23

If there was one thing Izuku learned over the course of the semester, it was that sleep, like kneecaps, was a privilege and not a right. Whether it was agonizing over the littlest, least meaningful decisions in his life or waking up in a cold sweat after reliving the death of the Sludge Villain for the hundredth time, Izuku was no stranger to losing sleep. This night was no different, as the events of the day had finally come down on him.

Tomura Shigaraki had offered him a spot in the League of Villains. He was seriously offered a place in the League of fucking Villains. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that? He felt that the two of them had come to a sort of understanding, but for the man to have extended him that kind of offer… he didn't quite know how to feel about the implications. He decided to keep it to himself for the moment.

Then, there was the redheaded man who hinted at knowing the truth about the Sludge Villain with all the subtlety of a parade of flaccid cocks flopping in the wind. If the man was trying to play mind games with him, he very much succeeded. He needed to figure out just who the hell the man was and what the hell his angle even was. Unlike with the meeting with Tomura, he did send a warning to Nezu about that interaction. Someone had gotten their hands on classified information and felt comfortable enough to all but tell Izuku that they had it.

Finally, there was the sorest of the present subjects: his mother. He got confirmation on a name, but as much as every fiber of his being quite literally burned with the desire to hunt the son of a bitch down, his mother made him promise to leave it be if for no other reason than to not deprive her of her own catharsis when the time came. He would gladly do that for his mother, and he would ensure that he got a front row seat. As Hisashi Midoriya found out for himself (and All For One would certainly find out soon), you don't fuck with a Shimura and live to tell the tale.

Unbeknownst to a snoozing Toshinori, One For All was lightly humming. Within the quirk, Nana Shimura felt a sudden wave of unbridled vindication.

"You're goddamn right, you don't," she muttered to herself, much to the confusion of the other vestiges. They shrugged it off and just assumed that she had finally lost what was left of her sanity.

Needless to say, Izuku had a lot on his mind, and sleep was just not in the cards for him. He'd generally just browse through his phone in situations like this, which may or may not have been counterproductive to getting back to sleep, but mindless doom-scrolling was the easiest, most readily available solution. As such, that was what he found himself doing once again at 2:30 a.m. It wasn't absolutely pertinent that he got back to sleep since he didn't have school in the morning and his flight to I-Island wasn't until the day after, so he afforded himself a dive through hero forums.

He hadn't been spending a ton of time on them after the Hosu incident since seeing discussions about himself in relation to Stain made him feel weird. The memes were one thing, but some users like AllBlackCat and G_E_I_C_O who were firmly in the "Stain had a point" camp consistently argued with those in the "a villain with valid points is still a villain" and "Stain was a ridiculous psychopath" camps about himself and Shoto.

He primarily saw a lot of talk about the merit of Stain's stamp of approval in regards to his validity as a true hero. Those in the former camp argued that a man who explicitly killed heroes he deemed to be unfit for the title by his admittedly ludicrous standards finding someone to be worthy was inherently significant. AllBlackCat in particular seemed to be rather violently in his corner, consistently arguing that his desire to help people was genuine enough that even a serial killer could see it. That made him feel good.

On the other hand, he got the feeling that G_E_I_C_O just wanted to talk up Stain whenever they could. He was a little worried about that one, in all honesty.

However, those in the latter two camps argued that a crazy man deeming something to meet his standards didn't make it significant, and arguing from the position that it did only gave the crazy man's ramblings more power than they actually deserved. Some even insisted that a kid who wanted to help the downtrodden being endorsed by an explicit hero killer says more about the kid's appeal to villains than his appeal to "civilized society." He could certainly see the logic in the first point, but the second one kind of hurt.

Even beyond the Stain topics, visits to those forums just didn't hit the same as they did before he started at UA. The debates he got into with FutureVision420 over All Might's diminishing presence in the public eye weren't as satisfying once he learned about All Might's injury. There was nothing to speculate anymore, so he just found himself agreeing with the user's ravenous defense of All Might.

His scrolling was interrupted when he received a text from an unfamiliar number:

"Midoriya? It's Vanta."

That certainly surprised him. Vanta hadn't spoken to him much during his internship, and it had been weeks since then. He got a few messages from some of the others in the VRP, but none from her. Given her hesitance to share much of her story while he was there, getting a random text from her was certainly a nice surprise.

"Vanta, hey! It's great to hear from you. How are you?"

"I'm alive. You know how that goes."

…Izuku truly did not know how to take that statement, so he moved past it.

"Fair enough. What have you been up to?"

"Eh, same old, same old. We can't exactly leave the campus unsupervised. Probably for our own good."

