The week after Izuku and Hitoshi's excursion to plant the camera wasn't very eventful. This was partly intentional, as they felt the need to lay low for a time so that it didn't seem like they were stressed about anything in particular, so Izuku thought it was best that they take some time away from their investigation while the camera records all it can and sends it to their phones. That was how Izuku found the time to simply hang out and talk with Ochako in the evening on Monday, after he'd returned to the dorms that afternoon from thanking Hatsume for her work on the camera, which had turned into an hour and a half of testing out different gadgets for her. That was how Izuku had learned the hard way that putting two people obsessed with the practical applications of hero support items in a room together with nobody else to keep them on task was a bad idea, as the two of them would quickly pivot away from whatever they were talking about and talk about anything and everything except the reason they'd started talking in the first place. However, he'd made it back to the dorms and had a quiet night hanging out with Ochako in her room, the two of them simply sitting together, watching a movie, and talking.

"So, Bakugo's been a bit … snappy lately, hasn't he?" Ochako said halfway through the movie.

"Has he? I haven't noticed," Izuku said. He hadn't really spoken with Katsuki since their fight a few weeks ago. Was that bad? "He's kind of always been like that, though."

"I guess. He definitely was like that when we started at UA. He's been able to keep himself from biting everyone's heads off whenever they look at him funny for the past few months, though. After Kamino, I think," Ochako said. She took a moment to frown thoughtfully, and Izuku knew what she must be thinking. That night had been hard for everyone involved. "But now it's like he's the same as he was before that, all testy and agitated. Do you have any clue why?"

"No," Izuku sighed. The truth was that he and Katsuki hadn't really spoken about their feelings for even longer than this most recent period of silence between them. They'd been best friends once, and even then they hadn't really talked about what they thought of the other. They'd never been very open with each other. Izuku had been trying ever since starting at UA, but he knew that the effort only went one way. What was Katsuki dealing with? He resolved himself to find out tomorrow.

"He's probably just upset because you're up on the Deku versus Kacchan scoreboard," Ochako said with a smirk.

"That's not a real thing," Izuku laughed.

"It is!" Ochako said, turning to face him fully and grinning. "Mina and Kirishima put it together. With your big win a few weeks ago, you're in the lead! Kirishima said it was so manly that he's gonna start asking to join in soon."

"I don't think Kacchan would like that very much," Izuku said, his smile slipping away as he imagined how it would end if someone intruded on Katsuki's way of seriously measuring himself against the might of One for All.

"He doesn't like your grudge matches as they are. Sometimes I forget that he's the one who brought the whole idea up in the first place," Ochako said. She frowned again, this time with a touch of distaste touching her expression.

"What do you think about it?" Izuku asked. He wasn't exactly nervous about what Ochako had to say regarding the way he and Katsuki chose to express their competitive streaks, but he knew that some of their classmates thought it was overkill to say the least, especially after their last fight. Hitoshi thought it was hilarious to watch them punch each other, and while Tsu wasn't so enthusiastic about it, they'd taken a neutral stance on it, claiming that boys will be boys, whatever that meant.

"I think it's a fine compromise, for now at least," Ochako said. "It's obviously working, too. You two are getting insanely strong really fast. I think it's good that you can vent your feelings as well."

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked.

"I think Bakugo uses those training matches as a way to say the things he can't to your face. I think you do, too. You can't stay away from each other, but you can't have a real conversation. Isn't that weird? It's like you know that you could only live up to your full potential if you're side by side, but your personalities clash way too much to be real friends. That's what I think, anyway," Ochako explained.

Izuku took a while to think about that as the movie they were watching continued in the background. Ochako may have been right. Katsuki wasn't a very emotionally available person. Izuku had known him for his whole life, and he'd never been that way. Despite the persona he presented to the world, the loud, hotheaded thug he'd been in middle school, Katsuki was a very internal, thoughtful person. He knew exactly what he was capable of and knew precisely what he wanted to do before he even knew he had to do it. Katsuki was just unable to speak about his feelings for some reason. Izuku figured it was because of him. He'd always been so open with the people he considered his friends back when they were kids, and Katsuki had been confused by that, because the only thing he had ever wanted for himself was to be a strong hero, and strong heroes didn't cry, which Izuku did very often. Maybe it was Katsuki's desire to distance himself from the weakness put on display by Izuku, who he thought was below him at the time, that led to him becoming that internal, closed-off person that didn't share how he really felt. That desire to put Izuku at arm's length was the cause behind this trait of his. Izuku by no means blamed himself for anything to do with Katsuki's behaviour, but he could acknowledge that he could've been the reason for Katsuki deciding this for himself. It was an illuminating realisation to process, and one that he would have to continue to think about in the days to come.

