Chapter 12: Do You Understand?

Monoma cursed under his breath – he'd been spotted.

There was no use in being careful now, and class A was on the move.

"Let's go!" he called out to the others as he sprinted ahead.

Shishida skidded in front of the group, activating his beast transformation Quirk to block their path. It worked in diverting them, straight into Shiozaki, who had already set up a net of vines to trap them.

The girl with the high ponytail – 20, Monoma believed was her number – however, had turned a flashlight on, and the light fell on Shiozaki too quickly.

"Follow me!" called out the girl with the hearing Quirk whose number Monoma couldn't remember. She expertly led them through a gap in class B's plan and darted through the trees.

"Watch out!" yelled Honenuki, causing class B to jump to the left and right. He slammed his foot down on the ground, and Monoma watched the earth ripple as the quicksand caught up with the villains.

"The ground!" warned Tetsutetsu's red-headed friend, number 8, and the opposing side quickly split up to dodge the attack.

"I'm calling Mr Vlad!" Kendo announced, muttering about how she should have done this earlier.

"Dark Shadow!" yelled bird-headed number 14, whose frightening shadow leapt at Kendo from the darkness.

"Kendo look out!" yelled Tsuburaba.

Kendo screeched as the shadow slashed and split her phone in half, right in her hand.

"I've got it!" proclaimed Kuroiro, who used his black morphing Quirk to leap right inside the shadow and take control.

14 grunted as he was punched in the stomach with his own power.

There was a flash of light from eternally angry number 17, cupping an explosion in his hands, which made the shadow creature whine and disappear, leaving Kuroiro on the ground.

"Don't attack, Bakugo!" yelled 8 when Monoma saw the villain ready to send a ball of fire at his friend's face, "Remember the vigilante loopholes!"

17 cried out in frustration and continued to run with his classmates.

"There's the wall!" the super hearing girl suddenly exclaimed as the boarder to UA came into view.

"Oh, no you don't!" Tetsutetsu cried out, and he barrelled right into number 8, knocking him off path. This resulted in the latter activating his Quirk and beginning to fight back.

Monoma was hyper aware that he hadn't seen 18 yet – where was he?! Waiting in the shadows, ready to jump out and attack when he least expected it?!

This was when he scanned the area, and realised –

"Only half of them are here!" he yelled to his classmates. "18 and the rest must be somewhere else!"

"Damn it!" yelled the villain with the tape Quirk, hauling his friend around, who was tied up with his mouth taped shut. "We need to get Kaminari over the wall first!"

"Screw that!" 17 suddenly yelled, "And screw the loopholes!"

"Wait!" 8 cried, taking a punch from Tetsutetsu, "Bakugo, don't!"

But it was too late, with a flash and a bang louder than Monoma had ever heard, the explosive villain destroyed the wall in seconds –

– and a shrill alarm rang across the school.

"What is that?!" Hagakure cried.

Midoriya looked around in fear. The corner of his eyes had caught a flash of light in the distance. Not long after, a familiar alarm filled his ears.

"Oh, no," he murmured, eyes settling on a plume of smoke rising into the stormy night sky, contrasted against the light of UA and the city beyond. "Kacchan, you didn't!"

"Did he just blow up the wall?!" Uraraka exclaimed, grabbing Midoriya's hand as he scrambled onto the top of their part of said wall. Everyone but them were over now. They'd completed their mission.

Shoji reached up and hauled himself back onto the wall. He created several new ears on the end of his tentacle like hands and announced, "I think they're fighting."

"What?" Tsu called up at them, "Who are they fighting, ribbit?"

"The heroes shouldn't be anywhere near them!" Hagakure added.

"Whatever it is, it isn't good," Shoto acknowledged stiffly.

Dammit! It had all been going so well! What did they miss?!

"We have to help them!" Midoriya announced, starting to run down the length of the wall.

"Wait, Midori!" Uraraka called out running after him.

"We can't risk going to them!" Shoto tried to reason with him as they all ran to keep up with him, on the floor beside the wall.

"P-Perhaps we should go to the rendezvous point?!" Aoyama panted.

"If they're fighting, they need all the help they can get!" Midoriya reasoned, not daring to stop. He jumped over rivets in the wall, scrambling up sudden inclines as it moved with the land. This was the quickest way to get to the others.

