Before anything else, I want to state my respects for one of the GOATS of manga and anime, Akira Toriyama, as it was announced last week, Friday/Saturday, that he sadly passed away. Love or hate Dragon Ball, it was a trailblazer for anime, both in Japan and the rest of the world. For me, it was the first anime I ever watched as a kid in South Africa and my first taste of a 'not safe' anime; before then, my very Christian parents forbade anything they disapproved of, only for one day after school, Dragon ball was on, and my journey into weebdom and anime started. So many artists were inspired by him, including all 3 mangakas behind the Big Three, One Piece, Bleach and Naruto. The man even influenced things like Steven Universe and The Bad Guys.

So I want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Toriyama, for being such a big part of my childhood. You were gone too soon, but we know you're in a better place. I hope that we continue to keep your spirit alive, not just through your works but by taking inspiration from them to create new memories.

Whelp, the 'o' button on my keyboard is acting up again as I glued it back…somewhat into place, but now it feels clanky and weird to press. And with my classes in uni back in full force, I don't have as much time as I did before, so if stuff is in danger of being posted late, I'll be sure to announce that.

The chapter itself is the first of its kind as it is all about one angry blond and how he's taking all these changes to his life. Writing was challenging, but I handled it well, as I needed prospects like his. One not compromised by a quirk altering one's perception of the world, but simultaneously compromised by bias and ego.

Chapter 17: U.A.'s Bright Sparks

The day had finally come. After months of waiting, of pushing himself harder than he had ever gone, here he stood at the gates of U.A. Bakugo's glare didn't let up. Still, he could admit to himself that extras aside, this place lived up to its hype, with the pictures he had seen before being little more than pale imitations of the real deal. But he had to remain focused. This was one of the biggest in his life, but a milestone all the same.

It would also be another mark on his record of greatness on his journey to the top as U.A. produced some of the greatest pros out there, with U.A. alumni dominating the top 5 hero spots thanks to All Might, the symbol of peace and undisputed strongest hero for over 20 years, followed by Endeavour who had the most resolved cases of any hero in history, then pros like Jeanist and Edgeshot, not as big as the first two, but you'll need to be an idiot not to know their name.

Because of that, he didn't have any time to waste as he brushed aside some girl who had stopped to gawk at the place, "Move it." He shoulder-checked her, the girl nearly tripping as she barely got her balance.

"H-hey, that was rude!" He didn't even bother to turn to her to avoid worrying about forgetting her face later. Walking past others, they seemed to think he was in the wrong, but like the spineless morons they were, not a single one of them even tried to step up to him. That told him enough of how a 10th of them would be lucky to get into U.A.; the rest would be cut like the fodder they were. Unopposed, he entered the building and quickly found the room assigned for the hero course.

Closing his eyes, he retreated into his thoughts while the rest filtered in, reviewing what he needed to do to get in. First was the written portion, which he was sure to ace, as the old hag had even gone and got him a tutor to ensure he passed, not that he'd ever thank her. Still, the man had been much better than the teachers he was used to at his now old middle school. They worked at his pace, which was unrelenting fast.

There was the practical side of it; there wasn't much online, but he could find that U.A.'s exam pushed for physical damage quirks, which meant he was more in the clear but an ideal candidate for it. Still, he wouldn't slack off, not when he could still taste that fucking sludge fucker, and feel the heat from Pyro's hands on him. He needed to always give it 110%, to break his limits and ascend higher so that he was never in that position again, so he could make that fucker Pyro pay.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that the place was filled up, and the lights had dimmed, only for 2 of them to turn on, facing the stage where a pro stood.

"Hello, party listeners to my special yearly show, the U.A. hero entrance exam, so make some noise for the one and only Present Mic!" The blonde sunglasses-wearing pro yelled out, no need for a microphone, thanks to the one built into his costume, but there was complete silence from the crowd of students.

"Tough crowd." If the man was affected by that lack of a response, he didn't show it. "Anyway, let's move on to the meat and potatoes of the event. Are you ready?" So he tried again, but once more, there was silence as not a single person rose to meet his hype, which made Bakugo start to dislike him already as he was too loud for no reason.

