Names

"So I see that you were pretty busy last night." Rei said, looking at something on her phone as she settled herself at the table.

"Busy enough." Izuku responded, setting her plate in front of her. "Why? Did you see something?"

She responded by holding her phone out towards him, letting him see what was being displayed.

INFAMOUS VIGILANTE "ONI" SAVES HOSTAGES, HOSPITALIZES NINE VILLAINS.

Written by: Chitose Kizuki, Shoowaysha Publishing

"Wow, that was fast. As always, the speed that those vultures can get a report out is as impressive as it is annoying."

"Wait. What happened?" Ochako asked, looking up from her food.

"I put a stop to a hostage situation last night." Izuku answered as Rei showed her the article. "It was a bit more public than my usual activities."

Pulling her phone back, Rei read from the article.

"A 'Deep Dope' concert nearly took a deadly turn when a group of villains stopped the show and took the band and a group of audience members hostage. The villains made a list of demands, leveraging the lives of their hostages. Despite the best efforts of the police, the demands couldn't be met, and they were faced with the impending outcome of nearly two hundred dead civilians on their hands. However, just before the time limit set by the villains elapsed, a local Musutafu vigilante that goes by the name 'Oni' dropped out of the sky and intervened. When confronted by the leader of the group of villains, Oni responded by boldly declaring that he would break the villain's legs for 'starting shit in his city.' The vigilante then, in a matter of seconds, incapacitated eight of the nine villains, leaving only the leader. Eye-witness accounts from the hostages report that Oni seemed to move 'as fast as All Might.' He then followed through with his declaration, incapacitating the leader before breaking their leg. Following the incapacitation of the villains, Oni released the hostages, prompting them to flee the scene. Fortunately, no one was killed, and the only injuries were minor, as a result of the hostages' panicked escape. It is still unknown exactly how the vigilante knew to appear, but it is rumored that a member of the Musutafu police force contacted him. These rumors have yet to be confirmed as the police have thus far declined to comment."

"Huh, I'm surprised they were so nice." Izuku said. "Most news outlets aren't. I would've expected them to call me a criminal or a menace to society at least once."

"Oh don't worry, there are a few that did. There's even one that called you a degenerate. But those people don't have much of a position to badmouth you on this, not when you've saved so many people. Really, the only things they can come up with is the fact that you're a vigilante at all, and maybe how far you went with the villain."

"Wait." Ochako cut in. "This just happened last night and you've already found all those reports?"

"Well, in fairness, it is a relatively significant event; there are a number of outlets covering it, including a few of the larger ones. But also, I have a few filters going on my phone and my computer. Anything that mentions 'Oni' that's accessible by the general public, along with a few things that aren't, is brought to my attention."

"Hah." Izuku said. "If they disliked what I did there, then they'd really hate me for what I did before I arrived. It makes what happened there look quite tame."

"Right, I was meaning to ask you about that." Rei said, scrolling through her phone for a moment, before turning it around to show an image that had been included with the article. It showed Oni looking up from the fallen lead villain.

"Why exactly are you covered in blood? And what put all those holes in your clothes?"

"Knives." He answered. "Quite a few of them. I might've gotten stabbed a few times."

He held his hands up when she raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey, it's not entirely my fault. They had an illusory quirk. I couldn't see or hear any of them. I had to let them come to me, and they just happened to choose to come at me with knives."

As those words left his mouth, he felt Tamako's presence vanish, and a moment later Rei's eyes were narrowing at him.

"Then how come Tamako's telling me that you didn't use 'Proximity' or 'Metallum' at all? You very easily could've fought with 'Proximity' alone. I've seen you do it."

"Betrayal." Izuku whispered, prompting a giggle from Ochako.

"Alright, you got me. I was excited at the prospect of fighting through an unknown number of attackers with unknown abilities until I managed to break the one that had me trapped in the illusion. And in all fairness, had it come to my attention that the quirk could manipulate touch as well, then I wouldn't have held back.

"Besides!" He continued before she could respond again. "I got some neat quirks out of it, so I feel like it was worth it."

"Hmm. I could point out the fact that you probably would've taken those quirks either way, but you have my interest. Proceed."

"Well, for starters." Izuku said, picking up his fork and tapping it twice with his index finger. He tossed it across the room, towards the living room. It flew for a moment, before halting in midair with a slight beckoning motion from the same index finger, it reversed its course a second later, making its way back to his hand.

"Isn't that just that quirk you already had?" Rei asked, tilting her head as she watched the fork move. "'Attraction,' right?"

"Close, but not quite. This is only half the fun."

With that, he stopped the beckoning motion, before repeating it in the opposite direction. At his prompting, the fork halted its motion and began moving away from him once more.

"Ah okay. I see. Minor telekinesis in both directions, not just towards you."

"Yep! And the fun part is how it's activated. Anything I tap twice with any of my fingers is affected, and I can have a different object assigned to each finger."

This was the quirk he'd taken from the criminal that decided to use him as a pin cushion. They were using it to retrieve the knives they threw. He'd chosen to call it 'Yo-Yo' given how it could move objects both towards and away from him. Each finger could have an object linked to it, but some of the really fun stuff came into play when more than one finger was used for a single target.

"And that's not all." He continued, before looking over at Ochako. "Would you mind assisting me with a demonstration really quick?"

"Uh, sure? What do I need to do?"

He beckoned her closer. "Just come here for a second."

When she complied, sliding out of her chair and moving next to him, he held out his hands and tapped her on the shoulders twice in quick succession, making contact with all ten fingers.

Her eyes widened as Izuku gestured with his hands and, a moment later, she was floating through the air away from him, rising slightly off the ground as if under the effects of her own quirk.

