"So…Are ya gonna leave me hangin' forever or what?" The man asked, narrowing his eyes at Izuku.

Izuku hesitantly tapped the man's fist with his own. 'Who is this guy?'

"Now was that so hard?" The man flicked Izuku's forehead. "So, ya going to accept her confession or give her heart the hard boot?"

Izuku's ears went bright red as steam expelled out of them. 'Why do you want to know that?!'

"Just messin' with ya, kid!" The man let out a booming laughter, slapping his knee.

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows, not appreciating this complete stranger deciding to tease him out of nowhere.

But as he watched the man laugh, something clicked within his brain. He remembered seeing this man in his dream along with what seemed like the other One For All users. So that must mean he's one as well.

And if their standing order indicates what number they are…Izuku started to count with his fingers until he got to five. Luckily, he stopped at five, since that was as high as he could go with only having his right hand available to him.

The man took notice of what the boy was doing and raised a brow. "Connected the dots, did ya, brainiac?" He pointed to himself with his thumb. "That's right, I'm the fifth user of One For All. The name is Daigoro Banjo. Now, I should probably start explaining the real reason I'm here to talk to you. Believe it or not, my main purpose here isn't to talk to you about that confession. As much as I'm happy for ya, that doesn't matter in the long run."

Izuku deadpanned. 'Then why did you have to bring it up in the first place…?'

His eyes then shot wide open, remembering that he still has to get Tenya and Katsuki back from Compress. He can't stay here, talking to this man when all that's happening.

It was clear that this boy was in a panic from just his eyes alone and even though he knew he couldn't talk, he did whatever he could to get any word out to tell Banjo that he needed to get out of here right now.

He felt guilty about wanting to leave one of his predecessors when the man clearly wanted to speak with him, but there were more important matters at hand right now.

"Oh, you're probably wondering about getting that villain and saving your friends, right? Well, don't sweat it. Time is barely passing in the real world while we're talking here…I think." Banjo scratched his chin, looking unsure of his statement.

'Even if I did try to get out of here with force, it doesn't seem like I can do a single thing. So, the best thing to do is listen closely and hope that he was right about time barely passing.' Izuku internally sighed, letting his body relax. 'Still…It would be nice if this guy could give me 100% certainty.'

He wasn't sure what exactly he expected from one of his predecessors, but he at least expected some professionalism from them.

Wait, is this how Kyouka feels about All Might when he pushes him? Interesting.

Banjo snapped his fingers in front of Izuku's face, snapping the boy out of his thoughts and getting his full attention. "Ya with me?" He got a nod in response. "Good, cause I'm gonna need ya to listen real closely here."

Izuku saw that this man returned to having a serious expression, but he somehow looked even more serious than he did before as he slowly leaned in closer to the boy.

"Look here, you've gotta understand something about One For All…Don't be a dumbass about it!" Banjo delivered a hard chop to Izuku's head.

'I thought he was about to say something profound…' Izuku sweatdropped as he placed his hand on his head. The chop didn't hurt in the slightest, but he still felt some kind of force hit his head.

But Banjo didn't seem to care about Izuku's reaction to his shouting, continuing to explain while pushing Izuku's forehead with his finger. "It's all manifesting, ya know. This power isn't one to be treated like a casual thing. I thought that dream gave you that message, but here you are doing the same ignorant crap."

'What was clear about that dream?' Izuku blinked in confusion. 'I need more than a day to think about it. But…I guess that dream was trying to prepare me in a way.'

Banjo looked down at his hands, scoffing. "Damn, it seems like I can't hang around much longer. That sucks. I was hoping to scold ya some more." He cleared his throat. "Here's a piece of info for ya. Those tendrils that shot out of your arm came from my quirk. You're probably wondering how that happened. Well, here's what's up: Our individual quirk factors have all been mixed into the core of One For All. Think of the core as a big hot pot. With every user, the pot only fills up more and more pieces of food. But after so many years, the pot is starting to reach capacity and is about to overflow. It's all growing inside that tiny body of yours."

'That's not a bad thing, right? I'm won't explode if the so-called pot overflows? Having my mouth would be a godsend right now. I feel like I'm getting more questions than answers with every sentience he says.'

