classroom with the rest of their group, Kyouka wondering if she should really be associating with these crazies for a moment before glancing at Momo and sighing as she followed them out.

"Itsuka! I'm gonna do my best!"

"That's great, Ochako, but can you do your best to be a little quieter?"

With several sighs, they all made to leave the classroom, with Ochako getting one more cheer with Reiko unenthusiastically raising her fist into the air, before they all finally managed to get out of the classroom, with Nejire interestingly glancing between them.

"A sleepover, huh? Last summer? That sounds pretty fun! What did you guys do?"

"Hm? Oh," Setsuna realized what she was asking about, chuckling as they began to walk down the hall towards the cafeteria, Itsuka continuing to drag the still cheering Ochako away from the classroom and causing the other students hanging out in the hall to stare at her weirdly, "we were having a bit of a party before we all started training for UA. Me, Yui and Kirishima didn't stay over, we ended up heading home eventually, but I know Midoriya was exiled to the couch."

"I wasn't exiled," Izuku shook his head, sighing as they continued to walk together, "I volunteered to sleep on the couch."

"Oh? You saying you were up for sleeping with the girls? Midoriya, I'm surprised -"

"Anyway!" Itsuka suddenly squeaked, her face going red while Izuku became suddenly very interested in his shoes, getting both Setsuna and Yui to pause and raise their eyebrows. "Yeah, Hadou, we had a sleepover last summer. We had fun."

"Interesting!" Momo commented, looking curious as they walked down the hall, "I've never been invited to a sleepover before - perhaps, down the road, we could try to have one sometime? G-granted, I recognize that we haven't known each other for -"

"Nah, don't sweat it," Setsuna giggled, patting her arm, "a hundred percent we'll be doing a sleepover eventually. Maybe with just us girls! It'll be fun! But anyway, back to the sports festival - what're we gonna be doing about that? I'm betting we're all going to be training non-stop for the next two weeks, so are we doing that as a group or are we considering each other rivals already?"

"Well, the sports festival is competitive," Itsuka gave her while continuing to drag Ochako down the hall, shaking her head, "but honestly, if we all wanted to do a bit of training together, I bet that would be nice. I could also help you guys out with your own training if you want - I've got a few ideas for how I'm getting ready for the festival."

"Ooooooh, yes!" Nejire quickly nodded, hopping up and down the stairs they were moving down while grinning happily, "I'm in! I'd love to train with you guys! I'll convince Yuuyu to do it, too!"

"As tempting as it is to train with you all," Tenya gave them all an apologetic look, adjusting his glasses and missing Yui pouting at him in disappointment, "I'm afraid that the training plan I will be following may prove to be rather intense - I believe that it may be better for me to train on my own. Ah, but no offense to those who wish to team up!"

"Nah, it's all good, big guy," Setsuna shook her head while smiling, moving her hands behind her head to tie her hair into a ponytail, "I gotcha. Anyway, Ken - if there's an option to have you as my private coach, I'll jump on that. Although I might be a bit flaky too - there's a few zones around UA I wanna try out on my own."

"Mm," Yui nodded in agreement as well, folding her hands behind her back, "I'd love to see you working out, Itsuka."

"... you mean … work out with everyone too, right, Yui?"

"Mm. Yes. That's what I meant. Exactly."

"... to correct myself," Itsuka decided to dryly say, letting go of Ochako as the girl got a hold of herself at last and began blushing in embarrassment, almost floating herself by slapping her hands to her face and barely stopped by Izuku reaching out to take her wrists, "I'm free to help everyone with training except for Yui."

Yui pouted and flipped her off while Itsuka giggled.

"I'm afraid that I must also concur with Iida," Momo looked a bit regretful as well, folding her hands together, "my training is rather … well, different in comparison to may be considered usual. I will be spending a lot of time in the library looking up rather complex combinations for creating new objects with my quirk, and I imagine you'll all want to spend that time getting ready by yourselves."

"Er … yeah," Kyouka twirled her earphone jacks, gulping a bit.

"Ah! Jirou, I had almost forgotten!" Tenya suddenly remembered, turning to look at the punk rock girl with a smile, "I believe that you wanted to take this time during lunch to thank Yaoyorozu for walking you to the station, didn't you? I believe now would be an opportune time for that!"

Kyouka froze briefly, staring up at Tenya in betrayal and anger. Itsuka let out a small groan and slapped her hand against her forehead. Nejire glanced between both girls curiously. Setsuna and Yui looked around at Kyouka with widened, teasing eyes. Ochako awkwardly cleared her throat and looked anywhere but behind her. Momo looked around at her in surprise. Izuku briefly wondered if he was missing something.

However, and perhaps thankfully for Kyouka, they were interrupted by the sound of a loud laugh behind them, catching their attention.

"Well, well, well!" They all turned to see All Might power walking down the hall towards them, a large grin on his face as he spotted the small group. "It's good to see that you're all up and about! Young Midoriya, I - er - heard from Yagi this weekend that you were feeling much better, but it's good to see that you've been fully healed by Recovery Girl - minus a scratch or two, of course."

"O-oh, uh …" Izuku briefly blanked out for a moment - he wasn't entirely sure how to address that, since they were both aware that they had just seen each other over the weekend - but thankfully, Itsuka took over.

"Uh, thank you, All Might," She tried to smile up at him, "it's, uh - it's nice to see that you're doing better, too."

"Indeed!" Tenya chopped his arm at their smiling teacher, "I must say, All Might, it was a pleasure to watch you at work, but we're also relieved that that Nomu character didn't do any lasting damage to you."

"Oh, no need to worry about that, Young Iida," All Might patted his shoulder, "it'll take more than a few punches to put me down! Now, if you'll all excuse me, I have a meeting to attend! I hope to see you all tomorrow during our next lesson!"

With that, the pro hero moved around them, giving them all a confident grin as he began walking down the hall. Itsuka watched their teacher go, nodding slightly - and then a thought suddenly came to her, making her blink.

Wait - wasn't there something I was supposed to say to him?

She briefly blanked out - what did she need to tell him again? Something about - the weekend? Maybe? What happened this weekend - she woke up with Izuku and Ochako in her bed (embarrassing), she saw Izuku's … little … problem (also extremely embarrassing and something she tried hard not to think about), they had breakfast with All Might and their families, they talked to Midnight, they talked to the group chat, they talked to Melissa, they talked to each other about -

- about -

- oh.

Oh, crap! She completely forgot to tell All Might that she told Izuku and Ochako!

"A-All Might!"

The pro hero paused in his step at the sound of Itsuka calling out to him, and looked back around curiously at his student - at the exact same time everyone else did, prompting Itsuka to suddenly find herself pausing at the spotlight on her. She felt herself blink as she realized that their entire group was looking at her, and, oh yeah, the realizing what the problem was with calling out the name of the goddamn Symbol of Peace to ask him something.

Uh …

For a second she continued to stand there, frozen - and then she let out a small, awkward laugh as a plan was quickly made in her mind.

