Izuku and Uraraka exited the Conflagration Zone a few minutes after defeating Minotaurus and Mummy. The two of them, with their admittedly small frames, were able to bash the door open together, but it was a battle itself to get the door to move, as it had been locked, presumably by the villains that they'd fought before they'd properly entered the zone. The two of them walked out into the open space outside the zones, and what they saw was chaos. The lake of the Flood Zone cut across their direct line of sight to the central plaza, but they could still see what was happening over there. The horde of villains was still there, and Aizawa was in the middle of them all, fighting them all off like it was nothing. He had to have been going for at least ten minutes now, but it looked like he'd only taken a quarter of them all the way down. That didn't bode well for him, and Izuku could recognise that. He felt the urge to go and help Aizawa fight, but knew that in his state, and with his Quirk, it'd probably just end up worse than it already was without him going and killing someone or getting himself killed.

So he did the next best thing. He got low with Uraraka and began moving toward the lake. As the two of them walked, Uraraka questioned his plans.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"We're going to dip below the ledge where the central plaza meets the Flood Zone and use that cover to inch our way closer to the entrance. If we can sneak up there, we can unlock the doors and escape. If the doors can't be unlocked, I can remove them with my Quirk. Sounds good?" Izuku explained.

"Sounds great! How do you come up with some of this stuff so fast?" Uraraka said, looking at him with wide, happy eyes.

"Oh, it's not that impressive. I just think a lot, maybe too much, so it's easy to focus that on stuff that actually matters and not stupid stuff like—" Izuku cut himself off, knowing that if he'd kept talking he would've let some stuff slip that he absolutely could not admit to right now. "You get the picture."

"Well, I think it's pretty impressive," Uraraka said, and slid down into the water.

Trying his best not to show Uraraka how red his face had gotten, Izuku followed her into the water. The two of them hugged the wall, all but crawling along the border of the two areas. They sneaked along, keeping their movements slower, so as to not alert the villain to their presence with the splashing of water. This plan worked for some time, and it allowed them to silently pass by the villain forces without so much as a sound. That was, until there was a lull in the fighting and the villains decided that talking was a much better use of their time.

It was a booming voice that spoke first, with an edge to it that made Izuku's skin crawl. It sounded as if two people were speaking at once, but that was insane. These two voices were in perfect harmony, yet clashing at the same time. They said the same thing, just differently, as if they really were two different people, yet they were of the exact same mind, though there were differences in their speech patterns. The voices themselves were also different, with one being low and gravelly, calm and confident, and the other being high and frantic, almost manic. What was happening?

"Your Quirk is very admirable, Shouta Aizawa," was what one of the voices, the low one, said. The other said, "You're just so cool, Eraserhead!", as if he was a fan.

The huffing and puffing of Aizawa, understandably tired after non-stop fighting for the whole of the attack so far, could be heard over the silence that followed. It was as if he was trying to catch his breath to respond, but couldn't. The voice, voices, chuckled.

"You have put up a respectable fight, hero, but now it is time for your part in this plan to conclude," the lower voice said. "You're a pain, Eraserhead, so get out of the way so that the real show can begin," the other said. It was hard to keep up with what both were saying, since they were saying different, yet similar things at the exact same time. It made Izuku pause to listen, which caused Uraraka to pause so that she didn't get too far away from him, which he would've noticed and gone nuclear over, but he was much too invested in what this strange hybrid voice was saying.

Izuku had the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. It was like an oppressive wave of realisation washed over him, or like the water that he was half-submerged in was suddenly heavier than anything he'd ever experienced, weighing him down and making it so that he couldn't help Aizawa even if he tried his hardest. Actually, it was the water, but it was something else that was happening to it. Izuku reached down and felt a kind of static charge in the air, one that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It was like he'd just touched a television after it had been on for hours on end, and Izuku couldn't think of a reason for the water to have taken on this quality. Izuku looked around the Flood Zone, looking for an explanation, when he found it leaping off the boat in the lake and hanging in the air before gravity would carry it back down and into the water.

