All Might picked Izuku up for school on Monday. Izuku had expected to go down to the street and wait for him, but he emerged from his room with his bag to see his mother in the front hall, talking quietly with All Might at the door of the apartment. Izuku felt it prudent to announce himself while he was still several feet back, and the two adults jumped apart as though they'd been caught doing something wrong.

"Please come up for some tea when you drop Izuku off," his mother said to All Might as Izuku put on his shoes.

"Of course, Midoriya-san," All Might said quietly.

"Ready!" Izuku said, leaping to his feet, and All Might blustered out a goodbye and ushered him out to the car.

All Might liked a lot of American music, so Izuku amused himself translating the lyrics in his head and trying to decipher the idioms until they got to school. They were earlier than if he'd taken the train, and it was a nice day out, so Izuku decided to go wait by the gate for his friends. He hadn't been waiting long, and he hadn't expected anyone but the earliest of students for some time yet, when he heard someone calling his name.

"Midoriya!" came a female voice from outside the gate, and Izuku looked up to see Fujioka from class 1C running up to him eagerly.

"Fujioka," Izuku said, smiling as she closed the distance between them hurriedly. "It's nice to see you again!"

Fujioka stopped to catch her breath, leaning forward with hands brace on her knees, but when she had recovered she looked up at him with bright, excited eyes.

"Midoriya, you were amazing!" Fujioka said loudly. "I saw you at the sports festival but I didn't get the chance to talk to you, and then you were on the news, and you really took down that villain all by yourself, and . . ."

"Woah woah," Izuku held up his hands to stem the tide of compliments. "I didn't really take out Stain myself, I was just helping. I didn't really do that much."

"Yeah, but you fought a real villain!" Fujioka gushed. "A dangerous one too, the news said he'd killed more heroes than any villain since All Might came on the scene!"

"Well, he was dangerous," Izuku admitted uncomfortably. He didn't know what else to say. Taking credit for Stain's capture in the news had been a calculated move, but taking credit for it to a

classmate seemed somehow different.

Fujioka, however, didn't seem at all disheartened by his lack of enthusiasm. "You really made our class proud Midoriya!" she said earnestly. "We all knew you'd be good, but you're shaping up to be a great hero!"

A denial rose to Izuku's lips, but he swallowed it down. This was what he'd been hoping for. This was why he'd done everything he'd done. He wanted to make people who were ordinary, who didn't have flashy quirks, who were just like him , feel special because they were just like him. He thought of the way the class had encouraged him the day of his exam fight. The idea that he'd made them proud gave him the strength to smile back at her.

"Thank you," he said, and it was easier than he'd thought it would be.

"Oh!" Fujioka gasped, then hurriedly bowed her head. "I also meant to thank you! I got an email from the school with a video of your exam fight, and my sister loves it!"

"Yeah, I asked Mic-sensei if he could send you the video," Izuku recalled. "He said he would edit it to look like if they were broadcasting it on TV, like the sports festival."

"It's amazing!" Fujioka said, raising her head to beam at him. "You're amazing! You were so clever, and you really showed him what quirkless kids are made of!"

"I had to win," Izuku said simply. "I knew a little quirkless girl was watching and I couldn't let her down."

"You sure didn't!" Fujioka laughed. "She must have watched that video a hundred times by now!" "Wow!" Izuku said, surprised. "That many?"

Fujioka rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "She's getting pretty obsessed with you, actually," she admitted. "Dekiru is her new favorite hero."

"I'm honored," Izuku said honestly. "All I want is to be able to inspire kids like her."

Fujioka grinned, wide and joyful, then gasped as she seemed to realize something. Quickly she adjusted her bag so that she could reach the zipper and began to dig around inside it.

"Can she have your autograph?" Fujioka asked, coming up with a notebook and pen. "It would mean the world to her!"

"Of course!" Izuku said, taking the pen and flipping through the notebook to find a fresh page. "What's her name?"

"Keiko," Fujioka told him. "Thanks, she's gonna go nuts when she sees this."

Izuku considered for a moment, then wrote a quick message.

