Today was supposed to be a great day for Izuku.

Not only was it another day that he got to attend the world's greatest hero school, not only was his class scheduled to have their first hero class, a class taught by the man who'd been his role model and idol since the day he so much as knew the word 'hero', but today he'd be going to a school where he had friends that weren't constantly threatening him!

Friends! Him!

But his theoretical excitement at what the day should hold conflicted with the practical struggle he was currently faced with:

Why can't I open my eyes?

It felt as if he was sinking, slowly being dragged deeper and deeper into a darkness he could scarcely comprehend. His breathing became ragged, his skin growing moist with sweat as panic began to set in. Why couldn't he open his eyes? Why… why were his thoughts growing sluggish and his memory hazy? Why-

"Ok, so let's see here…" he was snapped awake by a tired voice. With his eyes finally opened the panic was replaced with confusion, all directed towards one question:

Where… Am I?

First of all, he was sat up in a surprisingly comfortable black-and-red leather chair rather than lying in his limited edition All-Might-clad bed. In front of him stood a fine wooden office desk, similarly painted a varnished black with some ordinary office supplies and a computer, all coloured an unusual mixture of red and white. But behind that desk…

"A sixteen year-old Japanese atheist… Why couldn't you just be a Shintoist or whatever?" was a tired-looking woman dressed in a formal suit who apparently knew and took issue with his beliefs for some reason.

"Uh… I-"

"Rhetorical question." she sighed, "More importantly, your sins are… Treachery? Wow, you don't see that much in young people any more." she closed the file, apparently his file, and began typing at the computer.

"So you'll be staying in the ninth circle – Judecca suite it seems, yikes – to atone for your betrayal of-"

"Hold on!" Izuku had to interrupt, barely following anything that was going on but still knowing something was wrong, "I-I'm sorry, I don't really know where I am, or exactly what's going on o-or how you know all this, but I never 'betrayed' any-"

"You wish to contest your judgement?"

"Huh?" he blinked, "Uh, well, that is-"

"Yes or no, I've got work to do."

"I mean… I guess?"

"Perfect." the woman seemed to sigh in relief, "Then you're not my problem. Now, where to send you…" she glanced towards two buttons, one a stark white and the other a hazy purple.

"S-Send me? L-look, I don't mean to cause you any trouble, but-"

"Eenie, meenie, miney, you." she ignored Izuku's protests and quickly decided on the white button.

Suddenly Izuku seemed to fall through his chair and was plunged once more into an eternal darkness. The feeling of malaise from earlier returned, but now with his eyes open to see absolutely nothing for a moment, before he fell into yet another chair facing yet another desk and yet another woman with horns wearing yet another suit.

"Hey, how's it going?" the woman's words shook Izuku from the initial shock and feeling of déjà vu. Her comparatively carefree tone was matched by her suit jacket being wrapped around her shoulders with the sleeves unfilled, pairing remarkably well with a pair of opaque black aviators which sat in contrast to silvery-white hair and stark white horns.

"… Hello?" she snapped her fingers before Izuku after he didn't respond.

"Right- Sorry! Yes! Hello!" he stuttered awkwardly, soon shooting his hand forward in greeting.

"So," she cordially shook his hand with a relaxed smile that put him at ease, "You're second-guessing your punishment?"

His sense of ease was gone again.

"Uh- yeah, well- about that…" he struggled to voice his concerns, "What do you mean by… 'punishment', exactly?"

"Oh, 'Monica didn't fill you in?" she shrugged, "That's fair, she's been pretty stressed with all the catch-up lately. It just means which circle you're headed for."

"… Right." Izuku nodded slowly, "And by circle, you mean…?"

"Seriously?" she scoffed, "I know Christianity's not doing so hot anymore but I still thought pretty much everyone knew how hell was divided."

…

…

…

…

What.

"S-Sorry, I've been kind of off today… Where am I, again?"

"Fair, I guess dying can be pretty traumatic." she nodded in acknowledgement, casually sipping from a canned drink on the desk while delivering news Izuku thought sounded just a tad more important than her tone betrayed.

"Well, sorry to break it to you, but you're in hell." she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Currently sat in my office, situated in a lovely spot just outside the swamps of suffering in the third circle of Gluttony."

…

…

…

"No…" Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to get his deteriorating thoughts together, "No, this is just some bad dream, right? Or- or maybe this is some… U.A. hazing thing?"

"Nope, sorry." she shook her head apologetically, "Welcome to hell!"

