set the World Aflame

'Strength of will: this determines the formless aspect of combat. There is no weakness, only strength. There are no failures, only setbacks. There is no defeat, only tactical retreat. This precept can be broken down to that. It is not merely a mindset but the complete refusal to accept anything but a positive outcome. Defeatism, even for a single moment, is a step away from death in this field.'

—Excerpt from the recovered 'Tenets of Combat' likely authored by an underground hero or vigilante

The light turns red and then green again. Izuku watches it cycle for a few seconds. He stands and smiles at his mother.

"It's time."

She smiles gently. "Do you have a plan?"

"Not one you'll like." He shrugs. "It's a bad plan but it's the only plan I have. He has one weakness I can exploit."

"If you're going to do something I'll hate, then at least win with style. And not with your ass in the air."

Izuku flushes the brightest red and retreats from the room. He performs a quick breathing exercise and walks towards the tunnel that will lead him to his battle. A sigh escapes his lips when he sees the man before him.

Endeavour leans against a wall, his massive frame seeming to dominate the hallway. Fire swirls around his costume, and it makes Izuku wonder what material it is made from. His eyes, the blue of tainted snow, track Izuku with casual indifference.

"Boy, I recommend you give up."

Endeavour pushes off the wall. He settles lightly, much lighter than Izuku thinks possible of a man that probably weighs as much as All Migh—without the benefit of a quirk that dds muscle mass.

Izuku forces a smile. "My mo-mother wouldn't want that. And I don't think you have any useful lessons."

"Fear the flame boy, or it will consume you like your friend."

Izuku grits his teeth. "You know, I think you're strong. But I also think you're a fucking idiot." Endeavour perpetual frown deepens. "Fear the flame. That's nonsense and we all know it. Whatever you think of your quirk, you don't get to tell your son to fear his."

"You know—"

"Nothing. Yeah, your son told me that. And I think you're both idiots. I'm going to win, and I'll prove you both wrong."

Endeavour watches him for a moment. And then the man has the audacity to laugh, deep and full and much too malevolent for a hero.

"You are a fool, boy."

"Maybe," Izuku snarls. "But I know your son will never become you. He's not a monster hiding behind his position. And I'm going to show him that it's his fire, not yours. Get out of my way."

Endeavour shakes his head, but he does tilt his body enough that Izuku could squeeze through if he hugs the wall and hunches over.

Show him your strength, Mikumo whispers, and Izuku is inclined to agree.

He only needs the tiniest fraction of One For All to shoulder-check Endeavour as he walks forward. The man is forced to the side by the unexpected strength. And maybe Izuku will have bruises on his shoulder, but they are worth it to hear Endeavour scoff in annoyance at being shoved aside by a boy half his size.

"The flames will consume and enslave you," Endeavour says calmly, but the way his flames burn hotter belies the façade, "just like that boy."

Izuku glares at him out of the corner of his eyes. Endeavour simply raises a brow.

"Endeavour, I don't care who you are or how strong you are, but if you ever threaten my friends"—he lets the madness of the abyss bleed through his glare and sees Endeavour's flames burn hotter—"I. Will. Break you."

He doesn't look back at the man. He is nothing to Izuku. Not now. He understands then why so many can hate heroes when Endeavour is one. Regardless, he puts the thought of Endeavour away and walks into the sunlight.

The light is harsh, but not blinding. Thankfully, it is a few hours after noon and he can call upon the inky darkness of the abyss if necessary.

He meets Shouto across the arena, not caring what Midnight or Present Mic have to say. Right now, in this moment, only he and Todoroki exist.

"I talked to your father," Izuku says whilst Present Mic hypes the crowd. "You're not him and you never will be. And that's because of a choice, not because of you quirk." Todoroki says nothing. "I'm going to save you despite yourself."

The anticipation builds in the air. Izuku feels the flow of One For All, the power of eight generations rising to a crescendo within him.

Midnight cracks her whip and the battle begins.

Todoroki slams his foot into the ground, a line of frost leading from it. Chunks of ice expand outward in a path of devastation that would give any person pause. It is an unstoppable wave, the likes of which perhaps even All Might would consider a worthy challenge for a few seconds.

All of this does not matter to Izuku. He has seen Todoroki fight and he knows the boy's weakness.

The onslaught of ice grants him the cover to dash to the opposite side of the field and sprint along the edge of the ice, hidden from Todoroki's vision. He slides into view and sees Todoroki still watching his last spot.