"Up there!" someone called out.

With no more warning than that, Midoriya was suddenly pulled off the wall. Constricting vines covered him from head to toe like a spider would do to a fly. He couldn't see – couldn't speak – could barely breathe as he felt himself be tugged around. When he struggled, the vines only grew tighter.

The sounds around him were muffled, but he could just hear his friends' cries as the attack began.

He could do nothing until there was a familiar drop in temperature, and the vines were yanked harshly away from him.

Midoriya took a deep breath and coughed, gasping for air.

"Are you ok?" Shoto asked after saving him yet again.

"Y-Yeah," Midoriya replied, taking his hand and getting to his feet.

He looked around to find ice surrounding them like a jagged halo. When he turned to his left, he nearly jumped three feet into the air at the sight of the vine-haired member of class B, all but her face encased in ice.

"Class B?!" Midoriya exclaimed as Tsu's tongue was wrapped around his waist and he was pulled away again.

"We have to get to the others, ribbit!" she announced.

"R-Right!" and Midoriya kept running.

"They attacked us first," Shoto reminded him as they ran. "That works for the vigilante loophole you mentioned, right?!"

"Yeah! I-It does – we have to act in self-defence, and nothing else!"

"Got it!" Uraraka replied as they finally reached the scene of the new exit to UA, designed and built by none other than Katsuki Bakugo.

Idiot!

Midoriya didn't have time to think before they were back in the fray.

He leapt to dodge Honenuki's softening Quirk that would have trapped him in quicksand, an action that the others thankfully copied.

Speaking of which –

"Think you could outsmart us, 18?!" and Monoma leapt into view.

His hands suddenly enlarged to at least the same size as the rest of his body, and Midoriya just barely ducked out of the way with reflexes that Kacchan had been training in him since they were little kids.

"Don't let him touch your bare skin!" Monoma warned the rest of class B as he continued his attack on Midoriya.

How Midoriya managed to consistently evade him was a complete and utter mystery.

Another wall of ice from Shoto accidentally blocked Monoma from Midoriya whilst Shoto fought his own battles. Midoriya managed to scramble away and hide behind the nearest tree, which was when he caught sight of Yaoyorozu, a little out of the way of the battle.

"Yaoyorozu!" he exclaimed, scurrying towards her.

She was stuck fast to the ground with some kind of hardened glue, and one of her arms was seemingly fused with the tree behind her. She struggled to get free, but there was no use, even when Midoriya pitched in, dropping his rucksack to her side as he did so.

"If you can defeat class B, then the others can help get me free afterwards!" she insisted, and then held her free arm out to him. "Take this."

Midoriya blinked at her for a moment, until with a slight shimmer of light, he realised there was a metal handle protruding from her forearm.

With a slight grin, Midoriya took a hold of it and pulled, revealing an awfully familiar sword.

"Look out!" she suddenly cried.

Midoriya pivoted and blocked with the sword, just in time to block the blade of a green, insect-like hero student.

"Attacking with a sword?" he hissed at him, pushing against Midoriya as he pushed back.

"You were the one who snuck up behind me with a blade Quirk!" Midoriya retorted.

"Need some help?!" and Ojiro appeared out of nowhere, jumping down from the trees to tackle the guy with the blade Quirk.

Midoriya let Ojiro, the more experienced of the two, take the lead as they both battled the hero student. Midoriya made sure he couldn't get away, and occasionally blocked newly formed blades whilst Ojiro took a more hands on approach. It wasn't exactly easy to fight an experienced vigilante with a rather muscular tail thrown in the mix.

Ojiro eventually pushed him into one of his classmate's own traps, and he sunk waist deep in Honenuki's quicksand.

"HONENUKI!" he yelled in frustration. But the moment his classmate turned to rescue him, Shoto froze him in place, and both remained immobile.

The victory didn't last long, however, because Midoriya soon found himself under attack by the girl with the vines again, who had somehow gotten free from Shoto's icy prison.

But Midoriya wasn't going down so easily this time. He slashed at the vines with Yaoyorozu's sword, freeing Jiro in the process.

"Ha, ha!" she cried victoriously as she kicked the remaining vines away. "Not caught yet, Bakugo!"

"Oh yeah?!" he called back, fighting against Sen, whose hands could swivel at an alarming speed, as though they were drills. "As far as I'm aware, I'm still freaking better than you!"

