60 - ||

They breathed a collective sigh of relief. Of course, Izuku was safe and sound before them. It was All Might, after all.

"Damn, saved by the big Number 1, a Hero fanboy's dream," Setsuna thought aloud, wondering if meeting Godzillo would have the same effect on her.

"It really was! He autographed my notebook too, and I didn't even have to ask," Izuku laughed heartily, lightening the mood.

"So that accident awakened your Quirk?" Mina theorized.

"No, the timeline doesn't match," Itsuka pointed out. "'Last year' isn't 'this spring'."

"Oh, right. So what was it then?"

"Well, he didn't just stop there," Izuku said, his eyes brimming with gratitude. "He had caught the Villain, but he was so fast that I didn't get a real chance to talk to him before he started leaving, so I did something a bit stupid…" He admitted, embarrassed. "I grabbed onto his leg as he jumped."

"That's a bit much even for a fan," the lizard girl chortled.

He joined in. "That's what he said too before we landed on another building. But it was worth the fright."

"Did you need to talk to him that badly?" Ochaco asked.

"Yes," he said with absolute certainty. "I needed to ask him if I could be a Hero without a Quirk."

"Oh, so he-"

"'Not without a Quirk,' he told me," Izuku retold, his voice lowering for a moment in imitation.

The girls' eyes widened in astonishment. "No way…" "All Might said-"

"He had his reasons to." Izuku raised his hand to stop further comments. "On that rooftop I learned something I shouldn't have, something that I can't tell you about…" he sighed.

Now things made more sense. Despite his public presence, the Number 1 Hero was a secret made man. No one knew his real name, Quirk, age, or any other basic information. Anything about him was highly classified, so sharing that data was probably comparable to treason or something.

"... I now know better what he meant, and I kinda agree. Some Villains can't be stopped without a Quirk, and sometimes not even then."

"He still shouldn't have said that." Tsuyu deadpanned. "You were just a kid asking for some encouragement, ribbit, and I find it hypocritical for the one who said 'everyone can be a hero' to shut you down like that."

Izuku paused for a moment, smiling sadly.

"I… yeah, I know," he conceded. "But you've got to understand that he didn't say it in bad faith. Most people never think about it, since he's always this unshakable, shining beacon of power that no enemy could ever tear down, but All Might is just a human like you and me. He makes mistakes, and I can assure you this is one he asked forgiveness for."

The frog girl kept her gaze fixed on him for a few more seconds before relaxing. "Fine, ribbit. But I still think you could've been a Hero without a Quirk."

"There's plenty you could have done even without fighting on the front lines," Itsuka pointed out.

"Y-Yeah! You could've been a Rescue specialist!" Ochaco exclaimed, nodding fiercely.

"Or gone Underground like Mr. Aizawa," Kyoka added.

"Or focused on the investigating part of the job," Setsuna quickly carried on.

"Or whatever! Who'd stop you with that big brain of yours?" Mina questioned rhetorically.

"Almost exactly what we said," Momo agreed.

"See? We're all in agreement!" Toru piped up merrily. 

Izuku's expression had changed, as he was now trying not to let his emotion show too much through his wobbly smile. "Thank you. I wish I could've heard some of that years ago," he spoke fondly and sniffed once before scrunching his face to get back some normalcy.

Setsuna frowned, having recently acquired some understanding over Quirkless statistics thanks to a certain meddling blonde. "Nobody ever gave you any support, did they?"

"No," the boy sighed tiredly. "Being a Hero has always been my dream, but it's been labeled as a joke for years. There are no Quirkless Heroes, so it was just a fool's errand, a powerless kid saying that he'd achieve something that only a fraction of the people with actual powers could."

They wanted to growl some insults at those assholes in his past, but refrained from doing so as they boy kept talking. His hands were clenching each other tighter now.

"When All Might told me to be more realistic, adding to the pile… It felt like my last hope had been thoroughly shattered. I had nothing left, nothing to look forward to besides a life as an outcast… And the guard rail on that rooftop wouldn't have stopped me from doing something stupid."

For a moment, Kyoka couldn't hear Izuku's heartbeat, since her own had suddenly spiked. Her breath hitched in her throat and shiver ran on her back as she felt her connection with the boy deepen because of the one subject she wouldn't dare think about.

The ones that still didn't know gasped, understanding more and more why Momo and Toru had decided against sharing the teen's story.

Setsuna, Ochako, and Mina were the ones that managed to get a few trembling words out.

"Parsley…" "Izuku…" " "You- You didn't…"

"I thought about it," he admitted without meeting their gaze. "It wasn't the first time, but I had never gotten that… close. I could think about the mocking, about how I couldn't compare, about the future I'd never have… Everything seemed to be pushing me in that direction."

Even knowing that the boy was right in front of them was barely enough to keep them on the edge of their seats. Those who could grabbed the bed's sheets, while the others simply held themselves tighter. They were on the verge of jumping on the boy, to hug him or do anything they could to help and reassure him that he deserved to live, but they had to let him continue his retelling while he could speak about it.

"I thought about who would be sad if I did it… and only my mom came to mind," he revealed, glancing at the two photos where they stood happily together. "But it was enough. I couldn't do that to her."

His words were followed by a collective sigh of relief and a silent prayer to the woman they had yet to meet. Maybe she would never know about what she had meant for her son in his darkest moment, but they would.

"After I left, I ended up walking by another fight. The Sludge Villain had caught another victim."

"H-How?" Itsuka asked, only partially recovered from the emotional rollercoaster. "Didn't All Might get him?"

Izuku slumped his shoulders in shame. "It was my fault. The bottle he was in fell when I grabbed onto All Might," he explained.

Setsuna cursed, biting her thumb's nail, and nobody thought to correct her.

"It was an honest mistake…" Ochaco tried to reassure him with little success.

"Which could have led to a death, and did lead to more destruction" he replied. "No, I've got no excuses for it."

"But you were just a kid! All Might's the one who lost it," Mina pointed out.

Tsu croaked sadly. "Sharing the blame still doesn't take away the guilt, ribbit."

The judgment was harsh, but not unreasonable. Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Kan had been very clear about what was expected of them as Hero trainees, and what consequences their action could have.

Izuku sighed before moving on. "The Villain had set ablaze a few buildings with the victim's Quirk while struggling to take him over, and the Heroes on site weren't doing anything but damage control. Nobody was helping the hostage, saying that they didn't have the right Quirk to handle the situation, all while he was suffocating."

"Idiots," Toru grumbled.

"Seconded," Mina agreed with the same tone.

"Then I saw the hostage's eyes pleading for help… And my body moved before I could think."

"You rushed in for a stranger?" Kyoka asked, disbelieving her ears, making him huff.

"Not really," he said with a shake of his head. "It was Bakugo. I've known him since we were kids."

"Wait, Bakugo was the hostage?" Mina's eyes widened. They didn't know much about the shared past between the two teens, but they all knew that their relationship seemed strained at best.

Izuku nodded, but it was evident that he wasn't going to add more on that specific part of the tale.

"Those dumb Heroes must have been scared of [Explosion]," Setsuna tsked.

"What about All Might?" Itsuka asked, still shocked and incapable of holding back the questions on the Number 1, despite Izuku's request not to pry. "Where-?"

"I can't say. But I knew that I couldn't wait for him to come back. I couldn't just watch Bakugo die without doing anything"

The redhead let out a frustrated huff, but relented.

"I threw my backpack against the Villain's eyes, since they were the only thing that looked solid, and managed to make him lose his grip on Bakugo, so he got to breathe."

Despite how reckless the action sounded, they could agree that it was fundamentally selflessly heroic.

"Ah! See? A backpack was better than a Quirk!" Mina rejoiced at the empowering moment.

"It wasn't," he shook his head. "The Villain recovered quickly enough, and I hadn't managed to do anything but buy a handful of seconds. He was about to blast me with Bakugo's Quirk when All Might intervened again."

The girls felt a measure of relief wash over them, even if it was now somewhat muddled by their changed vision of the Pro.

"He won with a punch, knocking out the Villain, changing the weather, and extinguishing the fires." He closed his eyes and reminisced. "Seeing what he could do from that close was amazing."

"And that's the second time he saved you," Kyoka thought aloud. "What's the third? Please, Green, don't tell you ended up face to face with another fucking Villain."

"N-No, that was it for me until the U.S.J.," he said, placatingly raising his free hand. "After that mess was over, the Pros chewed me out for acting recklessly…"

"Morons." "Assholes."