"U-uh - actually, it's - it's nothing," She tried to smile as confidently as she could, although it came off as a bit stiff as she turned back to Izuku and Ochako beside her, her mind quickly working as she still spoke in a slightly louder and quicker tone, "sorry, All Might. A-anyway, Izuku, Ochako - we're - we're still heading to the usual spot tonight, r-right? Right after school? To - to meet up with Coach Yagi."

All Might straightened up at that, his eyes slightly widening - and Izuku and Ochako blinked in confusion.

"Uh … we are?" Izuku briefly questioned, although he was quick to realize his mistake when Itsuka suddenly whipped a subtle glare at him, making him quickly correct himself. "O-oh, I - I mean - y-yeah, we - we are! Right! Yes, of - of course!"

"Y-yeah!" Ochako quickly nodded as well. "I-it'll be nice to s-see him again, so - so soon."

Itsuka felt like facepalming as Ochako sent a very not subtle wink her way, with Setsuna raising her eyebrow and Nejire glancing between them in confusion.

"Oh," All Might seemed to pause for a moment himself, before quickly straightening his back and nodding, "ah, Y-Young Kendou, that sounds - well, that sounds quite exciting! I'm sure that Yagi will be happy to see you three again. In any case, I'm running a bit late, so I'll see you all tomorrow in class!"

With that, he quickly spun on his heel and continued to power walk down the hallway, eventually disappearing completely around a corner from their sight. Trying to pretend that the rest of the group wasn't giving them weird looks for what they just did, Itsuka quickly cleared her throat and pointed at the back of a pink-haired girl walking away from them.

"S-say, isn't that Haya?"

"Huh?" Nejire blinked, looking around, and then brightened up. "Ooh! Yuuyu! Yuuyu, Yuuyu, Yuuyu, Yuuyu! We're over here!"

She quickly ran ahead, and with the group seeing the tired and exasperated Class 1B representative turn around to look at them while obviously sagging her shoulders (indicating that she must've had a long morning), they all began to walk towards the cafeteria. In the back, Ochako, Itsuka and Izuku slowed their step so that they were trailing a bit behind, and both childhood friends turned to look at their training partner.

"Er … what was that about?" Ochako asked in a quiet voice, leaning over so that she could mutter, "Why do we have to meet up with him on the beach?"

Itsuka paused before responding, and then made a small gesture towards the group in front of them. Izuku and Ochako glanced over to see her subtly pointing at Kyouka, who was currently talking to Momo - or, more specifically, the earphone jacks she had in her ears.

Immediately, Izuku and Ochako understood - watch what they said around a girl who could easily pick up their mutters.

"So …" Itsuka grimaced slightly, trying to choose her words carefully, "... I was hoping to talk to him about … you know. The thing we talked about this weekend."

Both Izuku and Ochako paused for a moment, before what Itsuka was talking about registered to them - One for All.

Izuku felt himself slowly nod, moving to fold his hands together as he bit his lip. Truth be told, a lot of his Sunday at home, sitting in the living room with his dad and catching up on everything, had also been spent thinking about what Itsuka had told him about this weekend - perhaps the most unique quirk he had ever heard of. A quirk that could be transferred to someone else, increasing in strength as it was passed along. It had taken pretty much all of his willpower not to go into a mutter spree about, and took the rest of his willpower not to write about it anywhere - he had a feeling Itsuka wouldn't appreciate him theorizing about it and writing it down.

And so …

"I … guess that sounds like a good idea," Izuku slowly nodded, putting his hands in his pockets as he looked around at Itsuka, "it's important that All M- I mean, Coach Yagi - knows that we're in the loop."

"Yeah," Itsuka agreed with him, "so once 3:30 hits - we're out of here, and heading back to the beach."

Both of her training partners nodded in agreement, having no problem with heading out with Itsuka to their usual spot, and they quickly hurried back over to their group so they could get in line for Lunch Rush - and were unaware of a blue haired girl glanced at them out of the corner of her eye, feeling curious.

---

Around 3:20, though, right as the bell rang to signal the end of the day, they ran into a little problem.

"Wha -?" Ochako's eyes briefly bulged in surprise and a bit of fear, as Class 1A likewise stared gobsmacked at the massive crowd of students gathered right outside their door. "What the hell is going on?!"

Indeed, it was a rather shocking sight to be greeted to at the end of the day, Itsuka thought to herself as she stood up from her desk to join Ochako, Nejire and Izuku as they gulped nervously. What looked to be everyone in their year - albeit faces that they didn't recognize, probably from general studies, the business course or the support studio - was standing outside the door to Class 1A, peeking in and staring at them as though trying to memorize the faces of everyone inside.

They seemed to be a mix of excited, nervous and confident as they sized Class 1A up, the students inside staring back out at the massive crowd a bit nervously in turn.

"Pardon me!" Tenya chopped his hand at the massive crowd, unaware of Yui copying him stoically behind him as her hand likewise chopped, "What business do you all have with Class 1A? I'm afraid that we do have a few things to do before we must go home, so please give us a path!"

"They're scouting out the enemy," Katsuki narrowed his eyes as he moved around the small group at the front of the class, knowing that he had the attention of both his class and the crowd before them as he glared back at them, "we're the ones who made it out of the villains' attack, so they're scoping out the main competition and sizing us up."

Stomping to the front of the crowd, Katsuki's eyes briefly scanned them, and then he deepened his scowl.

"There's no point, though," He glared at them, "get out of my way, you worthless extras."

"Stop calling people 'extras' just because you do not know them!" Tenya yelled at him behind his back, while Izuku and Ochako facepalmed, Itsuka heavily weighed the pros and cons of knocking Katsuki on his ass, Nejire tilted her head curiously as she attempted to keep the various questions in her mind inside so she could see what the crowd wanted, and Tenya and Yui chopped their arms, Tenya indignantly and Yui stoically.

"Well, I don't know about everyone else," A deadpan voice suddenly came from within the crowd, "but I came to see what the famous Class 1A looked like."

From out of the massive body of students came another boy that made the students trapped inside their own classroom raise their eyebrows, and Nejire perked up at a familiar face - a tall, lanky boy with messy indigo hair pointing up in several different directions, and some serious dark eye bags. Although what really caught their attention, not allowing them to concentrate on how exhausted this guy looked, was the rather unimpressed look he gave them as he pushed his way through the crowd.

"But I don't know," The indigo-haired boy scoffed at them as he finally reached the front of the crowd, his eyes trailing along the rest of the students inside, "you all seem pretty arrogant. Are all the students in the hero course like this?

Katsuki looked like he was about two seconds from biting this new guy's head off while everyone cringed slightly - only for Itsuka to roughly push past him, making the pomeranian boy snarl at her, to give the new guy a slightly stiff smile.

"Please, don't mind him," She tried to get control of the situation, wanting to attempt to prevent any misunderstandings with the crowd outside, "he's a bit of an idiot, but he's just the exception. We're not all like him."

"Bite me, ginger!"

"Anyway," She clapped her hands together, trying to come across as polite and welcoming, "like Iida said, we all have places to be, and school is over now. Would you mind letting us -"

"Honestly, seeing something like this makes me feel disillusioned," The guy with indigo hair shook his head as he ignored Itsuka, rubbing a hand against the back of his head while Itsuka's smile stiffened even more, "if you're all the ones who got in before any of us."