He laughed when she got caught in a glue trap by monstrous looking Bondo and cried out in frustration.

Midoriya, meanwhile, was doing rather well, considering he had next to no experience with a sword – mainly because the blade was highly effective against the onslaught of vines.

He thought he was about to best his opponent, which, of course, jinxed the outcome immediately.

Midoriya inhaled sharply as two blades suddenly manifested over both his shoulders, crossing in front of his neck.

Monoma, covering his skin with a friend's jacket, yelled over Midoriya's shoulder, "EVERYONE STOP RIGHT THERE!"

That got their attention, and now all eyes were on Midoriya's critical situation.

The sword was yanked from his hand by an invisible force, and flew to the hand of a silver haired girl from class B.

"Stop there," Monoma repeated. "Put your hands in the air, 18. My skin is covered – you can't take my power."

Midoriya would have pointed out that the blades sticking out of his arms, with the Quirk he'd copied from his stuck friend, technically could have counted as part of him. But it wasn't like Midoriya could really steal his Quirk, and Monoma's power clearly hasn't been cancelled out yet.

Kacchan dared to laugh, "HA! Like you'd actually kill him!"

Midoriya tried to struggle free but stopped when Monoma actually pressed the blades against his skin. "No, I won't kill him, I'm not a villain," he hissed.

But then Midoriya felt a hand reach for his left shoulder, where bandages poked out under his T-shirt, and Monoma squeezed.

Midoriya tried not to cry out, but he couldn't help it.

Midoriya's friends backed away; a few shocked yelps were shared between them.

"He's your leader, right?" the hero student breathed, still clutching Midoriya's shoulder in an unspoken threat, blades still raised against his neck. "You won't be able to carry out your plan without him. So, go on! Leave him behind!"

The members of class A that were still able to fight hesitated, glancing between each other, unsure of their next move. This would usually be where Midoriya made a decision, but at the moment, he didn't have a clue of what to do.

"Monoma, he'll just take your Quirk!" warned a hero student with green, scaled arms and a tight plait.

"My skin is covered," Monoma repeated. "And all of your classmates still have their Quirks, don't they, 18?!" he laughed. "See, this is where I'm stronger than you! All you can do is take! Without stealing someone else's power away from them, you are a useless –

"Quirkless –

"Nothing!"

Midoriya gritted his teeth, feeling his fury boil and overflow – his eyes blazing with anger only comparable to Kacchan's.

"I am NOT –"

He elbowed Monoma in the neck, in a certain spot that Uraraka had once taught him to aim for.

"– USELESS!"

In surprise, Monoma stumbled backwards, blades parting for just a second. This gave Midoriya just enough time to pivot on his heel and punch Monoma right in the nose.

There was a gasp of shock from several onlookers as Monoma fell to the ground, blades shrinking away and blood pouring from his nose.

Midoriya just panted and stared at the fallen foe, ignoring the red speckles on his knuckles.

There was a second gasp as the girl with the silver hair was frozen, and Shoto was then right there, holding the hilt of the sword out to Midoriya, "Here."

"Thanks."

This was the moment that the scene of their battle was class B was flooded with light, when previously ignored lamps switched on, and the surviving cameras on the walls nearby blinked red, raising their mechanical heads and turning towards the scene.

Kacchan wasn't the only one who let out a rather rude word as the hole in the wall that he'd made was suddenly non-existent, rising back up and rebuilding itself.

"What's –" Midoriya started.

He caught the eye of a dark-haired girl, taped to a tree not far from Yaoyorozu. She held a phone in her hand, the light of it cutting through the darkness that remained.

"YES, KODAI!" cried out a classmate of hers with a blue and white hairband, who had somehow ended up stuck high in the branches of the very same tree.

Midoriya turned at the sound of footsteps, and backed away from Monoma as he saw a whole crowd of Ectoplasm clones surround them, alongside Cementoss, who must have fixed the wall, and Hound Dog, who must have been the one to lead the heroes to them. Midoriya could also see Midnight in the corner of his eye, and he knew that they didn't stand a chance.

"Drop the sword, 18," Miss Midnight ordered.

Midoriya gazed down at the blade, finally noting the blood on the back of his hand.

He let it fall to the ground.

"Midoriya?" Shoto hissed, fists still raised and clearly ready to continue the fight.