Izuku conceded that point; it only made sense that their movements were restricted until they were fully rehabilitated. They presumably didn't teach small talk classes, though, and Izuku had never been great at it, either, so he was at risk of fumbling through the rest of the conversation if it kept up like this.

"I get that."

"How did you encounter Stain?"

Ah, there it was. The username "AllBlackCat" started to make a lot of sense.

"My friend was being an idiot and trying to get revenge for his brother."

"So you did fight him, then? It wasn't Endeavor like the official reports say?"

"I won't confirm or deny anything."

"That's basically a yes, you know?"

"Not according to the rules of plausible deniability."

"I'm 99% sure that's not how that works, but alright."

Izuku wouldn't say that he wasn't enjoying talking to her, but he felt like she didn't just text him out of the blue to ask him something she likely already knew the answer to.

"Is something on your mind?"

There was a pause for a few minutes, and Izuku figured that he hit the nail on the head and she was either trying to formulate a response or working up the nerve to come out and say whatever was troubling her.

"Do you think anyone can be a hero?"

Well, of all the unexpected questions to receive, that was certainly on the lighter end of the scale. He definitely didn't think that just anyone should be a hero anymore, but he could infer that wasn't what she was asking him.

"Anyone with the capacity to do good can be a hero."

"Even a mutant with a villainous quirk and a rap sheet?"

"The sins of your past have no bearing on the lives you can save in the future. There's also no such thing as a 'villainous quirk,' and anyone who says otherwise is a fuckwit."

Another pause followed, and Izuku patiently awaited her response.

"I knew you were cool."

A smile graced Izuku's face at her text. It took all of his willpower to opt out of asking her about her quirk since it was already really late and he knew that he'd badger her with questions about it for hours if he could.

"Look, it's coming into view! The world's very own bastion of research and baby-making! I can already feel all the beautiful babies I'm going to make!"

Mei was practically salivating with her face pressed against the window of the private jet as they made their steady approach to the vaunted island, much to the amusement of Izuku and discomfort of Toshinori. He still didn't really know how to feel about another person being let in on his biggest secret. After the girl had pretty much figured out his identity on her own within a minute of meeting him, he ushered them into the teachers' lounge and made her swear an oath of silence about the whole thing. When she did, he told her about his injury and his time limit, but nothing more than that.

What surprised him, however, was how little she seemed to care, at least outwardly. She really just seemed happy to be included, not really caring about the truth behind All Might's identity one way or the other. Maybe she just didn't show it, but either way, Toshinori would be lying if he said his pride wasn't a little wounded.

"She seems excited," Izuku mused to the older man sitting across the aisle.

"Yeah, she does," he sighed. "I'm genuinely afraid of what a brain like hers could get up to on I-Island."

"I could start on something that extends your time limit!" the girl in question excitedly declared to Toshinori, and the two other occupants of the jet were very much taken aback.

She didn't freak out or react very strongly when she was brought into the fold, so both assumed that she just took the information in stride and didn't obsess over it because it had little to do with inventing and designing gear. In actuality, the idea of the Symbol of Peace being constrained by a time limit that kept him out of the picture for 21 hours out of any given day unsettled her, and she had a few thoughts about the situation that she didn't really know what to make of.

"Well, at least until you can find someone to pass your quirk onto," she finished in a more subdued tone, and Toshinori practically hacked up his remaining lung.

"H-how do you know about that?!" he demanded.

"You were muttering about finding a successor and passing on your quirk in your sleep earlier," she answered, and Toshinori paled while Izuku facepalmed.

"Real nice, All Might," Izuku muttered through his hands.

Toshinori heavily sighed, and he fixed Mei with a serious look. "You cannot tell a soul about what you heard."

"I figured," she shrugged. "Are you close to finding one?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not," the man denied with a downcast expression. "I had a few in mind, but certain circumstances made them unfit for the role through no fault of their own. For right now, One For All will stay with me."

Mei nodded and returned her gaze to the window, meanwhile Izuku had brought his head from his hands and turned his attention to Toshinori.

"Does that have to change?" he asked him, and Toshinori's brow furrowed.

"What do you mean, Young Midoriya?" he asked with a bit of confusion. Why wouldn't he pass on One For All?

Izuku mulled over his thoughts for a long moment, and even Mei brought her gaze from the floating city in the distance to the green-haired teen.

"You're the Symbol of Peace," the boy began. "You've done so much good for our society. Your presence still does so much for keeping society stable, and without you, who knows what kind of hell we would be plunged into."

Toshinori nodded; he knew that much already. It was why passing on the quirk was so important, as he wouldn't be around forever.