"Remember how badly you wanted to capture that villain moments ago? It was all that was going through that nerdy brain of yours. My quirk, Black Whip, was the perfect quirk for that situation." Black tendrils came out of Banjo's hand, one of them pushing against the boy's forehead in place of his finger. "What do you think? One badass quirk, right? But after all these years, it's more badass than ever." The man suddenly let out a pained grunt as Black Whip deactivated. "Ah, that's annoying…I'm running out of time here. But it makes sense. All I am now is a ghost who lives within One For All."

Izuku looked at the man with a worried expression. He wasn't sure if the man was actually in pain or not, but it still bothered him that he couldn't do anything about it.

Banjo chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Appreciate the concern, kid, but don't worry about me. Not like I'll be gone forever. But I should probably wrap this up before it's too late for me. So let this dead man shove more knowledge into that skull of yours."

Izuku forced his expression to change to a more neutral one and nodded at the man, wanting to absorb as much information from his predecessor as possible.

Banjo smirked. "I want you to keep in mind that when you're using One For All, try to keep your emotions in check. If you're consumed by rage, the power will react to that. If ya find yourself getting mad, try to keep control of yourself and the power. Trust me, you'll get the hang of it quickly, as long as you don't have a short fuse." Black Whip emerged from his hands once again, slowly wrapping around Izuku. "Get ready cause One For All isn't done with ya yet. There are still six more quirks waiting for you. But I give a guarantee that I and all the other users got your back. Wish ya luck and hope to see ya soon."

Izuku watched Black Whip start to go everywhere, taking up most of his vision until all he could see was Banjo's mouth before it was covered as well. But right after it was covered, he heard the man tell him one more thing.

"You're going to be the one who completes One For All!"

Izuku's eyes shot open to see Itsuka kneeling next to him, her hand on his shoulder to keep him up as he was sitting on the ground.

"Gotcha, Co-Prez." Itsuka smiled at him. "You looked out of it for a sec."

'I'm back in the forest and no longer in the…One For All Domain? The Quirk Realm? The Plane of One For All? The World Between Worlds? Those all sound kinda dumb…I'll just think about all that later.'

Izuku smiled back and started to stand back up with Itsuka's help. "Thank you, Kendo."

Looking past Itsuka, he could see Kyouka standing a fair distance away. She was looking away from him with a red face as she reapplied the bandages to the wound on her arm.

Her confession played back in his head a few times while he continued to stare at her.

He felt a lump in his throat form before before reaching for his head and gripping a handful of hair. 'Dammit, I can't afford to think about all that right now. We still have to save Iida and Bakugo. But…maybe I at least should say somethi-'

"As much as I want to poke around about what just happened to you, we gotta go rescue your classmates." Itsuka firmly placed her hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Are you with me?"

Izuku slapped his cheeks hard to get himself focused on the matter at hand. He had to do his best to suppress his thoughts on Kyouka's confession. At least until this whole thing was over.

He felt horrible about having to do that to her, but it was necessary.

"I'm with you." Izuku confidently answered, making direct eye contact with Itsuka.

"Happy to hear it." Itsuka smirked before turning to Kyouka. "Jirou, you ready?"

"…Er, I am." Kyouka nodded, not looking as focused as she did before.

But the reason for that was that Kyouka was internally dying on the inside. She had just poured her heart to the boy she has loved ever since she was eight years old, and he hadn't even said a word to her yet. Hell, he's barely looking at her right now.

Yeah, this entire situation is urgent and there's no time to waste. She knows that. So, she can't blame him at all for his lack of reaction.

If there's any silver lining here, it's that her confession stopped those tendrils from hurting him, and it seemed to affect him in some way.

But she wished that she knew how exactly her confession affected him.

Is he going to reciprocate her feelings? Is he going to outright turn her feelings down? And if he turns her down, is it because he simply doesn't like her back, or does he have feelings for another girl? Would that other girl be Ochako? Maybe it's Itsuka? Reiko?

'Dammit, dammit, dammit! Why is this so complicated?! I thought everything would be simple after I confessed! Maybe I should confront him about it right now…Our classmates can wait a little. Okay, just step up and-'

Kyouka's eyes went wide as she saw Itsuka's face right in front of hers. "Jirou, can you use your quirk to figure out where that villain is?"