The next day, Izuku woke up early and completed his morning run. After showering and getting ready for his day, Izuku joined up with his friends and they walked to school together, chatting about anything and everything while they made their way to the classroom. Classes that day were challenging to say the least, mostly because Izuku had fallen behind somewhat grades-wise and he had to work even harder than he normally would in order to catch up to his usual academic performance. He had a feeling that he was not going to be acing exams this term, even though he'd never expected to. He hadn't aced his final exam in his first term, either, due to the personal issue he'd had with Hitoshi back then. Izuku was okay not being a perfect student, but he would like to be a good one, so he really focused and didn't let himself relax for even a second while there was learning to be done that day. By the time classes let out for the day, Izuku was exhausted due to that effort. He didn't regret it, but he definitely was feeling the mental strain of having kept himself honed in on maximising his performance in class all day.

Izuku let himself be pulled away from a nice, relaxing afternoon back at the dorms by Yaoyorozu, who reminded him that they had a meeting to attend that afternoon with the class representatives from 1-B, Kendo and Shoda. They arrived at one of the conference rooms that Izuku and All Might frequently used to have their private conversations about One for All, and found the two of their fellow hero hopefuls inside. Once they joined them in sitting, Kendo wasted no time in beginning their discussion.

"Our classmates want to organise more joint training sessions. A few members of our class in particular want this more than others, but it's a sentiment that we all share that the one class we had together was great and that we should get together to train more often. What do you think?" Kendo asked.

"I think that's a good idea," Izuku said. "There are a few people that I'm worried about, but we can work that out."

"Yeah, I know who you mean," Kendo sighed. She scowled for a moment, causing Shoda to perk up and take over from her before she got too upset about it.

"We understand your concerns. Monoma has been … better, lately. I think," Shoda said with a nervous tremble in his voice.

"That's good to hear," Yaoyorozu said with a bright smile. "I know many of our classmates have felt disrupted by Monoma's many taunts in the past."

"Hmm, Ashido didn't have very many nice things to say about him back during our first joint training session," Izuku said, and winced at the memory of their class's pink matchmaker calling Monoma wacko.

"I will make him behave," Kendo said through gritted teeth. "Him and Tetsutetsu. At least Tetsutetsu has moments of being a reasonable, intelligent human being. Monoma is just … I'll deal with him."

"Got it," Izuku said, cringing as he wondered what it would be like for a person like Monoma to insist that he hears all about his agenda. It probably wouldn't be a lot of fun.

After that, the four of them worked together to work out the ideal times for their two classes to meet up for a joint training session like the one they had held in December. They agreed very quickly that the format should absolutely be different from the competitive combat matches where they'd been pitted against each other, since fostering that combative environment only seemed to make it worse for those who really bought into the rhetoric that the two classes needed to best each other. Perhaps they could team up for a rescue exercise, or hold a trivia contest about hero laws. It could be anything except punching each other, according to Kendo, and Izuku and Yaoyorozu were inclined to follow her lead on that. The meeting ran for about half an hour, until they'd pinpointed all the dates in the next term that they could fit a joint training session in, since they wanted to leave time for their classmates to study and train for final exams. Izuku realised in the back of his mind that they were assuming that they all were going to move onto their second year, but none of the others seemed to catch onto the implication that Kendo's dread at having to deal with Monoma for three whole years meant that she was absolutely confident in both of their ability to keep up with UA for that time. He didn't think he could take that from her. Eventually, Yaoyorozu and Kendo started making eyes at each other from across the room, and Shoda had definitely noticed, so Izuku called the meeting to an end and allowed the girls to have some time with each other while he and Shoda walked back to the dorms together and tried to talk about literally anything other than how awkward it was being trapped between those two when they started staring at each other.

