Izuku's knees buckled, and he almost fell to the ground, but he kept himself on his feet. He looked around, paranoid eyes racing from point to point around them. A sneak attack had to be coming. He wouldn't just leave. It wasn't like Bakugo to give up a fight if he was losing. Not that he'd ever lost. It wasn't like Izuku knew his childhood friend turned bully anymore, either. The person he'd fought tonight had been completely different from the person he'd grown up with. The only thing that was the same was his face, and even that had been twisted by whatever sickness had taken hold of his mind. Sure, he'd known that Bakugo had been detached from reality for a while. What Izuku had seen just minutes prior was something else completely. That wasn't just the scared mind of a kid making up a comforting lie to ensure he doesn't fall apart completely. The Bakugo that Izuku had known for years wasn't insane. He'd been a liar and a bully, but he'd also been confused. Izuku figured that the belief Bakugo had held, that Izuku had intentionally caused the accident with his Quirk when they were kids, was born out of that confusion. He'd needed something he could understand to latch onto in order to cope with the incomprehensible tragedy that had occurred right in front of his eyes. Then, it had all spiralled and evolved as they'd grown older. That root cause had stayed the same, though, the need to know the unknowable, to answer a question that his mind couldn't even begin to ask: why?

That wasn't what Izuku had seen tonight, though. He'd come to accept a long time ago that Bakugo wanted him dead due to the lie he'd been telling himself for years, that Izuku was a villain and wanted nothing more than to kill indiscriminately. He thought it would be an act of good, saving people from Izuku's cursed Quirk. That had been his logical anchor throughout their entire lives, and at the beginning of their fight tonight, too. Toward the end, though, he'd started getting more desperate, more crazed, manic. He'd started to rant about how Izuku had hurt him and how he wanted revenge upon the one who'd ruined his whole life. Was that what Bakugo thought? If so, he was delusional, but that was a step further than he'd ever gone before. It had always been his messed up belief that it was karma for Izuku's own actions that Bakugo treated him the way he did. Now? He'd dropped all pretence of heroism or karmic retribution and leaped straight off the cliff into madness. Izuku thought that Bakugo might actually believe that killing Izuku and his friends would make all of his problems go away. Was he really that insane? Had he lied to himself so much that he just couldn't understand where the line was between fantasy and reality? That scared Izuku, much more so than his previous calculating lies, because if Bakugo was being driven by pure hate, spite and rage, then there was no predicting his next move. If he had no worries about how he appeared to others anymore, rejecting his former desire to be a hero, then he was more dangerous than he'd ever been.

Katsuki Bakugo was now a raging animal that had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and Izuku was the one who'd let him loose. Logically, he knew that he wasn't responsible for Bakugo's actions. He chose this. The part of him that couldn't help it still whispered in his mind, though. Had Izuku made the right choice? Had sparing Bakugo's life been … wrong? No, he couldn't let himself think that. If he let himself entertain the thought of killing Bakugo in any significant way, then Izuku doubted that he could restrain himself from doing so the next time they met. And there it was — despite the fact that it was slowly dawning on his friends that they'd won and Bakugo wasn't going to pop back out at any second, Izuku was sure that this wasn't the last they were going to see of Bakugo. He was certain that tonight had only made the fire under him burn brighter. Izuku didn't know how long it would take for Bakugo to attack them again, but he knew it was coming. He definitely didn't expect Bakugo to be along the next time either, like tonight. How he'd gotten Stain the Hero Killer on his side was beyond Izuku at the moment, but now that he knew even that horrible man wasn't enough to put them down, Bakugo wouldn't rest until he was capable of killing Izuku and his friends once and for all. That was the only certainty that Izuku was left with in the aftermath of the fight.

"You!"

