36

The collision sent a shockwave through the entire arena. All activity halted when the exam area quaked, and examinees and actors alike struggled to brace themselves against the sudden tremor that rocked the building. Even those watching in the stands were not spared, much to Aizawa's annoyance.

"Well, no one can ever say he didn't give it his all," the man grumbled, his grip on his seat loosening when the tremor died down.

"You know you're beaming on the inside," Ms. Joke snickered from her seat. "You can stop pretending to be a hard-ass."

"Shut it."

Meanwhile, Mera's exhaustion had completely abandoned him. Never in his life had he witnessed a child have such unimaginable power at his disposal. Maybe this was what a teenage All Might was like? Was Izuku Midoriya really another All Might in the making? Either way, it was a mesmerizing sight… as well as a frightening one.

With the examinees, most were in some variety of disarray. Those manning the medical area were fortunately able to keep things in order, but the same couldn't be said for nearly everyone else. As many got their wits about them and continued carrying the civilians to safety, many others were left standing around in complete befuddlement at what could have possibly been causing such a ruckus. 1-A, however, were intimately familiar with the power on display, so they knew that their class rep was handling business.

Bakugo briefly turned his attention to the area the booms were coming from, and his typical scowl was unreadable to those that could decipher what his various states of discontent actually meant. One of those in the know was Kirishima, who was beside Bakugo during the tremor, along with Kaminari.

"You alright, BakuBro?" Kirishima asked, placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Yeah, you're kinda in your own world right now," Kaminari pointed out.

Bakugo didn't verbally respond, instead shrugging off Kirishima's hand and sliding down a hill in the rocky terrain and hoisting two surprised civilians onto his shoulders before walking back towards the city.

Kaminari and Kirishima only watched him leave in shock until Bakugo turned around, shooting them an annoyed glare.

"The hell are you two fuckheads standing around for? Get a move on!"

That snapped the two out of their shock and got them moving in the other blonde's direction. Bakugo, meanwhile, simply scoffed and kept walking. There was no way in hell that Izuku would outdo him in this exam. He'd get his goddamn license, too.

A colorful blur zoomed under a devastating kick from Mirko that slammed into a spire, absolutely shattering it and sending hundreds of chunks of stone every which way. Izuku dodged each one with minimal effort on his way back around to attack Mirko from behind, but she was expecting the trick and spun to face him, catching his punch and holding him in place. Her feral grin matched his smirk, and the two simultaneously drew their free fists back and slammed them into the other's face, knocking both of them back a good distance before both flew into summersaults and landed on their feet.

With two broken noses, the real fight was on. They dashed for each other again and unleashed furry and fiery fury upon each other. What began as a renewed test of strength developed into slamming unforgiving blow after blow on each other, most being blocked but some finding their way through. One in particular was a flame-boosted left haymaker to Mirko's ribs, which Izuku appeared to be following up with another flame-boosted punch to her head with his right arm. This was a feint, though, as Izuku was really planning on unleashing hell on her ribs with his left arm again when she committed to blocking his right punch.

He might have momentarily forgotten just who he was fighting, however. Mirko saw through the feint and latched onto his left arm before he even got the chance to initiate the misdirection, and she slammed him over her shoulder and onto his back, severely cracking the ground underneath. She followed it up with a vicious stomp to his abdomen, freeing whatever wind hadn't already been knocked out of him and practically cratering him into the ground.

Then, to add insult to injury, she used him as a trampoline to leap high into the air above him. Izuku blearily made out her airborne form and knew what was coming, so as Mirko came down for a Luna Fall that was sure to put Izuku down for the count, an orange barrier appeared in the air between them. Smashing through it was nothing for her, but she realized what the move actually was intended for when Izuku was no longer where she had left him.

Slamming to the ground and creating an even more massive crater, she gave the kid props for the quick diversion and cursed her zeal. The strength of her Luna Fall only reduced her visibility by creating a deep crater around her already short frame, and she knew Izuku planned for exactly that. It was only thanks to her ears twitching that she brought her left forearm up to block the colorful missile dropkick that shot down from above. Ignoring the pain, she jumped out of the crater and back onto land with Izuku hot on her trail.

It was now Izuku's turn to press his advantage, slamming another fist into her gut and unleashing a burst of flame from his vents to rocket her away. He snapped his other arm out, and four violet tendrils struck like black mambas toward her, ensnaring her limbs and yanking her back to him like a bungee cord. Izuku cocked his free fist back once more and slammed it into Mirko's cheek when she was within range, launching her away once again and sending her violently tumbling across the ground and planting into another stone spire.