That night, Izuku was so tired from his classes and the meeting between the first year hero course class representatives that he went right to bed and fell asleep. He didn't dream of the vestiges of One for All, which marked almost three months since he'd spoken with one of them back during his work study, when Nana Shimura had used him as a conduit to speak with Gran Torino. Interacting with the vestiges was more or less a matter of willing it nowadays, even while awake, so Izuku knew that his distance from them was his own doing. His last meeting with all the vestiges at once hadn't left a very good memory behind, though, and Izuku was not eager to repeat it. If Sankitsuo, the third wielder, was going to test him by trying to make him submit to his desire to kill villains, then Izuku would be just fine not manifesting his Fa Jin Quirk. He didn't want to use a murderer's power. He didn't want to be a murderer himself. Izuku was just a kid! How could Sankitsuo, if that even was his name, ask him to do that? It took a special kind of damaged person to tell a sixteen year old boy that killing people was fine if they were bad people. Did he think that people just forfeited their human rights when they committed a crime? There have been countless times in the history of the world that people have used that same logic to oppress and kill others just because they were hateful people, and not for any good reason. Izuku was not going to listen to that nonsense from the bitter ghost of a man who'd died a hundred years ago.

At lunch the next day, Izuku and his friends got to talking, but he couldn't have predicted the turn that conversation would take.

"Did you hear that X-Less lost his Quirk?" Hitoshi said.

"What?" Izuku asked. At the same time as Ochako and Tsu were asking who X-Less even was, Izuku was wondering about the implications of the way Hitoshi had worded that. "Like he damaged his eye, or ..?"

"No, both his eyes are intact. He can't use his Quirk anymore. It's just gone, like he never had it in the first place, according to this quote," Hitoshi said, gesturing with the hand that he held his phone in.

"Are you sure whatever article you read is legitimate? It might be misinformation," Tsu said.

Hitoshi typed something into his phone for a moment and then scrolled. His expression got darker and darker with each passing moment. "Guy looks legit. Taneo Tokuda. He's won awards for his journalism."

"Then what does that mean?" Ochako asked. "Did he just lose his Quirk, or was it taken?"

Izuku's heart skipped a beat. That was the question he'd been dreading but hadn't wanted to pose. "Did X-Less talk about any specific incident that happened to him, or did he just wake up one day and couldn't use his powers?"

"He can't remember any specific thing that might've done it. He kinda brags about how many incidents he resolves in a day, but I think I can see through his ego enough to tell that he just doesn't remember," Hitoshi said.

"How long ago did X-Less say he lost his Quirk?" Tsu asked.

"A week ago from the date of the article being published, which is a week and a half ago now. Ten days," Hitoshi replied.

"Ten days," Izuku muttered to himself. "It's not uncommon for Quirks to stop responding to their users if they've been overused, that's what we call Quirk exhaustion. But for a Quirk to stop working entirely with no prior signs is bizarre, and for it to not come back after ten days is even stranger than that. It's true that he could've just burnt himself out and there's a simple fix for that, rest. But what if it isn't just exhaustion? What if his Quirk has been taken somehow? That begs the question, who took it? Why? How? I think we would know if All for One had escaped prison, and as far as I know there isn't another person with his Quirk out there, so how did this happen?"

"I don't think it's our place to sweat the details too much. The guy's probably just playing up some regular fatigue for the press. X-Less loves that kinda stuff, he's mostly in this business for the prestige," Hitoshi said.

"And how do you know that?" Tsu asked with a sceptical tilting of their head.

Hitoshi brought his phone up again and seemingly began to read directly from the article. " You know, this might not have happened if my fellow heroes had been able to step up and help each other out once in a while. But we're too busy worrying about ourselves because the way the regular person treats heroes has been atrocious since All Might's retirement. We're working twice as hard as ever to keep this country from falling apart and bigger and bigger rodents just keep poking their heads out of nowhere now that the big dog's gone. And we still don't get the respect we deserve. I figure you should show a little gratitude every now and then, you know? I'm only saving all of your lives every day. I'm sure he doesn't care about the celebrity aspect at all."

"Doesn't he have a point?" Tsu asked. "Public approval of heroes has been going down recently. I talked to my parents the other day and they said that they feel demoralised by All Might's retirement, like there's a chance a villain could just decide to go on a rampage one day and they'd come home to find that Samidare and Satsuki are gone." They shivered at the thought of their younger siblings' loss. "I can't say that I blame them."