"As you would expect from any school worth its salt, you'll be taking a written exam covering all the basic subjects you did in middle school, and since you're the hero course hopefuls, it isn't gonna have any particular emphasis, so if you didn't do so well in chemistry or math, don't worry too much about it." Present Mic gave them the lowdown of the exam, which they had expected as many students breathed a sigh of relief; Bakugo excluded as he glared at the room at large, wondering how these idiots didn't prepare for this; U.A. was a top school.

"On the other hand, your practical will be a 10-minute mock battle, like the application said. You'll be grouped up and taken to one of many areas to fight against some enemies we have cooked up just for you!" The screen behind him split to show a centre circle labelled 'you right now' with 7 other differently coloured spots connected to that circle, labelled A to G.

Looking at his card, Bakugo saw that he was being sent to zone A, but that didn't mean much as he kept listening."Each place will have 3 kinds of villains worth a point value from 1 to 3! Your job is to use your fancy quirks to take out as many of them as possible to score the best you can. Of course, the higher the point value, the more dangerous it'll be so if you can't handle them, no probs-just focus on the weaker ones!" The screen changed once more to show the silhouettes of 3 different kinds of enemies, each with a point value under them relating to what Present Mic was stating.

Hearing that last part only made Bakugo scoff as if he'd run from a fight; he'd go after the higher point ones, if not get a higher score, but to prove a point.

"Of course, attacking other examinees and other unheroic actions are against the rules. If we catch you doing it, you can say goodbye to U.A.!" Bakugo rolled his eyes at that, as if they had to say it when anyone with more than 2 brain cells could figure that out, but then again, maybe there were extras like that here.

"Excuse me, I have a question!" He and the rest turned to see someone standing up, holding something of the info form they had been given.

"Okay, listener 711!" Present Mic also noticed them as he pointed towards them, which got one of the overhead lights to turn on and direct to him, allowing them to see that it was a tall guy with glasses and had air to him that just screamed 'nerd'.

Holding up the info card, the student began to ask his question. "The printout clearly states there are 4 types of villains. You only mentioned 3. If this is a misprint, then surely U.A., Japan's most prominent hero school, should have caught it before it ever reached our desks!" Okay…what the fuck was that?

"Good question, listener! The last villain type is the biggest and most dangerous, but it's worth nothing. It's just there to be an obstacle for you as it's not impossible to defeat, but you get nothing for doing it, so why bother?" The screen changed to show something larger than any other with a big fat 0 underneath it. Upon seeing it, even the model of Present Mic just ran for it.

"Thank you!" The boy sat down, with the light over him switching off.

"That's it for me, folks, but before I go, I'll leave you with our school motto, as Napolean Bonaparte once said: 'A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes.'" Something in that statement seemed to get to him in ways Bakugo didn't understand, but he could think about that; right now, he had an exam to ace.

"Go beyond: Plus Ultra!" With that, Mic jumped off as the robot took his place to manage this part of the exam. Bakugo took a pen, pencil, eraser, sharpener, and calculator from his satchel and waited for the clock to start.

3 and half hours later, Bakugo stood outside the exam area, a pretty big-ass spot that looked like U.A. modelled it off a city and even built it to scale. Precisely the kind of stuff he expected from the best of the best. With him, he stretched to make sure he was limber for what came as he had already finished the written portion. He almost felt insulted by the test he had been given. Had he finished that a little over halfway through the allotted time, went through his paper trice just because he was bored, yet around him saw others struggling with it?

One of them, some blonde moron, looked like he was about to have a panic attack during it, and some pink-skinned girl wasn't far behind. But he didn't care for it. If they couldn't keep up, they weren't his time. When they had finished, they collected their papers and led them to changing rooms to prepare for the fun part, which had him itching to start. As the extras around him talked, hyping each other up like so-called 'alpha males' trying to intimidate others and impress girls, his mind came up with a battle plan.

