A/N: It's time for every anime fans' favorite kind of content... seemingly unnecessary flashback time!

What's in a Name

Eleven Years Ago…

"Alright class, please direct your attention to the front!" called out a woman with kind- yet firm- features. She was addressing a room full of five-to-six-year-old boys and girls, so naturally, it took a moment for them to all settle down and sit properly, as they were expected.

Of course, one boy in particular was first to do so, though this was likely because he was hardly ever out of proper form. The only quick fidget of his was to readjust the new set of glasses on his face- they didn't quite yet fit his nose, though his mother had assured him that wouldn't be the case for long. Once he could see properly, he made sure to give the teacher his unwavering attention.

Seeing that everyone was ready to listen, the woman went on to say, "We have a new student transferring in today. I know some of you may have already heard about this ahead of time, but I would like all of you to make him feel welcome. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, ma'am," the children chanted in unison.

"Very good," she smiled before turning toward the door. "Alright- you can come in, now."

The door slid open to reveal a boy who walked in with a purposeful stride, though that seemed to be the only thing about him to stand out. His appearance was plain, even by the standards of the pre-quirk era, with short black hair and brown eyes. There was nothing at all that the students could see to give them even a hint as to what his quirk might be. This disappointed some of the students, because at their age, everyone had awoken their abilities, and learning someone's quirk was almost synonymous with learning their names. There were a handful of quirkless kids in the school, but even they at least looked like their parents had quirks. Whoever this boy was, he was plainer than a bowl of unflavored ramen.

Once he reached his spot beside the teacher, the boy lifted his chin and stated, "My name is Kurai Hogo-sha. My favorite hero is Gang Orca, and I have one younger brother. Thank you for having me in your class." Finished with his introduction, he gave the class a swift bow, which they all returned, albeit a little belatedly.

"Thank you, Hogo-sha," the teacher said as she indicated an empty seat next to the boy with glasses. "We'll have you here, next to Iida. He'll be your guide while you're getting used to Zakel Elementary."

"Yes, it shall be my pleasure!" the bespectacled boy said as he stood up straight and extended a hand to Hogo-sha, who seemed a little taken aback by his sudden movements.

However, he recovered swiftly enough to shake the offered hand and say, "Thanks, Iida."

"Welcome to Zakel Elementary! I get the feeling that you'll like it here!"

That day at lunch, a few kids had gathered around the new kid's desk, either missing or ignoring the uncomfortable looks that he was giving at having his personal space invaded. These particular children had waited until the teacher was out, and Iida was busy getting his lunch from the cafeteria. "What's your quirk?" one child asked abruptly before he could get a word out.

"Probably doesn't have one," sneered a boy who had dragon eyes and fangs.

"Or if he does, it's probably lame, like making his eyes go in different directions," snickered another.

"I have a quirk," the new boy muttered as he looked down at his desk.

"Oh yeah?" asked the first boy. "Then show us."

"I don't want to," Hogo-sha replied, though instead of looking down like most children did when they started to dig their heels in, he locked eyes with the one pestering him.

This got his hackles up, and the other boy took the moment to step closer to the new kid's desk and ask, "You got a problem with me?"

"I would prefer not to," his target shrugged. "But it looks like you already have a problem with me."

"Come on, Daizo," said one of the girls who had come to see what the new kid was about, knowing how the dragon-eyed boy could get when he felt challenged. "If you fight with him, the teachers will just take his side, cos he's new."

"I don't like the way he's talking to me," Daizo replied pithily before he planted himself right next to Hogo-sha so that he towered over him in his seat. "You should say you're sorry for being rude, new kid."

"Even if I was the one being rude, I wouldn't be sorry," Hogo-sha replied in a deadpan that seemed very out of character for a five-year-old.

Even if Daizo wasn't quite bright enough to understand the nuances of the insult, he did know that this Hogo-sha kid wasn't doing what he wanted, and that made him mad. "You're gonna wish you'd stayed at your last school!" he yelled before he grabbed the boy up by the collar and drew back his hand so that he could slap his victim across the face, hard.

Somewhat to his surprise, the blow landed without resistance, the boy's skin almost immediately turning red where he had been hit. Also surprising was the fact that his victim wasn't crying or even cringing from the pain, as several children had before him. In order to try and set aside how uneasy those facts were making him feel, Daizo let Hogo-sha drop back into his seat while saying, "Guess he's quirkless, after all. What a loser."

"I have a quirk," the new kid repeated before anyone could depart.

"Is it super-annoy?" one of the other boys jeered. "Cos you're really annoying, new kid."

"No."

"Look, just prove that you have a quirk, and Daizo will leave you alone," chimed in another student, though he was hanging back a bit. "That's all he really wants, is to see if your quirk is cooler than his dragon powers."

"His quirk isn't much good if he can't use it well," Hogo-sha murmured, only just loud enough for the other students to hear. "And I don't really care if he thinks my quirk is cool or not. I don't have to show it to him, or anybody if I don't want to."

"You think you're better than us?!" Daizo demanded as he drew back his arm for another slap. "You got a lotta nerve, new kid!"

"Stop it!" The group of children froze at the shout that came from near the door, leading them all to turn toward the source of the noise, some of them with exasperated looks on their faces as they did. Iida was glaring at the group, his body stiff with outrage. "You are all disgracing us and our school with your un-neighborly actions! This is no way to treat someone new to our class!"

"Oh great, it's Iida-Four-Eyes," Daizo snorted as he put his hands up behind his head and walked away from his victim, who merely watched him go with a dull interest in his eyes. "C'mon, guys. Fun's over."

"You will all be reported to the headmaster for this conduct!" Iida continued to shout as the boys left the room, more than one of them making a face at the taller boy as they did. The moment that they were gone, he ran over to Hogo-sha's desk and bowed deeply to the seated boy. "I am so sorry about them!" he apologized, much to his new classmate's surprise. "I should have known better than to leave you alone in a new environment! I don't how I'll make this up to you!"

"Umm… You don't need to?" the other boy said with a small shrugging motion. "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before, so it's not really a big deal."

"It is a big deal!" Iida insisted earnestly. "I was tasked with seeing to your well-being while you become accustomed to Zakel, and I do not want this to be what you are accustomed to! It is wrong! My brother would never stand for such an occurrence, and neither shall I!"