With her head down and her body almost limp, Izuku knew this was his one opportunity to finish it, so after taking a brief moment to catch his breath, he burned a brighter yellow than he ever had before and practically flashed to the spire with a devastating kick locked and loaded, mirroring his opponent's earlier attempt.

However, that brief moment to catch his breath was all the time Mirko needed; her instincts were screaming at her to move the second she slammed into the rock, and her instincts had never failed her, so despite being somewhat out of it after that last punch, the muscles in her legs flexed beyond belief and planted into the ground before she sprang nearly a kilometer into the air just as Izuku impacted and obliterated the spire.

"Holy fucking shit," was said simultaneously by three adults in attendance. Two of them were Aizawa and Ms. Joke, both completely awestruck by the battle they were witnessing.

"HELL YEAH!" Ms. Joke cheered with utter glee. "THAT'S MY INTERN! I KNEW YOU'D FIGURE IT OUT!"

Aizawa was brought out of his stupor by the comment, and he turned a quizzical look to the woman. "Figure what out?"

Ms. Joke brought herself back down from her elation to answer his question. "We were toying around with 2nd Gear during the internship. I mentioned that it's possible that each of his flames had their own boosted state in 2nd Gear alongside the massive boost he already gets in base."

She turned her beaming grin to the battle. "Look at him go! He was fast before, but this is ridiculous! Hell, he might even be faster than All Might like that!"

"That might be a stretch," Aizawa remarked.

"You really think so?"

"No, but for the sake of my mental health, I need it to be."

Up in the viewing box sat the third flabbergasted adult, Mera, who had basically foregone checking on the progress of the other examinees being sent to him in real time in favor of watching the battle between a top pro and a hero student. That statement in and of itself was difficult to fathom, but here he was with his eyes glued to Izuku Midoriya fighting on even terms with the fucking Rabbit Hero, pound for pound the physically strongest active pro in the nation and one of the most competent fighters in East Asia. Hell, the kid was even beating her at the present moment.

And Madame President wanted to make an enemy out of THIS?!

The kid was fucking All Might without a driver's license! There was absolutely no way that he wouldn't be given his provisional license simply because not doing so would be the most grievous waste of potential since Lady Nagant's defection or Skycrawler escaping to America.

That woman was off her fucking rocker if she thought he was going to deny Midoriya a promotion regardless of his score (and he was still comfortably within a passing score regardless; it was a deduction-based system). To hell with the consequences, even she wasn't dumb enough to see this display and stick to her guns.

Mera shivered. Somehow, someway, he knew that she heard that thought. She always did.

Mirko took a breath while she was high up in the air. Only now had she noticed the mangled state of her left arm after blocking that dropkick in the crater, and she couldn't help but grin. Little Green was packing a fucking wallop, and she loved every second of it. Maybe after this fight, she might acknowledge the fact he was actually taller than her and stop calling him Little Green… nah, he hasn't won yet. She'll revisit that possibility later. For now, it was time to bring out the big guns.

On the ground, Izuku had cleared himself of the debris of the unfortunately murdered spire and looked up. What he saw made him somewhat pale: Mirko was performing a series of flips on her descent, gaining more and more momentum as she prepared her most recognizable ultimate move.

Well, if it was a battle of ultimate moves she wanted, then who was he to deny her?

Unleashing the full breadth of 2nd Gear, Izuku's flames blasted the ground and carried him into the air. Izuku propelled himself like a rocket to meet the descending Rabbit Hero. As Mirko noticed his advance and extended her leg to slam the axe kick onto him, Izuku blanketed his right arm in his flames and drew his fist back.

"Flashfire Fist…" Izuku muttered, his form glowing even brighter as 2nd Gear intensified.

Mirko's grin was wicked as she poured all of her strength into this attack, knowing the collision would be magnificent. "This has been amazing! You're stuck with me now, brat!"

Izuku kept the smile that threatened to bloom at her declaration locked away. Green eyes glowing with a mixture of determination and elation met red eyes swimming in much the same as the two titanic attacks neared each collision.

"LUNA ARC!/PROMINENCE SMASH!"

When Mirko's heel and Izuku's fist impacted, several things happened. For one, Mirko felt an explosion of pain shoot up from her heel to her knee. Izuku, on the other hand, felt his hand practically deform and his arm twist and compress into a limp noodle. Neither party paid the injuries any mind, letting the adrenaline handle it while they put their opponent down for the count.

