The day was upon them—once they boarded their trains, the members of Class 1-A would officially be interns at the agencies of their choice.

Izuku tapped his foot as the remaining students waited at the train station. Most of the class had gone off already, but Izuku's train was late. He figured it was a blessing in disguise, since Ochako's train to Tokyo would be one of the last to leave, so it meant he got more time with her before they separated for the week. That didn't mean he wasn't a little bit annoyed at the train being late, though. He was still excited to get this internship started. He and Ochako talked the time away, but it wasn't the same when they both knew they were going to be apart and weren't acknowledging it. Finally, Ochako's train came, and Izuku walked with her over to the platform her train was leaving from. She surprised him by giving him a long, crushing hug before hurrying through the doors just before they closed. Izuku waved her off and walked over to his platform with a big grin on his face, and didn't really think about anything else. That is, until he saw Iida boarding the same train. Izuku's mood was brought down when he realised that he was still going to Hosu. He tried his best to ignore it in favour of the moment he'd shared with Ochako. Iida had made his choice.

Eventually, Izuku's train came as well. It was late by about twenty minutes, because according to the news there'd been a villain attack near the tracks that meant they'd had to stop while the incident was resolved. Apparently Kamui Woods and Mt Lady had teamed up once again, but they had just barely not been strong enough to beat the villain who'd disrupted all kinds of traffic, so Edgeshot had appeared toward the end and helped them shut down the villain. There were a lot of hero blogs going nuts over how well those three heroes worked together, and how there were already rumours that Mt Lady and Kamui Woods were organising a merger of their agencies to become an official team, since they collaborated so often as is. There was even speculation that they were dating, which Izuku wasn't as interested in as the team-up potential the two of them had when synergising their fighting styles and Quirk use.

Izuku spent his short train ride to Thirteen's agency thinking of ways that he could combine his own Quirk with his classmates', and found that his Decimation didn't have a lot of synergy with other Quirks. It was a less versatile version of Ashido's Acid, since she could also increase her mobility with her Quirk, and all he had in that area was his natural athleticism. If he wanted to find a niche, Izuku thought he'd fit quite well in a close-quarters combat role where he could disintegrate support items and equipment his opponents wore and negate matter-generation, like Yaorozu and Todoroki's Quirks. He'd already been doing that, though, so what was his path forward? Should he try to make his Quirk more powerful? The trick Izuku had been trying to hone was making sure he didn't unleash the full destructive capability of his Quirk, so should he try to work on his range or what? He didn't see any versatility in his power either, like with Ashidos' acid skates, so what could he train his power to do if not just destroy stuff better? Maybe that was a question for Thirteen, since they had a similar type of Quirk.

Luckily, Thirteen's hero agency was only a few stops away on the train. Izuku made his way to the street when he got off, and found himself subconsciously holding his breath as he wormed his way through the crowds exiting the station. Pressure pushed in on Izuku on all sides, and peoples' shoulders and knees and elbows touching him made his skin crawl. He couldn't breathe whenever he got surrounded by people like that, and his fingers tingled as he balled his gloved hands up and muscled through the crowd. He forced himself to breathe as he made his way through to the other side, but it was shaky and ragged, which got him more than one look of confusion. He really had to get better at handling crowds of people, or even just letting people that weren't Ochako touch him casually. Ever since he could remember, touch had always been a thing that was very important to Izuku, since a touch from him could mean someone's death. He often refrained from touching people directly, even with his gloves on, which was a habit he'd been meaning to kick but hadn't really managed to. Even as he struggled, Izuku made it onto the street and succeeded in surviving the crowded train station.

He walked down the street and spotted Thirteen's agency easily. It was a two-storey building that looked ordinary enough, painted white like the hero's costume, and segmented like armoured plates. On top of the building stood a diorama of the solar system, with all nine planets included. Izuku remembered Kirishima and Ochako getting into an argument just the other day while they'd been waiting for All Might to arrive to class about the hotly debated nature of Pluto. It had been labelled a dwarf planet, a planet, and a dwarf again seven times over the last few decades, though it had once again taken its original place as a planet and seemed to be staying that way. As it turned out, Thirteen considered it a planet, as the depiction of the solar system atop their agency included it among the planets. Izuku bit back a laugh at the memory and walked up to the front door. It slid up with a quick whoosh sound when he approached it, like the doors of a spaceship in one of those old sci-fi movies. He guessed Thirteen was a fan of all things space, even movies and television set in space.