"Your brother?" Hogo-sha asked with a slight tilt to his head, the first measure of curiosity that Iida had seen out of him. "You have a brother, too?"

"Indeed, I do!" Iida declared proudly as he stood up straight and adjusted his glasses. "My brother is none other than Tensei Iida- the Turbo Hero, Ingenium! He is a great hero, and I want to be just like him, someday!"

"Oh, I've heard of your brother," Hogo-sha said with a little grin of his own. "My dad knows him."

"He does?"

"Yeah, they work together."

"Is your dad a hero, too?!"

"Well, not exactly."

Present Day…

There was a crack of thunder that shook one of the coordination tents for the rescue operations, and for a split second, the first responder in charge of the area was about to curse her luck that her zone had been damaged by a lightning blast. "What is that Tempest guy-?!"

"What's the situation, ma'am?!"

The woman was cut off by the motion of her own jaw dropping at the sight of the water-logged Guardian Hero standing before her- the one whom everyone in Japan knew was destined to become the next number one hero. The measure of relief that swept into her body was almost enough to buckle her knees, but she just managed to keep herself composed. He can't help us right if he doesn't know what's going on, she reminded herself.

"Kai, thank God you're here," she breathed out shakily. "I don't know how or why you're here, but we really need your help. Thirty-odd blocks of the suburban area have been completely buried by the mudslide that came from up the mountain, and parts of it are still moving because of the rain. It's making the rescue very difficult, because we can't afford to send in anyone other than the heroes themselves into the zones that are still in danger of shifting."

Kai's brow bent downward before he let out a low curse. "Where do you need me?" he asked quickly. "My partner is on her way, and should be here in less than three minutes."

"You have a-? Never mind, I'll let you figure out how to best utilize her abilities, since we don't have time to lose," the woman said with a shake of her head. "Right now, we really need some way to keep anymore mudslides from coming down on top of us. I saw on your interview when you first came back to Japan that you have multiple quirks, now. Do you have any that might help do that?"

"That depends, do you already have people up there who are in the mess of trying to stabilize the mud?" he asked as his frown deepened.

"Yes, we have four heroes capable of moving dirt and water who are trying to redirect any shifts in the rubble, but the success they're having is limited," she answered as she indicated a map covered in circles and squares that seemed to indicate the placement of different hero teams, civilian first responders, and individual heroes. "We have a hero named Rock Lock who has proven the most effective at holding back the most volatile places, but he's already spreading himself thin. He can only-"

"Completely lock down a certain amount of square footage before his body hits a limit, yeah," Kai interrupted, surprising the woman. "I know about that- I worked with him during the raid on the Shie Hassaikai. I can head out to where he and the rest of the disaster-containment team is to lend them aid. Make sure to send my partner after me when she gets here- girl about my age, black hair, horn on the side of her head; goes by the name 'Chronoa'. You can't miss her."

"Okay, will do!" she nodded as he turned around to head back out into the storm. "Thank you, Kai!"

"Don't thank me yet," he said over his shoulder with a grimace. "This is gonna be a long few days, if what I saw coming in here is anything to go by." He looked like he was about to add more, but then something seemed to catch his eye behind her. "Pardon me, ma'am, but… Is the Iida Agency here?"

"Yes, they're split up across the east and northwest rescue areas," she answered. "Do you need me to get in contact with them for something?"

"…No," Kai answered with a definitive shake of his head. "Sorry, that wasn't relevant to the job at hand. I'll be going, now." There was another chilly burst of watery wind, and the coordinator was left alone in the tent again.

Thunder rumbled overhead for what had to be thousandth time in the last hour, setting Ingenium Mk. II's teeth on edge yet again. Every drop of rain that struck his helmet, every slick step through the mud toward their rescue zone, every crawling drop of sweat that went down his back as a chill went up it- everything around reminded him of that one day.

A flash of lightning streaked over their heads, and for the split-second that it illuminated the area around them, he could have sworn that he could see Kirishima and Tokoyami, half-buried under the rocks of Nabu Island while Nine's wrath scorched the sky above them. He could feel the crushing weight not only of those rocks, but of his disappointment in himself for not doing more to see to it that his peers were uninjured. Compounding to that was the knowledge that while he had been scrabbling uselessly at the rocks pinning them in place, his oldest friend had been forced to fight to his last breath in order to save all of them.

I was rendered useless, because I charged into a fight with a half-baked plan that had no contingencies! he thought as he tightened his gloved fists. This time, I'll do things like Brother does them- like Kurai! I will be sure to plan for every possibility so that no one is forced to see the inside of a body bag on my watch! I won't let it happen again!

Thunder crashed further up the mountain, though for how close the sound was, the light hadn't been very bright, Ingenium noted absently. Perhaps it was on the other side of the ridge, so they couldn't see the flash?

Whatever the case was, it wasn't important to the task at hand. Using the inner HUD that Akarui had designed for his helmet, he noticed that they were nearly at the designated search area, which had once been a small neighborhood with a library and some local convenience stores. Now, all he could see was uprooted trees, massive rocks that looked far too heavy to actually be moved by anything, and mud. The collapse in this area had been so total that even the roofs of second-story houses could not be seen.

"How could anyone survive something like this?" Ashid Queen asked in a shaken voice as she surveyed the wreckage alongside him.

"That's what we're going to find out," said a middle-aged heroine who went by the codename 'Scab'. She had been with the agency since Tenya and Tensei's father had been running it, and she gave Mina a tough-as-nails vibe that made her realize that getting on in years or no, there was a good reason this woman hadn't retired from heroism yet. "Alright, Ingenium. What search pattern are we running?"

"First we need to ascertain whether or not it is possible to move through our sector safely," the armored hero answered as he continued to look around. "I won't tolerate a single loss or injury from any of you, so we cannot afford to be hasty. Just allow me a few moments to think about this."

"Uh…" Ashid Queen let out a sound of confusion as she looked over at some of the other sidekicks, who simply shrugged in response. Turning back to her classmate, she decided to ask, "You know that there's no way to guarantee that we'll all be okay, right? This isn't the classroom- we can't go over every hypothetical before we head out on the mission. The mission is right here, right now, and there are people who might literally be under our feet who need our help. We gotta get with the program, man."

"What she said!" Cheetah called out. "Come on, Tenya! These people don't have any time, we gotta move it!"

