24

Izuku stumbled away from one of the open gyms while blanketed in pink fire. Mirko had not gone easy on him in the slightest, not that he was really expecting her to or even wanted her to. As painful as the spars were, he wouldn't trade them for anything; not only did he get to fight the friggin Rabbit Hero herself, he also got to explore the limits of his power on a person who could take it. His mother taught him how to fight (and how to dodge), but Mirko was teaching him how to safely cut loose.

The brief thought of his mother brought up another reason he enjoyed the spar: his need to release some of the anger that had been festering within him since finals. A lot of it still remained (more than he was really comfortable with acknowledging), but every little bit spent was a great thing in his book, and Mirko was very willing to draw it out of him if it gave her a greater fight. He'd have to do something nice for her the next time she popped up unannounced.

In the meantime, Mirko left with Ryukyu to, in her words, "do grownup shit," so he was left to gingerly wander back to the showcase and try to find Mei and Melissa. He used the opportunity to take in even more of the sights, and he was really grateful to All Might for extending the invitation to him. The way people used their quirks in public so unconsciously was still very jarring to observe. He couldn't help but feel self-conscious when he walked out of the gym with his pink flames still actively healing him, but the fact that no one spared it a glance was so strange… and sort of liberating?

…Maybe that wasn't the best word to use, all things considered.

"Midoriya!" a familiar voice called out to him, and he turned to see a costumed Iida racing toward him with gusto.

"Oh, Iida! I'm glad to see you," Izuku remarked with a smile.

"It's good to see you here, as well, my friend," Iida responded when he reached him. "I suspected that you would be here given the language Principal Nezu used when he met with us."

Izuku nodded, and then something occurred to him. "Where's your brother?"

"He's staying at our hotel for the day," he explained. "It's part of our cover. He'll remain out of sight until tomorrow to give the illusion that his procedure was today."

"Ah, that makes sense," Izuku replied. "Is anyone else from our class here?"

"Surprisingly, yes," Iida answered. "I was just on my way back to them, actually. Come along."

David Shield studied the readings appearing on screen from Toshinori's physical assessment. The downward trend in his friend's quirk factor was concerning, but it at least remained a steady decline and hadn't taken a drastic downturn thus far. He wasn't sure how long that would last, though.

"Your quirk levels are still on the decline, Toshi. I know your injury was bad, but it shouldn't be hamstringing you this badly," he said while turning to the emaciated man.

"I guess hero work degrades your body with age," Toshinori sheepishly coughed.

"Quirk factors don't just disappear, though," David insisted. "It's almost as if your quirk was somehow gifted to you as a teenager, and it's finally petering out as your body deteriorates from your injury."

Toshinori was sweating bullets at the supposition, but David only sighed and closed his eyes. "No, that would be preposterous. Quirks don't work that way. It has to be something else that's affecting you, but I'm not yet sure what that would even be."

Toshinori breathed a sigh of relief at dodging that bullet, but David's mind remained unsettled. At the rate of his decline, All Might would only have so much time left to be an active pro. He already limited his time doing hero work as it stood, but he'd eventually be forced to completely retire in the not-so-distant future. The Symbol of Peace was the one thing keeping Japan's crime rate at 6% when other nations sported up to 20%, and that important fixture was in danger of disappearing entirely.

David would not let that happen. He could not let that happen. This only emboldened his belief that he had to do something to prevent a potentially catastrophic future where All Might was gone. His quirk boosting headgear would be just the thing All Might needed to continue preserving society. If his bosses wouldn't approve of its production, then he'd damn sure get it out there in spite of them. He didn't like having to stage a villain attack to do it, but it was for the greater good.

It's not like he hired actual villains to do the deed; it was all going to be staged, and no one would actually get hurt. Besides, Murphy's Law was only a writing convention, not a scientific principle. Everything was going to be fine.

"Oh, there you are!" Melissa called out to the approaching Izuku and Iida. "I met some of your classmates!"

True to her word, Izuku and Iida wandered up to an outdoor cafe table seating Melissa, Ochako, Jiro, and an exhausted Kaminari and Mineta in wait staff attire. Izuku was surprised to see so many of his classmates present; it felt rather inexplicable for them all to be on the island, but whatever.

Ochako was the first to greet them, appearing in front of Izuku in a flash with a box in hand.

"Happy early birthday!" she shouted and handed him the box with pizzaz. "Since the actual date falls during our training camp, I figured I'd just give it to you now while I had the chance."

The others in attendance watched curiously as Izuku slowly accepted the box and opened it, and they were even more curious when their class rep's eyes widened.

"What do you think it is?" Mineta whispered to Kaminari.

"Maybe a stash of sexy pics," Kaminari joked to the shorter boy, and the two snickered until both were smacked across the head with Jiro's jacks.

Izuku, meanwhile, pulled out the item in question: a silvery scarf with subtle hints of color throughout.

"It's, uh, an iridescent scarf," she sheepishly began to explain. "It's fireproof and is woven with materials that will change color when reacting to heat. Put it on and fire up your quirk."

Izuku dutifully did as he was instructed and wrapped the scarf around his neck, silently noting that it complimented the iridescent metal of his gauntlets and leg bracers rather well. When he ignited his quirk, the scarf went up in a myriad of colors alongside him, and Izuku marveled at the sight.

"I saved up and commissioned it from a support company that does custom orders," Ochako continued with a light blush. "I figured it would be a good accessory to go with your colorful motif-"

She didn't get to finish before she was brought into a tight hug by her friend (who had thankfully killed his flames by then), and she happily returned the gesture.

"Thank you, Ochako," Izuku said sincerely. "Had I known you'd be here, I would've gotten you something, too."

"That's not how birthday presents work, and you know that," she giggled, and Izuku merely shrugged.

"Wait, how can something be fireproof and still react to heat?" Kaminari questioned.

"Uh… the science behind it is really beyond me," Ochako sheepishly admitted.

'It's entirely contradictory,' Izuku thought to himself with a chuckle. 'Then again, I also wouldn't be able to explain Mr. Aizawa's capture scarf or people with spray bottle nozzles for heads. Rule of cool, I guess.'

"You all received invitations to the expo?" Izuku asked the group, changing the subject.

"We came with Yaomomo," Jiro answered. "Her dad's one of the shareholders for a few of the expo's sponsors, so she got a few plus-ones, and we Thunderdome'd for them.

"Oh, cool," Izuku replied, then it occurred to him that the girl in question wasn't present at the table. "Where is she?"

She jerked her thumb behind them to another table, and the first person he spotted was Mei closely analyzing Yaoyorozu's costume with a notebook in hand. He also saw Shoto sitting at the table, strangely enough.

"Shoto's here, too?" he asked, and Jiro nodded.