The lobby was completely different. All the walls, the floor and the ceiling were pitch black and painted with stars, and Izuku actually recognised a few of the constellations present on the ceiling, so it must have been a realistic recreation of the night sky as seen from Japan. Some stairs, also painted with stars, went up and turned around to the second floor on the right. There was a desk, a dome toward the back wall shaped like Thirteen's helmet, with a wedge cut out of the back for a receptionist to sit in. The receptionist was a man in what looked like an old-school jumpsuit that astronauts would wear. Izuku walked up to the desk and the man smiled, obviously recognising his school uniform.

"You must be Izuku Midoriya, right?" the receptionist asked.

"Uh, yes," Izuku said, his voice shaking a little bit. Why was he suddenly so nervous? He knew why, of course—this would be his first time having an extended interaction with Thirteen one-on-one since the USJ, where he'd gotten himself hurt with their Quirk.

"Great! You can head right up to the second floor. Thirteen's been eagerly awaiting you," the receptionist said with a salute. Was that just how they did things at Thirteen's agency? Izuku gave the receptionist a hesitant salute back and turned toward the stairs.

He went up to the second floor and found that it was more or less just a normal office space, though all the walls were still painted like the night sky. Other than that, there were cubicles where people took phone calls in rows all along the floor with an aisle to walk through cut right down the middle of the space. A corner of the large room hosted what looked like a break room for sidekicks and heroes affiliated with the agency, as a group of heroes that Izuku recognised as being allied with Thirteen—Starsinger, Nebula, Solaris, Galicaea, Nova—seemingly lounged around on a break or something. There were a few doors that Izuku could spot, one near the lounge that was likely for on-call heroes, and a number of others that Izuku couldn't possibly guess the purpose of. At the very end of the floor, a singular office space with no wall blocking it from sight was where Thirteen sat, but there was something strange. They had their helmet off, which was something Izuku had never seen before. Before he could outwardly react to this, Thirteen stood up and walked across the floor to him, greeting him with a smile, which sent Izuku into an out-of-body experience. Was he really seeing Thirteen's true face? No civilian had ever seen their face before, even most heroes never saw their face.

"Welcome, Midoriya. I'm glad you chose our agency to intern with this week!" Thirteen said.

As Izuku got over his shock, a couple of things about Thirteen shocked him. Firstly, they had a face. Secondly, Thirteen seemed to be a woman. He didn't know why that shocked him, but it was one of the first things that really registered with Izuku. Their—her? Izuku didn't know anymore—hair was mostly dark blue with a spiral of blonde at the top, and her—he was going to go with her until he was told otherwise—eyes were like miniature black holes swirling around in their sockets. Izuku stared at her with what he was sure was a ridiculous look on his face, but Thirteen just laughed.

"Are you with us, Midoriya?" Thirteen asked. Her voice sounded totally different without the helmet on, which also threw Izuku for a loop.

"Sorry, I just didn't expect …" he struggled to put it into words.

"A woman?" she asked with raised eyebrows and a smirk.

"A person!" Izuku said. His heart missed a beat at the possibility that Thirteen had thought Izuku had been hoping for a man to be under the costume. "The consensus online is that you're a sentient black hole! I'm so sorry," he wheezed out at the speed of sound.

Thirteen laughed again. The black holes in her eyes glowed in pulses that followed the rhythm of her laughter. "Don't be! It's the question I get all the time. Are you really a star or a black hole or something? My hands have the properties of black holes, but the rest of me is human."

"Then why hide your face?" Izuku asked before he could really think about it.

"There's still so much we don't know about black holes. I wanted to get in on that mystery, too!" Thirteen said with a big grin. Izuku supposed he could get behind that, and smiled, too. "But anyway, now that you're here, we can get started on this internship!"

"Right!" Izuku said, feeling his whole body buzz with excitement.

"First things first! What do you hope to achieve during the week you'll spend here? Knowing that right out of the gate can help us make a plan to help you meet all your goals," Thirteen asked.

