10

Bakugo felt like utter crap. He had a killer headache and his body was as sore as all hell, but the real casualty was his pride. His pride had been beaten, flogged, tarred, and feathered before being paraded through the public square for the townspeople to throw tomatoes at. In other words, he was not feeling good, physically or emotionally.

He had been nothing short of embarrassed in the battle trial by Deku. He couldn't land a single blow on Deku when he was using his quirk. Deku easily countered his attack and put him on his ass again when he wasn't using his quirk. Deku danced around him and put him in his place, and he made it look easy while he was doing it.

At least Half n' Half looked like he made Deku work for it. Deku looked like he actually had to try against the peppermint bastard, but he, himself, was nothing but a warmup…

That hurt. That really hurt. Not only did Deku surpass him over the past 5 years, but he wasn't even 2nd to the green head. He wasn't even sure if he was 3rd; who the hell knew what that walking pocket dimension chick was capable of when shit got serious?

He winced, and his hand went up to cradle his head. He had no idea what the hell hit him, but it left him with the worst headache he had ever experienced. It was the maraschino cherry on top of the horseshit sundae of a day.

"How's your head, young man?" the voice of an old lady piped up beside his bed. He would forgive himself for not noticing her this time around, but he wouldn't make a habit of allowing people to sneak up on him.

"It feels like foggy shit," he murmured.

"I'm not surprised," she remarked. "Getting a chunk of ice slammed directly to the skull will do that to you. You're lucky to only have a concussion from that."

'A chunk of ice…' he confusedly thought until it hit him. "The invisible girl," he growled out.

"You don't get to be bitter, boy," she scolded while stepping aside and allowing the still unconscious Todoroki into view. "Look at what you did to your partner with that last explosion."

Bakugo was taken completely off guard. He hadn't really thought about the last attack he pulled in his rage-fueled haze until that very moment, and he internally winced. Then, he physically winced when he saw the rough state Todoroki was in. There weren't any scars beyond the one he already had, but his costume was practically burned away and he looked rather beaten up. He couldn't determine how much of that was from him and how much was from Deku, but that wasn't the point.

"I'd rip into you for your absolutely comical level of recklessness that could've gotten yourself and others killed or seriously hurt, but someone else is waiting outside to speak to you first, and anything I say would either be redundant or much nicer than what you're about to get," Recovery Girl huffed before closing the curtain separating his and Todoroki's beds, and then she walked away to open the door.

"Who the hell wants to talk to me?" he muttered lowly to no one in particular.

"I do," was the curt reply of a very familiar voice.

He craned his head to inspect the new arrival, and he saw a woman wearing a black spandex suit with a green mask to match her green gloves and… green hair…

"Oh fuck…"

"I'd scold you for the language, but I think that's pretty apropos for your situation, so I'll allow it just this once," she replied in a clipped tone.

Bakugo's brain was busy catching up with the situation. Standing in front of him was Aunty Inko in a hero costume that he had no idea she even owned. He foggily remembered Deku talking with Round Face about it, but it was a ridiculous thought at the time, and seeing it was very different than hearing about it. Regardless, she looked pissed. In fact, she looked beyond pissed; she looked absolutely livid in a very calm, frigid way that he knew only she could.

He had only gotten in trouble with her once before when he and Deku were very young, and once was more than enough.

He realized that she was glaring at him just like Deku was in the battle trial, but it was a little different. The same rage in his eyes was present in hers, but hers was violently composed and seemed to be molded into a sharp edge ready to stab into him at a moment's notice, as opposed to Deku's that was a barely contained inferno primed to burn him and the rest of the building to ashes.

She wasn't speaking, either. The silence hung heavy in the air as he actually started to wilt under her glare, something that never happened to Katsuki fucking Bakugo. He never backed down from anything or anyone, and he valiantly tried to meet her stare head-on, but the oppressive aura of murder and maternal fury that dwarfed even his own mother's was almost suffocating.

"What the hell were you thinking, Katsuki?" Inko finally asked in a measured tone.

And that was a fucking great question. What exactly was he thinking when he aimed his gauntlet at Deku and Mr. Freeze and pulled the pin?

Was he thinking about how furious he was for being inferior to Deku of all people? Was he thinking about how much it ate at him that he was a pawn in some fuckhead's scheme that drove Deku away to become that powerful in the first place? What about how much it stung to not only be proven inferior to Deku but to Peppermint Butler as well?