"Wah!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out as she floated, causing herself to start spinning a bit. "This is really weird when I'm not the one doing it!"

Izuku let her float away for another few seconds as he and Rei both shared a quiet laugh at her expense, before reversing the hand gestures and bringing her back. Once she was within reach once more, he took her hand to re-orient her, before releasing his hold on the quirk. She had a smile on her face and seemed to be holding back a laugh of her own.

"I like that one!" She said. "What else did you get?"

"Alright, next on the list we have a transformation."

Pulling on the quirk in question, he felt the bones in his face begin to crack and warp, just as his hands did when he activated his claws. At the same time, his hair receded into his head and scales began to sprout at the base of his neck, which lengthened a bit, traveling upwards as the transformation continued.

In a few short seconds, his head had elongated, becoming something inhuman entirely.

"Oh! You finally got your hands on a dragon quirk?" Rei asked, leaning forwards to get a closer look.

"Yes." He responded, his voice coming out deeper, and much more gravely. "Now I'm one step closer to having the draconic motif complete for Oni."

"Woaah." Ochako exclaimed. "Does that mean you can breathe fire now too?"

"Not with this quirk, but would you like to take a wild guess at what quirk number three is?"

She smirked. "Is it a fire-breathing quirk?"

"That is correct. What would you like as your prize?"

"Let me feel the scales." She said, gesturing at his head.

"Go for it."

Stepping closer, Ochako reached a hand out, gently running her fingers down the side of his face. Unlike skin, the scales didn't yield, instead acting as a rigid, solid surface. Bringing her other hand up, she ran it over the top of his head.

As she did that, Izuku held his hands out over the table, palms facing down, pulling on the illusion quirk. "And finally, my personal favorite of the bunch."

He focused on the surface of the table as he activated the quirk, his face hardening in concentration. Just like when he'd been practicing with it the night before, light spilled from his fingertips, spreading across the table. After a few seconds, it began to take shape, slowly shifting until it looked as though the table was covered in grass. It still wasn't perfect – there were a few spots that looked a bit blurry, and where their plates were sitting on the table, the gras was sprouting directly through them instead of being crushed beneath – but it did look a bit better than his efforts the night before.

"Oh, is this the illusion quirk you mentioned?" Rei asked, lowering herself a bit to inspect the grass. Next to him, Ochako had turned her attention to the table as well, but had not pulled her hands away from his head to get any closer.

"Yep. This is the one that gave me so much trouble. Complete control over the senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste. At first I thought it was just some sort of blanket illusion that affected anyone in its range, purely existing in the real world, but after thinking about it, I think it's actually some sort of broad mentally-based illusion. It'll affect the minds of anyone within its range. It's the only reason I can come up with that certain people could potentially be allowed to ignore the illusion. There must be a way for the user to exempt certain people."

"That's a pretty handy quirk. I imagine it can't be easy to do so much with it at once."

"Oh, it isn't. It's taking quite a bit of effort to maintain even this." He said, gesturing at the grassy table. "That is one thing I will say about the original user. They, at the very least, had a great deal of skill with it. Asshole had created an entire busy restaurant interior, complete with customers, food, and all the sounds and smells that come with it."

"Oh shit, that's actually pretty impressive. Though, now that you're the one that has it, I imagine that-that will soon look like child's play. I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to created an entire multi-story building with it eventually."

"Hm, we shall see."

They fell into a comfortable silence at that, Izuku and Rei observing the grass on the table as Ochako continued to run her hands across Izuku's head.

"Oh right, there was something else." Rei said after a few seconds. "There's been an incident with Stain."

Izuku made a face, or as much as he could with his head transformed. All he achieved was pulling his lips up in a small snarl. At the same time, the illusion faded away as he stopped concentrating on maintaining it. "He's not in Musutafu again, is he? And who's the victim?"

"No, this time it's out near Hosu. And there were two victims."

"Two? That's a bit out of character for him, isn't it?"

"It seems like the first victim was a smaller local hero named 'Jackal.' As far as I can tell, he was the intended target. The second was Ingenium."

Izuku let out a sigh. "Shit."

"Uh, wait." Ochako said, pulling her hands back, allowing Izuku to drop the transformation. "I have so many questions. Who is Stain, why is he attacking heroes, and why does it seem like him attacking Ingenium is more significant than just another hero?"

"Right, I suppose you wouldn't know." Izuku said, dropping his – once-again-human – head a bit and pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Stain's activities aren't really widely broadcasted. Most places don't want to bring a lot of attention to the fact that there's someone out there killing heroes."

He took a deep breath. "Right, starting from the top, Stain is a vigilante, but he's on the opposite end of the spectrum from Oni. Because while I do what I do to punish criminals and protect people, Stain primarily targets Pro Heroes. He follows a flawed way of thinking that heroes should essentially be perfect. Meaning that they should only ever do what they do out of pure selflessness, and should have basically no interest in the money or the fame. Anyone that doesn't fall into this narrow archetype is branded a 'false hero' in his eyes and is the reason for all of society's problems. He sees it as his mission to kill off these false heroes."

"As for why it's so bad that Ingenium was attacked, it's because of his identity."

He looked up at her. "Ingenium, currently the number sixteen hero in Japan. Also known as Tensei Iida."

Her eyes widened in realization, and Izuku looked back at Rei.

"Stain didn't kill him, did he?"

"Fortunately not." She responded, shaking her head. "The other one, Jackal, didn't survive, but it seems like Ingenium happened to come across the attack and attempted to intervene. He's in the hospital currently. His status hasn't been revealed yet."

"How do you think Iida is doing?" Ochako asked. "Our Iida. Tenya."

"No idea. I would imagine about as well as can be expected when a loved one is in the hospital."

She fell silent for a moment, before speaking up again. "Don't we have some kind of hero internships coming up? You don't think he'll try anything, do you?"