U.A. was crazy rich, which was clear, but they were highly selective about who they let in; even their general studies course wasn't for anyone. So, while they could have filled a place with targets for them to destroy, he bet that they kept the number down to ensure anyone that got enough points to even hope to get in was both fast and robust enough to score those points before everyone else. That fits him just fine, primarily as he fully intended to go after those higher-value targets that the bulk of his morons might avoid.

"Okay, start!" Bakugo didn't need to be told twice, blasting off into the now-opened arena, leaving the confused extras behind as they listened to Mic explain the basic concept that real life didn't have countdowns. Blasting further away from the rest, he found an entire group of targets, different shapes and sizes, but all with a nice little number painted on them, nice and visible to him.

With a smile that was near demented, he didn't so much as turn to face two 1 pointers, which he blasted, their weak heads crumbling and blown to bits as he used the attack to continue to propel him forward, dodging the stupidly telegraphed swing from a 2 pointer, he blasted its head off as well before making it to his targets, a pair of 3 pointers. Landing on the one, he aimed his palms down and fired off a blast, rendering it mute before jumping off and doing the same for its twin, its tail flying off as he turned and blasted its head clean off.

Without a moment's rest, he jumped away from his defeated prey, his blasts increasing his speed significantly, which, along with his raw physicality, meant he was a human bullet or a missile as he blasted another 2-pointer to bits. He didn't even need to use his quirk as a swift, hard kick sent one 1-pointer's head flying as he blasted the torso of another 1-pointer that tried to sneak up on him and hit a nearby 2-pointer with his other hand.

Looking around, he cursed when he saw that there were plenty of targets, but primarily 1-pointers, not even worth his time as he blasted off in search of better prey, the bulk of the rest only now catching up to him, seeing him leave in his wake a dozen destroyed robots.

"What the hell?"

"Did he just do that?"

Inside a dark room on the U.A. campus, the teachers watched the students through the dozens of cameras in each zone. "Quite the crop this year, isn't it?" Cementoss noted as he watched one student carve through bots with blades coming out of their forearms.

"Yes, we're seeing some real winners, but quirks aren't the most important thing," Snipe stated as his gaze lingered on how one girl, with a seemingly weak quirk, managed to overcome robots by covering them in mushrooms, clogging her their gear or blocking range of movement till they shut down.

"I know that, Snipe. I'm merely commenting on their skills as this exam tests for more than just how many bots you can smash." Cementoss replied as in another area, an orange-haired girl with hands that seemed to grow to tremendous size helped carry people who appeared to be hurt away from the worst of the fighting, giving them time to collect themselves.

"The students aren't informed of the number of villains in the area or where they are, so to have any chance to succeed, they need, among other things, excellent scouting ability, sound judgement to act on what you scouted, exceptional speed and finally, battle prowess to be able to gain any ground in this mass search and destroy game." The school's principal, a creature of unknown origin known as Nezu, listed off points as he turned his eye from screen to screen.

"All that turned into points we can grade to ensure that only those with the greatest potential make it through, not just those doomed to peak now. A shame, really." The principal sipped his tea; he would help more of them, but he had limited seats in the hero course. A flash and an explosion drew All Might's gaze to one monitor that showed Bakugo tearing through his targets with ease, though he seemed to ignore the 1-pointers.

"Oh? A little firecracker, that one." Snipe noted, having also picked up on that.

"It's not just that I know the kid, though not deeply." All Might replied; thinking back to that day, he sorely wished he had done more.

"Oh?" Midnight asked him.

"He was the victim of the Tatooin incident." His response was met with awed and words of mild realisation.

"Really? Now that you mention it, it does seem familiar. Wasn't there another one present?" Snipe asked as he could have sworn there was another brat and someone who had been on the news a lot lately.

"Midoriya Izuku, but he's a registered villain at present." Nezu supplied the answer, as ever since the boy and his new crew had debuted last month, they had been far from silent and were quickly rising through the masses of small-time villain groups and gangs that came and went on the daily to become a group that people remembered, that they feared.

"Such a shame when they fell off so young." Midnight shook her head as if he was the same age as this batch of potential students. Boy, he would be lucky he was 15, and already he was gaining a rap sheet longer than most convicted criminals.