"Stow it, intern," Scab snapped, causing Ashid Queen to flinch and take a half-step back. "You too, Hisoka. The team leader has yet to make his call, and until he does, we remain on standby. Whatever happens in the interim is on him, so I'm sure he'll use his time wisely." By the time she finished what had started out as a reprimand for the two women, she was looking at Ingenium with hard eyes that served to warn him that he wasn't off the hook, either.

One look at her classmate after that, and Ashid Queen knew that he was sweating bullets in his armor. Come on… she thought as she looked around impatiently at the rain-soaked landscape. Come on, pull yourself together, Tenya!

"I think…" the large boy began, then stopped. "It would be prudent if- No, wait, that would mean…"

He's stuck in a loop, she realized. She and her friends had seen it happen several times before- similar to how Izuku would sometimes spiral down into a muttering storm, Tenya had a tendency to get stuck in circular reasoning when presented with a problem that fell outside of his expectations, especially when it came to moral dilemmas.

"I'm gonna start digging over there, if nothing else," she announced as she started toward a dip in the wet earth. "He may need time to make a plan, but we also need to do more than just stand around. We're heroes, right? We gotta do something while we're out here!"

"Ashido, don't go off on your own!" Ingenium shouted as he grabbed her by the shoulder to keep her from getting away. "Wandering off all but guarantees that you'll be lost, or worse, injured without any way of telling us that you need help! I cannot allow that!"

"But you can allow people to suffocate and die beneath our feet while you worry about scenarios that might not even happen?!" she growled as she pulled away, Cheetah moving to follow her with a grin on her feline features. "You do what you need to do, but I'm not standing around and waiting until the people you're planning to rescue are beyond our ability to save them!"

"Scenarios that might not happen?!" Ingenium replied as he yanked off his helmet so that she could see how strained and bloodless his face had become. "Was Kurai's death not a scenario that we all thought outside the realm of possibility?! If there had been time to make a plan that could have ensured his-?!"

Whack!

Ingenium's eyes were practically bugging out as he registered the ringing in his ears and the sting of pain on his cheek. The other sidekicks- even Scab- had a similar look on their face as they watched Ashid Queen's hand drop from where she had left it after slapping her class president across the face as hard as she could. "Don't you dare," she growled in an uncharacteristically harsh voice. "Don't you ever… use his death as an excuse for your shortcomings!" Not done venting her anger, she gave him a hard shove, which actually succeeded in knocking him onto his rear, while he could only look up at her in a stupor. "If there had been a plan that could have prevented his death back then, we all would have jumped in on it!" she now screamed. "But he died, and there was nothing that we could have done about it! But these people, out here?! We can help them! We're heroes- it's our job to risk ourselves in these situations, because that's what we've been training so hard to do! We didn't choose this line of work to play it safe! If you can't remember something that basic, then why are you even here?!"

With that, she turned her back on the stunned boy and said over her shoulder, "I'm heading out, plan or not. That said, I wouldn't object to having some backup, so now's your chance to come with!" Then she took off on her acid skates, followed quickly by Cheetah, who dropped to all fours in order to keep pace with her. Not long after that, Stuntman was bounding after the two girls, shouting for them to wait long enough for him to catch up, which seemed to go unanswered.

"Idiots, get back here!" Rebound called after them, looking torn between wanting to run after the trio and staying with his commanding officer. "Agh, Ingenium, what do we do about this?!"

"I… Start searching the immediate area in pairs," the shaken boy said as Scab moved to help get him on his feet. "Make your way northwest and west as you go to head for higher ground- try to survey things from up high and report anything you find unusual. Don't ever travel alone in a place like this. Listen for the sounds of someone in distress, and focus your efforts on finding the stores in the area. They were open when the mudslide hit, so they would have the largest concentration of trapped people if they were buried, and should thusly be given priority."

"I'll search with my clones, so I don't need a partner," Loop de loop told their leader, who nodded a little absently as he massaged his reddening cheek. "If I could make a suggestion, sir, stay with Scab. Her ability to seal up wounds should pair well with your quirk enabling you to get those in need of medical attention to safety as quickly as possible."

"Ah, yes," he stuttered. "Thank you- I'll do that."

"Guess that means you're with me, Shroud," Rebound grinned as the girl gave her friend a deadpan glare. "Come on- we got ladies to save in this mess."

"You're such a creep!"

"What?!" he called out as he moved to follow the spirited heroine. "I'm just saying, it's not like this place was inhabited by only guys! There's practically every guarantee that there's gonna be some ladies that we're gonna have to rescue during this whole mess!"

"Ugh!"

"Hey, kid," Scab said as she scooped up Ingenium's helmet and put it into his hands, a blank look still on his face. "Tenya, hey!" The call of his name seemed to get his attention, so when Scab was sure that he wasn't spacing out, she frowned and told him, "Obviously, Pinky was out of line, but she wouldn't have had to be if she wasn't right about everything she just said. You should've thought of what to do on the way here. And if you weren't confident that you would be able to, you should have said something to Tensei."

"But, I-! No!" Ingenium shouted as he shook his head and then slammed his helmet back in place. "No, I have to do this! I cannot betray my family's expectations, nor those of my classmates, and especially not when Kurai has worked so much harder than me to keep everyone safe-!" He cut himself off as he drew in a deep breath and squared his shoulders before saying, "Let's go- we need to find any people who might be nearby, and if we have time, Ashido and those who went with her."

"You don't plan on ordering them back here right now?" Scab asked as she held up one of the radios that they had each been given to use in the field for this mission.

Ingenium sighed as he started to jog, choosing only to say, "They know how to call us if they need help. Me telling them to stay here didn't help before, so I doubt it will now."

"Alright, kid," Scab sighed. "It's your call, but when this is over, you, me, and Tensei are gonna have a little sit-down." Something about the way she was saying that made the young hero doubt that it was going to be a nice conversation for either Ingenium.

"Hey, Rock Lock!" The named hero looked up in surprise just in time to see a familiar figure land a few feet away, wearing a grin as he did. "Got room for a rookie?"

"As long as that rookie is one of you guys from UA, that's cool," he answered with a slightly sheepish smile of his own as he looked his younger colleague up and down. "Wow. You hardly look like the kid who took on Chisaki. But if that's really you, I'm glad we have your help- this whole day's been a mess."