"Huh?" Kyouka blinked before looking at her earphone jack. "Yeah, yeah…Course I can…"

Kyouka plugged her earphone jack into the ground, starting to listen for any sounds that could be the villain. As much as she wanted to drop this whole thing and talk to Izuku, she knew that he wouldn't want to talk about feelings when their classmates were in danger of being taken away. Tenya, she wouldn't mind rescuing. But Katsuki…Maybe it's best if he was taken away…

Before she could think more on that matter, she caught the sound of a man running with swift yet graceful steps. That had to be that villain from earlier.

Don't let Izuku down at a time like this.

"That way." Kyouka pointed in the direction from where she heard the sound, as her earphone jack unplugged from the ground.

"Thanks. Come on, you two. We don't have a second to waste." Itsuka sprinted toward the direction Kyouka pointed at.

"Right." Izuku and Kyouka answered simultaneously before starting to follow after Itsuka.

Compress had finally returned to his comrades with a slight limp in his step. His coat had a few tears and a small piece of his mask was broken off.

But before he could say anything, a man who was covered in patches of leathery, purple skin spoke up. "You sure took your time to get here. I was starting to think you wouldn't show, or that you were defeated by some of those hero punks."

"Apologies for the delay, Dabi. After I was thrown to the ground by a heckler, I felt the need to compress myself until all of that chaos was over. I didn't want to pose the risk of being snatched up again." Compress explained while examining his torn-up coat.

"We were prepared to wait here all night for you, man! I was about to call an Uber here to take me home!" A man in a black and gray bodysuit exclaimed, pointing at Compress.

"Do you even have the money to order one here?" Dabi asked.

"Good point. Let me borrow some money then." Twice held out his hand to Dabi.

Dabi sighed, swatting Twice's hand away. "You're not getting any from me."

"Fine, I'll ask Toga then." Twice blew a raspberry at Dabi before turning to a girl who was wearing a school uniform with a black mask that hung on her neck and six canisters attached to the mask, two of them being filled with blood. "Yo Toga, you got any money?"

But Toga looked like she was in her own world, smiling blissfully with a deep red tint to her cheeks. She held her bloody knife close to her chest, her heart beating against the weapon. "That confession was so romantic…Kyouka sure knows how to speak from the heart. If I'm lucky, maybe she can talk to me that way…" She let out a small giggle as she looked down at her knife. "I'd sure love a taste of her…"

"Perv." Twice pointed at her.

Toga playfully sliced at Twice's hand, which moved out of the way at the last second as she pouted. "Oh, shut it, you. You know nothing about romance."

"I know plenty. Did ya know that I played a crucial part in a Romeo and Juliet play back in middle school?" What Twice said got everyone's attention, with Dabi and Compress trying not to look interested, while Toga's eyes were sparkling a little as she leaned closer to him. "I was a damn good tree!"

Twice pointed at himself with such pride that it almost made Toga fall over, and made Dabi and Compress let out a sigh of disappointment. The girl began to make an attempt to continuously stab Twice, which the man effortlessly dodged continuously. "You can't have an interesting premise like that and end it with something boring!"

It was clear that Toga wasn't trying her best to stab Twice, but the man didn't realize that. "Watch where you point that thing, Toga! You might seriously kill me!...Can you?!"

"Stop it, both of you. You're getting on my nerves here." Dabi lit a small blue flame from his finger and flicked it to the ground between both Toga and Twice.

"He/She started it!" Toga pointed at Twice and Twice pointed at himself.

Twice noticed that something was off with his finger. "Hold up a min-"

THUD

The villains snapped their heads to the sudden sound, ready to attack, but what they saw was Mustard's unconscious body on the ground.

"My, what is Mustard doing here? I came to believe he was defeated after the disappearance of the gas." Compress stroked his chin.

Twice thought he saw a disembodied hand floating away into the forest, but he shrugged his shoulders, dismissing what he saw. 'Am I just seeing things? I've never had a hallucination before…Yes, you have! Yes, I have!'

Dabi rubbed the back of his neck. "Should we leave him? Looks like he's unconscious, so he could be dead weight to us."

"No way José!" Twice made an X with his arms. "No man left behind in our journey! 'Cept for Muscular and Moonfish, but those guys are jerks! Neither of them wished me a happy birthday!"