"He said his dad got an invite but had important business, so he came in his place," she replied with a shrug. "Kirishima and Bakugo are here, too, but they're off somewhere doing who knows what."

Izuku nodded and took note of the two engaging in conversation without paying anything else any mind whatsoever, Mei included. "They seem close," he observed.

"Been that way since finals," Jiro nodded with a smirk. "She gets all flustered when I ask about it and won't elaborate."

Izuku hummed, and a small smile formed at the sight of the two. "Good to know."

"It's getting late," Iida spoke up. "We should return to our hotel rooms to prepare for the expo reception tonight. We are all representing UA, so we shall go together."

The group (Shoto and Yaoyorozu included) took that as their cue to disperse and prepare, and Melissa and Izuku wrangled Mei away from her scheming.

"What were you up to with Yaoyorozu's costume?" Izuku asked her.

"Getting that shelf off of her back first and foremost," Mei replied. "One awkward landing and she's crippled."

Izuku winced at the thought, as she was completely accurate in her assessment. "Anything else?"

"Replacing the chemistry dictionary she carries on that shelf with a digital index, probably over a piece of eyewear of some kind. Still working out the specifics."

"We can draw something up in my lab before we get ready for the reception if you guys want," Melissa offered, and the words just barely left her mouth before a rabid Mei was tugging her away.

"What are we waiting for?! Let's go!" she excitedly declared, somehow leading the taller girl in the correct direction. Izuku amusedly shook his head and hurried along to catch up with the deceptively fast girl.

Upon reaching the I-Island Academy campus, they headed directly to Melissa's own personal research and development lab. The two UA students were floored when they laid eyes on it but for different reasons. Izuku was in awe of the fact that she was afforded her own lab to study and create in, whereas Mei was salivating at the thought of being able to tinker and experiment without Power Loader tossing her out for causing too many explosions in a 30-minute span.

While the two were looking around, Izuku took stock of the full shelf of trophies and awards that Melissa had. "The grind never stops for you, does it?"

"Not a chance," she laughed. "Gotta stay ahead if I wanna be a hero."

"Wait, like a pro?" Izuku asked, and she shook her head.

"Nah, I gave up on that dream a while ago," she replied. "Don't have a quirk, after all."

"Oh…" Izuku muttered, mildly taken aback by the information. He didn't know what to say to that, and glancing over to Mei only showed that she was gleefully looking over some schematics that Melissa had been working on for various projects.

"You don't have to sound so sorrowful," Melissa joked in response. "It's not a disability."

Izuku internally scolded himself for reacting in the way that he did, even inadvertently. He faced her and sent her a genuine smile. "No, it absolutely isn't."

She returned his smile, and then her smile became a mischievous smirk. "Besides, 'quirkless' is just a word when you're a genius and decently wealthy."

Izuku definitely had to concede that point.

"Even if I can't be a hero in the traditional sense," she continued, "I can still save lives, just indirectly via quirk research and support equipment, like my dad."

She looked over to a framed photo she had of her as a toddler on her father's shoulders. "Even without a powerful quirk, he still does so much good for so many people with his work."

"You really look up to him," Izuku commented fondly.

Melissa nodded with a smile. "He's my hero. I wanna be just like him and protect the world through science. Speaking of…"

She beckoned the two into a side room of the lab that stored a plethora of devices. Once both were inside, she retrieved a small chip from her pocket. "Remember the pogo stick?"

When they nodded, she let it unfold and expand once again into the functional pogo stick.

"I will never get tired of seeing that," Mei muttered.

"Well, it was sort of a proof of concept for my magnum opus," Melissa admitted with a smirk before opening a drawer and retrieving a set of boxes, then she opened a larger drawer near the floor and pulled out a larger case. She opened the smaller boxes and retrieved two red, metallic wristbands before locking them onto her wrists. Upon activation, the wristbands unfolded and expanded in the same fashion as the pogo stick to form a pair of gauntlets over her hands and forearms.

"Holy shit," Izuku remarked, and Mei's eyes were practically glimmering.

She then opened the larger case to show a sleek, metallic pair of shoes and what appeared to be a metallic bandoleer, both the same color as the gauntlets. She slipped the metal footwear over her regular shoes, and they expanded as well into a set of boots that covered up to her knees. When she put on the bandoleer, it expanded to become a chest piece that fit snugly over her.

The two UA students watched in various states of awe as she grabbed a round, flat disk and a helmet that covered all but her face. She placed the helmet on and then applied the disk into a groove in the chest piece before activating it, and the disk began to glow. All at once, the individual pieces expanded again and almost link together, forming a fully functional power suit. A transparent, protective mask slid over her face, and she gave the two a triumphant grin.

"Ain't she a beaut?" she smugly presented herself.

Two things happened next.

First, Mei and Izuku flew into a frenzy of analysis on the suit with Izuku's hair erupting with white flames. The two bombarded her with questions ranging from how the suit was powered, what features it came with, if it could fly, if it blew things up, etc.

Then, a jolt of pain shot through Izuku's head, and he promptly blacked out and dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Inko stepped through the door of their apartment with a sigh. The meeting with Nezu and Endeavor had gone well enough, but calling it emotionally draining would have been a gross understatement. She never would have expected the Flame Hero to admit his wrongdoings on his own volition, nor would she have ever expected him to agree to go public with it. Granted, had the HPSC not threatened him, he probably wouldn't have, but she reasoned that progress was progress.

Regardless, it was a lot to think about, so she would rather table it now that she was home again. She was grateful that the Big 3 happened to be on campus for a training session after the meeting concluded, as a spar was exactly what she needed. She really adored those three, especially Togata's unflinching positivity and Hado's boundless curiosity. She'd have to do something about Amajiki's confidence, though; he was a really sweet boy.

She moved her mind elsewhere before she could go off on another mental tangent, and she entered her living room and plopped onto her couch, not even bothering to remove her costume just yet. Her son was hopefully having fun on his trip to I-Island, and she was exhausted, so she'd take advantage of being home alone and melt into her couch for a bit.

She turned on the TV and exhaled the day away, slightly turning her head to the wall where their family photos and her Chinese evergreen plant rested.

That's when she noticed it.

It was very subtle, and most people likely would've missed it entirely, but something about the red leaves in her plant felt off. The tension in her body returned, and she got up to inspect the plant a little closer. Her paranoia had been honed and sharpened into a blade (and she made sure to pass that paranoia onto her son), and she knew where everything in her home was just in case she needed to use her quirk on an intruder, so when something was amiss about something in her home while her son wasn't around to have touched anything, it was time to be on edge.

A closer inspection of the plant confirmed her suspicions. Nestled rather inconspicuously among the red leaves of the plant was something that was decidedly not a leaf. She gently picked it up between her index finger and thumb and held it up to her face.

It was a feather; a lone, red feather.

