Four student heroes and one pro watched over a park. One that had been evacuated by the pro's sidekicks. And the reason for that evacuation was hard to miss.

Giants. One looking like an enormous sea creature, the other much more human-like, but moving just as easily as if he were the size of an ordinary human. Punching and kicking the shark, or whatever it was, like an amateur martial artist.

"What the hell," Flygon grunted as he watched with Uravity, Froppy, Nejire Chan and Ryukyu. "That's a hell of a quirk to just pop up out of nowhere!"

"You see Gigantification types sometimes," Nejire said for the younger students' benefit, "But not that often and not this big. Boss, is this–?"

"Looks like it," Ryukyu answered, knowing the question before her protege could even ask it. "More Trigger users. They've been cropping up so often it's getting to be a real problem."

"The police have cordoned off the area, Boss!" Nejire informed her. "Everyone's ready to go in!"

The pro hummed to herself. "You three." The 1-A students looked at her. "I want to see what you can do."

"Seriously?" Froppy asked, looking at the ongoing villain battle with a finger at her lips and a look of trepidation. "You think we're ready for something like this?"

"Nejire and Mirko insist you all are and I've seen a little of what you can do. So show me you're ready to be heroes."

The implication didn't need to be said. If they couldn't handle it, she would bail them out. But it would also mean they weren't as capable as had been advertised. And after everything the three teens had been through, they couldn't accept such an outcome easily.

"Let's go!" Uravity said, not needing to hear any more. The three hopped off the roof, Uravity controlling her descent by nullifying her own gravity, Froppy hopping her way down and Flygon fluttering down to wait at the bottom for them. Casually swatting the frog girl's tongue away before retracting his wings.

"Thorry."

"Mm. We need a plan," the dragonfly hero said as the three of them broke through the police cordon to enter the park. "They're big and they hit like it."

"My quirk won't care how big they are or how hard they hit," Uravity contributed. "But nullifying the gravity on so much mass, I won't be able to keep it up for long."

"Long enough to trip them up?" Froppy asked.

"Probably. Do you think you could keep underfoot for long enough without... You know, getting stepped on?"

"Not a problem. With my camouflage, they won't even know where I am."

Flygon considered the two behemoths. Saw an opportunity he couldn't ignore. "Alright. Froppy, if you can do it, get in position and wait for your moment. Uravity." He held out a hand to the girl running beside him. "You ready to make these lightweights into literal lightweights?"

She smiled, took his hand and let him pull her onto his shoulders. Once again his wings burst out from his back and he casually dodged out of the way of the tongue flying his way.

"Ahh!" Uravity squeaked as she felt something wet and slimy slap against her backside. "Froppy!"

"Thorry."

Knowing no one could see it, Flygon didn't even try to hide his smirk. Yep. That was totally accidental that he let Uravity get tongue-spanked. No matter how cute her little squeal was or how much he wanted to do the same thing to her bubbly backside with his own hands, there was no intentionality in that sequence of events.

Heh.

"Lights out," the dragonfly muttered, shutting off the lights in his suit before perching on a tree. Letting the dark of the night and the limited lighting of the park hide them from view. "You ready? We're getting one easy shot at this, then it gets tricky. We'll start with Tiny."

She nodded. "If you can get me around centre mass, that's the best chance I'll get with him moving around so much."

"Got it."

He nodded back. Watched Froppy get close before she seemed to disappear into the ether. Then he took off, moving quickly. For the size of the villains, the two heroes were about as big as the bug Flygon had styled himself after. Hopefully not even worth noticing until it would be too late. He moved in, waited for the bare-chested, human-shaped giant to complete his sloppy spin kick before moving in. "Tag," Uravity whispered, the two of them flying around the villain who suddenly found his hop taking him far higher than intended.

"What the hell?!" the giant yelled as he moved further and further skyward.

