After everything she had gone through over the past few months of attending UA, multiple villain attacks, a power that literally damaged her whenever she used it, Izuku was surprised not only by how rarely she has ended up at a hospital, but how both times she had it was for someone else. First Iida and Todoroki after the Stain incident, and now...

And now for what she wished were far fewer people. She couldn't help but feel guilt. The villains were coming after her and all she got was an ugly, swollen bruise and a loose tooth. A compress, a bandage, a visit to the dentist and she'd be none the worse for wear. Meanwhile so many of her classmates... And Saiki...

She squeezed her hands into fists as she sat in the hospital waiting room, her knuckles whitening. So many people got hurt, but Izuku could at least know rationally it wasn't all about her. She wasn't even the main target. At least rationally she could tell herself she wasn't to blame for what happened to them. But to Saiki.. He came after her. He was the one they wanted most and he put himself at risk to protect her! He–!

"My turn to be your hero."

That wasn't what he said at the time. That was something he said what felt like forever ago but was really only two weeks past. Final exams. She had been so angry at him then. She felt foolish now, remembering how she thought of him at the time, believing he never cared about her. Time cleared the haze of anger. His actions then had shown her how wrong she was. He had always cared for her. Through all the disdain he had continued to. And there he was again last night, once again decided he needed to be her hero. And just like the first time, she so dearly wished he wasn't.

A nurse walked by. Iida did what he had done every few minutes; ask after the condition of the other UA students. And once again he was rebuffed. Though this time a doctor shooed the nurse away and took over, getting the attention of the rest of the students. Izuku stood, took a place right next to him with hope in her eyes.

"The last of the remaining students are in stable condition and another, Kyoka Jiro, has woken. Her parents are with her right now, but she has asked after all of you. It would help her recovery for her to know all of you are safe."

Izuku released a breath she wasn't entirely aware she had been holding. Kyoka was okay. She was the last one. They didn't lose anyone else.

The thought was like a stab wound. Anyone else. She couldn't think like that. She didn't want to think like that.

The small crowd of students, around half of their class, waited outside of Kyoka's room. They watched as Kyoka's parents emerged, exchanging relieved, reassuring smiles with their daughter's classmates before moving away.

Then one by one, the UA students filed into the room, only to hear Kyoka's croaking laughter. "Wow, is everyone here? Pretty sure it's a fire hazard or something for so many people to..." She trailed off as she realised it was nowhere near the entire class. And the conspicuous absences. "Where's Momo? And... Well I guess maybe Saiki didn't want to come."

"Yaoyorozu is still recovering, but she'll be fine," Iida managed to answer. "Just took a bad knock to the head. How are you feeling?"

"Like garbage," she tried to laugh but quickly regretted it. "My lungs are a little messed up from the gas. Doc says I'll be okay though." She took another look around, saw a couple of people having trouble looking her in the eye. "You... You didn't say where... Did Saiki really not want to–?"

"The villains took him."

She looked to the voice, Bakugo's, the girl separate from the rest of the crowd leaning against the wall. Iida rounded on her. "Bakugo, could you not speak with tact for once in your life?!"

"You wanna dance around it?" the blonde grumbled, her eyes returning to the recovering girl. "Bastards had a capture list with four people on it. Me, Icy-Hot, Deku, then Saiki priority number one with a bullet. Seems like the second they got him they bolted."

Guilty as she already felt, Izuku was glad and grateful that Katsumi didn't elaborate on how the villains got him.

Thankfully, even though Izuku knew he desperately wanted to, Iida refrained from reprimanding Katsumi further. Instead he focused his attention back on Kyoka. "There's nothing to worry about. The police and the heroes have the matter well in hand."

"Right?! All thanks to Yaoyorozu!" Kirishima added, much to many students' confusion, Izuku included.

"Kirishima..." Iida warns.

"Kirishima, what the hell are you talking about?" Katsumi asked, pushing off the wall, walking with hunched shoulders toward the redheaded boy.