Nezu shared her pity, but he didn't make it a habit to act on it. Besides, they had an exam to run as he reached for the big red button he loved to press every year. "Still, there is one last thing we need to test for."

On the field, Bakugo was keeping his score right. He had already netted himself 81 points, which was a different league to what the rest of these extras had been yelling this entire time. Still, that high score came with an annoying cost, as his hands were getting sore from the high-intensity explosions he was releasing nearly constantly to move, dodge and attack. As he was planning on where to go next, maybe steal some points, the ground started shaking, followed by explosions.

Looking up, he and the rest of the examinees saw that it was none other than the 0-pointer and that it was massive, taller than the buildings and eyeing them like they were bugs to be picked up and played with. Its hands were so colossal that even just putting them on buildings led to their upper floors collapsing under the weight. Recalling what Present Mic told them, he wondered if U.A. couldn't have made it more prominent as sure it wasn't worth points, but to take that down…, he was sure to prove his strength in a way no one could deny or challenge.

The 0-Pointer wouldn't wait for him as he punched just ahead of them, the impact kicking up dust and small debris, which served as a wake-up call for the extras to run. The sight of this disgusted him more than ever, as it was one thing to be weak; it was another to be cowardly and run from your problems. So, U.A. stuck them against mecha Godzilla, so what? To be a hero worth a damn, you fought when you had to; you didn't get the chance to pick and choose.

That taste returned to him, that putrid sludge that only made him see red. No, he would always fight; even when shit looked terrible, he would go down swinging, not whimpering like some weakling!

With that thought in mind, the rage and adrenaline pushed him to blast forward, over the heads of the extras, towards the Zero pointer. He didn't care for them, he didn't care for the exam, all he cared about was taking this fucker down and proving he wasn't some victim!

As he ascended, he gained in speed, his blasts growing stronger as he attacked at the 0-pointer's armour where he could, flipping and doting around like an explosive, leaving scorch marks, if not downright blast holes in its armour, which meant that even if it was the biggest bitch here, it was made from the same material as all the little shits, just thicker. Approaching the top of his ascent, he blasted its face with one of the largest blasts he'd ever made, blasting apart its outer armour and exposing sections of its internal components, but that was only an opening as he went even higher.

Over the head of the 0-pointer, his hands starting to ache from the abuse he was putting them through, even with the raw adrenaline rage in his veins. Still, he just needed to let out one final one, he thought to himself as he started to fall to earth, with the 0-pointer between him and the pavement. As he grit his teeth and pulled his arms up, preparing a move he had worked on for months now, having always seen it as theory till he got showed up. He worked to learn how to bring it into practical use.

Twisting his body while firing off small explosions, he created rotational force. This force only built as he went down, his blasts increasing his power as he aimed right for the head of the ugly target that they said wasn't worth his time. Only he could decide that. When he was in range, he yelled with as much rage, power, and determination.

"Howitzer…Impact!" Bakugo's hand faced the 0-pointer, mere inches from its dumb face before he set off what could have easily been his largest explosion. The explosion lit up the area for just a moment in white, then bright yellow as the blast wave poured out in all directions, the windows on the nearby buildings blown to pieces, the ground itself shaking even though he wasn't on it, what few had heard, was that underneath that blast, the metal that made up the 0-pointer crumbled like wet paper in the face of such an attack. Still, they did see the results of it.

Almost the entire head of the 0-pointer was done, with its neck badly misshaped and burnt, wires and oil fluids leaking out as if it had been a living creature. The students, even some of the staff, had been stumped by this, as it was rare that someone challenged the 0-pointer, rarer that they could damage it. Still, to so thoroughly disable it, this was a one-in-a-blue-moon situation. No one was more impressed with it than Bakugo, the boy seemingly frozen in the air, a smile of victory on his face.

"I knew I could take out that fucker…" He thought aloud before the moment passed, and the momentum of the attack, which shot him back, finally lost out to gravity, leaving him over 50m off the ground with hands he couldn't use anymore…shit.