In a second, he closes the distance like a flash of green lightning. Todoroki's eyes are wide. Izuku slams his knee in Todoroki's side and watches the boy list to the side.

Izuku pirouettes around the sudden spike of ice that rises from the ground and sweeps Todorki's legs out from under him.

The boy rolls to the side, frost streaking towards Izuku.

Izuku takes a single step forward and ice forms behind him. Todoroki has a singular expression of shock as his attack fails for the second time today.

He punches Todoroki in his unprotected side. When Todoroki makes a half-turn and freezes his right side, Izuku grabs him by the arm and flips him over.

"You're going to lose," Izuku says calmly even as Todoroki scrambles back, trying to put some distance between them.

Izuku shoots off a shadow pole and watches Todoroki dodge around it. He is tempted to sigh for only a moment. And then he closes the distance once more. He barely manages to dodge the ice encrusted fist. It is a close thing, but he does it, and kicks Todoroki in his left side. It is the side where his fire would be. Without it, it is one glaring weakness.

It sends Todoroki flying but he lands in a three-point crouch. It doesn't matter if it gives Todoroki the distance he needs to use his ice. When the ice rushes towards him, Izuku merely raises his hand and channels One For All to his finger.

Bang.

A shockwave of raw force tears through the ice and sunders Todoroki's offence. It may have cost a finger, but it is worth it to see the fear in Todorkoi's eyes.

"Without your fire, you have a giant weakness."

-TDB-

"Oh snap," Ashido says. "How the hell is he winning?"

Ochaco wants the answer to that as well. Even with Iida's performance against Todoroki, she never thought her classmate would be manhandled again. And even during that fight, he never seemed anything more than mildly annoyed instead of outright fearful.

"I knew Midoriya was manly but damn," Kirishima says as Izuku flicks a finger and releases a shockwave of force that breaks Todoroki's ice.

She watches Izuku close the distance faster than Todoroki can form ice and knee his opponent in the side, the same side he's attacked since the very beginning of the battle.

"He figured out the fucker's weakness," Bakugou—and she hates how he thinks he has a right to speak—says in contemplation. "He can't make his ice instantly. At least, not the huge shit. It's why he always fucking leads with frost on the ground first."

Her eyes widen. "Oh, that's why the ice formed behind Iida."

"Wait, what?" Ashido asks.

"When they were fighting, right at the end, the ice formed just behind Iida."

"And the bitch finally gets it. He's got a five-foot casting radius and then he can make a fucking glacier. Without that shit, well…"

They watch as Izuku spins low to avoid Todoroki's punch. Izuku twists as he rises, and his heel tags Todorkoi's shoulder. She watches in silence as Izuku hits Todoroki in the same spot over and over again and feels the slightest bit sick. There is no warmth in the way Izuku holds himself. Everything about him is calculating and unfeeling, a machine more than the boy who smiles as bright as the sun despite his scars.

Todoroki sends frost behind himself, hidden from Izuku's view. At exactly five feet now that she knows to look for it, the ice forms, expanding rapidly and circling in an arc around Todoroki that protects him from Izuku. Todoroki takes the second he has to make more ice even as he backs away.

She understands why when a shockwave tears through the ice and Izuku dashes past Todoroki's shattered barrier. He flips through the air and lands right before Todoroki, so close in any other situation she might make an inappropriate joke.

Instead, she watches in silence as Izuku grabs Todoroki by the collar and punches him in the side. Todoroki gasps, and she can just imagine the pained sound. Especially when Izuku does so again. Then for a third time.

"I feel sick," Kirishima says.

Ochaco agrees completely. This isn't like Izuku. If he had wanted to end the fight, he would have. Instead, he leans forward and says something to Todoroki that they can't hear.

"Oh, you fucking cunt," Bakugou roars. "What tragic as shit backstory does half-and-half have that you're trying to save him? You fucking idiot."

"Bakugou?" Kaminari ventures warily as Izuku sends Todoroki flying. "You okay there, buddy? How's about you calm down before you do something you'll regret."

Bakugou glares at Kaminari. "You're a shitty ass side character that just recently got some lines so fuck off." Ochaco watches amazed as he takes a breath and leans back in his chair. "He's trying to save Todoroki for some bullshit reason."