"He certainly might. At the very least, it wouldn't surprise me. People can go to great lengths for revenge, especially if it's for the sake of family. Personally, I know that if anyone were to hurt either of you, I'd probably tear them apart."

"What should we do?"

"I'm not very confident in my ability to provide any form of support or comfort to Iida, certainly not enough to prevent him from going after Stain, assuming that's what he intends to do. But there's something else I can do."

He sighed. "I suppose it is about time I got rid of Stain."

"You're going after him?" Rei asked. "Are you sure?"

Izuku nodded. "I am. I've never really cared much about what he does so long as he doesn't do it in my city, but I actually like Ingenium. And if there's a chance that Iida will go after him, then the best thing I can do is remove the threat altogether."

"Alright. Just be careful."

Izuku smiled at her. "You don't have to worry. This time will be quite different from when I last encountered him."

He held up his arms, pulling on 'Metallum.' "Not only am I several times faster than I was, but with this," He gestured at his arms, which were now steel down to the elbows, "I'm practically impossible to cut. And if it comes down to it, I'll have Tamako with me. If it becomes necessary, they can take control and get me out of there."

"In the meantime," he continued, "would you mind finding anything you can on his past attacks? If I'm gonna do this, might as well do it properly and see if I can't prevent his next attacks altogether. If we can try to work out a pattern, we can try to predict his next move."

"Sure thing. I'll start looking into it later today."

Izuku nodded, before moving to collect the empty plates on the table. Morbid conversations aside, it was time to clean up the mess left behind by breakfast so they could get on with their day.

---

The last few days of their short break passed in the blink of an eye. Ochako and Izuku passed the days by with no small amount of lounging around, even making a few returns to Dagobah to do so on the beach. Izuku tackled his analysis requests faster than they could come in, even when he slowed down a bit to walk Ochako through the process and show her how he did it. All the while, Rei slowly began shifting her sleeping schedule back around to where it was before, joining them when she could. At the same time, she was starting to put a bit more focus into her schoolwork as the semester started to ramp up in anticipation for the rapidly approaching final exams. When she had free time though, she was searching through police reports from across Japan, picking out anything that lined up with Stain's MO, which Izuku was taking some time out of his night to pour through. With what she found, he could start to piece together the barest outline of a pattern.

His nights as Oni were spent scouring Musutafu for any traces of The Triad. They'd already encroached into his city once, he intended to make sure that they didn't do so again.

But, soon enough, it was time for them to return to Yueii.

"Don't forget that I'm not flying home with you today." Ochako said as Izuku landed on the walkway leading to Yueii's main building. She stayed firmly on his back as he immediately set off towards it.

"Yep. You said that you were doing something with Tsuyu after school?"

"Mhm! We'll be going back to her house."

"Alright. Just let me know if you need me to come get you afterwards."

"I don't think I'll be over there late enough for that, but I will."

With that, the two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they made their way towards their classroom.

---

"Yo Jirou! I heard about what happened at that concert! Are you okay?"

That was Kirishima. As soon as he entered the room, he shouted out to her. Fortunately for her, he didn't attract much attention, as there wasn't much to attract. Aside from the two of them, it was just Ochako, Izuku, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Bakugou in the classroom. All of them either already knew what happened, didn't have much interest in it, or had the tact to simply sit and listen without jumping in on the conversation.

"I'm fine." She responded. "I don't think anyone was hurt, actually. Except for the villains of course."

"Oh yeah! I heard that a vigilante came in and saved the day. I wish I could've seen it happen; it sounds like it was badass!"

Jirou smirked. "Do you want to see it? I recorded the whole thing."

Izuku tilted his head a fraction, taking a closer look at them. Sure enough, Jirou was holding her phone out, and he could make out a picture of Oni on the screen.

"Hell yeah I want to see it!"

"Can I watch too?" Ochako cut in from her seat.

Jirou shrugged. "Sure, if you want to."

Izuku raised an eyebrow at Ochako as she got up out of her seat. She just smirked at him in response.

"What the heck? The video is barely even a minute long!"

"Shush. You don't have to shout that in my ear when I could hear you whisper that halfway across the building. And it's short because that's how long it took. Now shut up and watch."

She tapped on the video, and a moment later Izuku heard Oni's voice sounded out

"Hello hello, useless piles of garbage! I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

"Oni! What the hell do you want? What are you doing here?"

"You didn't seriously just ask that, did you? You're a villain, starting shit in my city. You've taken some two hundred-odd people hostage and you're making unreasonable demands to the police. Do you think I'm here for any reason than to break your legs?"

"Woah…" Kirishima stage whispered. "Badass."

"Stop! Don't come any closer, or we'll start attacking the hostages!"

"Oh will you now? And who exactly is 'we'?"

"Could it be these two, perhaps? Or maybe these two? Or these? Or how about them?"

"Holy shit! He's moving as fast as All Might!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that all of your allies? Whatever will you do now?"

Izuku heard the sound of a small scuffle, matching it up perfectly with his memory of that night, right up until he heard the villain's leg snapping, followed by his short-lived scream. He smirked as he mentally spoke the next few words, timing them perfectly.

"Well? The fuck are you all still doing here? Go. Get out of here. Be free. Go do whatever it is you do when you aren't being held hostage."

The sounds of a crowd of a few hundred people all simultaneously getting up and scrambling for the exit sounded out for a few short seconds before being cut off.

"That was intense! He didn't even give them a chance to fight back! Just 'Bam!' and all of them are taken down!"

"I know, right? Like, one second everyone's scared for their life, and the next there's a vigilante telling us to fuck off. It was just about enough to give us all whiplash."