Mirko was the first to strike, kicking down at Izuku with her uninjured leg, but Izuku caught the foot with his left arm and threw it away, rotating Mirko's face toward him as gravity stopped slacking off and got back to work. Mirko, down an arm and a leg, tried to counter with a vicious right hook, but Izuku had the benefit of more uninjured limbs at his disposal, catching her fist and blocking the desperate kick she threw with his shin before locking her leg between his. She was trapped within his grasp, and without wasting another moment, Izuku threw his head back and slammed his forehead into her own.

Both combatants were momentarily dazed, and blood trickled down both of their foreheads after the impact. However, the emergence of pink flames brought Izuku back to reality milliseconds faster than Mirko, and he dived through the small window by biting down on the furry collar of her leotard and throwing his left arm behind him.

'Thanks for the inspiration, Bakugo,' he thought before unleashing a crimson plume of fire out of his open palm, jettisoning them back down to the ground at an insane speed. Izuku released Mirko from his jaws and unhooked her leg, then he planted his feet into her abdomen to avoid slamming headfirst into the ground. The red rocket finally crashed, sending dirt, debris, and chunks of stone everywhere while creating an even more massive crater than the two had made previously.

All activity in the arena had stopped, as their battle was very difficult to ignore in the first place, and the sight of a crimson pillar of flame shooting into the sky before a meteor crashed into the ground was the last straw. Even those in the medical zone couldn't rip their eyes away, though the civilians would be generous enough to not fault them for that.

When the dust settled, Izuku was laying in the crater beside Mirko, both struggling to hold onto consciousness. There was enough fight left in both of them to laugh, though, and that's exactly what they did.

"That… was… incredible," Mirko managed to breathe out.

"Wasn't it?" Izuku replied, pink flames pulling from what was left of his energy to blanket the both of them and fix their wounds.

"I don't normally do this," she struggled, finally losing the battle with unconsciousness, "but when you get your license… come find me."

With that Mirko fell into blissful darkness, leaving Izuku to scramble about what that could have possibly meant. Was she asking to fight again more legitimately? Was she extending him an internship invitation? It couldn't be that; she never took interns or sidekicks. She exclusively worked alone. Then again, she did say "I don't normally do this," so maybe it was? There were so many questions and he had so few brain cells left at that moment.

When his arm was back to a useable state and Mirko's injuries were sufficiently patched up, Izuku dragged himself to his feet and grabbed the older woman. He hefted her deadweight up onto his shoulders, nearly buckling from how absurdly dense she was. He slowly trekked out of the crater and back onto the surface, then he began his slow meander toward the rest of the action.

Meanwhile, Aizawa and Ms. Joke sat in silent shock. Unlike the other examinees, they were able to see Izuku and Mirko's battle from their vantage point.

"I don't fucking believe it…" Aizawa muttered. He did it. The fucking insane kid actually did it."

"I knew you were beaming on the inside," Ms. Joke teased with a victorious smirk.

"Shut it," Aizawa replied, not even attempting to hide his satisfied smile.

Down in the arena, Gang Orca was a little nervous. If one of the children was bold (or dumb) enough to take her on alone, he'd extend his help to the child's family by offering to pay for their funeral. However, when the shockwaves, explosions, and pillars of multicolored fire made it clear that the battle between them was at worst even, his thoughts began to change. There was a child that was strong enough to go toe to toe with Mirko, and they were fighting Mirko, so that meant that they were not going to be fighting him. That would make his testing of the other examinees much less of a hassle, as he wouldn't have to devote the bulk of his attention onto one individual.

Then, a colorful rocket blasted into the air and collided with Mirko, and following that, a crimson missile shot into the ground, creating yet another tremor in the arena. By this point, everyone had stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of the battle, and Gang Orca would be a liar if he said that he didn't join them in doing so.

Soon, the sound of footsteps made their way towards the destroyed city, and everyone turned their attention to a collapsed building that was leaning on a pile of rubble. Out from the other side stepped an exhausted, disheveled Izuku Midoriya carrying a defeated and unconscious Mirko on his shoulders. Everyone's eyes nearly shot out of their skulls at the sight of Izuku wielding a beaten pro hero and his still burning scarf flowing in the breeze that had not been present for the entirety of the exam (Izuku would be sure to thank Inasa for the assist after the test).