For Keiko, my first and greatest fan! Keep dreaming big! Together we'll do the impossible! - Dekiru

Fujioka took back her notebook and smiled to see what he'd written. "Yep," she said happily. "She'll love that."

"I'm glad," Izuku said, feeling a bit better about the attention, lighter and freer.

Fujioka looked left and right, then leaned in close as though sharing a secret.

"She's not the only one you know," Fujioka told him. "I sent the video to the rest of the class and for days everyone was talking about it, and when you were on the news it was all over the school!"

A thought struck Izuku, making him suddenly worried. "Bakugou probably didn't like that," he realized anxiously. "He hasn't been hurting anyone has he? And Mineta, he's not giving you too much trouble?"

"Nope!" Fujioka said, waving a hand as though to reassure him. "The teachers are keeping a really close eye on Bakugou, and he's been written up a lot for exploding in class. Mineta's kind of gross, but the day he started Midnight-sensei came and talked to us about consent and what kind of stuff we should report to the teacher if a classmate starts being creepy. He's been written up a lot too."

That was probably a smart move on her part, Izuku thought to himself.

"It's not just the class though," Fujioka said. "My sister said some of the other kids at her school are talking about you, even ones who have quirks. And when I went looking for a video of that interview you did with Present Mic, I found someone doing commentary on your fights in the sports festival."

"I hope they're also doing commentary on Hito-, uh, Shinsou," Izuku said nervously. "He won, after all."

"There's a bunch of videos of him too," Fujioka assured him. "A Gen Ed student winning is a big deal, and people definitely noticed. But since you kinda hid both your big fights from the cameras, people are really curious about you!"

"Wow," Izuku breathed, trying to wrap his brain around what this meant. "I have . . . a fanbase?" "Yeah!" Fujioka laughed. "Crazy, right? But you definitely earned it!"

Izuku could only nod, unwilling to verbally agree with such an assessment, and Fujioka excused herself to head to her classroom. Figuring he was likely to run into more people curious about his appearance on the news if he stayed at the gate, Izuku opted to head to his own classroom and wait for his friends there. He was the first one to arrive, so he sat at his desk going over some of his notes from his training session with Toogata, but it wasn't long before the rest of the class began to trickle in.

"Midoriya, I can't believe you got into a fight with a villain and let me find out about it on the news!" Uraraka exclaimed as soon as she saw him.

Izuku had to reassure her that it had all happened much too fast for him to tell everyone before the stories began to air.

"It's so cool that you took down a villain that was so dangerous!" Kirishima said, nearly in tears. "You're so manly!"

Izuku made the executive decision that the class should know the truth, and told Kirishima about how he wouldn't have been able to do it without the others, but Kirishima simply extended his assessment of manliness to the four of them instead.

"And here I thought my internship was exciting when I helped take down those smugglers," Asui said thoughtfully when she arrived.

With this statement she managed to pull some of the growing attention off Izuku, and for that he was grateful.

"You glitter like a socialite on camera Midoriya," Aoyama simpered. "Your interview was simply

magnifique."

Aoyama had ideas about the heart accent on Izuku's cheek, and pressed a little container of makeup glitter into his hands adamantly. He wouldn't take it back.

"I can't believe Endeavor tried to take credit from you!" Hagakure fumed on his behalf. "Doesn't he know how hard it is for those of us without physical quirks to get noticed? How dare he!"

Izuku withstood her tirade, wondering if he should try to calm her down or not, but when Shouto walked in while she was still ranting Izuku couldn't help but lend his support to Hagakure's fury. Shouto took his seat with a small, secret smile.

Shouto, Hitoshi and Iida were all swarmed when they arrived as well, and the final bell rang with nearly all of the class nowhere near their proper seats. When the door slid pointedly open everyone dove for their desks, but Aizawa did not look happy when he stepped up to the podium at the front of the room.

"Eleven seconds to attentiveness," Aizawa said, voice low and dissatisfied. "Do I have to expel someone for the rest of you to stop slacking off?"

"No, Aizawa-sensei," the class chorused.

Aizawa scoffed, then pulled out a slip of paper and held it out to Izuku. "Midoriya, you're wanted in the principal's office," he said. "Immediately."