Was he thinking about all the years he swore to himself and everyone else that he was indisputably the best, only for it to all just be a convoluted fabrication? Was it that his whole belief that he was the best might have been in part propped up by the designs of a group of terrorists that didn't truly believe in him, only in what his success could do for themselves in the future?

He didn't really know what to say; he didn't know how to answer her question or any of his own. He didn't know which question was the answer to her question, so he just spilled all of them to her. He told her every question, every conundrum, every doubt, every contradiction, and every passing thought he had.

Inko remained silent throughout the entire explanation; in all honesty, it was less of an explanation and more of the blonde unloading years of bottled up insecurities that he'd been holding on to since he was 10. Her glare had softened over the course of his venting, but her face was still kept carefully blank. He couldn't read her face at all for what she was thinking, and it made him nervous, but he was already neck-deep in flushing whatever was left of his pride.

When he was finished, or, more accurately, when he had nothing left inside of him to spill, his mouth snapped shut, and the two stared at each other for what felt like hours to the blonde. If the clock was to be believed, it had only been 2 minutes.

"Katsuki," she finally spoke up, "I'm going to tell you a story, and I want you to be silent and not interrupt until I'm finished. I'll tell you when I'm finished. Understood?"

He nodded, and she grabbed a lone chair to sit down in.

"When I was in high school, I didn't have many friends. Truth be told, I had two of them. You can probably make a guess as to who one of them was, but that isn't the point. My two friends were all I really had. I'm not sure if Izuku ever told you, but I'm adopted. My adoptive parents were loving, certainly, but it was also very clear that they adopted in the first place out of the aesthetic of having a "complete" family unit. They were well off, so they could afford to do it and not really think about it, and they weren't always emotionally available people. For a long time, my two best friends were the center of my world. They felt like the family that I often wished my own family could've been… both times."

She sighed, keeping herself on track and away from any tangents. Bakugo was still silent, paying rapt attention to her every word despite not yet seeing any relevance.

"I brought that up to give a bit of background for the actual point of this story. I went into the heroics track while they didn't, but they still supported me every step of the way, through graduation and beyond. I was underground, so I didn't interact with limelight heroes much and involved myself with the public and the press as little as possible.

"Meanwhile, there was a particular limelight hero a little older than myself that did all he could to present himself to the public. He was powerful, too. Still is. Back then, he was everywhere apprehending criminals, rescuing civilians, taking down villains like candy, and he made a flashy show of his strength all the while.

"I remember him saying at some point that civilians were not points to be earned, and he didn't do any of it for the fame, the wealth, or the notoriety. He just wanted to be the best. He wanted to be Number One. He wanted to step out of the shadow and finally surpass one man: All Might."

Bakugo was still silent, but he wasn't so confused anymore. Beginning aside, he was starting to see why she was telling him this story; he just had no idea where it was going to go.

"The fundamental problem with that goal is that All Might is not a goal to be surpassed. All Might is barely a man; he's a symbol, an almost theoretical concept of heroics that isn't meant to be outdone, at least not in any practical way. All Might is so inhumanly powerful that attempting to bridge the gap between yourself and him isn't something that anyone would be able to achieve in their lifetime, and that's just regarding power and ignoring the sheer significance his very presence has on our society. Are you still following?"

At his shaky nod, she continued. "So, what does an insanely prideful man that's so singularly focused on bridging that gap do when he realizes that it just isn't going to happen? What does that man do when he realizes that he can never be the best, especially as he is, and that there will always be at least one person ahead of him for as long as he lived?"

Bakugo wasn't sure if the question was rhetorical or if she was legitimately asking him what he thought a man like that would do. He didn't answer either way; she hadn't yet told him that she was finished.

"What happened was that the man did not let go of his ambitions. He stubbornly held onto them for dear life, even at the cost of those around him. All that mattered to him was surpassing All Might, and if he couldn't do it himself, he would just pass the buck. That came in the form of a cute little homemade eugenics project he cooked up."

"What the fuck?" Bakugo couldn't help but spit out, immediately recoiling when he realized that he interrupted her.

Inko only chuckled without a trace of mirth in her tone. "'What the fuck' is right," she bitterly lamented. "He, in his infinite wisdom, figured that he could overcome the weaknesses of his quirk by selectively breeding the weaknesses out of it, creating a perfect offspring that had all of the power and benefits of his own quirk without the mitigating factors that would limit them."