"It's a good thing he came along though. It sounds like no one else could do anything. I hate to think about so many people dying just because of a few un-manly villains."

"Yeah. Definitely glad he got us out of there."

Huh, that was definitely something Izuku hadn't been expecting: appreciation for something that Oni did.

He knew that there were people out there that appreciated what he did. Just with the hostage situation alone, Izuku suspected there were another roughly two hundred people who felt that way, but this would be the first time he'd witnessed it in person from someone that he'd saved.

It was a nice thought. Enough to put a small smile on his face as they waited for the rest of their classmates to show up.

---

As soon as the bell rang to signal the start of the day, Aizawa trudged in through the door, not even bothering to greet them before he was speaking.

"Alright, listen up. Now that the sports festival is over with, it's time to start picking up the pace. The first step with that, is for you all to pick out your hero names."

Aizawa's eyes flashed red to silence the immediate exclamation from most of the class. More than hero costumes, hero names were one of the biggest parts of being a hero, and were certainly the most exciting.

"Now, usually it would be the job of the homeroom teacher to oversee and guide you as you decide on your hero names, but I don't feel like doing that, so Midnight will be joining us in a few minutes to do so in my place."

He pulled a stack of whiteboards and a box of markers up from behind the podium.

"One of you pass these out before she gets here. Do what she says, and listen to her advice. She's the Hero Art History teacher for a reason. She knows what she's talking about when it comes to this stuff."

With that, he sank to the floor, and a moment later he was scooting himself across the floor, fully wrapped up in his sleeping bag, until he was tucked into the corner of the room.

After a few minutes of almost absolute silence as they all waited for her to arrive, she burst into the room with enough flair to rival All Might.

"Hello students!" She greeted rather loudly. Izuku noticed the bundled-up sleeping bag in the corner roll over to face the wall. "It's time for you all to pick out some hero names! I see that you already have your whiteboards. What I want you to do is spend a few minutes coming up with ideas, then if you want, you can present them to your classmates later."

"Now, when you're brainstorming," she continued, "I want you to think about things like your quirk, any themes you might want to follow, and the sort of hero you want to be. Let those things guide you and help you come up with ideas."

"Now go forth, children, and create a name for yourself!"

As everyone directed their attention to the board on their desk, Izuku immediately wrote his epithet and name down. His hero name was something he'd dedicated quite a bit of thought to in the past, and something that he'd decided on well before he got to Yueii.

It seemed he wasn't the only one that had come prepared, either. Tsuyu, Bakugou, and Yaoyorozu were also fairly quick to write something down and sit back. For some reason or another, they didn't need much time to deliberate over their names. And now all that was left was to sit back and watch their classmates decide on theirs.

---

After a few minutes, once it seemed like everyone had written something down, Midnight decided that it was time for them to start presenting their ideas. Up first was Aoyama.

"The Shining Hero, Lumiere!"

"Very nice!" Midnight complimented. "It definitely suits your quirk!"

"Of course. Would you expect anything less?"

…

"The Ridley Hero, Alien Queen!"

"Hm. I'm not too sure about that one. I'm not certain, but there might be a risk of some copyright issues, plus it's a bit morbid."

Ashido looked a bit put out at Midnight's words, but Izuku spoke up, having seen a flaw in her reasoning.

"Copyright laws only apply for seventy years after the death of the creator. Both Daniel O'Bannon and Ridley Scott have been dead for well over a century, so there shouldn't be any issues on that front. And as for the name being morbid, there's a Pro Hero with the name 'Death Arms,' Ashido's idea certainly isn't any worse than that."

Midnight stared at Izuku for a moment, before shrugging. "Fair enough. Alien Queen it is!"

"Yes!" Ashido exclaimed, bouncing back to her seat. "Thanks Etsumi!"

…

"The Rainy Season Hero, Froppy."

…

"The Turbo Hero, Ingeniumu."

Izuku studied Iida as he stood up to present his idea. He rather liked the name, but he was focused more on the fact that Iida was decidedly less animated than he normally would be. It would seem that the situation regarding his brother was indeed affecting him. Not exactly surprising, but it was unfortunate to see nonetheless.

…

"The Zero Gravity Hero, Uravity!"

Izuku smiled as Ochako announced her name. It was a wonderful one, in his opinion, and suited her perfectly. It was definitely a name suited for a Pro Hero.

…

"The Martial Arts Hero, Tail End!"

…

"The Stun Gun Hero, Charge Bolt!"

…

"The Unbreakable Hero, Red Riot!"

…

"The Petting Hero, Anima."

…

"The Sweets Hero, Sweet Tooth."

…

"The Tentacle Hero, Strong Arm."

…

"The DJ Hero, Beatdown."

…

"The Taping Hero, Cellophane."

…

"The Jet Black Hero, Tsukuyomi."

…

"The Hot and Cold Hero, Flashpoint."

…

"The Unseen Hero, Miss Appear!"

…

"The Explosive Hero, Ground Zero."

As soon as those words left Bakugou's mouth, Izuku was struck by a memory that, until that very moment, he'd thought was lost.

It was a memory of him and Bakugou together before his fourth birthday. As per their usual, they'd been playing heroes and villains, with the two of them as the heroes of course. In the memory, he could very clearly make out the sound of Bakugou announcing himself as the hero 'Ground Zero.'

Now that he'd heard it again, Izuku realized that 'Ground Zero' was the name the two of them had come up with for Bakugou.

Once again, Izuku found himself feeling touched that Bakugou seemed to remember so much about him.

…

"The Fresh Picked Hero, Grape Juice."

…

"The Everything Hero, Creati."

…

Finally, it was Izuku's turn to go. Raising himself up from his desk, he made his way up to the front of the classroom. Positioning himself at the podium, he held up the board.

"The Mythical Hero, Ryujin."