"...and released me, so I began to walk back home."

"They didn't even check to see if you got home safely?!" Itsuka almost yelled, now even angrier at the Pro's complete lack of professionalism. "You were a minor in a Villain attack! How the hell did they get their licenses?!"

"It's safe to say that the industry, as it is now, is oversaturated," Momo sighed. "Only a few courses manage to produce Pros who are actually worthy of the title."

"We're getting off track, ribbit," Tsu noted. "What happened next?"

"Well, All Might found me again and apologized for his previous words," Izuku said with a small, grateful smile, looking towards the poster again. "He told me that my actions had inspired him, that he had seen something in me. That I too could become a Hero."

"Fuck yeah!" Mina raised her fist in the air as the group smiled happily.

"That's better, ribbit." The frog girl was relieved, as her faith in their teacher had been restored.

"And then he saved me for the third time, changing my life forever," the boy continued. "He said, 'Young Man, my Quirk is yours to inherit.'"

You could hear a pin drop as the ones that still didn't know took in the sentence, each ending with a variation of a simple, yet apt, "Wait… what?"

"I knew this was gonna be great." Toru broke out in giggles at their open mouths.

Momo raised a hand to cover her own barely-contained amusement. "We know how it sounds, but please, keep listening."

"Thank you," Izuku smiled at the ravenette's support. "Yes, it sounds absurd, but it's the truth. On that day, All Might explained the secret of his power to me: a stockpile that has been cultivated and passed on through generations of Heroes to fight against evil. My Quirk was handed down to me, like a torch passed down from one bearer to the next. My Quirk is All Might's Quirk: [One For All]. One Quirk for all people."

Among a few "No way…" and "Oh my god," Tsu ribbited, pleased, remembering what she'd said while going to the U.S.J.. "I wasn't that far off then."

"No, no you weren't," he chuckled. "All Might was the Eight holder, and I'm the Ninth."

"Seven people before All Might…" Ochaco uttered, looking towards the poster.

Tsu followed her friend's gaze and, remembering something that they'd talked about more than a month before, connected a few dots. Six men and a woman that nobody had recognized during their first inspection of Izuku's room circled All Might's image: a sickly thin man with white hair; a scarred man with a large jacket; a tall man with grey hair held in a ponytail; a man with two scar-like cracks on his face; a muscular, bald man in leather clothes; a black-haired man with narrow eyes; a smiling, beautiful woman with a beauty mark under her lips. "Old Heroes, up to the dawn of Quirks," Izuku had called them. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Ribbit, it's them, right?" she asked, pointing her finger at the colorful drawings. 

The greenette smiled and nodded. "Yeah. First to Seventh," he replied, his finger drawing a small circle to tell them the order.

"Right under our noses…" Mina commented.

"And nobody knows them?" the frog girl continued.

"There are almost no records of the first four. Sixth was an Underground Hero. Fifth and Seventh were Limelight Heroes, but they were nowhere as famous as All Might is. He's the one who's held it the longest."

Itsuka hummed along. "And then he just… chose you?"

"It wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing. He had been looking for a successor for years, and decided that I was the right choice."

"Fuck yeah, Parsley! Of course you were!" Setsuna returned to showing a wide grin. If somebody had to take that kind of Quirk, nobody would have been better suited than someone who knew what the other side of the spectrum looked like.

Kyoka, despite feeling nothing but truth from her jacks, couldn't quell her doubts. "And he simply… gave it to you?"

"The process was a bit longer than that. My body couldn't hold that much power without becoming a proper vessel. Putting the Quirk inside a scrawny kid would have been like trying to fit an airplane inside the eye of a needle. It just couldn't be done, and I would have probably exploded in the attempt," he laughed it off, even if the image itself was pretty disturbing. "So, All Might offered to train me until I could take up the mantle of his Quirk, and that's what I did. I cleaned up an entire beach—Dagoba Beach—until the day of the Entrance Exam, when he finally passed it on to me."

"Wait," Itsuka raised her hand to stop him. "That's when you got your Quirk? Because it sounds like you went in that exam without a second of training," she added, impressed by the feat, but definitely less impressed by the Hero that had let him take the trial with almost zero preparation.

"It started working a few minutes before entering the school," he admitted.

"You can't be serious," Kyoka groaned, jaw dropping with absurdity.

"So you went in virtually Quirkless," Tsu noted.

"Fucking manly," Mina grinned, channeling her inner Horn Buddy.

"Wait, you had only just gotten your Quirk, and you managed to score first place on the Exam? How?!" Setsuna questioned, astonished.

Most people required years to really understand and learn how to properly use their Quirks, and the more powerful ones required that much more work. She'd spent years taming [Lizard Tail Splitter], and even that was just a work in progress! How was he able to use that much power when he should have had the control of a toddler?! Did he possess that much talent, or was the Quirk just that easy to use?

They saw him hunch slightly as he bit the inside of his cheek and tightened his fist. Momo and Toru tensed as well, which told them that another big piece of the puzzle was about to fall in their laps.

"When the Quirk came in, it came with a number of unexpected surprises," he started, speaking slowly. "[One For All] is, at its core, a stockpile of power which increases with each generation. But it's not just this 'power' that gets stored. The essence of every user is absorbed by it, from their personality to their Quirk, and turned into a 'living,' thinking presence. If I focus, I can hear their voices in my head, and with enough practice I can use their Quirks. That's what these are," he explained while repeating the short show of the black strands and purple smoke.

"Multiple fucking Quirks…" Setsuna noted, sounding astounded.

"Just like Reiko with Emily…" Kyoka muttered, eyes wide in realization. "That's how you knew."

"In part," he admitted. "Emily was always a part of Reiko, while the vestiges came with time. Besides that, the differences are minimal."

"So you've got ghosts in your head," Mina stated, partially due to the comparison with their pale friend.

"Are they listening to everything even now, ribbit?" Tsu asked, curious.

He nodded. "Unless I ask them not to, they're always with me."

"Damn," Setsuna snickered. "Ghostie would love this."

"So they are the ones who taught you how to use… [One For All]?" Itsuka questioned.

"Yes and no. They've only given me pointers when they could, but to teach me everything without being physically present would have been too much to ask for," Izuku sighed. "No, the truth is even weirder than that."

"Figures," Kyoka groaned with a roll of her eyes.

"Among the surprises, there was one that caught me completely off-guard. So much so that it made me trip over my own feet a second later, actually."

Ochaco instinctively brought her hands together in a clap. "Oh! That's when I floated you!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," he confirmed, smiling fondly. "You saved me from falling on my face like a moron. Thank you again."

"It was nothin'," the brunette blushed and brushed off his words with a quick gesture.

"So? What was it?" Mina urged, shivering with anticipation.

She almost jumped when she felt something rest on her hand, only to understand that it was just Toru's own when her fingers curled around hers. The same thing was happening by the bed's edge, with Momo gently resting her hands on Tsu's and Kyoka's, the latter reacting just like Mina had. They didn't get to wonder why they might have done it for long, as Izuku swallowed, apparently taking a moment to calm his nerves, before meeting their eyes again.

"One of my Quirks allowed me to… see things that haven't happened yet. It made me live through the same year—this year—multiple times, on repeat, giving me decades worth of memories," he said with a somberness that didn't quite fit the truth bomb.

"What the hell?" Kyoka murmured. In her head, the threads of her theories were untangling one by one, but this was admittedly well over what she had envisioned.

"You saw the future?" Mina, mouth agape, couldn't help but interject.

"Not 'the' future," Izuku shook his head. "The Quirk filled my head with memories of possible futures, thousands of fragmented moments of the year I had yet to live, accompanied by a tsunami of sensations and emotions like I had never experienced before."

Setsuna questioningly raised an eyebrow. "Why 'memories'? Why not 'visions,' or 'predictions'?" She didn't know much about the subject but—going by her vast knowledge of sci-fi movies and the like—the term didn't quite fit.

Izuku let out a dry chuckle. "Because I feel like it fits better. I didn't just see those things, I experienced them. I felt everything as if I was the one who had lived it, because I did. Every second of grinding training and the fatigue that had me crawling to get up again. Every sound, be it cry or laugh, friendly chat or heated discussion, heavenly-gentle or eardrum-shattering. Every hit that caused excruciating pain and every touch, high-five, punch, or…" He paused for a moment, quickly shaking his head as if to dispel a thought rooted too deeply. "Everything was something I would or could feel in a possible future, and I did feel those things. Not on my skin, in a sense, but they were really vivid in here," he said, tapping his head with his index finger. "And since they're practically branded here now, they're memories."