Izuku swallowed. He knew that their punishment from UA was still pending, and that likely this meeting with Nezu would determine how it was handled. He didn't know why he was the only one going, given that the school knew the truth of what had happened, but if he was going to represent the others he was going to be as apologetic as possible. He stood up and took the hall pass, nodding politely to Aizawa, and made his way to Nezu's office.

This time Izuku wasn't even surprised when the door swung open before he could touch it, and he walked in to find Nezu sitting at his desk and reading something on a tablet.

"Have a seat Midoriya," Nezu invited, gesturing at the chair opposite him. "We have a lot to discuss."

Izuku closed the door behind himself and sat down. Nezu was too small to hold the tablet like a human, so it was propped up on its folded case on the desk so he could read it like a computer screen. After a while he pushed it aside and leveled his gaze at Izuku.

"Well," he began cheerfully, "your internship certainly was eventful, wasn't it?"

"I'm so sorry sir," Izuku said, immediately bowing his head. "I had no idea things would get so out of hand-"

"No one had any idea," Nezu cut him off before he could finish. "You set out to catch a lone killer, you had no reason to suspect the League of Villains would unleash monsters on Hosu the same night."

Izuku blinked, but didn't say anything. He had no idea where the Principal was going with this. It didn't sound like he was being scolded, but . . .

"I still should have . . . anticipated . . ." Izuku tried, struggling for an explanation.

"The issue," Nezu interrupted again, "is not that the op didn't go well. It was how you handled the situation when things went off the rails. Rather than going to an adult for help you tried to handle the situation yourself."

Izuku opened his mouth -- to explain or to apologize he wasn't sure -- but Nezu held up one paw.

"I understand your reasoning," he said calmly, "but I think this may be symptomatic of a larger problem with you, Izuku Midoriya."

"What larger problem?" Izuku asked nervously. He wondered if this had something to do with what Mic had told him, about that mental block and how he had to train himself to believe things.

Nezu turned the tablet to face him, displaying a hero forum Izuku checked almost every day. Centered on the screen was a post Izuku recognized. He had written it, after getting home from the sports festival two weeks ago, to stoke the flames of Endeavor's PR fiasco.

"Do you recognize this?" Nezu asked conversationally.

"Um," Izuku said, not sure what answer Nezu was looking for.

Nezu swiped at the screen so it displayed another tab, this one a different hero forum. Another post was shown, this one more recent, about how Endeavor's response to the general outcry hadn't included any statement from his son, the one who had been left scarred. Izuku had been careful not to imply that Endeavor was lying, just that it was in poor taste to so openly condemn his wife, who was still in the hospital following the incident according to Endeavor's telling.

"What about this?" Nezu pressed, very gently, not at all as though he meant to accuse Izuku of anything.

"Um," Izuku repeated. He thought his face must have been very pale by now.

Nezu swiped again, showing the post from Friday night, the video with its two word caption. This forum was an older one, and Izuku had held his account there for longer. The profile picture next to the post displayed a selfie from when he was nine, still perfectly recognizable as him now.

"And this one?" Nezu asked finally.

"Yes sir," Izuku admitted, reflexively hunching his shoulders and pulling his arms in to make himself small.

"I do like to keep an eye on these kinds of things," Nezu said with a sigh. "It's just a shame I had to find out this way."

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked. What did Nezu think he had found out? That a student was posting unflattering things about a hero? That wasn't a crime was it?

"My quirk is called High Specs," Nezu explained. "It grants me intelligence greater than that of a human. Tell me, do you think I would see one of my students attempting to turn public opinion against the Number Two Hero and not ask myself why he might be doing that?"

Izuku shut his mouth. He didn't know what he should say. Shouto had told Hitoshi about his father in confidence, Izuku wasn't even supposed to know about it himself. Shouto didn't seem to mind that he knew, but he hadn't given Izuku permission to tell anyone.

"Midoriya," Nezu prompted gently. "Has Endeavor purposefully hurt Todoroki or his siblings?"

What do I say? Izuku wondered, mouth still clamped shut. Do I tell? Shouto hasn't told anyone about it. Why? Does he think no one will care? Will Nezu be able to do anything? Is there some other danger in telling an adult that I don't know about? What's the right answer? Can I-

"You don't need to reply," Nezu said, turning the tablet back toward himself and closing it. "The answer is written all over your face."