"No," he shook his head, raising his hands once again above his head.

"It's over."

There was an Ectoplasm clone on each of them, whilst class B was rescued from various precarious positions, such as halfway sunken underground or halfway up a tree. Some members of class A too, needed help. However, it was noticeably clear that, had the fight gone on much longer, it would have been class A who reigned victorious.

Clutching the bridge of his nose in one hand, and cupping the stream of blood with the other, Monoma glared at Midoriya, "He's the leader," the hero student snarled. "They won't go anywhere without him! You need to fail that freaking Quirk stealer! And speaking of which – give me my Quirk BACK!"

"Monoma, calm down," one of the Ectoplasm clones insisted. "But thank you for the information."

Midoriya's eyes returned to being fixed on the ground. He didn't dare to meet the gaze of any of the heroes, nor his classmates.

"Midnight," Ectoplasm (possibly the real one) began, "I think it may be best to…"

Midnight cleared her throat, "Yes, I agree."

Midoriya frowned as he heard her approach him, "Wait, what are you –"

He looked up in time to see her hand reach his face, and only just heard his classmate's cries as he fell to the ground, unconscious.

When Midoriya came to, he found himself back in the dorms, lying on the sofa, the back of it shielding him from view of his classmates.

Groggily, he opened his eyes. The first thing they rested on, apart from the ceiling, was what would have been the window directly opposite him.

Except it wasn't a window anymore.

It was completely blocked out with concrete.

That made him sit up.

"He's awake."

Midoriya wasn't sure who said that. He flopped back down, rubbing at his temples whilst his classmates gathered around him, perching on the other sofas or the arms of his.

There was a moment of solemn silence.

"What happened?" Midoriya groaned, breaking it.

"Midnight put you to sleep with her Quirk," Iida explained.

"That makes it sound like she straight up killed him," Jiro interjected.

"For a second, I almost thought she did," Kaminari laughed nervously. "Maybe that's because I was still a little shorted out… It just really surprised me; you know?"

"It surprised me too, ribbit," said Tsu. "I guess she did that in case we thought of running off again. She knew we wouldn't leave Midoriya behind."

Midoriya wasn't even looking at them at this point. He covered his eyes with his hands and sighed deeply, "I'm such an idiot."

"You're not an idiot, Midori!" Uraraka insisted, kneeling down in front of him, "You planned everything out so well!"

"I didn't plan for class B. I planned for everything except class B – why do I always miss one option out?"

"No one expected class B to jump in like that," Yaoyorozu insisted, sitting down on the coffee table beside Uraraka. "That isn't on you, Midoriya."

He sighed again, finally sitting up and feeling the blood rush from his head, which made him dizzy. "But Mr Aizawa was right. With false strengths come real weaknesses – because of my stupid prank Monoma's been targeting us! He thinks it's some kind of competition between us –"

"Don't hold yourself so freaking highly," Kacchan snapped, which made Midoriya flinch, a habit he was sure he'd gotten over. Kacchan noticed this and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you were the one who blew up the wall!" Mina exclaimed. "You set the alarm off!"

"Oh, so now it's my fault, huh?!" he yelled back.

"Guys, please, let's not argue!" Midoriya practically begged.

"Agreed."

Everyone froze.

Midoriya bowed his head a little, watching from the tops of his eyes as footsteps approached.

Bandaged Mr Aizawa came into view.

There was absolute silence for a few moments too many. Eventually, Mr Aizawa pulled a chair over with his foot, pushing it in front of the television screen, meaning it was directly opposite Midoriya, and sat down.

The silence returned.

"I have one question for you all," their teacher said after a minute or so. "Why?"

No one replied.

"Why?" he repeated more forcefully.

Midoriya realised that no one else would speak up – they were waiting for him. "You were in this class, Mr Aizawa – I thought you, of all people, would understand…"

The gaps in between speaking were long and tedious, as each of them mulled each other's words over carefully.

"You were trying to escape UA? No. No, I don't understand." He sounded so… hurt.

"I-I'm sorry," Midoriya insisted. "We just… we… don't want what UA could give us. We don't want to j-just struggle through the rest of our lives – labelled as outcasts by simply being in this class. We didn't want to be as powerless as we were at the USJ – we didn't want to be pushed aside by the world again! We didn't want to go through the Sports Festival… We wanted control over our own futures, and… UA couldn't give that to us."