"What can I do to help?" Kai asked as the two of them sobered their expressions. "Command has asked me to help divert the flow of the land if it shifts again. You have any places you think that might happen?"

"Man, it's all over the place with this damn thing!" Rock Lock groaned as he gestured at the altered mountain around them. "The rain hasn't stopped, which keeps soaking the dry ground that gets exposed, and then because that stuff ain't settled yet, it all just starts over and over again. I'm at my limit, to be honest- don't know that I got another one in me if the ground starts movin'."

"Alright, I have an idea," Kai muttered as he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "It'll require me being off the ground, though, so I won't notice any tremors that happen until the rubble starts moving, and I need to be aware of things before that happens. Can you be my feet on the ground?"

"Yeah, but what's that gonna do?" Rock Lock asked with a raised eyebrow. "And how are you gonna stay up in the air? Can you fly now?" When Kai simply raised his own eyebrow, the older hero shook his head and said, "Man, I saw the news about you comin' back with new powers, but… Well, no use complainin' about it, I guess. You can fly, and you got a game plan. I got a radio, you need the frequency?"

"Already loaded it up," Kai grinned as he tapped his scouter while he began to levitate upwards. "I'll give it a test run here in a moment- for now, just keep feeling for any shifts in the ground, and tell the other heroes nearby to be ready to coordinate with us. The more feet I have on the ground, the better it'll be."

"Alright…?" Rock Lock said uncertainly. "What exactly are we doin'?"

Eleven Years Ago…

"Augh!"

"That's what you get for taking the side of a quirkless idiot, idiot," Daizo said as he stood over a hunched Iida, who was grasping at his struck stomach. "Why even stick up for him, anyway? He's been here two months, and the only one who wants to talk to him is you. Nobody likes him, and if you keep telling people that they have to get along with him, nobody's gonna like you, either."

"Why should it matter… if he has a quirk or not?" Iida gasped as his glasses slipped down from his face and clattered in the dust. "He's a person… who must be lonely… having to move away from everyone he knew at his old school."

"He probably had to leave because they knew better than to waste their time on quirkless freaks like him," said one of Daizo's cronies. "That's just how the world works, man. My dad says that the world is outgrowing people who have no powers, so there's not really a use for them anymore. Why should we bother wasting our time on a waste of space?"

"Hogo-sha… is not a waste of space!" Iida started to grunt as he rose, only to be kicked in the shoulder by another one of the boys, drawing out a cry of pain and the first glimmer of tears as he lay on the dirt in defeat.

"Aw, is little Four-Eyed-Iida gonna cry?" Daizo sneered. "Go ahead, baby. No one's gonna hear ya, and even if they did, no one'll care. You've been helping out that quirkless transfer, so now no one's gonna wanna help you, cos they know you're stupid. So go ahead, cry like a little baby, loser."

"Get away from him!"

The shout drew the attention of the group away from the beaten boy and toward a surprising target. Hogo-sha stood less than fifteen feet away, his fists balled up and his face red, which just got the bullies to start laughing. "Aw, look at that!" Daizo snickered as he started stalking toward the new kid, his cronies in tow. "Looks like the pet wants to save its master! Oh, but spoiler alert? A quirkless nobody isn't gonna be able to do anything to us without a teacher around to save ya- and they're all on lunch break or not anywhere close enough to stop us."

"Hogo-sha!" Iida coughed from the dirt. "Run! Get a teacher! They'll hurt you!"

"Yeah, we will!" Daizo laughed as he ran at Hogo-sha, whose eyes narrowed while taking a half-step back. "But like I said, nobody's gonna- ack!"

His breath was cut off when Hogo-sha sidestepped his punch and then threw an elbow into his gut in the same motion. As he collapsed to his knees, he heard his intended victim say in a cold voice, "I don't need a quirk to beat people like you. And people like you don't need quirks as an excuse to hurt people. With or without quirks, I think we would be doing the same thing as we are now, and that's sad. My dad tells me that this is how people become villains."

"He hit Daizo, pile on him!" shouted one of the other boys, whose hands became clay-like in constitution and weight.

"Yeah!" shouted one of the others as he allowed his knuckles to acquire a rainbow hue.

All four of the other boys moved in fast, but somehow, Hogo-sha stayed one step ahead of them, no matter how they came at him. It only took a minute for him to have all of them on the floor with the wind having been driven out of their lungs by either an elbow strike or fist to the stomach.

Once he was sure that they weren't going to be giving him or Iida any more trouble, he left them where they were, coughing and even crying in the dirt as he went to help his classmate into a sitting position. "Are you alright?" he asked as he reached for the glasses that had been tossed aside.

"I am, thanks to you," Iida nodded as he grimaced at the state of the lenses- scratched and the frames bent horribly out of shape by someone's foot. "Oh dear… I only got these a few months ago. Father is sure to be upset."

"I think he'll understand when you tell him that it happened because of those nitwits," Hogo-sha assured him as he helped the other boy to his feet. "Is that true, what they were saying? People are picking on you because you're helping me, even though they think I don't have a quirk?"

"It would seem so," Iida sighed. "Personally, I don't think it matters whether or not you do have a quirk, but after what I just saw, I'd find it hard to believe that you didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, five boys just attacked you, and you dealt with all of them without being seriously harmed, yourself," he explained, as if it were obvious. "You must have some kind of combat quirk, right? I can't say that I approve of using it on others, though it was self-defense, so I suppose it's alright if-"

"I have an emitter quirk, but I didn't use it to fight them," Hogo-sha interrupted him, surprising the other boy.

"Wait-! Really?!"

"Really," he nodded. "It's hard to control, so I do my best to get by without it, at least until I can figure out how to make it safe to use around others. My dad just made sure that I know how to defend myself, given his line of work, you know? Villains aren't above targeting kids like us- or so he says. I hope I never have to find if that's true."

"Me neither," Iida agreed hurriedly. "I'd hate to see something bad happen to my friend."

"Friend?" Hogo-sha repeated in a confusion. "Wait, you mean me?"

"Of course!" Iida nodded sharply. "Who else would I mean?"

"Oh," was all that Hogo-sha could think to say. "Well… thank you?"

"I should be the one thanking you!" the taller boy said as he bowed toward his companion. "Thank you for coming to my aid when you did!"

