Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

              To get to Nabu island, it’s a couple hours on a ferry. Aizawa is there to see them off at the dock, but he convinced Fukukado that they’d be better off staying on the main land. Still… Mina really wishes her favorite teacher would be joining her on this trip, even if it’s only a few weeks. She pouts on Kirishima’s shoulder as their boat drifts away. “Stupid Aizawa…”

              Kirishima pulls her close, waving to their teachers out the window, “Why don’t you just text her?”

              “I’ll be fine.” She wraps her arms around his waist, squeezing him tight. “I have you.”

              “And I definitely know how to treat PTSD.”

              She bites his cheek. She gasps, “I found the cure.”

              “Wha?”

              “It’s your flesh!” She nibbles on his neck and shoulder, “OM NOM NM NM NM!”

              Kirishima blushes, not because of his girlfriend attacking him, but embarrassment, because he notices Setsuna staring over from her seat alone. He mouths to her, “Sorry.” He shows no remorse to Kaminari who’s sat right next to him.

              Setsuna shrugs and turns her attention back to her phone, she texts Pony, “I just realized there’s two couples with me on this trip…”

              “You should totes hang out with Izuku and Ochako! They super nice!”

              Setsuna glances over at the couple who’s already snuggled up, and seemingly asleep in the seats ahead of her, “I don’t know… I think I’ll just end up annoying them talking about how much I miss you the whole time.”

              “Yeah, but you’re gonna do that to everyone you talk to!”

              Setsuna snorts, “I’m gonna annoy you so bad when I get back.”

              “I can’t wait ;3”

              “What are you going to do today?”

              “Harass forest animals.”

              Setsuna’s almost positive that’s not what Pony means, but she takes it at face value, “Don’t tell Koda.”

              “;P”

              Dark Shadow slinks through the cabin, “What up Tokage?” He holds out his shadowy fist.

              Setsuna’s talked to Dark Shadow a couple of times, but never without Tokoyami present, she didn’t think about it earlier, but she wondered why Tokoyami didn’t sit next to her. Still she touches knuckles with the shadow. “Just texting Pony.”

              Dark Shadow gasps, “Tell her I said hi.”

              Setsuna snorts, “Okay.” “Dark Shadow says hi.” “Does Tokoyami say hi too?-” As if in response she hears puking coming from where Dark Shadow’s trail leads, and her first thought is Rude.

              “He gets really sea sick.”

              “Ohhh.” Setsuna pets Dark Shadow. “Well tell him I said-” Her head falls off her shoulders. “Got it?”

              Dark Shadow snickers, “I don’t know that I can tell him that, but I’ll try.”

              Before he slinks back, Setsuna shows him a text from Pony that says “Hi Dark Shadow! \o/” If he had feet that would put a spring in his step, he heads back, almost tripping up Iida on his return.

              Iida finally takes his seat next to Izuku after double checking every safety feature the boat had to offer. Though this time, it’s slightly less about his compulsion, and more about his fear of the boat sinking. His engines are non-functional underwater, so if they’re attacked in the ocean, that’s something he needs to be prepared for if he’s going to provide any assistance. He’s already wearing a life vest. He’s about to speak up when he realizes they’re both fast asleep. He wonders how they fell asleep so fast, How are they tired at eight in the morning??? With that bit of context, he considers maybe he should wake them. . . Though, this is the first big assignment he’s had with them in a while, he doesn’t want to sour the mood so early. He chooses to let them sleep!

              Kodai is not so fortunate. She’s suddenly woken up in her seat by the sense, that someone is staring at her. She looks around, not particularly concerned by the feeling since she got it often, but still curious to find her culprit all the same. Next to her is Nirengeki, watching some buff guy anime with his headphones in. Probably wasn’t him. She looks across to see Sero and Awase, who seem to be getting along about something. Setsuna’s sat in front of them, but she’s lost in her phone too. She looks behind her, and locks eyes with Kaminari.

              “Hey Kodai. What’s up?”

              “Were you staring at me?”

              Kaminari stammers, “Uh- no?”

              Mina rats him out, “He was hard staring at you Kodai. I think I heard him muttering to himself about how cute you are.”

              “Ashido!”

              Mina imitates him, “Kaminari!”

              Kirishima realizes he made the right choice by sitting between them as they try to grab at each other’s faces.

              Kodai’s pretty sure it wasn’t Kaminari. She goes back to sleep for, -what feels to her like two seconds, but had to have been a couple hours as they’ve arrived on Nabu Island. The reason Kodai knows this is because Miruko shouts at the top of her lungs,

              “ALRIGHT KIDS! WE’RE HERE!”

              A lot of half-hearted cheers go out across the ferry.

              Miruko claps to try and keep all their attention as they’re standing up, grabbing their bags, “So! Some of you may be thinking, ‘we get to train with the number one hero all summer break!? This is gonna be awesome!!!’ I am here to supervise. Lightly. The main purpose of this assignment is to see if you can survive on your own, that means running an agency, feeding yourselves, -just being responsible adult children! If you need anything like, really urgent, like talking, whole island’s been lit on fire urgent, then obviously you can come to me. I’ll do check-ins from time to time, and if you want, then, MAYBE I’ll train you, some of you.” She sees most of them are ready to step off the boat, “Now, there is a crowd waiting to welcome you, this island hasn’t had any active hero agencies for some time. So they’re excited to see you, be excited to see them. Okay?”

              A lot of the kids don’t really get that message, but give a much more hearty, “Okay!”

              As they step off the boat the crowd is unanimously cheering, “MI RU KO, MI RU KO, MI RU KO!”

              Kaminari whispers to Mina, “Yeah, they’re really hyped to see us.” He tries to start his own cheer, “Charge Bolt, Charge Bolt!”

              Mina snickers at the absolutely zero response he gets to that.

              The crowd is already swarming Miruko and Ryukyu for autographs and pictures as they step on to the dock.

              Izuku smiles back at them, “Trust me, you get used to it.” As he says this, a little blonde boy rushes up with a pen and paper for Izuku.

              “Mr. Deku! Ms. Uravity! Can I get your autograph!”

              Deku’s heart is squeezed as he and Uravity give their autographs.

              Kaminari messes up Deku’s hair as he passes.

              When Kodai makes it on to the dock, she gets that feeling again. Though this time Nirengeki seems to notice her looking around, “What’s the matter Kodai?”

              “I’m not sure it’s anything. Could be a ghost.”

              Nirengeki was imagining she’d say she forgot something at home, he isn’t too sure how to respond to that. Even after a whole year of class with her, and even working some missions with her and Yanagi, he still has no idea how to talk to her sometimes. He tries to joke, “Yanagi didn’t come on this trip.”

              “Hmh”

              That was honestly the closest he’s ever seen to her laughing. He takes that as a win.

              After the crowds clear out, the group then has to take a short bus ride half way across the tiny island to their agency, which is the agency of the last hero who worked here, so it’s an older building but still fully functional, thankfully.

              Ryukyu decides to speak up this time. “Miruko and I are staying by the beach, I’ve put a note with a number you can reach us at on all the landlines here. Remember, it’s up to you to be responsible this trip. There likely won’t be any villains, but you should still be eager to try and help these people however you can. You have a lot of useful powers, so show them what you can do.”

              Iida raises his hand, “Are we being graded on our performance while we’re here?”

              Miruko chimes in to answer, “Considering your teachers pawned you off on us, and we’re not going to be watching you most of the time. Nope! As long as the island is better when we leave it than when we arrived, and we don’t get any negative reviews, you’re all good. -Obviously don’t go causing any trouble though.”

              Mina nods, “Good thing Mineta got kicked out. We do still have Kaminari though…”

              Kaminari recoils, “Mina what did I do to you???”

              While they bicker, Miruko whispers to Izuku, “What’s a Mineta?”

              Izuku whispers back, “He’s the perverted kid I told you about last year.”

              “Ohhhh.” Miruko pats Kaminari on the back, “As long as you’re not harassing anyone, I think you’re okay!”

              Kaminari wants to cry, that this is his first real interaction with the number one hero. “Thanks, Miruko.”

              “Well bye!” Miruko grabs Ryukyu and vanishes out the front door with a trail of dust.

              The failures of the rescue exam are left in silence for only a few short moments, though to them it’s an eternity of swirling panic, wondering what to do, who will take charge- and then the phones start ringing.

Chapter Text

              Iida leaps at the chance to take charge, he answers the phone, “Hello! This is the Nabu Island Hero Agency! How can we help you?”

              A sweet old lady’s voice on the other side of the line answers, “Ah, I heard as much, I just wanted to call and wish you kids all good luck! Stay safe out there!”

              “Yes! Thank you very much!” He bows as if she could see it, and then drops the phone to pick up one of the others. “Nabu Island Hero Agency! How can I help you?”

              “I was just wondering if you kids would help me out with my truck. It broke down…”

              “Did you call the towing company?”

              The man sounds embarrassed as he says, “I am the towing company…”

              “Oh! Well send us your location and I’ll have someone there right away!”