"Fuck!" He cursed as he aimed his hand at the ground; he just needed a small explosion to dampen his fall, as he sure as hell wouldn't be able to control his descent sufficiently to land like he usually would. Still, even a decreased impact would probably break some bones, so he could only grit his teeth and accept that cost.

A cost he didn't need to pay as, out of nowhere, a tongue? Of all things caught him, wrapping around his midsection, he let out a hoof as he was gently lowered to the ground, letting him see the tongue retract into the mouth of…was that a frog girl?

As she had just saved his ass, though he would sooner gurgle battery acid than admit that, he felt that he owed it to his saviour to take in their appearance. So, he did. The first thing he noticed was that they were a girl, a pretty short one with dark green hair styled into a ponytail and a bow at the same time. Second was that they had equally green eyes and a pretty blank expression, which only slightly pissed him off as he had just put on a fucking show. She could at least look impressed.

The last thing he noticed was that she was athletic, if her toned legs were any indication. Legs he could see, thanks to the fact she wore shorts and a form-fitting top.

"You really shouldn't have done that. It nearly landed on your face." The girl stated, her voice having a weird reverb to it.

"I would have managed." He replied, getting up even if his hands felt like they wanted to murder him.

"(Kero) Doubt it."

"Watch it! I didn't see you destroy that bot!" Bakugo yelled at her, but she didn't flinch, meeting his fury with that same blank face. Leaning her head to the side, she brought up a finger that, along with the rest of her hand, was unusually large for her frame, to her lip.

"Because there was no point." She replied, with him scoffing even if he knew she was right, but he didn't do it for points and doubted she would understand.

"Time's up!" Present Mic announced, emphasised by a siren going off across the place. As he relaxed, he saw some old lady dressed in a mix of a hero costume and a doctor's outfit. Seeing that she was healing people and not wanting to deal with this on his way home, he left the frog girl and approached her.

He and everyone else didn't know that they had been a 3rd party watching this entire exam, or more accurately, Bakugo. Koharu, from her hidey hole, didn't know what to expect as Midoriya had heard that the exams were coming up and asked her to check up on someone. She thought it was a waste of time but couldn't say no to her human, not when he got all pouty, so she agreed.

Getting in was relatively easy. It wasn't like she was the only critter that came and went off campus, and from the description she was given, it was easy to pick out her mark from the moment he stepped onto campus. After that, it was easy to follow his scent and remain hidden while he went inside for a couple hours and then out again. The tricky part was hitching a ride on the bus that transported them to this big, empty city; she didn't know humans made stuff like this and then broke them; she'd have to ask her human about that.

Still, her job done, she slithered off to report what she had seen. U.A. picked up on this thanks to a camera, but whoever or whatever was monitoring things didn't think that a lone snake, as giant as she was, was too much of an issue, so nothing came of it.

Some distance away from the bastion that was U.A., seated outside a tiny little café run by a sweet but very old man, was Midoriya. He wasn't in his regular clothes since, as much as he liked them and the styles he had come to adore, they were too flashy and now tied to him. So, instead, he wore dull sweats, sneakers and a jersey with the hood up. It suited the café just fine as it was a small building, clearly from an older time when this place was more residential houses, not business and office spaces, so like the diner that most wouldn't even notice, he was just a person out for a drink you saw but didn't at the same time.

The owner was the only real issue, but as they appeared to be in their early 70s at best and barely had business, he didn't have the time or eye to notice anything strange with him, partly because he hadn't given him a reason to be, and partly because he was happy that he had a customer who was willing to provide a generous tip.

After all, when a sweet-looking teenage boy coming in for water offered you 20K to help pay the bills, you didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Still, the old man was a nice person and managed to offer him some tea, gold tips imperial, he called it, and while Izuku wished to pay for something like that, the owner waved it off, seeing how he was already giving him such a generous tip, so he could subtract the fee from that.

As he enjoyed his second cup, Koharu made herself known when she slithered up his leg and poked her head through his shirt. "Oh, you're back!" He giggled as she gave him an unimpressed look as he pulled a bag of dried pork from his pocket. "Yes, I have your meal right here; thanks, by the way. I know it wasn't easy." He said as she started to eat their lunch, having had no luck finding rats on the way here. As she ate, she told him what she had seen and how that Kacchan kid blew up a building-sized robot's face.