Uravity gagged. "Other one, other one, quick!" The human giant was a lost cause for getting caught by Froppy when he was so high up. So the two of them rushed over to the shark, who seemed to realise that the black speck in front of it was the cause of his opponent's ascent. He moved, tried to swat the bug out of the sky, but if there was one thing Flygon had focused on with training his new wings, it was aerial agility. He came to a sudden stop and darted sideways, avoiding the swinging arm easily.

Though it did Uravity's nausea no favours. "Ulp!" She slapped the arm as it came close and suddenly the shark was left without control of his body as he began to slowly rise upward.

"Float yourself," Saiki told her, pulling her off his shoulders. "Release when you can't hold it anymore." She nodded, using her quirk on her own body before Saiki pushed her toward the ground and safety.

Meanwhile, Froppy's tongue had appeared out of nowhere to snare the giant shark's leg, dragging the weightless giant around to spin him, before tossing him upward in the direction of his adversary.

In the handful of split seconds after release, Uravity held on as best she could, before shakily tapping her fingers together.

The two villains came down together like a meteor, the shark trapped underneath the human with no way to prevent what was about to happen. No way to avoid the one waiting for them on the ground.

Saiki reactivated the lights on his costume, let them flare brightly as he switched them to a vibrant, regal, and sacred scarlet. The moment he did, he felt something punch into his body from inside his suit. And suddenly... It felt like every simple movement was nothing. Like he didn't even feel the effort or thought of moving his body. Like he was finally, for once, experiencing what it was like to have all limitations removed. The instincts of self-preservation, of restraint, had been discarded. It was time to see what he could really do when the proverbial gloves came off.

He watched the giant descend. And prepared himself. Planted his feet hard enough to leave craters, before letting the rest of his body relax, move into a position ready to dedicate every bit of force he could exert into one single strike. His hips twisted. His body turned as his right arm dropped.

He could feel it. As the sequence of muscle groups worked in a perfectly choreographed pattern, the strain that his instinctual limitations had never allowed him to experience as his body gave more than it could stand.

The scarlet light seemed to flare brighter, though it might have just been his imagination.

"Giga..."

And as Flygon's legs thrust him upward, the sequence completed. His right fist raised as he leapt upward.

"IMPAAAACT!"

In a moment briefer than can be measured, knuckles sank into the body of the shark giant, and when that micro-instant concluded, a sound not unlike a thunderclap declared the impact. For only a flash of perceptible time, the shark's body folded over the fist before it was launched upward again, slamming into the human giant above hard enough to daze him.

Just long enough for Flygon to escape from under the shark, and fly upward and around to look down on the only villain still conscious.

As the shark finally crashed to the ground, the human-like giant finally regained some control. Pushed off of his former enemy to attack the new one, only for Flygon to evade easily. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

What he didn't see, what he couldn't see, were the other two heroes who hadn't been idle. Once again, Uravity silently floated up to tag the giant with her quirk. An instant later, he was ensnared by a tongue around his ankle. Froppy hopped up, climbed the body of the giant still holding his angle as she pulled him off of his feet.

"Isn't it obvious?" Flygon asked, preparing his aching body for what came next. "We're heroes."

His flight entirely controlled by his wings, Flygon zipped back and forth over the villain's body, a red streak criss-crossing his form, each pass striking the villain with whatever limb was suffering the least at that instant. A fist to the jaw, a foot to the throat, a knee to the back, a driving kick to the midsection, all while the villain was trapped and weightless. "Dragon Rush!"

"Guahhhh!"

Once again subject to gravity, the villain fell atop his former opponent. Conscious, but no longer able to fight. Certainly not in time for the quirk enhancement drug's effects to wear off. Leaving the man once again simply a man. And the shark... Well he was still a shark but a human-sized shark.

Minutes later, the two villains were being secured by the police.

"That was some nice work," Ryukyu congratulated the three rookie heroes. "I was hoping you'd impress, but I didn't expect you to take them down all by yourselves."

"Thanks, Boss," Uravity said with a smile, breathing harder to help settle her stomach. "But Flygon did all the hard work."

The dragonfly hero shook his head, still shaking out the pain of his arm. Pain enough that it bothered him. "Don't undersell yourself, Uravity. That would've been a way more drawn out, dangerous and destructive fight without you guys setting 'em up. Both times."

