This is going to be the last chapter for the week. Weekend won't have any updates to this or any other story. Thinking of updating my schedule for the summer until I start my jobs for posting. Might try a few chapters a week for one story, so cycling through each as before.

And I said it on AO3, so I'll say it here: at least for this story, I'll be responding to comments this weekend, more immediately than I do on Starting Point. The high response to this, while short, is nice and there have been a few comments I want to respond to. I'll let this chapter sit for now so a few more can come in, and by Saturday night I'll have responded to a few I think need to be addressed, whether in detail or eluded to in what I respond with.

Might do the same for the other stories in the future. Just because.

Thanks for all the feedback thus far. Enjoy the new chapter.

Tenya did in fact come back to the beach a week later. It was their second meeting, but at least his first time he announced his presence when Izuku wasn't paying attention. The taller boy still carried with him an easier going attitude with his rigid posture, so Izuku didn't necessarily worry about talking with him again. Izuku's quirklessness was only a side note in their talks, so at least some god above was looking down on him kindly. Or as kindly as one would be to him.

As Izuku took a break from his swinging, the two boys took to another conversation, and since Tenya was so inclined to meet with him again and praised his brother in similar yet less depth that Izuku did All-Might, the green teen decided to ask a bit about the hero agency his family owned. And Tenya was blissfully ready to gush about that. The Iida Family line of heroes, according to the boy in blue, had been heroes or just trying to be since before heroics had even become a government funded profession. Not every child in the Iida line became heroes, but the agency under their name never left family ownership, and Tenya planned to continue that tradition with his brother in the future.

Speaking of his bother and the admiration the younger Iida had to him, Tensei now knew of the young Midoriya from his younger brother. Tenya had spoken briefly of the boy he had met at the beach who, through a small conversation after crossing paths and surprising one another a plenty of times, had shared his own desire of becoming a pro hero and attending Yuei. Tensei had repeated back to his brother how happy he was to know he would be making friends going into that school and their futures as heroes with, which did nothing to sooth the growing blush on Izuku knowing a pro hero knew more about him personally.

However, Tenya had not shared with his brother the state of Izuku's quirklessness. While the green teen had shared his genetic state with the engine quirked boy after a few minutes, the young Iida did not see it in his place to spread the information without prior consent. People of a similar status were of a very small margin in the population, and Tenya was well aware of how some were treated just online and media, despite never seeing any of it in person. He had no doubt in his mind that Tensei would think no differently of the young Midoriya, Tenya still saw it appropriate to keep that away until Izuku told his otherwise.

Midoriya appreciated that sentiment but hesitated going further into that discussion. His mind drifted back to the events months prior, when he had come in contact with other heroes telling him to step down and keep out of trouble for his quirkless genes. He hadn't crossed paths with them again, only seeing their reoccurring feats on the internet and news back home, and it wasn't intentional. Yeah, their words hurt, but Izuku was still trying to defeat those doubts within himself and still become a hero despite the setback he was given at birth. That didn't mean their opinions didn't stick all the same. He wanted to talk with more heroes, get to meet them more and gush how he does in his notebook, but he'd been putting so much forward in his priorities he hadn't the time to find any working in the area.

But if Tenya trusted his brother enough to be nice about his lack of a quirk, Izuku allowed him to share the fact when he thought best.

Then Tenya took control of the conversation, asking Izuku about what he has been doing for training. The blue teen had only been doing basic exercises to build his body and keep himself in shape, only every now and again practicing with his quirk when his family was overseeing his training. But compared to Izuku's training, his was nothing similar. While Izuku didn't have a quirk of his own, he still had a focus for his training and preparation for the world of heroics that Tenya was not partaking in, and the few tid bits Izuku had given him of self-defense and weapons training had the taller boy invested in learning more details about them.

So Izuku through a blush from the actual interest Tenya voiced went on explaining what he could of his self-defense classes, along with his friend Mashirao he had told a bit about Tenya to, and his plans for training in combat and weaponry. He informed Tenya briefly of the villain encounter that started it all, given his time to breathe since the two months the times he was almost prevented from doing so occurred (now that he thought about it, Mashirao was never told about the incident and he probably should be, too, knowing the news coverage never mentioned his or Kacchan's name), and finding the bat discarded amongst the trash sitting with them at the beach that set the idea in his head. Tenya was very interested in the jujitsu Izuku explained to him, and going over how leg oriented his own training was, pondered the idea aloud to mix some more hand oriented techniques to better himself as well. Izuku backed that idea, not seeing any reason not to get better and learn more knowing it could become of some benefit in the future against villains, but admitted he needed to learn more himself before he could pass it on to Iida as the taller boy started to suggest.

Instead, Izuku invited Iida for a jog and a run, having planned on one to follow his swinging practice because he had decided to mix the order for the day. Iida accepted the invitation, and giving them both a moment to set their things aside that they didn't need, the two took off in a jog along the shoreline side-by-side.

For a time.

Izuku huffed his chest high before collapsing forward onto his knees in a coughing fit. Tenya beside him was standing straight with his hands resting on his hips and taking long and controlled breaths. The tall teen looked down to the hunched back of the new companion. "Are you feeling alright, Midoriya?" he had asked with concern, moving one hand to rest above the teen's shoulder.