"Please sir," Izuku burst out, "I was only trying to protect Shouto, and-"

"Midoriya," Nezu cut him off for the third time in their conversation. "I'm not angry. You've done nothing wrong. If anyone is to blame for negligence, it is I and the other teachers. I can see why you didn't want to come to us. We should have known from the beginning."

Izuku paused. Nezu wasn't angry? "Then, why are you showing me this? Are you going to tell me to stop?"

"Not stop," Nezu shook his head, "merely be patient."

"What do you mean be patient?" Izuku asked. "What do you intend to do?"

"I understand you want to protect your friend," Nezu told him. "I want to protect my student. The timing, however, could not be worse. What you've been doing is called a character assassination, using public opinion to take down your opponent. However, in considering what a massive drop in popularity would do to Endeavor's career, did you stop to consider what knocking the Number Two Hero off his pedestal might do to the public opinion of heroes in general, following so close on the heels of Stain's capture?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment, bowing his head to avoid looking at Nezu. He had thought, for a little while, that UA wasn't like middle school. That the teachers would see the truth of what was happening. That the adults would, for once, actually care. Mic seemed to care, even Aizawa seemed to care, but perhaps they were the outliers. Perhaps it had been naive to think an entire school could be like that.

"Sir," Izuku said, slowly, trying not to let the pain he was feeling show in his voice. "Are you suggesting we let Endeavor keep hurting a child, to preserve people's faith in heroes?"

"Not in the slightest," Nezu said firmly.

Izuku looked up at him. A mixture of burning heartache and cold fury had settled in his chest like a weight. He didn't even have it in him to be scared. He didn't know what expression he was wearing, but he knew that no matter how much the punishment hurt, he wasn't going to apologize anymore.

Nezu, however, smiled. "You're an excellent hero student, Midoriya," he said. "You have an innate desire to protect others, and a strong sense of justice. You are correct in thinking that leaving Todoroki in Endeavor's hands would be unforgivable."

The tight coil of emotion inside Izuku loosened, ever so slightly. "What are you saying? How do we protect Shouto without taking down Endeavor?"

"Public opinion is a fickle beast," Nezu began. "It can do great damage, and not always to those who deserve it. It can make people virtually untouchable by the law, or turn them into pariahs without a friend in the world. However, villains are not tried in the court of public opinion. They are tried in a court of law, where evidence is presented and witnesses are called."

"But sir," Izuku said, "won't that evidence come to light if there's an investigation? We just need to pressure the police into looking more closely-"

"And then what?" Nezu raised an eyebrow. "Endeavor has been hiding this from the world for years. Do you think he left any of his tracks uncovered?"

Izuku blinked. That was something he genuinely hadn't thought of, even while he'd been calculating how soon he could get Shouto out of his father's house.

"For the police to act the evidence needs to be there," Nezu went on. "There needs to be enough of it that he can't explain it away. If there is an investigation and nothing is found, Endeavor becomes the victim of a smear campaign. Any future complaints against him will be cast into doubt."

Izuku bit his lip, thinking. It made sense, what Nezu was saying. Once those questioning Endeavor had been 'proven' to be liars, getting the police to take another look would become exponentially harder.

"There will also be people who see this investigation as an unprovoked attack on Endeavor no matter what we do," Nezu explained. "These people will also likely see that smaller attack as a piece of a larger campaign against hero society, especially in the wake of the effect Stain is having. They will close ranks around Endeavor because of what he represents: peace, security, the status quo."

"I see," Izuku said. He did see. "It's not about protecting hero society, it's about using the way things are to our advantage."

Nezu sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You and I are similar in many ways Midoriya. Looking at the bigger picture seems distasteful to us because the bigger picture has been used to justify hurting us. I was once a lab animal, experimented on by scientists, and I know how our society treats the quirkless. We were both considered acceptable sacrifices to the greater good."

"Like Shouto," Izuku realized.