"My parents have some of the same thoughts. For the first time that I can really remember, their construction company isn't tanking," Ochako said with an uncertain smile.

"That's great!" Izuku said.

"For us, yeah. That means that more buildings need to be built and rebuilt nowadays, though, which means that people are having their homes and workplaces destroyed more often. It's getting my dad down that he profits off of people losing the places that matter to them, and it's only getting more frequent," Ochako clarified.

"Right, that makes sense," Izuku said, frowning as he thought about it further.

"My mom sells people life insurance plans over the phone," Hitoshi said. It was probably the first thing Izuku had ever learned about his family other than his parents' Quirks, so he sat there shocked for a moment. Hitoshi's eyebrows were drawn together in thought. "She's noticed a lot of people in the big cities calling them back significantly more often over the last six months."

"People are uneasy," Izuku said simply. It sounded like the easiest answer, but there was something more that he'd been thinking about in the back of his mind, something he hadn't put into words even in his own head that he thought must be true. "Endeavor and the top ten heroes are doing what they can, but I don't blame people for being scared. There are so many people who don't know what it's like to live in a world without All Might protecting them. Nobody else really measures up. Sure, Endeavor is strong, Hawks is fast, and Best Jeanist has a calming presence. Mirko likes to wander to help anywhere she can, and Ryukyu is humble. Wash is friendly and Crust is brave. They all share traits that people loved in All Might. But none of them have all of those traits. None of them are All Might. All of them combined wouldn't be All Might. Nobody is."

"Except for you. Is that where this is going?" Hitoshi said with a grin.

"No," Izuku said with a frown. "I'm not nearly at All Might's level yet. I might be able to match his raw power some day, but I doubt I'll ever have his ability to make the world a better place by just being around. I don't think I want to be that kind of hero. We've all seen how he ended up. I …" Izuku glanced at Tsu momentarily. "I don't want to make people worry about me. I don't want to be All Might."

"Then who will be?" Ochako asked.

"Is that the right question?" Tsu asked in return. "I don't think there should be another All Might. Izuku's right. We can see how that turned out."

"That's the way this country has worked since our parents were babies. What else is there?" Hitoshi asked.

Izuku didn't know. Evidently, neither did anyone else, because the four of them fell silent and didn't say anything more on the topic. It was clear to Izuku from the lookson their faces that they were still thinking hard about it, but nobody had a real answer yet. Izuku was right there with them. It was a tough question to tackle, and Izuku did not feel qualified to do so over a lunch period. He didn't think he'd have to think about how a world without All Might would work. If someone had asked his four year old self, he would've said that it was impossible. For better or for worse, All Might was so good at what he'd done for forty years that nobody could ever hope to replicate it. Not even Izuku, who wielded All Might's power as best he could. He was only a fifth of the way to possessing power on par with All Might. If he went at the pace he'd kept so far, it would take four or five years to reach full power. If All Might himself was correct, though, it would only take his three years at UA to reach full power. Izuku wasn't sure which of those scenarios he believed would happen, but he hoped the faster of the two would come true. He was trying not to stress himself out over it. He'd work as hard as he could and whatever happened would happen.

Later that afternoon, after classes had let out, Izuku was on his way to the dorms with everyone else when he realised that Katsuki was not among the cluster of students walking away from the academic buildings. Izuku looked around and frowned as he realised that he'd once again missed his chance to talk to his childhood friend, but he wasn't going to let things go on any longer. It wasn't exactly the same, but Izuku remembered the advice Aizawa had given his team back during their first joint training session with 1-B in December. If you don't see one, make an opening. Izuku took off without a word and followed his gut. He ran back toward the academic buildings and past them, heading toward the training facilities across campus from the dorms. He arrived at Gym Gamma, Cementoss's personal paradise where he could choose the terrain, and followed his hunch. Izuku opened the doors and was met with the sound of crackling explosions. Danger Sense didn't go off, and it usually did with Katsuki, so Izuku felt safe entering the gym, at least for now. He walked in and found Katsuki punching the air and shadow boxing while throwing in a few of his Quirk moves. Izuku wished he could train like that, but the wind pressure generated by his full power nowadays was too powerful for him to do it anywhere that wasn't Gym Gamma or one of the forest areas of UA's campus. Katsuki stopped when he spotted Izuku, and the gym became silent as the two of them regarded each other warily.

"What do you want, Deku?" Katsuki spat.