              Another phone rings, and Nirengeki answers it. “Nabu Island Hero Agency! How can I help?”

              After Iida gets the tow truck guy’s info, he writes it down on a piece of paper. “Kaminari! I have a job for you!” He clarifies, “I have a job for all of you actually!”

              Ochako and Izuku look like proud parents watching their friend take charge.

              Iida just goes down the line. First handing Kaminari the sheet of paper, “There’s a truck that’s broken down, at this address you should just need to go give him a jump start. If there’s anything else though take Uraraka and Midoriya with you. The three of you should be able to move it to wherever it needs to go ASAP!”

              Ochako and Izuku salute, “Yessir!”

              Before they leave, “Everyone keep your phones on! Your assistance may be needed at any time!” He goes back to the line-up, “Tokage! You, Sero, Tokoyami, and I will run patrols. Nirengeki, you seem comfortable handling calls and giving coordinates, can you, Kodai and Awase manage those.”

              Mina raises her hand, “I wouldn’t mind running calls if one of you wants to go out instead!”

              Nirengeki speaks up, “I actually just started a group chat with everyone, and Iida I sent you the address for an elderly couple who needs someone to get their groceries for them.”

              Iida checks his phone seeing just that, “I’m on it!”

              Kirishima’s too late to stop him, “Wait, what should I do!-”

              Mina pats his back.

              Nirengeki smiles, “Don’t worry man, you and Ashido just hang out, I’m sure we’ll get the perfect call for you two.”

              Kodai answers her first phone call. “Hello.”

              There’s a nervous sounding man on the other side, “Uh… -sorry, is this the hero agency?”

              “It is.”

              “Oh! Okay!- Wait for Nabu Island right?”

              “Correct.”

              “Okay. So, I need help moving. I can’t fit anything more in my truck. Got anyone that could help with that?”

              “I can.”

              “Oh! Great!” He tells her his address, and she writes it down in the group chat.

              She stands up from her desk, and goes to the door. “Man needs help moving. I’ll be right back.”

              Kirishima falls over himself, “Yo! Wait! Can I go!? I’m great at lifting stuff!”

              “That’s okay.” She shrinks and grows her phone to demonstrate her quirk. Assuming Kirishima forgot it.

              Mina was about to steal her seat but has a thought, “You said a man?”

              “Correct.”

              “You should take Kirishima with you, that sounds like it could be sketchy!” Mina winks to her boyfriend.

              Kodai fully sees that. “Okay.”

              Kirishima leaves with her, looking so excited to be useful.

              Nirengeki sends out in the group chat, “Aside from Tokage, and Iida, I think it would be best for everyone’s safety if we had a buddy system. No one goes out alone. Especially on our first day when we’re all still getting to know the island, and the locals.”

              Tokage immediately writes back, floating around in the sky somewhere, “Wait, why don’t I get a buddy?”

              Nirengeki: “None of us can fly.”

              Tokoyami: “I can fly…”

              Nirengeki: “Tokage, congratulations, you have a partner.”

              Setsuna: “Wait, why doesn’t Iida need a partner?”

              Nirengeki: “He’s really fast! Do you not want a partner?”

              Setsuna: “I want a Pony.”

              Nirengeki: “Nothing I can do about that!”

              Izuku: “I could be Iida’s partner if he needs someone fast.”

              Nirengeki: “I’m saying if you’re fast or can fly you can probably get out of a dangerous situation on your own and don’t need back up!”

              Awase: “Kodai, are you and Kirishima still alive?”

              Kodai: “Yes.”

              Kirishima stretches as he walks down the long road with her, “So, Kodai! What made you want to become a hero?”

              Kodai tilts her head, “Kind of a deep question. . .”

              “Ah- Sorry. Just tryna make small talk ya know.”

              “Oh. I’m great at that.” She shrinks her phone again.

              Kirishima almost doesn’t process that as a joke because of her deadpan delivery, he busts out laughing when he does, “That’s pretty good!”

              She nods, “Thank you. To answer your question, I’d like to ask you what your answer is first.”

              “Oh- me? I just always thought heroes like Crimson Riot were so manly! I wanted to be just like that! Ya know, like be brave, and save people!”

              Kodai nods. “I suppose my reasoning is a little less noble.”

              “Hey, no judgement here! Whatcha got?”

              “I wanted to know if I could.”

              Kirishima’s quiet as he’s expecting her to say more, when he realizes that’s all she had to say he doesn’t exactly know how to respond, but he tries to hype her up, “I think that’s a rad reason!”

              “Mm!” She seems pleased, just as they arrive at the address, where they find a guy with water for hair trying to shove an entire house full of stuff into his pick-up truck.

              Kirishima’s first thought at the sight is, Mina was right, this guy does look sketchy. How do we know this is even his stuff. “Hey man! You’re the one who called?”

              “Yep!”

              Back at the agency, Mina decides to explore and see what kind of accommodations they got. The calls have slowed down quite a bit, many of them were from the elderly just happy to hear they got heroes back on Nabu island. Which is adorable to Mina but, not exactly an urgent matter the others can’t handle. She’s surprised to find the agency actually looks like it got cleaned up a bit before their arrival. Their kitchen is fully stocked, a lot of big meals seemingly prepped by some citizens of the island just before they arrived. If it was only her and Kirishima here, this much food would last them their whole stay, but split between all of their friends here, she foresees this lasting fourty eight hours max.  

              She checks out the room situation, lots of two bed dorms. She smirks deviously, but then wonders- no, she’s all but certain Iida will have them separate by gender. The only girl she could even possibly get to join her side on the argument is Ochako, and she has a feeling she’ll end up taking Iida’s side for whatever reasoning. Mina groans. She flops on one of the beds to test its comfort. Decently cushy. As she’s laying there in the eerie quiet, she feels it again, that deafening silence. Her heart pounds against it, and she fumbles to get her phone out, and put on some ambient music. She sighs with relief as her heart beat slows. . . She texts Fukukado.

              “Hey buddy…”

              Fukukado responds almost immediately, “Hey Mina, are you okay?”

              Mina feels no shame crying right now. “I’m okay. I wish you were here to talk to though.”

              “Are you listening to music like I suggested?”

              “Mmhmm.”

              “Is it helping?”

              “A little bit.”

              “Well that’s good news! Did you want to talk on a phone call?”

              “No, I should get back to working. I don’t want to let anyone down. Just snuck away to check things out.”

              “Okay. Stay safe!”

              “I will!” Mina wipes away her tears on the pillow, and goes to rejoin the others in the call center.   

Chapter Text

              After their first day concludes, the agency gathers for dinner. They’re surprised calls seem to have slowed down as it got later, the islands citizens are actually being mindful of how and when they use these heroes’ help. Mina speaks up while they’re all eating, “So, did anyone have like any criminals to deal with?”

              Everyone looks around the table, but no one seems to have such a story to share, until the glances meet Kodai, she speaks up, “The guy who needed help moving was weird. Not a crime, but. . . I was glad Kirishima was there.”

              Mina isn’t sure if Kodai means that sincerely, or if she’s just saying it to make Kirishima feel helpful. Either way it worked as Kirishima’s absolutely beaming now as he chows down on sushi.

              Kaminari decides to share, “Today I learned that just zapping a car battery, not the best idea.”

              Setsuna snorts, “What happened?”

              “It exploded.” Ochako answers her, sensing he’ll try to play it off.

              “The rest of the engine was fine!” Kaminari clarifies. “The battery just kind of popped, and the guy asked if I was an idiot.”

              Mina giggles and reaches over to pet him, “Well now ya know.”

              Izuku shares his story of the day, “Ochako and I realized we made a pretty good taxi service. After we got that guy’s truck back to the shop. He asked if we could give him a lift home. So we did that, but then other people saw us do that, and asked if they could get a ride next.”

              Kaminari hops in, “Yeah, I had to walk home.”

              Ochako clearly still feels bad, “If I float too many things I still get nauseous! And I didn’t want to throw up in front of everyone on my first day…”

              Sero shares, “Well, I learned that there’s not a whole lot of tall things for me to swing around on. So I bought some roller skates! After that one call on the beach though I kind of just stayed there for the rest of the day.”

              Nirengeki rolls his eyes, “Of course.”

              Iida is out of the loop, “What happened on the beach?”

              Awase explains with a big dumb smile, “There’s this beach bar, that the roof kind of fell apart, and they were just going to toss it out, but Sero and I fixed it up, and the owner was so pleased, she gave us free drinks. She said we could come back to work there if we needed extra cash while we’re here.”

              Iida gasps, “You’re not of drinking age!”

              Sero snickers, “Relax man, they were virgin margaritas, obviously.”

              A whole train of thoughts crashes through Izuku’s mind at the term, ‘Virgin Margaritas.’   

              Mina notices Setsuna’s absorbed in her phone the instant she’s finished eating. No doubt texting Pony. She turns her attention to her partner, “Tokoyami, how was your day?”

              “Oh. Well… I patrolled for criminals all day, and as previously mentioned, there weren’t any. I met a few children in town who thought my head was funny. So, that was something.”

