"The support course huh," Shinsou said, looking up at the light filtering down through the leaves

of their lunchtime tree.

Izuku nodded excitedly, his lunch laying untouched as he flipped through his Vol. 11 notebook. It was the one with the most recent observations and analysis of Eraserhead, and Izuku was eager to get feedback on it. Mic had cornered him after school yesterday, after Nighteye's visit, to ask if he had any more analysis notebooks he was willing to share, and Izuku had agreed to bring in more tomorrow. Notebooks seven through ten, as well as twelve, were stacked neatly beside him, waiting for the opportunity to be handed off.

"He really seems to think I could do it!" Izuku told him, eyes flicking between lines as he looked for errors or places the analysis could be fine-tuned in a hurry.

"Of course you could do it," Shinsou said, somewhat muffled with his mouth full, then swallowed. "That wasn't the question."

Izuku looked up, giving Shinsou a puzzled look. "What's the question then?"

"The question is whether or not that's what you want," Shinsou said seriously. "You'd be working with that maniac, and if you did this professionally don't think he's the only maniac you'd have to deal with. Your job would be telling heroes they're not good enough, and I'm not saying you don't have the courage for it, but it's something to consider."

Izuku considered this for a moment, letting his eyes fall back to his notebook. He'd managed to go a whole week and a half without crying in front of Shinsou, and he didn't want to break that streak now. Still, he felt tears prickling in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly to avoid having to wipe them away.

"I can't . . . be a hero," he said at last. "It's not in the stars for me. But I always wanted to be useful, to someone, in some way, and if this is a way I can do that I can't turn it down. I . . . I just don't want to be Deku anymore."

Shinsou was quiet for a moment, letting Izuku dash at his eyes with his sleeve without comment. When he spoke his voice was soft, and it made Izuku look up at the gentleness of it.

"I think you can do anything you put your mind to Mido," he said quietly. "If this is what you think will make you happy, then I'm all for it. You deserve that much."

"Thanks," Izuku said, his eyes feeling watery again as he looked at his best friend. "I-" "Hey Gen Ed boys!" came a loud, feminine voice from somewhere behind Izuku.

He whirled around, to see a girl with salmon pink hair and wide, intense eyes, a pair of goggles perched atop her head. Instead of a uniform she wore a pair of baggy pants and a black tank top with a jacket tied around her waist, looking for all the world like she'd just come from a machine shop. She was carrying a lunch tray balanced on one hand and waving animatedly with the other as she approached the two of them, a grin threatening to split her face in half.

Izuku and Shinsou looked at each other, eyes wide and confused. Shinsou raised an eyebrow, darting his eyes to the newcomer and then back to Izuku. Izuku shook his head. He had no idea who she was.

"Uh, hi?" Izuku said as she reached the spot where the two of them sat in the grass and flopped down, apparently uncaring of the way it made her dishes rattle.

"Hiya!" said the girl, grabbing her bowl of rice and fixing her piercing gaze on Izuku. "I'm Mei Hatsume, from the support course. You're Midoriya, right?"

"Yes?" Izuku asked, then cleared his throat when it came out sounding like a question. "Uh, that's me."

"You're the one Sensei was talking about," Hatsume continued as she shoveled rice into her mouth. "You're going to transfer to the support course as an analyst!"

Izuku went red and sputtered for a moment, but before he could recover himself Shinsou laughed. "What do you know," he said, elbowing Izuku. "You don't even have to ask about a transfer, they're already shoving you at the support course teachers!"

"Really?" Izuku finally managed, not sure what else he was supposed to say.

"Yep!" Hatsume said cheerfully. "I heard the teachers talking about it. Usually the analyst types go to the business course, so having one that wants to do support work is kind of a big deal!"

"It is?!" Izuku flailed, nearly knocking over his water bottle as he tried to reorient himself. "I mean, it can't be that big of a deal, right? Market analysis and hero analysis are two totally different things, surely there can't be that much overlap that the business course takes all the people like me."

"Well yeah," Hatsume shrugged, "but people who study things like quirks and fighting styles usually go into pro heroics themselves, so we don't get a lot of them in the support course."

"Oh," Izuku said, feeling suddenly dejected. Hatsume and Shinsou were looking at him though, so he hitched a smile back in place and nodded. "Well, you don't have to worry about that with me! I don't have a quirk, so I'm not exactly hero material."