"Fuck," the lizard girl finally let out.

"Yeah." He turned slightly, moving his eyes from Setsuna to Itsuka, taking advantage of their stunned silence. "That's also how I learned how to use [One For All]. Or most of it, at least. Not only did I see how to use it correctly, but I could also feel exactly what it felt like to use it and what my body had to do in order to achieve it without repercussions."

"Convenient…" the redhead managed to get out.

He chuckled and nodded. "It was. Though I still managed to exaggerate and break an arm and a leg against the Zero Pointer."

"Sorry… and thank you," Ochaco muttered meekly.

"Don't be. It was worth it," he replied, meeting the girl's smiling eyes with a light one of his own.

"Um, sorry to be 'that one,'" Mina said, awkwardly raising a hand, "but I don't have Kyoka's cool thing, and…"

"He's not lying," the punkette interrupted her with a snort.

"No, I get it. It's unbelievable. It's fine to ask for proof," Izuku replied with a shrug. "I know things that I shouldn't yet, or that I couldn't know if people hadn't told me themselves."

"He's proved as much to us," Momo nodded with a glance towards Toru. "I had never told Izuku my favorite brand of tea, nor where I keep my, um, romance novels, but he knew both off the top of his head. He also knew something about my Quirk that I didn't, and which would have been nearly impossible to learn of without my aid."

Mina didn't quite miss the sly blush on the ravenette's cheeks as she said the last part, but she opted to ask about that later. "Mm, got it." She turned towards her best friend. "What about you? It's not just that eye-following thing, is it?"

Toru let out a short hum as she crossed her legs. "He's the only one who's ever been able to follow my eyes, ever, and I don't think he'd be able to do that without a lot of practice, but no. He also knew what they looked like by day two…"

"Can you see her?" Mina asked the boy, receiving an "I can't," a confirmation from Kyoka, a few giggles from the rest.

"... And he's shown me what I look like," Toru completed.

"What? How?" Setsuna inquired.

"A drawing," he explained, raising his hand to point at a thick pile of papers. "I'll-"

"Don't!" The invisible girl interjected. "It'll ruin the surprise!"

"Meanie," Mina pouted. "Fine, keep your secrets."

Kyoka wondered if she had accidentally ended up looking at Toru's face without realizing it the previous night, but it seemed that she would only know in time.

"I'll trust you, but I expect you to dish out some secrets even I don't know of later, 'mkay?"

That managed to make him chuckle. "Thanks, Mina. Maybe just the ones about you."

"Oh, fine with me," she replied with a smirk.

"I've got another question," Itsuka spoke. "Since you have so many memories… How does your age work?"

"I honestly don't know how old I can be considered to be anymore," the boy responded with a sigh. "While my body is the same as ever, I have years' worth of fragmented memories in my head. If age is the amount of time a person has lived, then I'm much older than I appear on the outside."

"Are you though?" Setsuna interjected, raising her eyebrow doubtfully. "I mean, sure, you've got more memories than normal, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're older. Mr. Ectoplasm can experience multiple bodies and sets of memories at once, but he's still… around forty or something. Shishida didn't register half the stuff he did while in [Beast] mode before, but it's not like he's ten because of it."

"Setsuna does raise a good point." Momo cleared her throat to catch their attention. "While your argument may hold some truth to it, Izuku, I believe your worries to be partially misguided. Since you've been living the same year, you haven't experienced any growth beyond… sixteen years old, correct?" He nodded. "Then I believe that your current self is at most at that age. Human aging comes with hormonal changes that affect our brains and life experience, both of which you wouldn't have been subject to because of the limited time window you've found yourself in. It may be fun to discuss the philosophical aspect of the matter but, for all intents and purposes, you are still around sixteen."

"'Fun,'" she says," Mina snickered. "I barely understood any of that, but I don't think it's gotta be that complicated. You said you were fifteen when Kyoka asked, didn't you?"

"He did, and it seemed like the truth," the punkette nodded, "but it wasn't me who asked." She turned her eyes to the heiress. "You expected it would come up?"

"He had already touched the point last time, so I expected it would come up again," Momo replied with a slight mix of embarrassment and pride. "I just jumped at the occasion to have some proof."

"Eheh, smart," Toru giggled.

"See? Deep down, you know it," Mina nodded with satisfaction, as if she had just solved a great problem. "Sure, you must be so damn tired from this, but that doesn't make you old! I feel tired as hell every other day, but I'm the picture of youth!"

"Bags under your eyes notwithstanding," Kyoka rolled her eyes.

"Hey!" Mina pouted.

"I see your point… but it's hard to convince myself," Izuku sighed.

"I'm sure it is," Momo added, equally unsatisfied at how her idea had missed the mark.

Tsu caught their attention next, her deadpan gaze locking on the boy's. "You said that you saw events too, ribbit. What about the U.S.J.? Did you see that too?"

It was a good question, one they practically already had an answer for, given what Kyoka had gathered and told them.

"I did," Izuku admitted with a slow nod.

"Then why didn't you try to stop it?" she asked, holding herself tightly not to shiver.

The boy looked positively guilty at those words. Tsuyu didn't want to put him on the spot, but she had to know. She could still see that pale hand in her nightmares. Sometimes the digits approached slowly, torturing her with the knowledge that she would never be able to move away. In other horrible, horrible visions there were no Eraser Head or Izuku to save her. In both cases she would wake up with her heart beating out of her chest, but still be paralyzed with fear until sleep would take her again.

Despite the contrition on his face, he didn't avert his gaze. "I saw a lot of futures. In most of them, we survived the U.S.J. with no casualties on either side."

Itsuka's eyes widened in worry. "'Most'?"

He gave a weak nod. "Sometimes things turned out worse," he uttered. None of them needed to be told the specifics to understand how the fight might have ended. "Sometimes they turned better, for a time. With more teachers present, they'd buy more time for All Might, and the Villains would all be captured… But then others would seek revenge, and many more people would end up caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of civilians that had nothing to do with it, if not thousands."

Ochaco covered her mouth in horror. "W-Why?"

"Some Villains make no qualms about killing innocents to achieve what they want," Momo spoke up. "History is sadly full of tyrants and madmen that demonstrated their power with shows of horrifying brutality."

"But why split us into a few groups? Shouldn't we have all fought together?" Mina questioned, remembering the detail.

"Right. You pushed us back and out of the way, but others still ended up warped away," Kyoka noted.

"I did what I knew would keep you safe. As much as you could be, at least," the boy confessed. "If I told you to gather all in one spot, Kurogiri would have still gotten some of us and brought you god knows where. Imagine what would have happened if someone had gotten stranded by themselves, if Ida and Toru hadn't stayed by the door, unable to get us help, or if a good swimmer like Tsu hadn't been in the Flood Zone."

Those thoughts painted a grim reality, and certainly one of the worst ones the boy had seen. Maybe a few of them could have held off a couple of Villains, but fighting a dozen or more while in an unknown and dangerous environment was beyond most students. Starting in worse conditions they might not have made it to the end, or the teachers wouldn't have heard their cry for help, or… 

"Nobody would have gotten out of the water." Tsu's face was as still as a stone mask. Momo, who could feel all the rigidity under her palm, gently brushed the other's hand with her palm in an attempt to comfort her.

Izuku closed his eyes and shook his head—making Kyoka's breath catch in her throat at the unfiltered truth—before lowering his head. "You were the only one who could do it, but I made the choice for you and put you in danger. I'm- I'm sorry."

"It's… fine, ribbit." Tsuyu whimpered under Toru's caresses, which soon turned into a full hug. After a few moments, she raised a hand to catch a few stray tears. "It was really scary. I thought we wouldn't make it… But we did, and I'm- I'm not the one who ended up in the infirmary for helping, ribbit."

"I just did what I could," he responded shakily.

Both greenettes were doing their best to smile through the emotions, resulting in wobbly, if grateful, expressions. Mina joined Momo in comforting the frog girl while the heiress offered a handkerchief to Izuku, who took it with a thankful expression.

"Maybe we should talk about why you feel like you shouldn't take us up on our offer," the ravenette proposed, focused on bringing the conversation on the right track again.