              Setsuna not fully listening just remarks, “Kids are such a treasure.”

              Sero pats him on the back, “Hey at least a teacher didn’t say you have creepy elbows on international television.”

              This does get a chuckle out of Tokoyami, “I suppose not.”

              Mina can’t help but be curious, “Do you ever wish you were more of a bird?”

              Tokoyami tilts his head, looking suddenly much more bird like in that moment. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

              “Well, like I’m a fully pink alien. If I only had a pink head, I think I’d want the rest of me to be pink too.”

              Tokoyami looks at his very human hands, and feels there’s some poetry to be found in this moment, but for the life of him he can’t think of it. “I never have before, but were I to wish it, I’d sooner wish to be more human, than more bird. Hawks admired me for my avian features, and obviously I look like my parents. So, I don’t hate the way I look…but from a tactical perspective, I would have difficulty blending into a crowd, especially if I become a pro hero.”

              Mina didn’t think he’d introspect that much about it, and wants to be clear, “I just meant like, I think you’d look cool if you had like wings, or like feathery arms.”

              Tokoyami nods, “I don’t disagree.”

              Izuku sees now that everyone’s done eating, and feels it’s an appropriate time to ask, “So uh, what’s the sleeping situation like?” His heart already pounding out of his chest. Refusing to look at Ochako knowing that will make his intentions obvious to the group.

              The intentions were already incredibly obvious to anyone who was paying attention. When Setsuna looks up from her phone, everyone is hard glaring at Midoriya and Uraraka.  

              Mina tries to take the heat off of him by declaring, “First we should decide who should do the dishes!”

              “I will!” Iida hops out of his seat the moment he’s done eating, and zooms around the table to grab everyone’s plates and bowls.

              Mina claps, “That’s perfect!”

              “Huh?” Iida pokes his head out.

              Mina tries to think of a reason that she’d say that aside from the actual reason. “Nothing!”

              Iida slinks back into the kitchen. Though clearly now suspicious.

              Mina leans in on the table, she whispers to everyone when the sink starts going, “Okay, so here’s the situation. Every room here is a two-bed room. Obviously, Iida’s not going to let Ochako or I share with our boyfriends.”

              Most of the group is obviously completely indifferent on this.

              Mina tries to pull them back together, “With your help though, we can outvote him.”

              Tokoyami speaks up, “I mean the four of you no offense, but I don’t wish to hear your love making should I be placed next door to you.”

              Iida comes back just in time to hear that.

              Kirishima is in total shock, How did he do those so fast???

              Iida explains, “I came back to ask if everyone was done with their drinks.” He picks up his glass, “But, since we’re discussing it. I believe it’d be indecent of us to not separate by gender.”

              Setsuna sees her chance to help Mina, a hole she can poke in his argument, she raises her hand to say- “But, I’m gay.” But, it wasn’t her who said it. She looks across at Nirengeki.

              She sends her hand over to high five him, she declares, “Same!”

              Iida realizes he should rephrase, he takes a breath, and then speaks with all the conviction he can muster, “It would be inappropriate if we allowed couples to share a room before they are married!”

              “-But I need Eijiro!” Mina says it with such a sudden desperation in her voice that it casts an awkward silence over the group.

              Kaminari sips his drink, “Thirsty…”

              Kirishima takes a stand, “She doesn’t mean like that!” He realizes instantly that wasn’t his truth to share. He looks to Mina with such apologetic eyes.

              Mina feels all eyes on her, and feels she owes them an explanation, if only to end the silence. She chokes out, “-I haven’t. . .Been, okay, since Esuha… I have nightmares about -all of it, but mostly losing Eiji- and the only thing that makes them feel any less awful is when I wake up, and I can see he’s okay.”

              Iida feels so awful for all of it. Especially since he wasn’t there to help, or even share the burden of the pain that has claimed his friends. He never imagined Ashido of all people could feel so much pain. She hid it so well. He sees no other path to redeem himself from this, so he concedes, “Okay. Everyone can room with whoever they want. It’s fine.”

              So in the end, Mina got her room with Eijiro. Ochako got hers with Izuku.

              Kodai, not feeling particularly comfortable with sharing a room with any of the boys chooses to share hers with Setsuna.

              Awase and Sero share a room.

              Kaminari snatches up Tokoyami.

              And Nirengeki ends up with Iida. He doesn’t know if Iida knew he was gay before, and while Iida doesn’t feel anything one way or another about it, Nirengeki feels incredibly awkward having to share a room with him.

Chapter Text

              Ryukyu and Miruko got their own little house right on the beach, with their own private slice of beach. Rumi couldn’t feel much more content than she does at this moment, sunbathing with an ice cold fruity drink, and Ryuko beside her. She sighs with relief, “Vacations are nice…”

              “Mmhmm.” Ryuko’s lying completely under an umbrella with a little book she’s barely found the time to read.

              Rumi stretches on her lounge chair, and rolls over to look at Ryuko, “What do you think the kids are doing..?”

              “Lots, and lots, of chores.”

              Rumi snorts, “Did you ever have to do something like this?”

              “That was all I did before I got that internship with Hiro. Not a whole lot of crime on the island I grew up.”

              “You were an island kid?”

              “It’s literally in my name. You know the Ryukyu islands.”

              Rumi smirks, “I thought they were named after you.”

              She feigns endearment, “Aww.” She summons a giant wing just so she can slap the entirety of Rumi with it. “Let me read this chapter.”

              Rumi lays there, quietly sipping on her drink. Her mind wanders to all the work she isn’t doing. All the people she’s letting down. She keeps thinking about how none of her fans were waiting for her anymore when she finally left the hospital, even if their tributes still were. She wonders how long they could wait to see her again. . . "Do you... feel nervous here?" Rumi asks a little bashfully, she wasn’t paying attention to how many pages were turned while she was lost in those thoughts.

              Ryuko squints, not entirely sure what Rumi means. Rather than asking she just guesses, "No, I’d say I’m pretty comfortable around you. It's a little different seeing you in a bathing suit, but it's not as though your usual wardrobe left much to the imagination. Not that I'd need much of one after last night."

              "¿Estás loca?" Rumi truly believes in this moment, Ryuko has lost her mind.

              "You don't remember? We-"

              "Of course I remember! What does that have to do with anything???"

              "You asked me if I felt nervous. I'm saying I feel pretty comfortable with you."

              "I mean like about work! Like if taking a break like this is going to affect our ranking."

              "Rumi. It's going to take the second coming of All Might to dethrone you after that crazy battle you had against, possibly the most wanted man on the planet."

              "You don't think Endeavor could steal it back?"

              "Let him work his tired old ass off trying."

              "Woah! Esposa, I don't think I've ever heard you talk like that before."

              "You deserve this vacation! You're going to make me actually mad if you talk yourself into ending it early or something."

              Rumi scootches her chair up next to Ryuko's so she can reach her face. "I will stay right where you want me to."

              Ryuko actually blushes. "Rumi..."

              Rumi succumbs to the unconquerable urge to bite Ryuko's nose. Just needing something stupid to cut the tension of that all too sincere moment.

              Ryuko sighs. Feeling she should've seen that coming. "I was going to kiss you, but moment’s passed."

              Rumi tries to salvage it, but Ryuko puts a massive wing between them and scoots Rumi's chair back to where it was.

              Rumi reaches for Ryuko like she's too short to reach the top shelf.  They hear the doorbell ring, and Ryuko throws a towel on over her swimsuit before going to answer. “Hello-” Before her stands two of her favorite pupils, Uraraka, and Midoriya. She feels a little awkward wearing a bikini in front of them, even if she’s fully covered by the towel, “Did something happen?”

              Uraraka remembers they were only supposed to come for them for something urgent, “We were- uh…”

              They both hear Miruko through the house, “Ryuko! Who we got?”

              Midoriya bows his head, “I’m sorry for bothering you! I was just really hoping to talk to Miruko!”

              Ryukyu didn’t mean to imply they were unwelcome, she opens up the door more, revealing Miruko before she can say anything, the rabbit hops forward, “Usagitocho!” She slides under Ryukyu’s arm, and scoops up the kids in a hug. Obviously feeling no shame about her one-piece swimsuit.

              Ryukyu speaks up, “You two can come in if you want.”

              Miruko corrects her, “No, you two have to come in!” She fully carries them to her couch, and then takes a seat across from them.

              Ryukyu doesn’t sit, she has a feeling she knows what this is about, “Uraraka, do you want to join me in the kitchen for a minute?”

              Miruko is clueless, but Izuku and Ochako seem to understand. Ochako follows her.

              Izuku isn’t the least bit bothered by Miruko’s swimsuit. He got quite used to seeing her in states of undress when he was still doing the work study from her apartment. A moment of awkward silence does pass between them, as he has trouble taking his eyes off her robotic arm. Knowing that, at the very least is his fault, whether she admits it or not. “I uh… I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long now, that I’m sorry.”