"Gang Orca!" Izuku called out over the sea of onlookers. "Lay down your arms, for your greatest weapon has been neutralized!"

His scarf billowed even more gallantly, and he clenched his fist. "Your spree of terror has come to an end, evildoer! Surrender to the indomitable will of justice!"

The entire arena was silent. No one said a word at the incredibly ridiculous scene, not even any of the examinees. Gang Orca's sidekicks turned to their boss and waited for his direction. The silence was finally broken when Gang Orca blasted Izuku off of the building with his hypersonic waves, sending him and Mirko tumbling back down to the other side.

"I wasn't expecting him to call my bluff," Izuku groaned, rubbing his head from his spot on the ground.

"Swing and a miss," Izuku heard the muffled mutter from his defeated opponent who he swore was just unconscious.

Just then, an alarm sounded throughout the testing zone.

"Yeah, so at this time, all of the civilians have been rescued from the disaster zone. It may seem anticlimactic, but with this, the provisional license exam has officially been completed. After we tally the scores, we'll announce the results here in the arena. Those who are injured should go to the infirmary, while everyone else can change clothes and wait wherever you'd like."

Izuku sighed and chuckled. He had no idea how this was going to end up for him given the Commission was apparently taking a vested interest in him for whatever reason, but he could think about that after he woke up.

As he nodded off, two clawed hands emerged from the shadows and grabbed hold of the ankles of Izuku and Mirko, dragging them into the abyss.

Mera stared blankly at the arena that was quickly emptying of examinees. They would all be agonizing over whether or not they passed for the next hour or so while their scores were being tallied, but Mera wasn't really thinking about any of them. His thoughts were squarely on Izuku Midoriya, codename: Beacon. He was 16 years old and had just defeated the Rabbit Hero: Mirko in open combat.

Mera faceplanted on the table. Not only had he made himself completely undeniable for a provisional license, but he might have just gone and made himself a top-level priority for the HPSC. Mera wasn't the only employee in attendance; there were many from the HPSC watching, and all would have seen Midoriya's battle with Mirko. All would have felt the power he wielded. All would have witnessed the unbelievable things this boy was capable of. All would have learned just how valuable of an asset he could be for Japan in their quest to fill the void that All Might and Endeavor left behind.

All would have seen just how unfathomably dangerous he could be should he and the HPSC find themselves on opposite sides.

He feared for the boy's well-being now more than ever.

When Izuku came to, being met with the annoyingly familiar white walls and buzzing equipment drew a loud groan out of him. He was always waking up in the fucking infirmary or a hospital; it was beginning to get really old. Sighing, he sat up and looked around the room, instantly noticing the girl in the room with him wearing a Ketsubutsu student uniform. He recognized the black cat head that nodded off in the chair against the wall immediately.

"Vanta," Izuku called out, and the girl snapped awake mid-snore and nearly fell out of her chair.

"I'm up, I'm up!" she assured to… someone before noticing Izuku snickering in his bed. "Oh, hey. Rise and shine."

"How long was I out?" Izuku questioned.

"About an hour," Vanta shrugged. "You didn't really miss much. They haven't announced the results yet."

"Awesome," Izuku sighed, plopping his head back down onto his pillow. "Is it just you down here?"

"Your friend was here, too, but she had to go to the bathroom," Vanta answered, placing a clawed finger on her chin in thought. "Uraraka, I think? I'm bad with names."

"Ah, that figures," Izuku nodded. "She's usually around when I wake up in an infirmary."

"You make a habit of it?" Vanta snorted.

"It's like my secondary quirk at this point," Izuku confirmed with a chuckle. "Hospital rooms are my home away from home."

Vanta shook her head in amusement. "Well, it's better than a supervillain's basement, I guess."

"I mean, only marginally."

"How did you get out of that with your quirk intact, by the way? You were in the clutches of the friggin' Quirk Thief himself."

"He's kind of a bitch," Izuku said with a shrug, and Vanta actually fell out of her chair in a fit of laughter at the matter-of-fact response. "Well, he is."

When Vanta regained herself, she fixed Izuku with an incredulous look. "Dude, he's like the biggest boogeyman since the Dawn of Quirks, and you just casually called him a bitch. That's fucking rad."

"How do you know so much about him?" he ventured, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I heard some things during my vigilante stint," she cryptically answered.

Izuku sat back up in his bed. "Can we talk about that? That's kind of a big reveal that came out of left field. We've been friends for months, but I don't really know a ton about you."