"Hm. Interesting." Midnight said. "How'd you come up with it?"

"Well, my appearance lines up with a 'Naga,' a mythical creature found in a number of faiths, and 'Ryujin' is an ancient god of serpents and a patron god of Japan. I felt as though it was fitting."

"It is a pretty good name, but keep in mind that there might some religious types out there that might not like the fact that you're taking the name of a god."

Izuku shrugged. "If they have a problem with it, they can deal with it."

"In any case, well done!"

She looked out at the rest of the class as Izuku made his way back to his desk.

"Very well done, all of you! You all came up with some great names, and got through this much quicker than I was expecting. With that done, I'll be letting Aizawa take control again. I'll see you all again when it's time for my class!"

As soon as the door shut behind her, Aizawa pushed himself up off the floor, leaving the sleeping bag bundled up at his feet.

"Alright, now that-that's been sorted out, it's time to talk about Internships. As you were told in the weeks leading up to the festival, your performance there determined the sort of attention you garnered from Pro Heroes."

He picked up a stack of papers from behind the podium, before moving to the desks in the front row and beginning to pass some of them out. Each desk seemed to get a different number.

"These packets that I'm passing out are the invitations you've received from different heroes to join them as temporary interns. All of you performed admirably, and most of you received invitations. But for those of you that did not, Yueii has a deal with a few local agencies, some of which belonging to its own teachers, and will provide you with a selection to choose from."

As soon as the packets were all passed out, Aizawa immediately returned to his sleeping bag, bundling back up as he sank to the floor.

"You have the rest of class to sort through those. I don't particularly care who you pick, so long as you make a decision by the end of tomorrow. Yueii will need time to handle all the preparations, and then you'll be spending all of next week at your internship of choice."

Without any other words, he rolled over to face the wall, leaving the students to begin deciphering the stacks of papers on their desks.

Izuku eyed his stack. It seemed to be the largest in the room, though Bakugou's and Ochako's came pretty close. He made no move to look through it though. He'd already decided that he had no intention of participating in the internships. Instead, he settled in to watch his classmates as they sorted through their own.

After a few minutes, most of them seemed to have begun sorting the potential heroes. He could see where a few of them were directly sorting into rough piles of yeses and noes. A few of them even seemed to have narrowed it down to a few heroes. Yaoyorozu in particular, sitting at the desk directly in front of him, had been concentrating on a single invitation for some time.

"Figured out who you're going with?" Izuku asked, leaning forwards just a bit

She glanced back at him, then back at the piece of paper. "I believe so. I'm just trying to decide if she'll be the best fit."

"What do you think?" She asked, turning to show him the invitation. "Do you think Uwabami would be a good fit? I would like to try to improve my proficiency with public relations, and dealing with people in general, but I can't decide if she's the best hero for that. She's certainly in the spotlight quite a bit, but I can't shake the feeling that it wouldn't be what I'm looking for."

"That's because it wouldn't be." Izuku said. "What you said is correct, she's definitely in the spotlight a lot, but that's exactly why she wouldn't be a good choice for you. She uses her fame as a hero for the sake of advertising and exposure, but what you would need is a hero that deals a lot with public relations as it pertains to hero work."

"I see." She said, eyebrows scrunching up. "Who would you suggest then?"

"Depends on who sent you invitations. Do you happen to have Sir Nighteye?"

"I do indeed. One moment."

A few seconds of sorting later and she was holding out a piece of paper with Nighteye's information on it.

Izuku nodded. "That's who I would go with, were I you."

"Why's that? I didn't think he did much with that sort of thing."

"It's exactly because he's so proficient with public relations that you wouldn't hear much about it. He excels in playing on the relationship between heroes and the media and the public. Nighteye, and by extension, his agency, follows a strict model for the imaging of heroes. If you pay attention enough, you'll notice that it's an exceptionally rare occurrence that anyone can find anything negative to say about any sort of public appearances that he or his sidekicks take part in, whether that's in how they handle themselves, how they conduct interviews, or even their direct physical appearance."

"I see. I suppose that I ought to consider him over Uwabami then."

"I would, but in the end, it's up to you, and what you wish to do."

She nodded. "Thank you, Etsumi. Out of curiosity, have you chosen a hero to intern with?"

"In a sense." He responded. "I don't intend to participate in the internships at all."

Her eyes widened a bit at that. "Are you sure about that, Etsumi? This is an important opportunity for us to begin to establish a name for ourselves. You shouldn't pass up on it so easily."

"I'm aware, but I intend to pursue underground heroics. I've no desire for the spotlight, or any of the attention that comes with it. And if I ever happen to change my mind, I'll just start my own agency and build a reputation from the ground-up. I'll already have a solid foundation with my identity as Deku."

"That in itself is quite admirable." Yaoyorozu said. "I wish you the best of luck in pursuing that goal."

Izuku smiled at her. "Likewise."

---

Toshinori gulped as he waited outside of the 1-A classroom, watching for Etsumi to appear. His face was stretched into what he hoped was a passable approximation of his usual smile as he watched the other 1-A students leave, most all of them greeting him. He could feel a bead of sweat sliding down the side of his face. In his hands, he held a piece of paper. An internship invitation, now wrinkled as he worked it in his hands with his anxiety.

No matter how he worked through this inevitable discussion in his head, it didn't turn out well, but all the same, he needed to have it.

The invitation was from his old mentor, Gran Torino, who apparently now wanted to meet with Etsumi after Toshinori called him and after he watched the festival.

On the one hand, this was Gran Torino. Nothing was ever a request with the old man. It didn't matter that Toshinori was All Might, the number one hero in the world and the eighth holder of One For All, when Gran Torino told him to do something, he was expected to do it. And what he was expected to do now was pass along the internship invitation to Etsumi.