Kaminari was lit up like a Christmas tree, that golden electricity dancing across his body in flashes that made Izuku's heart skip a beat as he realised what was happening. Izuku acted on instinct, barely thinking anything other than 'get out of the water'. He took Uraraka by both shoulders and brought his foot up to catch it on the ledge of the lake, which was a little far to stretch, but he'd make do. Then he launched the two of them out of the water and up onto the ground of the central plaza just as the sound of Kaminari whooping and hitting the water rang out across the USJ, signalling what would've been Izuku and Uraraka's demise a second earlier. Instead, a yellow flash raced around the lake, electrifying the water and everyone in it, which, by the looks of the two dozen villains that suddenly floated up from below the surface, was quite a lot of people. Izuku sighed as he saw the electrifying attack stop when the water ended at the border between areas. He looked over at Uraraka, seeing that she was looking back at the lake with wide, horrified eyes, and back at him with something like adoration. The two of them paused in that moment, peering into each others' eyes as they laid strewn out on the ground after narrowly escaping being cooked by their classmate's attack on someone else, but Izuku suddenly realised the position he'd put the two of them in.

He leapt up to his feet, causing Uraraka to realise as well and join him. They looked out at the plaza, and saw that there were remaining factors in the clash across the area, those being Aizawa, who was still panting and regaining his wits, the big three villains across the plaza from him, and at least a dozen minor villains still standing that were regrouping for another wave of combat with Aizawa. They were all looking at the two of them, and Izuku realised they were screwed now. They couldn't run anymore, they'd have to fight, because none of these villains would let them get away. That was to say nothing of the villain that was still just floating above it all, the one with the white hair and the eyes that saw too much to be that young. Izuku doubted he'd let anyone escape with their lives, no matter if he had to hunt them down one by one. Izuku didn't know that much about this villain, but it was the absolutely horrifying vibe that he was putting out with those eyes that saw everything that made him feel like this villain was one of a kind, unique.

"Master, that is the boy that I was telling you of. He is the one that jumped out in front of my counterattack and saved Thirteen. Do you feel it?" the mist man, Kurogiri asked.

He had clearly warped back to this white-haired villain, his Master's side. Did that mean that whoever was left up at the main entrance was enough to fight him off, or did that mean that they were all dead, and that Kurogiri had killed them, or that he'd successfully scattered them all with that big attack that had sent himself and Uraraka to the Conflagration Zone? Izuku hoped it was the first option, but it was entirely possible that it was one of the other two. Also, what did he mean by 'do you feel it'? Were they looking for something? He had thought they wanted to kill All Might, not to find something. Perhaps they could only do that when they had that something. Either way, he didn't have anything that could kill All Might. He wasn't exactly friendly with the guy, but he'd never knowingly keep something like that, so what did these villains think he had?

"Oh, yes, he has a powerful Quirk Factor. I can sense it from here. And if he is truly willing to jump out in front of an attack such as the one you described to me, he certainly has the heroic spark that the oaf would want in a wielder. Yes, it's entirely possible that the boy could have it. Wonderful work, Kurogiri," the lower voice from before said, confirming to Izuku that he was crazy, and that it was just two different people talking. However, another voice immediately burst from the floating villain's mouth, like it was trying to tear its own throat out by screaming two different words at the same time, and it sent a chill down Izuku's spine to hear that second, more unhinged voice speak under the other one, saying, "The brat's got a powerful enough Quirk in there. If he's as stupid as you say, then All Might would probably think that's noble, like the idiot he is! This little kid could have it!"