What did he hope to achieve? Izuku thought back to the questions he'd had about his own Quirk. He wanted to apply his Quirk in a safe way. He wanted his Quirk to become more flexible. He wanted to bend the rules of his Decimation so that he could use it in the way that Ashido and Todoroki used their harmful Quirks to bolster their defensive powers and mobility. He didn't care if his Quirk was made for something, he was going to break it down to its basest form and then build it back up again so that it was more than it started as. Izuku grinned as his wishes for this internship all came together in his head, and he looked Thirteen right in the swirling eyes.

"I want to make my Decimation more than just destruction. I want to add to it so that I can use it to help me move, or defend, or do anything but attack. I want to spend this week training my Quirk so that it's not just a weapon, but a tool to use how I wish," Izuku said.

"Well, you're in the right place for that. I'm an expert in applying deadly Quirks in non-lethal ways. Shall we get started, Midoriya?" Thirteen said.

"Yes!"


It was hard to say goodbye to everyone for a whole week, but Ochako was finally at All Might's hero agency, so she wasn't going to look back at the people she was missing all the time. She looked up at the statue of All Might that was proudly displayed as soon as one left the elevator and stepped onto the top floor. It was a little bit pretentious to have a statue of yourself in your own workplace, but Ochako didn't blame All Might—he was All Might. He deserved all the statues he got. Ochako sat in the waiting area outside All Might's personal office, fiddling with her fingers as she awaited the arrival of the world's greatest hero for him to teach her about how to be like him. That was scary, but she managed not to freak out too hard about it. It had certainly given the receptionist she'd talked to downstairs a shock to see All Might's first ever intern in the flesh. Ochako thought they might have taken the alert that she'd be coming as a joke, but when she'd approached one of them to ask how the whole thing would work, they'd quickly gotten their act together and showed her how to get to the top floor. It had probably helped that she had her school uniform on, like a sign saying 'this is not a joke' was written across her face.

Finally, All Might arrived after about half an hour of waiting on Ochako's part. The massive double-doors that she'd sat beside opened and abruptly destroyed her train of thought, and All Might stepped through—in his skinny form, wearing his oversized hero costume and steaming—to greet her.

"Young Uraraka! There were incidents in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and even Katsushika that took me longer to resolve than I expected. I'm sorry I kept you waiting!" All Might said. His explanation was punctuated by a wet cough that made Ochako cringe just hearing it—she couldn't imagine living with the injuries he'd told her about.

"It's not a problem, All Might!" Ochako internally was not as relaxed about that as she wanted to appear. Three whole incidents—at least—in just half an hour? Wasn't he supposed to be limiting the amount of hero work he did on any given day? That sounded awfully stressful. "I'd never ask you to not help people just for my own convenience."

"That's right," All Might said with a proud grin. "Now that I'm here, though, we can get started on the first stage of your training for this week—getting a baseline!"

Ochako nodded with a smile, and All Might led her off to a part of the building that was entirely dedicated to housing and powering all kinds of exercise equipment. There was a punching bag that was so dense that it bent the steel bar holding it up, resistance bands lined with carbon fibre, and a pile of weights that, according to the label, were each five-hundred kilograms. Ochako was intimidated by the things she immediately recognised, and that wasn't getting into the things she had no frame of reference for. The more esoteric the equipment got, the less excited he was about trying it out eventually. Finally, though, All Might led her to a little corner in the dedicated workout section of the tower, and she found that he'd supplied her with relatively basic-looking things, stuff she'd be able to find in a civilian gym. That scared her significantly less, though she was unnerved by the mere prospect of following the training plan of the man who, even in his smaller form, was still more than two feet taller than her and built like an olympic athlete, which Ochako definitely was not.

"First, we need a few numbers. Your precise height, weight, and average calorie intake per day—that should be it for now. There should be equipment in here for those first two, so just wait here," All Might said, and walked off into the rows and rows of workout stuff to search for the tools he needed.

Ochako's heart skipped a beat. It was silly, but the thought of weighing herself in front of the image of bodily perfection that was All Might was mortifying. It brought back all the childish worries she'd tried her best to put away. If All Might was disappointed in her weight, Ochako thought she might just die on the spot. She remembered confiding in Izuku about this kind of thing, but she also remembered what he'd said about her worries regarding her costume and her … less than Amazonian physique. During one of their late night phone talks leading up to the sports festival, he'd said something that at the time had left her feeling sure of herself and relieved, but on second thought, it spoke to something she'd felt but hadn't exactly put into words until he'd said it.