"What," Kirishima asked the larger boy, "You want everyone to settle for 'the police can handle it' thoughts and prayers platitudes? People are scared, man!" He turned to Katsumi. "There was a nomu with the villains. Yaoyorozu managed to put a tracker on it. They can follow it right back to the villains!" His eyes returned to Kyoka as he gave her a winning smile. "So don't worry about a thing. The pros'll bust Saisei out of there in no time!"

As he has looked away, he didn't see Katsumi's expression shift. It ran through several emotions, all coloured by dissatisfaction. Before settling on one. Resolve. She shoved her way past the unaware Kirishima to get to the door.

Only to find Iida blocking her path. "Where are you going?"

"Need to take a piss."

"I know what you're thinking. I won't let you do it."

"I don't remember needing or asking for your permission."

Iida grunted in frustration. "Kirishima, this is exactly why I said you should keep quiet about this!" He used his body to block the door. "You have no place involving yourself in this any further! The heroes will handle it!"

"Move or I move you, Four Eyes."

Uraraka looked between the two with worry in her eyes. "Look, maybe we're all a little on edge. Let's just take a breath and talk about this, okay?"

"Ochako's right!" Tsuyu backed her up. "Let's calm down! Getting worked up isn't going to help anybody!"

"Heedlessly throwing yourself into danger is not the action of a hero!" Iida barked.

"Then what is?"

It was perhaps the unlikeliest voice present to suddenly take part in this argument. From someone usually content to leave himself out of things. Keep his head down and train to be a hero. But in this moment, he spoke up.

"Ojiro..." Hagakure whispered in the sudden silence, looking up at his stern expression.

"What is a hero, Iida?" he asked again. "Because running headlong into danger for the sake of saving people is all I've ever seen heroes do. And it's what I saw Saisei do. I was right there with you when those villains attacked. I did nothing, and I'm ashamed of that. But Saisei leapt right into action. One pro was down, only one other was a real fighter. So he stepped up."

"He didn't have permission to–!"

"No," the blond boy cut him off before he could even properly raise the argument. "He didn't. But he acted anyway, not caring about the consequences to himself. Then when Midoriya ran off, when that magnet villain had him pinned, he asked you to step up too, didn't he? The one other person fast enough to keep up with Midoriya. He asked you for help. To go after her. To keep her safe."

"What?" Izuku asked, surprised. Now that she thought about it, Saiki had been stuck to that magnet when she ran off. It was how she got away from them all.

"What did you say, Iida?"

"I said we didn't have permission to act on our own, just like we don't now!" Fed up with getting chastised by Ojiro of all people, he returned his attention to Katsumi. "Bakugo, step back now or I'll ensure they have you escorted off–"

But Ojiro was used to being ignored. "You still think he was in the wrong?"

"Look where it got him!" the bespectacled boy snapped. "He recklessly acted on his own and now he's in the hands of villains! So yes, he was in the wrong! If he hadn't–!"

"They'd have me instead," Izuku cut in. Iida's face froze as he saw the look on hers. Guilt, responsibility, regret. Resolve. "I'd've been fighting alone trying to protect Kota. If he couldn't beat that guy alone... They'd have got me and Kota would be dead."

"You don't know that!"

It's the last protest Iida managed. A fist silenced him as it struck his head, the taller boy lain out from Katsumi's sucker punch. "We never know! That's why we do something, dumbshit!" she snarled, brushing her knuckles with her other hand. "Remember that the next time you even think of lecturing me on what a hero is!" She looked over her shoulder, first at Izuku, then past her. "I'm going. I'm doing whatever it takes to make sure that bastard comes back in one piece." With that she slammed the door open and left just before a nurse hurried in to find out what the commotion was.

-(-)-

Katsumi got kicked out of the hospital. It was pretty much inevitable after the staff found out she punched out another visitor in a patient's room. But, as Izuku found out when she went to visit Momo, it wasn't before she got to the injured girl and made her request/demand.