Only one person had feathers like that, and it was the current No. 3 Pro Hero, Hawks. It was also an open secret that he was trained by and worked directly for the Hero Public Safety Commission as part of their program to create the perfect little minions. Exactly how long had the feather been there? She noticed it quickly enough when she glanced in the plant's direction, but that didn't necessarily mean that it hadn't escaped her notice previously. It could have been there for who knows how long without her realizing it, and this could've just been the first time she paid attention to it.

That wasn't even the most important question, either: why was it here? Clearly, he had been inside her home, but why leave the feather? Was it a warning in a similar vein to Endeavor's? If so, why try to hide it amongst red leaves? Why leave a warning at all if it wasn't meant to be seen?

Logically, it probably wasn't a warning. She wasn't Endeavor; they wouldn't feel the need to give her any advance warning if they had any intentions of taking action against her or her son. So, the more likely option was that Hawks' feathers did more than just fly and pierce things. Being remote explosives felt a tad far-fetched, so maybe they could also be used for surveillance? That was more plausible and would be more along the lines of the Commission's MO. Maybe he could hear through the feathers, and he placed the feather there to pick up on their conversations?

Regardless of how they were going about it, the irrefutable fact was that Hawks was in her home, meaning the Commission was in her home. They were using the No. 3 Hero to surveil her family without their knowledge. That was absolutely fucking not going to fly.

She placed the feather back in the plant to not tip Hawks off that she knew about it, and she immediately texted Nezu. There were now two heroes in the Top 10 on her kill list.

Izuku groaned and groggily opened his eyes to see the concerned faces of Mei and Melissa above him.

"You okay, Muscles?" Mei asked as she and Melissa helped him sit up.

"Yeah," Izuku groaned, "my head just went a little haywire just now. Not sure why."

"Your hair combusted when you saw the suit," Melissa commented with worry still in her voice. "The fire was white. Is that normal?"

Izuku's eyes briefly widened at the revelation. "It's part of my quirk. It's pretty much an intelligence buff, but it strains my brain after using it for too long."

He frowned, thinking back to the day at the mall when he got a mild headache from briefly using the flames after his talk with Tomura Shigaraki. "Or, at least, it should have only done so after using it for too long. It can sometimes activate on its own when I'm excitedly curious, but it hasn't put me down that quickly in years."

"How often do you use it?" Mei asked.

"Admittedly, not very often anymore," Izuku sheepishly admitted. "I haven't really had a reason to, and after I nearly liquified my brain during the cavalry battle at the sports festival, I tried to keep away from it."

"Well, there you go," Mei nodded. "Quirks are like muscles, Muscles. If you don't use them, you lose them."

"But for it to degrade that quickly is odd," Melissa mused. "It shouldn't revert so drastically after only a few months of disuse. I'd offer to run some tests on your body, but I'm not sure we have time before the reception tonight."

"We can get around to that tomorrow or some other time before the expo is over," Izuku agreed. "We should get ready for the reception."

"The guards are taken care of, boss," spoke a man with shoulder-length, dull pink hair into a walkie-talkie as a closet full of bound and gagged guards was shut. "Everyone is in position."

"Excellent," replied a gruff voice from the other end. "Keep them bound, but don't kill them. No sense in blowing our true cover too soon. Let's move."

Little did they know that they were already down a member. Disposed of in a shipping container in Gate 66 was the bloody body of one of Wolfram's own men, stripped of his clothes and riddled with large, circular puncture wounds. The uniform and mask he was wearing were currently being donned by someone else entirely.

Izuku and Mei entered the lobby after the designated meeting time that Iida had declared, much to the taller boy's chagrin. They weren't the only ones, either, as just about everyone was tardy for one reason or another. One person who was on time was Mineta, and his gaze instantly traveled to Mei beside Izuku, or, more accurately, the dress she was wearing that did wonders in showing off her particularly bountiful assets in Mineta's esteemed opinion.

Fortunately for him, Mei hadn't noticed him staring.

Unfortunately for him, Izuku had.

An almost paralyzing chill ran up the diminutive boy's spine, and his gaze shifted over to the boy beside her. His eyes were met with a slitted, heterochromatic pair surrounded by small, blue flames adorning the face of his class rep. Then, they were gone and his eyes were back to their typical green, almost as if nothing was ever amiss in the first place.

The point had certainly gotten across, though. He would behave or there would be consequences. He was lucky enough to not receive any official consequences after the stunt in the locker room as it was. He would like to believe that his fellow guys didn't want to sell him down the river for it. In actuality, however, the possibility of Jiro getting expelled for potentially committing attempted murder on Mineta had Iida not blocked the hole with his hand (and the fact that Izuku healed Iida's hand, anyway) kept them from saying anything, and they told him as much. Mineta would be lying if he said that losing the respect of most of his classmates (provided he had much to begin with) didn't make him feel pretty terrible.

Meanwhile, Izuku was satisfied with his classmate averting his gaze. Mei had confided in him on the way to the reception that she never got dressed up in anything more formal than a school uniform, and doing so for a fancy reception was a peculiar experience. She even remarked about not having any pockets to hold the multitool she took with her everywhere in case of emergency tinkering, so she just stuffed it under her goggles. Izuku wasn't going to allow his dangerously horny classmate to make her more uncomfortable than she already was.

Once everyone had arrived to the lobby of the building, however, an alert blared across the island.

"Thank you for inviting me, it's truly a pleasure to be here!" All Might said on stage to the collection of heroes, engineers, quirk scientists, and shareholders attending the reception.

Just then, the screen behind All Might switched from the I-Expo graphic to a warning signal. Across the island, an automated announcement was made informing the populace of a bomb being discovered and that the island was going into high alert. It was a strange occurrence for those who lived on the island, as that wasn't the typical protocol for bomb threats. Those who didn't were surprised and alarmed, but they followed along with the given instructions.

Well, almost everyone.

"A bomb?" Mirko mused quizzically while she and Ryukyu were heading back to their hotel.

"Sounds serious," Ryukyu replied as the security sentries entered the streets in full force. Ryukyu looked over to her friend, and she did not like the gleam in her eyes, nor did she like the feral grin that came over her.

"Let's go find it."

"Not a chance, Rumi."

"Come on, we're pros! What else do we do in this situation?"

"Let the obscenely high tech security measures do their jobs on the obscenely high tech island."

"But they're not nearly as fast as we are, and they definitely don't look as strong. Say the bomb is stowed away in a populated area and civilians need to be rescued. Who better than us two to assist?"

Ryukyu begrudgingly could not argue against that.

"I just know I'm going to regret going along with this," Ryukyu sighed.

"Awesome! I'm calling in backup!" Mirko cheered while pulling out her phone.

"Wait, what?" Ryukyu choked out. "Who?"

"You'll see," she snickered as she called her newest favorite sparring partner.