"It was good work all the same," the dragon hero repeated, looking at the empty clearing the villains had landed in. "With minimal property damage for a fight of that scale. Well done."

The three of them smiled. "Thanks, Boss!"

The pro nodded. "We have a meeting to get to tomorrow, so make sure you get your after action reports done and sent in tonight. From what I've heard, we'll all have more immediate concerns to deal with after that."

Nejire gasped. "You're letting us in?!"

"Don't make me regret it."

"In what, Nejire Chan?" Uravity asked.

It seemed impossible for the older girl to rein in her excitement. "There's been an investigation going on recently, a bunch of big agencies are part of it but I don't know what it's about."

Tsuyu frowned. "That sounds like a big deal for our first week."

"Ryukyu wouldn't let us in on it if she didn't think we could handle it," Flygon reminded her, gesturing at the villains being carted off. Neutralised and secured because of their actions.

Uravity giggled awkwardly. "I guess dealing with villains since we started UA has some silver linings."

Flygon laughed, just a little discomfort and disbelief colouring the sound. "That's, uh, that's some extra special brand of optimism you've got there. Keep chasing that silver lining."

-(-)-

"I can't believe you talked us into wearing our hero suits, Ochako!" Nejire complained, though with little heat. "It's just a meeting and we're going back to school right after!"

"Well, it just..." The persistently blushing girl glanced at the lone boy among their group. Also wearing his hero costume. "It just feels important that we get treated like heroes and not students, you know?" Saiki looked back on hearing that comment, offered a knowing smile that made the pinkness of her cheeks darken.

"Makes sense," Tsuyu agreed as the four of them entered the building. "It's weird to think about, but we'd probably stand out in our school uniforms."

"You would," Ryukyu agreed, joining the conversation as she approached them on spotting them. "It's not a huge concern if they see you for what you are, though. You're still learning. If you want to look the part, you had best act the part as well."

"Yes Boss!"

"Follow me."

The group of four students followed the pro into the meeting room, only to see a number of familiar faces already there. Some were expected. They were at Nighteye's agency, after all. Saiki offered a smile and wave to Izuku who smiled back. Then, "Oh, hey Kirishima!" The redheaded boy sitting next to the hero Fat Gum.

"Hey, Saisei! Asui! Uraraka! You guys are all here for this too?"

A scoff could be heard from the other side of the table. "More kids," grumbled the dark-skinned hero with a lock-and-key motif to his costume. "Why are students here?"

"Because they were asked to be here by either myself or those they are employed under. Ryukyu," Nighteye greeted. "Thank you for coming. Now that everyone is here, we can begin. If everyone would please take a seat."

It was only as the seats around the long table were filled did Saiki realise that Aizawa was even in the room. The surly teacher and hero offering him a flat look with typically tired eyes, before focusing entirely on the man that invited them all.

"As you all know, we at the Nighteye Hero Agency have been conducting an investigation into the increase in the quirk amplification drug trade. More commonly known as Trigger. With the rise in villain activity following the retirement of All Might, we have seen an ever-increasing number of villains who save this particular substance as a last resort in altercations with heroes or the police as a means of escape. Given the severity and rapidity of this sudden surge of supply, we came to the conclusion that it must have been a variant manufactured locally, at least within the territory of Japan."

"Yeah," Fat Gum agreed. "That's always the way. The American formula for the stuff is weirdly protected, mostly the stuff we see has got a real short duration. Recent cases have been no different," the BMI Hero confirmed with a pat on Kirishima's back.

"Precisely," Nighteye confirmed. "As a result, our agency began our investigation looking into the most likely suspects that could fund and manage such production. After going through several possible options, we landed on one in particular." With a glance at the blue-skinned woman to his side, she brought up an image. An emblem. An octagon with lines drawn from centre to corners, surrounded by what appeared to be a stylised geometric flower, also with eight segments. "The Shie Hassaikai. One of the few remaining yakuza organisations in Japan."