"But have you ever considered that as much good as your status does us, it also does as much harm?" Izuku asked him.

Before Toshinori could rebut, Izuku held his hand up and continued. "I don't mean you, as a hero, I mean what you represent. You're not just a symbol, you're also a pillar holding up the current order. Society needs you in order to exist, or, more accurately, society needs One For All as its currently constructed."

"Exactly," Toshinori agreed. "That's why it's crucial that I find a successor to be the pillar that society rests on when I can no longer be that."

"But there doesn't have to be just one pillar, don't you think? You told me that I'm going to be a great symbol in the future, and I do want to be, but I don't want to be the symbol; it's a double-edged sword. Society resting on a singular pillar is dangerous. No matter how strong that pillar is, it's just one pillar, and it'll never be infallible."

"It has to be," Toshinori pressed.

"But it won't be," Izuku stood his ground. "Your injury is proof of that."

Toshinori flinched, but the boy wasn't wrong, and he knew it. He just barely survived that battle with All For One, and even now, he wasn't entirely convinced that he had enough power to finish the job if the supervillain truly survived having his head caved in 5 years prior. Mei, meanwhile, was silently watching the discussion unfold. The thoughts she had about All Might and his condition were being echoed on both sides of the debate.

After a lengthy silence, the man resignedly sighed. "What do you suggest?"

Before Izuku could say anything, Mei spoke up, surprising the two of them. "How about more than one pillar?"

When the two males turned to look at her, she continued. "If someone is strong enough to take down one pillar, then they're probably strong enough to take down multiple, though maybe not all at once. There's no sense in making it easier on them by just having one pillar to take down to cause the downfall of society. Four legs make a sturdier table than three, which make a sturdier table than two."

Seeing exactly where she was going with her analogy, Izuku's eyes brightened. "And the four legs wouldn't have to be as thick as a single leg would have to be to support the entire weight of the table!"

"And knocking down one leg wouldn't bring down the entire thing!"

"Well, I suppose that depends on the shape and composition of the table- you know what, we're getting lost in the analogy."

While the two teens were going on about tables, Toshinori was considering everything the youngsters said. He would readily admit that they made a good point that a singular pillar wasn't infallible, and without added help to keep society standing, removing that pillar would bring the whole thing down, and his injury was doing just that.

Still, though, that's nothing that passing on the quirk won't address, right? Having multiple pillars for society would be fantastic, but how feasible was it with the power they wielded? Maybe if he plucked two hairs from his head and offered them to two different people…

"No!"

"What the fuck? No!"

"Absolutely not, Toshi!"

"Don't do that, you goddamn bonehead!"

"My brother is going to win at this rate…"

…For some reason, Toshinori felt like that was a bad idea.

Looking at the two teens animatedly spiraling into a conversation about combat-ready tables and something about babies that spat fire, a fond smile took form on his face. He was reminded of days gone with David by his side when he watched them interact. Still, they had an important discussion to continue.

"Wouldn't the issue of needing multiple pillars still be able to be addressed while having a wielder of One For All?" Toshinori asked the two teens.

"I mean, sure, it could be," Izuku began, "but you're still thinking about it in terms of one sturdy pillar holding up society with a couple of others that aren't as sturdy providing support. A villain or force of villains who want to take down society would still need to be strong enough to take down that main pillar. They'd have to be as powerful as you."

"That's a pretty tall order," Toshinori commented.

"It would be… for most," Izuku replied, and Toshinori stiffened. He didn't know that the boy was aware of All For One potentially still being alive, but the point still remained.

"Besides," Mei spoke up again, "it's better if heroes and society at large don't have a specific get-out-of-jail-free card so that they don't rest on their laurels. Complacency is the enemy of progress, after all."

"Just something to think about," Izuku finished off as the two teens turned to watch the approaching floating city from their windows.

The boy was right; Toshinori had quite a bit to think about. So long as All For One was still alive, One For All needed to exist, and thus a Symbol of Peace needed to be around. However, what about after that? His entire mission had been to save the world with a smile, be the Symbol of Peace that society needed, and avenge his sensei for as long as he could remember. Was he even allowed to think about what came afterward when the job hasn't even been finished, yet?

After making it through immigration inspection, the two costumed men and uniformed woman entered the fray of festivities for the pre-opening of I-Expo. The teens' reactions to the new environment were as amusing to All Might as he expected they would be. They were gawking at the open quirk usage first and foremost.

"Unlike in Japan, people are allowed to use their quirks however they wish on I-Island," All Might explained.