"But… But that's just…" he had to suppress a chuckle at the insanity of what she was saying, "That's just not possible. I mean, hell's not- I mean, the afterlife… It's-" while he tried to mumble an explanation for why it was impossible that he was here, the woman casually got up and strolled over to a closed window, quickly pulling the curtains to reveal their surroundings.

Izuku's silence was as sudden as it was absolute.

Outside lay an icy wasteland of grey-purple slush with hues too disgustingly alien to be anything in Japan- nay, Earth. Half-frozen chunks of the landscape's bile continued to pitter-patter down from a hazy sky while a veritable legion of unclothed husks groggily crawled through the dreck. Tall, impossible spires of mush towered over an otherwise flat wasteland into parts unknown, their contents slowly spilling and dripping out to add to the wastes.

"… I'm dead?" Izuku all but whispered.

"'Fraid so." the woman closed the blinds and headed back towards the desk, but Izuku was too busy trawling through his memories to pay her any mind. What was the last thing that happened? Had he died in his sleep? He had been so excited for the heroes and villains exercise-

Wait… We weren't told what the exercise would be… and like that, the mental path to his final day was revealed, one he strained to follow to its conclusion.

I was on the hero's team with Uraraka; I was against Iida and Kacchan. We went in to find the bomb, and Kacchan attacked us… I told Uraraka to go on and find the bomb while I engaged Kacchan. We were fighting, I had the edge because I'd studied his fighting style, but then he used something… The bracers! His eyes lit up in remembrance, He'd had bracers made that could store his built-up explosive sweat! He was pulling the pin, but All Might told him not to because it was too dangerous… He did it anyway, saying I'd be fine so long as I dodged, and I-

The realisation hit him like another explosion, knocking out all of his energy.

"… I didn't dodge…"

"Huh?" the woman glanced up, apparently having pulled out a book at some point while Izuku was remembering how pathetically he'd died, "Sorry, you say something?"

"… Nothing important." he stated dejectedly.

I was given such a great opportunity… And I didn't even survive to the end of the first lesson… his head hung low at the thought.

"… I'll take your word on that." she replied cautiously, "On the bright side, I'm leaning towards giving you a pretty light sentence looking through this." she gestured towards the book that was probably important.

Unlike me…

"Probably Limbo; can't really justify any worse. So far this looks more like a virtue compilation. The only thing I can find that's bad at all is the fact that you spent your life turning a blind eye to bullying, even justifying the bullying to glorify the bully. But seeing as they were bullying you, it's not really anything to punish you over." another few moments passed as she continued reading the book. Izuku absent-mindedly noted that she was brushing her hand over the book, and that the letters seemed raised.

"Ah!" she exclaimed as if in triumph, "Here we go! 'For taking upon the burden of all, and falling before bequeathing the torch to a worthy successor, Izuku Midoriya has doomed the future, committing the ultimate sin in his betrayal of humanity. For this, he is to be imprisoned within the empty void of Judecca, his mind to be broken by eternal nothingness, his body shattered and scattered in the confines of ice, his-" she paused, re-reading the final passage in disbelief.

"'His soul erased by the tomentous echoes of which he proved unworthy.'" as she finished the description, neither one spoke. Izuku from the weight of the passage contents, and her from-

"Are you fucking serious?!"

Confused rage, apparently.

"You're only sixteen years old and you're supposed to be given hell's worst punishment, the shit reserved for once-in-a-century monsters because you, what, died too young?!"

"Well, it's-"

"It's some victim-blaming bullshit is what it is!" she leapt up from her seat and tore off her aviators, revealing clouded grey eyes that Izuku quickly realised left her blind, "And you've got, like, the purest soul I've seen in a millennia! Nah, screw this, I'm getting Lucy on the phone-"

"Look, miss… Uh-"

"Justice." she provided.

"… Miss Justice-"

"Just Justice." she insisted.

"… J-Justice…" Izuku eventually managed, "I-I'm really grateful for your offer, but I don't think it's worth it."

"What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously, "What's 'not worth it'?"

"Me." he answered firmly.

If what she'd said was true, if his death meant that One for All's power was lost and with it the future symbol of hope? If his moronic pursuit of a childish delusion would end up causing who-knows how much pain and suffering?

That sounds like a once-in-a-century monster to me…

"Look, I realise you must've had a hard time and all, but-"

"No, it's… It's hard to explain." but despite it he tried anyway.

He explained his childhood dream, his chance encounter with his idol, the unbelievable gift he was eventually given and the amazing opportunity it lead him to.

And how he'd squandered it all.

"Yeah, I'm still not seeing how that lands you anywhere other than Limbo at the worst. Maybe Sloth has an argument, but with all the training you needed that'd be a serious stretch." she eventually answered.