"You…" Izuku rose an inch before letting his body hang loose by the hip. "You run too fast. Were you using your quirk?"

"I assure you I was not using my quirk. Not only is it against the law to do so without a provisional license, it would have been rude of me to do so in the run I agreed to do by your side."

"S-sorry, it…you're really good at running." Izuku pushed off his knees and straightened his back again, coughing out each exhale of the air he sucked in.

"Well of course I need to be proficient in such a physical activity, given it compliments my quirk." Tenya gave the shorter boy a look over the red face. "If you're having trouble breathing, I would put your hands on your head. Lifting your arms opens your chest so your lungs can take in air better and help you breathe without hurting for air. My brother shared that with me when I started my training."

"Y-yeah, I know a-about that. Thanks…for reminding me." Izuku did such, placing his hands one over the other and atop his head. "I-I read that online; the arms like this get the diaphragm to work more. Apparently that's the muscle that lets you breathe."

"Is that so?" Tenya raised an eyebrow as Izuku let out an affirmative grunt.

"I didn't know that before, either. I…I don't remember that from biology."

"I do not believe it was ever mentioned in my own classes." Tenya turned his neck and head to the trash pile they had originated from further down the beach. "Should we head back now?"

"I-I…yeah." Izuku gave a small nod before taking slow steps forward back to the mounds of trash, with Tenya tailing close beside.

"Do you need help walking, Midoriya?" Izuku heard the worry in Tenya's sentence and gave it a small shake of his head, barely managing from the weight of his hands in his hair.

"I-I'm fine. Thank…thank you, Iida. That…I don't usually run that much…That was a length more than I usually do." Pauses in his sentence came when he had to breathe again, each time drawing Tenya to focus his worry on him more. The sentence Izuku had ended with added surprise to the taller teen's emotions.

"That was? My apologies, Midoriya. You should have spoken sooner; I would have agreed to stopping if you weren't up to running another."

"No-no, i-it's fine." Izuku took one of his hands away from his mess of a hair style to hold it loosely facing the boy beside him. "I-I need to work out regardless. I can't…I can't be holding myself back because I don't have a quirk. It's fine."

"That doesn't mean you should be running yourself into the ground, Midoriya." Tenya took his own hand across to Izuku, resting a hand on his shoulder to get his gaze over. "You would only be hurting yourself pushing your body through what it can't handle. We have months until the Yuei entrance exam; you don't need to rush yourself in training to hurt yourself before it."

Izuku slowed in his pace with Tenya, pulling his own hand back to his side and dropping the other from his head. His head turned away slowly back to looking straight ahead as he gave a small nod with his contemplation. Tenya was right, voicing the same opinion his instructor had given him and the rest of his jujitsu class. "You're right…Sorry. Can't be a hero if I'm not healthy enough to stand up, can I?"

"I think it's better not to test that hypothesis." Tenya gave the smaller boy one last look before blinking and turning the conversation around. "Why is it you want to be a hero, Midoriya?"

That stuttered Izuku in his step, leaving Tenya to catch him before he could fall into the water. The tall boy rushed out his own apologies for catching Izuku off guard, for that was how it seemed. Izuku muttered out his voice, reassuring Tenya it was his own fault as the two edged closer to the trash piles.

"W-why do I want to be a hero?" Izuku repeated, twitching ever-so-slightly as he looked to the other boy who nodded for his response.

"We've talked a fair amount about our own admirations for heroes, and I myself have shared with you that my family drive and inspire me to become a hero, but we haven't talked about why you do. I am quite curious to know your own drive, considering the amount of effort you've been putting in to apply for Yuei." Tenya sent his friend a smile as the two reached their own items sitting between the piles of trash, eager to hear about the other boy's inspiration.

But Izuku kept himself quiet, moving over to his bag and easing down beside it. As he tipped the water into his lips, his mind pondered over the question and curiosity from Tenya. Why he wanted to become a hero. That was a question he had put on the forefront of his dreams, back when he had reason instead of muscle to desire the title of a hero. He wanted to be like All-Might. Then he met All-Might. And his perception changed.

Izuku blinked as he turned over to look at Iida. "I…Did I tell you I met All-Might?"

While it wasn't an answer to his question, Tenya straightened in excitement. "You have? This if the first I've heard of this. That must have been quite the encounter to meet the number 1 hero himself."

"Y-yeah." It wasn't. Not for him. "He…he was my hero growing up. I-I would watch old videos of his fights, and it really inspired me to become a hero." Izuku's fingers drummed on the water bottle in his hand. "I wanted to become a hero because of him, to be like him, but…"

Tenya let his excitement drop as he did too, resting on his legs in the sand. "But what? Did something change?"

"I-Kinda. I…still want to be a hero because of him, but not…because I want to be like him. Now…I think…"

"I think I want to be a hero to prove everyone wrong."

Mashirao looked to the green haired boy hiding under the towel draping over his head. The two boys hand ended their class, and since the tailed boy's mother was running late, Izuku opted to spend another couple of minutes with the other boy until she arrived.