"Excellent!" Hatsume said excitedly, pumping a fist clutched around her chopsticks into the air. "You can tell me what kind of support gear is most needed in the industry! What kind of technology should I be focused on developing? What do heroes really need?!"

Izuku knew his mouth was slightly open, but he couldn't help it. He had just told a new person, a person who went to UA High School , that he didn't have a quirk, and nothing bad had happened. She hadn't laughed at him, or grown suddenly cold, or attacked him outright. She still thought he was someone worth talking to, even without a quirk. He didn't need to be as strong as Kacchan to be her friend.

Just like that the answer to her question rose nearly unbidden in his mind, and he answered her with almost equal enthusiasm.

"A section of the hero industry that could really use more support items is underground heroes," he explained as Hatsume listened with rapt attention. "They tend to have less physical quirks, so they don't really need much to help control or take advantage of them. What they need is weapons that suit their environment and fighting style. They can't use the same kind of weapons that spotlight heroes use, because spotlight heroes need to be flashy, but underground heroes can't afford that. Take Eraserhead for example: he doesn't need much but a pair of goggles for using his quirk, but he based his entire fighting style around using his capture weapon. What they need are simple, efficient, versatile weapons that aren't designed to draw attention."

Hatsume nodded, her eyes cast downwards as she thought. "Simple, efficient, versatile," she repeated. Then suddenly she raised her eyes back to Izuku's face, giving him an almost maniacal grin.

"I can do that!" she exclaimed, then winked. "I think you and I are gonna be great friends!"

Before Izuku could respond to that he suddenly felt a hand wrap around his upper arm, and he was tugged gently to lean toward Shinsou.

"Hey, hey," Shinsou said grumpily. "Mido's my friend, get your own."

"It's ok Shinchan," Izuku insisted, even as he saw Hatsume stick her tongue out at Shinsou out of the corner of his eye. "We'll still get to work together when you get into the hero course."

"Gotta let your old friend here make some new friends!" Hatsume concurred. "High school is a fresh start, after all!"

Shinsou and Izuku both blinked at her. "We're not old friends," Shinsou said. "We met last week, on the first day of school."

Now it was Hatsume's turn to blink in confusion. "You just met?" she repeated. "But, you're so familiar with each other!"

Izuku felt himself blushing again. He glanced at Shinsou, to find him smiling his slightly mean smile he'd used when they first met. Izuku quickly picked up his chopsticks and pretended to be interested in eating, but Shinsou was setting his things aside.

"We aren't old friends," Shinsou began, "but someone Mido went to middle school with did get into the hero course. He's a real piece of work too; I walked in on him about to blow Mido sky high with his flashy explosion quirk. Mido still called him 'Kacchan' though, so I said it was weird that he used such an affectionate name with someone who bullied him."

"He wasn't always like that," Izuku said into his lunch.

"Maybe not," Shinsou poked at Izuku's cheek, "but you gotta admit, trying to pass yourself off as an 'affectionate person' was a pretty dumb move."

"So that's how he ended up calling you Shinchan," Hatsume concluded, grinning shark-like at Izuku.

Shinsou gave a little huff of amusement. "After that it was weird calling him 'Midoriya,' so I went with Mido."

Hatsume threw back her head and laughed, long and loud full of genuine mirth. "You guys are a riot!" she said, wiping her eye with one finger. "We're gonna have so much fun this year!"

Shinsou gave a slightly creepy little giggle, and Izuku couldn't help but laugh himself. High school was nothing like he imagined. Even with Kacchan still there, potentially lurking around any corner, it was much better than middle school. He thought if it meant he got to have friends like Shinsou and Hatsume, he would gladly have dealt with Kacchan every day for the rest of his life.

Izuku handed off his hero analysis notebooks to Present Mic at the end of the day. He was still a little bit nervous about some of the earlier work, but Mic went straight for notebook seven and began flipping through it before Izuku had a chance to escape. Having not yet been dismissed Izuku held his ground, but Mic had again said that his analysis was very insightful, and taken all of the offered notebooks to look through and potentially show around.