"Woah…" Izuku remarked in complete wonder. Both he and his destructive companion felt like they were in a fantasy world.

"I much prefer the western model where they are a little more liberal about our natural gifts."

"So, that's what he meant," Izuku muttered to himself quietly enough that neither would hear him, or so he thought. "Quirk laws in Japan are pretty restrictive."

"They've always been that way," All Might responded with a light sigh. "It was a whole thing for a while, even decades ago before my time. I-Island is technically international land, but the United States has the most significant influence over it, so their more lax philosophy on quirk use carried over here."

Izuku ignored his slight embarrassment at being heard in favor of his intrigue at the information he was given. "People can use their quirks as they please, and there's no crime to speak of?"

It was Mei who answered this time. "Don't mistake correlation for causation. It's likely a cultural thing in tandem with the fact that this place has a security system that's 2nd to none."

All Might nodded with his signature grin. He maintained his grin when he was recognized and immediately swarmed by both fans and the media.

Despite the grin, All Might was not having a good time. He was one of if not the most famous pro hero on the planet, so the attention was very much expected, but that wasn't the end of it. Regardless of how easy it was for the two teens with him to figure out his identity, no one else had done the same up to that point. As far as the world was concerned, All Might was 220cm and built like a brick shithouse at all times.

That meant that All Might had to stay buffed up every second he was in public. It would be murder on him, but so long as he wasn't forced to do anything particularly strenuous, he'd be fine. What could possibly go wrong on I-Island, anyway? The place had better security measures than Tartarus; no one would be stupid enough to stage any attacks at the expo. Someone would have to be a complete and utter fucking imbecile to think they could possibly get away with that.

"There you are, Uncle Might!" came an excited voice from afar accompanied by the spring of a clearly modified pogo stick.

Joyfully bounding over to the group was a blonde teenage girl with round glasses over her blue eyes. Izuku was confused at the way she addressed All Might so familiarly, while Mei's eyes immediately zeroed in on the pogo stick she was riding. When the girl finally made it to them, she and All Might leaped into a hug and started catching up. Izuku patiently stood to the side and out of the way to not interrupt the clear reconnection, and as the conversation progressed without either acknowledging him whatsoever, he looked over to Mei to see if she was feeling as awkward as he was.

As he should've expected, she was no longer beside him. Instead, she was closely inspecting every inch of the unique pogo stick and practically salivating all the while. He could only shake his head and softly chuckle, and that finally got All Might's attention and reminded him that he had stragglers with him.

"Oh, right, Young Midoriya, allow me to introduce you to my friend Dave's daughter," All Might motioned to her.

"It's really nice to meet you," she said with a smile. "I'm Melissa Shield."

"Shield? Like David Shield?"

"Mhm. He's my dad."

"Holy hell, that's so cool!" Izuku began before cutting off his fanboying. "It's nice to meet you, too. I'm Izuku Midoriya, a first-year at UA."

"I knew you looked familiar," Melissa remarked with recognition blooming on her face. "You put on a show at the UA Sports Festival. I didn't recognize you in costume. Fantastic work from what I can tell, by the way. Who designed it?"

Izuku fought off his blush from the momentary praise, and he pointed to his designated support technician and costume designer that was still looking over the pogo stick, though she now had a notebook in hand and was furiously scribbling down everything she took note of. Closer inspection revealed that it was one of Izuku's own notebooks; how in the world she got it, he didn't know and wouldn't ask. However, before he could introduce her to Melissa, she popped to her feet with a grin and entered the taller girl's personal space, as if sensing that it was time to sell herself.

"Mei Hatsume, inventor extraordinaire in UA's Support Course and future CEO of Hatsume Industries!" she proudly declared, and she only backed off to extend a hand to her. Melissa, completely unfazed by the shorter girl's antics, excitedly took the hand.

"Did you make this baby?" Mei asked, motioning to the pogo stick.

"Yes, but not on the first date," the taller girl answered, and Izuku almost chortled while All Might nearly lost his buff form when he hacked up a glob of blood.

"There are no springs in it at all," Mei marveled.

"Yep, it's 100% plot-powered," Melissa excitedly replied.

Before Izuku could question that statement, Melissa turned to him and slightly bent down to his level to closely inspect him. Had he not been accustomed to Mei already doing that whenever he entered the lab, he would've been beet red at the sudden proximity.

"Your costume is really well done," she remarked while looking him over. "Could use a hood, though. Costumes feel incomplete without one, in my personal opinion."

She then took one of his arms in her hands. "I especially like the gauntlets doubling as bracers, presumably for the strength-enhancer component of your quirk?"