              Miruko tilts her head, “Sorry about what-?” Her arm makes the smallest mechanical noise as she moves it. She normally wouldn’t notice it but the room is just so quiet, it makes her realize what this is about. She holds up her metal hand. “This?”

              “Yeah. . . I got in your way, and you paid the price. I should’ve let you kill-”

              “Stop.”

              Izuku remembers she cut him off just like that the day they met. Did I mess up so bad we’re back to where we started???

              “Usagito. I don’t care about my arm. Someday, Eri might grow it back for me, she might not. It’s never mattered to me. I could’ve been injured so badly I was forced into retirement- hell, I coulda died.” She scoots her chair closer so she can reach to grab his face. “None of that, would change how I feel about you kid.”

              Izuku tears up, “Really?”

              Miruko giggles, holding back her own tears. She kisses him on the forehead. “You changed my life. I probably woulda died back at Jaku if it wasn’t for you.”

              This confuses Izuku, “I wasn’t even with you during the Jaku incident.”

              Miruko’s always wanted to say something this cheesy, “You were with me.” She holds her metal hand over her heart. “When I was fighting off a whole army of High-Ends. I never told you this, but I remembered what you said to me, about the people who care about me, who wouldn’t want to see me lose my life. I fought for them, for you, for my own life, and I never did that before I met you.”

              Now he’s fully sobbing. “Miruko!”

              “Usagito!” She hugs him tight.

              Ryukyu leans back into the kitchen with Uraraka. “Sounds like it’s going well.”

              “Yeah…”

              Ryukyu hadn’t considered why Ochako came along for this, “Did you also want to-”

              Ochako laughs it off nervous, “N-no! I’m- We already talked in the hospital remember?”

              The dragon crosses her arms, “I mean you and Miruko.”

              “Oh! Uh, well…”

              Miruko, of course heard every word of that awkward exchange and snuck her way over. “Ocho!”

              She nearly scares Ochako out the window. “Huh?!”

              “Don’t tell me you blame yourself for something too?”

              “N-no! I, I talked that out with Ms. Fukukado, and I know, everything worked out okay in the end. So I shouldn’t freak myself out about what almost happened. Even if it feels like I could’ve prevented it…”

              Ryukyu isn’t usually one to offer up hugs first, but, she goes to Uraraka and embraces her now. “Do you want to know what I thought about when I thought Shigaraki killed me?”

              Ochako squeaks, “Y-yeah…”

              “I thought, I can’t believe I won’t live to see Uraraka and Midoriya’s wedding.” The dragon says it with such sincerity, Ochako isn’t sure if she’s supposed to laugh, but one escapes her anyways.

              “What???”

              Miruko joins the hug, “It’s true! We’re always talking about how excited we are to be grandparents!”

              Deku joins, just wanting to be a part of the moment with them, and Ryukyu wraps her wings around them all, “We love you two. Nothing’s going to change that.”

Chapter Text

              Mina decided that she would work at the beach bar today. The job is simple enough, she just has to wear her hero costume, look cute, and bring people their drinks. It took a little bit of convincing from Awase, and Sero to let her and Eijiro have this shift. Their boss is an indisputably attractive woman, but she squeals the second she sees Mina and Eijiro, “Oh please tell me you two are working for me today!”

              Kirishima salutes, “That’s right ma’am!”

              Mina raises a fist to the air, “Yeah!”

              The boss claps, “So cute! Okay- So just hang around, when we have an order, I’ll ring a bell, there’s numbers on the trays and tables, take the tray to the table. Easy breezy!” She pinches both of their cheeks, “You’re going to do great!”

              It’s early enough that there’s not many customers yet, the one’s who are here seem to have their drinks already for the most part.

              Eijiro feels a little awkward, but he imagines this will make him feel helpful. Maybe. He watches Mina chat around with some of the customers like it was the most natural thing in the world. He was happy to be able to see her in her element again. Then she drags him over to the table she’s talking to.

              “This is my boyfriend Red Riot!”

              The table they’re talking to seems to be a bunch of college aged tourists. One of the guys remarks him, “Woah dude! You’re like totally shredded!”

              “Thanks man!”

              “How much do you bench bro?” Another of the guys, clearly something of a body builder himself asks.

              Kirishima gets a little bashful, “Ah, ya know. Just about my body weight.” The bell rings, “I got it!” He rushes over, and carefully, takes a plate of drinks, to table three. He sets the tray down, and has a brief moment of panic as he realizes he doesn’t know what anyone ordered, but fortunately, everyone just takes their drinks of the plate for him, and he takes the plate back.

              The boss smiles at him from behind the counter. “You two are doing great! Don’t forget to walk around, smile at folks walkin’ by. Maybe flex a little bit?”

              He bows his head, thinking nothing of it, “You got it!” He does a full lap around the bar. Smiling at everyone he sees with all of his teeth. Striking a pose whenever he sees a group.

              The owner at least finds him adorable, even if it’s not pulling in much more than a few giggles.

              Mina sits with a little elderly couple, “How are you two lovebirds doing?”

              The old man speaks up, “This is actually my sister…”

              “Oh! -Uh, want to meet my boyfriend?” She panics and pulls Eijiro into the seat next to her. Thankfully the tray he was carrying was just emptied. “We’re both heroes! You can call him Red Riot!”

              The old lady pats Mina’s shoulder with a shaky little hand, “Sweetie, we’re regulars here, ya don’t gotta charm us or nothin’.”

               Kirishima smiles a bit awkward, “We’re new here! So sorry to bother you!”

              The old man assures him, “You two are no bother at all. It’s good to see young heroes. Ya, know I actually used to be a bit of a hero myself.”

              The old woman rolls her eyes, “Hoshi.”

              Mina senses a joke coming, but plays along, “What’d you do?”

              He smirks, “I retired.”

              It takes Mina a moment to process that, “N- I mean like.”

              The old woman squeezes her hand, “Sweetie, you don’t want to hear the rest of his dumb joke. It’s very dirty.”

              The old man cackles.

              The woman gently shakes Mina’s arm, “Go now. Before it’s too late!”

              Mina takes her advice, taking Eijiro with her, but she’s so curious how that could’ve possibly turned ‘dirty.’

              After a little lunch rush, Mina has a seat with Eijiro, she plops down reaching across the table to him. He takes her hands and gives her a little shake, “Having fun?”

              She groans, “Talking to people all day is hard!”

              “You know we don’t have to talk to anyone. We can just bring them their drinks.”

              “Well yeah, but I feel weird if I don’t say something, but then I say something, and then they say something, and then we’re just talking, and I have to get out of there, but I don’t know like what I’m supposed to say to leave, because like, I’m clearly not doing much else, I’m just like standing around at a different part of the bar where they can clearly see me. So it’s like. ‘Gotta go!’” She scoots over two inches, and stares ahead blankly- “Ya know?”

              Kirishima snorts, “How about, instead of calling me over, when you want to leave a conversation, just come talk to me, wherever I’m at.”

              “But then I have to think of something natural sounding to tell you every time! Because they’ll probably be listening at least to the first thing I say to you!”

              He wonders if this anxiety is a new development for her, or if she’s just hid it so well before today, or if it’s exclusive to customer service. Regardless, he thinks it’s kind of cute. “I think you’re doing just fine so far.”

              She claps on his hand, “That’s perfect! I’ll talk about how you’re doing at whatever you’re doing!”

              A couple more orders come in, Kirishima goes for the tray with more drinks, assuming Mina would prefer a one-on-one with whoever’s at table seven, but she grabs his arm like it was the edge of a cliff she’s dangling from. “Kiri, please…”

              “You want table five?” He glances over at table five, wondering who ordered so many drinks, and it looks to be a bunch of rich older women, major Auntie energy. “Why..?”

              Mina hasn’t even looked at whoever is at table seven. “A one-on-one is so much worse, because like, if there’s multiple people, they might start talking amongst themselves and I can slip away then.”

              Eijiro snorts, “Alright.” He lets her take the tray, and she takes a kiss on her way. “-”

              “For bravery.” She smiles so sweetly at him.

              Eijiro wonders while he wanders over to table seven, if his cheeks are as red as they feel now. How is she so cute??? When he sets down the drink at table seven, he could swear that, there wasn’t anyone sitting there, but then, when the glass touches the table, a furry hand takes it, and there’s a cat woman sitting there, as if she always had been. A quirk? He puts on his customer service smile, “Enjoy!” He starts to take a step away, but the woman locks eyes with him. Clearly something she wants to say. Is she in trouble?

              “Are you… a UA student?” She almost sounds afraid.

              “How’d ya know?” He takes a seat, realizing that’s a stupid question the moment his butt reaches the chair. If she’s in danger, the manly thing to do would be to stay right here with her!

              “Lucky guess?”

              “Huh?”

              “You don’t know me, right?”

              “Should I???”

              “Well, she does.” She points over Kirishima’s shoulder.

              He looks to see Mina, struggling to break away from her conversation with the aunties. When he turns back, the cat woman is gone, and then he’s suddenly attacked from behind, Mina wraps her arms around his neck, “What are you sitting around for!?”

