Unwavering Heart

Izuku blamed himself for what was currently happening to Katsuki right now. While villain attacks happened almost on the daily, he knew for a fact that this particular one was his own fault. Watching his best friend struggle against the sludge villain, just as he himself had done just recently, Izuku was overcome with shock and regret.

'Why did I grab on to All Might?' he thought as he watched the chaos. Because of him, the soda bottle that housed the villain must have been dropped while he and All Might were sailing through the air.

But as he watched Katsuki look towards the heroes and the crowd of onlookers, fighting for his life as he was slowly being suffocated...

Izuku moved.

"Kacchan!" he cried out, pushing past the crowd and making a run for it. Before he could get far, however, he was restrained by a man grabbing his arm and backpack.

"Kid, what the hell do you think you're doing?" demanded the man who was restraining him. Izuku turned around and would have fanboyed at the sight of Death Arms talking to him, but there were more urgent things to worry about.

"That's my friend!" he replied. "I gotta help him!"

Death Arms maintained his iron grip on Izuku. "Kid," he said again, but softer. "What makes you think you can stop that villain if the Pros here can't?" He started to lightly drag Izuku back to the crowd. "There's nothing else we can do but wait for a better suited Pro to handle this."

"But All Might could!" Izuku began. "He could-"

"Yeah, well All Might's not here, is he?" the hero retorted, which caused Izuku to pause in his resisting.

'Because he's out of time...All Might's...out of time today.' He looked back to Katsuki, who was still struggling within the clutches of the sludge villain, and was now getting smaller and smaller as Death Arms continued to drag him back to the crowd.

'And Kacchan's running out of time.' It didn't matter that there wasn't a suitable hero that could help. Every second that passed was one more that lead to his potential death.

All because of him.

At the front of the crowd, Izuku turned to the hero. "Death Arms," he addressed him. When he turned to look at him, Izuku continued. "I'm really sorry, but I don't have time for this." Before the hero could ask him just what he was going to do now, Izuku summoned Gold Experience and commanded it to lightly punch him on his exposed midsection. And then he ran back to the villain, much to everyone's shock.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" someone shouted. Whether that was a bystander or one of the heroes, Izuku couldn't tell.

All that mattered was getting to his friend.

His heart unwavering, Izuku kept Gold Experience in his line of sight as he shrugged off his backpack and immediately threw it at the sludge villain. With the sound of reversing musical notes, all of the pencils and pens inside were then transformed into a collection of bees and wasps, which he commanded to attack what he assumed was the villain's only weak point.

His eyes.

The sludge villain was fully aware of Izuku running towards him, but he was too preoccupied in trying to gain control of the brat with the explosion Quirk. "You again..." he muttered, wondering how he'd try to save his friend. After all, the only reason he was saved was because of All Might having caught up to him and the villain, but it didn't look like he was anywhere nearby.

He opened his mouth to let out a taunt, but was immediately met head-on with a backpack, reflexively closing his eyes in pain as a book's corner nearly made contact with them. When he opened his eyes to begin a retaliation, the villain had only a second to comprehend the fate Izuku had left him to, before being overwhelmed by unimaginable pain at the sensation of multiple stingers making contact with his eyes and injecting their venom.

Izuku grimaced at the shrieks of pain the villain was making as he reached Katsuki, and briefly wondered if the decision he just made was the right one. A moment later, he discarded the thought at the sight of Katsuki's still being trapped.

"Deku..." his friend began in between deep breaths. "What the hell are you doing?" Izuku looked his friend in the eyes and saw that they were pleading for help. While Katsuki usually considered himself an alpha male who could do everything on his own, what was currently happening wasn't a usual circumstance.

"I've got you, Kacchan," he simply stated, looking for a way to reach in and try to pull Katsuki out. At first, the only opening Izuku could find was Katsuki's exposed head, but the sludge villain's grip slowly lessened and lessened, as he was focusing more on trying to relieve the pain from the copious amount of venom assaulting his eyes.