The next day at lunch Hatsume again joined him and Shinsou, already with a few rough ideas drawn on bits of paper that didn't look like this was their intended purpose. She talked animatedly about potential inventions, or 'babies' as she called them, and Shinsou looked interestedly at a couple. He had yet to start training with weapons, and finding a particular weapon to be his signature had always been the plan. Izuku offered his opinion on the ones Shinsou was interested in, how well they would fit into the fighting style he would need to develop, and Hatsume promised to think more about how she could create the ones they had agreed on.

They had all just settled in to actually eating what was left of their lunch, rather than nibbling on it as they worked, when a shadow fell across their little gathering. It came from behind Izuku, so he was able to see the stunned looks on Shinsou and Hatsume's faces before he turned around.

"Kamui Woods!" Izuku squeaked, looking wide eyed up at the hero standing over him.

Kamui Woods looked down at him. "Midoriya, right?" he said as Izuku hurried to turn himself around on the grass to look directly up at him. "You got caught in the sludge villain incident didn't you? Made a lot of trouble with that stunt you pulled."

"Yes sir," Izuku looked away, but didn't lower his face. It would be too awkward to look down when the hero he was speaking to was so far above him.

"You're the one with the notebooks, aren't you?" Kamui said. He did not sound particularly impressed.

Izuku swallowed. "Yes sir," he repeated, wondering if this was the part where those notebooks finally got him into trouble.

"I saw what you wrote about me," said Kamui. His expression was unreadable behind his wooden mask, but his tone wasn't exactly friendly. "You've got a lot to say about heroes who risk their lives for you every day."

"I didn't mean anything by it!" Izuku said hurriedly, shaking his head wildly back and forth. "Those notebooks were just supposed to be for me, just to help me understand heroes better, and then-"

"You got something to say about it?" came Shinsou's voice, cutting off Izuku's rambled apologies.

Izuku swiveled to look at Shinsou, trying to make his eyes wide and pleading, but Shinsou was looking up at Kamui with a look of bored distaste.

"Most of the heroes who work here think Mido's analysis is pretty helpful," Shinsou went on, even as Izuku began to shake his head slightly. "You think you're too good to take a little criticism?"

Izuku turned slowly to look back up at Kamui. He knew his expression must be terrified, he felt like he was on the verge of tears, and he could barely bring himself to make eye contact with the hero. The sun was behind Kamui, shining in Izuku's eyes, but he wouldn't disrespect the hero by looking away.

Then, quite unexpectedly, Kamui sighed. "Nah," he said, his posture relaxing into a somewhat easier stance. "Those analyses were exactly the kick in the pants some of my guys needed, and anything that gives me an edge is welcome."

He shrugged nonchalantly, and Izuku could have sworn his soul left his body at the degree of relief that overcame him.

"I do have a question for you though," Kamui continued when Izuku didn't respond. "You mentioned incorporating leaves into my fighting style, but I'm curious about how much you actually know what you're asking."

"Huh?" Izuku made a small exhalation of confusion, then drew breath and managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

"I can grow leaves," Kamui informed him, extending one finger into an elongated twig and growing a single, bright green leaf to dangle from it. "However, I can't control them as precisely as branches, and they're far more delicate. I discarded the idea of using them in combat while I was in school."

Izuku was veritably itching to get out his current notebook and start taking notes, but he clamped the instinct down.

"They can still be useful though," he insisted, trying to sound like he was gushing rather than criticising. "They can obscure your opponent's vision and limit their movements. A path blocked by branches is difficult to pass through, but a path blocked by branches and also obscured by leaves? You might as well put up a concrete wall."

"They also make it difficult for me to see," Kamui countered, then lowered his voice and muttered, "and for the cameras to see me."

Shinsou coughed somewhere behind him, sounding like he was using the sound to hide a snort of laughter. A second later he grunted, and if Izuku had to hazard a guess he'd say Hatsume had poked him in the ribs.

"Not necessarily," Izuku said, tactfully ignoring the second part of the hero's statement. "If you concentrate them specifically in the path of the villain and leave your other branches clear, you can get a good sense of where they are without them being able to see what you're doing. Plus, any leaves that fall to the ground are sure to become valued souvenirs."

"Hm," Kamui said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, his imagination clearly caught by the idea of his leaves becoming collector's items. Then he looked back at Izuku. "You talk a big game little man, but how much do you really know what you're talking about? Have you ever been in a real fight? Besides the one All Might bailed you out of, I mean."

Izuku swallowed, wondering which answer would be preferable. He quickly settled on the truth. "Yes sir," he said, "I have, but it's never really much of a fight."