Vanta snorted. "You act like we have an audience that I have to info-dump for."

"Well, I am the protagonist, so we might as well," Izuku shrugged.

"Ah, so you're the goofy shonen protagonist with more power-ups than brain cells, huh?"

"Get on with your damn backstory already."

Vanta took a moment to curb her snickering at Izuku's pouting. "Okay, okay. It's kind of a downer, so fair warning."

Izuku readjusted to a cross-legged position on the bed and nodded. "I'm all ears."

"Well-" she began before the door opened, and Ochako entered the room, her brown eyes lighting up upon seeing her best friend awake.

"Oh, thank god, you're awake," Ochako sighed in relief and rushed to his side to inspect him further. "I was beginning to think that Gang Orca gave you even more brain damage."

"Okay, my intelligence is being slandered way too much today," Izuku playfully ranted, then he noticed Vanta standing up from her seat and stretching. "You're leaving?"

Ochako noted the confusion on Izuku's face and the awkward tension present in Vanta's, and she blushed. "I wasn't interrupting something important, was I?"

"Nah, it's all good," Vanta waived off. "I should probably get going anyway. The others of Ketsubutsu might start to worry."

"Are you sure?" Izuku asked, and he continued before the girl could nod again. "If it's about trust, then I trust Ochako more than I trust literally anyone else. If there's anyone that I'd call a better hero and person than me, it's her."

Ochako blushed again at the sudden praise, and she turned a curious look to her friend. "I appreciate the compliments, but you're way underselling yourself. I started out wanting to be a hero to make enough money to support my parents."

"And that's changed since training camp, hasn't it?" Izuku challenged, and Ochako was rendered silent.

He was right, her motivations had changed since her encounter with Toga. The visceral anguish and despair she saw in the girl's eyes when she prevented her from taking her own life haunted Ochako. The girl was in so much pain and just wanted to be free from it all, but something either within herself or externally (or both) was holding her hostage. Ochako knew the girl was a criminal, but she knowingly created the opportunity for Izuku to escape with them from the League, and then she vanished into the ether. She needed help, and Ochako wanted to help her. Not only that, Ochako wanted to help everyone who was suffering in silence, regardless of who they were-

Ochako noticed that both Vanta and Izuku were staring at her, Izuku covering his mouth to keep in his laughter.

"…Did I say all that out loud?" Ochako lowly questioned in embarrassment.

"Mhm," Vanta nodded, and Ochako practically deflated into a punctured balloon.

"I'm rubbing off on you," Izuku joked, bringing the mortified girl back to his side with a light hug.

Vanta snorted, then she sighed. She did trust Izuku, and if what his friend had just accidentally muttered was true, then maybe she could take Izuku vouching for her to heart.

"Fine," she finally gave in and sat back down. "Buckle up."

Izuku scooted over so that Ochako could climb into the bed and sit next to him as Vanta told the two her story.

"You guys know that mutants don't really have the best lot in life, right?" Vanta started off, and the two nodded. "People can be bigoted and say stupid stuff in urban, more developed areas, but that's mostly the extent of it out here. That isn't the case away from the cities in rural areas, where I spent most of my life. Anti-mutant discrimination is a lot more rampant out there. It always has been."

"I remember Tsu saying something similar," Ochako spoke up. "Her dad and his parents moved away from their home in Jeda because of how bad it got. It was shortly before 6/6…"

Vanta grimly nodded. "Jeda was the most extreme example of it to make headlines, but stuff like that happens quite a lot in rural areas. I was a target for having a cat's head, sharp claws, and a predisposition to the color black."

A bitter snort escaped her. "My mutation isn't even tied to my quirk. My dad had a cat quirk, but he died of cancer when I was really young, so I was just left with my mom who was a violent alcoholic. No, my actual quirk only made things worse."

Izuku thought back to how her mood immediately dipped when she mentioned the other aspect of Shadow Dance that granted her boosted abilities. She said that it came at a cost, and she had previously described her quirk as villainous to him in the past. He had a decent idea as to what damage sitting in darkness could do to her mental state…

Ochako, though, wasn't privy to that knowledge. "How so?"

Vanta mulled over whether or not she would answer that question in full for a long moment, but she ultimately decided to be honest about it. "My quirk allows me to travel through shadows, as you've already seen. It also allows me to boost my strength, speed, and reflexes if I sit in darkness for a sufficient length of time. The problem is that the longer I'm submerged, the more feral I become, and I'm eventually just a wild, ultra-powerful berserker that can't tell friend from foe."