All four of the students flinched as a voice echoed across the silent street. The only sounds were the crackling of small fires in craters made by Bakugo's final big attack, his Howitzer Impact. Izuku had been hearing those sounds since he was four years old. How could that move have become something so devastating? The fires wouldn't spread, since there was nothing extremely flammable around. The voice cut through that hum of noise on the edges of hearing and led Izuku's eyes — and the others', judging by their gasps and groans — to the second-storey window of what looked like an office building from the outside. Perched in the window, one foot up on the windowsill and leaning out of it to glare down at the children, was the Hero Killer. His burning red eyes froze Izuku solid even across the distance. The Hero Killer's entire body was tense, ready for anything, and Izuku had to fight the urge to tremble at the thought that he still wanted to fight. None of them could have beaten him in their exhausted states. They were done for.

"You children are strong. Powerful, but inexperienced. You and Cinder are alike. I despise Tenya's answer as to why he wishes to become a professional hero. I will be back for his blood soon enough. I suppose we will have to see what becomes of the rest of you, and what you do from here. Cinder's goal is to kill you all, so I won't be taking that from him just yet. Just know that your days are numbered. We will meet again, UA students. Make sure you're nice and strong, and have a worthy answer ready by the time we meet again. You don't want to meet your end at the point of my blade, but I will cut you down like the filth you may be if I see anything unworthy in you," the Hero Killer said.

The Hero Killer then ducked back inside the building, disappearing a second before a spike of ice rose up from Todoroki's right foot and shot through the window where Stain had been. That spike remained, as when Todoroki attempted to melt it with his left hand, he hissed in pain and let his arm hang at his side. A minute passed, and the Hero Killer didn't reappear, so Izuku and his friends assumed that he was gone, too. The four students leaned on each other as they dragged themselves toward the Normal Agency. Izuku and Todoroki propped Iida up and helped him limp through the doors that Ochako held open for them. One of the handles was still missing, as he'd used the metallic length as a weapon that Bakugo had wrecked almost immediately. They sat Iida down on one of the seats in the lobby, and took their spots beside him, with Ochako collapsing into the seat next to Izuku. The four of them sat there for some time, processing what had happened, before they realised that all of them needed medical attention.

Izuku was the least injured, so he took care of the others. Todoroki was surprisingly knowledgeable about first-aid, so he talked Izuku through the steps of cleaning everyone's wounds and wrapping them up. It was the most he'd heard Todoroki talk since that time in the hallway during the sports festival. He ended up letting Todoroki clean and wrap up the burn on his face, which resulted in his entire lower face getting covered in bandages, though he could still speak. Iida's wounds were the hardest to treat, considering that he was actively losing blood. He and Todoroki collaborated on that one, and managed to get him to a place where he didn't need to immediately go to a hospital. Todoroki treated himself by finding a tap and running water over his left arm, holding a finger on his right hand on the faucet the whole time to cool the water beyond what was natural. They dug around and found what they needed to make a functional splint and braced Ochako's hand with it, which Izuku and Todoroki both agreed was probably fractured, if not broken. By the time that everyone was more or less fine, the four students found themselves once again sitting in silence and processing the events of the night. They were beaten, they were bloody, but they would live. That was what Izuku chose to take away from it all.

Eventually, Ochako leaned into Izuku's side and laid her head on his shoulder, and he was able to distract himself from the craziness of everything that had happened by focusing on her. He thought about how Ochako had thrown herself right at a known serial killer and kicked him across the street. She'd fought tooth and nail for him. He'd seen how she'd hesitated, but had left him to deal with Bakugo by himself. Izuku had thought at the time that he might be angry at her when he had the time to think about what he was feeling, but he found himself feeling grateful instead. She had told him just how much she thought of him, how strong and capable she thought he was, that she'd allowed him to fight that battle himself instead of assuming he needed help. He was glad that extra strength had gone toward keeping Iida safe from the Hero Killer, because he had fought Bakugo to a standstill. He was strong enough. Izuku found himself smiling, not just because it melted his heart that Ochako's whole body had relaxed the second she had leaned into him. He would happily support her like that if she needed the rest. No, he couldn't help but grin so wide because he realised that he'd proven both Bakugo and himself wrong tonight. They'd spent their whole lives believing that Bakugo was the stronger of the two and Izuku would have no shot at all of beating him. That might've been true before UA, but that was not the truth any longer. Sure, Izuku hadn't been able to definitively defeat Bakugo without the accident with his leg, but Bakugo hadn't been able to put Izuku down, either. They'd been in a stalemate. What a joy it was to have such a clear indicator of just how much stronger he'd become.