"Hm," Eraserhead grunted. "It'd be asinine to say something like All Might missed a spot. So many criminal enterprises taken out, it's shameful we left any to linger. So they're our new source of Trigger?"

"All evidence points to that conclusion, yes," the lanky hero confirmed, adjusting his glasses. "However, we have since learned that the sale of this drug is only a symptom of a potentially much greater problem. The drug trade is simply a short-term solution to pursue their true objective. The research and production of quirk-erasing bullets."

"Seriously?" Tsuyu asked.

"Makes sense," Saiki nodded with a stormy expression. "For all the research being done, there's people out there who know a lot more about how quirks work." He probably wasn't supposed to talk this much. He was probably supposed to be an observer, to learn. But he couldn't help but ask. "Is this him? His people?"

"... Recently, it was confirmed that Hassaikai have made contact with the League of Villains. However, from all indications the meeting went disastrously. To our best knowledge, the villain known as All for One has had no involvement in their operations." Nighteye looked toward the largest hero in the room. "Fat Gum, your agency had an altercation involving one of these bullets."

"Yeah," Fat Gum nodded, his friendly appearance marred by hardened eyes and a scowl. "Suneater got hit by one."

Nejire gasped. "Tamaki, are you okay?!"

"Yeah," the dour hero student confirmed, not looking anyone in the eye. "It cut off my quirk maybe only a few seconds after it hit. Came back a few hours later."

"Thank god," said the lock hero.

"Bastards," Suneater's mentor cursed. "He almost got hit twice, but thanks to Red Riot, he blocked the second one with his hardened body and because of that, we took the bullet mostly intact!"

"Nice one, Kirishima," Saiki praised him.

Getting an unexpectedly bashful response. "Yeah, I mean, I did what I had to."

"Thanks to that," a squat, older hero chimed in, "We managed to get a look and analyse the contents of the bullet. We found it contained human blood and various other cells."

A wave of disgust and disgruntlement passed over the table in response. Mostly. "I don't get it. What's that mean?" Kirishima asked.

"And that's why we shouldn't waste our time having kids as part of this meeting," the lock-themed hero complained. Again.

Saiki opened his mouth, only for Ryukyu to speak first. "He's the only reason we know what the bullets are made of, Rock Lock."

"So, what?" Saiki asked, ignoring the scowl of the irritable hero apparently named Rock Lock. "Are we talking about some kind of anti-quirk pathogen? A blood-transmissible quirk auto-immune disease?" Suddenly he felt the eyes of all of his classmates on him. What? He knew things! That kind of thing was part of their medical needs preparedness training. Not his fault he read ahead on the material. He had a lot of time on his hands with barely needing to sleep.

"No," Nighteye answered. "If it were something so severe, Suneater would not have recovered so well or so quickly without need for treatment."

"I'm fine," Suneater insisted at the renewed worried looks from Mirio and Nejire. "Freaked out, but my quirk is completely back to normal and doctors didn't see anything wrong."

Nighteye nodded. "And so a pathogen is highly unlikely. Thanks to Lemillion and Deku, we do have some indication on the likely source of whatever is being done to achieve this result. Under my orders, they quietly observed members of Shie Hassaikai, running across their leader Kai Chisaki. And a young girl he claimed was his daughter. She appeared to have been put under extreme physical duress, her arms covered in bandages. Unfortunately, it was not possible for them to remove her from the situation in those circumstances, though she is the likely source of these quirk-destroying bullets."

"The power to nullify a quirk," Eraserhead spoke up suddenly. "You think it's her quirk. Something like mine."

In lieu of answering with a yes or no, the screen displayed a man in what resembled a plague doctor mask. "Kai Chisaki's quirk is called Overhaul. It grants him the ability to disassemble and reassemble an object. His daughter, Eri, has no government records, no quirk registry, but it would not be difficult to imagine that Chisaki's quirk might have evolved in his offspring to permit the deconstruction of quirks. We cannot be certain, but given her state and her connection to Chisaki, we believe she is the source of the bullets and it is her blood contained in them."