"Um, hello?"

"Little Green! Do you know how to defuse a bomb?"

"…Why would I know how to do that, Mirko?"

"But you could at least cover it with your orange barriers to mitigate any explosions or protect anyone in the blast zone, right?"

"…Theoretically, yeah."

"Great! Keep your location on, we'll come find you."

"Wait, what? I'm-"

click

Izuku put away his phone with a slightly disconcerted expression, but he put that aside for the moment and focused on the shitshow before him. He was crouching beside Jiro who had one of her jacks plugged into the floor to hear what was going on down in the ballroom. What she picked up only filled her with dread.

"A group of villains took over the tower and put the island on lockdown," Jiro relayed to him with the rest of the group listening in. "They have the security drones holding civilians hostage, and they subdued all of the pros in the room, including All Might."

Everyone tensed at that, the idea of All Might being subdued by anyone filling them all with dread, as well.

"What do they want?" Izuku asked.

"I'm not sure," Jiro answered. "The leader didn't say. He did send Professor Shield and another researcher off with one of his flunkies, though, so they're probably after something specific. Maybe an invention?"

"Or research," Izuku mused with a frown, and Melissa's eyes widened. The villains could be after any number of things regarding her father's research, but it was also very possible that they were after whatever he had been pouring his time and energy into recently that he wouldn't even give her too many details about. This was bad.

"We have to do something," Melissa nearly pleaded. "My dad's in danger!"

"We cannot act against these villains, it would be too dangerous," Iida spoke up.

"I must agree," Yaoyorozu added with a downcast sigh. "We don't have our hero licenses, yet. We can't fight them."

"That hasn't stopped us before," Shoto rebutted, and Iida stiffened at the reminder. "Is it really okay for us to just do nothing?"

A brief, albeit tense silence fell over the group, and Ochako could only look at the pensive faces of her classmates. Then, she looked to Izuku glaring a hole down at the villains in the ball room. One look at his face showed her a burning determination to help people in need that she was so familiar with. However, behind that fiery desire was a contained fury that she wasn't so familiar with.

"You're going to do something about it with or without us, aren't you, Izuku?" she asked him.

"Pretty much," he responded without looking back up at them. "There are people down there who need help, and we're in a position to do that. We're heroes; license or not, this is what we do."

"You wanna go down there and fight those villains?!" Mineta cried. "Have you learned nothing from the USJ?!"

Immediately as the words left his mouth, he flinched and regretted saying them. The USJ was a horrifying experience for everyone in the class, but everyone had it at differing degrees, none more so than Izuku. Mineta wasn't forced to kill a villain at the USJ, and he hoped he would never find himself in that situation like his classmate had.

Izuku, meanwhile, didn't immediately respond, and Mineta was worried that he had seriously crossed a line. Then, Izuku finally spoke:

"No, I haven't forgotten. I think about it every night, actually."

Mineta felt even worse until he finally turned to look at them with a smirk.

"That's the beautiful thing, though," Izuku continued. "You all don't have to fight them. You just have to find the security system of the tower and deactivate it."

"That's easier said than done, dude," Kaminari replied. "How would we even find it in order to do that?"

"I know where it is," Melissa spoke up, drawing their attention. "It's on the top floor of the tower. If these villains were able to activate the highest security measures, then they were more than likely able to disable the authenticators and passcodes. We could restart the system if we get up there, we'll just have to stay off their radar along the way."

"Sure, but how do we do that without being discovered?" Jiro asked

"If they haven't discovered us yet, they probably don't know how the system properly functions," Mei supplied, and Melissa nodded.

"I'm in," Ochako declared. "I won't sit around and do nothing when we could all be doing something to help.

"I'm in, as well," Shoto added, and the dominoes fell until everyone was in agreement to make the journey. Then, something his green-haired friend said earlier stood out to him, and he turned to address him. "Midoriya, what did you mean when you said, 'you all'?"

"You all go on ahead," Izuku confirmed. "I'm not particularly interested in doing Die Hard today."

"Die Hard? Seriously?" Jiro questioned with a hint of annoyance.

"It's my mom's favorite pre-quirk Christmas movie," Izuku shrugged.

"…Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, dude," Jiro responded in a manner that was somehow deadpan and incredulous simultaneously.

"Yes, it is," he defended.

"No, it's not," Melissa spoke up.

"Yes, it is, Melissa. Does it take place during Christmas?"

"Yes, but that doesn't-"

"Is the fact that it takes place during Christmas integral to the plot?"

"Ugh, yes, but-"

"Then how is it not a Christmas movie?"

"It embodies nothing about the spirit of Christmas!" Jiro refuted.

"What's more Christian than taking down terrorists?" Izuku rebutted, and Jiro's right eye began to twitch.

"There truly must be a better time for this discussion," Iida exasperatedly cut in.

The arguing teens paused at their friend's words, and they each deflated.

"Iida's right," Izuku sighed before fixing the apparent ringleader with a hard glare. "I'll keep this cockwaffle busy while you guys deactivate the security measures. If he can sick the security drones on civilians with a command, then I'll destroy his ear piece and his ability to give any commands, making your trek up to the top floor a lot less precarious."

"You're going all alone?" both Ochako and Jiro questioned with worry.

"I've been needing to vent some frustrations lately, and this asshole kindly volunteered himself for the job," was all Izuku responded with before leaping into action.

Jiro wanted to protest, but she decided it was better to let her class rep do his thing. The kid was ridiculously powerful, and she inadvertently caught a bit of the conversation between him and Bakugo right after finals. She didn't have any context, but she could gleam that someone Izuku knew and cared about was in some kind of distress, and if that was the case, she totally understood needing to blow off some steam. She silently wished him luck and headed off toward the others, tugging Ochako along with her when she stood in place as her best friend left to fight.

Izuku, meanwhile, lit his arms up in purple flames after hopping over the rail and into the ballroom. While in the air, he prepared himself to send out a wave of purple vines to rip the guns out of the grasps of the henchmen with his left arm, all the while his hair went up in white flames and the rest of his body went up in yellow. The two flames mingled on his head, and time seemingly slowed down just like at the sports festival. While his left arm was primed to strike at the henchmen, he positioned his right arm toward the ringleader and pointed his index finger at the man's head, making completely sure that he had the perfect angle. When his head began to hurt again, he cut the flames, and his perception of time returned to normal.

It all happened in an instant. A wave of thin, purple flames shot out of his left arm and snaked around the guns while an even thinner purple flame shot out of his right index finger and stabbed into Wolfram's left ear, destroying the communicator entirely without harming him too badly. The moment he landed, his body was bathed in yellow once more, and he shot throughout the room like a pinball to knock out each of the newly weaponless henchmen. Wolfram just barely caught on to what was happening before the yellow blur shot in his direction, but he didn't have enough time to do anything before a golden fist slammed into his face and shattered his mask. While the mask helped mitigate some of the impact, Wolfram was still blasted across the room with a loud crash.