The four students sat there for some time, the sounds of sirens echoing through Hosu. Eventually, just as Izuku pulled out his phone to call an ambulance for them, the front doors of the Normal Agency burst open, revealing four colourfully dressed adults that ran through into the lobby. All Might was the one that Izuku noticed first, the hint of a scowl turning into a shining grin at the sight of them. Endeavor, Thirteen and Manual came through at the same time behind All Might, and all four heroes showed various levels of relief and worry on their faces, except Endeavor of course. Izuku wouldn't have been surprised if that man would have made a different face if he'd entered the Normal Agency's lobby to find his son dead. The heroes and their interns all stood before each other, and Izuku sighed, knowing that the night had just become even longer. Explaining all of the bizarre stuff that always ended up happening to him was his least favourite part.

Things happened pretty quickly after All Might and the others found them. Ochako had gone into a kind of fugue state after the fight and had been keeping herself awake purely out of a desire to make sure that Izuku didn't start doing anything that would exacerbate his injuries. He'd played it off like he was fine, but Ochako had seen that he'd been hit square in the chest by a few of those explosions, even if his costume had reduced the damage by an incredible amount, and he had that burn on his face. The heroes took them to the nearest hospital, and after being examined and treated separately, the four of them were put in two different rooms. All Might had tried to talk him out of it, because there were hundreds, if not thousands of people who also needed medical attention just at that hospital, not to mention all the people across Hosu that needed help, but Endeavor demanded priority treatment for his son and couldn't be dissuaded. Ochako was the one that ended up in a room with Todoroki, separated from Izuku and Iida, who shared a room. The police would be there soon to ask them some questions about exactly how they'd been injured, since they'd managed to explain that their injuries weren't due to a Nomu attack before the heroes had demanded that they go to the hospital before giving their statements. Now, Ochako silently sat on her hospital bed, thinking of what to say to Todoroki, who sat in an identical silence.

"You were awesome out there," she said. "I mean, obviously — you're the strongest kid in our class, but still."

"Oh. I guess so," Todoroki said, his eyes locked on his left arm.

"How do you feel? After using your fire, I mean," Ochako asked.

Todoroki looked up at her, his sharp eyes locking onto hers. She didn't sense any irritation in his gaze, though. That's just what his face looked like.

"I don't know. I suppose I'm relieved, because I'm not sure I would have been able to hold off the Hero Killer for as long as I did without it. On the other hand, it still feels wrong to use it, like I'm betraying myself. As well, it should have been stronger. I should have been stronger," Todoroki said.

"What do you mean?" Ochako asked again. She'd noticed that Todoroki had done nothing on the scale of the flame he'd conjured during his outburst at the end of the sports festival. Was he somehow limited with his fire in a way he wasn't with his ice?

"My old man thinks it's because I haven't been using it," he said. "Quirks are like muscles, as the theory goes. The more you use them, the stronger they become. It's rare, since most people who have a Quirk tend to use it just for the sake of it, but the opposite is also true. I haven't used my fire in ten years. That half of my Quirk has atrophied."

Ochako put a lot of things together at that moment. She'd thought it was weird that Todoroki had been burned by his own Quirk, when his explanation of his family's history had emphasised that the entire reason he was born was so that his Quirk's two halves would counteract the weaknesses of the other. Todoroki had Endeavor's fire resistance and the ability to cool himself off, so burning him would be near-impossible. Was this Quirk atrophy the reason behind that? Ochako had never heard of it before, but she hadn't exactly done a lot of research into Quirk science, and it sounded plausible enough. She frowned.