"His own daughter," Ochako gasped, tears rimming her eyes.

Nighteye continued through the disgust, showing the same cold but practical leadership as he had for the entire meeting. "There has been no indication that these bullets are being sold or even advertised, and so we can reasonably conclude the one we collected was a prototype meant to test the efficacy of the formula. More than just rescuing the girl for her own sake, we must do so to prevent the Shie Hassaikai from perfecting these bullets and driving our society even further into chaos."

And once again, Rock Lock spoke. "Sounds to me like this problem could've been solved if those two saved the girl when they had the chance."

Saiki couldn't help but glare at him for that. The hero, sensing it, glared back unrepentantly. Saiki knew a comment like that would be crushing for Izuku, and he was surprised to see Mirio wasn't taking it much better.

"It was my decision that they not do so," Nighteye answered the complaint, taking responsibility to deflect blame from the two students who were clearly already beating themselves up enough as it was. "The responsibility for it falls to me. However, our objective now is precisely that."

"We'll save her!" Izuku shouted, the shame of her perceived failure having exploded in a burst of emotion.

Mirio joining her in that same moment. "This time! We'll save Eri! We won't fail!"

The former sidekick of All Might laid his hands on the table. "Correct. Our objective now, is to locate Eri Chsaki, retrieve her, and pull the roots out of the Shie Hassaikai and burn their organisation to cinders."

What followed was a series of instructions for the different agencies. Locations and operations of the Hassaikai for them to monitor in hopes of gathering information on the girl's location. Their options for how to maximise the potential of their investigative efforts. Matters that went over the heads of most of the students.

And when it was over, the students gathered on their own, processing the results of that meeting.

"Izuku." All Might's successor looked up at her once boyfriend as he spoke. "Don't let what Rock Lock said get to you. All he did was bitch and second-guess everyone for situations he wasn't there for."

He could tell she heard, and understood, and that it also didn't matter. "She was terrified for us," she admitted. "Eri went back to him to protect us."

"We all know if there was any way you could've saved the girl right then and there, you would've," Saiki insisted, looking around the table for people to back him up. Their classmates nodding with absolute certainty.

"Isn't that the truth?" their teacher asked sardonically as he walked over.

"Mister Aizawa!" Ochako called.

"Eraserhead," he corrected her. "We're on the job now, Uravity."

"Oh, right. Sorry sir."

"Hm." That grunt declaring the change good enough, the dour teacher returned his attention to the girl beating herself up. Then to the table at large. "The situation with work-studies right now is tense. There's pressure from both inside and outside the school that they should be suspended due to the recent turmoil. I can see and understand the argument." He raised a hand to forestall the predictably vehement denials. "However, I know," he focused on Izuku specifically, "If that happened, you'd just do something stupid if we try. I know you're emotionally invested. You always are. Telling you to stay detached won't mean a thing to you. Might as well tell the wind not to blow for all the good it'll do."

The teacher lowered himself down, bringing himself to eye level with one of his most problem students. "But I need you to keep showing good sense. If that's what really happened with that girl, you did the right thing not putting her in the crossfire in that moment. Don't let regrets cloud your judgement if you want to save her. Understand, problem child?"

"Y-Yes sir..." Her response came out as a sniffle. In that moment, Aizawa was acting more like a teacher and a mentor than he ever had.

Unfortunately his words, no matter how accurate or well-meant, were a bandage on a bullet wound.

-(-)-

"It worked as a test run," the diminutive nurse acknowledged as she hustled around her patient. Saiki sitting on the edge of a bed in the nurse's office. Letting her poke and prod at him to make sure he was in good health. "The formula works and with a proper dosage will let you truly overcome your limits for a short time. But remember!" she punctuated with a whack of her cane. "This isn't something you can abuse! It's designed to be potent enough that even your constitution won't be able to keep up with either the intended or unintended effects. You'll be supplied with a single dose, and you'll come to me for a refill. Understand?"

He nodded.

She whacked his leg with the cane again. "Understand?!"