"None of us did…" Toga sweatdropped.

"You can be left behind for all I care!" Twice crossed his arms before his eyes gave a smile. "Nah, I can't stay mad at ya! Not like I remember my own birthday!"

"One of you idiots grab him and get ready to drag his carcass to the gate. Kurogiri should be appearing any moment now." As Dabi finished speaking, Kurogiri appeared near them. "Speak of the devil."

"Dabi, it's time we leave now. Was the mission completed?" Kurogiri asked, forming a portal.

"Oh yeah, that part slipped my mind." Dabi turned to Compress. "Was it?"

Compress pulled out two marbles with the entrapped Tenya and Katsuki inside of them, presenting them to Dabi and Kurogiri. "I never fail to live up to the expectations of my audience."

Twice was crouched beside Mustard's body, poking him with a stick. "Yo kid, can ya wake up? I don't wanna bother picking ya up. I've done way too much work today."

"All you did was make a clone of me." Dabi stated.

"Two clones! Don't undermine my hard work!" Twice slapped the back of Mustard's head. "I had a blast lazing around!"

"I'm getting a headache already. Let's go, so I can take a nap." Dabi stepped into the portal while rubbing his forehead, his body disappearing.

"I'll be right behind you, Dabi." Compress pocketed the marbles and took a step toward the portal.

"Stop right there!" The villains turned to see Izuku running at them.

"Not him again." Compress groaned out.

"Stranger danger!" Twice was in the middle of lifting up Mustard before he dropped the boy to the ground.

Green electricity surrounded Izuku's body as he clenched his fist. 'Try to keep calm, Izuku…You can't let your emotions get out of control again. Gotta keep Black Whip from going crazy again. I don't want to be a burden to Kyouka and Kendo.'

Izuku leaped forward and pulled back his arm as it glowed. "Detroit Sma-"

While the boy was in the middle of throwing his punch, a portal formed in front of him. "What a nuisance you are."

'No!' At his current momentum, Izuku was unable to stop his punch in time.

He ended up throwing a full-powered punch towards the portal, a powerful blast of wind firing right into it.

Another portal was above him, and the blast of wind was fired down at Izuku's body, slamming the boy to the ground with a pained scream.

"Izuku/Midoriya!" Both Kyouka and Itsuka shouted, not expecting Izuku's attack to be fired right back at him.

Izuku was now left on the ground, in a small crater that was created from both the blast of wind and his body crashing onto the ground. His left arm was now broken and there was blood running down his head. 'Huh…I'm not dead…That's good…'

Kyouka sprinted to her hero and checked on him. Seeing his broken arm along with the bandaged-up broken finger on the other arm started to make her blood boil and her heart race. She placed her hand on a boulder that was right beside her and began to squeeze, easily crushing a piece of the boulder into tiny pieces.

They'll pay for using his own power against him to hurt him.

It's bad enough that this power already damages his body.

'I'll kil-'

"Kyouka, ignore me…I'll be fine…You and Kendo need to keep on the pursuit to save Iida and Bakugo." Izuku interrupted her thoughts while trying to sit up with his eyes on the ground.

Her heartbeat started to slow down as she let the broken pieces of the boulder fall from her hand, but before she could say anything, Itsuka dashed past her.

Itsuka leaped at Kurogiri's body and peered her eyes into the purple mist before noticing something. 'That's it!'

Itsuka reached for Kurogiri as the villain started to form a portal to save himself. But before the portal was fully formed, the girl enlarged her hand and quickly closed it, feeling cold steel under her palm.

"Good thing some of the guys in Class 1-A told me the story about how they managed to get a hold of you! Now take a break from this fight!" Itsuka had a tight grip on Kurogiri's neck brace and smashed it against a tree with enough force to cause the tree to fall down.

Kurogiri let out a pained, yet lifeless groan as his body was now lying on the ground.

Kyouka blinked as she stared at Itsuka, not expecting her to take down Kurogiri so fast. She started to turn her head to check on Izuku again, but her eyes caught a girl running at her with a knife in hand.

"Kyouka!" Toga jumped at Kyouka and slashed at her, but the other girl leaped back in time, avoiding getting cut.