Izuku sighed before nodding. "Yeah. Let's get to the… sore subject."

"Might be for the best." Itsuka—not at all immune to Tsu's emotion-filled words—rubbed her eyes before nodding a few times. "You've told us so many incredible things, but I still have to hear you say what the problem is."

"There are a few."

Hearing that he had multiple reasons to refuse was a bit of a blow, but they trusted their friends' judgment. If Momo and Toru thought that they could help, they would.

"If you want to consider them problems," the invisible girl pointed out. "Like, being All Might's successor is just as much a pro as it is a con."

"Well, yeah, I guess that's a lot to have on your shoulders, big shoes to fill and all…" Mina thought aloud before looking at the good side. "But you've got his Quirk! And you're, like, even smarter than he is! Nothing's gonna stop you!"

"It's not just that," Izuki sighed. "Yes, I couldn't have wished for a better Quirk, and yes, I'm good at using it, but I'm nowhere near what All Might can do yet. I've done more than scratching the surface, but I haven't even reached one third of what I could do."

"Damn. So broken," Setsuna clicked her tongue.

"But do you need to?" Ochaco asked. "We're students! You still have years to learn! If you're already that far along you will know it like the palm of your hand by next year!"

Her supporting smile was a glaring "I believe in you!", but the one he answered with was sadder, tired, barely there.

"But what if I can't wait that long?" he asked in return. "What if something comes earlier than that?"

"Will it?" Itsuka questioned, frowning in worry.

Izuku nodded. "It will be a difficult year, in a lot of ways. The worst since All Might's rise to the top."

Their concerns only grew, especially when seeing Kyoka's face pale further at the truth.

"Wait, there's one thing I don't get," Mina interjected. "It's not like All Might stopped working all of a sudden! You've got his Quirk, but he's still up and about! Why can't he save the day like…" Her eyes widened at the realization. "No…"

Tsu hunched closer. "Ribbit. Something is going to happen to him, isn't it?" 

Izuku bit the inside of his cheek. "He doesn't have the full Quirk anymore. He's working with the remaining embers of what he's carried for years. We don't know how long he's going to be able to continue, but he might retire soon. We think that he might have a few months left."

The news hit them like a cold shower. 

"All Might's… retiring?" Ochaco muttered, the question left hanging in the air.

The Hero who had been the Number 1 for over three decades, the backbone of the nation, would be retiring before they could even finish their first year in high school. Hoping that things would stay the same after that would be an exercise in futility. How would that change their world? Who would take his place, and would they fill the void? 

Izuku nodded gravely. "It was always going to happen sooner or later. Most Heroes retire between their forties and fifties. His age isn't common knowledge, but just by going on the years All Might's worked in the industry we can measure that he's well over that," he revealed.

"He's gone Plus Ultra even before some of our parents were born," Toru thought aloud. "He deserves some rest."

Setsuna swallowed before voicing an intrusive thought that would make her blood freeze. "He- He's not gonna die, is he?"

"No." The boy's hands contracted slightly with his instant reply. "He won't."

It was hard to say if his words were meant to convince them to abandon that line of questioning or to refocus him on his goal. It felt like there was an unsaid "I won't let him" that should have concluded his claim, but nobody dared to continue that line of questioning.

"So All Might is going to lose his power, ribbit, while yours is constantly growing," Tsuyu started, looking pensive. "And, since it only grows between one wielder and the next…"

"He's going to be even stronger than All Might," Momo completed the thought, having previously reached the same conclusion.

He nodded, having them gasp and huff at the sheer potential still hidden inside him.

Setsuna grunted. "Alright, Parsley. You've got a lot on your shoulders and a shitton of work to do."

"But it's not just being All Might's successor, right?" Ochaco asked. "You said it yourself. You don't want to just be another All Might. You want to be better."

"So it's gotta be something about that wacky precognition Quirk of yours," Setsuna agreed.

"It ties into it…" Toru confirmed in Izuku's stead.

"Have you seen something in those futures that's holding you back?" Tsuyu questioned.

The teen let out a defeated breath. "Some things , but it's not just the future. It's what's already happened."

Izuku moved around his seat, seemingly finding every position uncomfortable, before giving up. He settled for keeping himself seated with only his ankles crossed and his gaze pointing slightly downward.

"Being All Might's successor means that I have a target on my back. Of course, most people won't ever know about my Quirk and I'm strong enough to deal with most Villains, but that doesn't mean that I'm safe. On the contrary," he sighed. He moved slightly back to get upright again, but moved his eyes on his drawings. "Long ago, during the dawn of Quirks, there were two brothers…"

Izuku started to tell them a story of a man wearing a crown of blood, and another with baggy clothes fit for a shut-in. It was a tale of possessiveness and malice disguised as love, of a man driven by his desire to have everything and of his brother that only longed for peace. The older fancied himself a king, a demon lord. Using his power he gathered followers and rose to prominence during the era of struggles. The younger, Yoichi, was a frail boy, unable to fend for himself. He was nothing but the first piece of the older's collection, and the collector had no intention of losing one of his toys.

"So the older man forced a power onto his sibling to keep him healthy-"

"Wait," Itsuka interrupted. "He 'forced' a Quirk on him?"

"I mean, [One For All] can be given, right? Maybe you don't have to accept it for the process to work," Setsuna pointed out.

"Yes, it can be given, but we aren't talking about [One For All] in this case," he explained, pointedly avoiding part of the query. "The Quirk didn't exist yet back then."

"So that was the older's Quirk?" Mina asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. The ability to take Quirks from others and to use them or give them away however he pleases."

- That's impossible… - was the thought that echoed in their minds, but was it really after everything they had already heard? They knew somebody who could copy Quirks and somebody who could erase them, so why couldn't things go a step further?

But the idea of a Quirk being taken away was something so extreme… It was like losing a limb, or an entire sense. They would still be alive, but missing something that some of them had been literally born with… They had no way of knowing how one would be affected by such a loss.

"That's… terrifying," Ochaco let out.

"How come no one's ever heard of him?" Kyoka questioned.

"Most history books about the dawn of Quirks are painfully lacking in detail," Momo interjected. "It would have been easy enough to disappear back then, especially for those in the criminal underworld."

"And some do know of him, if only in the right underground and by word of mouth. He's known as a Boogeyman, or by the moniker he's chosen: All For One. All Quirks For One person."

"The opposite of [One For All], ribbit."

"He came first, but he's also the one who created the other, by accident," Izuku went back to explaining. "When he gave a stockpile Quirk to Yoichi he was unaware of the one that he already possessed, because its only function was to pass itself to other people. It would have been useless by itself, but the two mixed and turned into [One For All]. When Yoichi attempted to escape he lost his life, but the Quirk moved onto its next wielder." 

Their eyes moved to the drawings as Izuku briefly resumed the narration. The oldest had recognized the loss, and started hunting for the abnormality born of his hubris. The Villain didn't age, probably thanks to another stolen power, and he had never stopped, killing wielders one after the other. The Quirk had moved from the scarred Second all the way to the Eight, All Might, the one who had finally been able to face the monster six years prior.

"All Might defeated All For One, but the Villain somehow survived the encounter," he said. The idea that the Number 1 Hero could kill somebody was hard to swallow, but common sense and morals were hard to apply in this situation. "He still bears the aftereffects of the fight, but that hasn't stopped him from plotting. The League of Villains was founded by him with the precise objective of testing the waters for a comeback."

Tsu ribbited uncomfortably, shaking at the memory of the black thing that had almost shattered their teacher's head. "If that's his doing… Is he the one making the Nomu?"

The boy grunted in confirmation and spoke with an undisguised hint of disgust. "He's not working alone, but yes. They're bodies stuffed with several Quirks, taken from the streets or kidnapped for the powers. The one in the U.S.J. had at least four."

"F-Four?" Ochaco stammered.

" Only four," Momo pointed out with a slight tremble in her voice. "Imagine what he can do with what he has at his disposal, the Quirks gathered in decades of villainy."

"That thing that could wrestle with All Might…" Kyoka shook, making Setsuna curse at the image.

"Honestly, I can't find a good comparison. I don't think anything could even come close to being that scary," Toru confessed. 

Itsuka, looking deep in thought, met the boy's eyes to ask a question. "So now All Might knows that he's still out there, but he hasn't been caught yet?"