A necessary evil. He'd called the messed up expectation for women in heroics to be slim, petite and strong and powerful a necessary evil. He'd been trying to comfort her about her worries about her body, and it had worked at the time when she hadn't thought too much about it. After all, it was kind of weird and it did make her feel sometimes like she couldn't compare to her fitter, more beautiful classmates, but she hadn't thought at the time that she could do much about it, so it seemed inevitable, necessary. Over the last few weeks, though, she'd thought about it some more. Ochako now saw it as a perfect example as to how her view of things and Izuku's weren't exactly the same, even if they agreed about the fundamentals. She didn't think that there was such a thing as a necessary evil, especially in heroics, even if Izuku clearly did. She'd squash this feeling of inferiority, of being uncomfortable about her body. It didn't serve her, or make her stronger. It was just childish. Heroes weren't worried about the way they looked. They were confident, so she had to be confident.

She managed to calm herself down and affirm herself before All Might returned, dragging a set of scales behind him along with one of those things doctors used to measure height and posture and stuff—a stadiometer if her memory was correct. He set them up and had her stand still while the devices recorded her height and weight. Ochako kept her cool throughout the process, even if she wanted to squirm and fidget with her hands while All Might paid close attention to what the scales told them. On the upside, it looked like she'd had a tiny growth spurt since starting at UA, since she'd told them she was five-foot-one in March and she was five-foot-two now. After that was done, All Might set the devices aside.

"Now that we have that done and dusted, what's your diet like?" he asked.

This sent Ochako into shock once again. She knew, logically, that she would've had to disclose her eating habits sooner or later, but it was still embarrassing to have to admit to another person that she sometimes skipped meals in order to save money. In her defence! She didn't do it a lot, maybe a few times a week—two or three at most!—but she did still know it had to be bad for her development, especially now that she was in the hero course. She always ate lunch at school, but she didn't always eat dinner or breakfast. It was one of those habits that she'd formed mostly subconsciously during middle-school during one of those really bad periods where her parents' income was non-existent, but it wasn't like she'd tried to kick it either, so it was hard to rationalise it, even in her head. She had no choice, though, as All Might was going to be acting as her personal fitness coach and dietician as well as her teacher. She couldn't not tell him, no matter how tempting it was.

Reluctantly, Ochako did tell All Might about her little habit. He looked down at her with those piercing blue eyes that filled with a sadness Ochako had never seen from them before. All Might smiled, though, and sighed.

"You're not alone in that. It's not for the same reasons, but my injury means that I can't eat solid food. I sometimes forget to go about eating the right way, too, so I don't want you to feel as though I'm against you. I hope you understand that your eating habits are going to have to change if you're to become stronger, though," All Might said.

"I understand. It's just …" She'd held this back for some reason that had eluded her at the time, but with everything else that she was feeling now, she recognised it as shame. Ochako knew, logically, that she had nothing to be ashamed of, but it was still hard. "I can't afford a more consistent diet, sir. My family … we're kinda … broke."

"That's not a problem. I'll handle food-related expenses," All Might said.

Ochako stared up at him like he'd said a magical spell. He'd just … handle it? Right, he was the number one hero and all, but still. She almost went to reject the offer, but she realised it wasn't really an offer in the first place. It was a statement. A promise. Ochako knew All Might was the best guy, because he wouldn't have become a Symbol of Peace if he wasn't, but this was something else. Ochako had spent so long dealing with this, ignoring that other kids in middle-school could just go down to a corner store and buy some sodas or something, or pretending she was just tired when she denied the invites to places with friends who could afford things she couldn't, or telling her parents that she wasn't hungry when she saw that her plate was much fuller than theirs at dinnertime. If paying for food was just not going to be relevant for her anymore, then all of that would just go away. Ochako didn't know how to feel about that. Part of her had taken that in and accepted it as the way things would always be, that she wouldn't have consistency regarding food until she was a rich hero. Part of her wanted to leap at the chance, but she pushed that down so that she could think properly. There was no way she could deny it, especially since it wasn't All Might asking her if she wanted this, but telling her that was how it would be. Even if it had been a choice, she wouldn't have denied it, but that wasn't the point. The point was that All Might was so casually changing her entire lifestyle and clearing away the terrible uncertainty that Ochako had thought she'd just live with for maybe a decade more.