Inko's face soured and her tone took a hateful, razor sharp edge. "To do that, however, he needed a proper 'specimen.' He needed someone with biological counters to the roadblocks he faced in his bid for Number One. Wouldn't you believe it that one of my best friends was the perfect candidate?"

Inko's fists tightened in her lap, and Bakugo could see the ocean of raw hatred and malice in her eyes. It was deeply unsettling to see that look in the eyes of a woman he could only remember warm, unfettered kindness from.

"He went about… courting her, and I use that term very loosely. He practically wined and dined her parents into an arranged marriage, and the end result was that he got his disgusting little project off the ground. When the first attempt proved to be a failure, he discarded the adorable little twins with quirks that only functioned well together but would never function separately. He tried again, and it failed again, so he moved on again.

"His own children were nothing but tools to him that were disposable when they weren't able to be what he wanted them to be, which was the golden little miracle baby that would grow up to surpass All Might so that he could live vicariously through them. There was no love, no affection, and no real connection, at least from his end.

"I don't know what happened with the last child; my friend and I… we had an argument when she was pregnant. It was bad. We didn't speak for a decade afterward. I did keep tabs on the family, though, and do you know what ultimately the end result of his little eugenics project was?"

Inko leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at Bakugo. "One dead child, three traumatized children, and a mother that was committed to a mental hospital. All for the sake of surpassing fucking All Might. All for the fucking sake of finally being the fucking best!"

Inko leaned back into her chair and away from Bakugo's pale, alarmed expression. "So, in review, he never became the best despite his efforts, and he left a dead child, a shattered family, and a likely horrifically traumatized teenager in his wake. That's what happens when you put every fiber of your being into chasing a running ghost. That's what happens when you center your very existence around scaling a mountain that's just too steep to reach the peak of."

Bakugo felt as though Inko was performing an autopsy on his soul with just her piercing gaze.

"You'll end up dead if you're lucky, and you'll end up hurting or killing everyone around you one by one if you're not. And, if the battle trial is any indication, you're already well on your way."

Bakugo felt his stomach plummet to the depths of his sphincter at the reminder combined with the Antarctic glare he was receiving.

"So, Katsuki Bakugo, I've known you since you barely were a gleam in your mother's eye. I know that you want to be the best. I know that you've thought for a long time that you were. I know that no longer being the big man on campus is an unfamiliar and frightening concept for you, and you'll do anything and everything to return to the status quo. I know that you feel used by the teachers at your former school district, and you want to prove that you're the best on your own merits and no one else's. I know that you want to surpass All Might himself one day and sit upon your throne atop the hero rankings."

There was a heavy silence as she continued staring at him, fixing him in place as if his answer to whatever question she was building up to would decide his future there and then.

"Are you willing to sacrifice your humanity in order to do that like many before you have?"

The question should have been an easy one for Bakugo, and he almost immediately went to give her an emphatic "no." However, something stayed his hand; after everything she told him, he knew that it was a question that he really needed to think over, as even though it appeared obvious on the surface, thinking about it purely on a surface-level would lead him on a path to becoming the poor schmuck in her story.

Bakugo could've potentially ended multiple lives that day, and he truly realized that, now. His refusal to be anything less than the best and his desire to wipe out any and every bit of competition very well could've landed him a comfy cell in Tartarus for killing the children of two pro heroes. If the gravity of the conversation hadn't already been weighing on him like a lead suit of armor, that realization would have certainly done so.

That wasn't what he wanted to be. That wasn't how he was going to be the best. That wasn't what he would become.

"No," he resolutely answered. "No, I'm not."

Inko finally broke a small smile. "Good." The smile vanished. "Now, your punishment for such unquantifiable stupidity won't be expulsion… tentatively."

Any color that might have returned to Bakugo's face drained once again at the mention of expulsion. "What do you mean?"

"Because the building wasn't brought down by the explosion and no one was ultimately hurt, the rest of the class was able to continue, just in a different building. That was your only saving grace; you still knowingly tried to commit grievous bodily harm on fellow students during a training exercise, successful or not. This conversation is only happening right now because of pure luck on the part of physics, and your answer just now saved you from a one-way ticket to the Villain Rehabilitation program at Ketsubutsu Academy."

"Oh…" was all he could say in response.