"He hasn't made mistakes," Izuku responded with evident frustration. "The loss must have made him more cautious, more cunning, and he's still the most dangerous Villain in the world. He has decades of experience, access to who knows how many resources, too many Quirks to count, and enough power to level cities. He's slippery, a cockroach that would do anything to ensure his own survival. Even with everything I know from my Quirk I still wouldn't be able to have him surrounded and caught, and I've tried. He has to be the one to come forward, thinking that he's going to win. Only then can he be defeated."

A moment of quiet elapsed as they tried to picture somebody other than All Might that could reach such levels of destruction. What the Number 1 could do was common knowledge, but he wouldn't do anything that could cause problems. A Villain with that same degree of power and no qualms could easily bring forth events of cataclysmic proportions.

Setsuna—who looked increasingly unable to keep staying seated—hummed pensively. "So… If you know that he can be defeated this way… Have you—or 'future you'—ever done it, or seen it or something? Can it be done?"

"I have. He's been defeated and caught many times."

"Then why is it weighing on you so much?" she asked, trying to find the crux of the reason why he was so keen on rejecting their offer. "I get it, he's the worst thing that ever walked the Earth, but you know you can beat him, that you will beat him. So, what's the problem?" 

"All Might and I can face him. Nobody else can and hope to get out unscathed," he said, tone grave.

"Nobody?" Itsuka frowned, more fearful than skeptical.

"Endeavor and Hawks fighting together may last about thirty minutes. Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Mirko, and Crust, as a team, even less. It's crazy to even try, a suicide mission."

"But if All Might won't last more than a few months… it all falls back on you?" Ochaco asked as the realization hit her.

"I'm the only one who can do it," he confirmed. "I want everybody to live happily, so I can't let him bring the world into another age of fear and anarchy. I have to try harder than anyone else because everything depends on it, and I know how badly things could turn out if I fail. Normal Plus Ultra wouldn't cut it."

"So is that one of the problems? You think that we can't keep up?" Itsuka inquired.

"It's not that you can't…" The boy struggled with his words for a moment. "... It's that before him it still wouldn't matter. All he needs is a touch—" He made a swift gesture by twisting his wrist and closing his fingers. "—and you're done. No Quirk, no power, and can be used against- against us."

The redhead let out a defeated huff, scrunching her face and crossing her arms. She knew that she wouldn't find a way to overcome the limitations of her melee style just by thinking about it for a few seconds, but the idea of being completely useless in a fight was so, so frustrating to her. She had never been useless in a fight, and she sure wasn't about to throw in the towel before even trying.

Putting aside those thoughts, she questioned the boy, who was just as focused on hand-to-hand combat as she was. "And you wouldn't?"

"[One For All] can't be stolen. It's the only one he can't get his hands on, and one of the reasons why he wants it so much," he explained before apologetically scratching the back of his head. "You are strong, I know you are. But when it comes down to it… nobody is enough."

He didn't give the impression of wanting to be hurtful, but his words were harsh nonetheless.

Tsuyu let out a pensive hum. "Ribbit. So when you go after this Villain… do you want to do it by yourself?"

Izuku paused for a moment before lightly shaking his head. "I can't take care of everything by myself, but this is something I will do on my own, yes."

"Just like how you did with Stain, ribbit?"

The question raised a few eyebrows as the girls remembered the points Kyoka had made during her exposition.

"What Kyoka told us had me thinking, ribbit. It doesn't make sense that you would end up in Hosu without reason, so I imagine you knew something nobody else did. You went at him alone, didn't you? Everybody is focused on his fight with All Might, but you had already fought him before that, ribbit."

The boy let out a breath at the girl's perceptiveness and nodded. "Ida was supposed to find him, looking to avenge his… father," he revealed, much to their shock. "Stain could have killed him and Native, so I had to get there first. I asked Gran Torino to go to Hosu on patrol so that I could get to him first."

"You went after the Hero Killer…" Ochaco whispered, mouth agape.

"You… You did it to yourself… You put yourself in danger…" Kyoka groaned, as getting the boy's answers was getting to be way more emotionally taxing than following him had been. "I thought that you were fucking unlucky, Green.. But you were exactly where you wanted to be…"

"I… I knew I could take him," he excused himself. "It was still a bit risky, I know, but anything else would have raised questions… while Stain would have fought back and surely hurt somebody else badly before All Might could get there."

"But you still could have gotten hurt!" she hissed, aghast at how little he seemed to care about his own self preservation.

"Well, I had-" he tried to get in before getting cut off.

"And you did! You got caught by a Nomu!"

"That was necessary to have Stain fight All Might…"

"And you risked ending up in the League's hands for that?!" The thought that he was putting himself in danger over and over again was appalling, but more so when connected to the dark thoughts the two of them shared. "You-"

She was about to add that having a dozen Heroes as backup—you know, the ones who are actually supposed to be fighting Villains because they are not highschoolers?—would have been a lot smarter when the teen answered.

"It was either me or somebody else. I don't regret it." He kept his gaze up, unyielding, as he talked.

Kyoka's jacks told her that it was all true. He would have gladly given himself up for anybody else. She realized that the notion had struck a chord inside her when she felt her voice rising.

"You damn- You knew you were the League's target! You knew you would get in trouble, and you still decided to make statement after statement at the Sports Festival! You've been on screen longer than anybody else, and your face was on every damn paper beside All Might's! Then it happened again after Hosu, after you went looking for trouble!"

She had left her spot, rising to her feet and looking at the guilty expression of the boy from above. He looked deeply rattled by her words, but it only urged her to make him understand just how stupid he had been.

"You could have stayed hidden, kept those multiple Quirks of yours under wraps, but you didn't! You've got a century-old Super Villain after your Quirk, and it's like you told him to come gunning for your head! And he could have gotten you just like that in Hosu! Are you trying to get yourself killed?! Do you think that getting offed as a Hero would be better than doing it after a twenty story fall?! News flash! It's not! You'd still be gone, and we'd still fucking miss you, you fucking idiot!"

Her breath rasped on her throat ever so slightly thanks to years of vocal training, but still enough to tell her how much she had yelled. The others were looking at her with open mouths and worried eyes at her second meltdown of the day, but she wasn't finished.

Kyoka stomped forward, almost getting in his appalled face. Izuku closed his eyes as she returned to shouting. "Why the hell would you put yourself in danger like that on purpose?! Why is it okay for you to get hurt instead of others?! Why won't you ask for help?!"

It was the drop that made the vase overflow.

"Because I can't keep seeing you die Kyoka!"

Past

He heard the directions coming from his headset, but he wouldn't have needed them. He knew where the fight had taken place.

"I never thought that somebody would be able to break through Gigantomachia's protections."

[Float] and [Fa Jin] allowed him to break the sound barrier, letting him find the crater first. The giant Villain and dozens of bodies strewn among the battlefield were a good enough marker.

"A hit from [One For All] would have been one thing, but melting them? I must confess, that girl's Quirk was extraordinary."

He changed directions, dropping down into the darkness of the hole in its center. No speck of light made its way to the deep.

"I must compliment you on your choice of companionship, Midoriya Izuku."

He turned off his comms, opting to ignore the worried shouts coming from the other side, the requests to wait for help.

"She had quite the venomous tongue on her too. I haven't been this entertained by a Hero's comebacks in years."

Green lightning barely lit his way through the black, while an infrared visor let the boy notice the faintly warm liquid he was approaching.

"It's a pity that her resilience was partially due to a genetic mutation. I won't be able to use it properly until I get something to balance out this rascal."

He covered himself with several layers of [Blackwhip] before hitting the acid's surface, immediately feeling the compound's effort to dissolve kick in.

"I found out the hard way too, you see. My arm still itches from that nasty burn she left me."

Swimming through the viscous liquid was hard enough to almost warrant the full potency of his Quirks.

"Now, will you ever make it to that hole in time? Tick tock, Midoriya Izuku."

Then he found her, a mote of yellow among an ocean of bluish, cold colors. He held Mina in his arms before starting to ascend again, careful to cover her too. His gear was fizzing when he reached the surface again, and all he could do was tear it away before approaching her.

She looked like a faded memory of herself.

Mina's skin and hair had lost their signature rosy pink, and her eyes had lost her nightly black. She was now completely white, as if the color had been drained away. Her horns were longer, but thinned to the point of almost breaking. She wasn't breathing.

He covered her however he could and crumpled by her side.

The monster towered over him, but Izuku wasn't scared because of its power. A calculating fury filled his brain, doing its best to supplant the terror of the scene before him.