"Young Midoriya!" All Might shouted in surprise and alarm. The other bound heroes were alarmed as well, but they all noticed that Izuku had eliminated almost every threat in the room with a single attack. They still couldn't move, but the hostages were no longer at gunpoint.

Speaking of hostages, Wolfram was beyond pissed that some little upstart fuckwit had decided to be a hero. He was incensed, however, that the little shit practically succeeded by wasting his gunmen in a literal flash. He wouldn't let that stand, and he would rub the kid's stupidity in his face by ordering civilians to be slaughtered just before he killed the brat.

There was one problem with that, though.

"What the fuck happened to my communicator?!" he seethed when he felt the destroyed earpiece. He then thought back to the strange, brief feeling of something shoving into his left ear, and he snarled at the teen. "Was that your punk ass doing, too?"

"Might've been. Whatcha gonna do about it, bitch?"

He had spent way too much time sparring with Mirko.

"Young Midoriya!" All Might shouted again, this time more aghast at the vulgar taunt than in surprise or worry about his presence.

"Don't worry, I killed his communicator," Izuku assured without taking his eyes off of Wolfram. "He's not giving any orders to anyone anymore, and the rest of us are making our way to the top floor to shut off the hijacked security system."

His voice took on a much darker edge. "As of right now, he's stuck on an island with me, and I've got a lot of shit I need to work through."

"You'll have plenty of time to work through it in hell, boy," Wolfram growled before All Might could respond.

"And you'll be able to give me a tour when I meet you there," Izuku replied in a frigid tone that contrasted the green flames that engulfed him.

Wolfram snarled, and a thick pillar made of metal burst from the wall behind him and shot at Izuku, but the boy merely punched it and darted forward, practically carving through it with his arm on his way to beat the dogshit out of Wolfram. The man in question, absolutely gobsmacked by the feat, was helpless when the boy reached him and backhanded him through one of the newly reinforced windows, and Izuku darted out of the building after him.

The room was left in silence after the display as everyone process what they had just witnessed. A teen, likely a hero student, had just diffused a hostage situation and neutralized part of the perpetrator's control over the situation in an instant, not to mention his vicious display of strength and speed shortly thereafter. Then, there was the fact that fucking All Might seemed to be familiar with him. Each of the pros' thoughts could be summed up in one sentence:

"That's a bad mothafucka right there," one of the bound pros casually remarked.

"Right? And he's so young," another added, and the tension previously engulfing the room appeared to vanish as conversation flitted about and the hostages searched for things to restrain the unconscious henchmen with.

All Might laid on the floor in his bindings while fighting to maintain his buff form and not blow his cover. All the while, he couldn't help but agree with the sentiments of the other pros.

'So young, indeed…'

After being batted out of the building, Wolfram crashed landed on a nearby roof with an unforgiving skid. Unfortunately for him, Izuku was following closely behind him, and he looked to be gearing up for a vicious punch that Wolfram wanted absolutely nothing to do with. The man sent a wave of pillars at him from the metal of the building he was standing on, and Izuku merely bounded through and around the wave with such ease that chipped away at the confidence he initially had about killing the boy. He poured his energy into his quirk and shot even more pillars at Izuku, but the teen wasn't deterred in the slightest and dodged, blocked, and smashed through the oncoming metal like a bat out of hell.

Wolfram was only afforded a half-second once Izuku landed to ponder the decisions that led him to this moment before the hardest punch he had ever received slammed into his gut and practically blasted him off of the roof entirely. There was no further reprieve, as Izuku chased after him and unloaded a flurry of blows onto the man while he was still in flight, ending with a stiff kick to his ribs that shot him down towards the concrete of the street.

Unfortunately for Wolfram, he would not be saved by the loving embrace of death today. Long before he could hit the ground, he was wrapped up in purple flames and flung back into the air towards another roof. Izuku, anchoring himself to the side of a building with purple spikes in one hand and holding onto Wolfram in the other, spun the man around like a lasso and slammed him to the roof of the newest building. Then, he altered the properties of the spikes to make them elastic enough for him to slingshot himself into the air and rolling into a series of flips that ended with him coming down with an axe kick.

"Luna Inferno!" he bellowed with his leg shining a positively venomous malachite, driving it down into the prone man with such force that it drove him through the roof and into the top floor of the building.

Wolfram truly did not know what horrendous evils he perpetrated in a previous life to earn him a mauling such as this from a feral teenager. Had he not activated the secret Muscle Augmentation quirk he received from All For One, he almost certainly would've been in the medical ward of a prison for months. He turned his head in the rubble to look at the boy, and one glance into his eyes introduced him to a well of raging fury at a level that he had only last seen in his father when he broke into the man's liquor cabinet and broke both of his arms "falling down the stairs" in the aftermath. He could even swear that there were prominent flickers of black filling up the boy's green, hate-filled gaze.

Izuku, on the other hand, wasn't even seeing Wolfram as he glared down at him. All he saw was the piece of trash that hurt his mother and the bureaucratic collection of filth that covered for him and so many other pieces of trash. He would savor every second of the retribution he'd unleash upon them. He'd watch them burn with a smile.

You don't fuck with a Shimura, after all.

Wolfram, on the other hand, refused to be a casualty of whatever baggage this freak of nature needed to resolve. He capitalized on the momentary pause the boy seemed to take to savor the punishment he was inflicting, and he leaped to his feet to snatch the boy by the face with his Muscle Augmentation still active, and he threw him back out of the building as hard as he could.

Izuku wasn't expecting such a sudden feat of strength from him, and he cursed himself for forgetting where he was and letting his emotions get the better of him. He regained his bearings and landed on yet another roof, but before he could resolve to not make that mistake again, Wolfram landed right in front of him and punched him with such force that it almost felt as though he was battling Mirko again. It wasn't nearly as hard as the punches from the Nomu at the USJ, but it was more than enough to send him careening across the roof and nearly sliding off the edge of it.

"You like it?" Wolfram mocked with a smirk. "It's something special I got from All For One. I was saving it for if I had to kill the Symbol of Peace, but you're no ordinary boy."

If he said anything after that, Izuku didn't hear it. The only thing bouncing through his ears was, "It's something special I got from All For One."

This man got a quirk from All For One.

This man had associated with All For One.

Now, not only was he seeing his mother's old teacher and the HPSC, he was seeing All For One, the blight on humanity that forced his grandmother to give up his mother and uncle before ruthlessly killing her.

Something within him snapped.