It sounds ridiculous coming from Bakugou's mouth. But that also lends it credence. She doesn't like him, probably never will, but she can't deny that he and Izuku have known each other far longer than she has. And she knows from every errant comment Izuku makes about Bakugou, or vice versa, that the two know each on an almost instinctual level.

Also, there's the fact that Izuku has just broken another finger instead of ending the fight cleanly.

-TDB-

Izuku feels tired. Not physically even if his hand is just a mass of hurt right now, but emotionally. He doesn't know how to save Todoroki except to show him how weak he really is by hiding from his powers.

And doing so makes him feel like a bully.

He forms a shadow pole, makes it hard as steel, and smacks Todoroki's ice encrusted arm. The ice shatters and Todoroki grunts in pain, reacting too slow to avoid Izuku hitting him in the side with the pole.

This isn't a fight. It's nothing more than cruelty.

This is how Endeavour taught him to fear the flame, Mikumo tells Izuku as Todoroki forms wall after wall of ice. You use the same methods of control and submission. Are you not the same?

Maybe, but right now, I need you to shut up.

Izuku takes a step to the right to dodge the spear of ice flying through the air. When the second spear comes, Izuku is ready. He reaches out to grab it and spins on the spot, not once losing his momentum, before sending it back enhanced by One For All's power.

The spear crashes against Todoroki's barrier, breaking enough of it that he can see the terrified eyes of his opponent. He knows that fear well. It's the fear of facing something you can't beat.

The fear only grows more when Izuku raises his right hand and flicks his index finger, breaking it once more. The pressure wave breaks through the remains of Todoroki's barrier.

"Right now, I think you should stop screwing around," Izuku shouts, panting harshly.

He has taken a few blows but most of the pain he feels comes from breaking his own fingers. But that pains brings clarity. It doesn't matter that he has broken every finger on his right hand. Not when he has a chance to save someone. What point is there in being a hero if he can't save a classmate whose story he knows, let alone a random civilian he has never met?

For a fleeting instance, he remembers the girl in the sunflower dress. Her cries of pain rock him to the core, and the pleading look she had that day makes him ashamed. He lets the memory fade away.

Right now, right here, there is someone begging to be saved. He wonders how strong a person must be to experience all Todoroki has and still stay so sane, to want to be kind and compassionate where those before him were not. To want to move past the shadow his father casts and become his own man.

Todoroki's mismatched eyes are a mirror to his own pain and hurt and longing, hidden behind any barrier that could be produced. For Izuku, it is a smile and right now he can't muster a smile. For Todoroki, it is his cold demeanour. Izuku has seen it crack, but he has yet to see Todoroki take a step back in fear.

When the ice comes, Izuku is indifferent. He jumps over it and comes down in a vicious axe kick that breaks through each barrier of ice that Todoroki forms. It connects with the boy's shoulder and Izuku hears the pop of a dislocation.

Izuku lands in a crouch and surges forward, his chest slamming into Todoroki's torso. He punches Todoroki in the face. His broken fingers shriek in pain but Izuku ignores that feeling.

"It's your power," he screams, punching Todoroki's bloody face once more. "Only you get to decide. You can't beat me. How the hell do you think you'll be the best without your flames?"

He slips past ice and grabs Todoroki by the throat before slamming him into the ground.

"Your fire covers your every weakness," Izuku snarls, tightening his grip around Todoroki's throat. "So why the hell do you think it's his flame?"

Todoroki slams his hand on the ground. Izuku is completely blindsided by the slab of ice that hits him in the face. The world goes white as he flies through the air. He lands hard on the ground. Instinct is the only reason he dodges the ice spear.

"You can't win against me like this." He spreads his arms wide. From his shadow, dozens of dark darts fly towards him, all hard as diamond. They aren't meant to hit Todoroki, only destroy his barrier.

"If you don't use your flames you'll just become bitter and do the same things as him."

His eyes sting, and maybe it's ice particulates, but he is sure they are tears. Because Todoroki looks to him with a gaze that pierces his core. Something so broken it can't be repaired stares back at Izuku—It is pain so fundamental and natural that no one notices because who notices that you have two arms and legs; they would notice the absence of a limb, but not presence of the limb itself.

But when something is broken like that, it can be repurposed and recycled. Something new, and perhaps something beautiful, can be built from shattered hopes and broken faith.

The wisp of flame is almost invisible in the bright light. It is a single point of heat that can one day bring life if it is nurtured properly. It is the first prayer to existence, that formless light that gave rise to energy and entropy and the forward arrow of time.