"Yeah. 'Oh.' In addition to that, you'll be sitting out every heroics class until the Sports Festival at bare minimum, and you'll be on a probationary period for the rest of the semester in which you will be seeing Hound Dog for compulsory therapy, likely for the foreseeable future. Fuck up again, even the slightest misstep, and you'll be lucky to land in General Studies."

She leaned forward again, and her eyes narrowed into slits. "Fuck up nearly as badly as you did today, and there won't be a body to send to Ketsubutsu. Are we clear?"

Bakugo frantically nodded. He was very willing to admit to himself that Inko fucking terrified him, though he wouldn't say so out loud.

"Good," she curtly replied before standing up and walking to the door. "I'll inform Principal Nezu of your acceptance of the terms. Let's not have this conversation again."

"Have you been a pro hero this entire time?" Bakugo called out to the retreating woman.

She stopped and stood in front of the door without turning back. "I retired shortly before Izuku was born."

"Was it because of that other pro?"

She did not immediately answer. "It was one of several reasons. Ultimately, I lost faith in heroics." She turned her head to look at him, and she offered him a small smile. "Izuku helped me find some of it."

With that, she was gone, and Bakugo was left to ruminate on everything that was said. Little did he know, he wasn't the only one. In the bed next to him separated by a curtain laid a wide-eyed Shoto Todoroki.

"I just don't get how you always know when I'm behind you. Are you sure that super hearing isn't part of your seemingly 6-in-1 quirk?" Ochako huffed as she and Izuku were nearing the gates of UA the next morning.

"I think we're at 7-in-1 at this point," Izuku offhandedly remarked. "And no, you just have to know what to listen for, like the heavy steps of Iida power walking to school behind us."

Ochako turned around in confusion, and, sure enough, Iida was rapidly making his way toward them in typical Iida fashion. She turned a quizzical eye back to Izuku, who only playfully smirked back at her.

"It also helps to always be listening for something," he added.

"So, paranoia?" she dryly questioned.

"Hey, a little healthy paranoia is never a bad thing. You never know when your dad might return from the grave to finish the job, after all."

"…What?"

She did not get an answer or the opportunity to press that alarming detail as Iida caught up with them and attempted to quickly herd them towards their school. It was merely an attempt, however, as the gates of the building were surrounded by a sea of reporters. Cameras and microphones were being shoved into the faces of any and every student that passed through for the slim possibility that they could get a scoop, update, or any morsel of information on the rumors of All Might teaching at the high school.

The three friends struggled to navigate their way through the rush of ravenous press until the sight of their homeroom teacher filled them with hope that they'd survive the onslaught. However, through the cavalcade of questions about All Might's teaching status, if he was a competent teacher, or if Lunch Rush's blood was 50% cocaine like the rumors claimed, one particular question stood out to Izuku:

"UA claimed to have lifted the restrictions on quirkless applicants and now allows quirkless students to enroll. Is that true?"

Izuku stopped in his tracks, and he turned to the woman who posed the question. She had pale blue skin, lilac hair, and green eyes with sunken, black sclera. She was giving him a smile that was filled with genuine curiosity, but something about it gave him an inkling of warning in his gut.

"Well, I haven't personally encountered any yet, but I doubt that anyone who is quirkless would seek to out themselves, especially if they came from a district that was shut down," he answered. He almost missed the slight twitch in her eye at the mention of the district shutdowns, but it was so brief that he questioned if he imagined it in the first place.

"Care to expand on that?" she questioned further without missing a beat.

Izuku internally debated on if he should continue the impromptu interview or continue on to class. Most of the other reporters were busy hounding other students and teachers, but he did notice that a scant few had turned their attention to him.

'Screw it. They came for a story, so let's give them one.'

Looking the woman in the eye, he spoke. "Yes, actually. I think I can speak from a unique position, as I also came from a district that was torn apart and shutdown for quirkism and discrimination, and I had the unfortunate situation of being a late bloomer. I spent the majority of my life believing that I was quirkless."

Her eyes widened a fraction, and the curiosity that was already written on her face seemed to double. A few of the other reporters leaned in closer as well at the development.

"You were quirkless and still worked on your abilities enough to make it into the hero course? Do go on."

"I was fortunate enough to have people in my corner to help me achieve my dream, quirk or not. That support was the driving force that allowed me to get to this point, even before I eventually developed my quirk."

His expression fell and became more solemn. "Unfortunately, not everyone is a late bloomer, and even less people have that kind of support behind them. That's an issue, and either not enough heroes make an effort to address it, or their efforts aren't publicized and don't reach the people really in need."