              He speaks on limited air, “I’m sorry!”

              She lets go and whispers, “I’m not actually mad, I’m doing the thing I said.”

              “Oh- okay.”

              “But whatcha doin’?”

              “There was a cat lady over here, but she vanished.”

              “Maybe you’re going crazy.” Mina boops his nose.

              “Do you know any like magic cat ladies?”

              When Kiri says, ‘Cat Lady’ Mina is picturing like an old woman who owns a lot of cats. “Can’t say I do!” She notices the drink still on the table, and takes it, “Did she order this?” She leans in to take a sip, but it’s suddenly snatched away from her by a furry hand-

              “You are not old enough to have that!”

               “WAH!” Mina elbows Eijiro in fear of the sudden appearing cat. She might’ve fully flipped over the booth if he wasn’t there. She recognizes the woman, “Purrsian!?”

              Kirishima clutching at his suddenly bruised rib, “So you do know her.”

              Purrsian explains, “I was her opponent for the Rescue Exams. I, maybe went a little too hard on her…”

              Mina remembers the deep cuts she left in her back, she’s thankful Recovery Girl was able to heal that without any scars. “What are you doing here?”

              Eijiro has to ask, “And why do you keep vanishing???”

              She first points to Mina, “I’m here because Emi asked me to keep an eye on you.” She then points to Eijiro, “That, is a cat thing.”

              “Is it???” They ask in unison.

              Purrsian shrugs. “It’s at least a me thing- well, in theory anyone could do it. So, not like a me- as in my quirk- well I guess my quirk doesn’t hurt. You could do it too, if you like, really tried.”

              Eijiro squints, “Is that your way of… offering to teach us?”

              “AHA! No! I am, way far from like a proper mentor type.”

              Mina hasn’t forgotten that Purrsian said absolutely nothing helpful to her after the exam. Mina knew she was friends with Fukukado, so she thought maybe there’d be some wisdom or comfort from her, but when she looked to her, for something, anything at all. She just, vanished. “I don’t understand, why did Fukukado ask You to keep an eye on us?”

              “Not ‘us’” She corrects her, “You. She said, and I quote, ‘If you want to keep the title Maid of Honor, you better do something honorable!’”

              “MAID OF HONOR!?”

              “Yes..? I’m Emi’s bestie- surely, she told you about me?”

              She’s the one Fukukado was complaining about! She quietly clenches her fist. I will reclaim my destiny! I will become Pinky! Maid of Honor!

               Kirishima thinks to ask, “What is… something honorable?”

              Purrsian scratches her head, “Just like, help her out if it looks like she’s having a breakdown, but she’s not so…-” She looks past them like she’s staring at a giant monster approaching.

              Kirishima and Mina both look and see- Nothing. Well, aside from the restaurant and their customers. They turn back and Purrsian is gone, again. This time with her drink. Mina whispers, “Do you think she’s going to stay gone this time?”

              The bell rings, and they both jolt.

              Kirishima kisses Mina’s cheek, before he gets up, “For bravery.” He smirks.

              Mina blushes, Gawh, he’s so cute. She notices Purrsian did actually leave behind a payment for the drink, she takes up the cash, but resolves, If I’m going to become the maid of honor. I need to be better than her. I’ll be responsible, take charge, and I’ll get work done! Mina texts Fukukado, “WHY IS THAT DUMB CAT JERK YOUR MAID OF HONOR? SHE SUX!”  

Chapter Text

              Iida is becoming increasingly less certain that running patrols is the best use of his time, as the town, as he researched has an almost zero percent crime rate. Still, he feels he must do his due diligence. He knows walking around the town, dissuades criminals! However, it just doesn’t feel particularly helpful. Some people have approached him, just to tell him he’s doing great. Which feels nice at least. He actually ends up converging with Tokoyami in town. He salutes him as he approaches, “Ah! Tsukuyomi! How goes your patrol?”

              Tokoyami scratches his head. “It goes.”

              Setsuna drops in from the sky, collapsing in a heap of bits between them. Her head hops on top of the pile, “I’m so bored! Can we please stop doing these patrols!?”

              Tokoyami looked away the moment he heard her approaching, so he won’t be startled by her antics this time.

              Iida feels ashamed to  admit it, but, “It feels like there’s more we could be doing. We should head back to the agency and see if there’s any calls that they need help with.”

              “Yay!” Setsuna reforms in a tornado and leads the charge home.

              Tokoyami pats Iida’s back, “You are not to blame. Patrols would be a good call in most other scenarios. I do believe this is the better decision.”

              Setsuna texts Pony, “I’m finally being let off of patrol duty!”

              “Aww, but if you start doing real work who will I text all day?”

              “You’ll be in my heart!”

              “No matter what they say! (>Д<)♪”

              Dark Shadow lurches on to Setsuna’s shoulder. “Heya Tokage!”

              Setsuna pets him, “Hey buddy. You been havin’ fun?”

              “Nyah! Not enough bad guys to beat up!”

              Setsuna wonders sometimes if Dark Shadow is his own person, or a manifestation of Tokoyami’s inner thoughts. As she glances back at Tokoyami, she finds no answer to that question. Still, she pats the shadow bird, “I’m sure something’ll turn up soon.”

              When they get back to the agency, Nirengeki waves Iida over “Good thing you’re back, been getting the weirdest thing, come listen!” He turns the phone on speaker and they hear wind, and a strange static.

              Iida decides to just try talking to it, “Uh, hello?”

              “Please, you’ve gotta help! The forest is burning!!!”

              “What forest, where are-”

              “Just hurry up and send someone!” There’s a loud creak, screaming, and then the line goes dead with a crash.

              Iida is horrified to hear this, “We’ve gotta hurry and find where that was!”

              Before he, Setsuna, or Tokoyami can rush out the door, Ochako enters, “I looked literally everywhere. There’s no floods on the island.”

              “Floods?” Setsuna asks.

              Nirengeki explains, “We’ve been getting calls like this all day, talking about all kinds of disasters, but when we go out, there’s nothing.”

              Dark Shadow hides behind Tokage, “Maybe they’re calling from another dimension!”

              She pats him, “It’s probably just like a dumb prank.”

              “No…” Mina, who none of them even noticed before is sat in the corner desk, shakes her head. “That panic is way too real.”

              The phone rings again and Iida snatches it up, “Nabu Island Hero Agency! How can I help you!?” They all watch on as Iida listens to the other side, “Mrs. Toshiko-”

              “It’s someone he knows?” Setsuna whispers to Ochako.

              “Yes…” Iida’s expression seems to grow increasingly concerned as he listens to the caller. “I understand- I’ll be right there!” He slams the phone down and takes a step towards the door.

              Setsuna tries to go with him, “You got a real call???”

              He shouts as he runs out, “MRS. TOSHIKO NEEDS HER EGGS BEFORE HER HUSBAND GETS BACK FROM FISHING OR DINNER WILL BE RUINED!”  

              Setsuna sighs. “Good to know we’re taking this situation seriously.” Everyone kind of idles around the office, Tokoyami checks with Nirengeki to see what other calls they had before, and Ochako texts Izuku, who’s out on a mysterious call of his own. Letting him know they got more. Setsuna however sees Mina, curled up in her corner desk. Listening to something with one ear bud in. She floats over to her, “Hey champ.”

              Mina pauses her music. “What’s up Tokage?” She sounds like her normal cheery self, but she still seems off to Setsuna.

              “Just wonderin’ whatcha doin.”

              Mina furrows her brow, unsure if she’s being judged right now. “Just, waiting for more calls…”

              “Where’s Kirishima?”

              “He took the first one of those we got, something about a building collapsing. I texted him to let him know we got a bunch of fake calls, and that one probably wasn’t real, but, guess we’ll find out…”

              If Setsuna hadn’t witnessed Mina’s breakdown during the exams first hand, she might’ve asked why she didn’t go with. She wishes she knew what to say to help Mina, but even vaguely understanding what Mina went through in Esuha, and knowing they went through something similar, Setsuna doesn’t know how to help. What she saw didn’t effect her in the same way, so she doesn’t know how Mina feels.

              Mina notices her just blankly staring, and feels compelled to ask, “Are you okay?”

              “Y-yeah!”

              Mina thinks it’s probably best to change the subject, “What’s Pony been up to?”

              There’s something Setsuna could ramble for hours about. “Okay, so remember how we were supposed to start having movie nights over the vacation?”

              “Vaguely?”

              “So, most of our classmates who didn’t fail the exam ended up going on trips of their own. So right now it’s just Pony, Manga, Shinso, and Yanagi. She says-” She looks around like she’s about to give away trade secrets, “She says they’re planning a surprise party for us when we get home.”

              Mina squints, “That’s not that crazy.”

              Setsuna reiterates, “She’s getting Shinso, and Yanagi, to work together on a project.”

              It clicks for Mina, “Oh my god- you guys ship them too!?”

              “Girl! I’ve been shipping them since I first saw Shinso!”