But just as it can create, it holds the power to incinerate everything in its path because passion without direction is harmful, and even the hottest hate will one day burn out and leave nothing but cruel desolation—and it makes him wonder if that is what became of Endeavour, that perhaps no one was there to save him when he needed it most.

Izuku knows this because some days when he sees injustice he simply wants to give in and let the monsters hiding in the dark roam free and take their bounty from the world. But so long as one person begs for salvation, Izuku refuses to give in.

Todoroki's very eyes are a plea to be saved, and Izuku won't give up until he does so.

That single flame births an inferno, a raging maelstrom of flames long suppressed that they feed greedily on oxygen and burn brighter, consuming themselves in an uncontrollable blaze of resentment and fear and yearning.

He can taste the smoke of damnation, the echo of hell, and feel the prayer in Todoroki's soul as heat sears Izuku's lungs with each breath he takes.

"Why would you try save your enemy?" Todoroki asks, his voice cracking.

But those words are Izuku's absolution and lift him past the mire and muck of the past, banishing memories of that little girl in his sunflower dress and his failings as a person. Perhaps one day he can save the world, but right now he'll settle for saving the person right in front of him.

"I want," he chokes out through the heat burning his throat, "to save everyone!"

Do you know the cost of your oath, dear brother?

The flames lessen in intensity until they only cover Todoroki's body like a protective shroud, a benediction against present day threats and the cruelty of his past.

The ice on his right side melts away, proof that the flames they belong to him and no one else. The fire causes the ice pillars to melt, and already Izuku can see how Todoroki's body loosens, strength returning to it. He no longer hunches over his bad side, half a step away from collapsing.

No, he stands tall, engulfed in the flames of the eternally damned.

The grin that comes to Izuku's lips is as easy as breathing. The need to win, to prove himself the strongest against a foe, permeates his grin. But that feeling shares space with the absolute joy of saving someone. Because it proves that he isn't defined by his quirk, that he isn't a monster wearing human skin.

You are that, but I accept the monster.

"Amazing," Izuku whispers, ignoring Mikumo, when the ice has melted, and only superheated steam remains.

He never once expected this level of power. Injured and broken, Todoroki can reshape landscapes. He wonders what heights his classmate will reach unshackled by the legacy of his father's fears. For a moment, his vision wavers and he sees Shouto sitting on a throne of ice and burning his enemies with fire.

"Why are you smiling?" Todoroki asks, eyes haunted but free all at once. "With those injures, how the hell can you smile?"

The flames make his burn scars itch. They remind him too much of that fateful day against Bakugou. But if he fears the flame, then isn't he proving Endeavour right? And he will never let Endeavour be right.

"Because you're you," Izuku says joyfully, "and I've never seen anything burn more brilliantly than you."

Steam rises from Todoroki's eyes. "You're a fool."

"I'm still going to win."

Todoroki closes his eyes for a moment.

"Thank you."

In an instant, Todoroki slams his foot on the ground. Ice, massive and gargantuan, forms immediately. There is no delay, no trail of frost to herald this attack. His one weakness is gone.

The deluge of ice surges forward, faster and more imposing than everything prior. It promises his demise in a frigid grave, forgotten and alone beneath a glacier. Izuku summons forth the inky blackness of the abyss but even he knows any shield he forms will crumble beneath the raw power behind the ice.

One For All permeates his arm, more than he can handle yet. He punches the air, and a blast of force tears through the ice. And though his arm may scream it pain at being broken, it means nothing to him compared to the sight that greets him.

Fire so hot it melts the ground and ignite the very air surrounds Todoroki. This is fire hot enough to melt steel and nothing Izuku has can face that. He smells the ozone of ionised air and ashen corpses.

You have the basics, Mikumo says, and for a moment he feels his shadow vibrate. All that you have learnt is with you.

Izuku accepts the truth of that. Everything he has accomplished has been built on a few basics. And he chooses to rely on them today.

He twists with the momentum of his punch. He channels One For All through his right leg, forces his shatter arms in a position to stabilise his body. And prays that Cementoss' barriers are strong enough to withstand this.

The explosion comes faster than his kick. It tears through the arena and the barriers Cementoss puts up. It is inexorable in its march, an unyielding attack fitting someone literally bred for the strength of their quirk. This attack is a song of the fire of hell and the winds of winter, one of the strongest natural quirks in the world.

