"Before we begin, there are some things I'd like to tell you." Izuku started.

Once again Izuku and Ren were in Izuku's office, starting another therapy session.

"Go on," Ren said.

"Well…you know those Sky Pirates that stole my ship." Izuku winced. "Yeah…I…kinda told them to do that. And let them steal it."

"Hmph…well that actually makes sense," Ren said in a super casual tone, as he sipped his coffee. "I was wondering why you were making a pirate ship to begin with, but I guess that question is somewhat answered."

"You're not surprised? Or mad? Or anything?" Izuku said feeling a bit relieved.

"I expect not to expect things. Have you seen my quirk?" Ren chuckled. "As for being mad. I'm not one to jump to conclusions. I'll let you explain yourself before I cast judgment."

"Much appreciated," Izuku said, as he did a short bow, before explaining everything.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I see. So you made fake villains to attack your enemies without the law getting in the way." Ren surmised after listening to everything.

"Yeah, it does sound rather sketchy," Izuku admitted. "But, I don't know how else to fight them."

"It's sketchy yeah, but I don't think you're in the wrong," Ren admitted, much to Izuku's surprise. "The law's great in all in that it keeps people from killing people for the most part, but it's been twisted and bent for the benefit of no so well-intentioned people. I'm more of an advocate for justice than upholding the law."

"I see." Izuku relaxed a bit. "Well, I'm still more than a bit nervous. It just…feels like-"

"A slippery slope." Ren finished. "That's the conundrum. Where do you draw the line? Too close and you'll be defenseless. Too far, and you're just as bad as the people you're fighting. The worst part is there's almost never an answer. At least not one that can't be only be found in hindsight. But there are a few landmarks that might help you out. Mainly murder. Have you killed anyone?"

"No." Izuku sighed. "Thankfully I haven't had to cross that line…yet."

"That's good. Regardless of what you HAVE to do, I'd say you should always treat life with respect." Ren advised. "The moment human lives become nothing but a resource or obstacle, or anything like that. Is when you yourself become something less than human."

"Right." Izuku nodded. Taking those words to heart. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And I'm glad you opened up to me about it." Ren told him. "Isolation is the enemy of mankind. Even if you have to keep your secrets, having a few people to who you can tell everything, and who can advise you when you need it the most, is more valuable than anything else. Except for your children of course…Now, let's start the session properly."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The two of them walked through the gates of the cognitive Aldrea and immediately found that no shadows were around.

"It seems like we'll have an easier time than before," Izuku said. "Good. I want to get this over with."

"Don't be reckless," Ren warned him. "We won't know if your cognition changed or not until we run into Bakugo. And even then, cognition changes can be wild. Even if Bakugo is weaker, it won't guarantee that it'll be a cakewalk from here on."

"I know that." Izuku sighed, as he opened the door, and they entered the school itself. "I just want to see the effects of this so I can finally start letting you work with my children."

"I understand, but patience is key when it comes to healing," Ren told him. "Remember that."

"DEKU!"

KABOOM!

Suddenly cognitive Bakugo exploded down the halls, heading towards the two of them at mind-boggling speeds.

THWACK!

Heracles materialized in front of Izuku, and thwacked Bakugo back, hitting him through several walls.

"Huh. Looks like it worked." Ren noted. "Honestly, didn't think the cognitive change would be this strong."

"Well after some reflecting I realized something," Izuku said. "Kacchan is strong don't get me wrong. But I'm something different. Back then he didn't even need to be close to me to hurt me. But now, he's not even a concern."

"DON'T TALK DOWN TO ME DEKU!" The fake Bakugo roared out in rage as he once again exploded himself over to them, cocking his arm back and ready to fire an explosion.

"Heracles. Get him out of our way." Izuku said, sounding more annoyed than threatened.

Heracles appeared in front of Izuku, just as cognitive Bakugo landed in front of them, before letting out a massive explosion at Heracles.

As cognitive Bakugo landed on his feet, Heracles's hand came out of the smoke and grabbed him by the head.

"AGH! LET GO!" Cognitive Bakugo roared, as he unleashed explosion after explosion onto Heracles, but it did nothing to the beast.

"Killing this thing won't have any effect on me or the real world Bakugo right?" Izuku asked.

"Nope," Ren said with a pop.

CRUSH!

Without another wasted second, Heracles crushed cognitive Bakugo's head, allowing it to dissolve into shadow.

"Let's go," Izuku said, as he walked forward. Not paying the matter anymore mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After a bit of exploring, they finally stumbled upon the classroom they were looking for.

"This is where I should be, judging by the time that is," Izuku said as he touched the door to the classroom, ready to open it, but Ren put his arm on him to stop him.

"This isn't gonna be easy. Breathe. Prepare yourself." Ren advised him.

Izuku nodded, before taking a deep breath. "Alright, let's go."

He opened the door, ready to face whatever horrors they'd find inside.

The classroom itself was far bigger than it was in real life. Roughly fifty times the size. And it looked more like a prison than a classroom. With bars on the windows.