Izuku felt himself step backwards at the shock of hearing one man speak in two different voices. Of course, he'd thought that before, but had mostly dismissed the idea, but to see it happen in front of his eyes was a whole different thing. Izuku felt like he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, facing down this man. It was almost like the guy wasn't even human, merely something else wearing the skin of his kind. Those eyes bore down on him like the eyes of a predator upon its prey, an intent determination that Izuku had never felt pointed at him before causing him to panic. He tried to move, but it did nothing. He was rooted to the spot, standing still as the floating villain laughed and rambled in two distinct voices. This was all so confusing, and looking to the side, told him that Uraraka was just as lost. Then, as one, the villain spoke.

"Nomu, fetch me One for All," the two voices said together for the first time, creating a strange effect that made Izuku's stomach squirm.

It all happened so fast after that. Izuku suddenly felt alarms go off in his head as he saw the big, hulking, purple thing that had been waiting patiently underneath the floating villain look up and twist its neck to stare straight at Izuku with its dead, lifeless eyes. Izuku clenched his shaking fists, accidentally activating the mechanism in his gloves and uncapping his fingers. Then, the beast, named Nomu from what the floating villain had said, suddenly appeared before him in a flash of speed and a gust of wind that almost knocked Izuku off his paralysed feet. Izuku moved without meaning to, his brain working a mile and minute and Nomu's hands coming up to throw a punch. He closed his fist to minimise the risk of using his Quirk on Uraraka and then pushed her out of the way, pressing his fist against her collarbone and then shoving her with all his strength. When she was away from him and this Nomu monster, Izuku then threw his hands forward at the beast as Nomu did the same to him. Nomu had slowed down for some reason, likely to maximise power, which meant that it was moving at the rate of a normal person, when Izuku knew from his demonstration a second ago that it could move so fast that regular people couldn't see it. Luckily for Izuku, that meant that he could outspeed that, and he pressed both hands, with all five fingers down onto the thing's stomach.

Izuku knew what he was doing. He knew that he'd kill the thing. Suddenly, that didn't matter anymore. He just stopped caring when he saw how fast that thing was, when he saw how close Uraraka was to him and how they'd both die if he did nothing. All the panic and stress and fear just fell away when Izuku realised one very simple thing. He didn't want to kill, but he also couldn't allow himself to be killed either. Izuku didn't even really think about it as he was pushing Uraraka away and using his Quirk on Nomu, but he couldn't allow Uraraka to be hurt because he refused to do something that would save her. He'd come to that realisation in the Conflagration Zone, but he was putting it into practice here. He cared for her, so much that it hurt sometimes, that much was clear to him now, and so neither of them were dying before Izuku had the chance to tell her that. It was a similar feeling to the one he'd felt at the entrance when seeing Aizawa leap into the mass of villains to protect the class. He had far too many things to say to the both of them for any of them to die. So they had to live, and there was only one way to accomplish that, and that was through using his Quirk on the freak of a man that was looming over him, ready to punch him with power that had to rival All Might, given the speed it displayed seconds ago.

Everything in the plaza stopped. Nomu, Izuku, Aizawa, Kurogiri, Uraraka, the floating villain, the dozen or so other villains, they all froze as what happened next played out before their eyes. Izuku Quirk activated easily enough, a web of cracks spreading across the deep purple skin, but it was as if it was slowed down, or delayed somehow. The lines that opened up cuts and rips in the beast's skin initially spread fast, but then they slowed down, stopped entirely, and then began to regress, before a new wave of Decimation came and the whole thing started over in a cycle. This monster, this Nomu, was regenerating. Shit. Nomu's entire torso was a mess of rips and tears in the skin, and gouges in the muscle, all of which were being inflicted, were almost instantly healed, and then were inflicted again in a disturbing loop of injury and regeneration. Izuku was frozen in place, as was Nomu, as Izuku had to keep all five fingers on each hand in contact with Nomu for his Quirk to work at its most potent, and Nomu seemingly couldn't move very well while regenerating. That was often a drawback of healing Quirks, the expenditure of energy, so maybe this Nomu had to stop moving while it healed? That would make sense, but that also meant that they were stalemated as they were. Izuku had to do something to make sure Nomu couldn't heal, but what could he do?