Ah, yeah, that did sound really bad. The two UA students were silent at the revelation, both grasping the implications very clearly.

"So, in review," Vanta continued, "I was the emo mutant with a quirk that could kill large numbers of people if given sufficient reason. So, naturally, I was a pariah and a 'villain in the making'."

"They had already designated you as a villain," Izuku muttered, his expression darkening.

"And instead of trying to help the situation or even just leave you alone, they decided to prove themselves right and make you into one," Ochako huffed, the anger showing on her face, as well.

"Bingo," Vanta confirmed. "And even then, I didn't even get the worst of it. I was the 'villain in the making', but at least my mutation was on the tolerable end of the spectrum. My best friend didn't have that luxury. Her quirk was Cockroach, and she had all the mutations that came with it."

That took both Izuku and Ochako by surprise. Insect and other bug mutations weren't unheard of, as evidenced by the hero, Centipeder, but many were much rarer than others. One of the rarest of all were cockroach mutations, which was ironic given how insidious actual cockroach infestations could become…

…That potentially led into some pretty uncomfortable implications as to why that was the case, and it wasn't a rabbit hole that Izuku or Ochako particularly wanted to go down if they could help it.

"The funny thing about roaches is that they're insanely overpowered," Vanta chuckled, but there was no hint of mirth in her voice. "Flight, regeneration, the ability to eat just about anything, super strength, insane durability, agility beyond your wildest imagination…"

"Sounds like she would make a fantastic hero if she wanted," Izuku supplied hopefully, and Ochako nodded.

"She would've," Vanta agreed, and a fond smile briefly broke through the malaise before it fell, and her expression became cold. "Or, she would have made for a terrifying villain. One guess as to which route the people around us took."

"Oh no…" Ochako exhaled, placing her hands over her mouth as she quickly pieced together where this was going.

Izuku, meanwhile, was staring at Vanta intently, his eyes shining with something that Vanta couldn't quite place.

"What happened?" Izuku asked, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

There was no reply for a solid minute. Vanta merely sat in her chair with her claws digging into her knees. Trails of blood trickled down her legs from the wounds as she fought back the tears that were welling up. Only when pink flames snaked up her legs and onto her knees did she gain enough control of herself to continue.

"We were hanging out at the pier…" she quietly spoke, doing her very best to mask the wobble in her voice. "A few guys from school came by and attacked us. They called us villain scum, then one of them threw boric acid powder at her. Two of them held me down and kept hitting me while the third one pushed her into the water."

She took a breath, and it was clear that she was losing the battle. "She couldn't swim…"

And the dam broke. Her sobs were visceral, and her shaking as she struggled to maintain any semblance of control over herself was violent. Ochako got off of the bed and was at Vanta's side in less than a second, and the heteromorph found herself clinging onto the girl for dear life as she unleashed all of the pain she had been bottling up for so long.

"She was the sweetest girl on the planet," Vanta sobbed. "She wouldn't hurt a fly and never had a bad thing to say about anyone, even the people who routinely spat on her. She didn't deserve any of that."

Izuku and Ochako allowed Vanta to spill everything she had been holding back, not saying a word and just letting her be vulnerable for once. It reminded Izuku so much of Togeike earlier that week. So many people had experienced so much pain at the hands of others, and it was perpetuated by bad actors enabled by several unjust institutions marring society. From Vanta and other heteromorphs, to Togeike and the quirkless population, to his mother and others who were abused or taken advantage of by their superiors, this was the reality of the world they lived in.

Izuku was so fucking tired of it.

"Those guys who did this," Izuku darkly began, flickers of black appearing in his hard, green gaze, "they have names?"

Vanta snorted, gathering herself enough to respond after sending Ochako a thankful nod. "Wouldn't matter. They already got what they deserved."

Neither Izuku nor Ochako were going to question that any further.

"The police didn't bother investigating her murder and ruled it a suicide," she continued. "After that, I snapped and ran away from everything. I just needed to get away. Somewhere along the way, I intervened in a mugging in an alley and broke the guy's jaw. I guess I just never stopped after that, at least until I was finally caught and shipped to the VRP."

"And here you are now, about to receive your provisional hero license," Izuku stated with a warm, encouraging disposition. "You were dealt such an extraordinarily shitty hand, and you fucking overcame it. That's beyond commendable, Vanta, and you deserve all the praise for that."