"And you want to be that hero?" she asked him. "You want to be a symbol for the public, similar to All Might?"

"No, not like All Might," he quickly answered. "I could never live up to that, and, frankly, I feel like my efforts would be much better served trying to help those that not even All Might could reach. Even with a pillar propping up society, people still slip through the cracks. Someone has to be there to extend a helping hand out from the darkness and into the light."

"So a symbol for the disenfranchised, then?" she asked, maintaining her smile that he still wasn't entirely comfortable with.

"If that's the easiest way to phrase it, then sure," he answered.

"Well, I'd love to interview you for Shoowaysha in a few years when you've graduated!" she chirped a little too enthusiastically.

Before he could respond, a white cloth wrapped around him and started tugging him backward towards the gates of UA.

"That's enough of that, you're already late," said a tired and irritated Aizawa. He led Izuku through the gates and walked away from the mass of reporters that were trying find a way around the security system for their All Might scoops.

Once inside the building, he turned an annoyed glare to the teen. "Why are you talking to the press, Midoriya?"

The boy in questions sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "They wanted a scoop, so I gave them something to chew on that would satisfy enough of them to leave the premises. It cuts down the number of marauders vying for blood out there."

"The gate has a security system in place for a reason," he tiredly responded. "All you really accomplished was shining a spotlight on yourself through the chaos, regardless of the noble intent."

"You heard what I said?" Izuku asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yes, and even if I hadn't, it'll most likely be on the internet later today. Now, again, you're late, so get to class."

"But we're going to the same place, so if I'm late, doesn't that mean you're late too?"

The long-suffering sigh that escape the scraggly man's lips was enough for Izuku to dart through the halls and arrive at 1-A's door. Dodging the reprimand from Iida about his tardiness when he stepped inside, he noticed the smoldering yet contemplative look on Bakugo's face that was fixed downward onto his desk. He also noticed the way that Todoroki looked at him with a mixture of bitterness, contempt, and another emotion that he couldn't really identify.

Aizawa entered the room shortly after him, and he addressed the room after they got quiet. "5 seconds. Better, but still not great. Anyway, I reviewed the footage from the battle trials yesterday. Most of you did well enough, although there's room for improvement for all of you. We'll be going over them individually later today during your heroic's class and I'll give you each proper feedback then."

His eyes fixed themselves onto Bakugo with a glare. "I trust you've already been given your official punishment, so I'll only say that if you try anything as monumentally stupid as that again, I'll expel you before Verdant even has the chance to break your limbs. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir," the teen quietly responded.

Bakugo's tepid response shocked Izuku. He wasn't the only one, either, as several others in the room looked just as shocked. He saw that Ashido and even Kirishima were utterly floored; they were probably expecting Bakugo to defiantly bite back or at least have some kind of weight to his answer. Izuku would be lying if he said that he wasn't expecting that, too.

He did notice the way that Jiro subtly perked up at the mention of Verdant, though.

"Good. Now, we're moving onto something that will decide the course of your careers here at UA," Aizawa began, and the entire class was on the edge of their seats in anticipation for what sort of earth-shattering task was ahead of them. "You have to select a class rep."

The room completely deflated like a balloon, and the tension was replaced with mild indignation at the dramatic phrasing and genuine excitement for doing something relatively normal. Izuku listened to his class collectively attempt to decide how to go about selecting a representative for about half a second before his brain moved on to other things. Whatever shit he predicted that Bakugo would be in must have been rather severe for him to be so… docile. It was pretty disconcerting, if he was being honest.

There was also the thing with Todoroki. Prior to the battle trial, while the two-toned teen gave him somewhat contemptuous glares, they were often paired with searching glances, as if he was trying to decipher Izuku like a cryptogram. Today, however, the contempt was diluted in a storm of bitterness, a hint of resentment, and a heap of teenage angst. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

His attention returned when a slip of paper was placed on his desk, and it occurred to him that they must have been voting for class rep. It was a strange way to go about it; he figured that most of the class would vote for themselves given that they all barely knew each other, so any winner would be whoever ended up with 2 or 3 votes total. He didn't really care one way or the other.

He did have to take some time to decide who to vote for, though. His immediate thought was Iida, as he looked to be the most passionate about the position and would most definitely treat it the most seriously out of everyone there, himself included. However, that may be the exact issue; he was way too intense, and it could be intimidating for many.