'Maybe it's a good thing I wasn't looking at Izuku the whole time…This is a rare exception though.' Kyouka raised her earphone jack, ready to attack. 'Who the hell is this chick and why did she call me by my first name?'

"You mind getting out of here? I have stuff to do." Kyouka wanted to at least try to help Itsuka out, but it's not like she could run away and risk leaving Izuku alone with this crazy girl.

"But how come?" Toga held her knife close to her face and gave the other girl a wide, deranged smile. "I want us to get to know each other. Maybe we can make each other bleed too!"

Toga slashed at Kyouka again, but the other girl managed to dodge without much difficulty. But Toga then proceeded to continuously slash at Kyouka.

Kyouka had to keep dodging the slashes while continuing to back up. All she could do right now was dodge Toga's slashes and hope to find some kind of opening.

She could attempt to use her earphone jack to attack, but she had a feeling that Toga had fast enough reflexes to slash the appendage. It wouldn't be worth the risk.

"Now, let's talk." Toga kept slashing at Kyouka. "My name is Himiko Toga, but there's no need to introduce yourself, Kyouka. Hmm, that doesn't feel special enough now that I'm looking into your eyes. Ooh, how about Kyo?!"

"I hate it." Kyouka glared at Toga, still having to dodge. "You can just not use a nickname. I think it's worse than using my first name."

"Aw, but it's so cute! I'll just keep using that nickname and I know you'll come around to it! You can give me a nickname if you'd like, Kyo!"

"Not interested! Why the hell are you so fixated on me, anyway?!"

"Isn't it obvious?! Because you're just like me!"

"Huh?"

"I've been watching you ever since the Sports Festival, you know! That's where I saw how we're alike! The way you love Izuku is the kind of love I can relate to! It's the kind of love where you want to soak in the other person's sweat, skin oils, and blood! It became even more obvious in that confession of yours!" The red on Toga's cheeks darkened.

"Shut it!" Kyouka had a tint of red on her own cheeks from having her confession brought up. But her mind lingered on what Toga said before that.

'Soak in the other person's sweat, skin oils, and blood? Now that's just insane. I love Izuku, but I hate seeing his blood.'

Toga giggled. "You're so cute when you're shy, Kyo!"

The two girls continued this dance of slashing and dodging, no one gaining the upper edge for now.

Meanwhile, Compress was annoyed at Itsuka's actions, taking down Kurogiri like that. "That man is crucial for the finale!" He then dashed at Itsuka, reaching out for her arm. "Seems that I'll have to remove you myself!"

Itsuka gasped as she turned to see Compress getting closer to her. She wasn't sure if she would be able to dodge him in time at his speed. But it didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

When Itsuka tried to dodge as Compress' hand was getting closer to her, something wrapped around the villain's arms and legs, holding them in place.

Compress tried to move his arms and legs, but they wouldn't budge one inch. He looked back to see what was holding him and saw it was four black tendrils. "This again?"

"You're not going anywhere…" Izuku panted as he was outstretching his right arm while barely standing up, Black Whip emerging out of his hand.

Throughout his entire arm, he felt a strong numbing pain while using this power. The pain was so strong that he couldn't bring himself to move his arm, much less the tendrils, while using Black Whip, so all he could do now was hold down Compress.

He was worried about the fact that Kyouka was dealing with that girl with the knife, but he had to have faith that his best friend would come out on top. So for now, he had to only think about taking down this villain.

"Kendo, get him!" Izuku clenched his teeth as he did his best to endure the pain for as long as she needed.

"Thanks for the assist, Midoriya!" Itsuka pulled back her enlarged fist and prepared to deliver a punch that could hopefully knock Compress out. "Take thi-"

"Sneak attack!" Twice shouted from above Itsuka, diving at her from a tree.

Itsuka quickly hopped to the side as Twice landed where she was standing, but she deadpanned at him. 'Not the brightest villain, is he? And who is that on his back?'

Twice had the unconscious body of Mustard tied to his back with a tape measure, looking like a backpack.

"I will not let you lay a hand on my comrade!" Twice exclaimed triumphantly as he placed his fists on his hips before glancing at Compress. "Hey buddy, you wouldn't mind taking a hit for me, right?"