Izuku didn't know why she felt compelled to join her childhood friend outside the main entrance. But here she sat right next to her. Her own almost ladylike posture in stark contrast to Katsumi's slouched, spread-legged, scowling countenance. Like she was glaring at the whole world. Maybe for not being what she wanted it to be. For taking something away from her.

Or maybe Izuku was just projecting.

Yes. That was why she was here. She understood now. Why she waited with Katsumi, hoping Momo would come through for them. It wasn't that something was taken from her. It was that... She allowed it to happen. She had to save Kota. She didn't regret it. She never would. Saiki saved them both, let them get away and she was grateful for that. But the one regret... The one horrible regret that left her with an entirely real ache in her chest. She waited. She waited, hoping he would come back. Hoping that he would escape the danger he had thrown himself into for her sake. If she hadn't waited. If she had acted then, maybe he would still be with them.

She never wanted to make that mistake again.

"It's always you."

"What?" Izuku asked, looking at her friend, hearing the first words she'd spoken in the hours they'd waited. "Did you say something, Kacchan?"

"Why is it always you?" the irritable girl asked. "I hated you. The way you always talked about how you'd be a hero. How you'd do it without a quirk. You'd talk. You'd talk and talk and talk. You'd write in those stupid notebooks. Nothing pissed me off more than when I took one off you and saw you'd gone through thirteen of the damn things. All you ever did was watch real heroes. Took notes on everything they did like if you watched 'em enough they'd make you something you weren't." One glance. One look out the corner of the blonde's eye was all she gave. "Now you're here. It's such bullshit."

"I..." Izuku didn't know what to say. But whatever she said usually got Katsumi angry anyway so she just said what she felt. "I know you never thought I could be a hero. But I'm here. I don't have anything to prove to you anymore so–"

"Shut the fuck up, Deku." Even the harsh words came out flat. "I 'never thought you could', you never thought you could." Her teeth grit together as she shook her head. "That's what pissed me off so much. You'd write about other heroes in those shitty notebooks like the fangirl you are, you talked yourself up like you'd actually get somewhere. But you never did anything. Just spewed bullshit and never backed it up. Never even tried. That's why I hated you. It was like everything you did and said was mocking me. All that effort busting my ass to get stronger and there was you saying you could do it too without even trying."

"Yeah, well, maybe I never did anything because you were always there to tell me it wouldn't matter."

"... Maybe."

The one word floored Izuku. Her eyes were wide, her expression the picture of perplexed. It was the closest Katsumi has ever gotten to taking responsibility for how she acted in those days.

Not that Katsumi seemed to care all that much for her surprise. "You messed him up."

It wasn't hard to guess who 'him' was. "I... I didn't want to be just another girl to him–"

"I'm not talking about that, dumbass," the blonde grumbled. "That power of yours, wherever the hell it came from. It's too much. We all saw it on I-Island. You and All Might, side by side. Equals. What were the rest of us supposed to think, seeing that? What's the point of us? How do we match that? That was what messed him up. He already put you on a pedestal for some fuckin' reason, then you went and made it too high to ever reach. He put his life into training himself to be as strong as he could. He wanted to be the best. Almost a decade of breaking himself to be the number one hero, same as me. And then here you come with what, a year's training? And you blow past all of us. And I hated you all over again. Not because you're strong but because it doesn't feel like you earned it."

Silence reigned for a short time. Katsumi had said her piece but it took Izuku a little while to decide what she wanted to say.

"I don't feel like I earned it either." Katsumi didn't look her way but was clearly listening. "I... You're right. I never really believed I could be a hero without a quirk. I just really wanted to believe it. But then... On that day, with the slime villain... I met All Might. He even signed my notebook, the one you burned. But I asked him if I could do it. If I could be a hero. And he said no!" She wiped at her eyes and nose with her sleeve. Now glad her friend wasn't looking to see her cry yet again. "That was it. I was ready to give up. I might've even apologised to you at school the next day. But then you got caught by the slime villain. None of the heroes were helping you. And... You looked–"

"Like I was begging for help." The words came out of Katsumi's throat like they were forcibly dragged from her vocal cords. Had to force herself to say them and even now Izuku noted it wasn't an admittance that it was what she was really feeling that day.