At his nod, she continued on to inspecting his rebreather. "I feel like this is incomplete."

"It was supposed to double as a respirator to keep oxygen circulating within him when he's in Speedster Mode," Mei explained. "I haven't yet figured out a way to accomplish that without blowing him up, though."

"Mm, that would indeed be counterproductive," she lightly remarked as if they weren't discussing the prospect of him literally exploding. "Tell you what, we can brainstorm in my lab later today."

Mei could lay claim to possessing two whole galaxies with the amount of stars in her eyes at the proposal, but All Might cleared his throat to get Melissa's attention before Mei could say anything.

"Oh, sorry! I got distracted," she apologized before grabbing her pogo stick.

Izuku and Mei were transfixed by the pogo stick quickly collapsing in on itself and becoming a chip that she stuffed into her pocket. Neither had ever seen any kind of technology like that in Japan (or anywhere else, for that matter). Whatever she said about her dad's lab was lost to the both of them as they mindlessly followed behind the two blondes.

On an overlook at the immigration inspection, a tall, burly man with long, brown hair and a very pronounced scar covering the majority of his face put his phone away after making contact with his man on the inside.

"3 p.m. at Gate 66. Good. Should this go as smoothly as we planned, we'll make a fortune off of that dumbass scientist."

So caught up in his cliché, villainous ramblings was he that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Had he been doing so, he just might have noticed a man idly slink past him without his steps making a single sound.

After All Might and David Shield reunited after so many years, David noticed the faint smoke wafting off of his old friend, so he sent his daughter away to give the two visiting teens a tour of the island. Izuku and Mei were again struck by how fantastical the island felt. It strongly resembled a massive amusement park fused with a sprawling metropolis.

"This place is really amazing," Izuku breathed out. "I can't believe the whole thing is manmade- holy shit, that's Godzillo!"

"Oh yeah, we invite a lot of pro heroes here all the time to showcase support gear and test out new designs," Melissa responded with a laugh.

Izuku wandered over to the massive hero/actor that was twice as tall as All Might. The reptilian pro stopped when he noticed the boy's approach, and he bent down to be closer to his level.

"Excuse me, Godzillo?" He asked while holding out a notebook to an open page, and the massive pro gladly took the offered notebook and pen.

"Who do I make it out to?" Godzillo asked in his soft yet booming voice.

"Setsuna Tokage," he answered, and the large pro paused in confusion for a moment before reasoning that the autograph was for someone else entirely. After signing the page and then handing the notebook back, the two posed for a quick picture.

"Could I ask you an important question," Izuku queried after putting his phone away.

"Fire away," the mini-kaiju replied.

"Could you beat All Might in a fight?"

Bemusement was the immediate reaction, not just from Godzillo, but from Mei and Melissa as well.

"…Erm, what?" the pro questioned.

"Could you beat All Might in a fight?" Izuku repeated, completely undeterred.

A pregnant silence followed, and Godzillo's expression was almost unreadable. It didn't help that the man did not have the capacity for human facial expressions, but Izuku spent enough time around Tsu to pick up on pensive blankness.

"If you're asking who would win between All Might and Godzilla, legally, I can't say," Godzillo carefully answered. NDAs were a pain when movies found themselves in development hell.

Izuku deflated at the non-answer, but he accepted it nonetheless and thanked the hero for his time. Upon returning to the duo of girls, he ignored Melissa smirking amusedly at him in favor of sending the picture he took with Godzillo to Tokage with a special caption:

"Suck it, nerd."

It took less than a minute for a reply to come:

"I'm gonna strangle you at training camp, you rat bastard."

"Oh, I know exactly where we should check out next!" Melissa exclaimed, and she pointed to a large building just up ahead of them. "It's a showcase of the newest hero items and support tech to come out of the island!"

Mei gasped and practically started vibrating. "What are we waiting for?! Let's go see the newest babies!"

The trio were prepared to scamper off, but Izuku was frozen in place when he heard a familiar thumping in a crescendo. His instincts screamed at him to flee, but his better judgment knew that would make things worse. He dared not look behind him at his approaching doom, instead resigning to his fate and praying that it would be over quickly.

"Ha! I knew it was you I spotted!" a mature voice declared with a frightening amount of glee. The tan, muscly arm that wrapped around his neck and put him in a headlock draped in a curtain of white hair only confirmed his fears.

"Hi, Mirko," Izuku lamented. "I did not come prepared to be thrashed on this trip."

"And that's a problem, you should be ready to throw down at all times!" Mirko jokingly (he hoped) reprimanded.

"You two go on ahead," Izuku told the inventor duo ahead of him. "I'll catch up… at some point."