In the center of the room, was Shadow Izuku,. Held up by black chains, made of words. The words being things like weak, worthless, quirkless, and failure. The chains wrapped around his entire body, restaining his arms and legs, all the way up to his neck.

In between the chains, Izuku could see his shadow holding onto a familiar notebook. Hero notes for the future.

Shadow Izuku himself looked almost identical to how Izuku looked after he first met All Might. Messy hair, baggy eyes, and a pale complexion. Only he was in his middle school uniform.

As they entered the room, Shadow Izuku opened his eyes, allowing them to see they were yellow instead of green.

"So you finally came." The Shadow said in a detached tone. "Honestly I didn't think you'd get past Kacchan. But you've gotten pretty full of yourself haven't you, Deku?"

"That notebook," Izuku said, pointing to said object. "Get rid of it."

Shadow Izuku glared at his other self. "No."

"Izuku. You can't keep going like this." Ren added. "That's why we're here. We're going to free you, whether you like it or not."

Shadow Izuku grit his teeth, and held his notebook tighter, causing the chains to tighten along with it. "No one. No one will take this from me! No matter what! I will never let go!"

Suddenly, the room began to shake, and they could hear whispers coming from all sides.

"USELESS! POINTLESS! WEAK! WASTE OF SPACE! WASTE OF AIR!"

"Jump off the roof and hope you get reborn with a quirk in your next life."

The word chains wrapped around Shadow Izuku completely obscuring him from sight, and taking form, until they formed a colossus made of chains, with many faces popping out of its chest.

"DIE!"

The chain colossus raised its arm, and Izuku and Ren, jumped back as it slammed its arm into the ground, causing the room to shake.

"We need to take the notebook," Ren told him. "It's controlling the chains, we take that, and we can end this."

"Right." Izuku nodded. "Heracles!"

Heracles appeared in front of Izuku, before jumping at the chain colossus, his weapon raised and ready to strike.

"FAILURE!" The faces on the colossus roared, spitting out more harsh language, with took physical form and rushed at Heracles.

Heracles batted them away, but this left him open to getting grabbed by the colossus's hand.

"RAHHHHH!" Heracles roared, as he struggled to free himself, the chains around him broke easily, but they just kept replenishing themselves, keeping him from escaping.

"Arsene!" Ren shouted as he summoned his own persona and shot out a massive purple flame at the colossus's wrist.

BOOM!

The flame exploded, destroying the colossus's wrist and causing its hand to fall, freeing Heracles, who shattered the chains around him, before landing on his feet.

By the time that happened, the colossus had already regrown its hand.

"It's regenerating too fast!" Izuku pointed out. "We'll never reach its chest at this rate!"

"Don't be so sure," Ren assured him. "I was prepared for this."

Then, Ren pulled out a tape recorder, before running towards the colossus.

The colossus raised its foot ready to crush Ren, when the therapist threw the tape recorder, at its foot.

The device embedded itself in between the chains and -

"You can do it, Caretaker!" Shouted Kiba's voice.

KABOOM!

Suddenly the foot exploded in a burst of light, completely destroying the foot of the colossus.

"Kiba!?" Izuku shouted in confusion. "What was that?"

"Positive affirmation from people you care about," Ren explained. "The best way to dispel harsh words. Look."

The Colossus was regenerating its foot, but the process was far slower, giving them some time to breathe.

"I'll create an opening, you grab the book, got it," Ren said.

Izuku nodded. "Right!"

With that decided, Ren ran forward, rushing past the Colossous, before throwing another recorder at the back of its other leg.

"Your amazing dad!" Shouted Netsu's voice.

KABOOM!

The back of its leg exploded, causing it to start falling forward.

"Heracles!" Izuku shouted as Heracles showed up in front of him, before jumping forward towards the Colossous, and punching it, making it fall back instead.

Ren aimed his grappling hook, and fire it, allowing him to speed away onto the side of the wall, as the Colossus fell. Then he threw a few recorders onto the Colossous's chest.

"I love you, daddy!" Shouted Eri's voice.

"It's thanks to you we can be happy." Fu's voice said.

"You've never failed us." Nara's voice said.

"Don't let those jerks keep you down!" Ken's voice said.

"We're all rooting for you daddy!" Kei's voice shouted.

KABOOM!

A massive explosion of light burst from the Colossous's chest, revealing Shadow Izuku underneath, clutching his notebook.

"Agh!" Shadow Izuku gasped, as his eyes widened in fear.

Izuku summoned Heracles and jumped on his back, before Heracles bolted onto the fallen Colossus, running on all fours like a wild animal.

"NO!" Shadow Izuku roared as he used hundreds of chains from his body, and launched them at Izuku, creating a tidal wave of chains.

Heracles grabbed onto Izuku and threw him over the tidal wave, headed right towards Shadow Izuku.

"GAH!" Shadow Izuku sent a few last desperate chains at Izuku, but Izuku kicked them aside, and landed on top of his shadow self.