"... Yeah," Izuku nodded, sniffing. "My body was already moving before I could even think. I wasn't much help, but in a street filled with heroes I was the only one trying to save you. That's why All Might decided to train me." She heard the strain of Katsumi's fists clenching. "You're right. I didn't work as hard as you did. As Saiki did. Or Todoroki or Iida or Momo. I got lucky. I worked my butt off afterwards but... Without an amazingly lucky break I'd never have gotten to where I am. The power I have, there's a part of me that's never felt like I deserved it." She cleared her eyes one final time and firmed her resolve. "But it doesn't matter if I deserve it. I have it, so I have a responsibility to use it for others. Even if it's only to prove to the people who gave me this chance that it meant something."

The blonde beside her bounced her limp hands between her legs before she leaned back on the bench, head tilted up to stare at the night sky. "I'm probably always gonna resent you."

"... Yeah."

"But I'm glad you're here for this, Deku."

Izuku smiled just slightly. She could hear it in her friend's voice. Even if it wasn't the most obvious, she could hear it. That 'Deku' wasn't the childhood insult. It was the name of a hero.

Katsumi twitched. Looked to the side and frowned as she saw more people than she expected. Izuku turned to look. Momo was there taking careful steps. Kyoka was there. And the final person...

"I thought I got the message across the last time, Four-Eyes."

"I'm not going to waste my time on a lost cause," Iida responded with a pronounced frown. "You wish to destroy your hero career before it begins so badly that you would assault a fellow student, then perhaps you should. But, Midoriya," his eyes turned to the smaller, green-haired girl who only looked back at him with sadness. "It isn't too late. You of all people should know what a terrible decision this is! You were the one that showed me that! What you're planning to do is against the law and for good reason!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Katsumi growled.

"Iida," Izuku stepped in before Katsumi could escalate. "This isn't the same as then, you know that. We aren't trying to pick a fight, take down the League of Villains. We're making sure we get Saiki back, that's it."

"How is that different, Midoriya?!" Iida demanded. "You're still taking the law into your own hands! You're endangering your future for something the heroes are already doing!"

"Bang up job they've done so far."

"Kacchan!" Izuku reprimanded, then realised how strange it was for her to reprimand Katsumi of all people and returned to facing Iida before anyone could realise what just happened. "Iida, Ojiro was right. Being a hero means endangering yourself to save someone else. That's what it is. I stood by while Saiki was getting taken. I never want to feel this kind of regret again. So if there's something I can do to make it even a little more likely Saiki comes back safe, I want to be there to do it."

"Then you learned nothing from the incident with Stain!"

She gave him a strange look, which then turns sad as she came to a realisation. "No, I think we just took different lessons from it." She looked back on the interactions she had with Iida in stressful situations. The entrance exam. The Stain incident. She realised that, for whatever reason, the idea of heroes saving people didn't come as naturally to him. Even on the first day of class, he thought she had rescued Ochako because she figured out the rescue point system. It never even crossed his mind that Izuku saved her simply because she needed help. "Ojiro was right. You have no idea what a hero is."

The boy reared back, the words landing harder than any punch could. He no longer had the appearance of trying to be stern and authoritative. That crumbled under his hurt and anger. But even so, she wouldn't take the words back. "This is your last chance," he warned.

"Not like you can stop us," Katsumi sneered, "Unless you wanna 'take the law into your own hands'."

"No," his head shook. "I'll simply inform the authorities of what you're doing. I won't need to do anything. The heroes will stop you. Hopefully before you do anything foolish."

Izuku couldn't help the sadness that welled up in her as she looked up at him. He and Uraraka were her first real friends at UA. And as she closed her eyes, she could feel it. She could feel as one of those friendships might be ending. She opened her eyes, the sadness given way to unshakeable resolve. "Do what you think is best."