"... any of you?" Itsuka decided to ask, her smile beginning to fall as Setsuna, Yui and Reiko frowned slightly behind her, and the rest of the class turned to look at the new guy with their own awkwardness fading away.

"Hm? Didn't you know?" The guy with indigo hair chuckled darkly. "Those of us who didn't make it into the hero course are stuck in general studies, or other tracks. As you've probably noticed, there's quite a few of us. So I imagine that you probably don't know that this is our only chance."

Now most of Class 1A, with the obvious exception of Katsuki as he sneered out at the crowd, were starting to feel an icy chill begin to spread into their classroom.

"I heard that depending on how we do at the sports festival," The guy continued to drone on, a small smirk on his face as he looked around at the hero students, "the teachers might consider transferring us into the hero course. And I heard that the reverse is also possible for any of you - you could get transferred out if you don't live up to expectations."

Izuku gulped. Ochako looked suddenly nervous. Itsuka raised an eyebrow.

"So, this, uh, 'scoping out the competition' thing? For a general studies student like me, this is the perfect chance to knock you all off your pedestals." He glanced uncaringly down at Itsuka once again, smirking that he had managed to wipe that nice smile completely off her face. "Consider this a declaration of war. No need to get all pouty - I'm just doing what everyone else here is doing. I don't need you pretending to be nice to me, I'm not exactly here to make any friends."

Once he had made that clear, a small silence fell in both the classroom and the hall, everyone turning their gaze to Itsuka as she slowly looked down, nodding a bit to herself as she considered his words. Both Izuku and Ochako gulped as they waited for Itsuka's reaction to being pretty much insulted right in her face, while the boy with indigo hair smirked and crossed his arms.

And then she let out a small sigh, and looked back up at him.

"Okay," Itsuka put her hands back in her pockets, "so, uh … sorry, I don't think I caught your name."

"Shinsou." He said dismissively.

"Shinsou," She nodded again, a sweet smile returning to her face, "well then, Shinsou - I just want to make a few things clear. Alright?"

"Heh. Sure, go ahead."

"Thank you. First of all," She raised her eyebrow, "the, ah, girl who's apparently pretending to be nice to you? I'm actually the class representative. It wasn't really an act, by the way, I was attempting to be polite. So just keep that in mind if you do end up enrolling in this class - you'll probably want to show me a little more respect. You had a nice 'I'm not here to make friends' speech, but trust me - it's a lot easier to get through this class when you don't purposefully alienate yourself from your peers."

Shinsou's smirk somewhat faltered at that, but he still didn't show any other strong emotion as Itsuka leaned on one leg.

"Second of all," She tilted her head, "you really think we aren't aware that students from the general studies class can if they do well enough in the sports festival?"

"Yeah," Setsuna sat on the surface of her desk as she in turn smirked at Shinsou, "we did our homework, buddy. That's how our own teacher got in, and Midnight."

"Although, Set," Itsuka suddenly smirked as well, "there was one thing that he said that I should probably correct, so no one gets any ideas."

"Oh?" Shinsou raised his eyebrow, "And what's that?"

"You said that if one of you did well enough, you'd replace one of us," Itsuka's own smirk didn't falter, "but as far as I can tell - since, y'know, I did my homework, Set said that - that's actually never happened."

Shinsou's smirk fell slightly.

"So that means either of two things," Itsuka raised her hand, showing two fingers that she put down as she made her points, "one - that little fact that the teachers would replace us with students from general studies is a myth. Or two -" She leaned in, staring him right in the eye as she lowered her other finger, "- it never happened, because us hero course students you're looking down on earned our places in this classroom. Just because I'm curious - did you try to get into the hero course through the entrance exam?"

"Ooooh! He did!" Nejire jumped in, making Shinsou turn to glare at her. "I saw him in my zone, Kendou - he was getting pumped up!"

"I see," Itsuka slowly nodded, turning to look back at Shinsou as he scowled at them all, and let out a small sigh as she straightened up, and began to address the crowd of students that had watched the little showdown in shock.

"If what my dumb classmate said is right," She said, loud enough for everyone to hear her and enough for her to pretend not to hear Katsuki growling at her behind her back, "you're all here to intimidate us, to let us know that we're going to be crushed by you all. Well, I can't speak for the rest of my classmates, but I think that we're not going to just sit around and let you guys try to usurp our places. So, you guys want to make sure we're intimidated? Sorry, but we don't scare easily."

"Nope!" Mina shook her head, smirking as she leaned against her desk and Pony balled her fists determinately beside her, "Trust me, all of you - we aren't giving up these seats without a fight."

"Yeah," Yosetsu glared at the people outside while Eijirou and Denki looked fired up, "you're gonna have to pry my desk from my cold dead hands."

With that, the small crowd fell into silence - Shinsou's confidence was gone, instead choosing to glare down at Itsuka as she put her hands on her hips and glared right back. There was a tense moment -

"Oi!"

Itsuka jumped a bit, and looked around as someone else jumped up in the crowd, glaring straight at her. Automatically, her eyes went to his own - not to check out his eyes specifically, however, rather the long eyelashes on his face that kind of gave the impression he was wearing a mask.

"I'm from Class 1B next door!" The boy barked. "I heard you fought against villains, so I came to hear 'bout it!"

Itsuka felt her eyes narrow, not liking where this was going. "You heard right."

"In that case, you better not get so full of yourself!" He pointed a finger straight at her, not even minding the rest of the crowd looking around at him while clearly wondering what exactly his problem was. "You talk a big game, but if you bark too much, it'll be embarrassing for you durin' the real fight!"

"I'm sorry?" Itsuka frowned, crossing her arms across her chest. "Are you telling us not to be arrogant?"

"I am!"

"…"

"…"

"… did that come across as arrogant?" Itsuka suddenly blinked, looking around at Izuku and Ochako and feeling concerned. "I was just trying to throw the gauntlet back at them - but did that sound like something Bakugou would say?"

"I mean … kinda?" Setsuna shrugged, giving her a weak smile, "but at least you aren't like blasty here and actually meant to say it like that."

"Fucking bite me." Katsuki huffed, shoulding his backpack and moving out the door, "I don't fucking need you losers trying to hitch a ride on my way to the top."

"Hey, bastard, I wasn't done talking!" The gray-haired guy yelled angrily - but then a hand suddenly grabbed the back of his neck, making him stop in his tracks and blink, looking around with a small snarl. "Hey, what's -?!"

He faltered, however, when he looked around at who had grabbed him - and felt himself pale in horror at the sight of the shorter girl glaring up at him angrily.

"Tetsutetsu," Yuuyu gritted out between clenched teeth, "what do you think you're doing?"

"Uh - Haya," He gulped nervously, "y-yo. What're you -"

"I told you not to bother them!" She barked, and began roughly pulling him back, making the boy yelp and quickly move along with her as the much smaller girl kept her hand clenching the back of his neck as she escorted him out of the shocked crowd. "In one ear and out the other with you!"