There are a few he could name more naturally powerful, but none with this perfect mixture of utility and raw destructive capability.

But none of this matters to Izuku.

He has faith in the power his mentor granted him, faith in the skills Jin taught him and that he honed through battles against nightmares.

For a moment, he feels seven fiery shadows standing behind him, guiding him through this kick.

There you fucking are, Mikumo snarls, distracting him slightly.

He tilts his torso halfway through the kick to lower his centre of mass, arches his grounded foot to improves his posture and lifts his stabilising arm a few degrees high. Every ounce of strength he can draw from One For All leaves his leg in a single flawless kick of perfect form.

Hwechook, he thinks.

His shadow vibrates in anticipation as the two attacks meet.

The world erupts, an explosive shockwave of heat and force and two wills battling for victory. It is the strength of One For All and Hellfire clashing, a battle of legacies and broken children standing defiant against the weight of expectation.

It is a battle to be freed of the past and to find the meaning of salvation.

That, however, is an earthly concern and right now, in this singular moment, Izuku is above them. He has spent months memorising this kick, the most basic that Jin Mo-Ri taught him. In the heat of the moment, bruised and injured, Izuku perfects his form until nothing exists to him but that kick.

Slowly, the dust and smoke dissipate, and he opens his eyes to devastation. Deep gouges litter the ground, each thick as his arm is long. Broken chunks of stone and ice cover the landscape. Dozens of shards of ice surround him, embedded deep in the earth.

It takes him a moment to notice the trench that spans the length of the battlefield, cutting straight through broken barriers of ice and concrete, stopping only at the last barrier, taller and thicker than any Todorkoi has formed before

A deep crack run through the ice. Without that barrier, any civilians would have been directly exposed to his blow. He feels sick because so many could have died from his carelessness. And only Todoroki's battered form encased in ice has kept them safe.

"Todoroki is out of bounds," Midnight says.

The world is silent. He doesn't want the silence to end, doesn't want to be greeted by the hatred and revulsion for someone who so callously put civilians in danger.

"Midoriya!" he hears someone—and something tells him it can only be Shinsou—yell.

That single shout starts a cascade. Dozens, then thousands chant his name. Izuku doesn't cry though it is a close thing.

He lowers his leg slowly. Every movement of his broken limb is agony, but he fights through the pain of torn muscles and broken bone. He fights through the pain to raise his right arm in victory.

The roar of the crowd is deafening and for a single moment Izuku has no fears.

A sharp pain brings him back to reality. He looks down and sees the red seeping through his blue shirt. It takes him a moment to see the shard of ice in his torso.

He falls back and hits something hard. He glances back and sees a wall of darkness. It dissipates as Izuku collapses.

I am not your enemy, brother.

-TDB-

The stadium is silent as the vacuum of space. For a single second, there is no noise as though the world stands still. Perhaps it is because of the battle they have just witnessed. Perhaps it is because Endeavour's son has just shown power to rival a natural disaster given a few years. Or perhaps it is because her son demonstrated even more power.

When they shout her son's name, Inko is quiet. So too are Mitsuki and Jin Mo-Ri and the rest of the people in their section of the stand overshadowed by a gargantuan mountain of ice. They stay silent because of the hundreds of ice shards floating in the air, held back only by Inko's extended hand.

Her brain hurts. Something deep in her chest hurts as well. Her arms shake as she holds back what would very easily have been the deaths and maiming of an entire section of the audience, perhaps a thousand people in total.

"Inko," Mitsuki whispers, "how the—"

She shrugs. It breaks her concentration and a few pieces clatter to the ground. "Practice."

Instinct guides her next motion. She sweeps her arm out—a part of her brain breaks as she reaches for knowledge beyond mankind—and the ice converges in sweeping patterns, forming runes that name a dying god trapped in the vortex of sundered time. She clenches her fist—her eyes open fully for the first time and she sees past the world and to the monsters hiding in forgotten futures—and the ice is crushed tighter than anything else on the planet as her power goes beyond anything she has tried before.

"Holy shit," Mitsuki says.

"Indeed," Jin Mo-Ri agrees.

They do not see tiny black hole floating in the air, perhaps a picometre wide and not yet dangerous. It takes her no effort to flick it away straight to the sky before the others can notice it.

Mitsuki catches her when she stumbles. "Hey, stay with me," Mitsuki says.

"I'm fine," Inko replies. "Just… just give me a moment."