The blond boy dropped his arm and water bottle against his leg. "What brought that on?" he asked Izuku.

The green haired teen raised his hands to rub the towel in his hair before brushing it back to rest around his shoulders. "I…Iida was at the beach yesterday. Got to talk more with him and we got to talking about heroes, and then my reason to be one." Izuku turned his head slightly to his friend beside him, but didn't look up to meet his eyes. "And that's mine."

"Huh." Mashirao looked to the top of his friend's head before turning his own to look ahead. "I guess that makes sense. You…don't sound happy about that though."

"It's stupid." Izuku rose his head, letting it lean back lazily and stare ahead blankly. The boy beside him snapped his attention back over to his friend, furrowing his eyebrows with concern. "And it's selfish. Not really becoming of a hero."

"A-Midoriya." Mashirao turned his body a bit more in the chair towards his friends, curving his tail in front of him and Izuku's legs. "That's not a bad thing. Every hero has a reason to be one, and you have a good reason to be one."

"It's rude, Ojiro. I want to be a hero because I want to shove it in everyone's faces that I can be one, if I can ever become one. That's far from heroic, and it's just selfish of me. Heroes aren't supposed to be selfish."

"But they do make things right." Izuku tilted his head back down to Mashirao and his interjection. The tailed boy hesitated to continue looking at his friend, so he turned his head back away to look forward with the rest of his body. "I know I'm probably not the best person there is to talk about these sorts of things, but you have every reason to want that, Midoriya. If everyone has been to you what you've said, and I don't doubt that, then you're doing this for a good purpose. You shouldn't have to be treated like that, no one should, so becoming a hero to tell everyone who thinks that way is wrong, that people who don't have quirks and want to be heroes can become heroes, it's…righteous." Mashirao looked back over his shoulder to Midoriya. "I'm using that word right, yeah?"

"Y-yeah, you are…" Izuku pushed his head forward to sit straight upwards. "And…but it's a selfish reason, and I shouldn't be a hero off of something like that…"

Mashirao let his eyes drop from Izuku's for a moment before snapping back up. "Why does…Iida?" Izuku nodded to assure he got the name right. "Why does Iida want to become a hero?"

"Iida…he wants to be a hero to take on the family legacy," Izuku answered, darting his eyes about as the facts played out in his head as a reminder. "His brother and parents are why he wants to be one, and he wants to do them proud by becoming one and joining their hero facility."

"Well that's a selfish reason." Izuku blinked with wide eyes to Mashirao's straightforward statement. "He wants to do it specifically for himself and his family. That's a selfish reason. But it's not bad. You told me he was kind and nice to you, remember? Trying to step in when he was fretting over you? That's heroic. It…it isn't his purpose, but what he was doing in the moment was what a hero would do, what they should do. That should be reason enough that he could become a hero."

Izuku kept silent as he stared back at Mashirao staring at him. Neither said anything for a moment, the young Midoriya stilling still and the young Ojiro licked his lips as he paused his speech. It was Mashirao who spoke again.

"Just because you want to be a hero to tell people what they've been doing is wrong isn't bad, Midoriya. That's also very heroic. And, personally, I think you're the nicest person I've met. No one's as excited as you are about all this. You're trying your own hardest to be the best you can be, and you're not trying to leave anyone behind while doing so. You fret over accidentally hurting anyone even though we're all holding back and you've gotten hurt instead. You're putting other ahead of yourself, which is…mostly good." Mashirao brushed a hand against his tail, giving another moment of pause to breathe. "Why you want to become a hero shouldn't matter so much more than what you can and will do as a hero. Just because you want to do something selfish doesn't mean you are selfish, and it doesn't mean you're a bad person. You're trying to do something right, too. There's no shame in that."

"I…" Izuku gulped to cut his own sentence, loosening his spine and leaning forward in his seat. In just a few seconds, his stale expression broke as a wet smile took over with short breaths. Izuku looked back up to his friend, blinking apart water brimming in his eyes. "T-thank you for that, Mashirao," he spoke to the other boy, his lips quivering as he did. "I…shouldn't be thinking that way, should I?"

"Probably not," Mashirao responded with a soft smile. "As long as you're not thinking of it as just bad." The two took a comfortable pause of silence before the blond cut in again. "And, to that 'protecting others' thing…you shouldn't be protecting that 'Kacchan' for what he's been doing. I know we've gone over this, but…you still shouldn't."

Izuku whole expression and atmosphere broke apart for a second before reconnection and forming into a new one as he shook his hands wildly in front of himself. "I-I-I'm not defending h…him at all! I know i-it's wrong! I'm not saying anything h-he said was good or right!"

"He should still be punished for what he's done." Izuku's finger's flinched in towards his palms. "Same with everyone else who's been rude to you."

"Y-yeah, but…no one's doing it anymore. K-Kacchan too. They've all stopped. We don't need to-to bring them into that anymore, and I-I'm fine, so it's fine. I-I promise."

Mashirao let his stare sit on Izuku before he turned away to sigh. "Honestly, you really are too kind something."

"I-I'm sorry!"

"That's not something you have to apologize for."

"Sorry."

"Midoriya."