"I - I'm, uh -"

"Nej," She looked back into the classroom as Nejire interestingly watched her best friend drag the loudmouth away with an angry look on her face, "I just gotta clean the classroom and reprimand this dumbass. Do you mind waiting for me?"

"Nope!" She gave her a salute, while the rest of the crowd briefly turned to look at her in surprise. For some reason, Nejire felt herself falter at the attention of the crowd suddenly being on her, blinking slightly - but before she could say anything, they all let out small grunts, throwing dirty looks into the classroom, and began to disperse, moving down the hall or choosing one more moment to throw a glare at them before stomping away.

"Well, shit," Itsuka grumbled, shaking her head and looking back at her friends as Katsuki stomped past her and out into the hall, "I wanna say Bakugou just made things worse, but I bet my thing didn't do anyone any favors."

"No," Izuku shook his head slightly, although there was a small frown on his face, "I … don't imagine that there was much you could've said that would've made everyone calm down. They just kinda …"

"Their minds were probably made up the moment they got here," Momo assured her, cupping her cheek a bit as she frowned, "there wasn't much we could've done to appease them, Kendou."

"Well …" Itsuka sighed, shaking her head a bit, pouting as she looked around to Izuku and Ochako, "… I'm sure that I still made lots of enemies today, but - but we can worry about that when the sports festival actually comes around. Anyway, let's get going, you two - we need to head to the beach."

With that, Class 1A began making movements out the door, wanting to finally go home after a long day back in class. The small trio at the front, meanwhile, quickly hurried their pace to get out the door - it was true, after all, that they had pretty much told All Might that they wanted to have a meeting with him, so they had better make sure they weren't late.

Once the three training partners were out the door, the rest of the class was quick to follow suit, with Eijirou, Denki, Hanta and Yosetsu groaning about Katsuki making things worse for them ("No need to cry, tush bro, just Spider-Man above them and you'll be fine," Setsuna teasingly assured Hanta, who didn't look amused by the remark), Momo giggling as she agreed to walk back to the station with Kyouka, who flushed a little (and then aimed a glare at the smirking Yui) and Yui purposefully grabbed Tenya's sleeve to walk home with him despite his sputtering red face as the entire class began leaving the school to head home.

And soon enough, it was just Nejire left.

With a small sigh, she walked back over to her desk, sitting down and leaning back against the window as she smiled to herself. Yuuyu asked her to wait for her to get done reprimanding that Tetsutetsu guy, so she was okay with waiting for a little bit. Letting out a small hum, she kicked her legs absently, and couldn't help but giggle a bit to herself, glancing back out where the crowd from before had been. She had been pretty much boiling over with what she could have questioned them, asking that Shinsou guy why he was so tired and why he seemed to have a stick up his guy, why Tetsutetsu's eyelashes were like that - but she had been a little …

… well …

Again, Nejire felt her smile falter as her kicking legs slowed, before she put her feet back down on the floor. Seeing all of those students looking in on them and glaring at them, as though they had done something wrong … it had made her feel kinda … weird.

And not the good kind of weird, the … the bad kind. Kind of like …

"Ugh, there goes Hadou again. Just don't look her in the eye or she's going to bug the shit out of you."

"You're new here, see that girl over in the corner? The hot one? Don't let it fool you, she's annoying as fuck. Don't even look at her or she'll just keep talking to you forever."

"She's kinda hot though … just wish she'd shut up."

Giving herself a small shake, Nejire let out another sigh as she stood back up, absently swinging her arms as she began to pace up and down the isle of desks. Geez, these were memories she didn't like thinking of, she thought with a small pout as she slowly turned in a circle. Middle school had really sucked, and the way that all the people outside the classroom had been glaring at her (because she knew a few of them had looked her way) had just … reminded her of that.

But luckily for her, Itsuka got control of the situation and made them all back off, which made Nejire happy - she would have to thank her for that tomorrow.

But … speaking of her orange-haired friend …

Nejire felt herself pause, tilting her head somewhat as she thought to herself. So she, Izuku and Ochako … they were going to a beach right now? To meet with a guy named Coach Yagi? That All Might apparently knew? The curious wheels in her head began to spin at the very thought, prompting her wide smile to return to her face as she resumed her pacing. She knew that those three were close - they did everything together, and from the times that she spent alone with Izuku (which she could probably count on one hand, she pouted, something that needed to be rectified eventually) she knew that he probably cared about Ochako and Itsuka. A whole lot.

But … well … how deep did that care go?

Nejire let out a small hum as she approached the blackboard, absently picking up a piece of chalk and beginning to doodle as she hummed. It was clear that he cared about Itsuka and Ochako, and she could totally understand why. But … but how much did he care for them? In what way? Did he … maybe he …

For the third time that day, Nejire's smile faltered, and she couldn't help but pout a bit to herself. Back at the USJ, when the villains had tried to drown her - which really sucked, by the way - she knew that she had been thinking about a lot of stuff. While her memory was a little hazy - but at least it wasn't complete short term memory loss! That would be pretty bad, she liked her memory and she would like to keep it - but anyway, she remembered the gist of what she had thought about at the bottom of the lake.

Getting scared about dying, thinking about what she still wanted to do, and thinking about …

… him.

As the familiar face of a green-haired boy appeared in her thoughts, Nejire couldn't help but feel a small smile grace her face, pressing her forehead against the blackboard.

For the past month or so, ever since the entrance exam, she had been thinking about him. Not in an obsessed way, of course, she still had her hobbies and other stuff to distract herself with, but she had spent at least five minutes every day having at least one thought about him. Ever since he had saved her life during the entrance exam, she couldn't help but think and wonder about him. It had probably been the best part of her best day at UA when she found out that not only had he managed to get enrolled with her, but they would be in the same class! And now, she was sitting right in front of him!

And he was so friendly, too! She had thought he was a little dorky and nervous during their time together in the exam, but when he wasn't so red in the face she thought he was going to pass out, he was so nice to talk to!

And not just that, he came with a lot more friends, too! Ochako and Itsuka were so nice - at least, not when they were looking at her weirdly; Eijirou was funny with his whole manliness thing; Yui kept looking at her boobies and her butt, but she was okay with that, since she knew she had a nice body and wasn't ashamed of it; Tenya was a bit uptight, but his weird gestures humored her; Setsuna was really cool and really snarky; and Momo was also really smart and plight!

She had made more friends last week than she had in her entire life. And it was all thanks to Izuku. If it wasn't for him, she might've been as miserable here, trying to look as cold and unemotive, as she had been when dealing with her old classmates back in middle school.

Now Nejire … wasn't dumb. She knew what she was thinking, when it came to Izuku. She knew what it meant when she smiled even at the thought of him, his laugh, even him just talking to her. She knew what it meant when her cheeks felt hot and her heart beat a bit quicker. She knew what it meant when she felt like she was floating without her quirk when he smiled at her.

But … but she wasn't sure yet! Nejire couldn't help but sigh as she turned so she could lean against the blackboard, putting her hands behind her back. She never felt like this towards someone else before! She knew that there had been something about him before that warmed her heart and made her smile, but after what happened at the flood zone, thinking about him made that feeling amplify to like - a hundred percent.