ꓭ̵̡͈̟͇͉͉͒̆̊͑̒̾υ̸̛̦̭͔̪̗̲͛̋̽̕͝ɿ̷̧͖̳̫̫̳̍̈̇̐̕͝n̴͈̭͓̜͓͔͊̀̌̍͘̚ ̷̘̪̞̣̞͖̉̽͑́̚͘i̶͔̣̘̪͕͇̒͆̾͐̊̃Ɉ̷̛͔̮̠̱̦̃̐͆͘͜͠ ̴̨̙̹͚̜̹̀͊͗͂̅́ɒ̶̫͎̬͍̗̠͛̓̈͒͋̆ľ̶̢̦̬̗̖̬͑̈́͊̎̉ĺ̷̢͇̖͕̲̪̒̓̈̕͝ ̶͎̬̙̞̙̰̏͂̒̑̋̈́ḏ̵͈̠̗̥̆͊̊̑̏͠ͅΰ̵̡͈͖͇̮̒̄̊͋̉͜ɿ̶̧̛̫͈̗̠̈́̀̈́̕͘ͅṅ̶̡̝̬͚̬̙̇̔͋͗̇ ̸̢͔̰͓̹̥̆̇̋̋͗̚ǝ̸̨̨̭͓̤̗̈́̽̀̌͌̚v̶̢̺͈͙̫͈̂̅͂̏̓͠ǝ̶̖̯̠̣͎͊̈́̑̑̈͊͜ɿ̸̧̜̣̣͚̇̄͆͌̀͜͝γ̸̢̼͈͚͓͖̌̾̌͊́͗Ɉ̷͎̪̝̮̬̳̉̓͋̑̍͐ʜ̴̨̹̝̪̞̦̀͊͗̍͆̚i̴̱̫̝̤͐͐͋̀̉͝ͅͅn̷̨͖̮̭̣̠̉͊̓̇͂͘ϱ̴̗͓̗̰͇̅̌̐͐̚̚͜ ̴̧̧̫̳̰̄̏͂͗̅̚͜ꓭ̸̤̼̤̗͚̹̀̀̽͐̏̒Ȗ̷̮͚̥͚̟͓̇̿͝͠͝Я̸͉̫̩͙͇̣̄̊̌͐͋̕Ӥ̴̨̙͖̖̼́̍̐̉͛̇ͅ ̶̡̬͍̮̤͔̂̔̆͛̿͊ꓭ̸̥̦͚̖͓͊̂̏̔̚͜͠Ṷ̴͖͔͈͍̖͆͂̏̆̄͝Я̴̧͔̬̠̞͕͒̂͊͊̚͘И̴̢̹̖̪̞̺͗̎͒̈́̄͂ ̴̛̖̥̺̟͓̣̈́̔̊͑͌ꓭ̵̠̝̫̫̥̎̏̆̾̐͝ͅU̵͎̝̰͔͚͛͆̿̒́͛͜Я̶̲͔͎͙̭͖͗̽͌̐͛͝И̶̲̝̹̦͕͙̇͌͗̾̈́́

As Wolfram took a few more steps toward the boy, a wave of unbearable heat blasted at him mere milliseconds before Izuku erupted in a tower of black fire. Wolfram had to shield his face from the sight. The flames were a bottomless abyss that was simultaneously blinding. He looked away from the utter contradiction for a brief moment before his survival instincts kicked in, and he dropped to put up a thick wall of metal that blocked the pitch black inferno sent at him.

Wolfram would have moved back to attack, but he was transfixed by the way the metal wall started to melt under the heat. Only then did he notice just how ridiculously hot the area had become, and he scrambled away to safety, but the heat was unyielding no matter how far he went. One chance glance at the teen struck him with a sight he'd remember for the rest of his life.

The previously clothed teen was standing in a pit of black fire that incinerated everything in sight. Blood cascaded down his form from his quickly burning skin, creating a haunting mixture of dark red and pitch black that was punctuated with glowing green eyes holding nothing but the purest of malice the man had ever seen. Wolfram hadn't felt true fear in a very long time, but his pants certainly got a little heavier in that moment.

Then, the quickly fleeting pain resulting from his nerves being cooked alive snapped Izuku out of his stupor, and he snapped back to reality with a gasp. The black flames died out, and Izuku fell to his knees. He looked down at his bloody hands in horror. His skin was absolutely ravaged.

He had forgotten everything around him, and that was a costly mistake as Wolfram slammed a fist into his face and sent him crashing into the empty street. His already raw skin was ruined even further, but before he could move a muscle, he was wrapped in pipes from the sewer system and trapped in place.

Wolfram quickly made his way to the boy with purpose. The kid was scarily powerful as it was, but that display with the black fire was way too frightening to mess around with. He needed to kill this kid, and he needed to do it quickly.

Izuku didn't even register the man's approach. Truthfully, he wasn't registering anything at all. He had lost control, and he tore his body apart as a result. The blackness that he had been avoiding for so many months had nearly consumed him in a single moment. He only just barely had the wherewithal to pull himself out of it.

He just barely made out a large shape hovering above him before his vision returned to focus, and he was met with the sight of Wolfrom's boot poised to stomp his cranium into the pavement. However, something slammed into the man before he could finish him off, and he was sent careening into metal plating covering a nearby building. Izuku craned his head to see Mirko standing protectively over him looking as if she was ready to maul anything and everything that approached him.

Then, she turned her furious, red gaze down at him, and her eyes narrowed upon taking in his bloody form. She kneeled down and gave him the most comforting face she could, which for a pissed off Mirko was only a slightly less threatening glare.

"Did he do this to you?" she asked in a soft tone that wildly contradicted the furious expression she wore. Izuku neither responded nor nodded since the man technically hadn't been the culprit, but Mirko was convinced enough to return an utterly murderous gaze back onto the man who was pulling himself out of the metal of the building. Only then did Izuku notice the massive dragon that was Ryukyu hovering dangerously above the man.

Meanwhile, Wolfram had briefly made it back to his feet before bending over to hack up a glob of blood. He had never been kicked that hard in his life. First, he had to deal with the angry teenager who could carve through metal and his abdomen with a punch, and now he had to deal with an even angrier looking woman with rabbit ears that could probably shatter his entire skeleton at once with a single kick regardless of his Muscle Augmentation. Then, there was the elephant in the room, or, rather, the dragon in the air above him.

The worst part was that he didn't even have the fucking quirk amplifier that he had gone to all this trouble to steal in the first place. The whole plan was truly a shitshow and a half. He just hoped that Swordkil or anyone else could retrieve it and escape, because it didn't look like he would-

He was dragged out of his musings by a vicious kick to the sternum from the Rabbit Hero, launching him into the awaiting claw of the Dragoon Hero, only to immediately be slammed into the pavement and pinned under the weight of her claws. He used the strength gifted to him by the supervillain to slowly pry the dragon's hand off of him, but a Luna Fall from Mirko slammed him back to the ground with another glob of blood escaping his mouth. With his hands pinned to the ground, he sent a wave of metal pillars up to attack and knock the dragon woman off of him, but they only offered a second's reprieve before she tore through them.