"You're wel- Whoa!" Without warning, he grabbed Iida and threw him out of the path of a fireball that had come from the direction of the five bullies. Daizo was swaying on his feet, but his mouth was smoking as evidence of the failed attack. "Hey, that was dangerous!"

"I did not… get beaten… by some quirkless freak!" the boy shouted as he ran at them, his reptilian eyes wide with hate.

"For the last time…" Hogo-sha grunted as he took a ready stance. "I…" He narrowly evaded Daizo's next fire blast while growling, "Am not…" The second that Daizo was in range, he lashed out with a brutal side kick that had the force of his entire body colliding with the other boy's own forward momentum, which resulted in him vomiting his lunch and then collapsing right where he stood. "Quirkless!"

Then he remained standing over his defeated opponent, breathing hard as he looked down on him with disgust. "I don't need my quirk to beat you, anyway," he muttered as Iida watched him with something like awe in his foggy eyes. "I'm gonna save my quirk for better things than bullies like you."

Present Day…

"Hey, it's okay," Ashid Queen said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile to the crying child who was half-buried in the mud that had swallowed up her house. The poor kid looked to be bleeding something fierce out of her side, from what the pink heroine could see. In fact, she was probably still alive only because of the pressure that the wet earth had been putting on her body. She would need first aid the second that she was free of the debris. "We're gonna get you outta here, I promise."

"How we lookin'?" Cheetah asked as she bounded over, her feet hardly making a sound while she did, even in the muddy conditions. Her ears were pinned back and the fur on her neck was ruffled as she regarded the wailing child, which Ashid Queen realized was probably because of her sensitive hearing. The other heroine's tawny-gold fur was caked with so much mud and blood that one might have mistaken her pelt for that of a black panther's, but there had been no time for such luxuries as a wash to rid themselves of such filth.

Mina didn't even want to think about how she must look after how long they had been in the field, pulling injured people from the rubble and unearthing sodden corpses from the muck. Though if the inky-black mixture of blood, grime, and other bodily filths that had made their way onto her arms and uniform were anything to go by, she estimated it would take something like a week-long bath before she would ever feel clean again. Even with the rain falling as it was, the filth had managed to entrench itself into what felt like every fiber of her costume and skin. Her hands were actually somewhat free of such stains, having been more or less scourged by her quirk's constant use.

"You got a first aid kit on you?" the pink girl asked her teammate while she continued to smile at the little girl and moved to hold her hand. "I used the last of my supplies on the guys down the block, earlier."

"Gotcha covered," Cheetah grinned as she held out a new satchel to the other heroine. "Figured you'd need some after that last run. Make sure you're always stocked up on supplies before ya rush out into the field." As the two of them began to work to extricate the little girl from the rubble of her house, Ashid Queen reflected on how the last few hours had sometimes seemed like an eternity, while other moments seemed to flicker by, faster than even she could keep up with.

The two of them, along with Stuntman, had been working rapidly to ferry any injured civilians that they could find back to the emergency response station closest to their rescue zone. They had caught glimpses of some of the other members of Ingenium Mk. II's team, but since they didn't really feel like talking to the others following their split off from the main group, they hadn't bothered to reach out yet. They had all been working the entire night without so much as a coffee break, and it felt as though they'd hardly made any progress, even having rescued nearly sixty people.

Ashid Queen attributed that feeling mostly to the fact that they had uncovered more corpses than living people. The first body she had found in one of the damaged houses had been so badly mangled that at first, she didn't even realize what it was that she had found, but when she did, she had immediately become sick. This had led to Cheetah dragging her away so that she couldn't see the grisly remains and telling her to sit for a few minutes while she kept looking for other survivors in the area.

"I won't let ya sit around for long, but the first time I saw this kinda thing working with Ingenium, he made me take a breather," she had told the shaky intern. "Probably one of the only times I listened to someone telling me to stop for a minute, and I'm glad that I did. Hate to tell ya, but this won't be the only time ya see something like this- and yer gonna need to get used to it real quick, goin' by the look a' this place."

With that, she had left Ashid Queen to sit in the rain, facing away from the roof of the house that they had managed to find. It had taken the pink girl a few minutes to get herself sorted, and by the time that she had, she was angry at herself for reacting the way that she had. You knew that this kinda stuff would be out here! she told herself as she had forced her wobbly legs to lift her up. You knew that this would happen if you became a hero, dammit! This isn't even the first time I've seen a dead body, so what the hell am I-?!

Her breath had caught in her throat as she dropped back to her knees, her vision blurring in and out between the muddy ground beneath her body and the sight of Kurai's mangled cadaver on the mortician's table on Nabu. Oh, she had thought numbly. That's right… This isn't the first body I've seen.

She didn't know exactly how long she had been there, sitting in the driving rainstorm before her ears picked up on the sound of someone crying in pain, even as the earth beneath her began to rumble. Her instincts took over in an instant, setting her off at a run toward the sounds of distress, which she could now tell were coming from at least two or three people. The rumbling in the ground grew stronger, and now she could see a commotion further up the mountainside- trees shifting aside to make way for the river of earth that was flowing down toward the suburbs once again. It didn't seem to be an especially large mudslide this time around, certainly nothing like the one that had already buried this part of the town, but she knew that it would be dangerous, all the same.

So she ran and skated through the mud as fast as she could until she found the people in distress, who turned out to be a mother and her two children, appearing to be in upper grade school, maybe junior high. "Hang on!" she shouted to the trio. "Help is on the way!"

"Oh, thank God!" the woman sobbed from where she was trying to get her son out from under a large rock. "Please, help us! We can't get him out!"

"I'm on it!" Ashid Queen grunted as she slid to a stop in front of the trio. "Stand back, ma'am!"

"Come on, sweetie," the woman urged her other child as they retreated several paces. "This nice hero is going to help your brother, okay?"

"I gotcha, kiddo," the pink girl said with as confident a smile as she could muster while she knelt by the wounded child, who was looking up at her with a mixture of fear and hopefulness. "Okay, this is gonna smell bad, and it might be kinda scary, but I promise I won't let you get hurt anymore. Can you be brave for me?"

"Uh-huh," the kid nodded as he trembled, though from pain or fear, she couldn't tell.