"Like Todoroki," Nezu agreed. "I want you to let me help you, and in exchange there will be no punishment for the Hosu incident, for you or any of the others. I want you to pause your online campaign against Endeavor; don't let people forget his recent outbursts, but don't fan the flames any further. In the meantime, I will be building an ironclad case against him. I can gather more evidence with my resources than you can on your own, and I can do so through more official channels."

"What about Shouto?" Izuku asked. "How long will this take? Are we just supposed to leave him there?"

"I have a short term solution to that," Nezu informed him. "It will take a little time to implement, but it will be faster than waiting for the final curtain, and it will be entirely above board."

Nezu placed one paw on the desk, reaching out for Izuku.

"We need not be vigilantes," he said. "We can be heroes. Let me show you how."

Izuku hesitated, then nodded. "Yes sir."

"So we're not in trouble?" Hitoshi asked as they made their way to the gym where they normally did after school training.

"Nope," Izuku shook his head. "He said as long as I did this his way there was no need."

"Figured Eraser was all talk," Hitoshi kicked a pebble on the ground in annoyance. "Another of his logical ruses."

"You do seem to admire the idea behind them," Shouto pointed out reasonably.

Izuku gave Shouto a worried glance. Shouto hadn't really reacted to the news that Nezu now knew about Endeavor's abuse, and Izuku was starting to get anxious about his nonchalance. He could hazard a guess as to why Shouto hadn't told anyone himself -- no one in his father's orbit had cared when he was a child, so why should anyone care now? -- but the fact that an adult now knew and was wiling to do something about it should provoke some reaction in him.

"Shouto," Izuku began carefully, causing Shouto to look over at him. "Are you . . . OK?"

Shouto looked down at the ground like he was thinking hard about it. "I don't know," he admitted after a while. "I always figured this was the type of thing I'd have to handle myself. If I had known all I had to do was go about it the wrong way for an adult to help, I would have acted out sooner."

"I don't think that's quite what happened here," Hitoshi said gingerly.

"Yeah," Izuku agreed, "I think Nezu would have done something on his own if he knew. We just brought it to his attention."

Shouto looked over at him, his tilted to the side curiously. "He didn't know about it before?"

"No!" Izuku said hurriedly. "He said he was sorry he didn't realize sooner, and he said he has a short term solution for getting you out of that house, but he didn't really go into detail about it so I don't know what he's going to do, and-"

"Izuku," Shouto said, calm and placid. "I'm not upset."

"Why not though?" Izuku demanded. "This is the first time an adult has tried to help you, shouldn't you feel something?"

"I don't know," Shouto said. He looked back at the ground. "I don't feel relieved, because nothing's changed yet. I'm not angry, I stopped feeling angry at anyone but my father a long time ago. He's the cause of it all, so he's the one who deserves my anger."

"You can be angry at the people who covered it up," Hitoshi pointed out. "They were wrong too." "There's too many of them," Shouto said. "I don't have it in me to be angry at the whole world."

"It wasn't the whole world though," Izuku protested. "It was like, ten people. Twenty at maximum. Endeavor doesn't have the money to pay off the whole world, he bribed a few key people to keep their mouths shut and the rest didn't know what was going on. People would have cared if they'd known."

"Yeah," Hitoshi agreed, with a crooked smile. "It's not like you were quirkless or had a villain's

quirk. People would have wanted to protect you."

Shouto stopped, staring straight ahead. Izuku and Hitoshi stopped with him, watching him carefully. He looked surprised, then confused, then troubled. Finally Izuku stepped out in front of him, Hitoshi doing the same on Shouto's other side. They stood shoulder to shoulder, looking into Shouto's face, and finally his eyes refocused on the two of them.

"What is it?" Hitoshi asked when Shouto didn't say anything right away.

Shouto hesitated a little longer, then began to speak. "When I was a kid, it always seemed like everyone knew. Some people were more comfortable than others, but no one was willing to stop him. I didn't go to school, I had private tutors, so my world was very small. It's strange to think that what seemed like everyone in the whole world . . . was actually so few people."

Izuku smiled, then went back to standing beside Shouto on their path to the gym. He pushed in close, and Hitoshi copied him on Shouto's other side, and the two of them sandwiched Shouto between them firmly. Part of him wanted to hold Shouto's hand, but he figured this kind of closeness would have to do for now.