She couldn't help it. Maybe it was the sheer magnitude of what All Might was willing to give her just so he'd be happy and healthy, the faith he had that she was the one to succeed him, or maybe Izuku was just rubbing off on her and she was beginning to share his sensitivity to kindness, but Ochako started to tear up a little bit as she tried to keep herself from breaking entirely. She kept herself under control, though, and wiped her face to dry her eyes. She looked back up at All Might, who was smiling to himself in the same sad kind of way.

"Thank you, All Might," Ochako said, her voice shaky. "I'll make sure your gifts aren't wasted on me!"

"Impossible. Now!" All Might said, filling out in an instant to enter his muscular form. He grinned down at Uraraka and patted her on the shoulder, though the hand he used was surprisingly gentle and comforting. "We have a busy week ahead of us, young lady! Are you ready to enter the training routine from hell?!"

She wouldn't have said no, even if she wanted to.

"Yeah!"


"This is the guy?"

Katsuki stood with his back turned to the man who'd just entered the bar through one of Misty's portals. The guy was significantly taller than Katsuki, and he had ratty black hair that went past his shoulders. He wore all kinds of body armour, including a padded vest, knee pads, and metal-plated boots with shin-guards and spikes jutting out of the toe box. The man was armed, too, with at least seven bladed weapons immediately visible on his person—the katana sheathed on his back, the daggers paired on either side of his torso and the one at his collarbone, and the machete hanging at his lower-back. He wore crimson rags around his neck as a scarf that flowed nearly to the ground around him, and a bandana that was surely white once over his eyes that hung the same way. The kicker for Katsuki was that this guy didn't have a nose. There was a big triangle cut out of his face where it should've been, which made Katsuki laugh.

"Indeed, Young Bakugo. Now, do be sure to have fun, as I have important plans to attend to and will not remain to supervise," All for One said. "Don't break anything, either, brat!" the other one, Tomura, said. It was the first time Tomura had interjected in a while, so it took Katsuki by surprise.

"Whatever. That all depends on him," Katsuki said. He never took his eyes away from Nosy.

Nosy glared at Katsuki with his burning red eyes, and then stared at All for One with such force that the man actually stopped and questioned the occurrence with a raised eyebrow. Katsuki briefly thought that the power to stop people by sight alone was Nosy's Quirk, but it had to be something else. All for One's pause was more out of amusement than any kind of instant paralysis.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Nosy asked. "You wish for me to confer with a child?"

"Hey! Watch how you talk, old man. I'm not like the other wimps that'll back down if a senior citizen tries to start something!" Katsuki yelled.

"You wish for me to confer with a disrespectful child?" Nosy asked again, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"I think you'll find that Young Bakugo is a promising young talent in your line of work. Please have a civil, productive conversation while I am away. Kurogiri?" All for One said. A warp gate opened behind him, and he turned and stepped through. It closed before Katsuki or Nosy could object.

Katsuki stared at Nosy and smirked. He sat down at the bar and studied Nosy. He was tense, and his eyes darted from point to point around the room quickly. He was trying to case the place so that he'd have a sneaky escape route in case he needed to flee. Too bad there were no escape routes. Katsuki had checked. It wasn't like he was desperate to get away from these guys, but he'd wanted to ensure he had a few options. As it turned out, every door was locked with devices that made it near-impossible to bust open unless he used his Quirk, which would defeat the purpose of a sneaky escape. Katsuki laughed at Nosy, which got the old man's attention.

"So, you're Stain, huh? I've heard of you. You kill heroes. So that makes me ask—why the hell should I work with you?" Katsuki said. He wasn't going to work with any villain, even if All for One took his Quirk hostage and ordered him to. He was even tempted to spark up his Quirk then and there and take this scum out.

"Believe me, I am thinking the same. And I do not kill heroes. That would imply that the fakes I purge are real heroes, which they are not. Tell me, do you recall the 'heroes' I have cut down?" Nosy asked with venom in his voice.

"Nosedive," Katsuki said.