"Alright, here we go," Ashid Queen murmured as she focused on generating a vicious acid from the pointer and middle fingers on her left hand. Concentrating hard, she made a slashing motion at the rock that had trapped the child, sending the acid straight through it like a hot knife through butter. She made sure to have the cut go through at an angle so that once it was done, the heavier portion of the rock simply slid off to the side, leaving a much smaller slab that she was able to easily lift off the child, freeing him from the crushing weight, and enabling her to pull him out of the depression in the earth.

"Th-Thank you, miss hero!" the child cried as he was dragged away, his legs too damaged to allow him to move on his own. "I thought I was gonna-!"

"Miss, the mudslide!" the mother shouted as she pointed up the mountain. "It's coming again!"

Ashid Queen nearly cursed aloud as she remembered the movements that she had seen on her way over, but remembered at the last moment that such an action was not going to win her any favors in their present situation. Instead, she settled for saying to the woman, "Get behind me, all of you!"

"W-We gotta run!" wailed the younger child. "I don't wanna be buried again! Please, mommy! I wanna leave!"

"We can't just leave your brother!" the woman shouted back, somewhere between furious and fearful. "Not after we tried so hard to get him out!"

"Mom, take Jun and run!" the boy said as he tried to shove his mother away, but being unable to do so because of the pain currently robbing him of his strength. "Argh! I won't be the reason that all of you died! Get-! Outta here!"

"Nobody's dyin' on my watch!" Ashid Queen shouted, even as the rumbling in the ground drew closer, and the trees nearby began to shift once again. The three civilians were then admittedly startled by the desperate, borderline madness in the girl's eyes as she placed herself firmly between them and the oncoming wave of earth. "I won't let it happen in front of me- never again!"

As if nature intended to disagree with her, the mudslide chose that moment to break through the forest boundary, buffeting them with the sound of the raging earth. Ashid Queen glared at the oncoming storm and grit her teeth as she readied her own fearsome powers. "If I ever see another thunderstorm in my life, it'll be too soon," she growled as slime began to drip from her arms. "Acid Rampart!" An acrid-smelling solvent exploded from her body, forming a massive barrier that instantly incinerated the rubble that had been menacing the group only moments ago. The mud that was beyond her acid's reach moved on, unmolested, but no dirt, trees, or even solid rocks were able to get through her defensive maneuver.

It took only a few seconds for the ground to stop moving around them, but it felt like an eternity to the three civilians who watched the girl protecting them with awe. As soon as she was sure that there would be no more sudden shifts, Ashid Queen shut off her quirk and then turned back toward her rescues with a cheeky grin on her face. "Told'ja I wouldn't let anyone die," she told them as she brushed few droplets of acid off of her arms before moving closer to the trio while reaching for the first aid kit she had slung around her hips. As she knelt next to the injured boy, she held out a walkie-talkie to the mother and said, "Would you mind holding down that little black button for me while I work on your son? I need to radio for an evac."

After that, the trio had thanked her rather profusely, to the point where she was glad that the EMT's had come to take the family away. Before they had gone, however, the boy had to ask, "Wait, miss hero! What's your name?!"

At that, the girl had given them another confident grin while flashing them a 'victory' sign and saying, "I'm Ashid Queen- the girl who's gonna stand up and keep all the bad stuff from getting to kids like you."

"Ashid Queen," the boy repeated slowly. "I'll remember that, miss. Thank you for saving my mom and sister."

"You're welcome, kid."

With that, she had run back off into the danger zone, resolved to rescue as many people as she could, no matter how many bodies she had to uncover in order to do it. Of course, seeing more dead people than living ones whom she could rescue dealt a barrage of savage blows to that resolve, but she was determined to maintain the attitude that a few rescues were better than none at all. Every time that she found another survivor, she found herself relieved enough that she could manage to smile at them, even in spite of all the horrific carnage that she had forced herself to move past.

Some small part in the back of her head knew that the moment she took a breather again, the recollections would all start to catch up with her, so she kept herself moving, kept smiling at the people who needed their help, and never stopped to let herself think about how much her skin was hurting from the acid she had been using, or how tired her muscles were after working so hard for nearly ten hours, now. I can rest once I've done absolutely everything that I can do, she told herself as she watched the emergency responders carry away their latest rescue on a stretcher in the pre-dawn, cloudy light.

As if she had heard her thoughts, Cheetah patted her on the shoulder and asked, "Ready for another round?"

"Waiting on you," the pink girl grinned back. She had just finished quaffing a small water bottle in order to maintain the strength of her quirk- something she'd forced herself to do in between every rescue that brought her back to camp. If the heroine became dehydrated, her body's ability to produce her acid would be severely limited, if not outright depleted.

"Ha!" the feline woman chuckled in reply. "I'll be real, I didn't think I was gonna like ya this much. Glad to have another lady on board who doesn't take to slackin'."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Ashid Queen admitted as they began to move on to the next area that they had agreed to look into, where they could already see Stuntman escorting a few people away. "Put me in front of a text book, and you'll never find a bigger slacker than yours' truly."

"Heh, I believe it," Cheetah grinned again. "I never really had a problem with learnin' stuff, it's just the sittin' still part that gets to me. I remember I used to-" The woman suddenly paused, her ears perking up and her nose twitching as she sniffed at the air. "We got trouble," she suddenly growled as she looked up the mountain, at one of the more sheer parts that had remained largely unaffected thus far. "I can hear the animals in that direction goin' ballistic. Something big's about to happen." As if to confirm her declaration, the pair could see a multitude of birds departing the area she had referenced.

"We gotta radio it in," Ashid Queen said as she reached for her walkie-talkie. "What hero team is handling that area?"

Cheetah beat her to it by pulling out her own radio and barking into it, "Iron Soldier Agency! You're about to get a huge shift in your area! I repeat, expect a mudslide in the next few minutes!"

Almost before she had finished saying so, there was a resounding crack that echoed through the ruined landscape before a huge portion of the mountain above the cliff face started to shift and roll down the rocks. At their distance, it didn't appear to be moving all that quickly, but the two heroines had seen several times in the last few hours that once someone was in the immediate vicinity of the landslide, it was no contest as to what was faster- the angry earth, or the injured people that they were trying to rescue. Add to the fact that this landslide was far larger than any of the other ones that they had seen today, and it was enough to drain the blood out of the both of their faces as they realized that whoever was in that zone was about to get buried with the same volume and force as the suburbs below them already had been.