His next thought was Yaoyorozu, and he couldn't really find fault with that choice. She was exceptionally smart and probably the most responsible of the class. Even if she wasn't elected to be class rep, she'd almost certainly wind up being vice rep and still bring a ton of value to the role. He put a pin in it and moved on.

Ochako was bubbly as all hell, but she would be the first to admit that being class rep wasn't really her thing, and she'd probably punch him for voting for her. Shoji was cool, but he didn't think the taller boy would want the position given his demeanor. He was confident Toru could punch any issue presented to her, so she was an option. Tokoyami…

"What a mad banquet of darkness," he heard the raven-headed boy muttering to himself.

Izuku quickly moved on from that thought and wrote Yaoyorozu's name onto the ballot before placing it in the box. When all the votes were cast, Iida went to the board to tally the results. Yaoyorozu's name received three tallies pretty early on, which he was expecting.

He was not expecting to see his name receive a tally, but he wrote it off to being from Ochako or Toru. Then he got another, but he wasn't particularly concerned.

Then, he got a third, and then he got a fourth.

Pretty soon, he was up to 7.

"What the fuck…" Izuku absentmindedly muttered.

"Language," Aizawa called out from his sleeping bag.

At the end, Izuku led the pack with 15 votes. Yaoyorozu trailed in 2nd place with 4, and Bakugo had a single vote. Izuku was rendered speechless, and he remained speechless even after Aizawa confirmed the decision and the rest of the day proceeded on as normal. He was left to process that 3/4 of his class had chosen him to represent them.

How the hell was he going to do that?

Why had they even done that?

Did they trust him? Why? He felt that Yaoyorozu deserved the role so much more than he did. What was he even going to accomplish as class rep that she couldn't?

"Midoriya?"

He snapped out of the stupor that he was in for who knows how long to see the woman in question, Yaoyorozu, looking at him with mild concern. The classroom was mostly empty.

"The bell for lunch just rang. Are you well?" she asked him.

"Oh, r-right, yeah, I'm fine," he hastily assured. "You go on ahead, I just have some things to think about."

She nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly, and she left the room. Izuku sat at his desk for a few more moments before he stood and finally began meandering to the door. The second he stepped through the doorway, a hand clamped tightly on his right shoulder, and he was face to face with Todoroki.

"I didn't need your help, and I don't need or want any pity or concern from you," Todoroki spat before Izuku could say a word, and then he spun on his heel and stormed away.

'…Where the hell did that come from? The hell is going on today?'

Izuku sat down with his food on one of the roofs of UA. He grabbed his food from the cafeteria and tried to slip out as inconspicuously as he could to an area with very few people. He had too much on his mind, from the revelation that he had already made a big enough impression on his classmates to Todoroki's confusing statement in the hallway.

He was even thinking about what he told the reporters that morning and if it was the right decision to do so. He still hadn't truly figured out what kind of hero he wanted to be, and while he did want to help the people that just never had the support and opportunities that he was lucky enough to get, he also still didn't think he'd live up to the expectations that would come with that.

He was pulled from his musing when he received a text from Yui.

"I saw you leave the cafeteria after you got your food. I think I know where you are. The roof, right? Do you mind if I eat with you?"

"I don't mind at all."

He was about to return to his food until his phone vibrated again; he should've remembered her ridiculous texting speed.

"A friend of mine from class is tagging along. Is that okay?"

"That's fine. See ya' in a bit."

He was about to return to his food again, but something she said occurred to him.

"How do you know I'm on the roof?"

"Because eating on the roof to clear your head is incredibly cliché."

"…Okay, ouch."

"Am I wrong?"

He begrudgingly conceded the point and bitterly tore into his lunch, waiting for his friend and her plus-one to arrive. After a few minutes, the door opened, and out stepped Yui with her usual stoic expression. Bounding out behind her was a girl with long, green hair, and she sported a smile full of pointed teeth. She looked him up and down for a few seconds before shooting him a flirtatious wink, and she could only sigh in both disappointment and amusement when he maintained his blank expression.

"Setsuna Tokage," Yui spoke up while motioning to the other girl, and then she motioned to him. "Izuku Midoriya."

Recognition flittered in Tokage's eyes, and she became incredulous. "So this is the filthy heathen that claims All Might could go toe to toe with Godzilla?!"

"Oh my shit," Izuku heaved a sigh. "All Might has literally changed the weather with a single punch, and that was years after his heyday. Godzilla doesn't have the feats or durability to compete with an All Might that isn't worried about collateral damage."