At that point, Wolfram was exhausted. He could only sigh and resign himself to the ass-whooping he was sure to receive.

And what an ass-whooping it was.

Izuku watched the man be viciously torn apart by the two pro heroines. Somewhere between Mirko kicking him up into the air towards Ryukyu only for her to whack him back to the ground with her tail and the two women juggling the man amongst each other like a hacky sack, Izuku felt stable enough to bathe himself in his pink flames. He knew that healing his burns would take quite a while, just as they had when small patches of black flames snuck into his green flames at the USJ, so he sighed and got comfortable in his little nook in the street while the two women eviscerated the villain and his quirk did its job as best as it could. He hoped that the others were doing okay.

The others were, in fact, not doing okay. The group had split up in increments to deal with the various threats they encountered, from wandering villains to a legion of security sentries. Eventually, it came down to Mei and Melissa, and they were hurrying through the halls and nearing the top floor until they were nearly sliced in half by a furious man with pink hair.

"You little fucking gremlins have caused us way too much trouble," the man growled. "Bad enough the boss has been offline for 20 minutes, now you fuckheads are ruining-"

His rant was cut short when a strange-looking red pogo stick entered his vision before unconsciousness took him. Standing over him was Mei with the pogo stick in hand, having just whacked the man in the head with it after dislodging its chip state from one of the straps of her dress. Melissa looked at her with a mixture of shock, gratitude, and mild annoyance.

Noticing the other girl's stare, Mei shrugged. "I snagged it while Izuku was passed out. I'd apologize, but I know you'd do the same."

"Damn right, I would," Melissa said with a smirk. "Let's keep going, we're almost there."

The two inventors hurried along with their goal very nearly in sight, traveling down the last few sets of hallways until they passed a massive vault room. Melissa wouldn't have stopped, but she heard the familiar voices of her father and his lead researcher, Samuel.

"I've unlocked it, Block 1147!" David called to Samuel.

"Wonderful!" Samuel responded and quickly ran to the newly appearing locked box. Opening it up, he gleefully retrieved a case and presented it to David. "We did it, professor!"

"Finally, I've got it back," he breathed out while gazing at his magnum opus. "All that research, and they just took it from me. But now I have it back in my hands."

"Our plan worked perfectly, and it looks like the villains are holding things down," Samuel said with a nod to the masked man standing off to the side that escorted them up to the vault.

"Papa…" Melissa muttered in shock, and it got the attention of the three men in the room who turned to see her standing beside an equally shocked Mei.

"Melissa…" he said in growing horror. "What are you doing up here?"

"Is what he said true?" she questioned in a low, disbelieving tone. "Did you plan all of this? Just to steal something?"

David did not respond, nor did the other two men beside him.

"Answer me!" she cried. "Is it true?"

More silence was the only response she got. David shamefully looked to the ground, and Samuel looked at anything but the girl in front of them.

"Please, say something…"

"Yes, it's true," her father finally answered, and she had to fight back a horrified sob.

"The professor is only trying to get back what was stolen from him," Samuel hurried to explain. "This device can amplify quirks."

"So, it's trigger but in helmet form?" Mei questioned with narrowed eyes.

"No, no," Samuel denied. "Unlike drugs, this could magnify a person's quirk without doing any damage to their body or brain. But our sponsors confiscated the prototype and our research data, and they demanded that we kill the project. They feared that something as revolutionary as this would upheave superhuman society, so the governments of multiple nations pressured your father to abandon the project to avoid widespread chaos. That's why we did this."

"You… you pulled the strings on this attack from the beginning?" Melissa choked out with Mei's fists tightening behind her. "Why? Why would you do this?!"

"I had to-"

"You put so many lives in danger! For what?!"

"I had to save All Might!"

Melissa was struck silent at that, as she had no idea what All Might had to do with any of this. Mei, however, had her narrowed gaze on the masked man standing off to the side. He hadn't spoken or moved a muscle the entire time, but he didn't look relaxed. She zoomed in on him and could see the subtle signs in his posture that he was tense, as if he was waiting to strike. She didn't quite believe that the people attacking the expo were entirely actors.

"All Might's quirk is disappearing, Melissa," her father pleaded. "If he uses this device, he'll be back to his old self. No, he'll be even greater! The Symbol of Peace would never dim! He could keep saving people just like he always has, and society wouldn't crumble in his absence!"

He took the case from Samuel and manically clutched it to his chest. "Please, just let me get this device to All Might! I don't care what punishment I receive after that! Throw me in prison, strip me of my accolades, just let me save All Might!"

"Yeah, about that," the masked henchman finally spoke up, garnering the attention of the room as he removed his helmet.

What was revealed underneath was chin-length, crimson hair and two violet eyes lazily observing the group. Then, a golden chain with a pointed tip shot out of the man's midsection and stabbed through David's bicep, forcing him to drop the case with a cry of pain. Another chain shot out of him to catch the case and bring it over to him, and the redhead took the case into his grasp.

"What are you doing?!" Samuel shouted. "You're actors! You're not really stealing the device!"

The man gave Samuel a dry chuckle before three more chains lashed out faster than anyone could react and pierced the rotund man through his chest, much to the growing horror of David and Melissa.

"That's the funny thing about all of this," the man began as he retracted the chains and Samuel fell to the ground with a thud. "The guys you hired weren't actually actors. They were planning on stealing the device from the start. What they were going to do with it, I have no idea, but it doesn't matter now because I'm not even one of the guys you hired."

The way the man spoke so casually about it all while his partner and friend was bleeding out beside him unnerved David to his core. It almost prevented him from standing up to confront him. Almost.

"You son of a bitch," David growled, but before he could take another step, a final chain lashed out and stabbed him in the thigh, sending him to the ground to the tune of his daughter's screams.

"I missed your femoral artery," the redhead informed in the same casual manner. "Stand down, Shield. You've outlived your usefulness, so don't push your luck any further than you already have with this whole stunt. Whether or not your daughter becomes an orphan tonight doesn't really matter to me one way or the other."

With that, he turned and walked away from the two bleeding men. Melissa, tears cascading down her cheeks from the sight, made to rush to her father's side while the man was passing by, but she felt Mei's hand lock tightly around her wrist to keep her in place. When she looked down at the girl, she saw Mei glaring dangerously at the approaching assailant, but she wasn't moving a muscle.

The man in question watched on in mild amusement as he casually strolled by the two girls. "Smart. You do have quite the brain on you, Ms. Hatsume."