"He did? I expected nothing less from Kacchan," Midoriya replied, as better or worse, this being worse. He had already known that his old friend would reach such heights. He just wished he was there to see it. Finishing his tea, he left another generous tip of 20K for the owner and yelled that he was going. Stepping onto the street, he quickly turned down a dark alley.

"Come on, we can't keep the others waiting; you can tell me all about it on the way back." He stated as the two vanished into the shadows as if he was never there.

Bakugo lay on his bed, waiting.

It had been a week since the exam. Still, they hadn't gotten back any word from U.A. about it, which pissed him off as it shouldn't take this long to see that he was the best, but maybe they had to handle everyone else's first. It was already dark out, so he knew they'd be having dinner soon if he wasn't mistaken; his dad was cooking tonight, meaning dinner would be extra spicy. That much he could look forward to as the Old hag, and he might be similar, but it was his pops that knew how to balance the spice and peppers to make shit that made weaker people cry for mercy and milk.

He still enjoyed recalling the one time he shared his lunch with someone, some new girl at their middle school who was trying to cosy up to him, and how she ran off crying and then claimed he assaulted her, the face the teachers made when he showed them his lunch and ate it like it was nothing was priceless. After that, no one dared ask for his food.

But that led him back here. Waiting for his destiny. But his patience would be rewarded with a knock at his door.

"Katsuki, a letter came for you. It's from U.A." His father, Masaru, knocked on his door. That statement is about getting up to jump off his bed and rapidly approaching the door.

"Coming," Opening it, he took the letter, "Thanks." And promptly closed the door behind him. Heading to his desk, he opened the letter, which was a silverish disk, along with some actual papers. Placing it down, he wondered what it was because it self-activated, displaying a projection of…Katsuki wasn't sure what the hell he was looking at. All he knew was it was a biologically confused animal in a suit and tie.

With a look that even a teddy bear would be jealous of, the being on the projection raised their hand. "Hello there! What am I? Am I a dog? Am I a bear? Am I a mouse? I'll tell you what I am. I am principle Nezu of U.A. High!" The revealed-to-be principal announced himself as peepy as a kid's cartoon character, which grated on his nerves.

"As you might have guessed, I'm recording this to inform you of your results from both the written and practical entrance exams, Mr. Bakugo. We'll start with the easy one, the written portion, which I'm happy to say you performed marvellously well, scoring 98%." Hearing that made the boy smirk as he aced it. However, next time, he'll aim for a perfect score.

"Next to come is practical, and again, you performed far above what was expected as you managed to rack up 83 villain points, which is more than enough to get into our hero course, but there was more to it." Bakugo was about to jump and cheer when he heard that.

As if he had expected this pause, Nezu smiled as he continued. "But there is a twist, you see, Mr. Bakugo. The exam was more than just who could destroy the most robots; there is a secret point system, and before I reveal it, why don't we see, shall we?" To his surprise, the feed cut to his battle against the 0-pointer, which he remembered just fine, but what he didn't was the fact there was a person stuck under some rubble, with his assault buying that frog girl time to get them out before she saved him.

"Do you know what we saw? We saw a student using his time and skills to help others, to protect without much thought. That, my future student, is what being a hero means: To protect and serve others." Nezu praised, but Bakugo couldn't accept it, not like this.

"But…I didn't see them; I didn't see any of them…" When he had destroyed it, he had been doing it for himself. He didn't care for the others or even know someone was in trouble.

Nezu, as a recording, couldn't hear or react to this as he kept up, driving it even more profoundly thanks to this genuine praise. "And that is why we at U.A. have a secret point system known fittingly as 'Rescue Points' rewarded by a panel of judges proportional for every heroic deed that a student could perform during the physical portion of the exam."

"And by the judgement of that panel, Mr Bakugo, you earned 50 rescue points, which gives you a grand total score of 133 points! That is a remarkable achievement, Mr Bakugo, as your score is now the highest in U.A.'s history, surpassing All Might's long-standing record of 114 points!" No, he didn't deserve it. He didn't want it. How could he get rescue points when he wasn't trying to rescue anyone?