Kamui looked at him for another moment, then said, "Spar with me." "Huh," said Izuku.

"What?" said Hatsume. "No way!" said Shinsou.

"No quirks," Kamui clarified, holding up both hands in supplication at Shinsou's obvious ire. "Nothing serious, just a friendly little bout. Just to see how good your instincts are."

"Uh," Izuku's brain stalled, trying to think of a reason to refuse. He was sure whatever reason he gave Shinsou and Hatsume would back him up, but nothing at all came to mind. "Sure?"

Kamui backed away several paces, and Izuku stood on shaky legs to take up position opposite him. He glanced only once at Shinsou and Hatsume, who had adjusted themselves for a better view of the fight. Hatsume looked curious but worried, still eating but chewing slowly and thoughtfully. Shinsou on the other hand had set aside his food, and he looked absolutely furious as he glared at Kamui. He did not seem to trust that the hero had only a friendly spar in mind.

At least it won't be as bad as fighting Kacchan, Izuku thought nervously, but that was all he had time for before Kamui attacked.

Izuku blocked his first swing on instinct, a big right hook like Kacchan's usual opener. The next swing came from the other hand and this time he ducked, bending his knees until he was level with the gap between the hero's legs. Immediately he dived forward, seeing an escape route as well as a way to put his opponent off balance, and he managed to make it through the opening before he was grabbed. He popped back to his feet, but instead of running away he turned, to see Kamui stumbling as he tried to right himself and whirl around at the same time.

"C'mon shortstack!" Hatsume's voice reached his ears, but he didn't turn towards the sound. "Get him Mido!" came Shinsou's at the same time.

Deciding if he was going to do this he might as well do it, Izuku aimed a kick at Kamui's back, sending him lurching forward a few steps. Izuku went running after him, hoping to stay behind him for as long as possible, but before he could do anything else the hero was turning and thrusting out an arm towards him. For a second Izuku wondered what he was doing, as he was still too far away to land a hit, when suddenly branches exploded out from his forearm.

In the space between one second and another, Izuku's mind raced through everything he knew about Kamui Woods. He'd watched seventeen fights in which the hero had participated, including the ones he'd seen on youtube or the news. He'd watched twenty-two villains fall before him. Three villains, however, had gotten away. Two of them, on two different days, had used one move.

Page fifty-seven, Izuku thought, and jumped.

He landed standing atop the thick, stable trunk with a wooden thump , and before he could destabilize and fall he channeled his wobbling into forward motion and went running down the branch toward Kamui. Kamui, for his part, had clearly not been expecting that, and when Izuku reached him he could do nothing but close his eyes against the kick Izuku aimed at his teeth. A painful jolt went through Izuku's toe as his worn sneaker connected with solid wood, and a moment later he was lifted off his feet, tangled hopelessly in the branches growing from the hero's other hand.

Kamui stopped, steady on his feet once more but breathing hard as though in pain. Izuku wriggled a little, trying to free himself, but he was firmly caught and wouldn't be going anywhere until he was let go. The two of them looked at each other blankly, neither quite sure where to go from here.

"Hey!" Shinsou's voice drew Izuku's attention, and he turned to see his friend standing and making purposefully for the hero who had him pinned. "I thought you said no quirks? What do you call that!"

"Sorry," said Kamui, beginning to extricate his twigs and branches from around Izuku. "Reflexes, you understand."

"Of course," Izuku assured him as he was deposited back on his feet on the ground. "This kinda illustrates my point though, about using leaves to obscure your opponent's vision."

"I suppose," Kamui said, still looking a little dazed.

Shinsou, who did not look at all like he understood about reflexes or intended to drop the subject of quirk use, opened his mouth to continue his earlier expressions of outrage. Before he could say anything however, another voice rang out across the lawn.

"What are you doing here!" Eraserhead demanded, marching toward them with an angry, determined stride.

Kamui backed away from Izuku, hands held up at the level of his shoulders and making downward motions toward Eraser. "Take it easy," he said. "Can't a hero visit a hero school to chat with some students?"

"We've already had one security breach this week, the perimeter was supposed to be tightened," Eraser said, crossing his arms over his chest as he came to stand before Kamui. "And those aren't hero students you're chatting with."