Mei did not flinch even a millimeter when he revealed that he knew her name, only keeping her glare on him and her grip on the trembling Melissa. The man seemed to find that equally amusing and worthy of his respect, and he continued on with a light chuckle.

"By the way," he spoke as he was leaving the room, "if you want to disable the security system, no one is manning the control center. You won't find me by the time the pros are free, anyway."

He turned his head to give them one last look, and the mirth dancing about his violet eyes put the two even further on edge than anything up to that point. "For your sake, you won't."

With that, the man turned the corner and strolled away. Melissa released the sob she was holding in, and she hurried over to her father.

"Papa…" she choked out to the bleeding man below her. He attempted to offer her a smile in an attempt to reassure her, but it came out as nothing more than a pained grimace.

"Hey," Mei said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I got this. Take down the security system. Save the building. I'll save your dad."

Melissa looked at her through teary eyes, and Mei nodded to reassure her that they could both do it. Melissa nodded in return, and she hurried out of the vault. Mei quickly removed the multitool from under her goggles and used one of the blades to cut strips from the bottom of her dress to fashion tourniquets for his thigh and arm.

"You have medic training?" David asked the girl as she worked, and she shrugged.

"My mom was an EMT before she fucked off to join a cult."

David did not respond to that, and Mei did not elaborate any further. When she was finished applying them, she looked to the larger man, but he was dangerously pale.

"Samuel… how is he?" David asked her, fearing the worst from the brief alarm that showed on her face before she got ahold of it.

"It's… not good," she replied before placing two fingers to his jugular, and her expression became solemn.

"No pulse," she informed him, and David placed his head in his hands, letting lose a wail of grief into them.

"This… this is all my fault," David despaired in the floor beside his friend's body, tears pouring down his face. "I… I went along with this foolish scheme, and he… he…"

The man continued his pained wailing, both at the loss of his friend and the loss of all of their hard work. Mei wasn't going to lie to him by assuring him otherwise, so she kept quiet.

"I-Island's security system is now operating in normal mode."

At the announcement, the redhead casually wandered through the newly opened security doors and down the emergency stairwell. Along the way, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone before calling in to report the success of his mission.

"Skeptic, this is Kusari. The job is complete."

"Excellent work as always, Kusari. The Grand Commander will be pleased with your results. Now, hurry back to Japan before the League starts asking questions."

"Understood."

Mirko and Ryukyu stood over the positively mangled body of Wolfram. He was very much alive, but breathing without pain would be next to impossible for him for the foreseeable future. Izuku, having freed himself of his metal bindings and healed his body enough to stop the bleeding and walk without too much trouble, meandered over to the heroine duo and peered down at the unconscious man.

"You alright, kid?" Mirko asked him with a level of concern that he didn't even know she was capable of.

"Yeah," he muttered with a nod.

"What happened before we got here?" Ryukyu asked him. "I don't think he was capable of doing that level of damage to you. Those were really bad burns. They still kind of are."

"He didn't do it," Izuku admitted with a sigh. "I lost control of my quirk."

Mirko frowned at that. "But aren't you practically fireproof?"

"Only mostly," he simply responded.

Mirko wanted to press the subject, but Ryukyu grabbed her shoulder to encourage her not to. Izuku didn't appear to want to discuss the specifics right that moment, so she reluctantly relented.

"HAHAHA!" came a boisterous laugh from above, and the familiar red, white, yellow, and blue figure of the Symbol of Peace landed before them. "I AM-"

"Late," Mirko interrupted. "You are late. The three of us already took care of it."

'Three?' was the simultaneous thought of Izuku and Ryukyu, and they turned to look at her.

"What?" she asked. "The kid softened him up big time before we got here. The two of us just did cleanup duty, even if there was a pretty big mess to clean up."

That wasn't how Izuku would describe what happened whatsoever, but he would be lying if he said the acknowledgment didn't nearly make him choke up, even if it came in the most backhanded, Mirko way possible. Ryukyu only nodded in assent and sent the boy a proud smile, which only made it more difficult for him to keep the happy tears in.

All Might, too, was a bit struck by the declaration. Watching the Rabbit Hero take the boy into a headlock and ruffle his hair with her fist while he gingerly tried to escape her grasp and the Dragoon Hero watched amusedly beside them filled the man's heart with something akin to satisfaction.

'Such youth…' he mused to himself upon remembering Young Midoriya's grand entrance to the ballroom and handling of the hostage situation. He turned a considering gaze to the two women with him, and his sentiments only strengthened. While they had a decade on the young man, it was nowhere near the 4 decades he had on him.

The next generation appeared to be in good hands, but would they be enough to combat a threat as dangerous as All For One? On the same token, would a threat as great as All For One ever pop up again?

Overhaul was sitting at his desk parsing through the data he gathered from the experimental trials of the latest batch of quirk erasing bullets they had been able to produce with Eri's blood. This batch had proven more promising than any previous batches, eliminating a quirk for an average of 12 hours; that was up from the max of 6 hours that he had been able to achieve previously. Things were progressing rather well in his opinion. Hopefully, with further experimentation, he could finally pin down a formula to achieve the permanent quirk factor elimination he was searching for. A diseased world finally cleansed of the sickness that was quirks would be within his grasp-

"Um, sir?" a nervous man stood in the doorway of Overhaul's office.

Ordinarily, no one, especially not anyone of any rank below that of the Eight Bullets, would ever address the man in his office without knocking first. However, ordinarily, the door would also be closed for them to knock if they needed an audience with him. When the masked Yakuza boss looked at him but did not speak, the nervous man took that as a cue to state his business and go.

"The haul of trigger you sent out Setsuno, Hojo, and Tabe to collect never came in," the man began to explain, but his boss' continued silence unnerved him even further. "Um, s-so we sent out a s-search party to check up on t-them, and…"

The man trailed off, now sweating bullets at having to deliver the news to Overhaul. The fact that the man hadn't spoken or made a move even once since he arrived to speak to him wasn't helping matters.

"The abandoned factory they were producing in was completely leveled," the man finally was able to finish. "There was dust and blue fire everywhere, and the cops and pro heroes were already on scene. No sign or word from anyone in the family, and the trigger was already confiscated by the cops."

The man only soldiered on at the continued silence from Overhaul. "The early news coverage didn't say anything about a hero fight or trigger bust, so we assume that it was a rival group or maybe some opportunistic villains-"

The man did not get to finish as Overhaul practically teleported from behind his desk to right in front of him and splattered the man across the floor and walls outside of his office. Overhaul maintained his blank gaze as he stared down at the mess of gore that used to be his henchman.

"You didn't knock," he reprimanded out loud to the very, very dead underling before walking back into his office with a command to anyone in earshot to clean up the mess.

"So, it appears someone is waging war with the Shie Hassaikai," Overhaul muttered as he sat back down in his chair. "Dust and blue fire, huh? How annoying."