Vanta couldn't fight the small smile and chuckle that left her. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Here I am."

"And your story could be an inspiration for all kinds of kids in your situation," Ochako added. "Hell, not even just kids. People all over who faced discrimination hearing your story could inspire some measure of hope in them, too. It's the perfect rags to riches story that's actually relatable."

If Vanta was honest with herself, she was a bit overwhelmed by the kindness and acceptance she was receiving from both of the teens. She knew Izuku wouldn't look down on her at all, but Ochako's warm, kind smile was doing something to her that she ought to nip in the bud before making things weird.

"Thank you both, truly," she said as she stood up. "You still need to change out of your costume. They'll probably announce the scores soon."

"Oh, that's right!" Ochako popped up from her spot beside Vanta and grabbed Izuku's case for his hero suit. "I brought your clothes."

Izuku smiled and nodded his thanks, then he turned back to Vanta. "I'm always available if you need to talk about whatever, you know."

"Me, too," Ochako declared, pulling her phone out and handing it to her. "Slide your number in there. I wanna keep in touch!"

Vanta was so incredibly thankful that her fur was opaque and hiding how beet red she was. She robotically took the phone and put her number into Ochako's contact list, then handed it back to the smiling brunette and her fucking adorable blush-

"Alright, I should get going," Vanta said, throwing hurried goodbyes to the two. "Thanks again for listening."

"Anytime," Izuku chuckled as she vanished from the room, almost leaving a dust cloud in her place.

"Fuck off, null."

The soft, blue light of her computer screen was the only illumination in the room. Togeike sat cross-legged on her bed in partial darkness. It was something she had gotten accustomed to doing at home on days when the other kids at school were particularly nasty or her parents were less inconspicuous about their disdain for her.

"This seat's taken."

This time was a bit different. She wasn't sitting in darkness hoping the abyss would consume her and relieve her of her pain. Instead, she was staring down at the palm of her hand, her fingers cycling between flesh and vine. She still didn't really know the specifics of her quirk or what it even did besides transforming her fingers or growing roots out of her arm and palm. Even that much felt so strangely narrow, as if there was more to it than she was currently aware of.

"Despite being 20% of the population…"

Watching her fingers become vines for the umpteenth time before a root sprouted from her palm and coiled up her arm, she couldn't help but linger on how surreal it all was. A few days ago, she was just the quirkless girl at UA that people sometimes sneered at but mostly just forgot was there. Now, though, everything was different. For the first time in so long, she felt whole…

"Why couldn't you have just been normal? What did we do to deserve a quirkless daughter?"

But she also felt like an imposter. She had been reunited with what had been taken from her so long ago, and now she was an imposter in her own body. Go figure.

A weary sigh escaped her lips, and she turned her attention to the plants beside her computer. Before UA, tending to her plants was all that kept her sane. They still keep her sane, only now it was along the lines of preventing her from strangling her two dumbass friends that she would absolutely kill for without hesitation. She already scouted a few places on campus where she could bury a body if necessary. She needed to plant more flower gardens anyway.

A snort escaped her at the ridiculous thought, and she dismissively waved her hand in the direction of the plants.

She was not expecting her plants to grow as she did so.

"Holy hell…"

Izuku stared at the provisional hero license in his hands with something akin to reverence. It felt like pure gold in his palm, as if the entirety of his future had just officially been opened up for him to traverse. He wasn't alone, either. The entirety of his class was in high spirits on the bus ride back to UA, as everyone had passed and received their provisional licenses. Some had passed more narrowly than others, but everyone made it through, nonetheless. Even Aizawa could legitimately say that he was proud of the little hellions.

Izuku took a picture of his license and sent it to his mom. Then, a phone inexplicably entered his field of vision and started levitating in front of him.

"Midori, you're trending again!"

"Hm?" Izuku asked, now realizing it was Toru handing him her phone. When he took it, he saw that it was a post from Mirko of…

Huh.

The picture was a selfie of her and his unconscious body in the infirmary after their fight. She was grinning and had her arm around him while he was totally none the wiser. The caption read, "Kid's the real deal. Gave me the fight of my life. We're definitely running it back later."

"People are already arguing about if you're really as strong as Mirko," Toru giddily explained.

Izuku stared at the post for a moment before opening the app on his own phone and heading to Mirko's page. This was good. This was very good. He could weaponize this into pushing an agenda to get Mirko the top spot by the next Hero Billboard Chart JP. And that's exactly what he did when he commented:

"Two future #1's in one pic. The star power on display"

And with that fanning of the flames, he simply had to sit back and watch the chaos.