On the other hand, doing so would mean revealing to Etsumi that Toshinori betrayed his trust. That he had revealed the secret he'd been trusted with.

There were a scant few things in Toshinori's life that brought as much shame as that; the fact that he'd let his fear get the better of him and lead him to betray his friend and student. But it was for that very reason that he needed to have this conversation, more than even Gran Torino's invitation. Etsumi deserved to know the truth.

After what felt like several long minutes of waiting, he finally spotted Etsumi moving through the door, and he stepped closer.

"Ah, Etsumi!" He greeted, forcing his voice into a cheerful tone. "Would you mind accompanying me to the teacher's lounge? There's something I wish to discuss with you."

Etsumi raised an eyebrow. "Sure, why not?"

If he noticed that Toshinori was doing his best to fake everything about his appearance, he didn't mention it.

Toshinori nodded, gulping again, before turning to head towards the teacher's lounge.

It didn't take long for them to get there, and soon they were alone in the same conference room as before, where Etsumi had decided to reveal his secret. As soon as the door shut behind them, Toshinori dropped his hold on his All Might form, shrinking down to his usual skeletal appearance in a cloud of steam.

They stood in silence for a few moments as Toshinori gathered the courage to speak. Just as he was about to open his mouth to do so, however, Etsumi spoke up first.

"So is this about the candidates for One For All?" He asked. "Because if it is, I think I've finally narrowed it down to a single person."

That was enough to stun Toshinori, making him temporarily forget the anxiety that gnawed away at him. If anything, it lit a tiny spark of excitement in him, if only for a moment. Excitement that he might finally be getting close to having a successor to pass his quirk along to.

He had been searching on his own of course – he wasn't relying solely on Etsumi to find a suitable candidate – but he hadn't had any luck just yet. And of course, there was the student that Sasaki had recommended more times than he cared to count just since the start of the school year, but Toshinori was hesitant to even consider Young Mirio. He was hesitant to consider much of anything that Sasaki suggested, if only because of how their partnership had ended.

"You have? Who is it?"

"I think that Bakugou would be the best pick, at least out of the students in 1-A. I wasn't too sure at first if he would make a good successor, but I've recently had the chance to learn a bit about his motivations, why he wants to be a hero and what's been driving him to reach the level of skill he's achieved. After hearing him talk about it, I think he's the best choice."

"You're sure of this?" Toshinori asked.

"I am. I stand by what I said before, about Kirishima and Ochako both being decent candidates as well, but as it stands, I believe that Bakugou is the best choice."

"I see." He said, nodding. "I shall consider what you've said, and take a closer look at Young Bakugou in the near future. I might have to have a conversation with him soon."

"But…" And now the anxiety came crashing back, more intense than it had been before. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh? Then what is it?" Etsumi asked. His eyes darted to the wrinkled piece of paper in Toshinori's grip.

He took a deep breath, holding the paper out to Etsumi and forcing himself to release the grip he had on it.

"It's an internship invitation." He said. "I'm not sure if you've already chosen one, but this one came in for you a bit late. It's from my former mentor, Gran Torino."

"Gran Torino hasn't been active in any normal heroic activities in over a decade." Etsumi said as he took the paper, examining it. "Why would he want to have me as an intern?"

And there it was, the question that Toshinori had been dreading.

"Because of your quirk." He answered.

Etsumi went completely still, frozen. It didn't even look like he was breathing. The paper in his hands seemed to have been forgotten as he stared at Toshinori. The room went so quiet that a pin could drop in the next room over – which happened to be carpeted – and the two of them would likely be able to hear it.

The seconds stretched out, silence in the room threatening to suffocate Toshinori as he waited for Etsumi's response.

"I beg your pardon?" Etsumi finally spoke, his voice almost a whisper.

His anxiety threatened to burst forth.

"Etsumi, I'm sorry. I told Gran Torino about your quirk. That's why he extended an invitation."

Another few moments of silence as Etsumi seemed to struggle to process what he was hearing.

"You- what? Why?"

"I'm sorry." He repeated. "It was after you told me about your quirk and that All For One is still alive. I called him the next day. I just kept thinking about All For One and the fact that I failed to kill him, and it just kept circling around in my head over and over, and I couldn't help thinking about how-."

Toshinori swallowed, unable to finish his sentence.

"About how I'm the same as him." Etsumi said.

"What? No. Etsumi I-."

"You found out that your greatest enemy was still alive, and you couldn't help thinking about the copy of his quirk that was close to you every single day." He said. Toshinori could see the shock giving away to anger and hurt.

"You couldn't help but to see the same monster that you had fought and who had nearly killed you. And your response to that was to immediately break the trust I'd put in you."

"Etsumi-."

"I suppose I should've known better than to trust anyone with something like that. But then, that's what I get for thinking about others. I only told you because it was necessary to prove the existence of All For One, who I felt you deserved to know is still alive."

Toshinori couldn't muster up a response to that. Every word Etsumi said piled onto his shame one after another.

"Say, would you like to know just how many people I had told about my quirk before telling you?" Etsumi asked.

"How ma-?"

"Zero." He hissed. "Not a single fucking soul. The only two other people to know about my quirk found out by accident. But then the very first time I willingly tell someone else, it backfires."

"Etsumi…"

"No."

Etsumi stared at him for a moment, before shaking his head.

Turning away from Toshinori, Etsumi moved to the windows that made up an entire wall of the conference room. He tapped a hand to the glass, and a glowing outline of a square appeared an instant later. As soon as it did, he swiped his hand across it, and the glass inside the square seemed to disappear.