"Holy shi-!"

"We don't have time for your vulgarities, Rebound!" Ingenium Mk. II shouted before his peer could complete the expletive. "That mudslide is going to border with our evacuation zone, if not come directly into it! We need to start heading over to make sure that our comrades are not caught up in it, or failing that, rescuing them from calamity!"

"We'll handle this evac, you go make sure that Cheetah and Ashid Queen didn't get buried!" Loop de Loop called out from next to Scab- or was that one of her clones? The younger Ingenium knew that there was a way to tell the replicates apart from the original, but he didn't have time to recall the information right that second.

"Very well!" he acknowledged. "Rebound, Shroud, you're with me! Scab, I'll update you via radio as soon as we find our friends!"

"Good luck, kid!"

Before the trio had taken ten steps in the direction of the mudslide, there was a blast of lightning that struck the ground right in front of the rapidly-moving earth, which caused Ingenium to skid to a stop with wide eyes from within his helmet. "Hold on, is that-?!"

"Tenya, what's the holdup?!" Rebound asked as he and Shroud looked at him with confusion. "We gotta-!"

"Just watch," their current commander replied as he pointed at the mountainside where the lightning had struck. "The situation is being well handled, I assure you."

"Are you ready up there?" Chronoa asked into her earpiece as she watched the rubble charge toward her with reckless abandon, intent on annihilating the rest of the suburbs and the people working to evacuate them. Her back was to the open air, her feet right at the edge of the cliffs overlooking the town that was still reeling from the initial landslide. She couldn't have taken a full step backwards without falling off the bluff.

"I am, now," she heard Kai tell her, which put a smile on her face. "After the initial move, I might need your help, though."

"You got it," she said before she lowered her hand and allowed the full might of One For All to flow throughout her body, lighting up the mountainside with her brilliant bioelectricity. Taking a solid stance, she drew her right arm back, even as the mudslide came close enough to touch her.

"Detroit… SMASH!" she screamed, sending her fist skyward- and the entire sum of the mudslide along with it.

Down below, Cheetah and Ashid Queen watched with wide eyes as the charging earth's course was changed suddenly and very violently. It almost looked like a volcano had gone off above them, except that instead of hot lava, the mountain was spewing forth solid rock and dirt. The feline heroine could only watch and wonder just what on earth had happened, but the pink girl had a slightly different reaction.

She could feel tears of relief sliding out of her eyes as a new smile worked its way onto her face while she thought, Are you two ever gonna stop saving me?

Even though she hadn't seen the telltale signs yet, she knew that these days, where there was white lightning coming from a hero, dark thunder was sure to follow.

"I take back what I said earlier!" Rock Lock shouted at Kai, who was watching the dirt cloud that had erupted from where Chronoa had gone a moment ago. "You UA kids are insane!"

One For All's Gear Shift… he thought while ignoring the other, exhausted hero. "Thunder Clap and Flash…" he growled as he felt the power of the Second preparing to be unleashed in his body. "Threefold!"

And just like that, he was gone in a blast of black lightning that streaked into the storm of earth that had yet to even begin its descent, disappearing into the maelstrom as the resulting thunder deafened everyone in the immediate vicinity. It was so loud that Rock Lock and the other heroes who had been working with Kai to hold back the moving dirt all night nearly missed what happened next.

From within the shroud of earth, there were two more flashes of black energy that caused nearly the entire mass to fly out toward the nearby sea at breakneck speed. Even when it seemed as though some of the mudslide would indeed return to its intended destination, there was another flash of white bioelectricity and an air burst that cleared out the last of the debris, sending it on a course after the rest. The heroes could only look on in awe as they watched Kai catch up Chronoa by slinging her arm over his shoulder and using his Blackwhip to provide a couple of points for her to stand on as he slowly levitated them back to the ground.

"How's the arm?" he asked her as they touched down on solid ground. He noticed her inspecting the aforementioned limb, which appeared to be undamaged, in spite of her use of One For All's full power.

"Perfectly fine, thanks to Akarui," she grinned while effortlessly flexing her fingers. Turning to him, she then added, "I should really be asking you that. I'm assuming that Gear Shift was a success?"

"It was hard for my brain to keep up with what my body was doing, but it got the job done," he nodded with a satisfied smile of his own. "Using Blackwhip nonstop for the last few hours didn't help, but I suppose the results speak for themselves." Gear Shift, as Kai had recently discovered, was the second user's power, and had granted him the ability to greatly enhance the speed of anything or anyone he touched, including himself. During the time of the Second, the quirk had not been anywhere near as powerful as he had just demonstrated, but it still did nothing to damage his body like One For All could if he used it all full power. Thus far, he had only combined Gear Shift with up to sixty percent of his maximum strength, as anything faster would leave him unable to react in time if he accidentally set himself on a collision course- at least, until he had more practice. Something that could be considered a downside to the quirk was that it did very little to affect the actual power of his strikes, just the impetus properties. Even so, the quirk's utilization vastly increased his speed to the degree that the move Kai had just utilized pretty much allowed him to move at a rate comparable to 150% of All Might's power.

This had been done because while he required a great amount of speed for what he had in mind, he couldn't afford to be unleashing the full-power wind blasts that would result from a use of Fa Jin in this area, as it could not only affect the ground below him, but also the skies above, where any number of planes could be flying above the cloud cover. They weren't exactly close to Haneda, but sudden and violent changes in wind pressure and the atmosphere could certainly put pilots and their passengers in danger, even at this distance. Thus he had only utilized a greater portion of his strength at the individual moments of impact, which had certainly reduced the amount of wind and lightning that one might expect from his show of force.

It had been nothing less than a great surprise to the Guardian Hero when he had received instructions for the quirk's use from the Second in a recent dream, brief though they were, and after which the man himself still refused to talk to him. After inquiring of the other vestiges as to what had happened, they explained that the First and Third had managed to convince their comrade to give him a chance with the quirk, for a handful of reasons that more or less won him around to the idea. First was that Kurai was likely to be the last wielder of the power in this timeline, and the second being that with the way things were progressing, there was no time to find and train someone who would be more willing to go into battle with the intent to kill. If Kai failed in battle because he did not have every available weapon at his disposal, they might never get another chance to right the wrongs of All For One. So, the Second had finally agreed to help him, though he clearly still thought that the young hero was too idealistic to do what needed to be done.