"Are you going to be okay? The burns aren't bad, are they?" she asked.

"It's only a first degree burn. That's the equivalent of a bad sunburn. It'll go away quickly. How …?" Todoroki seemed to catch himself in the middle of a sentence. Hesitation flashed across his face, but it disappeared just as fast. "How is your hand?"

"It'll be fine!" Ochako said. It brought a bright smile to her face to see Todoroki asking about her wellbeing. She held up her hand, which had a real brace wrapped around it now. "The doctor said it should heal in a few days, since it was just a fracture and she used her minor healing Quirk on me. Thank you for asking!"

"Of course," Todoroki said.

After that icebreaker, Ochako felt more comfortable making small talk with Todoroki. It felt good to just release all of the tension and talk about something normal after the stressful night they'd spent fighting for their lives. A few police officers came later on in the evening and asked them about how they'd been hurt and what exactly had gone down, and Ochako and Todoroki told their sides of the story. They followed orders from Thirteen and evacuated to the Normal Agency, but when they got there, they found two of their classmates engaged in combat with Katsuki Bakugo and the Hero Killer. They'd defended their wounded classmates and they'd all driven the attackers off together. Then, they tended to their wounds before the heroes had returned for them after dealing with the monster attacks all over the city. The policemen thanked them for their bravery in keeping their friends safe, and left to talk to Izuku and Iida before heading off for the night. Soon enough, the lights were turned off in their room and Ochako let herself be carried off into a dreamless sleep.

When she woke up in the morning, Ochako found that she felt completely fine. She was a little more sluggish than she usually was in the morning, but her hand felt fine. All her little cuts and scrapes were nowhere to be seen, too. She looked over to Todoroki and found that he was also back to normal, with the cuts on his face completely healed over and none of the patchy red irritation showing on his arm. He explained that he'd been up for a little while before her and got the explanation that UA's Recovery Girl had come by in the middle of the night and healed whoever she felt could take the toll, which included the two of them. Ochako asked if he'd heard about Izuku and Iida getting healed, but he admitted that he hadn't asked about the two of them. Ochako and Todoroki were then quickly able to gather their things and leave, though, changing into clothes that were provided by the Normal Agency, who have a stock of spare clothes in case anyone comes in needing them. They went out into the hall and found Izuku and Iida in the same situation, having just left their rooms after being discharged.

"You guys are okay!" Ochako cheered, and ran up to give Izuku a crushing hug, which he returned in full force.

She felt his hands on her back and she flinched, the image of Katsuki Bakugo's destroyed leg flashing in her mind. She pulled away to see that he was still wearing the gloves from his costume, the shiny metal gauntlets. Izuku's arms dropped to his sides and he smiled in the sad sort of way he did. Ochako quickly corrected her mistake.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't see the … what do you call those? They're not gloves, because they're metal, but — whatever they are. That was stupid. I know you wouldn't do that!" Ochako said, trying her best to get it out in one try but pausing halfway through to breathe.

"It's okay. I know what you mean. I would panic, too. I have before," Izuku said with a smile, a real one this time.

"For real, though, what are they?" Ochako asked, returning the smile and shifting her gaze down to the gauntlets.

"They're technically support items, but I asked Thirteen if I could keep wearing them for as long as she's the hero in charge of me, just for comfort and safety, and she said yes," Izuku explained. She? Ochako couldn't help but grin even harder. She'd always loved Thirteen, and that just made the hero even cooler in her eyes. "It also gives me a way more durable prosthetic finger."

"Awesome! I bet they'll come in real handy!" Ochako said, smiling once she caught her own pun.

Izuku laughed at the unintentional joke, too. "They already have. They held up well against Bakugo and Stain's attacks last night."

"Indeed," Iida said, a grim look on his face.