"…And you all feel this way?"

They nodded without hesitation, all huddled up together – as far from Mr Aizawa as they could get.

"What were you going to do once you were out?" he continued to interrogate. "Where were you going to go? Did you even think this through?"

"We thought everything though, Sir," Iida replied. Midoriya quickly realised that he was following one of the fall-back plans – if Mr Aizawa were unable to place the blame on one person, no one would be failed. So, Iida was trying to ensure that Midoriya wouldn't take all the responsibility for the matter.

But what Midoriya didn't inform the class, was that he had no intention of taking that risk. If someone was going to have to leave for this –

– it would be him.

"So, you were just going to survive on the run?" Mr Aizawa asked in disbelief. "How is that a better life than what UA could have given you?"

The way he said that struck further fear in Midoriya's heart. Specifically, the word could.

"I know you had a better reason than that. What did you really want to do once you were out?"

"You would know, Sir," Midoriya replied. He finally dared to look up and meet his eyes, "You were in class 1-A for the exact same reason."

He didn't reply immediately – and simply stared at him, whilst Midoriya stared back.

"…Vigilantes? You wanted to be… heroes?"

Midoriya shook his head, "Not heroes. We're not like you." Perhaps he said that a little forcefully – maybe he just didn't care anymore.

Mr Aizawa seemed unphased, "Every single one of you… You wanted to be a team of vigilantes?"

Midoriya exchanged glances with a few of his friends. He didn't need to reply because they all nodded.

Their teacher was just… stunned. It was as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Eventually, he asked the question Midoriya had been waiting for.

"Who came up with the idea?" he asked, looking right at Midoriya, as though he already knew the answer.

"It was a joint effort," Iida answered instantly.

"No," Midoriya retorted, "No, it wasn't – it was my idea. It was my plan. I convinced them all to join me. It's not their fault."

"…Midoriya," Iida gaped, realising what he was doing.

"You do realise that I will have to seriously consider your expulsion for this?" Mr Aizawa warned him.

Midoriya swallowed the lump in his throat, "I know."

"Midoriya!" Iida exclaimed, leaping to his feet, not caring that Mr Aizawa was right there. "You said we'd all take the blame equally! We can't all be expelled! Why did you –"

"Well, I lied," Midoriya snapped. "It's not worth risking your future. Sit down, Iida," he practically commanded.

Iida hesitated, but did as he was told, now staring blankly at the ground.

"What about your future, Midoriya?" asked Mr Aizawa.

He blinked at the use of his real name. "What future?"

Midoriya ignored the way his classmates stared at him. He kept his gaze fixed on Mr Aizawa; whose expression did not change.

"Midoriya," Iida repeated. "You can't say such things about yourself!"

"Why not? Everyone knows it."

Midoriya just didn't care anymore. Shoto was right – UA amounted to nothing. There was no way out of the life he had been dealt. He might as well face it.

It was like… the stages of grief. To grieve life, rather than death.

There was his denial –

Midoriya strived to be a hero – whatever it takes. He ran towards the blinding light held upon the pillars that society forged, desperate to cling to them – be amongst them. But unlike so many others, Midoriya refused to see the truth. He could never be that.

Then there was anger –

He shouted at the heroes – spat at them – screamed until his voice grew hoarse. He fought back against Kacchan, dragging him down into the dark pit of failure that Midoriya had grown so used to.

He bargained –

– with the system he was swept up in. He pushed Kacchan into the river, whilst he was unknowingly being swept up in its current alongside him. He tried to find a way around class A – to squeeze out the gaps with clever tricks and twisted words.

And maybe he skipped that whole depressive stage. Because this was his acceptance.

"Mr Aizawa, please, I don't have a place in this world," Midoriya continued, voice devoid of emotion. "I have no power, no hope, no life, no real path to take. I'm destined to be a side character – someone for the heroes to save from the big bad villain one day and gain all the glory they could hope for. But that's not something that someone like me can ever have for themselves. So, don't take pity on me – I don't care anymore. I'm a dead weight. Expel me – not them. At least they could do some good in the world. Then, at least I would have done something that mattered in the long run."

Silence.

Mr Aizawa finally spoke up, "…I'm sorry."