              “What does she have them doing?”

              “Manga and her are writing some kind of play, and they’re forcing them to play the leads.”

              Mina snorts, “Oh my god, that’s adorable- They’re going to perform for us when we get back?”

              Setsuna shushes her, giggling, “Yes! Don’t tell anyone, or if you do, don’t tell them I told you- If anyone asks, you heard it from Manga.”

              Mina giggles, “I gotchu.”  

              Meanwhile, Iida rushes down the dirt road, heading to the edge of the island where Mrs. Toshiko lives, when he sees an orange streak of light go across the sky, A meteor? He squints at it, and as it draws closer to the island, he could swear that it was a person. It flies into the forest not far from him, and he’s expecting an impact, or boom of some kind, but, there’s nothing. He hurries ahead to the Toshiko house, dropping the eggs off, ringing the doorbell, and taking off to investigate. He sends a message to the group, “Unidentified flying person spotted above the northwest end of the island. Going to investigate.” He dashes through the woods as fast as he can without blowing out his engines, and gets to about the spot where he thinks they should’ve landed, but… he finds nothing. No crater, or scorch marks on the trees not even footprints in the dirt. There is an eeriness to these woods, he gets the strong sense this is somewhere he should not be alone. . . He checks his phone as he goes to leave, and sees, his message failed to send. 

Chapter Text

              Alright Denki, you’ve talked to girls before. It’s just you and Kodai today. He looks over at her while they’re walking. She glances back at him, expecting him to say something. GOD SHE’S SO CUTE! He looks away without a word. “So, uh… Kodai…”

              “Yes Kaminari?”

              “This is kind of like a date.” She has no reaction, and Kaminari laughs nervously to try and play it off, “I mean… you know?”

              Kodai tilts her head.

              TOO CUTE!

              “I don’t understand.”

              Kaminari trips on that rejection and almost faceplants on hot asphalt. “You know what a date is right?”

              Kodai nods. “The year, the month, and the day.” She holds her hand to her mouth in thought, “I suppose it is a date today… But it’s a date every day. Is there some wisdom in this you were trying to impart?”

              She’s gotta be messing with me… “-Don’t worry about it.”

              “I wasn’t worried.”

              This puts a stop to Kaminari’s attempts at flirting really fast, and pushes him to focus at the task at hand. Finding a cat. It’s been more of a passive goal for the agency since they got there since it was one of their first calls. Kaminari certainly doesn’t expect he’ll be the one to find it, but since he wants to look reliable in front of Kodai, he starts taking it just a little more seriously. “Maybe we should check in the woods.”

              “Has anyone looked over there?” She points out the castle ruins on the connected smaller island.

              “Think a cat would wander all the way out there?”

              “Why not?”

              They’re not too far off from the land bridge that connects it. Kaminari wasn’t too keen on trekking through the woods anyways, “Yeah, okay. Why not.” Kodai leads the way across the bridge, and he follows, I thought Kirishima said she was cool and easy to talk to. Is he crazy???

              After they get most of the way across the bridge, Kodai considers that they haven’t said anything for a while, and it might be strange if she just said nothing at all. She remembers her conversation with Kirishima, and thinks to just copy what he asked, “Why do you want to be a hero?”

              “I wanted people to think I was cool.” He doesn’t hesitate to answer. “It may look like it comes pretty natural to me, but I work pretty hard to be as cool as I am.”

              “Mm!”

              Kaminari didn’t realize it, but that was the most she’s laughed since they got here. He has no clue how to interpret that response. He just smiles a little awkward at her.

              As they make it up the hill and the ruins are in sight, Kodai has that feeling again that she got on the boat, she wonders if it’s coincidence, or if she’s finally found her watcher. “Do you feel like we’re being watched?”

              “Uh, I didn’t, but now I do- that’s so creepy!” He slinks away to go look around the ruins, cradling himself.

              I’m creepy? She wanders in the other direction, “Cat.” She calls out, “Cat. Come here.”

              That’s how she calls a cat? Kaminari looks through the mini-maze of crumbled rock, when he’s suddenly confronted by a giant monster’s face- “KODAI!!!” He fully sprints, leaping over rock back to where he last saw her, “KODAI! WE GOT MONSTER-”

              Kodai is stood there with the cat in her arms. She tilts her head at him. “?”

              “You actually found the cat!?”

              “This is just a cat. I don’t know if it’s the cat.”

              Kodai looks past him, “Is that your monster?”

              Kaminari turns, and sees a giant mutant mantis towering over them, “y-y-yeah! RUN!” He stumbles, and sprints for the bridge.

              Kodai throws a pebble that becomes a boulder at the monster’s face, but, the rock phases right through. She tilts her head at it. The mantis monster roars at her, but she feels no wind from its breath.  She calls out, “Kaminari, it’s not real.”

              Kaminari only then realizes he fully left her behind. He assumed she would’ve ran right next to him. “Kodai- what do you mean-!?” He sees the mantis rearing back its claws, and he tries to dash for her, but the giant claw slams down, and Kodai’s gone. He skids to a stop. “KODAI!!!”

              She pops out of the claw like she’s Mirio. “Yes Kaminari?”

              Kaminari is absolutely, completely, lost for words. He thinks, What a badass!?

              The mantis vanishes, and a little girl in a top hat stands on top of the boulder Kodai threw, “How the heck did you know!?”

              Kodai holds out her cat, “The cat wasn’t scared.”

              The little girl sneers at the cat, “Traitor!”

              Kaminari is having trouble processing all of this, “I- but wait- where’d the monster go? Who are you?”

              The girl squints at him, “That was my quirk you idiot!”

              He is flabbergasted, “You are really rude for a little girl!”

              Kodai sets the cat down, and it dashes into the girl’s arms. She holds her hand out for the child, “My name is Kodai, what’s yours?”

              The little girl hesitantly shakes it, “Mahoro, and this is my brother Katsuma.”

              Kaminari scrunches his brows, The cat??? A little boy pops out from behind the boulder.

              “Hello!” He waves.

              “Where did he come from!?”

              Kaminari is pretty much exactly what Mahoro imagined a hero student to be. Stupid. Kodai seems nice though, she feels compelled to ask, “Is that guy your boyfriend?”

              Kodai very thoughtfully answers, “He is my friend who is a boy.”

              Mahoro immediately understands exactly what she means. Clearly Kaminari is having trouble deciding if that’s a good or bad opinion of him.

              Kodai has a question of her own, “Is this the missing cat, Kyubiki?”

              Mahoro pulls the cat closer to her, “No…” Clearly lying.

              Kodai nods. “Mm.” She stands up, “Okay.”

              Kaminari had to check his phone to be sure, “Wait but it looks just like the cat from the picture!” He notices he has no connection. Probably just this part of the island.

              Kodai states very plainly as she walks away. “Mahoro wouldn’t lie to us.”

              Kaminari is inconsolable at this, “She literally- like her quirk makes lies! That’s her whole thing- we also just met her! Kodai!”

              Kodai doesn’t say a word the whole walk back, not wanting to explain it to him.

              Kaminari’s hoping to get some connection when they get back to the main island, but, there’s no bars at all. “Man, what’s going on? Is my phone busted???”

              “What do you mean?”

              “I got no connection!”

              Kodai looks at her phone. “Hm. Same.”

              “Well at least we have that in common, I guess…”  

              “I don’t understand.”

              “Ah!- We should just get back to the agency. Check in with the others.” Before I go crazy! That is the last time I take Kirishima’s word on anything!   

Chapter Text

              With the string of mysterious calls coming in non-stop. Nirengeki, Ochako, and Mina seeming to have them handled, Setsuna decides to take a break, flying up to the roof of the building, and calling Pony.

              Pony answers, “You must be really bored if you’re phone calling me.”

              Setsuna smiles, “I just wanted to hear your Jankanese.”

              “Woah! Your English is perfect???”

              For a moment, Setsuna wasn’t sure if they were speaking Japanese anymore. The question confuses her so much. Then she realizes Pony’s being sarcastic. She snaps back, trying to act like she’s on the verge of tears, she speaks in English to really sell it, “I study as hard as I can for you.” She seems to have really convinced her, because there’s just silence on the other end.

              . . .

              “Pony?”

              . . .

              “Okay, I admit, I don’t study that hard… I mean, I do study a lot so I can learn enough English so that you can be more of yourself around me, but- ah- you know what I’m saying.”

              . . .

              “Are you there???” She looks at her phone, noticing her bars have vanished. “Oh no…” She rushes down, and bursts back into the agency-

              “Is your phone dead too???” Ochako jumps at her the second she walks in.

              “Yes! Pony’s going to think I’m actually mad at her!!! How do we fix it!?”

              Mina’s quietly hoping in the corner that Kirishima’s okay wherever he is.

              Nirengeki tries to keep the group calm. “There’s probably not a lot we can do. Internet is down too.”

              Ochako claps, “I’m going to go ask Ryukyu!”

              Mina makes a stand, “I’m gonna go find Eijiro!”