"Hey, are you … okay?" Ochako asked Iida, looking up at him and feeling a little shorter than usual due to his height. "I'm sorry that this all happened. I should've been able to see that you weren't handling things well. I should've been a better friend to you. I'm sorry."

"Nonsense," Iida said, placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. "You are a wonderful friend, Uraraka. I admire your willingness to accept responsibility, but it is not necessary. It was I who was at fault in this. I refused to share my feelings, and I almost killed myself due to my own stubbornness and grief. I am sorry for making you fight and worry for me. You, too, Todoroki. I will try my best to not make any trouble for you all in the future."

Ochako hugged him tightly, and Iida's stiff posture probably physically could not relent for even a moment as he robotically returned the hug. She thought he probably didn't get a lot of hugs from people who weren't family, considering that he grew up rich and proper. That was a load of nonsense to Ochako.

"By the way, what did you guys say to the police?" Izuku asked. His voice had an edge to it that Ochako couldn't figure out. Why was he tense? Bakugo, probably, but there was something else, something she didn't know.

"The … truth? Why, what did you tell them?" Ochako asked.

"The truth. We haven't had a chance to talk, so you don't know the whole story, though. We should probably get out of here if we want to talk about this part, though. It gets a little bit dark," Izuku said, looking around in a casual way that was completely false given the way his hands were balled up into fists.

The four of them left the hospital. They checked out at the front desk on the bottom floor and got on a train back to Musutafu. Their hero mentors were out around Hosu at that time, since there was still cleanup from the Nomu attacks to do, so their internships had ended early and they'd been sent back home. Ochako wondered how that worked for Todoroki, since his hero mentor was also his dad, but she ignored that in favour of the story Izuku told as they sat together on the train. He told them everything, from the time he and Bakugo had fought outside his and his mother's apartment, to how Bakugo had attacked his mother in the middle of the night, and the code she'd used to warn Izuku. He explained the first half of the fight last night that Ochako and Todoroki hadn't been there for, and it all clicked. Of course that's the way it had gone. When he got to the part about Bakugo attacking his mother, Izuku got angry, and struggled to use his inside voice. Ochako held his hand through the rest of the story, keeping him steady.

"Why would he hurt your mother?" Todoroki asked, eyes wide. That part had really gotten to him, and Ochako felt bad that Iida was the only one of them that didn't know why.

"I don't know. He's completely flown off the handle. The first time I'm away from my mom for more than a day, and she's hospitalised by that crazy bastard," Izuku said, his voice breaking.

"It's not your fault. I think Bakugo is completely in control of his actions. He chose to do that, so he gets the blame," Ochako said, rage simmering within her. She hadn't gotten enough kicks in on that monster when she'd had the chance.

"I agree. You showed me last night that allowing your feelings to get in the way of logical thought is dangerous. You are not to blame for his actions, no matter how he tries to twist the narrative of your conflict," Iida said.

"Right. Thanks, guys. I don't want to be so in my head about this, but it's hard to think about anything else. I'm going to go see my mom first thing when I get back home," Izuku said with a small smile.

"Hey," Ochako said, getting the boys' attention. "I understand why you did it, but I don't like that you two kept it a secret that you were going through this stuff. I care about you guys, so I want to be there for you when you're struggling with something. Even if you don't need help, I still want the chance to offer it, because you all matter to me. No more secrets between friends, got it?"

"I'm sorry. No more secrets," Izuku said.

"I won't make you worry about me anymore," Iida said.

Ochako turned to Todoroki, who'd stayed silent. "Well?"

"Oh. I didn't think I was …" he said, pausing as he must've realised how that sounded.

"You're one of us now, Todoroki. After last night, how could we not be your friends? So no more secrets, yeah?" Ochako said with a smile.