To that end, Kai had finally made the retort that when it came down to it, he had killed Nine in order to keep everyone safe from his intentions. It had not been his goal from the beginning, but when the time came, he did not hesitate to act as the situation demanded. This had seemed to quiet the indignation that he had always perceived in the second vestige, though he still refused to talk to the boy unless he deemed it absolutely necessary.

The quirk of One For All's fifth user had also proven incredibly useful during the night for preventing large objects like trees and boulders from moving down the mountain whenever the earth started to shift beneath them during the night. Thanks to it and the monster strength that he possessed, Kai had been able to move the pieces in danger of triggering another mudslide to a more stable location. Because of the massive stockpile of energy that they had at their disposal, neither Chronoa nor Kai even felt physically tired after all their hard work thus far, but both of them could feel their vision starting to blur as their brains struggled to maintain the focus that was necessary for this kind of work.

"A'ight, you two," Rock Lock said as he and couple of the heroes approached them. "You need a break. You been at this all night with no rest- you're makin' me feel bad for takin' a nap earlier. You've done more than any of us could expect of you guys."

"The rescue isn't over," Chronoa started to protest, only to be held back by Kai, who nodded to Rock Lock. "What are you doing?"

"We need to rest, even if it's just a sit-down for thirty minutes," he told her firmly. "I know you're not tired, but our reaction times are starting to lag. If we keep going, we're more than likely to make a mistake that could get someone hurt."

"But what if there's another-?"

"They know where to find us if there's a landslide," Kai interrupted as he ruffled her hair with a grin. "Come on. Even if we don't get tired from using our powers, I'm still hungry. Let's get a snack and some tea before we get back to work."

Chronoa looked at him with shrewd gaze out of the corner of her eye before she asked, "Are you just hoping to run into Ashid Queen while we're down there?"

"I wouldn't complain if it did happen, but I honestly just want one of those pork buns I saw at base camp," he admitted as he started pulling her along with him. "Come on, kid. Let's get to it."

"I'm the same age, if not older than you!" Chronoa protested as Kai led her away.

Rock Lock watched them go, something nagging at the back of his mind as they did. I don't remember seeing this girl with them UA kids before, but she looks awfully familiar…

"Hey, Rock Lock!" called a hero who went by the name 'Kickoff', interrupting his train of thought. "Just got word from the base camp! They're worried about the B-7 area, and they want us to lock it down! You coming?"

"Yeah, on my way," he nodded as he ran to catch up with the other heroes, lingering thoughts of Chronoa having already vanished from his tired mind.

"Man, I saw the videos about Kanto, but…" Shroud let out a whistle as she and the other two heroes watched the dust flying away from the town. "Your friend sure lives up to his name, huh, Tenya?"

"Yes, he certainly does," Ingenium readily agreed, though the heroine could see that there was more to it than that for him. He confirmed it when he looked down at himself and said in a lower tone, "He's always known how to live up to the name that he chose for himself… My name was given to me by someone who fully embodied its ideals, and even showed me how to live up to it, myself. And yet, at the first moment of trouble, I could only-"

"Tenya, buddy?" Rebound said to cut him off. "I know you're having some kind of existential crisis right now, but we still got people to save. Save the freaking out for break time or after this whole mess has been dealt with."

Ingenium stared at him for a moment before he shook himself and said, "Right! Apologies for my distraction! You are right- our work is far from done out here!"

"There's the robot we all know and love," Rebound chuckled, which managed to draw a smile out of Shroud- not that she'd ever let their agency's resident heartthrob know that he'd managed to pull it off.

Mataras: I'm too tired to do a proper omake...

Kai: Okay, lemme handle this. Ahem, Mataras is working on his black belt thesis on top of working a full-time job, and being a dad. He's going on hiatus for one month.

Akarui: We'll be back in June with a new chapter- Resolved

Kai: In the meantime, we'll be waiting for Mataras to Go Beyond!

Deku: Plus Ultra!

Umbra's Notes

Acid Rampart: A more wide-spread and potent version of Acid Veil that seems to be geared toward defense concerning terrain shifts. Given the strength and volume of the acid needed to maintain this move, it is reasonable to assume that Ashid Queen would not be able to use this technique consecutively within a short timespan.

Thunder Clap and Flash: Having evidently unlocked the final, hidden quirk factor of One For All, Kai seems to combine its properties with the natural speed of Full Cowling in short bursts, allowing him to achieve as-of-yet-unforeseen new velocities far beyond previous calculations had surmised. Like Fa Jin, he seems to only be capable of using the ability for short durations, though whether this is due to a lack of practice on Kai's part or some sort of backlash from the quirk itself has yet to be seen. the manifestation of Gear Shift with this given power level warrants further study.

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Enmity...

"Where do you think Ashid Queen is most likely to be?" she asked her partner. "You go there, and I'll got to the other spot and catch up with whoever's there. If I run into Ingenium, I'll make sure he's occupied enough so that you two don't get interrupted."

"Eri, you're a goddess," Kai grinned, causing her to giggle in response. "In that case, Mina's probably taking a rest, so I'll check the shelter. We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes."

"Yes, sir!" The girl gave him a mock salute and then started walking toward the mess tent, a bounce in her step and a grin on her face.

Watching her go, Kai couldn't stop a smile of his own from breaking out. She's been through hell, but she's found her reasons to smile again, he thought as he moved toward his own destination. I'd question how that's possible, but I suppose the same has been wondered about me.

For a moment, he allowed himself to wonder what it would be like to be in her shoes. He could see himself as he was now, standing alongside his father and uncle in their prime, using the awesome powers at his disposal to prevent the tragedies that befell them. Needle Mouse was no threat to him with One For All, he could have easily taken out the kidnappers from the Tono gang, and he could have warned his parents about making a deal with All For-

He paused, both in his movements and his thoughts. Would I warn them about what would happen if they had struck a deal with him? he was forced to wonder. If I did manage to warn them off, I would never have Energon, which means that Dad would have never been under his thumb, which means that he would still be alive, Akarui would have never pushed his quirk too far in order to help me, and I would be… Huh. Once again, his thoughts came to a halt, though he forced his feet to get moving again. What would I be if I didn't have a quirk?