"Are you sure?" Melissa asked. "I don't mind waiting."

"Yeah, it's totally fine," Izuku assured before motioning to the still vibrating Mei. "You keep her waiting any longer and I'm afraid she'll legitimately combust."

Melissa took note of the faint smoke coming from Mei's vibrating form, and she nodded and ushered the shorter girl away toward the showcase.

"So, my favorite little thief, the hell are you doing here?" Mirko asked the teen after releasing him from her hold.

"I came with All Might," Izuku answered with a shrug.

The Rabbit Hero whistled. "How the hell did you manage that? Usually plus-ones are reserved for family or close friends."

"His late sensei was apparently my grandmother, so in terms of family, my mom and I are practically the closest he's got," Izuku responded. "How about you? I don't think I would've ever imagined you taking time off for anything."

"That's because of me," another, much more exasperated female voice called from behind them, and Izuku turned to see Ryukyu approaching them and giving the boy an apologetic grimace. "There's a panel for giant, reptilian pro heroes tomorrow. You might have seen Godzillo or Indominus around already, actually. Bringing her along was the only way I could force her to take a vacation."

"Vacations are for the weak," Mirko rebuked.

"You work nonstop across the country," Ryukyu argued. "The only break you've taken in the past 6 months was to beat up this kid for imitating one of your super moves."

"And it was goddamn worth it!" Mirko replied with a toothy grin that very much unsettled Izuku. His distress grew even more when she turned the grin onto him. "Time to see how you've improved since your internship, Fiery Klepto."

Izuku's prayers for a swift end went unanswered that day.

Nezu looked over the footage from the security cameras of the mall that Class 1-A had visited a final time. He truly wished he had more to work with, but all he could do is stare a hole into the screen where a man with red hair and a red leather jacket casually wandered by. This was the man that his protégé had informed him of, the man who knew much more than he should. The chimera principal took every measure he could to scrub any evidence of the Sludge Villain even being at the USJ. There was no mention of him in any of the reports, any security footage of him was either altered or eliminated entirely, and the students who witnessed the event were sworn to silence about it.

Even still, he had obtained knowledge of it, meaning he either was one of the criminals present or was working with someone(s) capable of retrieving that evidence electronically. All of the criminals aside from Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri were apprehended and accounted for, so that ruled out the 1st option. The 2nd option was far more worrisome, as it implied that there were parties capable of infiltrating UA's networks and leaving with sensitive information beyond his notice. That was absolutely unacceptable, and he would have anyone and everyone responsible killed- erm, he would work tirelessly to rectify the situation. He'd have to get into contact with Ms. Aiba again, it seemed.

Just then, he received an alert from the cameras outside of his office at the approach of Inko, and he smiled. Hopping down from his chair, he made it to the door just before Inko reached for the handle and opened it himself with his usual almost-human smile on display. Inko, far too used to his antics by now, stepped inside without missing a beat and sat down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk.

"So, you called me in for an important meeting," Inko began with a quirked eyebrow. "You requested I be in costume, too, so I figured it was important."

"Indeed it is, but let us wait on our third participant," Nezu responded, climbing back into his chair. "I will admit that even I was taken by surprise when he contacted me, but I do love a good plot twist."

Inko frowned at the vagueness, but she remained silent. If Nezu was playing it up, he certainly had a reason.

"While we wait for his arrival, I must ask how you've been doing these last few days," Nezu said with a much more subdued expression.

Inko momentarily stilled, but she relaxed just as quickly. "I'm doing okay. Izu was worried, and I couldn't exactly blame him."

"Did you talk with him about it?"

"Yes."

"How did he take it?"

"He was… angry. I didn't give him specifics, but I didn't really have to. Had I not dissuaded him, he'd be out for blood. I'm not entirely convinced that he isn't still, but I think he has enough respect for the concept of dibs to leave it be."

Nezu nodded, and he poured the woman a cup of tea before retrieving his own already full cup. When he looked back at the monitors on his desk displaying the feeds from the cameras, his smile returned once more.

"Ah, it seems he has arrived," the chimera noted, and he repeated his actions from before. This time, though, his smile was much less casual than the one he offered to his longtime comrade. "I'm glad you're here. I would have never expected you to request a meeting like this."

"You were the only person I could risk coming to about it," came a deep voice that Inko instantly recognize, and pure hatred filled her to her very core. She slowly turned her body to face the doorway, and her gaze became utterly venomous.

"Endeavor," she practically spat.

The man in question became rigid upon seeing her, and he turned a narrowed gaze onto the animal.