"Twice, I beg of you to focus on taking that girl down. Get the boy as well if you have an opportunity, so you can free me from these binds." Compress requested.

"No problemo!" Twice gave Compress a salute before looking at Itsuka, narrowing his eyes at her. "You're going down, clown."

Itsuka shrunk down her fist and got into a fighting stance, smirking at Twice. "All I have to do is get through you and this battle is as good as won, right? I can do that."

Itsuka ran at Twice and when she got close, she dropped to the ground and swept the villain's legs, making him start to fall.

"I hope you know I would never hit a girl!" Twice firmly planted his hands onto the ground and kicked Itsuka's face. "But I believe in gender equality!"

Itsuka felt a strong sting from that kick, but she grabbed his ankle and quickly threw him to the side, but Twice gracefully landed on the ground before striking a pose as if he was a star athlete.

'This guy may be pretty dumb, but he's skilled. I shouldn't let my guard down for a second.' Itsuka watched as Twice backed away from her, creating more distance between the two of them.

"Time for some backup!" A mud-looking substance came out of Twice's body, forming a lizard man wearing clothes similar to Stain and a muscular woman wearing casual clothes. Both of them were respectively wielding a katana and a large magnet block. "Spinner! Magne! Help a guy out!"

"You got it." Magne held out her magnet as it emitted a blue glow.

Itsuka's body began to glow pink as the girl looked at herself. "What's going o-" Her body floated up before suddenly being pulled towards the three villains. "Hey, let me go!"

"Don't bring her closer to me!" Twice scolded Magne as he backed away from her.

"Don't have a cow, Twice. I'll break her head open like an egg." Magne held back her magnet, ready to hit Itsuka with it.

When Itsuka was in range of Magne, she enlarged her hand and threw a punch at Magne as the villain swung her magnet at the teen. When her fist and the magnet clashed, her fist smashed through the magnet and collided with Magne's face.

The weapon and the woman immediately disintegrated back into the mud-like substance, only being a puddle on the ground now.

The pink glow on Itsuka's body faded away and she fell on her back, her hand shrinking back down. But she was met with seeing Spinner holding up his sword.

"A child being raised by false heroes has no right to become one herself!" Spinner shouted as he brought his sword down on Itsuka's face, but the blade was caught between her palms.

When Itsuka put enough pressure on the blade, it disintegrated, but some of the substance fell onto her face.

'Gross!' Itsuka kept her mouth shut and did her best not to breathe any of it into her nose as she raised her fist and punched Spinner with it, disintegrating him as well. 'So gross!'

Itsuka stood back up and wiped the substance off her face with her hand, getting most of it off before she grumbled to herself. "Note to self: Keep those clones away from my face when I destroy them."

"Whoa, impressive! You took both of them down like they were nothing!" Twice praised her as he clapped before giving her a thumbs down. "You suck!"

Itsuka slowly crouched down and grabbed a fist full of dirt with her enlarged hand. "We'll see who sucks in a second."

The girl ran at Twice once again and threw all the dirt on his face, a good amount getting into his eyes.

"Hey, that's playing dirty! Get it?" Twice let out a chuckle while trying to rub the dirt out of his eyes. "Mustard, protect me!"

Twice turned around to present Mustard's body to Itsuka while the girl followed up her dirt attack with a punch. The punch accidentally hit Mustard's face, knocking a tooth out.

Itsuka winced at the fact that she just hit an unconscious person, but she couldn't let that stop her. She raised her fist and prepared to slam it down on Twice's head.

Before Itsuka could deliver the finishing blow, she heard a cannon being fired, and before she knew it, Twice's entire body was wrapped in a net as he fell to the ground.

Twice tried to wiggle himself out of the net, but he could barely move and Mustard being on his back made things harder for him. "Not cool! This is awesome!"

Itsuka turned her head to where she heard the cannon shot and saw Momo standing next to a cannon. "Yaomomo?"

"It's unfortunate that this shirt is ruined. I suppose that means I'll have to go shopping for some new ones." Momo had a large hole in her shirt, exposing her midriff. "At least the cannon proved to be helpful to you."

"Good to have you here!" Itsuka smiled at Momo, giving her a thumbs up before focusing her eyes at the still-trapped Compress. "Now, let's take this guy down to save your classmates and help out Jirou right after."