"Are you fucking kidding me? Godzilla doesn't have the feats? Are you seriously trying to fucking power scale Godzilla with me right now? Because you are not ready for that battle!"

Meanwhile, Yui was ignoring the two and watching the scene at the gates of the school. The press was still there trying to find a way inside, but something else grabbed her attention.

"Hm?" she hummed to herself aloud, catching the notice of Izuku who was preparing a rebuttal to Tokage's use of charts, graphs, and a whiteboard filled with calculations to quantify the lacking strength of a full-powered United States of Smash against Godzilla's atomic breath.

"What's up, Yui?" he asked.

"Over there," she simply said, pointing to the ruckus at the gate.

"You mean the press is still out there?" Tokage complained with a bit of frustration.

"Not them, further down," she clarified. "There's someone in a hoodie,"

The other two looked to where she was pointing to, and they saw the lone figure place his hand on the gate, and the three's eyes all went wide when that section of the gate disintegrated into a pile of dust. He took a step back and waited for the press to notice the new opening, and when they did, they stampeded inside, giving him the cover necessary to slip in with them.

"You guys saw that too, right?" Tokage worriedly asked.

"Mm," came a more distressed than usual hum from Yui.

"Yeah, I did," Izuku confirmed with narrowed eyes. He scanned the crowd to find the intruder with the hoodie, but he was interrupted by the alarm going off campus-wide.

"This is bad," Tokage remarked, now more serious than she was mere seconds before. "You trying to find that guy?"

"Yeah," Izuku responded. "I think I lost him, though."

"Allow me," was her simple reply before one of her eyes split from her head and flew down to the stampede of reporters. Izuku kept himself from internally fanboying at how cool her quirk was, and he and Yui waited intently for her to find something. Tokage's eye was scouring the mob for anyone who looked like they didn't belong, and she eventually found her target split off from the pack and step away from view. When a purple portal opened in front of him, she immediately launched her eye after him to not lose him, but he had apparently sensed he was being watched (followed?), and he turned around and grabbed the eye, decaying it to nothing but dust just as he did to the gate.

"Shit," Tokage swore, "he spotted me."

"Where is he?" Izuku questioned.

"He stepped through a portal or warp gate or something. I didn't get to follow him in, but I caught a glimpse of familiar hallways, so he's definitely in the building."

"Do we go after him?" Yui asked.

"I don't see why not," Tokage replied. "We need to at least warn a teacher."

"Already covered," Izuku spoke up after texting his mom and Nezu about the intruder. "Let's find that motherfucker."

And, with a toothy grin from Tokage, the three bounded through the entrance to the roof and set off back into the building with Nezu's office as their first stop, as that was where Izuku knew the most sensitive information to be. Reaching the office and not finding anyone inside, the three looked around for any signs of the intruder potentially having already been there. Izuku, specifically, was running over every inch of the office with a fine-toothed comb to find anything out of place whatsoever.

Seeing nothing, the three left and continued down the hall to the nearest teacher's lounge. Along the way, Izuku caught a glimpse of pale blue through the small window of a door on his left. Stopping on a dime, he turned to the door and looked through the window to see the hooded man picking up and reading through a small stack of papers. Activating his quirk and lighting up in a flash of yellow, Izuku pushed the door open and launched himself at the man.

Time seemed to slow down for even himself as the man was about to step through another portal but instinctively launched his hand out towards Izuku. Izuku had already seen what the intruder could do with a touch, and he had no interest in becoming dust in the wind. Just before the man's fingers could brush against his chest, Izuku pivoted and dashed to the side to remain clear of his touch. It was all the man needed to leave through the portal, however, and the two locked eyes for a brief moment before the portal closed.

"Goddamn it!" he lamented.

"Yo, Midoriya, you in here?" he heard Tokage call out before the other two entered the room with him.

Yui saw the consternation on Izuku's face, and she frowned. "What happened?"

"I had him," he sighed. "He slipped right through my fingertips."

"You caught him?" Tokage questioned.

"No, I'm pretty sure he was expecting me or anyone else to find him because he shot his hand out at me the second I entered the room," he explained. "I dodged to avoid ending up like your eye, and he escaped through another portal. Did your eye grow back, by the way?"

"Yeah, I can detach my limbs and control them telepathically, and they grow back if they're destroyed or if I lose connection with them," she explained with a toothy grin.