"Enough is enough!" Izuku shouted as he leaned down and grabbed onto the notebook.

"NO! PLEASE!" Shadow Izuku cried as he tried to hold onto the notebook, but slowly but surely, it was slipping out of his grip.

"It's time! To let! GO!" Izuku cried as he finally pried the notebook from his shadow's hands.

Suddenly, the colossus turned white, before glowing so bright it blinded everyone in the room.

When the light died down, Izuku and Ren were standing side by side, with Shadow Izuku on his knees in front of them. The chains having vanished entirely.

"My dream." Shadow Izuku said quietly, tears streaming down from his eyes. "Please don't take my dream. It was all I had. For so long. It was my only hope. I can't let it go! I won't!"

Izuku just looked down at his shadow, a mixture of emotions rushing through him. Pity, anger, sadness, self-loathing. "You're pathetic."

"I…I know." Shadow Izuku said. "We're a failure. No matter how hard we held onto that dream. We never even came close to achieving it. We couldn't even reach the starting line.

"Honestly, the lack of self-awareness here is astonishing," Ren said jumping into the conversation, getting the attention of both Izukus. "Sure you failed to become a hero. So what?"

"What?" Both Izuku threw Ren confused looks.

"You failed at becoming a hero. But that doesn't make you a failure." Ren said to both of them. "Izuku. Why did you want to become a hero?"

Both Izuku paused for a second, before answering at the same time. "Because I thought saving people, was the coolest thing you could do."

"Well tell me if I'm wrong, but you've done a lot of saving in the past year have you not?" Ren asked. "If you judge yourself by what you haven't done then, of course, you seem like a failure. But when you look at both sides, things become a lot more clear. On one hand, you didn't become a hero. On the other hand, you took down the Yakuza, helped the Urarakas failing business, fought and put away several villains, and helped bring forth a new era of scientific progress which you are using to cure some of the most infamous diseases known to man among other things, helped get my sister a job she loves, saved Tokoshi's grandson, gave ms Bura a job despite her being blacklisted by the H.P.S.C. and most importantly."

Ren then pulled out a photo from his pocket and threw it in front of Shadow Izuku.

Both Izuku looked down at the photo and saw that it was a group photo, of him and all the kids.

"You created a place where all these children could laugh and smile," Ren said. "Even if it's not perfect all the time. You gave these kids, who had nothing, a family, friends, food, laughs, and memories they'll treasure for the rest of their lives. So, taking all that in mind, do you still think you're a failure?"

Neither Izuku responded to that, instead, Shadow Izuku just picked up the photo, and looked at it deeply. "Those kids."

Suddenly, the photo glowed, and in a flash, it transformed into another book. But rather than a notebook, it was a scrapbook, now containing hundreds of photos. Of all the memories he and the kids shared.

Izuku smiled a bit, as his shadow self flipped through the book.

After a while, Izuku sat down in front of his shadow and took a deep breath. "I think…I've been too harsh on you."

"...Same." Shadow Izuku agreed as he looked his other self in the eyes. "We…we've achieved something…We did manage to help quite a bit I guess."

"More than a bit. We've done a lot for a kid without a quirk." Izuku retorted. "And…we need to recognize that. For their sakes if anything."

"Right." Shadow Izuku said, before looking up at the notebook in Izuku's hand. "And…there's one more thing we need to do."

Izuku looked down at the notebook, and then at his shadow self, before the two of them nodded.

The real Izuku held out the notebook to his shadow self, who took it back.

Shadow Izuku looked down at the notebook, with a sad smile, and tear-filled eyes. "It was a nice dream but. It's time to wake up."

With that, Shadow Izuku set down the notebook on the floor, and watched, as it promptly faded away.

Shadow Izuku then picked up the scrapbook and held it to his chest. "Thank you. All of you. I promise I won't fail you."

Then, Shadow Izuku started to fade, until he vanished entirely.

Suddenly, the school started to shake, and cracks appeared in the room.

"Alright, time to make our exit!" Ren said as he and Izuku started running out of the room, making their way to the exit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Whew." Izuku breathed a sigh of relief, as the two of them laid back on the couches, back in the real world. "That was…"

"How do you feel?" Ren asked.

"I…it feels like something heavy was lifted off my back," Izuku explained as he tried to come to terms with the new feelings he was experiencing. "But…for some reason, I feel like I'm gonna miss it."

"That's what healing feels like," Ren told him.

"Well, I feel a lot better than worse, so I think I can say it worked." Izuku smiled. "Which means we can start therapy sessions with the kids now."

"Right." Ren nodded. "Although, Lavenza told me to warn you about something. A new distortion is appearing in your heart. One caused by all the fear and stress you've been feeling."

Izuku frowned. "That…I…"

"Just be careful not to let fear control you," Ren said. "If isolation is the biggest enemy of mankind. Fear is not far behind."

So yeah, the first therapy session is complete! More to come.

Please review and have a nice day.