"What an irksome brat." Kurogiri finally got back up and opened a portal. "We require some assistance, Dabi."

"I'm gone for a bit and you're all in a big mess." Dabi stepped out of Kurogiri's portal with a bored expression on his face, smoke emitting from his hand. "Guess I'll help you out a little."

Dabi suddenly fired a blast of blue fire at Izuku. The boy widened his eyes in panic and tried to jump out of the way. However, he couldn't get very far as he still kept Black Whip tethered to Compress.

The blue flames hit Izuku's right leg, making him scream in pain. The burning pain combined with the strong numbing pain in his arm started to cause him to lose focus.

Blue flames began to consume the trees around Izuku, and a burning tree was right behind Kyouka as her eyes darted to the screams of her hero. "Izu-"

"Hey, don't ignore me, Kyo!" Toga pouted, slashing at Kyouka again, which was barely dodged in time as a few strands of purple hair were cut off. "You can pay attention to Izuku later. For now, focus on me. Unless you want to get cut, that is."

Kyouka's eye began to twitch. "You're becoming a real pain, you know. I should just take you down now, so I can help Izuku."

"Fighting for love?! That's so adorable and so like you, Kyo! Let's both put our hearts on the line!" Toga stopped slashing at Kyouka and pointed her knife at her, still smiling ear to ear

"Whatever you say…" Kyouka raised her earphone jack, ready to attack Toga and finish this.

Izuku was now sitting on the ground, unable to stand on both of his legs anymore, while still doing his very best to keep Black Whip on. But he noticed that the black tendrils were starting to disappear. He knew that it was now or nothing.

That tendrils had now fully disappeared, freeing Compress' limbs. "Ah, about time. Now, I believe it is time for me to-"

WHAM

A large hand slapped him across the face, and Itsuka let out a loud battle cry before following through with the slap, launching his body away until it hit a tree. The two marbles flew out of his pocket until they landed between Kyouka and Toga's feet when the two girls were about to attack each other.

When Toga was the first one to charge, she stepped on one of the marbles, slipping on it, and falling toward Kyouka. "Catch me, Kyo!" But Kyouka quickly stepped to the side and Toga fell straight to the ground. "Owie!"

"Now that she's down, I can-Wait, are those the marbles holding Iida and Bakugo?' Kyouka narrowed her eyes at the marbles to see Tenya and Katsuki's shrunken bodies inside of them as she crouched down.

She immediately swiped Tenya's marble off of the ground, but when she looked at Katsuki's marble, she felt her other hand hesitate from swiping it off the ground as well.

'For just a few seconds, forget how much you hate him, Kyouka. Either way, I'm doing this for Izuku…' Kyouka reached for Katsuki's marble, not going as fast compared to when she grabbed Tenya's. Just when she was about to touch it, another hand snatched it away. "Huh?"

She looked up to see Toga holding the marble between her two fingers, playfully sticking out her tongue. "Got it! Too slow, Kyo!"

"Hey, give me that!" Kyouka charged at the other girl, but Toga leaped backward, doing a backflip mid-air, and landing next to Compress. "Dammit, how athletic is she?"

Compress struggled to stand back up, using the tree to support himself. His mask had broken off, revealing a ski mask on his face. "My, that hurt…But I'm grateful for you covering for my error, Toga."

"No biggie!" Toga threw the marble in the air before catching it. "But it totally sucks that I had to leave Kyo behind."

'I'm sure you'll get a chance to see her again one day." Compress caught the marble out of the air when Toga threw it again.

"Don't think we're done with you yet!" Itsuka and Momo were running at Compress and Toga, ready to attack.

"Relentless, aren't you?" Dabi fired another blast of blue flames between the two girls and the villains, separating them. "We should all head out now."

Momo created a staff and hurled it at Compress, but the villain reacted fast enough to touch it and compress it into a marble. "Quite rude of you. I think you children have meddled enough with my act."

A portal formed under Twice and Mustard, making the two villains fall straight in as Twice hollered out. "Whee!"

Two more portals were formed, one being behind Dabi and the other behind Compress and Toga.