Without another word, Etsumi launched himself through the hole he'd created, massive wings coming down to carry him up into the air, out of the sightline offered by the window. A few seconds after he disappeared from view, Toshinori heard a faint 'boom' that rattled the windows. At the same time, the glass within the square flashed back into existence, the glowing outline disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared.

A moment later, he collapsed into the nearest chair, his legs unable to support his weight anymore.

What had he done? What had his own cowardice wrought?

---

Izuku tore through the air as he flew back home as fast as he could. It was a meager attempt to burn away some of the anger that seared through him.

He couldn't get over what Yagi had just told him. The man had given his secret away. And not only had he done so the very next day after Izuku told him, but he hadn't thought to tell Izuku until almost a month later.

He grit his teeth, picking up the pace.

When he finally arrived back at the apartment, he landed a bit harder than he intended to, shaking the balcony beneath him with the force of it. As it was though, he couldn't bring himself to care, just immediately heading for the door.

"Fuck!" He cursed as he pulled it open.

"Izuku?" Rei's voice sounded out. Looking up, he saw her settled at the table, clearly dressed for bed. She'd likely been preparing to get some sleep so she could wake back up when night came.

"What are you doing home so early? Is everything okay?"

"Not really, no. Things are pretty far from okay."

Her expression hardened as she must've realized how serious the situation was for him to be acting the way he was.

"What happened?" She asked, moving away from the table.

"I've just recently found out that, apparently, All Might told someone about my quirk."

Her eyes widened. "Who did he tell? And when?"

"Gran Torino. His old mentor, apparently. And evidently All Might told him the day after he and I had the discussion."

"Shit. Do you know if he told anyone else?"

Izuku grit his teeth, berating himself for not thinking about that.

"Dammit. I don't know. I didn't think to ask him. Fuck!"

"What should we do?"

"I don't even fucking know. Best case, we don't have to do anything. If we're lucky, All Might hasn't told anyone else, and Gran Torino isn't the type to go around blabbing about this sort of thing. Worst case would involve relocation at a minimum, if not reforging our entire identities. I can't imagine that the Hero Commission would be thrilled to know about my quirk, especially if this All For One guy was as big of a threat and as widely known as I suspect he was."

"Alright, okay, uh. Let's see…"

This was new territory for them. Growing up, they'd made a habit of not trusting anyone but each other, so they never had the misfortune to have someone betray them. Both of them had been betrayed by their families, but that was a different kind of trust to begin with. That was a very basic, instinctual trust. The kind that made one believe that someone wouldn't beat them on an almost daily basis or abandon them to die. This was the first time one of them had voluntarily chosen to trust someone other than each other, and it had backfired.

"Alright, well, we probably aren't in any immediate danger, right? I feel like if anything serious were to happen, it wouldn't have started with All Might telling you that he told someone almost a month ago. So let's start off by taking a deep breath, and thinking in the short term, okay?" Rei said, taking Izuku by the shoulders. "What do you need right this moment? What do you need to feel better? In order to get a level head to start to think this through?"

Izuku complied, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He went silent for a moment, attempting to steady his racing mind. At the same time, he also did his best to figure out just what exactly he needed at the moment. What was the dominating emotion running rampant through him and what was the best method for dealing with it?

Right now, his head was a storm, a whirlwind of anger, betrayal, hurt, frustration, and sadness all pounding against his mind. All Might, Toshinori, someone who he'd seen as a friend, had broken his trust, and in doing so had potentially put his life in jeopardy. He might have to uproot his and Rei's life, fleeing from the first home that they'd truly been happy in, and dropping everything they'd built, from Izuku's hero career that hadn't even started yet to hero's education that she'd worked so hard for. Not to mention what might happen to Ochako if he and Rei couldn't stay.

What could he do? Where could he even begin?

After a few long moments, his mind and hearts steadying incrementally with each passing one, he opened his eyes.

The strongest emotion within him was anger. Anger at being betrayed by the closest thing he'd had to a friend since becoming Izuku Etsumi, who had revealed his secret after the very first time he'd ever chosen to willingly reveal it.

"Right now…" He said, looking up at her. "Right now I want to hurt someone."

---

As soon as the sun began to fall below the horizon, Oni set out, Rei having convinced him to stay put until it was dark outside. As much as he disliked having to wait and let his anger fester, it gave him plenty of time to pick out a suitable target to serve as an outlet for it.

Oni strode towards the seemingly abandoned building, sinking his hands into the door as soon as he was close enough and tearing it off its hinges. Stepping through the now open door, he hesitated.

He looked down at his hands examining the new holes in his gloves from plunging his hands straight through a steel door. For the briefest of moments, he considered removing them and bringing out his claws, as he usually would.

"No." He whispered, clenching his fists. "No quirks. No strength, no speed. Just me, and whoever's in front of me. I want to feel their bones breaking and I want it to be a result of my own natural power, nothing else."

Dropping his hands back down to his sides, he continued forward. As he moved, he pulled back everything but the bare essentials. His intelligence quirks, his energy stockpilers, 'Insomnia,' and the ones that gave him his appearance as Oni. He even pulled back his super regeneration, leaving only his older healing quirk.

After a moment of thought, he pulled one of his quirks back out, activating it long enough to grab his mask and store it away in a pocket space.

No advantages, not even the meager advantage of a mask protecting his face.

He moved through the first room, towards the first path forwards that he spotted.

Just before he reached the doorway that he'd set his sights on, a man appeared in it, a look of confusion on his face, likely due to the sound of Oni ripping a steel door off its hinges, which had probably been audible to a number of people in the building.

Oni didn't slow his pace as he approached the newcomer, even as their eyes trained on him and they asked a question that he didn't bother listening to. Their expression transitioned from confused to angry when he didn't respond, but they didn't have any time to do anything else.

As soon as he was close enough, Oni's fist was impacting the side of the man's face, sending him stumbling backwards a few steps.