"Let her go. Now." His voice had a commanding edge to it, something dangerous with subtle tones of divine retribution.

All For One—younger now, back to his prime—didn't look perturbed in the least as he let out a sigh. "Quite the disappointing conversation starter, Midoriya. Has All Might not taught you manners? Or that you shouldn't anger a criminal who's holding all the cards?" A smirk of superiority grew on his face, fault as his taste in quips. "Can't you see that I'm holding your queen?"

His fingers squeezed around Toru's throat, making her emit a strangled sound of pain.

"Stop!"

"You don't give orders around here, brat. You never have," All For One spat. "Now, I'll have you return my brother's Quirk to me. Cooperate, and I may even let you both live."

A lie if he ever heard one, but Izuku had no time to think about something he couldn't even attempt. He had to find another way-

"I won't wait for long." The monster stated, tightening his hold again.

Toru became visible, gasping for precious oxygen. Her struggle was doing nothing to loosen the deadly hold. Izuku met her eyes, seemingly pleading for an instant before she noticed something behind him.

The monster had run out of patience. "You have five-"

The countdown wouldn't ever start, as Toru had somehow taken advantage of a stray ray of light to bore a small hole in All For One's chest.

The greenette saw the instant explosion of rage in the younger, disinhibited version of the Villain, and shot forward like a bullet. But, even as Izuku's fist connected with the monster's face and [Blackwhip] severed his gigantic hand from the rest of his body, he wasn't fast enough to prevent that one snap from occurring.

Toru fell like a puppet with its strings cut. As he held her in his arms, Izuku could feel her heartbeat slowing. Even as her mouth wobbled, he could hear that she wasn't breathing.

A snapped neck wasn't a death nearly as instantaneous and painless as many believed. Toru was still there, but she would slowly wither out if he didn't act quickly.

Maybe he could have brought her to safety, had he not been in the worst place in the world at the worst possible time.

"An invisibility Quirk without an on-off switch? What a load of garbage," All For One complained with a grunt. "I'll take care of this nuisance later. Now, Midoriya, I'll make sure they won't ever be able to find your bodies."

"You're going to have to try harder than that, boy," the monster spat.

- Fuck! Why is he still moving?! - Izuku mentally cursed as his attacks seemed to barely have any effect on Shigaraki's body. The regenerative properties imbued in it by the Doctor should have been barely able to hold up against his basic 100% smashes from back when he could only use 30% of [One For All], so how was it leisurely cashing his punches now, when they were so much stronger?

He grit his teeth and decided to take a page from Mirko's book. He wouldn't win without playing dirty.

Shigaraki-All For One stabilized himself mid-flight to strike, but Izuku was already on his tail again. Evading the jagged black spiked with pulsating red veins, the boy gathered [Blackwhip] over his leg and struck with the precision of a guillotine and the speed of a falling meteor. 

"Black Luna Fall!"

The man's torso and arms were cleaved in two before being kicked all the way to the ground, raising a cloud of earthy smoke.

Despite the hit that would have probably ended any Hero in the Top Ten, Izuku could still feel [Danger Sense] screaming. The stabbing sensation was the only thing that allowed him to avoid the three attacks coming from different directions. His eyes widened as he took notice of the flying limbs behind him before they started to fall, finally dead.

Shigaraki-All For One was already back up, slowly ascending towards him as his limbs and lower torso regenerated. "A lovely Quirk with a terrible, terrible character. I'll have to teach it how to obey. I'm surprised your girlfriend could handle living with something this vicious."

Izuku felt the world stop. Something shattered inside him.

Again. He'd failed again.

"Why are you so surprised, Midoriya? You thought that you could hide her from me?" the monster laughed. "You see, I didn't even have to lift a finger after taking it. I guess I should have thought about it, with her being already in pieces. I had to be quick too, with you being this close, so it suited me just fine. Really, shame on you for keeping her within [Warping] distance," he mocked, shaking his head with pleasure. "But it was such a pity too, since I'm sure that it would have been amusing to see her try to protect that kid of yours. Eri, is it? Such a cute little thing, you wouldn't think she could emit such outrageous screa-"

[Gearshift] and [Fa Jin], channeled by Izuku's fist, tore the head off the man. The monster might have gained the power of a thousand lives, but he hadn't improved his reaction time in the least.

Izuku would make each one of the monster's deaths painful, a million times more painful than what Setsuna must have endured because of him.

The teachers had moved his classmates out of the hospital room, suggesting they go elsewhere, not to hear what the doctor had to say. The girls weeped in their sorrow, Momo being seemingly inconsolable and the loudest of them, despite her manners. The boys weren't as vocal, but they were equally distraught.

"You don't have to listen-"

Izuku cut off Recovery Girl with a shake of his head. He had asked for it, and he couldn't back down now. "No. I need to- I need to know."

Knowledge was power. It meant strategy, a chance to avoid the same course of actions and defy fate.

But it also meant an unspeakable amount of pain.

Izuku noticed Nezu nod and the old woman sigh, accepting his choice. The physician by the bed's side then started reading off their just-received medical records.

"In regards to external damage, Miss Jiro's body shows signs of nine cuts, seventeen instances of bruises, and a perforation to her left thigh that also nicked the femur."

Izuku's fists tightened to the point of hurting, his jaw clenching just as hard.

"Internal damage was far more severe," the medic sadly continued. "Both eardrums were raptured, and several air embolisms in her lungs caused them to burst. We also found that almost every organ had some kind of failure, most likely due to the complete loss of oxygenation. In our opinion—" He pointed at the two specialists beside him. "—Miss Jiro has been subjected to the effects of a sound above 240 decibels. A sonic grenade or an acoustic cannon above legal limitations."

- Or [Earphone Jack]. -

"What about the other request we made?" Nezu asked, his voice grave, if still calm.

The doctor cleared his throat before looking through another page. "As expected, Miss Jiro's Quirk factor has been removed from her body. There are traces of the passive mutations in her blood, but nothing more. The disappearance of the plug-like earphone jacks that hung from her earlobes should be a direct result of that."

He knew that. They had figured out how [All For One] worked years before his time.

Kyoka's Quirk didn't fully protect her from potent sounds, but it did shield her from some measure of damage. But its power had been used against its own defenseless wielder.

Izuku had begun drawing blood from his palms. He had gained nothing but the remainder that All For One loved nothing more than taking what he loved and use it to torture him.

Time and time again, he couldn't save them. Not from the monster, nor from himself.

Present

Kyoka reeled back, shocked by the sudden outburst just as much as the others. She felt a shiver run down her back as she got out two tentative words.

"I… die?"

Izuku swallowed, his response being limited to shutting his eyes and clenching his jaw and fists. The boy couldn't keep his face up as his breath grew shakier, and he was visibly struggling to keep his wobbly expression from breaking down. She wasn't faring much better, feeling her skin turn to stone as the feeling that she'd only messed up more grew inside her.

- Fucking great, you moron, you made him cry, - she thought, feeling that this time she didn't have quite enough strength to stop herself from ugly crying.

Her first sniff hadn't yet hit when Momo began to bring her close, cradling the punkette's head above her chest. Kyoka's arms hung tiredly by her sides as a few stray tears started to wet her friend's blouse.

"You are right, Kyoka. Izuku did go looking for trouble, and I don't wish to imagine a situation where something happened to him," Momo said as she held her gently. "I believe that I can speak for everyone here when I say that he holds a special place in our hearts and that we hold one in his."

The musician didn't see the others nodding along, but she heard their approving hums.

Momo turned to face Izuku, who had responded with a murmured but unmistakable "You do."

"But Izuku has also experienced a number of events that few people our age have to face," Momo continued, smiling despite the heaviness of the topic. "So let's calm down and get to the bottom of this together."

To Momo's great relief, her friend nodded, letting herself be slowly led towards the bed. The girls on the covers and Setsuna huddled closer to make space and to comfort her as they could, while—after a gentle gesture in suggestion from the ravenette—Ochako, Itsuka, and Toru moved next to Izuku. Their desire for an answer slid in second place for a moment as the two slowly regained their bearings, but it could only be contained for so long. Nobody wanted to be the first to ask, but Mina forced herself to bite the bullet.

"So, um," the pinkette spoke, anxiously biting the inside of her cheek, "does she- do we-"

"Do I die?" Kyoka cut in through a strong sniff.