"I'll be missing you, Kyo! But we'll see each other again, I promise!" Toga winked at Kyouka and walked into the portal, not seeing the other girl slightly cringe.

Compress walked back into the portal until only his head and free hand were sticking out of it. "Perhaps I shall leave you a parting gift to reward you all for your valiant effort!"

The villain then snapped his fingers and the marble in Kyouka's hand glowed before Tenya popped out of it, falling onto the ground.

Dabi walked back into the portal as well, giving a small smirk. "Too bad you didn't bring Shoto Todoroki here with you. I would've liked to see him."

Both Dabi and Compress had fully disappeared into the portals as they closed, not a single villain being present in the area anymore.

Ochako, Reiko, and Aoyama had just arrived at the scene. They were prepared to fight any villains they saw, but all they could see were their classmates.

With only seeing Tenya back and not Katsuki, they knew that this mission was a failure. So, all they could do was stare at each other, not knowing what to say.

Even the ones who were just facing off against the villains didn't know what to say either.

But there was someone who knew exactly how to react after such a failure.

"Dammit! Dammit!" Izuku slammed his fist against the ground, the bandages on his broken finger starting to turn red. "Those bastards!"

His teeth were grinding, a vein was popping out of his forehead.

He knew that this was his fault.

He should've been able to hold Compress for a little while longer.

He should've used his broken arm to shoot out Black Whip from there to hold Toga or Dabi.

He should've done anything to be of more use instead of just holding Compress still.

He was only a burden to everyone else after recklessly using 100% of his power and getting that attack reflected back at him.

Izuku dropped his head to the ground and raised his fist to slam it down once again until it was caught by Kyouka.

Kyouka had a few things she wanted to say to Izuku, but she knew she couldn't say what she was thinking because of how insensitive her words would be.

Like how Katsuki wasn't worth getting stressed over.

Like how they saved the one who actually matters.

Like how Katsuki is better off with those villains.

Like how in her eyes, this rescue mission was a complete success.

Like how she would've been okay if Tenya and Katsuki ended up being kidnapped, as long as he was safe and sound.

Because that's how she really felt about this whole thing. She won't ever deny her own selfishness, but she can at least comfort the one she loves.

"I'm sorry…" Kyouka softly said to him, placing her other hand on his back to gently rub it.

She may not have been sorry about how the mission turned out, but she was truly sorry that her hero was feeling this way.

A/N

Chapter 64 is done! I've been a little busy since the new semester began, but I think I'm starting to get a decent amount of writing done and hopefully will speed up in these upcoming months. If I'm lucky, I'll reach my chapter goal by the end of the year.

The villain crew is finally introduced and I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble writing for Dabi and Compress, but I'm glad I kept Dabi lines to a minimum.

But I had a lot of fun writing for Twice and it helps that he's my favorite character in the show. Toga is someone I have to get used to writing for, but it's a little fun at least.

Also, as much fun as it would've been to write a protective yandere and murderous yandere fighting over Izuku, I had to ultimately throw that away after dwelling on it for a while. However, I am not against Toga falling in love with Izuku in the future, but for now it's just Kyouka.

I'll say, I'm not exactly happy that I had Katsuki getting kidnapped like in canon, but I found it necessary for certain interactions I want for the future.

Time to get to the reviews!

Pochita55: I'll admit that even though this chapter was pretty unoriginal in terms of conclusions, I'm excited for what will happen soon.

Ability King KK: At least it's a perfect victory for Kyouka. Not that she'd ever admit that to anyone else though.

Robin Chwan Fatliyansyah: I'm waiting for Kamino too. But only for the last part of it.

Bucio: Izuku unlocking Black Whip at camp is something I wanted for a long time now. I wasn't originally going to show Banjo's talk with him, but I thought it couldn't hurt.

Rys-AND-Clash: I'll warn you that the next chapter might be a little dull. At least in my opinion. But the chapter after is when I'll personally be having some fun.

Draconis678: Warning, it might be just a little longer than you and I might hope. But I can guarantee that Kyouka will get a response in a single-digit amount of chapters.

bk201fan: Now time to shoot for a million words before they actually kiss. Also, next chapter is gonna be very meh in my opinion, but I'm excited for the one that'll come after.

This is it for reviews!

That's the end of this chapter! Feel free to leave a review!