Maybe ninety-five percent. No, ninety-seven. That felt like a good number.

So … what did that mean? No one had ever made her feel this warm inside before. It wasn't like … well, it wasn't like she was in love with him, was she?

No, Nejire shook her head while thinking, she wasn't in love with him - but then she blinked. The fact that she wasn't disturbed by that thought - the idea of being in love with him - might mean something else.

So … so what this probably meant was … she needed to get to know him better. She needed to understand what these weird feelings for him were and put a name on them. But that couldn't happen during school, or at lunch, since they were always in a group together and they hung out with the same friends.

That meant …

… that they needed some alone time. Just him and her.

And Nejire, not even noticing Yuuyu come and blink at the smile on her face, had an idea on how to do that.

---

They were late.

With a small sigh, All Might slowly slid his jacket off his arms, looking around as he paced near the stairs in his shrunken form. At the moment he was at Dagobah Beach, taking off his suit jacket and tucking it under his arm as he rolled up his sleeves a bit as he took in his surroundings. The sun began to gently set across the ocean of water, with not a single soda can or scrap of paper in sight, much to All Might's relief. Hell, he could even make out a few middle school students jogging across the sand, laughing about something or the other - but to All Might, to see these three kids enjoying the beach his pupils had cleaned, filled him with pride.

Now … where were they? All Might felt himself frown as he straightened up, looking around. It wasn't like them to keep him waiting - it was clear that Itsuka had wanted to meet up with him, although he wasn't sure why she hadn't just texted him, but she had very much made it clear that Izuku and Ochako were coming along. Which meant this wasn't a private conversation - it was between the four of them. But what were they supposed to chat about -?

- wait. Was this something to do with One for All?

All Might straightened up, his eyes widening. Of course … of course! He had told Itsuka that if she had any issues with telling her training partners about the quirk he transferred to her, to not be afraid to seek him out to help with the explanation. It was unexpected, All Might gulped nervously, but if that was what was happening … well, then, he should get ready, then.

Izuku and Ochako were smart, and they knew the importance of privacy and secrecy, already displaying it by working with him for a whole year without giving away his true identity. If they were to be brought in on the secret, he should be ready to emphasize how important it was to -

"All Might!"

The teacher jumped at the sound of his name being called, and quickly looked around, feeling a smile grace his face. Hurrying down the stairs were his pupils, Itsuka in the lead and Ochako and Izuku quickly following behind her as they waved to him.

"Ah! There you three are," He nodded, raising a hand in greeting and temporarily forgetting what he was thinking about, "I was wondering where you three were."

"Sorry, we got caught up at school," Itsuka quickly apologized as the three of them hurried down the steps of the beach, "everyone else in the school wanted to try and intimidate us for the sports festival and wouldn't let us leave immediately."

"Oh, no problem, no problem." He chuckled, moving back so they could join him at the bottom of the stairs. "In any case, my apologies that I couldn't talk with you a bit longer today at lunch - Principal Nezu wanted to meet up with us about the USJ and anything else we needed to clear up, as well as discussing your sessions today with Tenko, Hound Dog and Midnight. Otherwise I might've taken you three aside to talk for a bit."

"T-that's okay," Izuku nodded, putting his own hands in his pockets as he looked up at the pro hero, "a-anyway, All Might, are - are you okay? After what happened on Friday, and - and we didn't get a chance to ask you on the weekend -"

"Well," All Might sighed, turning to look around at the ocean, "I'm about as well as I can be, Young Midoriya. I imagine you three are very well aware that I completely undersold my condition to Young Iida today. The truth is, I went to speak with Recovery Girl today so we could theorize about how much time I have each day to use my power."

"O-oh?"

"Mm. We both quickly agreed that I have … overdone it far too many times lately. Not to mention that Nomu villain I faced was far tougher than I had expected when coming to rescue you all. We did a few tests, and we have decided that I now only have about … well … about up fifty minutes to an hour and a half left to use my power each day. That's if I push it."

"Fifty -?!" Itsuka gasped, staring up at All Might in shock as he nodded, and Ochako likewise looked incredibly stricken while Izuku immediately began to tear up. However, before they could speak, All Might raised his hand and smiled down at them.

"As I told Young Midoriya on Friday," He assured them, "it can't be helped. This kind of thing is something that I've been expecting to happen for quite a while now - the best I can do right now is just deal with it. Please, don't let this bother you."

"I …" Ochako hesitated, and then nodded, "… okay, All Might."

"Y-yeah."

"If you're sure."

"I am," All Might nodded, and then straightened his back, taking a deep breath and looking down on the three teenagers. "Now then - it seems that I've been the one summoned to the beach this time. What was it that you wanted to meet with me about, Young Kendou?"

This is it, All Might prepared himself as he narrowed his eyes somewhat in determination, time to explain everything.

"Huh? Oh, right," Itsuka likewise straightened her back, glancing back at her two friends for a moment - and then turned back to All Might, giving him a sheepish look, and decided to just be blunt, "I … well, the truth is, I told Izuku and Ochako about One for All this weekend."

"PFFFFT -!"

Evidently, All Might had not expected that for Itsuka to start with, given the amount of blood that suddenly blasted out of his mouth as he recoiled. Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako squeaked as All Might immediately launched into a coughing fit, bending over and covering his mouth with his hand as a bit of blood leaked out between his fingers.

"I - *cough!* - I'm sorry, Young Kendou?!"

"I - uh -" Itsuka grimaced, regretting being so blunt about it but knowing that it was a little too late to go back on it, "- I told them about One for All. They - they know."

"I - alright, I - *cough* - I heard that," All Might finally managed to get control of his coughing, glancing around in shock at Izuku and Ochako as they weakly shrugged, "I just - I - I thought you were coming so I - *cough* - so I could help you tell them!"

"I - oh, uh - well, n-no, I - I told them. They believed me."

"Y-yeah," Ochako quickly nodded, "we - we know, All Might."

"I - so - I - alright, so they - how much did you - gah, my apologies, let me get my thoughts together."

The three teenagers were at least alright with that, nodding and waiting for All Might to get himself together. He managed to straighten himself up and put his suit jacket carefully down on the sand, letting out a small sigh as he moved to sit down, and raised a hand to cup his pointy chin as he thought.

After about a minute, he let out a small sigh and nodded again, looking back up at the students.

"Alright, so … just so we're all on the same page. Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka … you know about One for All."

"Y-yeah," Izuku quickly confirmed, and Ochako nodded as well.

"You had everything explained to you? How it works, what it can do, how I chose Young Kendou as my successor?"

"Yeah, we did."

"How important it is," He narrowed his eyes somewhat, "to keep this a secret?"

"Yes, of course," Ochako nodded for the both of them, "we won't tell anyone, All Might - we swear."

"I … see," All Might slowly said, staring up at Izuku and Ochako as they likewise looked down at him, and then he let out a small sigh as he sat up, "well … in that case, Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka … with that out of the way, I believe that I owe you both an apology."

"H-huh?" Ochako blinked while Izuku looked surprised, "An - an apology? For what?"