Seeing the barest hint of Katsuki's shoulders and upper biceps, Izuku commanded Gold Experience to grab hold of his armpits and pull him out. After a brief moment of hard tugging, Katsuki was eventually pulled free from the sludge villain's grasp, and was shakily standing up from the ground after unceremoniously tumbling out.

Izuku breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing his friend safe, before turning to look at the villain. "What do you say we finish the job, Kacchan?" he asked him. Katsuki let out a low growl and cracked his knuckles.

"Sure," he replied, then bared his teeth. "Let's get this fucker."

However, before the two boys could move and proceed to give the villain the beatdown of his life, they were stopped by two very large hands resting on their shoulders. They both turned around in mild annoyance (Katsuki more so), but were shocked to see a very familiar blond hero wearing a wide grin.

"I'll take it from here, you two," All Might said, trademark grin in place. "It's best you leave this to the professionals." After a moment of silent contemplation, the two boys relented, still in awe at seeing All Might at the scene. Taking a step forward, the hero began to walk towards the villain, before breaking out into a rush. "Detroit..." he began, rearing his fist back, then throwing it forward. "...SMAAASH!"

---

After the situation had been resolved and the sludge villain subsequently arrested, the heroes who sat on the sidelines began to reprimand Izuku on his earlier choice to run after Katsuki.

Death Arms was specifically not happy, especially how Izuku had managed to stun him using Gold Experience.

After he all but shouted how Izuku could have gotten himself killed, it took everything he had to fight down the urge to snap back a retort, as he didn't want to disrespect the hero. Death Arms continued to reprimand how rash his actions were, specifically how he handled the villain. Eventually, he ended up calming down enough for Izuku to point out how no one had moved to even try to save Katsuki.

"Well that was pretty eventful, huh, Kacchan?" asked Izuku, when the two boys were finally able to break free from the heroes and press, and were now on their way home.

Katsuki only grunted in reply. They continued to walk in a tense silence for a few moments until he decided to speak up. "Deku."

"Hm?"

"I could've beat his ass fine without you," he said, looking down and gritting his teeth. "...but thanks, I guess." He looked back up and jabbed a finger towards Izuku. "But next time I'm saving you, got it?"

Izuku smiled. "Of course, Kacchan," he replied. The matter settled, two boys continued to walk until eventually parting ways for their respective homes.

'Man, I sure am hungry right about now,' he thought. After such an eventful day, all he wanted to do was relax in his bed and eat a filling meal.

Preferably a bowl of katsudon. Or maybe two.

"Young Midorya."

Izuku looked up as his thoughts were interrupted at the sight of the massive hero. "All Might!"

All Might proceeded to attempt to flex a pose, but almost instantly deflated back into his skeletal form. "I have to commend you, my boy," he began. "Few were willing to take the initiative like you had to save your friend back there."

Izuku scratched the back of his head. "Oh, uh, thank you, All Might..." he replied, unused to the praise.

"However," All Might continued, his tone turning serious. "The way you went about it was unbefitting of how a hero should act."

'Not this again,' Izuku thought.

"I know..." he replied. "But I couldn't think of anything else to do at the time! The other heroes just stayed back with the crowd, while my..." He looked down at his shoes, clenching his fists. "While my best friend was slowly suffocating to death. I didn't have the time to just wait around, and it was my fault the villain got away in the first place!" He looked back up at All Might with a look of mild defiance, as if daring him to reprimand him further, but the man just sighed.

"I'd say I was the one more at fault," he began, to Izuku's surprise. "If you recall earlier today when you latched on to my leg, you were holding on to the left leg, while the villain was housed in my right pocket," he continued, patting the pocket mentioned. "While your decision to permanently render the villain blind is questionable at best, you were still the only one who made the attempt to rescue your friend."

"Uh, thank you," was all Izuku could say.

"Which is why I would like for you to be my successor."

"..."

"Okay, you clearly don't believe me, but just hear me out."

"...huh?" Izuku asked weakly.

---

To say that what Toshinori had just revealed was a bombshell had to be the biggest understatement of the century. He could only imagine what the boy's thoughts were. He could be thinking 'All Might's Quirk could be passed on?!', 'how does that even work', and 'how come no one had ever heard of it before', to name a few. All perfectly reasonable thoughts.