She only saw it for an instant, the realisation on his face as she turned and walked away with the three other girls.

-(-)-

It had been a strange, quiet, awkward trip as the group of four girls followed the tracking signal. Forcing them to take a train to Yokohama, then find their way to Kamino. All the while the conversation only revolving around the tracker, where they were going, what they may find. The tension was high, knowing the danger to their lives for what they were doing but also the danger to their futures if they were caught. Even so, they kept on going. If they didn't believe it was the right thing to do, they wouldn't have left in the first place.

They tried not to draw attention to themselves as they walked the streets teeming with nightlife. Momo surreptitiously checked the tracker and guided them all off of the beaten path. They left the lights of the busy thoroughfare behind, moving toward the still and silent regions of empty workplaces now that the workday was over. The tracker was only a few streets away. The tension ratcheted up several more notches.

"You kids look like you're far from home."

Katsumi's arm came up on instinct, her hand already smoking. But Izuku blocked it with her own forearm. "Mirko?!"

"Tch," Katsumi scoffed, letting her arm drop. "Course you'd recognise her just by her voice, damn nerd."

"We're caught already?" Momo whined, sagging.

"That's riiiight," the rabbit hero drawled as she sat on a low roof above them. "Got a warning forwarded to us by the police. Looks like one of your classmates is a tattletale."

"We know," Katsumi growled.

The rabbit woman's lips curled upward into a slight smile. "And you came anyway. And you two right out of the hospital. Gotta say, you're all idiots but I like your guts. Sorry kids. Time for you to go home. We got this from here."

"Wait!" Izuku exclaimed, holding her hands up, clapping them together in a pleading pose. "We just want to help!"

Her bright teeth shone in contrast to her brown skin. "I think I know which one you are. And if I'm right I know without a doubt I should say no."

"What about me?" Momo looked up at her earnestly. "We aren't here hoping to fight villains or anything of the sort! We just want to make sure Saiki comes back safe! We can help! I can produce anything you might need, and..."

"I can scout," Jiro croaked, her jacks twirling in front of her face. "I can listen in on the place without them knowing."

"You doing okay, kid?" the pro asked on hearing the strained voice.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Please, let us help."

"Hmph," Mirko grunted. She moved in a blur, drops off of the roof to block Katsumi's path and force her back from trying to sneak away. "And I get the feeling you in particular would get in the way even if we put you under armed guard."

Katsumi only smirked. Not confirming or denying.

The hero sighed. "Kids these days." She looked away briefly, considering her options. "Alright. You."

"Me?" Momo asked.

"You can make anything. How about communications?"

"Oh, yes!" the rich girl answered eagerly. "I can make–!"

"Something that works for us to keep in contact during the operation."

"Um, yes, radio earpieces should do the trick?" Momo asked, surprised by the pushy hero.

"Good. You know where you're going," she caught the earpiece Momo threw at her, "So I'll guide you close so there's no way you'll be seen. Then you stay there. Understand? You don't go charging in. You don't do anything stupid. You do what I tell you and not a single thing more. Say it."

"We won't do anything stupid," Izuku promised.

"No. All of it. All of you."

The four girls looked uncomfortably at each other, before reciting the whole thing in different tempos. "We don't go charging in. We don't do anything stupid. We do what you tell us and not a single thing more."

"Bitch."

Mirko's lips pursed, then a burst of laughter broke free. "Oh, I like you," she praised Katsumi before giving her a not-so-playful slap across the face before returning to the rooftops.

Over the earpieces the girls heard their instructions. "Get moving. Two buildings down, cut through the alleyway on your left. Then–" They followed the instructions to the letter. Weaving through the silent streets until they made their way to a small, squat building. What might have been a small warehouse or workshop or who knew what else. Quite nondescript from the outside.

"Alright, ear wire girl, you said you can listen in," Mirko told them all, "Do your thing."