Midoriya didn't know what to say to that, so he just stared straight ahead. Mr Aizawa happened to be in that direction.

"Midoriya, if you could be a hero, would you take that chance?"

He blinked at him. The question took him by surprise. "I-I can't be a hero, Sir. I thought I made that clear."

"Why can't you be a hero?"

Midoriya wavered, "I-I… I just can't. I'm Quirkless."

"What's my Quirk?"

"You… nullify other powers?"

Mr Aizawa shifted a little forward in his chair, "Yes. I make other people Quirkless. Tell me again, once that is activated, what is my power?"

"You… You're…"

"Quirkless. I don't really have a Quirk, Midoriya. All I can do is make sure that no one else has one either. And say what you want about that. The point is, I was able to become a hero just fine without much of a power. Why can't you?"

Midoriya was lost for words. He tried to say something in reply – but nothing fell out.

Mr Aizawa's gaze drifted away from him, "You all… seriously wanted to be vigilantes?"

His eyes rested on Shoto, who now sat next to Midoriya.

Realising this was a question aimed at him, Shoto braved making a reply, "This has nothing to do with my father, or Dabi," he explained. "This is my decision, and mine alone. They don't rule my life. I don't care what either of them think."

"Would you be a hero?" Mr Aizawa actually asked Shoto Todoroki. "Not just a vigilante – would you be a real hero, if given the chance?"

Shoto thought long and hard about his response. "…Sir, I… I don't know."

But that wasn't a no.

Mr Aizawa nodded.

After a while, whilst silence rang in Midoriya's ears, he spoke up again, "There is still the matter of what to do following this… escape attempt.

"First things first – Midoriya."

He bowed his head, readying himself for those faithful words.

"You're –"

Shoto stood up, "Mr Aizawa, if you expel Midoriya, you will soon have every reason to expel me too."

Midoriya stared at him.

"…How many of you would I soon have every reason to expel, following Midoriya's expulsion?"

And slowly but surely, nearly every single one of his classmates, raised their hands.

Mr Aizawa nodded.

"Midoriya –"

He flinched.

"– you're class president."

He stared, mouth agape. "W-What?!"

"And you have three weeks' detention."

Yeah, that was a little more expected.

Midoriya stood up, "Sir! I-I can't be class representative!"

"Why not?"

"B-Because I… I… Iida should be class president!"

"Congratulations, Iida, you're vice president."

"Mr Aizawa!" Midoriya cried, but his teacher completely ignored him. He stood up, about to walk away and just leave them there.

"Excuse me, Sir, but why is no one else getting detention, ribbit?" croaked Tsu.

He hesitated, "Would you all volunteer to take some of Midoriya's detention time?"

They all nodded instantly.

"Good. Midoriya, you have two weeks' detention. No one else, only you," and he continued to walk away. "You can have your windows back when we've decided you'll behave. Don't make us put security cameras up in the dorms."

"MR AIZAWA!" Midoriya yelled, following him part way.

He stopped by the door, "Yes?"

Midoriya only stared for a moment, face moulded with such bewilderment that he felt as though his brain was doing jump rope. "I… Do… D-Do you really think I… that w-we… could be heroes? Real ones?"

He answered without a second thought, "Yes."

"Even… even after what we've done?"

"Without a shadow of a doubt."

"But… why?"

"Yeah, we're villains," added Uraraka, reaching Midoriya's side.

"How could we be heroes if the whole world hates us?" questioned Kirishima.

"Sir, w-we can't even live normal lives," Yaoyorozu stammered. "How could we possibly live the life of a hero after everything that's happened?"

"That's exactly the reason," Mr Aizawa nodded, opening the door as he spoke. He stood there and stared at the outside world for a moment before continuing. "No, I don't believe any of you can graduate back into society. I don't think any of you are prepared for that, and I don't think you ever will be."

With gritted teeth and a manic smile, he turned back to them. "Because you can be something bigger. You aren't villains – you never were, and you never will be. But you can take that fire inside of you and put it to good use."

The smile faded as quickly as it had arrived. He sighed deeply and took a step outside, letting the rest of his class approach the door, all standing around Midoriya as they waited for their teacher's words.

He gestured around him, the best he could with the bandages that restricted him so. "We're in a hero school, aren't we? Well, then, if you genuinely want it…

"Let's be heroes."