              Setsuna scratches her head until a memory flashes back, “I remember! There’s a cell-tower on this island! That must be busted!”

              Iida makes it back. “-Are your phones-?”

              The girls shout in unison, “Yes!”

              Iida can tell they’re all trying to leave, “What are we doing? What’s the plan?”

              They all shout their plans in unison.

              Iida is able to parse that shockingly well. He pats Ochako and Mina’s shoulders, “I can help you look for them faster!”

              Nirengeki despairs, We should just stay put Iida!

              He then turns to Setsuna, and very seriously asks her with not a shred of sarcasm, “Do you know how to fix a cell-tower?”

              “N-no…?”

              “Blast. Take Nirengeki, find Awase and Sero.”

              Nirengeki blushes, Why did he use my first name?

              “Do they know how to fix a cell-tower?” Setsuna glances over her shoulder at Nirengeki, giving him a wink.

              Nirengeki has no idea what that’s meant to imply!

              Iida shrugs, and puts his visor back down, “I just imagine their quirks would come in handy! We’ll meet you over there as soon as we find Midoriya and Kirishima!”

              Ochako makes Mina and herself weightless, and ties them both to Iida with her hookshot so they can float behind him as he runs fullspeed.

              Setsuna flies her hands out to grab Nirengeki. “Let’s go little buddy!” She’s already flying out the door.

              Nirengeki feels like a child. Even if most people, probably wouldn’t be able to tell or guess that Setsuna is holding him by his arm pits as they fly through the air, he knows, and that’s enough for his shame. ‘Little Buddy’ certainly didn’t help.

              Setsuna feels so awkward in the silence as they fly to the beach. She decides to tease her buddy, “So… How’s sleeping with Iida?”

              “AH! That’s what you were winking about!?”

              “I thought it was kind of obvious.”

              “I’m not sleeping with him, we’re just sharing a room!”

              “Said the blushing ingénue.”

              “Tokage! Please don’t make it like that, I don’t even think Iida’s-”

              “Probably not, but he’s totally your type right?”

              “No!”

              “What??? I thought you liked like big tall muscley guys?”

              Nirengeki is so lost on how she came to that conclusion, he decides rather than just shutting down the conversation completely, he’ll turn it on her. “So is Pony your type?” He tries to ask as sassily as possible.

              “Obviously.”

              Clearly not the response he was expecting.

              “Pony’s straight up adorable! I don’t know how she isn’t constantly getting marriage proposals!”

              “I guess she’s cute in like a-” Though he doesn’t look up, he can feel Setsuna glaring daggers in him. “I’m sorry! You two are cute together!”

              “Hmh.” She drops him onto the beach from just a little higher up than she should’ve, letting him faceplant in the sand in front of the bar.

              “Very mature Tokage!” He gets up and dusts himself off. Setsuna landing next to him.

              Sero and Awase glance over at them, in the middle of a busy shift. Setsuna can’t believe they’re actually still working, “Did you guys not hear about the cell tower!?” The image of a sad Pony, waiting by her phone still lingers in her mind.

              Sero sets down his tray, “Is that what’s going on? Some kind of a villain attack???”

              Nirengeki explains, “We don’t know a lot about the situation yet but we were going to go check it out-”

              Sero flies off on his tape before hearing another word.

              Setsuna sighs, “Awase, we’ll probably mostly need you.”

              Awase sniffles, “You mean it?”

              Setsuna squints in thought, “I don’t think I could really carry you and Shoda there though.”

              The boss lady of the beach bar jingles a pair of keys. “I have a car.”

              Setsuna reaches out a hand to try and receive the keys.

              “You can’t drive!” She shuts the shutters on the counter. “Alright everyone! Clear out! If you have a drink right now you haven’t paid for, it’s free!” The crowd cheers, “I better see some good tips tomorrow though!”

              She leads them off the beach onto the street where she has a little sedan that they all squeeze into. She smiles in the mirror at Setsuna and Nirengeki, “So does this make me like a sort of honorary hero?”

              Awase is so clearly madly in love with her, “I think it does.”

              She pinches his cheek, “Thank ya sweetheart! Now, let’s drive.” She floors it.  

Chapter Text

               Tokoyami is fairly certain there wasn’t any skyscrapers to collapse on this island like the phone call he received suggested, but a walk around the island certainly couldn’t hurt. He starts to wonder what his friends are doing, but notices his phone’s got no connection. That wasn’t strange or alarming to him. They were on an island pretty far from what most would consider main land Japan. It was a little distressing that he couldn’t contact his friends, but nothing he could realistically do about it.

              Dark Shadow pops out, looks at his phone, “Seems we’re flyin’ solo Fumikage.”

              “It would seem so.”

              “Should we head back to the agency, I’m kinda hungy!”

              Tokoyami glances at the sky, “The sun will be setting shortly. It would probably be for the best if we retreated for now.”

              Dark Shadow presses his head against Tokoyami, “What’s on your mind buddy?”

              “It’s about what Ashido said I suppose…”

              “About what?”

              “She asked if I ever wished to be more bird or more human. I was curious what your answer was.”

              Dark Shadow squints, “I like me!”

              Tokoyami gives a pleased huff. “I like you as well Dark Shadow. . . Do you ever wish that we were apart though?”

              Dark Shadow shakes his head and hugs Fumikage. “I’ve had nightmares like that! No thank you!”

              Fumikage pats him, “I have had the same. Sometimes I wonder though, what it would be like if we were just, brothers…”

              “We’re already brothers from the same mothers!”

              “Hmh. I’m aware Dark Shadow. I just meant, if you were human.”

              “Hmmmm… But then I wouldn’t be as amazingly powerful!”

              “I suppose not.”

              “And I think you’d get lonely! Could you imagine not havin’ your best friend always by your side! Like if it wasn’t for me, you’d probably be monologuing to yourself right now!”

              “In a way, I kind of am monologuing to myself right now.”

              Dark Shadow wraps him up in protest. It is then that they are found by Kodai, and Kaminari. “Hi Tokoyami.” Kodai gently calls out to him.

              Kaminari shouts, “Yo! Tokoyami! You know what’s going on with the phones!?”

              Dark Shadow retreats at the sight of his arch nemesis. Tokoyami scrunches his brow, “I do not. I imagine it will resolve itself.”

              “Ugh! You headin’ back to the agency?”

              “That I am.”

              “Can you escort Kodai, I’m gonna go check out the beach before it gets dark!”

              “Kaminari-” Before he can protest, Chargebolt takes off.

              Kodai walks beside Tokoyami, “I don’t believe I need an escort.”

              “Hmh.”

              “Mm.”

              Tokoyami doesn’t believe he’s ever been alone with Kodai before, or spoken this much to her. She seems to be a like-minded soul, nothing like the loud, scheming, boisterous lot he’d gotten used to being around. They walk in silence for a while, and while he imagines most of his classmates would find that to be unbearably awkward or something, he senses she’s as comfortable with silence as he is.

              Eventually she does decide to speak, curious to pose Kirishima’s question, “Why do you want to be a hero?”

              It was such a strangely forward question it caught him a little off guard. “Why do you ask?”

              “Mm. Just curious.”

              “Hmh…” It’s not something I’ve put much thought into, but I suppose, “I didn’t see many other career routes that interested me. Testing myself, and pushing past my limits, finding ways to make a noble use of my darkness, and control it. What about you?”

              “Mm! I just wanted to know if I could do it.”

              “And have you found your answer yet?”

              “I’m not sure. It’s possible.”

              That pause was so important, and the way she said it carried the weight of all the decisions she’s made that brought her to this moment. Tokoyami knows what it’s like to not feel particularly heroic, inspiring, or charismatic. He nods, and tries to reassure her despite not knowing how to sound reassuring, “It is possible.”

              “Mm.” She sounded pleased to hear him say that. She was happy to have run into Tokoyami beneath this setting sun.

              They return to the agency, to find it oddly vacant. The phones are no longer ringing to Tokoyami’s delight, but the connection here is no better than anywhere else Tokoyami checked. Dark Shadow pops out, and scouts head down the halls, “Anyone home!?”

              Kodai grabs herself some peanut butter crackers from the pantry, that she bought herself. “Do you think they’re okay?” She has a seat at the big table.

              Tokoyami takes the seat he sat in the other day, “I imagine they are. We were getting a lot of fabricated emergency calls earlier, so they most likely went to go check on one of those. I would want to go look for them, but we’d be flying blind. Best to stay put, wait for more information.”

              “Mm.” She holds out a cracker to him. He doesn’t know this, but she’s never offered to share those with anyone before.

              He gently takes one from her, and then Dark Shadow zooms back to bite it out of his hand, gulping it down. He looks rather annoyedly at Dark Shadow.

              Kodai stares at this, she didn’t realize how much sentience Dark Shadow had. She’s more confused how the semi-incorporeal shadow monster is able to digest food. “How does that work?”

              “What do you mean?”

              “Him, eating.”