"Earphone Jack," Kyoka mumbled the correction as the cable snaked out toward the wall of the building.

"Not tonight you're not. Tonight you're some random nobody. In fact you're not even that. You're not here. You don't exist. Now shut up and do the thing you're definitely not here to do." The voice of the hero went silent for several seconds. "Well?"

"Breathing," Jiro answered. "And heartbeats. About twelve of them. One's human, the rest are... Weird. Wait." She listened more intently, doing her best to shut out the sounds she didn't need. The sounds that only got in the way. Her eyes closed.

Louder than the others. But slow. That slow... Steady... Thump-thump... Thump-thump... "Saiki!" she gasped.

"What?!"

"He's in there!" Jiro whispered furiously, "I'd recognise that heartbeat anywhere!"

"Shit! We thought he'd be at the other–!" The radio goes silent.

"Kyoka, how is he?" Momo asked with worry.

"I can't really tell from just sounds," the punk girl informed her. "But... I mean his breathing is normal? Normal for Saiki anyway?"

"Okay," Mirko's voice returned to all of their earpieces. "We're changing plans on the fly here, girls. You've already made your trip here worthwhile." There was a brief pause. "I never said that. Officially. I'm talking to thin air. But unofficially, good job. Ear girl, keep me up to date. Let me know if anything changes."

"Ear girl," Jiro continued to grumble.

The better part of an hour later, the three other girls slumped against the wall they were hiding behind were roused to attention by Jiro's voice again. "Mirko?"

"Is something happening?"

"I don't know, it sounds like water– There's someone new."

"What?"

"There's someone in the building who wasn't there before. The breathing is weird, and... Saiki's talking to him. Well, yelling at him."

"We're ready to move. Tell me what they're saying."

"Uhh... Saiki's asking if they're going to do the 'not so different' speech again, um, uh–"

"Deep breath, kid. Doesn't need to be word for word. Ballpark it."

"Saiki's being a mouthy asshole."

There was a sound of scoffing over the radio. "Tracks."

Kyoka continued. "Guy says he gave Saiki a present. Tells him to flex his quirk? ... He's in pain!"

"Shit. Jeanist, good to go. Mt. Lady we're going for shock and awe, get ready to tear the lid off!"

Kyoka continued reciting the conversation in the building with no better options. "The... The villain is talking about bugs, that it's on brand, that it's a reward for hard work... Has the ability to... What?"

"What, Kyoka?!" Katsumi demanded.

"He says he has the power to give quirks?"

Izuku's face paled to a chalk white. Blood chilled in her veins. A memory of All Might telling her about his arch-nemesis. The nemesis of all wielders of One for All. A man with the power to give and take quirks at will. And he had Saiki. "Mirko! Mirko, where's All Might?!" she demanded over the radio.

"He's at the other location, now get out of the way, we're getting started–"

"You can't!" Jeanist. Mirko. Mt. Lady. Pros with incredible quirks and none of them would be enough! "Contact All Might! Tell him All for One is here with Saiki!"

"Kid, calm down–"

"Just do it! He'll know what it means!"

"What does it mean, Deku?!" Katsumi demanded.

And all the while, Kyoka had continued to listen. As the man himself answered that question. Answers a lot of questions the hearing hero knew she shouldn't have the answers to. "He's trying to turn Saiki against you," she said, looking right at Izuku. "Against heroes."

"Message sent for whatever that's worth," Mirko griped. "Ear kid, what's happening?"

"Saiki just turned down his offer. Says he's using Ragdoll's quirk to get under his skin but she was better at it. The villain's laughing..." It was Kyoka's turn for her face to turn ashen. "He doesn't need Saiki's cooperation to get what he wants. Saiki's... Screaming."

One second Katsumi was there behind that wall. Then suddenly she was gone. Stiff from stillness or not, she kicked off a wall, clambered onto the roof, rolled, rushed across. Put her sweat-soaked hands out as she came down on the target building–

BOOM!

"DIE!"