Oh wait, never mind, it seems Midoriya had been muttering them out loud.

"I understand this is a lot for you to take in," Toshinori eventually spoke up. "And I don't expect an answer right away. But I would just like for you to think about it." It really was a lot of pressure for the number one hero to ask someone to take his Quirk and eventually replace him as the Symbol of Peace.

"I..." the kid took a deep breath before looking Toshinori in the eyes. "I'm sorry, All Might, I can't accept your offer."

"Oh," he replied awkwardly. Okay, to be honest he really wasn't expecting that. "May I ask as to why you've declined?" Damn it, just when he thought he had found a good candidate for One For All, he surprisingly ends up turned down. Well, now at least he could check out that Tōgata kid Nighteye's been-

"Because I can heal you!"

Toshinori blinked. "...Come again?"

"You want to pass your power on because of your injury, right? I can just heal your wound and restore all of your missing organs!" Midoriya said.

"No, I heard you the first time," Toshinori quickly amended. "But I would like for you to elaborate."

Midoriya nodded and took a deep breath. "My Quirk, Life Giver, allows me to make plants and animals out of inanimate objects, and that includes all their organs, too. So all I would need is an object similar in size and some of your DNA, and then we can just book you a surgery at the hospital!"

Toshinori really, really didn't want to get his hopes up, but this felt too good to be true. Healing Quirks were extremely rare, with Recovery Girl regularly having to travel extensively in order to heal injuries from incidents like villain attacks and natural disasters. Could Toshinori be blamed for taking Midoriya's words with a grain of salt? If his organs were restored, then he would no longer have to rely on a three-hour time limit!

"Could you..." he began. "Could you show me?"

Midoriya nodded and took off his backpack, and proceeded to rummage through it for a suitable item to transform. He then stood up and was holding what Toshinori assumed was an eraser in his hands. After a brief moment of staring at it in concentration, a sound that he could only immediately attribute to music faintly played, before Midorya walked forward.

In his hands was a tiny heart, in place of the eraser.

To say that Toshinori was impressed had to be an even bigger understatement that the One For All reveal, but before he could tell the boy how impressed he was, he noticed that the heart had been beating.

"That's incredible," he breathed out. "Young Midoriya, I...I don't know what to say. Do you know how exceedingly rare your Quirk is?"

The boy grinned. "Yup," he replied. "I found out I could do this when I was experimenting with my friend Bakugō to see whether or not I could create humans, but it turned out my limit was at small animals. Never said I couldn't make organs, though."

Toshinori nodded in understanding. The human body was a very complex system, and it would have to take many years of research in order to create an organism that could properly function, let alone go through the stages of life. And that wasn't even including all of the ethical implications. "Does the local hospital know about this?"

"Of course," the boy replied. "One of the first things I asked my mother to do after I found out was to drive me to the hospital, and I've been donating organs regularly ever since." Well that was good at least, all the more reason for him to be the perfect successor for - oh. Wait, that's right, he refused.

'Damn it,' he thought. Now he really wanted to try and convince the boy to change his mind. And introduce him to Chiyo-obasan.

"This was how you handled the villain," he said softly. "Wasn't it?"

"...Yes," Midoriya admitted. "I used my Quirk to turn my school supplies into a bunch of bees and wasps that I directed to attack his eyes. I didn't care about the consequences because I knew I could fix his eyes immediately after."

'Yikes,' Toshinori thought, wincing. He had had his fair share of painful stings, of course, but it was only ever once at a time. But more than that, and concentrated on the eyes, no less...

He briefly noted to make a reminder not to do anything to make Izuku Midoriya angry.

"Midoriya, my boy," Toshinori continued. "I don't know if it would work for me, considering the nature of One For All, but I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this opportunity." He didn't want to get his hopes up, but he really wanted to be able to eat more and take larger breaths. Not to mention the three-hour time limit.

"But we haven't even gotten to the punch ghost yet!"

Now it was Toshinori's turn to be confused. "...Huh?"