"Honey, how's about you take her to the ladies' room," Marasu suggests, and it might be the smartest thing he's said all day.

"Alright."

That is how she finds herself in the washroom, cleaning her face clear of the blood that dripped from her nose. Mitsuki hovers worriedly in the background. Eventually, though, she convinces Mitsuki to leave her be for a few minutes in exchange for visiting the nurse's office.

She is grateful because she doesn't want Mitsuki to see what will come next.

Inko has seen many things because of her son's quirk: the birth of a universe reflected in his eyes; the scratching madness of spiders telling her of their god; birds that sing of a herald that carries galaxies on each wing. Izuku does not know much of what he does without thought. He hums the dirge of gods dying when he cleans the house and speaks the true names of demons whilst doing his maths homework.

And she knows there is yet more knowledge that she can never know without her mind breaking. Already, it feels like someone has torn away a good chunk of her brain matter.

Even were that true, it would not change her certainty that something is crawling in her torso. Applying her power internally is dangerous because organs count as small objects, and one wrong move will see her dead. But the thing in her is distinct in shape, and to the sense that lets her decide which object to grab, it looks like crystalline madness.

Her stomach lurches as she forces the thing up through her throat. Its legs skitter through her flesh and the feeling makes hew queasy, but she pushes past the sickness. She rips it out of her mouth.

The thing reminds her of a serpent and a spider and a dream all at once. It isn't real but for the bright red crystal held in its ethereal ribcage. The longer she looks at it, the more she is reminded of the red orb at the base of her son's spine seen through an MRI scan. But this thing has eyes within eyes within mouths within eternity within more eyes. Those eyes speak secrets, and the mouths let her see a truth.

Her brain hurts the longer she allows this parasite to live. It begs to be spared for what crime has it committed but give her strength?

/Mother, mother, shadowking sire, let this one continue. Let this line of tribute continue. Let this one grant you eyes/

Inko crushes it with her power.

"I don't need your help to see."

She flushes the mass of bloody dreams down the toilet and checks her makeup. She applies some foundation and fixes her eyebrows. There, now she looks composed. As though she hasn't had a conversation with a remnant of a dead god.

Mitsuki waits for her anxiously. Inko forces a smile, one that has enough earnestness to be believable. There are many things Izuku has taught her, and this is one of them.

"Are you really going to make me see the nurse?"

"Fuck yes. You just had a nosebleed from using your quirk."

Inko decides against arguing. It would take too long to explain that a nosebleed is nothing compared to what she has seen. "Lead the way."

"I thought you could only move one object at a time."

"Practice, like I said. That was just a lot more than I'm used to."

"Do you think maybe you might have been a hero?" Inko pauses mid-step. "Maybe if we weren't so stupid in our twenties."

She continues walking. "That was… never my dream."

"Why? It could have been if you practiced more and we drank less." Mitsuki shakes her head as they turn around the corner. "I can't with my quirk, but you could."

"It wasn't what I wanted. Everyone thinks 'hey, maybe I can be a hero' when they're young. That's just what it is. But if I became a hero I never would have met Hisashi. And without him, Izuku. We can play what ifs all day long, but it doesn't matter. Not when I have my son."

When they reach the nurse's station, she sees a few people in the pale green garb of EMTs having an argument with one of the teachers from UA. Inko watches as they go through the motions of an old argument and decides to ignore it. They aren't of any importance.

A nurse other than Recover Girl looks her over quickly and pronounces her fine outside of mild case of quirk overexertion. Inko glares at Mitsuki who shrugs.

She looks behind as someone enters the room. "There you are," Recover Girl says. "You're here to see Izuku?"

"No? I couldn't see the end of the fight."

Recovery Girl frowns. "Well, he won't be able to compete in the next round."

"How bad?"

"He shattered some bones and suffered a stab wound."

"Fuck," Mitsuki says.

"He'll heal," Recovery Girl continues, "but I don't want him competing in that state. And I've personally removed him from the roster to stop him competing regardless of anyone's wishes."

Inko can agree with that. She has only one task for him and that was to do his very best. And now the world has seen how powerful her boy is, powerful enough that he can absolutely dominate Endeavour's son.

"Fine," Inko says. "Is he awake?"

"Unconscious."

"Alright. I'll come visit him later."

-TDB-

Kurogiri drinks his beer slowly. It is cold, and filling, full-bodied wheat beer flavoured lightly with peach. It takes the edge off and does not leave him inebriated like drinking a glass of whiskey as Tomura does. Together, they watch the Sports Festival.