"Why is she here?" he demanded.

"This involves her son just as much as it involves your own," Nezu calmly replied before returning to his chair. "Please, have a seat. She will play nice."

Endeavor, despite himself, hesitantly sat down in the open seat beside the woman who was staring daggers at him. She finally ripped her glare away from him and refocused on the smiling chimera, and Nezu offered the man a cup of tea, which he accepted.

"Now, it appears that we all have a common enemy," Nezu began. "The Hero Public Safety Commission is starting to poke its bureaucratic nose into things, right, Endeavor?"

The Flame Hero snorted, and the flames dressing his face brightened minutely. "Recently, the HPSC sent an agent to my home to discuss the ripples of the Stain video. It was less of a discussion and more of a thinly veiled threat to keep my son on a leash, or else…"

"Or else what?" Nezu asked while maintaining his smile, and Inko's smoldering glare would have killed a lesser man.

"…They threatened to no longer look the other way in regards to my family," Endeavor muttered.

"It'd be about fucking time," Inko scoffed.

Endeavor's gaze darkened, and he turned to address the woman with a snarl. "You've had something to get off your chest for years, so just say it."

Inko was initially doing her best to hold in her vitriol while being around Endeavor, but the mention of his family and even a passing allusion to the abuse he put them through made her crack. Now, however, she was seeing red, and she shot up from her seat.

"You deplorable piece of shit, how fucking dare you?! You snatch a woman away from her family and treat her as nothing more than a means to an end to create your perfect fucking specimens, and then you spend 15 years putting her and your fucking children through horrible abuse, and you don't even have the fucking decency to own up to it!

"You stripped a woman of her humanity and viewed your children as experiments that were either successes or failures. You fucking broke Rei mentally, killed your oldest son, and nearly created a ticking time bomb in your youngest; and then you have the fucking gall to only admit to such when the most corrupt institution on the planet threatens to stop covering for your sick behavior!"

Endeavor was nearing his boiling point. He would not be shouted at and decried like some misbehaving child; he was the No. 2 Hero, goddamnit! He worked himself to the bone to get where he was, and he demanded some fucking respect! He wouldn't stand to be belittled by some unknown underground washout… if everything she was saying wasn't the irrefutable truth. As much as he instinctively wanted to lash back, he could only stand there and take the vicious dressing-down by the positively murderous-looking woman.

"You're a repugnant piece of fucking garbage of the highest order, and you deserve everything that you get, but your children don't deserve to be put through any more torment just because you lack the humanity to feel any modicum of remorse for the hell you put them through-"

"OF COURSE I DO!" Endeavor finally bellowed to the furious woman, stopping her rant in its tracks. A brief, startled silence followed between the two as Inko settled between added fury at being interrupted or callous dismissal of his claim. Endeavor, however, continued.

"I very much do…" Endeavor said much more softly. "Anytime I see you and the pure contempt for me in your eyes, I'm reminded of the hell I put Rei through that eventually caused her to snap. Anytime I witness your son in action, I see the great power he possesses and the skill in which he wields it, and I'm confronted with what I forced my children through… what I forced Shoto through."

Inko was silent. As taken aback as she was by the sudden admittance of guilt and the genuineness she could feel from it, her face was still set in a frown, and she slowly sat back down to let the man continue confessing his sins.

"Natsuo won't even speak to me. Fuyumi hides it well, but the death of Toya hit her the hardest, and she tries to maintain a strong, positive front by keeping up any semblance of normalcy to keep the family together by any means. Shoto completely rejects me and wants to be his own man, one much more like your son than anything close to me. And Toya…"

Endeavor's gaze was fixed on the carpet of Nezu's office, and no one uttered a word. The man's flames gradually petered out until his bare face was exposed, and the dry anguish on the man's face spelled nothing but genuine regret. Endeavor had left, and in his place was a downtrodden Enji Todoroki.

"I failed him most of all," he remarked. "I created a family just to one day have my legacy surpass All Might's, and I never even accomplished that and lost that family all the while."

Inko didn't know how to feel about the admission. On one hand, it felt like too little, too late. The damage was already done. However, on the other hand, it revealed to her that the man wasn't the heartless abomination that she fervently believed him to be.

Nezu, meanwhile, watched the proceedings with his smile intact, not making a move to interrupt or calm either of them. He still didn't quite understand humans, so their bouts of emotion were always amusing to him, but he certainly understood pain and could see a lot of it in both of them. That was good, particularly in Endeavor's case. His plan predicated on it.

"Is all of that genuine?" Inko asked the Flame Hero, and he sullenly nodded. She sighed. "If forgiveness is what you're after, then it isn't up to me. It's up to them."