"Yes! Yes, I understand!" he answered the old biddy. Sure the cane didn't hurt him in the slightest but it was rude! He knew what he was doing.

That first test of what Reocvery Girl called 'Adreno-Stimulant S11' but Saiki preferred to call the Mega Formula had been a success. He had been given partial doses over the past few days to test the responses of his body chemistry, but that fight against the giant villains was his first test with a full dose. And it was perfect.

It was amazing to feel just what kind of power Izuku handled every single time she pushed her quirk into dangerous territory. No wonder her body couldn't handle it. His body couldn't handle it either. That one punch, he put everything he had into it and that one punch was enough to make him feel the kind of muscular strain that he hadn't experienced in over a year. Two of those and he would've been done. It was astonishing to think about. He would have actually exhausted himself. He couldn't even remember the last time he had really done that.

And it would only make him stronger. Every experience of that power would give him even greater returns. Letting his abilities skyrocket. Maybe even reach the level of All Might. Maybe even one day reach that level without needing the Mega Formula.

... It was good to dream again.

However, while he was still riding the high of experiencing a new level of growth and strength, not everyone was as comfortable with their circumstances. Two in particular were very obviously struggling. One of them was not his problem.

The other...

Izuku was hanging on by a thread. The waiting. The knowing there was nothing they could do until they received word from their hero agencies.

It was a frustrating anticipation for Saiki. The chance to do something that mattered. Something that would have a real impact. A high-profile case. It was a shame about the little girl stuck in the middle of all of this but... Children suffered all the time. Most less than this girl, some more so. But it was so completely impersonal to him, he struggled to feel the same dire need, that same emotional investment that some of the others and especially Izuku felt. For the others, they were invested but in the sense that it was a bad thing that they wanted to stop.

For Izuku... It was so very personal. Saiki had never even seen a picture of Eri. Izuku had been right there to see what Chisaki had done to her. Had held her hand. And to Izuku's mind, every second they had to wait was a second Eri suffered for Izuku's inaction.

And he saw the moment that pressure broke her. As she began to openly cry in the cafeteria for, as far as onlookers were concerned, no reason at all.

Mina told the boys to leave her alone and gently asked her if it was that time. And... That was Saiki's cue to step in. He didn't say anything. Didn't ask permission. He marched over, grabbed the crying girl and flew out the window without another word. Took her to the top of the academic building. And as he tried to set her down, she just clung to his chest, refusing to let go.

He settled a hand on her back. "It's a lot, isn't it?" he asked softly.

Her only reply was to cry harder as he did his best to soothe her. Rubbing her back as she poured out her helplessness, anxiety, regret, guilt and despair. He didn't know how long it had been. He didn't care. His heart couldn't break for Eri Chisaki. But it could break for this girl who cared so much it crushed her.

Eventually she began to speak through shaking sobs. "She was so hurt. Covered in bandages. So scared. I wanted to help, I'm supposed to be a hero! But I couldn't do anything! And now she's stuck there with him because of me!"

"Not because of you." She wasn't listening. "Hey!" He lifted her chin to force her to look at him. "Not. Because of you. You did everything you could."

"You weren't there. You don't know that-"

"I know you." Every time. Every single time someone was in danger, Izuku Midoriya would do whatever she could, would jump headfirst into danger if she could save someone. "I know you would've run through every angle in your head for what you could do. There isn't always a way to make everything right."

"I should've tried!" she insisted. "I, I should've-!" Once again, her body was wracked with desperate, shaking sobs.

"Do you really believe that?" he asked gently. "Trying to save her then? No matter what the odds were?"

"I just want her to be safe..." The tears had finally run their course. Leaving an emotionally exhausted but cleansed hero behind.

"Then we'll save her," Saiki said finally, demanding with his eyes that she believe it. "We'll make sure nothing can get in our way."

She swallowed, nodded, and let herself settle in a hug for a moment. "Thanks, Saiki."

"Any time."

He smiled, glad he was able to help.

Then felt her lips on his.

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter voted for and seen a week early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!