"You could have fooled me," Kamui said, cracking his neck and throwing a wary glance at Izuku. "I asked if I could come talk to Midoriya and I have permission to be here."

Eraser's eyes narrowed. "What does a hero want with a Gen Ed student?"

"Kid's a hell of an analyst," Kamui explained, making Izuku glow with a now familiar pride. "He's got pretty good kinetic awareness too, and a fighter's instincts."

At this revelation Eraser paused, giving Izuku a moment to process it himself. He'd thought about fighting, obviously, he's analyzed enough heroes' fighting styles to know what would work for a quirkless person and what wouldn't. All the training he'd done had been in a vacuum though, with no one who knew what they were talking about to tell him how well he was doing. Was it possible he'd advanced that much?

Shinsou, who had been looking between Eraser and Kamui as each of them spoke, was apparently content to stay quiet no longer. "He used his quirk on Mido," he accused seriously, "after he said he wouldn't."

"It's not that big a deal," Izuku insisted quickly. "I was fine!"

"Still not very heroic behavior," Hatsume piped up for the first time. "You don't have a quirk, and you were unarmed."

Kamui's head whipped around, abandoning his standoff with Eraser to stare at Hatsume. "What do you mean he doesn't have a quirk?!" the hero sputtered.

"You considered him that much of a threat huh?" Eraser asked, but he didn't sound angry anymore. He sounded almost contemplative.

Shinsou looked about ready to explode with indignation, so Izuku took his friend by the arm. Shinsou flinched but didn't pull away, still glaring at Kamui with fire in his eyes. Izuku, not sure what else to do, rubbed his hand over Shinsou's back. Eventually Shinsou looked at him, still glaring, but his face softened when he saw Izuku.

"Shinchan," Izuku said quietly.

Shinsou took a deep breath, then let it out in a great gust. Then he looked away, off to one side.

"Whatever," he said waspishly.

Eraser gave a weary little sigh. "The bell's about to ring for class," he said at last. "Take your dishes inside."

"Yes sir," Izuku said hurriedly, and began to drag Shinsou over to his abandoned tray.

The three of them collected their things and headed back inside. It was only once they were several paces away that Izuku heard Eraser and Kamui continue their conversation, but it was distant enough that he couldn't make out what they were saying. Hatsume shouted her goodbye over the crowd as she broke off from them to head to her own class, and Izuku and Shinsou made their way back towards the Gen Ed wing.

"That was weird," Shinsou said once they were safely back in their classroom.

"Definitely," Izuku agreed. "Thank you, by the way."

Shinsou gave him a confused look. "For what?"

"For, you know," Izuku fidgeted a little. "Sticking up for me. Getting mad when you thought he was being unfair to me."

"Of course I was mad," Shinsou said, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "The guy came around just to make you uncomfortable and then tried to beat you up. You really showed him though."

"I don't think that was why he came," Izuku defended, even though Shinsou's words made him feel warm inside, like being praised by the heroes did. He wondered what exactly that feeling was. "And I didn't really show him much of anything. Except maybe why he should use leaves."

"Are you kidding?" Shinsou grinned. "You were amazing! I didn't know you could even fight like that! We definitely need to add more sparring matches to our training."

Izuku opened his mouth to argue, but the teacher cleared his throat pointedly to quiet the class, so he simply gave a nod of assent. More sparring would be a good idea.

Nighteye had come to talk to Izuku on Wednesday, and Kamui Woods' visit was at Friday lunch, so by Friday afternoon Izuku thought he was justified in assuming he was done with excitement for the week. They had nearly run into Kacchan on their way out of the building, but he was heading for one of the many gyms on campus, so Izuku merely towed Shinsou in the opposite direction and they managed to escape Kacchan's notice. The part of Izuku that still worried about these things told him Kacchan was in a bad mood. He didn't know why that would be though, and it wasn't that different from Kacchan's default mood, so he put it from his mind.

They had to swipe their ID cards to get into the gym, on the opposite side of campus from the one Kacchan was using, and as they entered a cheerful voice chirped out how many hours they'd logged working out. Izuku felt oddly pleased with how much time they'd spent training in only two weeks. They had agreed to use Izuku's strategic exercise regimen to train together on the first day of school, and even in this short amount of time they'd made real progress. He knew the hero students were probably doing more, given that they had class time to use, but he still felt like those logged hours were well spent.