Ochako thought that anybody else would've seen the classic passive expression on Todoroki's face at that moment, but she was able to make out the three or four different looks that flashed across his face in the span of about two seconds, from confusion, to understanding, to acceptance. Ochako didn't think she'd ever seen Todoroki smile before, other than the terrifying grin that he'd given Izuku when he'd finally used his fire during the sports festival. This was a more natural smile, and as his whole expression opened up with the smile, Ochako thought she finally saw the handsome pretty boy that Ashido and Hagakure were obsessed with instead of the sad, lonely boy in need of some love that had driven her to reach out to him. Ochako happily gave a smile in return.

"Yeah. No secrets."

The rest of the train ride was spent discussing how they thought they could learn from their fight against Bakugo and the Hero Killer the night before. Izuku easily admitted that his hand to hand combat skills and Quirk technique need a lot of work, and he should probably start carrying a weapon. Iida confessed to wanting his Recipro move to last longer. Todoroki told the boys about his atrophied fire-half, and committed to training his fire. Ochako needed to protect Izuku, her friends, and herself the next time Bakugo attacked, because he would. She mentally prepared herself to begin All Might's training from hell when school started again. It'd be worth it, but man, would it suck.

The cold, hard floorboards weren't forgiving of Katsuki's botched landing. He tumbled to the floor and began bleeding all over the brown wood. His leg was on fire and the world swirled around him even as he laid still. For a moment, Katsuki thought it was remaining dizziness from his Howitzer Impact, but after taking a second to think about it, he realised that he was probably bleeding out. He'd be dead soon. Katsuki propped himself up on his hands and looked up at the smiling face of All for One sitting on a stool at the bar before him, the scars on his mouth and eye making the expression decidedly not wholesome. All for One looked at Katsuki with an amused, almost pitying look on his face, and it drove Katsuki up the wall even though his body was getting sluggish. Was it just him or was it getting colder by the second?

"Do something, you bastard!" Katsuki yelled.

"Watch your tone, kid," Tomura said out of All for One's mouth, the demon lord's voice higher and scratchier than usual. "That sounded like an order. Nobody orders us around."

"You said you agreed that Deku has to die! I can't die before I finish him off for good!" Katsuki screamed.

"Obviously," Tomura said. His glowing red eyes, now devoid of the eerie intelligence that they held whenever All for One was in control, narrowed with the grin that blossomed on his face. "I've got a few Quirks in here that'll keep you from dying. The leg is beyond saving, though. You'll just have to live with that."

"Fine! Just do it!" Katsuki said through gritted teeth as another wave of pain surged up from his leg.

Tomura stood up and crouched down, placing his hand on the top of Katsuki's head and gripping tightly with his powerful fingers. An oozing relief trickled from the top of Katsuki's head, and everywhere it went, the pain of the battle simply went away, as if it had never happened in the first place. This painless relief found itself pooling in the stump of his leg. That relief almost had him passing out, as the adrenaline from the fight and the pain had been the two things keeping him awake and alert. Just then, a surge of energy washed over him, again from the top of his head. Katsuki was suddenly even more awake than before, all of his nerve endings buzzing with power. That power rushed through him like a wave and then collected itself in his ruined leg, and after that, nothing felt out of place at all. The pain of the battle, the little scrapes and cuts, were back, but his leg felt completely fine. Katsuki looked at it, and noted that everything below the knee was still gone, but the stump had completely healed over in just those few seconds of bliss. He wasn't going to bleed out. Katsuki was going to live.

"I think we'll let the rest heal on its own. You deserve some punishment for failing in your task, after all," Tomura said with a chuckle. "Oh, right. Do you remember what we said before you went off like a dog chasing a ball? On the phone, before you hung up on us?"

"Of course not!" Katsuki barked, crawling up onto a stool by the bar. "I had a job to do!"

"Naturally," Tomura sighed. "We said that if you proved you were strong enough, that you'd be rewarded. Now, you didn't kill Izuku Midoriya—"

"Which is the only thing that matters, so shut up already!" Katsuki said.

"Surely that's not the only thing that matters to you, Bakugo. We know you enjoy your power. You are quite proud of your Quirk, aren't you?" Tomura said.