"I don't deserve forgiveness," he replied. "But, perhaps I could work to atone."

"You can start by publicly addressing it," Nezu proposed, and both adults' gazes snapped to him.

"What?" they asked in unison.

Nezu's smile grew at a proportional rate to Inko growing unsettled. "The best way to begin your path to atonement is to apologize to your family first and foremost, if they're willing to hear you, that is. Then, you must make a public statement about the situation and completely undercut the leverage that the HPSC has over you. Bear in mind that you will have to lay your soul completely bare for public scrutiny, and your reputation will take a critical hit. You will fall down the popularity rankings regardless of if you take a leave of absence or not, and you will never reach your goal of catching up to and surpassing All Might. However, it will be the first major shot fired in the war against government corruption."

"That's… a little extreme, don't you think?" Inko hesitantly questioned. "I'd rather the kids and Rei not have to deal with the media circus that would cause."

"It's unorthodox and quite unfortunate, but we can do our best to mitigate the exposure the family at large will have and keep the spotlight on Endeavor himself," Nezu answered. "It would do some good to move the conversations about Young Shoto away from Stain. Besides, people have been clamoring for more transparency in heroics for decades. This would be a very poignant first step."

Inko grunted in tentative acquiescence while Endeavor remained silent, mulling over the thought of coming out and exposing his transgressions to the public. The chimera was correct that it would torpedo his image likely beyond repair. People would hate him more than many already did. There would be no chance in hell of him overcoming All Might in any capacity.

However, thinking only about himself and his aspirations got him and his family to this point. It was no longer about him. It was about protecting his family. If he had to engage in a talking rat's cold war against the government, so be it.

"I'll do it," Endeavor finally answered, and Inko was giving him a look that he couldn't quite decipher.

"Excellent," Nezu said with an even sharper smile. "Now, shall we begin planning?"

"Y'know, as much as I love Overhaul, I wish the grunt work was a little more exciting," said a thin man with straight, blond hair and a beak-shaped mask that signified his place among the Eight Bullets of the Shie Hassaikai.

"It's part of the job and the opportunities he gifted us," replied a large, bald man wearing a simple medical mask.

"Yeah, you're right," the blonde conceded as the two men and a third wearing a burlap sack over his head watched crates of trigger be loaded onto a truck. "Just wish we saw more action these days, y'know? Get the blood pumping."

"Careful what you wish for, you just might get it," the larger man chuckled.

Right as he said that, the truck exploded in a blue fireball, and the abandoned warehouse they were behind practically erupted in a sapphire inferno before crumbling into dust. From the blue flames emerged three figures: Dabi, Spinner, and Tomura.

"I'd say I'm sorry for interrupting your haul, but I'm not," Tomura shrugged amongst the chaos.

"Who the fuck are you?!" the bald man demanded while a layer of hard crystal grew over his skin.

"Doesn't matter," Tomura said. "We're taking the trigger and leaving. Whether or not you live to see us leave is up to you.

"Like hell!" the blonde spat, and the third man wearing the burlap sack leaped into action. His mouth opened wider than any human should be able to manage, and Spinner stepped forward with a comically massive blade fashioned out of rope and many smaller blades.

Spinner swung at the burlap-clad man, but the strange man chomped down on the sword(?) and bit a massive chunk out of it, disrupting the integrity of the bindings and causing it to fall apart. The man took advantage and leaped for the walking gecko, but Tomura casually intervened with a palm to the man's head, instantly reducing him to bloody dust.

Before the other two could react, another wave of blue fire slammed into them, blasting them away from the rest of the trigger. Tomura then calmly placed his hand on the ground, and everything between him and the edge of the property was laid to waste. The concrete ground ruptured and collapsed in on itself as Decay quickly spread; any untouched structures were soon leveled, and any and all stragglers attempting to flee the scene were decayed along with them. The only survivors of the attack were himself, his two companions, and one crate full of trigger.

Tomura moseyed toward the crate and grabbed a handful of the untouched drug before nodding to the other two.

"Uh, what do we need trigger for, Tomura?" Spinner asked as he and Dabi stepped forward to grab handfuls of their own.

"Our primary target is going to fight back," he answered. "Hard. This is just a little insurance policy to complete the mission. Think of it as a simple last resort."

When he was satisfied with the haul of their own, he turned away from the destruction they caused and pulled out his phone to call their ride.

"Kurogiri, get us out of here."

"As you wish, Tomura."

With that, a portal opened in front of them, and the three vacated the scene before any heroes or law enforcement could investigate the ruckus.