"Sheesh, this was a fucking massacre," Sansa Tamakawa remarked with a cringe, surveying the room that was blanketed with blood and the bodies of dozens of hooded men.

"I don't envy the janitor that stumbled on this scene," Naomasa Tsukauchi muttered as he approached.

"I've seen my share of grisly murders in my day, but this is on another level. Who the hell could have done this?" another policeman asked to no one in particular.

Tamakawa pointed to the wall opposite the stained glass windows where a message was written in blood. The assembled police and detective turned their attention to the four letters scrawled on the wall.

L o A V

Many of the police stared at it in confusion. Tsukauchi, however, immediately felt his stomach drop. When he came in, scattered amongst the slaughtered men were little chunks of what used to be people in neat little piles. That could have been a number of things, but his mind instantly went to Tomura Shigaraki's quirk. Looking back and forth between one of the piles and the message on the wall that looked like it was painstakingly drawn, he couldn't help but feel the connection with the League.

However, it was more than that. If Shigaraki really was behind this, then something about him was different. This wasn't a haphazard decision from an overzealous killer; this was supposed to be a calling card. This was calculated.

"LOAV?" a cop questioned. "Did the League of Villains rebrand or something?"

"No idea," another shrugged. "We think they were in connection to the murder of that Yakuza group a little while back, too."

"First the Yakuza, and now a cult? Are they killing off competition?"

"Who knows?"

Killing off the competition… now, that was a dark thought in Tsukauchi's opinion. What could the League be planning that they'd need to eliminate other criminal organizations? He'd figure that they would look to join forces with other organizations to bolster their numbers after the loss of All For One, but given what Toshinori revealed to him about Tomura Shigaraki turning on All For One, that threw everything they thought they knew about him completely out of whack. What were his goals? What were his motives? What did he even desire out of criminality and villainy at this point?

Tomura Shigaraki was a dangerous wild card, and predicting his moves was going to be the toughest job Tsukauchi had ever undertaken.

The first place Izuku went when they returned to Heights Alliance was the top floor to see his mom and Eri to share the good news. Unlike Mr. Aizawa, who inhabited his own suite on the bottom floor where the common area was, his mother and Eri had their own space on the top floor. Of course, because Nezu is Nezu, his mother more or less got an entire apartment to herself, of which he was given a key to. There were two bedrooms (one for her and one for Eri), a kitchen, a small living room, and a bathroom. Unlocking the door and stepping inside, the only thing on Izuku's mind was informing his mother of the Commission's plot. They weren't just limited to attempting to put them under surveillance, but they were now actively interfering with his hero career. Something needed to be done about them…

…That was until Izuku entered the living room and found his mother asleep in her chair with Eri bundled up in her lap, also sleeping soundly. Two of the most important people in his life were the picture of peaceful and worry-free in that moment. He could do nothing but stare at the sight.

Eri didn't have to worry about the torment inflicted upon her by Overhaul anymore; she had a family to love and protect her, one she could share her own love with and learn how to be a regular person. His mother could let go of her past that had haunted her for so long and focus on loving her family free of the tumult of society like she had always wanted. They could finally find peace, and they could do so in each other.

As Izuku stared at the two illuminated by the soft glow of the TV, his resolve both faltered and steeled simultaneously. They didn't need to be part of this. They didn't need to be bothered by this. They deserved to be happy for once. They deserved to live in peace.

Izuku quietly left the room and exited the apartment, gently closing the door behind him and missing Inko crack one eye open to watch his exit with a soft, proud smile before returning to her rest. As he walked down the hall to the elevator, a storm was raging in the newly christened hero's mind. So many people had been hurt or were still hurting, from those he cared for to those he didn't even know. Many of them were stuck in their situations with no viable way out available to them, while others had escaped their torment but were left with the scars to deal with on their own.

They would never be alone again. Beacon would be there for them. Beacon would be there for all of them.

And to those who were willfully hurting others? Justice would be coming, and it would be unforgiving.

Stepping into the elevator, his mind went back to the image of his mother and Eri sleeping peacefully one last time, free of all the things that tormented the both of them in the past. Now, the Hero Public Safety Commission was attempting to ruin their peace.

Izuku Midoriya would eliminate the Hero Public Safety Commission himself and allow his mother and little sister the peace they deserved if it was the last fucking thing he did.