Nezu's demeanour shifted once more to that of a proud teacher, which only made him angrier "And with that said, allow me to officially welcome you, Mr. Bakugo, to your hero academia." He held out his hand as if to shake his through the recording, a twinkle in his beady eyes. "I look forward to seeing you soon." With that, the recording ended, leaving the room in silence as he wrestled with his thoughts.

Pyre hummed a song to himself as he skipped through a burning building, the flames and smoke meaning little to him in terms of danger, quite the opposite as the flames were all emerald, and they ate away as any and everything in their path. What had once been small office spaces with cubicles and everything was barren, with nothing but Koharu and the flames to give him company, but he didn't mind.

He continued to skip as if he was merely going for an evening stroll and not walking through a burning building that…well, once acted as the agency Clockwork, a pretty respected man that, last he checked, was ranked 323 on the charts. Avoiding the elevator, he used the stairs to reach the office of the man in question, and it was child's play to find the safe he had been sent to find. It didn't take much for his hand to melt through the lock and door, allowing him to access the evidence he had been sent to find.

It wasn't much, a flash drive and a couple folders, but while he thought it best to destroy both, Giran's client wanted it all intact, so he put it into the cute little All Might bag he had brought the other day, on sale too, and made his exit. As they approached the main entrance, which was wrecked thanks to how he blew his way in, Koharu noted that this was easy. "I know, but the pro wasn't combat-based. Plus, we hit them right as they were closing. It's a shame they didn't have a night staff, though. Would have made the fight more fun if they were as fresh as we were."

Outside the building was even worse was the area was littered with burnt-out cars, some still burning emerald, many of those police cruisers with the officers that had driven them all laid out all around him, groaning in pain from his strikes or his fire, some cases it was a little of both.

The worst was Clockwork himself, as the man dressed in gear that was a fusion of a circus ringmaster and clock, at least at first, was hardly clothed now. Most of his costume had been badly burnt and unrecognisable for what it once was. His left arm was the most grievous, as below the elbow, the limb was barely holding on. Walking up to the man, seeing that he was still awake despite everything, Pyre shook his head.

"You know, if you just stayed down and out of the way, you wouldn't be in this position." He told the man who, for his part, glared at him.

"Curse you…villain!" He cursed him out as this brat showed up out of nowhere and raised hell. It was too late when they realised he was a wanted villain, a C-rank at that.

Midoriya didn't take offence to the comment; merely chewed on it. "You're not the first to say that; pretty sure you won't be the last. But you were doing your job, so it feels wrong to leave you like that," Without hesitation or warning, he bathed Clockwork's left arm in flames, causing the man to scream in pain as the flames ate away at him. Satisfied that the fire would heal his arm, Midoriya turned to leave before more heroes showed up.

"Bye, Clockwork. Get well soon!" The last thing on Clockwork's mind before he passed out was that Pyre was a demon. Using the confusion and back alleys to leave was easy, much easier thanks to Makihara showing him the ropes, so when he reached for his burner phone, a term that still made him giggle, why would he burn his cellphone? Back to it, he contacted Nine, his number, temporary as it was, memorised.

It was only 3 rings before the man picked up. "Was it successful?"

"Yup! I got everything that the client wanted. I'll meet up with you guys in an hour." Midoriya giggled as he held up his All Might bag, the goods secured inside.

"Good work. I knew that you'd be more than up to the challenge. This marks your 3rd solo mission." He blushed a little at the praise, though he still smiled as he liked hearing it.

"I wouldn't nearly be as competent if not for the rest of you helping me." Midoriya couldn't take all the credit, as the rest had stepped up for him. Kon and Makihara even helped with his and Hasaki's studies, as both had completed high school.

Nine chuckled over the line. "We help each other as comrades should. I'll contact Giran. You just worry about getting back.

I might as well revise my word limit from 5-6k to 4-7k as, at this point, it's an issue that I can't break. The next chapter will be out on March 20th.

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