"It's… It's happened before." Izuku still couldn't meet her eyes. "B-But only a few times," he added after a moment's pause.

"A few times, ribbit?" Tsu, frog in her throat, asked.

"S-So it's not set in stone?" Ochaco asked, her voice uncertain between relief and terror.

"It's not," Momo provided as she brushed the musician's back, making her perk up ever so slightly.

"Things don't stay the same even if it's the same year," Toru said, holding her knees to her chest. "Change something important and things can spiral from there."

"Different possibilities…" Setsuna muttered under her breath.

"It's not just you either," the boy sighed. "S-Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's me, sometimes it's someone else. It's always somebody ."

Kyoka wasn't in the right space of mind to keep focusing on truths and falsehoods, but it didn't feel necessary given the boy's tone.

"Izuku…" Ochaco muttered.

"It's- It's a dangerous year," he continued. "Most of us—of all of us—manage, but I- I have yet to see one when everybody makes it."

The girls in class A—Tsuyu among all—had already somewhat come to terms with their mortality as a result of the U.S.J. invasion, an event that had been frightening enough to fill their nights with horrors for weeks. But that one case had ended with no casualties and barely any wounded. Hearing Izuku say that there could have been losses was one thing, but they had subconsciously thought that the ones who could have died would have been the Villain or, at worst, their teachers. Having to face the fact that they could have been an inch away from death, and that the same thing could happen again so soon… was daunting, Hero trainees or otherwise.

The two girls from 1-B weren't quite in the same shoes.

Setsuna knew the cold bite of the primordial terror that could make her lose all sense of reason, but she was trying to avoid thinking about the subject, sweeping it under the rug. Hearing about it wasn't quite the same as staring death in the face whenever she messed up during Heroics.

Itsuka hadn't felt the same fear yet, and images of her classmates facing a premature demise brought her to open her mouth too quickly. "Who else-"

"I'd rather not say," the greenette weakly interjected. "I… I don't like reliving those moments, if I can avoid it."

"... You're right. Sorry," the redhead slouched a bit in her seat. When Ochaco's hand fell on hers, reassuringly, Itsuka held on it like a lifeline.

"Izuku sees them in his nightmares," Toru cheerlessly explained before turning towards the rocker girl. "Doesn't help with sleep, so that's why he ends up looking tired sometimes."

Registering the invisible girl's words, Kyoka connected another dot. "That's why you were crying yesterday night," she thought aloud, her eyes growing wider as the teen nodded.

"Yeah, it was one of the worst ones…" He slowly raised his head, showing the hint of a smile. "The vestiges told me you got me to stop later. Thank you."

"D-Don't change the subject," Kyoka frowned a bit. She didn't like that her panic had been observed and reported, but there was something else to focus on now. "You were asleep, but you were also talking. Do you remember what you said?" she inquired.

"Please, I love you," he recited word for word, poignant and sorrowful. "It's what I said to that version of you as she…" His shaky breath and the way his face crumpled told more than words.

Kyoka waited for a second before asking with bated breath. "Did you mean it?"

Their eyes met, and she got her answer without needing to hear his heartbeat or have any word come out of his mouth.

"I did. Still do. I couldn't stop if I tried," he responded slowly while raising his hand with a defeated look. "It's sappy, I know, but that's just how it is. All the emotions and feelings I got to experience are still there."

Sappy or not, the thought was enough to stun the poor girl. Now she couldn't reduce it all to a dream or to sleepiness. 

"So you and Kyoka…" Ochaco attempted, eyes moving between the two, and letting out a small gasp when she saw him nod.

"But it's not just that," Toru interjected, squeezing the boy's arm a bit. "Not just her. Right, Izuku?"

He met her eyes for a moment, and her hand gently guided his chin to look up. His gaze longingly moved between each of them, and they knew.

"A-All of us?" Mina stuttered in surprise, something fluttering in her stomach.

"Yeah…" he sighed, making their breaths catch for a moment. "It wasn't even on purpose… But somehow, along the way, as I tried to improve and help you out with Quirks, school, and stuff… Things just happened."

It didn't take a genius to understand that he was underselling it, and by a lot. His words told one thing, but the genuine, small smile that slowly made its way to the surface couldn't be mistaken for anything but deep affection. It was as if he were trying to excuse himself or something.

"What'd you mean, 'things just happened'?" Ochaco piped up. "You're amazing! Of course things happened!"

He let out a strained laugh. "I… really wasn't, Ochaco," he said while shaking his head a bit. "This… 'me' you're seeing is just the end result… A few months ago I was nothing but an anxious kid with a new Quirk that he didn't know how to use, an awkward muttering habit I couldn't break, no friends to speak of, and just as much confidence in myself. I was a veritable mess."

"Well, I'm sure we came to like that Parsley just as much," Setsuna smiled and winked.

"We would have been friends in no time, I'm sure of it!" Ochaco added.

He smiled a bit more. "Yeah, we were… Thought that was thanks to you opening up to me more than anything."

"So, if you already like all of us like that," Tsuyu cut in with a perplexed ribbit, "why stop now? Have your feelings changed?"

"No," he denied without a second's pause. "I still feel the same towards each of you, and that won't ever change."

The reassurance warmed their hearts, but the first question remained unanswered.

"Ribbit. Then why?"

Izuku closed his eyes, taking a long breath to steel himself. "There is… a high chance that being with me will get you killed," he confessed as his expression grew equally weary, furious, and frustrated. He continued as they remained in a stunned silence. "It happens almost every time. All For One can't get me, so he hurts the ones I care about. My mom, my classmates, you. I can't be everywhere at once, and sooner or later something fails- I fail to protect you."

A few turned towards Kyoka for a moment, realizing that the musician's demise had only been one of many. They started to see how scarred the boy must have gotten from the event. Or, worse even, events . If each one of them had died, and he was taking the blame on himself… It was no wonder that Toru had told them that the boy's secret was bad news for him among all.

"It happened over and over again… and it was just too much." They could see Izuku trembling slightly as he met their eyes. "I couldn't take that chance anymore, so I had to stop myself from being with you. Then at least you wouldn't suffer because of me… But I'm also too damn weak to really stick to my damn choice, because we're here, aren't we?" he added with a strained chuckle.

"Itsuka, Ochaco, would you be so kind?" Momo asked.

The brunette and the redhead took a second to remember what their friends had previously asked of them before nodding. They moved swiftly and, with a touch and a push, the boy was floating towards the bed before he could react. He ended up being turned around and released right before Momo, in her lap, as the others closed in around him as much as they could. It was a terribly tight fit for the twin sized bed, but squeezing together was part of the plan. Surrounded in all directions, there was nowhere for him to go and nothing to do but stay there and listen to their words.

The ravenette began by placing her arms around the boy and having him bend towards her, delicately holding onto him like she'd done with Kyoka.

"I have been thinking a lot about how we could approach this, you know?" she started, speaking softly and placing her chin on his shoulder. "Toru and I couldn't discuss everything without giving up your story, but we didn't want to come unprepared. Hearing you denigrate yourself once was enough for us."

"One too many." The invisible girl's clothes moved as she nodded.

"Sorry…"

"Again, you don't have to apologize," Momo reassured. "We know that what you have experienced weighs heavily on you, how could it not? You have seen the worst that could potentially happen, which understandably led you to fear for our safety. But we also believe that you might be considering our counterparts' demise as your fault, and I can assure you that it is no such thing."

The boy tensed. "But it was a result of my actions," he said, as if he was stating the obvious. "Without my interference, you- they wouldn't have become targets. I put them in danger simply by being me. They... died because of me."

"Then let me ask you this: Were they forced in any way to assist you, or was it their idea to do so?" Izuku blinked, his mouth opening slightly at the unexpected question as Momo continued. "Because I believe that it was their choice to help in whatever way they could, since that's exactly what I—and, I expect, everybody else in this room—want to do. But it wasn't only about you, as much as they must have loved you. We are going to be Heroes, Izuku. They chose to put their lives on the line to do something good, which is exactly what I would expect myself to do in the same shoes."

"How can you be sure?" He muttered after biting the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Time changes people. Affection might have muddled their judgment. Standing by my side only made them risk more."

"I'm sure that a few months' worth of experiences might have made us grow in ways incomparable to our previous years, but we haven't seen as much as you, Izuku," she pointed out. "We may not be like them in every respect, but we are still the people you've been with for so long. And, since we are them, I believe that we would know how they would think. For example," she turned slightly, still wearing a gentle smile, if a bit more serious. "Mina, would you abandon a friend in need?"