"My, my, what a fascinating Quirk! This is just like the one I used to destroy the sixth defiler of my little brother! Tell me, boy, is your Quirk naturally this powerful, or is it enhanced by your new gift?" the lower voice asked. "What a fucking cheater. He has the power to destroy, and yet wants to be a hero? What a joke, just like all the other wannabes. That Quirk would be better with us," the higher voice ranted. "Hmm, that is an acceptable suggestion." "Yeah, I think I'll do that."

Izuku barely heard them over the blood rushing in his ears. What could he do to make his Decimation more powerful? He'd never really tried before, always intent on making it less potent so as to not kill anyone. He'd never really trained his Quirk to be stronger, just more precise. His Quirk wasn't really something that could be trained, or at least that's what he had thought, but maybe there was something to that whole blocking and unblocking business that he'd remembered in the fight with the other villains in the Conflagration Zone. He thought back to the conversation that tidbit had come from, trying to search his memory of Decimation's limitations while he was locked in a stalemate with Nomu.

It was an old memory that came to mind, then. One he'd mostly forgotten, but which his mind was somehow able to recall when he'd needed it most. Izuku had just turned six. He'd been at the doctor all day using his Quirk, even though he really didn't want to, since it was scary. Mom said it was fine, but he saw her eyes every time he used it to turn a tennis ball to dust, or make a pencil disappear. She was scared of it. So was Izuku, so was everyone. Kacchan hadn't talked to him in months, though he still couldn't remember why. He couldn't remember a lot of things, like where Dad had gone, or when exactly he'd gotten his Quirk. Everyone got so quiet when he asked about it, so he knew something was wrong, but what was wrong? Was it Izuku? Was … he wrong? Kacchan seemed to think so.

"Well, Miss Midoriya, I think we know what the problem is," the doctor, Tsubasa, said after all the tests. Mom was sitting in his office, waiting for what the portly man had to say, but Izuku had been forced to sit outside in the hall, which he'd not been happy about, though he did have a lollipop and Mom's phone to watch videos of All Might on, so that was cool. He'd abandoned that immediately to spy through the door, though, since the two voices carried fairly well through it.

"Problem? What is it?" Mom asked, her hand going to cup her own cheek like she always did when she was worried.

"Izuku seems to be limiting his own Quirk," Tsubasa said, as if that made any sense. Izuku wasn't doing that, he barely knew how to use it in the first place!

"How do you mean?" Mom asked, like it was a totally rational thing to believe.

"Well, it's a documented phenomenon that can, but doesn't often happen, called Quirk Trauma. Basically, trauma can stunt our mental development. Trauma related to Quirks can stunt their growth as well. Based on … it, I think it's safe to say that Izuku is subconsciously limiting Decimation so that it doesn't happen again," Tsubasa explained. Izuku had no clue what he was talking about back then, but he thought that he might've been able to understand now.

"How does this affect his Quirk?" Mom had asked.

"Decimation is slower to function, it is less efficient at breaking things down, and it seems to have lost two key aspects of what caused the first incident," Tsubasa said. At the time, Izuku hadn't a single memory of what happened on those days, but now, those words that Doctor Tsubasa stressed, those words that Mom picked up on and that Izuku hadn't, those words hit Izuku like bullets as he relived the appointment in his mind. "Firstly, the requirement that Izuku use all five fingers is new. From an analysis of Izuku's Quirk Factor, we've learned that he doesn't actually have a lot in common with the structure of most five-point-contact Quirks. This means that the limitation that Izuku uses all five fingers on one hand is fabricated by his mind, and if I may venture a guess, I would say that it's due to this Quirk Trauma theory. The other thing is the fact that, according to surviving camera footage, Izuku only touched one person during that first incident, but all the victims had signs of his Quirk on their bodies. That means that Decimation can spread, but the tests I put together made sure that it would happen in at least some limited capacity, and it didn't. That means to me that Izuku is suffering from Quirk Trauma, and has repressed his own Quirk as a result."