"Obviously. It's the best Quirk there is. It's strong, it's versatile, and it looks good on camera. It's perfect for … it's perfect!" Katsuki said. He'd caught himself about to say the line he'd spat a thousand times before, that his Quirk was perfect for a hero. He'd left that behind after what he'd done and said in Hosu. "And stop calling me that! I told Deku and the same goes for you. My name's Cinder now!"

"Of course," Tomura said with a smile. "Explosion is a formidable power. It's one that could even rival a Quirk we've longed to reunite with for some time. What is the most inconvenient flaw in your power?"

"None!" Katsuki immediately spat on instinct. "Explosion is flawless!"

"We both know that's not true. If Explosion was really a flawless power, then you wouldn't have lost so decisively tonight, huh?" Tomura asked. "All Quirks have limits and flaws. Our own power could only contain a limited amount of Quirks. We destroyed that limit, though, and became us in the process. So be honest with us, kid. What gets in your way the most when you use your Quirk?"

Katsuki paused for a moment. Explosion had no flaw. Nothing got in his way. If anything, Explosion was too good. The recoil took its toll on Katsuki's arms and upper back after a while, and it was a pain to recover from. He realised with a blink that this was what Tomura was talking about. That was something that got in Katsuki's way. That was … was that a flaw? No, that was just his power being so awesome that his own human body hindered his Quirk's massive output. Katsuki scoffed and looked away from Tomura, staring at a bottle on the shelf that the misty guy would normally be tending to at this time of night.

"Recoil," Katsuki muttered, but Tomura had to have heard him fine, judging by how his face lit up.

"Ah, the thing that plagues all Emitter Quirks everywhere. Generating such powerful blasts can't be easy on your delicate body. We can destroy that flaw if you want," Tomura said.

"How in the hell would you do that? What kinda Quirk bullshit are you gonna do to me?" Katsuki said, leaning away from Tomura hesitantly. He wasn't stupid. Subjecting himself to some messed up Quirk he had no idea about was stupid.

"We can give you a Quirk. Usually, if the Quirk is especially powerful or complex, or if the recipient is particularly weak-minded, obtaining a Quirk this way will render a person brain dead if they accept even one or two powers on top of their own. You have the determination and the physical constitution to accept two or three Quirks on top of your own, judging by what we've seen of you. All it takes is a handshake," Tomura said, a little bit of All for One's lower register seeping into his voice. He put out his hand and held it there for Katsuki to take.

"What power are you gonna give me? It better gel with my fighting style and Explosion," Katsuki said as he gripped Tomura's hand tightly. "Don't give me anything useless either."

"Nonsense," Tomura said. His eyes glowed, and he grinned so wide that it seemed physically impossible. He continued to speak, and All for One's voice nearly completely drowned Tomura's out. "I have just the power for you if it is recoil that you wish to negate. We will start with one additional Quirk for you, Young Bakugo, to see if you truly are a cut above the rest. With this Quirk, you will never need to limit yourself again."

"Never, huh?" Katsuki said. He grinned as his arm buzzed with power.

"You will never need to constrain yourself again. This will give you the power to make your words into a reality, Cinder," All for One said. Red and black arcs of energy flickered down All for One's arm. Katsuki found the palm of his hand almost magnetically stuck to All for One's, and the arcs of energy pulsed up his arm.

Pain flared up and down Katsuki's whole body. He welcomed the pain. It meant he was getting stronger, strong enough to finally beat Deku and end his pathetic life. He kept grinning even though his entire body felt as though a thousand needles were being forced through every cell. It was worth it. There wasn't anything Katsuki wouldn't do to become strong enough to kill Deku. The pain kept up for about a minute, and after that, when the deal was done, Katsuki passed out. He let himself be carried off into unconsciousness, because he knew that when he woke up, he'd be stronger for it, that much closer to besting Deku. He fell to the floor with a smile on his face.