"Has our rogue placed the explosives?" Tomura asks absently as they watch a girl grow vines and battle the boy with the crow's head.

It takes Kurogiri a moment to understand the question. "That is a character class?" Tomura nods, annoyed. "Then yes. The gas lines and structural supports have been targeted. With the false identity Giran provided—"

Tomura waves him down. "I didn't ask for a fucking wall of text. What kind of badly written J-RPG do you think this is?"

"I wouldn't…"

On the screen, the bird-boy's body is consumed by darkness and a scaly arm extends from it. Sharp claws slice through the vines as though they are wet paper. Kurogiri watches the boy land and say something, perhaps a threat, to the green-haired girl. When they next engage, the reptilian arm returns.

Except this time its claws are wreathed in black fire.

Kurogiri opens a warp gate without thought and steps through it. He does not care that reality breaks and there are three versions of him. He is indifferent to the streaks of green lightning. No, even the fact that the pathway has a hill of frozen time doesn't matter to him.

Sensei' room is shrouded in darkness. The man looks to him and cocks his head. This isn't normal. Kurogiri would never come here without a direct summon from a man who could kill him as easily as humans render entire species extinct each day—so easy that most will never notice until an entire ecosystem is dead.

"What has you so troubled, Kurogiri?"

"You told me to ask no questions that night, so I didn't. I didn't ask why we were working with the Royal Guard even if I hated it every step of the way. I didn't ask why we were obeying his orders. I didn't ask why we were slaughtering mad civilians and leaving the heroes alone. I didn't—"

"And now you wish for answers," Sensei says, interrupting his tirade. "You wish to know if the bloodshed was worth it if a mere boy can utilise that cursed fire."

"Yes. We drowned Shikoku in blood, and you swore to me that the cost would be worth it. That Hana's death would be avenged if we did it."

"Indeed." All For One leans forward. "I spoke to our dear World Walker."

Kurogiri takes a step back without thought, terror gripping his formless body. "No, no—fuck me."

All For One chuckles. "That is an acceptable reaction."

Even without truly having limbs, Kurogiri's hands shake. "We played our part that night. We owe nothing."

"I agree fully with you. Both of you wanted an answer to the same thing and it remains the same. The infection was contained. This boy, regardless that he wields the godflame, is not contaminated. No, he is something else entirely. Something new.2

"We can't risk him becoming a conduit."

"So ready you are to consign a child to death." All For One shakes his head. "No. I will not permit the execution of this child."

"Sensei, please."

"Would you kill Akane if she were infected?"

Kurogiri freezes, the very idea making him ill. She is dead with her mother, and it is his greatest regret that their killers are not all dead. All Might still remains.

"This decision is final. We will observe his progression. If I find him liable to become a conduit, then I will personally deal with him." Kurogiri bows his head. "But not a moment sooner. There have been few chances to fully study this phenomenon. I will not allow your fear to ruin it."

All For One waits until Kurogiri nods. "Understood."

It may be petulant, and perhaps will earn him a reprimand, but Kurogiri opens a warp gate before Sensei dismisses him.

Tomura startles when he returns. "The fuck is wrong with you?"

"You are too young to understand."

Two boys walk onto the stage. One is Midoriya who became that thing after dying, and the other is the spawn of Endeavour. Their battle is cataclysmic. Kurogiri watches stunned as these two children show power that perhaps even All For One might consider taking seriously.

"Hey, Kurogiri," Tomura says, too light to be anything pleasant, "tell him to set off an explosive on both Midoriya and Todoroki."

It takes him a moment to understand he means their agent in the stadium. "They are children. Sensei will be displeased with their deaths."

"Todoroki is fucking broken enough as it is. Let's kill the piece of shit before he becomes a raid boss. And if Midoriya becomes… that thing, then the government will neutralise him for us."

Kurogiri inhales because no part of this plan sounds like it will go as Tomura envisions. Still, he makes the call and relays the orders. He is loyal to All For One, perhaps to his death, and right now his command is to nurture Tomura.

"This goes against his wishes."

Tomura shrugs. "Who cares?"

I do, Kurogiri thinks but does not say. You won't be punished. I will.

And yet, watching Tomura play his game and rage at his loss, Kurogiri does not fear the consequences. Watching him shout about the unfairness of lag only makes him more willing to accept what will come.