Thankfully there were only two other students there, using the weight room for the moment, so Izuku and Shinsou changed into their gym clothes and set up shop out on the main floor. Shinsou wanted to spar right away, but Izuku insisted they do at least warm-ups first. They were just finishing that up, Shinsou eyeing the practice mats hungrily, when a voice interrupted Izuku's concentration.

"Hey there listeners!" called Present Mic, causing Izuku and Shinsou to stumble to a stop where they'd been doing a few quick laps of the gym.

They were very near the end of their fifth lap, and they had started by the door, so Mic was only a few paces in front of them. Izuku rested his hands on his knees for a moment. He was breathing hard, but beside him Shinsou was breathing harder, and he recovered first.

"Hello sir," Izuku said, standing straight and smiling brightly at Mic. Working out always made him feel like smiling. "What can we do for you?"

"Midoriya, would you mind stepping out with me for a second?" Mic asked, after striking a suitably dramatic pose. "You're not in trouble, and I'll let you get back to your workout in no time!"

"Sure," Izuku said, glancing at Shinsou to make sure it was alright with him. Shinsou, who was still catching his breath, gave a thumbs up.

Izuku followed Mic out of the main gym and into the front hallway between the door and the rest of the rooms. He expected Mic to lead him outside, but Mic seemed content with this level of privacy, and he stopped there and turned to look at Izuku. He was still smiling in what suddenly struck Izuku in a theatrical manner, and the way he placed his hands almost artfully on his hips, somehow coming out more casual than resolute, abruptly seemed studied.

"Is this about my notebooks?" Izuku asked, not sure how to process that observation.

"Your notebooks have become an overnight hit!" Mic said excitedly, but then some of his usual energy bled out of him as he gave Izuku a concerned look. "I wanted to talk to you about that visitor you had today though."

"Kamui Woods?" Izuku shook his head. "That really wasn't a big deal. He had permission to be here, and he just wanted to talk about my analysis."

"He did a little more than talk," Mic pointed out, still a bit on the quiet side. "I heard he challenged you to a sparring match."

"Yeah, well," Izuku shrugged, not really sure how to excuse his behavior. "I didn't really know how to say no."

"And a hero like him should have considered that," Mic said. His tone sounded disapproving, but his eyes were soft as he looked at Izuku.

"I'm not sure I understand," Izuku admitted. "Was I supposed to-"

" You weren't supposed to do anything," Mic assured him. " He was the one who should have considered the effect his authority would have on you. A hero needs to remember that they have influence over others with what they say, and how they act."

"I see," said Izuku, though he did not see at all.

Mic seemed to realize this, because he struck another dramatic pose and shouted, "Take me for instance! I've got the ear of the younger audience with my radio show, so I'm careful to send good vibes only to my listeners! They look up to me because I'm a hero, so I've gotta set a good example for them!"

Izuku couldn't help but smile at Mic's antics, even suppressing a little giggle. Mic relaxed his pose, grinning at Izuku, and looked at him over the rims of his sunglasses.

"I'm not surprised you got an in-person interview at all though," he informed Izuku proudly. "You've done great work, and a lot of heroes are very impressed with your analyses. You're getting quite the reputation!"

"Uh," Izuku shuffled from foot to foot, wondering if now was the right time to bring this up. "Does that mean you think I should . . . should I ask if I can transfer to the support course?"

For a moment Mic just looked at him. He was still smiling, his posture still studiously relaxed, but he seemed to be contemplating his answer carefully. Izuku braced himself, wondering how he'd deal with any answer Mic might give.

Then suddenly Mic was back in full form, posing dramatically and giving Izuku double finger guns. "I think you should shoot for the top of the charts 'lil listener!" he said boisterously. "Whatever you think you can achieve, I say go for it!"

Izuku suddenly thought back to another conversation like this one, standing on a rooftop on the worst day of his life. Being told by All Might that his dream was unrealistic hadn't felt good. That was what had made him decide the Gen Ed course was the best he could hope for. Standing here now, with Present Mic telling him to follow his dreams, that rooftop felt like a distant, unimportant nightmare.

"Thank you," Izuku said. It seemed woefully inadequate.

Mic's smile widened, but it didn't seem theatrical this time. In fact, it might have been the most genuine smile he'd ever seen Mic wear.

"Anytime," Mic said, and Izuku couldn't help but smile back.