"Well," All Might grunted as he rose up to his feet, and then sank into a bow, "I should be apologizing to you in regards to keeping the real reason we trained on this beach from you. Know that I wasn't attempting to offend you both, or intentionally attempted to -"

"O-oh, no, All Might, it's okay!" Izuku immediately attempted to assure their mentor, looking suddenly panicked. "We - Occhan and I, we - we know how important it was to keep this secret! We don't mind that you both kept it from us!"

"Yeah," Ochako quickly agreed, glancing between Itsuka and All Might, both of them looking sheepish and guilty about the secret they had been keeping, "Deku and I - we don't mind at all. We understand."

"I … well, I suppose so," All Might slowly nodded, rising back up to his full height so he could look down at the three teenagers, and then sighed as he attempted to smile again, "if you both understand … and know that I don't blame you if you had reserves …"

"We don't," Izuku shook his head, glancing at Itsuka as well as he said this, "we completely understand, All Might - we aren't angry at either of you for this."

"Well … alright," All Might nodded, and then glanced down at his pupil as well, "in any case, Young Kendou - thank you for keeping me in the loop. And I'm glad to see that you three don't have any hard feelings between you."

"Nope, none at all," Itsuka smiled gently at her other two training partners, who returned her smile with their own, "we're all on the same page now."

"Very good," All Might scooped the suit jacket back off the ground, shaking the sand from it and tucking it underneath his arm again as he smiled at the trio, "we're all in the know now. The four of us are completely caught up about One for All - I suppose that this was spurred from the USJ, Young Kendou? I was told that you were the one who destroyed the mountain."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, frowning as she glanced back down at her arm, "my first time using it, and I shattered every bone in my arm."

"Well, that was at least to be expected," All Might assured her, reaching out and patting her shoulder, "One for All is the accumulation of power - you won't be able to simply master it within a day. So in this case, Young Kendou - here's what you'll need to consider when it comes to One for All."

Itsuka nodded, paying close attention and putting her hands in her skirt's pockets, while Izuku and Ochako likewise began to listen.

"Firstly, as I told you when I first gave you One for All, we'll have to be careful with how you use it."

"I mean, I could've told you that," Itsuka winced, rubbing her arm absently, "I broke every bone in my arm just by using it once. I couldn't control it at all - I pretty much just aimed and fired."

"That can't be helped," All Might smiled, "One for All is an entirely different quirk in comparison to the one you were born with, Young Kendou - One for All is, by all accounts, an emitter-type quirk, in comparison to your transformation type. It'll take a while for you to properly learn how to control it, but that's why we're here."

"Wait a second," Ochako blinked, realizing something, "you said that Itsuka breaking her arm was to be expected - did you know that would happen?"

"I, well, uh …" All Might faltered, shrinking slightly when the Danger Pout immediately appeared on Ochako's face, and Itsuka crossed her arms with her own glare. Izuku could only gulp nervously for his mentor as he glanced between both angry girls, "I … had my suspicions that … well … i-in any case, it turned out alright. It - it turned out 'All Might'!"

"I'm pretty sure you've used that pun before. It wasn't funny the first time."

"A-anyway, at the current moment, Young Kendou," All Might quickly attempted to get back on track and get his head out of the hypothetical guillotine he had found himself under, "your control over One for All is pretty straightforward. You can either use it at a hundred percent, or zero. What we'll need to work on is how you can properly control it - and once you do that, we'll be able to adjust the output to what your body can handle. The more you train as a vessel, the more you'll be able to freely use the power."

"I get that," Itsuka grimaced slightly, "but we've also gotta deal with the fact that eventually, the rest of my family and friends will see me use One for All and realize something's up - the sports festival is in two weeks, and that's going to be televised. I can't exactly use Big Fist and then pull One for All out of nowhere."

"So in that case …" Izuku cupped his chin, getting the small group's attention as he thought, "... s-so you're saying you need to naturally … uh, what am I saying … oh! You want to find a way that One for All just seems to be a natural evolution of your quirk?"

"I … guess so?" Itsuka shrugged. "I can't exactly explain it as me suddenly getting a second quirk, after all."

"Then … then in that case, you'll want to figure out a way that you can just use One for All in just your arms."

"Hm?" All Might tilted his head, curious about Izuku's line of thought, "What do you mean, Young Midoriya?"

"Well … I was kind of thinking about One for All over the weekend," Izuku admitted, blushing a bit at Ochako and Itsuka not looking surprised at all and fixing him with two smirks, "and I realized that if Kendou does want to sell it as her - y'know, her own power - she'll have to approach it as her quirk naturally evolving, right? So if we want to make sure that no one gets suspicious, she'll have to start training One for All exclusively in her arms to begin with - and then work on using her quirk in the rest of her body."

"Huh … that's a good point, Young Midoriya," All Might gave him, leaning back slightly and watching him interestingly while Itsuka and Ochako likewise glanced between each other, "and do you have any ideas on how to do so?"

"Well …" Izuku paused, clearly thinking as he glanced back up at the pro hero, "... I guess to start with, what's the trick to controlling One for All, All Might?"

"Feeling it!" All Might clenched a fist, grinning excitedly.

"..."

"..."

"... feeling it?" Itsuka repeated hollowly.

"Yep! You gotta feel it, Young Kendou!"

"Ah," Itsuka nodded slowly for a moment, staring at the scrawny man before her, and then let out another sigh and sagged her shoulders, "I am so screwed."

"Oh, don't give me that! You've already pulled out a 100% smash, didn't you? So you already know how it feels to unleash it."

"Yeah! Like it hurts!"

All Might let out a small, amused noise at that, shaking his head while smiling at his young pupil's pout, and then turned to look back at the sunset. The sky was quickly beginning to darken, purple light lining the clouds, and he nodded as he put his hands back in his pockets.

"It's getting late," He pointed out to the three teenagers, looking back around at them as they glanced between each other, "so you three had better be getting home before your parents start to worry. But don't worry, Young Kendou - we have all the time in the world to help you figure out how to use One for All."

Itsuka slowly nodded at that, and All Might let out a sigh as he scratched his cheek.

"In any case …" He turned to look at Izuku and Ochako, giving them an awkward smile, "... Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka, do you mind if I have a moment alone with Young Kendou? There's actually something about the sports festival I wanted to run by her."

"Oh," Izuku blinked, and quickly looked over at Ochako as she adjusted the pink backpack on her shoulders, "s-sure, All Might, that's - yeah, that's fine. Uh - Kendou, do you want us to -"

"No, you don't need to stick around," Itsuka giggled, shaking her head at Izuku's slightly red cheeks, "I'll see you both tomorrow."

With that, Izuku and Ochako nodded, giving the two of them a wave as All Might smiled up at them, and together, they began to head up the stairs back into the parking lot. At the top of the stairs, they both briefly turned back, seeing All Might and Itsuka starting to walk down the beach by themselves, All Might saying something a bit animated by waving his hands and Itsuka nodding along.

"Wonder what they're talking about," Ochako said out loud, brushing some of her hair behind her ear as she glanced over at her best friend, "you have any ideas, Deku?"

"I don't know," Izuku sighed, shrugging, "but … but All Might said it had something to do with the sports festival, so it can't be that bad, right?"