"He took bribes from villains to let them go."

"Gattler."

"He covered up the collateral damage his Quirk caused."

"Tarantula."

"She staged minor incidents so she could swing in and save the day."

"Ingenium?" Katsuki had a good laugh about that glasses-wearing robot's older brother biting it. He had been in the middle of his fury about Deku winning UA's damn sports festival when the news had covered the incident, so it had been good to vent some of his frustration onto one of the first people that sick little worm had brainwashed and turned into a lackey.

Nosy took a moment to think about that. "His heart did not beat for justice. Ingenium was a hero because he thought it was what he should do, not what he wanted to do."

Katsuki leaned forward on his stool. That was interesting. "You sound like you want heroes to be around. Isn't that weird for a hero killer?"

"Ah, so you have bought into the media's narrative. The truth, boy, is that I don't purge these false idols because I hate heroes. I cull these liars and manipulators because hero is a title I wish to redeem. Modern pro heroes only want the material benefits that come with government pay and celebrity status. The vain Mt. Lady is an excellent example. Back in the day, heroes helped people because it was right, because they had the great power to affect change and used that power to make Japan a safer place to live. All Might is the pinnacle of heroism for that very reason. He has the greatest power of all, and yet he uses it to ceaselessly help others for no reason other than it being the decent thing to do. A world where All Might is the standard, and not the exception to the rule—that is my goal," Nosy ranted.

That struck Katsuki. A world where every hero was like All Might. That was Nosy's dream world. This guy revered All Might just like Katsuki. They shared an idol. Katsuki had grown up always admiring All Might's strength and his ability to beat anyone, no matter their power. It was what had inspired him to become strong, and what had pushed him onto the path of being a pro hero. Katsuki was liking this guy more every second! He couldn't help but grin as he realised just how completely they agreed that All Might was not a god to defer to, but a standard to surpass. Katsuki was a massive fan of All Might, but that didn't change his desire to be better than the Symbol of Peace.

"That is my conviction, my promise to this rotten world. So, Bakugo, what are your convictions? What do you hope to use your power for if we collaborate like that other guy implied?" Nosy asked, pointing a bony finger at Katsuki.

Katsuki figured that since Nosy was so honest with him, he'd tell the truth and be honest, too. "I know a kid—Deku. We've always gone to the same schools. I thought he was some loser weakling when we first met, but when we were small, he killed our entire class in front of me with his Quirk to disintegrate things he touches. He did it with a smile. And he dared to get into UA, and now he's all the teachers' favourite student, and he's got all the others in class slobbering over him like he's something special. He took my life! He's a killer and a liar and he stole my dream from me! I was going to be like All Might, but now Deku has him brainwashed! They kicked me out when my only crime was saying it how it was. I called him out in front of the whole class and they punished me for it. He has All Might within his reach. He's got him brainwashed or something so he'll always defend the little rat. Deku could kill All Might at any time. You want to know my convictions, what I want to achieve with my power?" Katsuki grinned. "I want to blow Deku to bloody bits and save All Might!"

Nosy looked at him and opened his mouth in a wide smile that allowed his tongue, long and prehensile like the brainwashed frog girl's, to peek out. He laughed and took a step closer to Katsuki, who stood.

"That's right! You understand! There are so-called heroes in this world who kill and lie and cheat their way to the top. My crusade aims to rid this corrupted society of those maggots. And now, with you at my side, it will no longer be a one-man war. Tell me, Bakugo, since you are one of the few who have looked upon the truth I preach—how do you plan to purge this Deku? " Nosy said with a toothy grin on his face.

"Deku and his brainwashed buddies are out on internships with actual heroes this week. I'm gonna track him down and kill him," Katsuki said with a cocky smile.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Nosy asked again. There was something in his tone that told Katsuki he was missing something, but he didn't know what.

"I don't know." Katsuki shrugged. "I'll figure it out."

"I've found that in my years of culling fake heroes, there is one method of learning about my marks that yields unbelievably productive results. I go after their loved ones and make them give up every bit of information possible—locations, shift lengths, even mental state. It does wonders for information gathering," Nosy laughed.

A wonderful idea blossomed in Katsuki's head.

"I bet his pathetic excuse for a mother would know where he is."

This was proving to be a very productive collaboration indeed.