"To talk," Izuku said.

"What would you and I have to talk about?" Katsuki laughed.

"I don't know. But Ochako told me something the other day that I think is true," Izuku said.

"Jeez, Deku! Can you do a single thing without one of those losers whispering in your ear?" Katsuki yelled. "Seems like you're always using those friends of yours as an excuse. If you have something you want to say to me, go ahead and do it, but don't use Kirby as an excuse. So, say what you want. You have my attention." Izuku had no idea how Katsuki made his attention sound threatening, but he did it.

"Okay," Izuku said, his voice small. He cleared his throat and stood up higher than he had been. "It's about our fights."

"Oh, ready for another round already?" Katsuki asked, a grin breaking out across his face.

"No," Izuku said, putting his hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm good. I meant to ask you a question about them. Do you really think they're the best way we could be spending our time?"

"Of course! What are you thinking, idiot?" Katsuki roared. "Testing myself against One for All is obviously the best way for me to improve!"

"Is it? I mean, you got hurt last time. Is hurting each other really the most productive way for us to get stronger?" Izuku asked. "I would prefer to not hurt my friends. I realised recently that I've been doing that for a while, and I never want to do that again."

"Cut the crap, Deku. We're not friends, so you don't have to think about that useless stuff," Katsuki said with a grumble.

Izuku paused, and stared at Katsuki for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I would like for us to be friends. Real friends, not just training dummies who hit each other every now and then. I told my friends about One for All after Kamino because I thought they had a right to know what had really been going on with me after so many lies. Do you know why I included you in that?"

"Because I more or less figured it out myself. You had to tell me or you'd never feel safe not knowing what I know," Katsuki said.

"No," Izuku said with a frown. "I told you because I felt like we were close to some kind of understanding that would be deepened by sharing this secret. I trust you."

That was obviously not what Katsuki had been expecting to hear. His eyes widened and he scowled, but he fixed his expression into that eternally annoyed, irritated look he often wore. "Why the hell would you do something as stupid as that?"

"What do you … mean?" Izuku asked, shocked.

"You really are a moron if you don't know what I mean, Deku," Katsuki snapped. He laughed, though it was more of a yell, and let his shoulders relax and his arms hang limply at his sides. "Do you have an alternative in mind?"

"No, not yet. Can we agree on something, though?" Izuku asked.

"What?" Katsuki grumbled.

"From now on, our fights aren't all or nothing. If I have a feeling either one of us is about to go too far, I can stop it. So can you. The other day was too far. I know you know that," Izuku said.

"Fine," Katsuki sighed.

"And …" Izuku paused. He hesitated in even saying this to Katsuki, but he wouldn't feel satisfied if he didn't. "And I think we should actually talk. About our progress, or other stuff if you want, but mainly about training. I think making a coordinated effort has to be better than just fighting each other every couple of weeks. Right?"

Katsuki glared at Izuku for a moment, and then huffed out an agitated breath. "If you need the help so badly."

Izuku sighed in relief, and smiled. "Thanks! I don't really need it that much, but I think it'll be good for both of us!"

"Whatever. If that's all you had to say, then get outta here and let me train. Unless you really are game for another round after all," Katsuki said, seemingly putting his heated gaze right through Izuku's head.

"No thank you," Izuku said, waving as he turned to leave. "That's all I wanted to say. Goodnight."

The resumed sound of explosions followed Izuku to the door. He left Gym Gamma with bubbling excitement in his chest, and ran all the way back to the dorms. He'd just almost had a normal conversation with Katsuki. That wasn't something he thought he'd ever get to have again. After the way their relationship had deteriorated over the ten years that everyone had thought Izuku was Quirkless, he'd been doubtful of the future of their friendship. He wondered sometimes whether or not their childhood friendship had been dead so long that it stood no chance of being recovered. Izuku had thought that they'd proven that wrong at Kamino, they'd helped each other out and even ditched the childhood nicknames for a brief moment. He'd thought they would start being friends again after that, and in Katsuki's own way he had been treating Izuku better, as an equal, since that night. But aside from the topic of One for All and All for One, Izuku and Katsuki hadn't had a real conversation since that night in Yokohama seven months ago now. It felt good to make some progress toward restarting an actually functional relationship with the person he'd known the longest out of all of his classmates at UA. It felt like a real step forward.