"So what does that mean? He's holding himself back by accident?" Mom asked.

"In a sense, yes. Don't worry, though, because some cases of Quirk Trauma can be worked through with Quirk counselling," Tsubasa said.

"Oh, thank goodness. I don't know what I'd do if Izuku's situation was permanent. I get the feeling that he's picked on enough, and the kids really value strong Quirks nowadays. Though, I also get the feeling that his particular Quirk won't be looked kindly upon," Mom sighed.

"Yes, and that brings me to my other point. I'm not a psychiatrist, nor am I permitted to diagnose anything in that field, but I would highly recommend that you get Izuku into regular therapy as well as Quirk counselling, because what he's been through and what's happened to him are clearly traumatic experiences, even without the clues showing through his Quirk to tell me that. Have you thought about putting him into therapy at all?" Tsubasa asked.

"Yes, I've been talking to people about it since the incident. Thank you so much, Doctor, you've been a great help!" Mom said, and it sounded like she was collecting her purse to leave, so Izuku sat back on the seat and pressed play on the All Might video he'd abandoned to listen to their private conversation.

"Well, I'm glad I could help. I'll email you the recommended Quirk counsellors that should be able to help Izuku. Have a nice day, and I hope Izuku remains well in the future," Tsubasa said.

Izuku didn't know when he'd forgotten that conversation, but he remembered it now, and it all suddenly made sense. Was this what his problem had been the whole time? He was repressing the functions of his Quirk so that … what, he didn't have to kill anyone? Well, it was too late for that, and he could've really used those functions right about now, so he had to break through whatever it was that was blocking it. Quirk Trauma, apparently, but what precisely was keeping him from using his Quirk like that? Was it that he wasn't trying enough? Was it that he didn't want it hard enough? Was he just too weak? What?!

Suddenly, Izuku saw a flash of something he hadn't in a long, long time. A dead, lifeless eye that hung over him for a moment, that one little moment when he was five. It was so much like Nomu's that he looked up and expected it to be the same, but for some reason, when he peered up at Nomu's face, that beaked face with an exposed brain and doll-like, empty eyes, he didn't see those lifeless eyes. No, he saw Nikko. His kindergarten teacher was looking down at him, and instead of a beak, there was a soft, caring smile, and instead of an exposed brain, there were cracks in her skin, tears in her flesh that ran up her face and served to create a similar, yet much more disturbing image to Izuku. His lungs burned, he couldn't breathe! The tightness in his chest had returned, more painful and hot and burning than ever. It was as if everything else was so far away, and all that mattered was that Nomu and Nikko were the same, and that he was doing it again. He might as well be killing her again.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Nomu just roared in response, twitching his arm downward in an effort to move it, though Izuku still only saw Nikko. At his quiet apology, something began to hurt in Izuku's chest. A pressure so tight that he thought it would kill him began to well up in Izuku's heart, and he started tearing up for some reason. Nomu was still standing tall over him, though frozen with the effort of constantly regenerating. Izuku suddenly felt so small, as small as a tiny, five year old kid being comforted by a much larger, much heavier person. In reality, Izuku knew that he was at UA, fighting a hulking, purple beast that was intent on killing him, but his eyes didn't see that. Instead, he only saw himself, young, scared and confused, clinging to his kind, loving teacher as she held him after Kacchan—after Bakugo had been mean. He saw those similar empty eyes, but they were empty for different reasons. Nomu was alive, if it could be called that, but Nikko was dead, and he was suddenly faced with that reality all over again. Nikko reached out a hand and wrapped it under his arm and around his torso, bringing him in for a hug to calm his hurt feelings. It didn't feel comforting, though, as a massive, strong hand gripped him around the hand, and ripped him away from her warm embrace.