"Yeah …" Ochako slowly nodded, "he probably just wants to talk about it with her since … y'know, she's his successor."

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, and together, they both began walking across the parking lot. Ochako stole a small glance at him while he fell into the same step with her, both of them walking quietly for a moment.

"So … the sports festival, huh?"

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, glancing at her with a slightly teasing smile, "you, uh, had a bit of a reaction to that today, huh?"

"Oh, god," Ochako blushed, shaking her head and smacking her red cheeks with both hands while Izuku chuckled, "I was acting really stupid, wasn't I? I didn't expect to get that … intense about it."

"No, no, I was, uh - I was kinda expecting it," Izuku laughed, looking away when Ochako threw the Danger Pout his way, "just … everyone else wasn't. But honestly, Occhan, it wasn't anything to get embarrassed about - you were just really pumped up. I … definitely understand why."

Ochako slowly nodded at that, glancing back up at Izuku as he likewise gave her his own understanding smile. She let out a small sigh, and put her hands in her pockets as they walked down the road.

"It's just …" She hesitated for a moment, before she clenched her hands in her pockets, "... Deku, this is it. All those times I talked to you about making enough money for my parents to retire … this is the start of that." She turned to look up at him fully, seeing him continue to look understandingly at her. "This is the start of my hero career, Deku - it's like Aizawa-sensei said, the better we do and the further we get into the tournament, the better chance we'll have to be noticed by the pros!"

"I know," Izuku nodded, smiling at her as he reached out and patted her shoulder to comfort her, "and you're going to be great, Occhan."

"I … I don't know about that," She turned slightly to the side, frowning, "like … compared to you and Itsuka, or Iida or anyone else, my - my motivation is really weak."

Izuku likewise frowned at that, and used the hand he had on her shoulder to stop them from walking forward down the road. For her part, Ochako did slow down, although she was still staring away from him as he turned to stand in front of her, and let out a small sigh as he raised his other hand to rest on her other shoulder.

"Occhan," He gently said, "I've told you a hundred times, and I'll tell you a hundred more times, wanting to make money for your parents - so they can live comfortably - is a really selfless motivation. I, uh, kinda wanna motivate you a bit more, but … well … do you know how many times we've had this conversation? Like - a year?"

"A few times," Ochako chuckled sheepishly, but still didn't look quite convinced as Izuku rubbed her shoulders - and felt herself falter at how good that felt.

"Yeah - I've said so much to you about this I can't possibly add anything new." He smiled down at her as she glanced up at him again, a slight rosy hue coming over her cheeks. "You are probably one of the most unselfish people I know, Occhan. You've always been, ever since we were kids. You're going to do great at the sports festival, you're going to get all the attention from the pro heroes, and you're going to be awesome. And then we can all go on vacation to Hawaii."

"That's just what my dad wants," Ochako shook her head and giggled, but still looked back up at Izuku with her own smile, "but … thank you, Deku. I … I guess I needed to hear that. Again."

"I don't mind telling you again and again about how amazing you are." He smiled down at her, both of them giggling a little as Ochako raised her hand to lightly smack his chest - and then Izuku unintentionally gripping his hands on her shoulders made them both blink, and realize the position they were in, what with Izuku holding her gently and her staring up at him.

Both of them quickly freezing up, Ochako quickly cleared her throat, and Izuku pretty much whipped his hands down to his sides, both of their faces going red as they began walking together back down the road.

"Y-yeah, I - I guess that's the plan," Ochako mumbled, feeling her face glow for reasons she didn't entirely understand, "we'll score high enough in the sports festival that no hero can even think of not looking our way."

"Yeah," Izuku stiffly nodded, "that - that sounds like a plan."

"..."

"..."

"... that's not to say that I'm expecting you to go easy on me if we do end up fighting in the tournament."

"O-oh, no, not at all."

"I will kick your ass if you take it easy on me."

"I know."

---

"... alright then," Cementoss nodded as he finished putting away his book, facing the class, "I believe that concludes this class. Just a reminder, you all have Hero Basic Training coming up next after lunch, so after your break is finished, head down to the changing room with your costumes."

Nodding, Izuku sighed as he put his notebook back into his desk, taking a moment to stretch his arms above his head as everyone else likewise got ready for lunch. At the moment, it had been only one day since the sports festival had been announced, and their morning routine had been … quite interesting, what with them having to watch Tensei fight with Aizawa over who the homeroom teacher was, Present Mic cheerfully attempting to avoid Nejire's questions about bugs like the plague, and Cementoss dulling out the excitement by teaching them about modern literature. And at the moment, Izuku's stomach was growling, desperately in need of lunch.

Luckily for him, he knew the bell was about to ring any minute now, and they would be able to go to the cafeteria so they could discuss their plan for training over food. From what he knew from their texts last night, he, Ochako, Itsuka, Nejire, Yui and Setsuna were going to be making up a plan for when they could train both on and off campus. And thankfully, Melissa, giving him another call through the holographic device, had gone over the Full Gauntlet's repair status, confirming that it would probably be ready for the festival. Which meant that he wouldn't have to go through an entire festival not able to control his quirk, which definitely lifted his mood.

From what they had discussed, Izuku remembered as everyone started getting up for lunch, their group was planning to use a modified version of their old training plan on the beach, with jogging, swimming and -

"Ah, my cute kohai!"

Izuku let out a yelp of surprise as a pair of hands suddenly slammed down on his shoulders, almost making him jump out of his seat if not for the surprisingly tight grip keeping him there, and everyone else surrounding him, Nejire looking around at him and Momo, who was sitting directly behind him, blinked in surprise as well. Quickly, Izuku looked around at who was holding him, and let out a squeak at the sight of a familiar older girl with two buns of hair tied up on each side of her head, and grinning down happily at him.

"T-Toga-senpai?"

"Ah, ah, ah! I'm working right now!" She pointed down, and Izuku gulped and blushed at the sight of the nurse's outfit she was wearing - what looked to be an old fashioned nurse's uniform, a white dress that barely reached mid-thigh and stretching up to sleeves on her forearms, and a paper nurse's hat on the top of her head. "I'm Nurse Toga at the moment. Anyway, cutie, you've been summoned!"

"I - what?" Izuku blinked, turning in his seat to look at her properly while the rest of the class likewise gave her confused looks. "S-summoned? By who?"

"By Tenko!" She cheerfully informed him, and then reached down to grab his arm. Izuku yelped as he was pretty much yanked out of his seat, and pulled along with her as she marched over to the door, sliding it open. "He says that he's got an idea, and he wants to use this lunch period to go over it with you. Now, there's no time to waste! We've gotta head over to Gym Gamma, and that's a bit of a walk! Come along, kohai!"

"I - okay, but - ah!"

Izuku let out another yelp as he was pulled completely through the door, and the rest of the class blinked as the sound of his mild protests and flailing faded away until they were both gone. Blinking in her seat, Setsuna turned around to look at the back of the class, confused.

"Uh … did any of you guys see her come in?" She asked unsurely, "Because I would've thought …"

"No," Reiko shook her head, likewise looking confused as she rose from her seat at the back, "in fact, I didn't even see her until she suddenly sprang up. What a mysterious senpai we have."