"The world is bigger now," Izuku told him. "There are more people. They care. Is it OK if we let them help?"

Shouto hesitated a moment longer, then gave a small nod, looking down at the ground again. Izuku leaned against him, the combined presence of himself and Hitoshi squeezing Shouto tight, and they set off again for the gym.

This was their first training session with just the three of them since the day they'd run experiments, and Izuku had been thinking hard about how to go about it. First they did warm up stretches, and Izuku had Hitoshi brainwash him and Shouto to see if they could deepen any of the stretches without hurting themselves. Izuku apparently had a more flexible back than he'd assumed, but Shouto was pretty much at his limit already. Then they ran a few laps of the gym, with Hitoshi brainwashing the other two again for the last lap to see if they could move faster. Shouto also had a few notes about their technique, and Hitoshi ordered Izuku to follow several instructions at once, which didn't seem to be a problem.

This had the added effect of demonstrating how well Hitoshi could keep up his control while physically exerting himself, which would be important for him to know out in the field. It turned out that his focus waned when he was running, and toward the end of their lap Izuku actually managed to break free without much effort. Shouto couldn't break out, even with Hitoshi distracted, but the two of them already had a theory about that.

"I'm pretty sure it's something unique about you," Shouto said as Izuku wrote down a few notes. "That seems unlikely," Izuku countered, smiling shakily into his notebook.

"You're the only one that's ever broken out," Hitoshi insisted. "Like, ever."

"You haven't tried it on that many people," Izuku pointed out.

"Yeah, but most of the ones I tried it on were adults," Hitoshi countered. "They should be stronger, but none of them were as strong as you."

"Right, let's continue!" Izuku said hurriedly, closing his pen in his notebook and standing back up. Next they did a few simple physical exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats and lunges. There

was no point exhausting Hitoshi with more brainwashing or the other two with more reps than they could handle, so Izuku counted this as a break from quirk training and focused on ordinary physical abilities. Shouto was, understandably, miles beyond the other two, but he wasn't particularly interested in showing off and let Izuku and Hitoshi set the pace and the stopping point.

After that it was back to quirk training, and Izuku had a few ideas about that too. He proposed a number of exercises to flex both control and raw power using fire, and Shouto added a few of his own he'd learned growing up. First Shouto went through them on his own, then Hitoshi brainwashed him and he tried again. Both precision and scale were better with Hitoshi in control, and when Shouto did them again on his own his skill showed a small amount of improvement.

"I think you should probably run through that sequence three times every training session," Izuku decided, closing his notebook and putting it back into his bag. "Once without brainwashing, once brainwashed, and then again without. You probably shouldn't just alternate between them the whole session, because that won't improve your ability to use your quirks in combat. Instead I think you should spar for the rest of the day, both of you trying to use your quirks on each other and trying to avoid the other's quirk. That'll stop you from stagnating while you work on power and technique."

"Probably smart," Shouto said. "My father preferred me to train at one thing until he was satisfied and then move onto another. This seems smarter, and a lot more forgiving."

"The point is not to exhaust yourself," Izuku told him, shouldering his bag. "It can't be too unpleasant. People like us can't afford to let training become a chore. It has to be something you want to do."

"Fair," said Hitoshi, with a curious tone, "but uh, one question."

"Yeah?" Izuku asked, halfway through turning toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Hitoshi asked, tilting his head to the side in obvious bemusement.

Izuku blinked at him, equally puzzled. "I figured I'd go to Training Ground Beta and work on my parkour skills."

"But we're not done," Shouto protested lightly. "You just said we should spar."

"I figured you'd want to do some training by yourselves," Izuku explained. "This is about the two of you, I'm not necessary for this part."

"Izuku," Hitoshi interrupted, "why would you think we didn't want you here the whole time we were training?"

"I- I mean," Izuku stammered, "you're doing quirk training, and I don't have a quirk, so-"

"We're not just quirk training though," Shouto said. "We're sparring. You can spar just as well as anyone."

"You should bring your force lance next time," Hitoshi said, sounding a little disapproving. "You should really train with your signature weapon, it's just as important as a quirk after all."