"Well, it's- if the power is lost with me, then there won't be the next All Might to-"

"Izuku," she either didn't notice or ignored his flustered reaction to her using his first name, "The place you've been assigned is the absolute worst of the worst. You're going to the same place as the kind of people who don't just kick puppies for fun, but kidnap the puppy from a loving home, put it in a torture machine to raise a murderous hound, then throw the hound live puppies and take bets on which one will be eaten first. Who treat Geneva convention war crimes as a checklist, and effortlessly break the record for 'individual necessitating additional addendum's' to said list while they're at it. Who-"

"I-I think I get it." he interrupted nervously, "But if my… My arrogance means that-"

"I don't think that word means what you think it means."

"If my actions deprive people of hope, then… Well, I dread what a future without a hero like All Might would look like…"

"A surprising amount of alien invasions, zombie apocalypses and communist catgirl uprisings." Justice provided.

"… Anyway, the point is that if my… my death-" something he was still having trouble acknowledging, "- has caused all this, and it can't be undone, then…" he paused at the thought. An idea hit him, but he was sceptical it was even an idea so much as a vain hope.

"Can it?" he asked absent-mindedly.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, just… Can it be undone? The loss of One for All?"

"I mean…" Justice rubbed the back of her neck, "If you're asking if you can reverse death, then-"

"No, nothing like that!" he quickly replied, "Just… Is there any way I can go back? I mean, as a spirit or something? It wouldn't have to be for long, but…"

Passing on One for All needs a sample of the previous users DNA. And as All Might never lost his power to tongue man or anyone, I'm guessing it also needs to be done willingly… So if I can just give a sample of DNA and 'permit' the transfer I guess, then I could return the power to All Might!

"I could do it." he nodded in determination, "If I could go back, even for a day or- or just a few hours, I could give the power back and put things right!"

"Ah," Justice grinned mischievously, "Already planning out your redemption, eh?"

"Huh? Oh, no no no." Izuku tried to wave off her statement, "I don't mind what happens to me, but if my death is going to hurt other people then I have to do something!"

"Wow, you even said that with a straight face. And your soul is so bright…" she winced and put her aviators back on before adopting a sly grin, "Welllll…. If you're so determined and all then maybe I could pull some strings…"

"Really?!" Izuku leapt up, "Thank you so-"

"But that would mean making a deal with me." her grin slowly changed from sly to scheming.

"A demon." she gestured towards her white horns, "Which, as I'm sure you know-"

"I'll do it."

"… Eh?" her expression shifted to plain startled.

"No matter what it takes, if I can do it, then I will. No, even if I can't-"

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down!" she waved her hands back and forth, "Are you sure you don't wanna even listen to the terms or anything first-"

"It doesn't matter!" he replied resolutely, "If there's anything I can do to help set this right, then even if I have to sell my soul to a demon, then I'll do it-"

"Ah!" Justice ripped her aviators off again and began rubbing at her eyes, "The glasses! They do nothing!"

"Oh, uh, sorry?" he was starting to gather that her visual blindness was compensated for in other ways, "If there's anything I can do to help, then-"

"Would you stop trying to help for a sec? It hurts!" after staying quiet for a minute for Justice to regain her senses she eventually continued.

"Ok, that's gonna take a while to get used to… a-ahem!" she cleared her throat before adopting a more regal posture and tone, her aviators removed and her eyes somehow focused squarely on his.

"To you, Izuku Midoriya, I offer you my aid. I shall assist you in reaching to the land of the living, through the circles of hell and through the silent sea, so that you may impart the power of One for All unto a mortal of your choosing. In exchange, you shall then return to hell, with me, and accept whatever fate I so choose for you and your immortal soul." she reached out a hand, tilting her head to pronounce her horns while turning slightly to reveal a devil's tail.

"Do you accept my offer?" she'd barely even finished the question before Izuku met her hand with his, his determination pushing all usual doubt far from his mind.

"I accept." her grin widened.

"Then let's go save the world."

A/N:

Hello there.

If you're new then nice to meet you! If you're a reader of either of my other works then I'm sorry for disappointing you. I've had this as a WIP for a few months - originally wanted to make it after reading another MHA/Helltaker crossover, seeing it's not been updated in ages, then playing Helltaker again and remembering how fun it is; I was planning to wait until I'd managed to post at least another chapter on my other works, but then my Justice Nendoroid arrived today so I kinda had to publish this.

I probably won't be updating this for at least a couple of months; want to get the first arc finished before putting any more out.

Thoughts, feedback, constructive criticism etc. is all welcome and encouraged, hope everyone has a great day!