It wasn't nearly as strong as when it was backed by a few strength enhancers, but the sting in his hand and the fact that he could hit the criminal even more before they were incapacitated more than made up for that.

"Mother fu-!" They started to shout, regaining their balance, before being cut off by another hit.

This time Oni didn't even give the man the luxury of trying to catch himself. He caught the man by the collar of his shirt before he could stumble, and used it to drag him closer so he could land another punch against his jaw, this one resulting in a resounding crack and dropping him to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut.

Clenching his fist, relishing the heat that emanated from it, Oni tilted his head as he heard footsteps approaching. Bending down, he grabbed at a chair that sat at a desk right next to him. Picking it up by the leg, he immediately turned, bringing it up over his head just in time to bring it down over the head of the criminal rushing into the room. As they fell to their hands and knees, Oni took a step and cracked his foot across the side of their head, sending them sprawling.

Adjusting his balance after the kick, Oni leaned back just in time to avoid a punch from another newcomer. He grabbed her wrist, using it as leverage as he aimed his elbow at her nose. It broke quite audibly.

She backed away, holding her face, and cursing him. Because of that, she didn't see Oni following after her, and she didn't see the punch aimed at her throat. She went from holding her face to holding her neck rather quickly.

She kept trying to back away, swinging a wild fist at Oni. He avoided it, stepping closer to plant a fist in her stomach, causing her to double over, where he ended it with a knee to her temple.

Before he could move, something hit the back of Oni's head. He stumbled forwards, earning a kick to the side when he didn't recover fast enough. Before they could land another though, Oni caught the next kick in both hands. He quickly adjusted his grip before wrenching the foot to the side, twisting it in the same motion, resulting in horrendous snapping noises from both the knee and the ankle, as well as the foot bending in a direction that it was never meant to.

As the offending criminal began to fall back, Oni caught him first, latching his hand around the man's head and speeding up his fall, slamming his head against the floor.

Oni straightened himself up, breathing slightly heavily. With the last criminal out of the way, Oni had a moment to tune into his surroundings. Just as he could before, he could make out the sounds of people moving towards him. Only this time it sounded like there were significantly more.

"Good." He muttered, bringing his hands together to crack his knuckles. "More."

Picking out what he felt were the closest noises, he set off towards them.

He would break every single person in this building, and hopefully by the time he was finished, some of the anger that burned through him would be extinguished.

---

Oni panted, struggling to catch his breath and waiting for his heart to calm its thundering pace.

He was lying spreadeagle on the cold floor of the building he'd invaded. Around him were the broken, bloody, unconscious bodies of the unlucky criminals that had found themselves in his path.

Every bit of him ached. His fists, knuckles bloody where his skin had split and at least two fingers broken from how many punches he'd thrown. His gloves lay forgotten somewhere along the path he'd taken, eventually reduced to tatters in the face of his assault. He was covered in countless cuts and bruises, and he was pretty sure that the twinge he was feeling from his side anytime he moved indicated at least a bruised rib, if not cracked. His face and neck were drenched in blood, mostly from the cut over his eye, his broken nose, and his split lip.

He turned his head to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood. His tongue ran over the empty spot in his mouth where one of his teeth had been knocked out.

"Feeling any better?" Rei asked.

"Exceptionally." He responded. "That was definitely what I needed to take care of my temper. I think now I'll be able to come at this situation with something akin to a level head once I get back home."

He honestly did feel a great deal better after taking his anger out on the unfortunate criminals he'd picked out. With his head considerably clearer than it had been, he could start to see his path through the situation that All Might had put him in. For starters, Rei was correct, they most likely weren't in any immediate danger. If this were a worst-case scenario, it wouldn't have been preceded by All Might admitting his mistake, it would've been with heroes and police knocking down his door.

For now, he would proceed carefully. Internships were next week. Izuku could pay Gran Torino a visit, to see if he could get a good impression of what sort of man he was. Not only that, but he could find out the reason that Gran Torino had extended the invitation in the first place.

"That's good. But before you head home, an alert was just sent out to all the police and heroes in the area. A child has been reported missing."

Oni let out a long sigh. "Alright. Send me the information, I'll get on it."

Taking a deep breath, Oni pulled on his super regeneration quirk, clenching his teeth at the wave of fire that coursed through his body as it addressed all of his injuries simultaneously. His nose snapped back into place, a replacement tooth grew in faster than any tooth was meant to, his broken fingers crunched as they were set and healed, and his side grew almost unbearably hot as it healed whatever had been done to his rib. All the little places where his skin had broken itched terribly as it stitched itself back together.

Just as quickly as it started, the heat was fading away, leaving him feeling normal once more, save for the blood that still covered him.

Sitting up, he pulled on 'Shower in a Can,' activating it as he ran his hands down his face. All the blood vanished in an instant, leaving him perfectly clean. The same couldn't be said for his clothes, as there were a great many holes littering them, and they were still damp with the blood of both himself and the criminals, but that was a minor annoyance. At least now he mostly looked clean.

He began pulling on the quirks he'd deactivated when he arrived as he stood, rolling his shoulders as their familiar heat surged through him.

Retrieving his phone from his pocket, and frowning at the crack that ran down the middle of the screen, he looked over the details of the alert that had been sent out.

Oni hummed to himself as he made his way back towards the entrance, pulling his mask back out as he moved and re-securing it to his head.

"Hey, speaking of lost children." He said. "You don't happen to know the status of that little girl I stumbled upon just after the school year began, Iona, do you?"

"Not off the top of my head, why?"

"Just curious."

Stepping back out into the cool night air, Oni spread his wings, stretching them out a bit, before launching himself up into the air.

"Remind me to ask Tsukauchi about her at some point."