"Uh? Hell no!" the pinkette replied before with a frown. "That's when you should be there the most!"

"Well put. Ochaco, would you let him go alone after knowing what Villain waits for him?"

"No, I wouldn't," Ochaco took a moment to meet the greenette's eyes, the fire of determination renewed. "You're one of my best friends, Izuku. I want to help, even if you're not asking me to."

"Tsuyu?"

"I agree, ribbit. This Villain is scary, a monster. You made that clear." She contained a shiver and shook her head. "But we can't live in fear and let you do all the work. And even if we can't fight directly, you might need rescuing too. We can be there for you."

"No," he replied, his tone getting firmer. "I can fight, but I can't protect you. I can't have you risk it."

"We aren't damsels in distress, Midoriya," Itsuka interjected with a snort, continuing the circle in Momo's stead. "I've pushed myself to be the best me I could be, and I'll be damned before I stand on the sidelines watching somebody else fight my battles."

"As Yaomomo said, we're gonna be Heroes too," Setsuna pointed out. "Maybe we haven't found a way to pitch in during a cataclysm-level fight, maybe we never will, but if you think that we will just keep our distance, you're waaay off, Parsley."

"Yeah! There will be other Villains to take down! 'Can't be everywhere at once,' right?" Mina cut in with a serious nod.

"And it's not like what you were doing stopped me from being weird and following you anyway…" Kyoka unexpectedly muttered, adding another grain of truth.

"See? You wouldn't have been able to change that outcome. It seems that we are all a bit stubborn like that," Momo giggled lightly before squeezing his arm. "Izuku, we don't want you to be our caretaker. We want to stand by your side, step up whenever we are needed. Share your burden in any way we can."

The boy seemed at least partially surprised by their resolve, so Toru moved in for the next, and hopefully final, blow.

"You said that you want rivals that would push you to do better," the invisible girl reminded him of his words before the Sports Festival. "Isn't that why you helped us grow in the first place? So that we could share your burden?"

"I- I did it so that you could protect yourselves without me-"

"And we will protect ourselves, by watching each other's backs. But we are saying that we also want to watch yours, if you'll let us." Toru met his gaze and held his hands before her, clutching them firmly. "You want to be better than All Might. Prove it. Let us help."

- "You're capable of standing by my side, because I will be the next Number 1, and I want you all there." -

Izuku didn't know how to escape this one, and it wasn't because he was physically and emotionally captive of some of the ones he held dearest.

He had to think, but he didn't have the peace of mind to keep that dozen of seconds on repeat. They had made it impossible for him.

Oh, how he hated his Quirk sometimes.

The girls hadn't managed to change his mind. Their words were nice, but they couldn't take away what had been built up in years and years of failures. No, Izuku had failed all of them repeatedly, they'd died because he hadn't been good enough. That was on him. But he also knew that yes, it had been their choice to risk their lives, and that he could do little to stop them from doing it again. He had no right to forbid anything. He could suggest, but he couldn't make the decision for them. He couldn't keep them safe like a rose under a glass dome because that just wasn't something they would ever accept.

At the same time, getting to this point seemed almost an inevitability. It wasn't like he could stop himself from saving Ochaco from the Zero Pointer—she had to save him, or she wouldn't get enough points otherwise—or Tsu from Shigaraki—that wasn't even an option. He couldn't let Momo shrink in the wake of her losses, or Mina hate herself from her presumed dumbness, or Kyoka suffer from her depression, or Toru hide from the dissociative lack of visibility, or Setsuna despair from her constant fear of death, or Itsuka collapse under her self-imposed overwork. He couldn't let any of them down.

Still, it didn't have to be a hard choice. He already knew what he was supposed to say. He could keep them at a distance, just enough to prevent the worst. He had to refuse… for their own good…

"But you don't have to," he heard Nana say with an assuredness that left him baffled.

- I… I have to, - he thought, but couldn't stop himself from asking, - Why wouldn't I? -

"Come on Kid," Daigoro huffed. "Hell, it's obvious that they need you!"

- They will be live bet- -

"No," Nana cut in, silencing the both of them. "It's the opposite, Izuku. You need them."

He didn't respond immediately, making the vestige sigh.

"Sprout, you won't be able to keep this on forever. You've kept yourself at arm's length as much as you could, and it's killing you. Don't think that we haven't noticed. You've been getting nightmares every night since last month, and sometimes you get stuck in a memory even during the day," she lamented, her voice sad and doting. "This can't keep happening, Izuku. You need them in the present, or you'll keep getting stuck in the past."

Her spirit hugged him from behind. Despite being unable to have true physical contact, there was still something to be felt in that little act of affection. "Give yourself a chance, Sprout. That's all I ask."

For a moment he didn't answer, and the Seventh grew anxious with fear. They might never get another chance like this, another opening at saving his heart as well as his future.

Then he answered.

- Alright. But this will be the last time, Nana. If it doesn't work… If something happens to them… Then I'm never taking this road again. -

"I know it will," she promised before retreating again. 

The seconds ticked away as the boy kept his gaze down at Toru's plea. They had played almost every card they had, opening their hearts, but the final decision was in his hands, just as their choices rested in theirs.

They would be lying if they said that the moment wasn't filled with enough anxiety to rival that of the exams they would soon face, but this now seemed more important.

Finally, the boy took in a big breath, and spoke.

"Okay… Okay. I… despite everything, I'm still not that good at this part," he started with an awkward chuckle. "You're right. I do want to be better, and that's not something I can do by myself."

Izuku raised his head, letting them see his clear, emerald green orbs. He was back to smiling that gentle, kind smile of his, which was enough to make them feel more at ease.

"I thought that I could limit myself, staying away from you as much as I could… but we can all see how that has gone. You made it nearly impossible, and even All Might's Quirk hasn't made me that strong."

A couple of them let out a short chuckle or a snort at the cheesiness, but didn't interrupt.

"I have experienced a lot, but this… it would be a first for me. I don't know how things could go, and that's… strangely exciting." He shook his head as if to jokingly scold himself. "There's lots we still have to talk about too… There are other things and people I know… And you'll have to fill me in on how you think we could make this work even… But if that's what you want, then it's what I want too."

Mina had to fight hard to contain a squeal of happiness, her hands squeezing Setsuna's and Tsuyu's in a crushing grip. The two 

enjoyed the show with a cute, wobbly smile and a smirk that betrayed something more emotional under it. Ochaco would have been already floating on the ceiling if Itsuka's hadn't caught her palm beforehand, both sharing content, if shy, smiles. Kyoka didn't quite know how she would fit yet, but she hadn't caught a single lie, and for the first time in a while she felt accepted just as she was. Momo finally felt like her efforts had borne fruit, that she was writing a tale for herself that would outclass any she had come across. Toru could feel a stay tear slowly descend her cheek, one of joy that she wouldn't stop.

Izuku's head turned slightly to look at them all. "Momo. Kyoka. Itsuka. Ochaco. Toru. Setsuna. Mina. Tsuyu. Would you make the luckiest guy in the world and go out with me?"

The girls had entered that room with the bare bones of a plan, a strategy that had been recently altered—almost thrown out of the window—after a double confession from Momo and Toru, a short admission of overstepping from Mina, and the sudden last-minute addition of Kyoka to the ensemble. They had known that it wouldn't have been just a confession and an offer to the boy, but also a discussion about some jealously guarded secret of his. They didn't know what Izuku's answer would be, but they had tried. They couldn't be sure of what the future would hold for them, but they would find out together.

Now however, as the question had been turned around on them, they knew exactly what their answer would be.

"Yes."

Notes:

Longest chapter in the fic. Hopefully it will stay as such, this was such an undertaking...

This probably won't make everybody happy, but it was never my intention to. Thanks for sticking with me until this point anyway.

For everyone else, I hope this was satisfiyng. Of course, some romantic scenes are going to appear later (not gonna leave Ochaco, Tsu, and Itsuka without, for one).

Up next, someone else will wear their heart on their sleeve.

I'm probably going to take the next month off to improve my plans of what comes next, build up a buffer between what I've written and what I've published (which is now a fat 0), continue my correction of errors in past chapters, and answer the comments I have left. Don't worry if you don't see this updates for a while, I'm not giving up on this fic, fuck that. I might also work on my other fics, so give them a look if you'd like.