"Indeed," Fumikage nodded sagely, "what fraught madness, being able to hide in the shadows until the opportune time to strike. We could learn much from her, Dark Shadow."

"Meh! I'm shadow-y enough!"

As everyone shrugged and got up to go for lunch, Ochako found herself still blinking in her seat, however, glancing between where Himiko had appeared and where she had vanished through the door with Izuku before she glanced at the door right behind her. If Himiko snuck in, she would've had to have gone through that door, the one Ochako was right beside - but she hadn't even heard it open, much less the sound of Himiko's feet walking behind her - and it would've been loud, she was wearing heels.

For some reason, she found herself thinking for a moment, slowly standing up in her seat so she could go join her friends for lunch - but then an idea began to slowly form in her mind. Nodding slowly, Ochako sighed, and moved to join Itsuka at the front of the class - she would have to make a mental note to talk to her senpai later.

Meanwhile, outside the building, Izuku was still confused as to what was going on as Himiko led him towards the large gymnasium in the distance, but at least she had let go of his arm as she happily skipped towards it, letting him calm down his flustered face a little. As they walked together, Himiko glanced behind her shoulder with a coy smile.

"So," She pointed out, "I see that someone's a little unwrapped today."

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, not entirely sure what that meant - until Himiko helpfully pointed to his face, and made him realize what she was talking about. "Oh. Oh, uh, y-yeah, I - I decided to - uh - to not wrap up the injuries today."

"Mm-hm," Himiko nodded, watching as Izuku absently reached up to touch the white scar on his cheek, her eyes trailing up to the other one on his forehead "and what did your classmates say about that?"

"Uh … they … didn't say anything," Izuku felt himself frown, however, continuing to rub the scar on his face, "but … I know that they noticed it. They were … looking."

Himiko's teasing smirk lessened somewhat at that, and she slowed her pace down so she could walk with him. As Izuku stared off into the distance, Himiko reached out and patted his arm, making him blink and look around at her giving him a big, comforting smile.

"It's always kind of hard to come back to class with big marks," She said in an assuring voice, "but honestly, Midoriya, it'll just take them a little bit to get used to them. Soon enough they won't even notice you have scars."

"I …" Izuku hesitated for a moment, and then nodded, trying to smile back at her, "... yeah, I … I guess so. Thank you, Toga-senpai."

"Nurse Toga."

"N-Nurse Toga."

"Mm-hm. And besides," Himiko's playful smirk suddenly returned, and Izuku realized at once he had just fallen into a trap, "some people think scars look sexy. Including me. And those are some sexy scars, if I say so myself."

"I - huh?!"

"So you can count on me cheerleading for you in the corner, cutie - but if you want a private cheering session, don't hesitate to knock on my door."

"I - uh -" Izuku balked, his face quickly going red again as Himiko giggled mischievously. "I - you - you don't - I - I don't -"

"Ah! There you are, Young Midoriya!"

Blinking at the sound of a familiar voice ahead of them, Izuku managed to shake himself out of his fluster and looked around. As it turned out, they had managed to reach Gym Gamma, a large building with two big blue doors and large glass window at the front, and standing right outside it, in his true form, was All Might, grinning and giving the two teenagers a welcoming wave as Himiko skipped on ahead so she could enter the gym and get out of the slight heat.

Izuku, however, couldn't help but find himself taken aback by what All Might was wearing. Instead of his usual hero costumes or suits, he was dressed in a pair of dark green pants, a muscular dark shirt just barely stopping at his forearms, wearing a pair of dark gloves on his hands, and a weird shoulder-pad thing with three sharp spikes emerging from each shoulder. In his hands, he held what looked to be some kind of gas mask, one side painted orange and the other black, and several more spikes emerging from the back of the helmet.

"Uh ... what are you wearing, All Might?"

"Oh, this?" All Might grinned, poking one of the spikes on his new costume and wincing slightly. "Just a little surprise for your classmates - your teachers and I talked about it, and we're going to be doing a surprise lesson for your class today! I'm going to be dressing up as a villain that 'got overlooked by the police', so to speak. And if you would like to assist me, I believe that we can give quite the little performance!"

"Uh ... performance?" Izuku looked unsure, glancing at the weird mask he had in his hand. "What, uh … what kind of performance do you mean, All Might?"

"Well, we'll discuss that in a bit," All Might smiled, patting his arm as Izuku stopped in front of him, and began guiding him into the gym where Himiko had already run into, "right now, if you don't mind, there is something else that we can do while the rest of your lunch break passes by - if we end up going over the bell, we can arrive at the USJ later."

"Okay," Izuku glanced as they entered the large gym, not entirely sure what was going on, "but ... what exactly are we doing?"

"Ah! There you are."

At the sound of a voice calling out to him, Izuku quickly looked around. Approaching him in the foyer, wearing a hero costume composed of a bodysuit with sleeves coming down to his surprisingly toned arms, and a white cape wrapped around his shoulders, was Tenko, jogging over and giving him a smile. Walking beside him was Himiko, who was adjusting her paper hat, and turning towards another student that Izuku didn't recognize, a slightly taller guy with dark blue hair, who immediately avoided Izuku's gaze when the younger student looked at him and looked shyly to the floor as Himiko giggled and poked his pointy ears.

"It's nice to see you, Midoriya," Tenko greeted them, letting All Might pat his shoulder and chuckling as he likewise took in the pro hero's strange appearance, "and, y'know, sorry to drag you away during your lunch break, but Aizawa jumped in on my attempts to get you out of class, so … well, I guess we'll have to do it now."

"And ... what are we doing, exactly?" Izuku glanced around, not entirely sure what was going on.

"Well," Tenko put his hands in his pockets, "remember what we talked about yesterday during our meeting, Midoriya? About finding out how ready you are to face someone with your quirk?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Well, I did some talking around," Tenko grinned, "and found out that the person I had in mind was going to be in today instead of his internship. And he's more than happy to help us out with your problem."

"That I am!"

Hearing a third, more joyful, more boyish voice behind him, Izuku blinked and looked around.

Strolling into the gymnasium behind them, in the same gym uniform that he wore during Aizawa's tests last week, was an older boy much bigger than Izuku, one hand in his pocket and the other hand raised to greet them. What caught Izuku's attention, however, was the number of scars around his lower arm, making him blink at the roughness of them in contrast to his round, friendly face, the hand he was using to wave at them moving to smooth his blonde hair back.

"Sorry that I'm late!" He quickly jogged over, glancing around at the shy guy who had looked up at his appearance, and grinned at Himiko when she playfully shook her head in disappointment, "I got myself stuck in the wall on the fourth floor, so I had to get dressed in a hurry before I came over! I was gonna grab my hero costume, but y'know, it's still a bit damaged from my internship last week."

"That's alright," Tenko laughed, and then turned to Izuku, who was looking at both of them in confusion. "This, Midoriya, is Mirio Togata. He's a senior student here at UA - and if anyone here's going to be able to make sure that you can use your quirk against someone else, it'll be him."