"That is so cool," Izuku muttered, and he stopped himself before he could launch into a mutter spree.

"I know; I'm quite the catch, aren't I?" she teased with a pose.

"Despite your Godzilla takes…" Izuku muttered just loud enough for the two women to hear.

"Oh, don't you fucking start," Tokage growled while Yui silently laughed at the interplay. "Let's ditch this place before anyone finds out that we practically went vigilante."

Izuku's eyes went wide, and he quickly acquiesced. He hadn't actually considered that the teachers very likely would not want him or any students actively pursuing the intruder.

"What, you didn't consider that when you suggested we, and I quote, 'find that motherfucker'?" Tokage pressed with a laugh. "Hell, I'm surprised that even Yui went along with it. You didn't strike me as a rule bender."

"Doing stupid things for the right reasons is the essence of being a hero, isn't it?" Yui shrugged.

"You're goddamn right it is," Tokage cheered.

"I was fortunate enough to have people in my corner to help me achieve my dream, quirk or not. That support was the driving force that allowed me to get to this point, even before I eventually developed my quirk. Unfortunately, not everyone is a late bloomer, and even less people have that kind of support behind them. That's an issue, and either not enough heroes make an effort to address it, or their efforts aren't publicized and just end up falling on deaf ears."

"And you want to be that hero? You want to be a symbol for the public, similar to All Might?"

"No, not like All Might. I could never live up to that, and, frankly, I feel like my efforts would be much better served trying to help those that not even All Might could reach. Even with a pillar propping up society, people still slip through the cracks. Someone has to be there to extend a helping hand out from the darkness and into the light."

"So a symbol for the disenfranchised, then?"

"If that's the easiest way to phrase it, then sure."

In a dark room nestled within an abandoned apartment sat a noseless man watching the impromptu interview of a UA student very intently. His narrow, red-eyed gaze studied every detail of the video, committing the face of the green-haired teen to memory.

"Interesting…" he mused aloud. "Not All Might, but being there for those that even All Might missed. Very interesting…"

He sat up, grabbing the bandages that he typically wrapped around his arms and over his eyes. "Should we meet one day, I'll test that conviction of yours."

After applying the bandages, he grabbed a long, tattered, red scarf beside a freshly blooded katana. "And if your conviction doesn't measure up, you'll be purged like the rest of the fakes."

"So a symbol for the disenfranchised, then?"

"If that's the easiest way to phrase it, then sure."

A scoff could be heard from a man with black, unruly hair with a horribly burned body covered in a myriad of patchwork skin grafts and staples.

"Yeah, whatever," he spat before putting his phone away. "You'll burn with the rest."

"If that's the easiest way to phrase it, then sure."

"What a disgrace. A young, pure human only turned out to just be more diseased filth," growled a man wearing a stylized plague doctor mask.

While he was seething, a little girl huddled in the corner of the room ran some of the things the teen said back in her mind. She didn't understand a lot of it; the words were really big and they talked so fast, but she did understand one key point.

'A hero for the people even All Might couldn't reach, the people that slipped through the cracks.'

She didn't know who All Might was, but she was pretty small. Maybe she slipped through a crack and didn't remember? Maybe she slipped through a crack, and that was why she made her dad disappear. Maybe that was why she was cursed…

Did she deserve to be saved? She was cursed and a monster, so did she really deserve for a hero to come rescue her from the crack she slipped through?

She really hoped so…

"Eri, get in the chair."

Tomura was as still as a statue in his seat at the bar. Kurogiri had taken to wiping glasses that had long since been cleaned as Tomura sat in silence after watching the video from Shoowaysha.

"Tomura, is something the matter?" called a voice from a monitor. Both Tomura and Kurogiri were at attention at the sound.

"No," the young man responded with a voice almost as dry as his skin. "The plan is still good to go. The Symbol of Peace will die."

He paused for a moment, considering his words before speaking. "That boy, though, something about him…"

"Ah, there was something vaguely familiar about him, but I could not place it. I will look into it another time, but for now, focus on your current mission of disposing of the Symbol of Peace," the voice calmly instructed.

Tomura looked back at the small screen of his phone, and his thoughts returned to the green-haired teenager. 'You're the same brat that almost caught me. A hero for those who fell through the cracks, huh?'

A curious glint appeared in the man's red eyes. 'Survive tomorrow, and we'll see about that, hero brat.'