Izuku knew that Nomu had just picked him up, as his body throbbed and his head was shaken by a sudden force. He felt dizzy now, like he'd been holding his breath for a long time and was about to pass out. He probably had a concussion, on top of his manic memory of his long-dead kindergarten teacher. He didn't know much, but he knew that. What he also knew was that he was holding onto his teacher, the one that he'd killed all those years ago, and he had a chance to apologise now, a chance to make sure she knew it was an accident, and maybe a chance for him to know if she blamed him for what happened. Suddenly, he was in her grip, held up above her head with those same empty eyes peering at him from what seemed like so far away, but he knew it was just a metre or so. Izuku felt a harsh, iron grip around his torso, but saw the gentle embrace or two caring hands, holding him up in front of his teacher. Nikko opened her mouth, and what came out wasn't a roar, but a warm voice, almost a whisper.

"Hello, Izuku."

It was distant, like she wasn't really there. Izuku knew that she wasn't, but he could believe it for a moment. At this point, the logical part of Izuku's brain was sure that he was just talking to his subconscious, or some kind of hallucination from all the shit he's been put through lately, but Izuku didn't care about that anymore. Here he was, seeing a ghost, and he didn't care anymore, he just needed to apologise. He went to reach out, but paused at the way her arms shook under his weight, as if she was struggling to keep him in her reach.

"I'm … I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!" Izuku cried, feeling warm tears streak down his face.

"Oh, Izuku. An accident has no one cause, thus no fault, thus no blame, thus no forgiveness," Nikko said, laughing lightly.

"You're dead and it was my Quirk that killed you," Izuku sobbed.

"You're suffering now, and it is my death that has caused it. Things go both ways."

"But—"

"A child can not be blamed for the failings of the world around them."

"What—"

"The Quirk does not make the person."

"Who—"

"The person makes the Quirk."

"Why—"

"Are you a hero or not?"

"I will be!"

"So be a hero, Izuku, and use your Quirk to save those you love from those who wish to harm them."

It felt as though reality crashed back down on him. A cough tore itself from his lungs as he found himself stuck in someone's one-handed grip, and he realised that he'd been slammed down onto the ground by Nomu. His hands were still uncovered, but he found that his hands weren't really in any position to be used the way he wanted anymore. At least two of his fingers were broken, his ring finger on his left hand and the middle one on his right. That wasn't to say that the rest of him was doing so hot, since a distinct wheeze accompanied his breathing and his ribs felt like a pair of maracas that had been enjoyed by a three year old who'd never seen them before. So, Izuku, in a word, was fucked.

However, he felt as though there was a fire in his chest. He felt as though he could do anything, bolstered by the support of a ghost from a past he barely remembered. Izuku needed to lift his arms and do this, because he was this monster's target, and he could defeat it with one touch, that he knew for certain now. He didn't know what had changed, but it was as though the raging waves of the ocean of anxiety and fear and confusion that he'd felt before were now a drop of water in his mind, and an all-encompassing calm had washed over him, similar to the moments of that same feeling before, but this time it felt as though he was completely in control of things.

Lifted up by that feeling and that feeling alone, Izuku lifted up his right hand, where the middle finger was twisted and pointing back at his arm at an angle that wasn't normal, nor painful for some reason that he'd probably find out if he kept going like this, and held it up to Nomu's hand, which was still holding him into the dirt. He pressed all his fingers onto the hand of the beast trying its damnedest to kill him, and tried to activate his Quirk. Because of the way his finger was broken, it shouldn't have worked, but he had to try, he knew he could do it, because he now felt like his heart was finally right again, after so much worry and doubt and panic and fear, he was finally whole now that he'd gotten the chance to apologise for what had happened all those years ago, even if it was just to a fake version of a person who'd died long ago. Izuku felt whole, like he'd be okay no matter what he did.

And with that feeling, Izuku pressed four fingers down onto Nomu, and turned it to dust in one pulse of Decimation and a wide, face-splitting grin on his face.