"I think they have a few simple weapons in the supply room," Izuku said. "But, uh . . . you really want me to stay?"

"Izuku," said Shouto softly, and his tone made Izuku and Hitoshi both look over at him. "There's a

lot I could learn from my father. Not just about my fire, but the judgement and instincts of a Pro, what it takes to be the Number Two Hero."

"Shouto," Izuku breathed, but Hitoshi held up a hand without looking at him.

"Without him, I'll have to learn much of that by trial and error," Shouto went on, "but I think I could learn at least some of it from you. You've earned the respect of so many Pro Heroes, taught them things about how they work that they didn't even know about themselves. I want to learn how to do that, and I want to start here. With you."

For a moment Izuku clamped his mouth shut. He didn't trust himself to speak. Tears prickled at his eyes, making his vision vague and blurry. The lump in his throat was making it difficult to breathe.

"Don't cry Izuku," Hitoshi warned, but there was no heat to his voice. He sounded almost fond.

"Yes," Izuku gasped, squeezing his eyes shut until the tears receded, then looking back at Shouto. "I'll do everything I can. I want to help!"

"Then go grab a staff," Hitoshi instructed. "We'll wait for you."

Izuku ran to the back of the gym, to the hallway off of which were the locker rooms, weight room and supply closets. Among the supplies available to students were a number of simple weapons: batons, staffs, rubber-tipped fencing swords, blunt knives and other such nonlethal instruments. He selected a bo staff and made for the main gym again, but as he passed the locker room something stopped him. He still had his bag on his back, so he stepped into the boy's locker room and walked to one of the mirrors. Examining his own reflection, he found he looked the way he always had.

Small, short, insignificant. Unkempt, unruly, unimportant. Useless, worthless, Deku.

He let his bag slip from his shoulder and dug around inside the front pocket. After a moment he came up with the eyeliner pencil he'd bought at the drugstore over the weekend, the same brand as the one Mic had given him. Turning back to the mirror, he tilted his face and drew on the little heart, just beneath his left eye.

Now he was Dekiru. A hero student. A trusted friend. An inspiration to others. Still quirkless, but that was no longer a bad thing.

He put the eyeliner pencil away and went back to the main gym, to find the other two still waiting for him.

"OK, I'm ready, let's get started!"

All Might didn't seem the slightest bit surprised when Izuku didn't return from training with his friends until it was nearly dark, and dutifully drove him home. Izuku didn't even have it in him to feel guilty about it, and he didn't even feel awkward when All Might commented on how happy he looked.

"Just had a good time training," he said, and All Might smiled as though he understood perfectly.

It was a little bit more awkward when All Might came up for tea again, but for some reason Izuku was allowed to escape to his room before the guest had left, which wasn't a thing his mother had ever permitted before. He wasn't going to complain though. Instead he went straight to his laptop and opened all his hero forum accounts, intent on checking the state of the discussion about Endeavor.

Nezu had told him not to let people forget about Endeavor's recent outbursts, but not to fan the flames any higher. He intended to keep a close watch on the situation.

Stain was still the hottest topic of conversation, but since Izuku's video upload there were also plenty of people talking about Endeavor. Now that Nezu had brought it up Izuku began to notice the people drawing connections between the two topics, saying that Endeavor and his temper were symptomatic of the problems within the hero system. He took note of the people expressing the most extreme views and decided to bring them up the next time Nezu called him in for a chat. He had said that he and Izuku would talk again soon, and that they might make it a regular thing, if Izuku was willing.

He was finishing up with his newer accounts and moving on to some of his older ones when he saw it. A few people on every forum had sent him private messages, asking about the video or wanting to discuss it with an kindred spirit before they made their thoughts known more broadly. Most of these, however, had subject lines like re: the video or can we talk? One message, sent to one of the accounts he'd had since he was a kid, was different.

Getting To Know You, read the subject line.

Izuku stared at it, frowning in thought. It sounded like someone trying to make a friend, but it seemed a weird way to address a first message. The sender's username didn't give anything away, it was just a string of random numbers. Curious, Izuku opened the message.

You have my attention, Izuku. Tell me, are you number nine?