              Tokoyami and Dark Shadow share a look, and then they both shrug. Neither certain completely how Dark Shadow works. Just that he simply is, and always has been, a part of Fumikage Tokoyami.

Chapter Text

              “The age of heroes must come to an end?” Setsuna can’t believe the absurdity- someone left a note behind on the cell tower after they broke it. Sero, and Awase work well with the technician, following her instructions to help repair the odd damage done to the tower. Several holes just melted straight through it. Fortunately not impossible to fix, but were it not for Awase’s power it’d probably be way more annoying. As Setsuna holds the note left behind by the supposed culprit, she thinks, So there’s some villains running around, echoing Stain, and they leave a note… why… a note…

              Nirengeki peers at it, and seems to echo her sentiment, “Do you think this is actually like a test put on by the school?”

              “Why would they go this far- like they’re disrupting so many people’s lives. That seems excessive for a test, even for UA.”

              “Why would villains leave an ominous note?”

              “Maybe they’re stupid??? I gotta call Pony.”

              “Get like an outsider perspective.”

              “No, I just-” She calls out to Sero and Awase, “Are you two almost done up there!?”

              Awase calls back, dangling from a length of Sero’s tape, “Did you want to help!?”

              “You said ‘Sit back Setsuna! Me and Sero got this!’”

              “That was before I knew there was damage all the way up here!”

              Setsuna rolls her eyes and floats up to help hold Awase steady. The technician calls to them from inside the tower, “You kids are doing great!”

              Nirengeki ponders the note a little further, What if the note, and this, is just a distraction… It’s weird Iida and Midoriya didn’t run straight here…

              Meanwhile… The call Izuku received led him out to what was supposedly a flooding river, but he runs up and down it, with no sign of anyone. He saw Ochako texted him that more calls came in, when he looks at his phone now, there’s no connection. I should get back, there could be real people in danger somewhere else. As he’s about to turn back to the agency, he hears a man’s voice behind him.

              “Hold there young hero!” Izuku looks across the river and sees an older man, Japanese, graying. Dressed in something of a hero’s costume, faded blue and black, but certainly not one he recognizes. He puts on an old domino mask. “You’re Deku, aren’t you? The Number One Hero’s student?”

              There’s no danger sense, but Deku goes on guard. Feeling there’s something off about this man, an odd bit of desperation in his voice. “I am…”

              “Do you… know who I am?”

              Should I? Deku examines him a bit more closely. Water themed, but definitely not Manual. He’s clearly an older hero, maybe from All Might’s Bronze Age? All the scanning made Deku no less certain, he’d never seen this man before in his entire life. “I’m sorry, I don’t.”

              That looks like it crushes him. “At least you’re polite about it…”

              Deku reaches out, “B- What is your name?”

              That seems to give him a new resolve at least, he stands with strengthened posture, “You can call me, Torrent.”

              Definitely not someone I’ve heard of before. “Nice meeting you!” He takes off into the woods. I need to get back to the agen- The second he steps onto the road he’s barreled over by Iida, Ochako, and Mina. The four slide a considerable distance before stopping in a heap. “ow….” Deku squeaks out, Iida’s armor jabbing him in the ribs.

              Ochako floats Iida with her and Mina, “What’d we h-” She releases her quirk so she can hug- “Deku!!!”

              Izuku feels such bliss in her arms- Wait, why was she panicked? “Did something happen???”

              Iida very quickly explains, “Tokage, Sero, Awase, and Nirengeki are en route to the cell-tower. We came looking for you and Kirishima.”

              Kirishima emerges as if on cue from another wooded path. “You find anything Mid-”

              Mina fully tackles him to the ground. “We’re not allowed to split up anymore okay!?”

              Kirishima sits up with her, “Deal.”

              It comes back to Deku, “Hey, have any of you guys ever heard of a water hero named Torrent?”

              They all draw blanks, Iida offers, “I know Manual.”

              “It definitely wasn’t Manual, he was way older.”

              Kirishima just picks up Mina rather than getting her off of him to stand, “Wait, you’re saying you ran into an old hero too?”  

              Izuku squints, “Yeah?”

              “Okay, so, I’m not going crazy then.”

              Mina clearly doesn’t mind being held right now, but she looks concerned, “Why would you be going crazy?”

              “So I didn’t find any collapsed buildings, but I did find this sort of old house out in the woods. I didn’t go inside because this person came out, and they said some weird stuff. Called themself, Zero Tempo. They said they used to be a hero.”

              “Used to be?” Iida questions.

              Ochako’s more concerned about, “What kind of weird stuff?”

              Kirishima does a curl with Mina, clearly just trying to scratch his head- she actually scratches it for him. He snorts, “Thanks babe- I uh, just kind of tuned her out. It was all like, nothing you do matters, and something about society.”

              Mina tilts her head, “But, wait, I still don’t understand why you thought you were going crazy.”

              “Oh, they just like vanished.”

              “Like with a quirk?” Izuku is already pulling out his phone to make a note since he doesn’t have his notebooks with him.

              “It wasn’t like anything I’ve seen. There wasn’t any like smoke, or light, or sound. It was like I just blinked and they were gone.”

              Izuku types down, “So we have Zero Tempo, and Torrent.” He looks to the girls and Iida, “Did you guys run into anyone else weird.”

              Iida remembers, “I saw a meteor earlier. Couldn’t find where it landed though.”

              Ochako claps, “We should report this to Ryukyu! She might know who they are!”

              Izuku snaps, “I was just about to say we should ask Miruko!”

              A zero gravity chariot run later, they’re at the doorstep of Miruko and Ryukyu’s vacation home. Miruko answers, thankfully fully robed this time, having spotted her students from the window, she’s a bit surprised to see, the others. “Ah- you brought friends?”

              Iida shoots out his hand, “My name is Tenya Iida! It’s an honor to finally meet you Ms Miruko!”

              She shakes it firmly with her metal hand. “Good to meet ya! Why are you here?” She recognizes Mina from Esuha, and Kirishima from the exam.

              Ochako bashfully asks, “I was sort of hoping we could ask Ryukyu about some old heroes.”

              Miruko blushes. “She’s uh- in the shower right now- I can bring a message to- Ay! Ocho! Why don’t you just ask me?”

              Ocho? Mina and Iida are confused in unison.

              Ochako puts her hands together as if in prayer for forgiveness, “I really didn’t think you were old enough Miruko I’m sorry!”

              This causes a burst of laughter to escape the rabbit. It almost takes her to the floor.

              Deku squints at Ochako, That’s why she wanted to ask Ryukyu?

              Miruko catches her breath, long enough to let out, “Ocho, sweetie, you know Ryukyu and I are the same age?”

              Iida cuts to the chase, “Have you ever heard of the heroes, Torrent, or Zero Tempo?”

              An undiscernible look crosses Miruko’s face. To Deku, it almost looks like, Concern?  

Chapter Text

              The second connection is restored to the island, Setsuna flies high, and calls Pony. With every ring she feels like she’s been waiting a thousand years, Pick up, pick up, pick up!

              The ringing stops, and… Pony answers, “Hello?”

              Setsuna flips in the air, “Pony! I’m not mad at you, I don’t study English as much as I should!!!”

              “…Huh?”

              “Some jerk ass messed up the only cell tower on the island, and our call got disconnected before and I was freaking out because I thought you’d think I was mad at you!”

              “Ohhhhh. -Wait what do you mean you don’t study English!?”

              “I do study, but only for like five minutes a day because it’s really hard to balance with school work and hero stuff, but I want to learn it really bad so that you can be more yourself when you’re talking to me!”

              “Awww, Setsuna. I love you!”

              “I love you too.” Setsuna twirls back and forth in the air, and then she hears a crash down below. “Pony, I gotta go! If I don’t text back or anything, I’m probably fine but the Cell Tower probably got messed up again!”

              “Okay!”

              Don’t tell me the boys broke it after we just fixed it. Before Setsuna can investigate down below, she spots an orange light in the sky, getting bigger- No, coming towards her. “Huh?”

              None of the boys down below see as Setsuna just vanishes with a streak of orange light.

              When Setsuna comes to, a strange glowing woman is standing over her. The woman says, “You are not the Strongest?”

              Setsuna’s worried about where this leads no matter how she answers her, but she says, “Probably not.”

              The woman is disappointed, “Would you tell me who is the Strongest?”

              She’s not about to tell this obvious lunatic about Miruko vacationing on the island. She just plays dumb. “I wouldn’t know…”

              Her eyes wander for a bit before falling back on Setsuna, “Do you know who I am?”

              Setsuna sits up, she doesn’t recognize the woman’s faded looking hero suit. Red and gold… She looked a bit like a character from that show Nirengeki watches all the time, but when Setsuna looked closer she could see through the glow of her quirk that this woman was older. Despite her muscle tone, she looked to be at least sixty years old. “A hero?”

              “It has been too long, hasn’t it? My name was- is, Flare.” It clearly doesn’t ring any bells in Setsuna’s head, and so she leaves, vanishing into the sky.

              Setsuna lays there for a moment. She sees the cell-tower isn’t too far from her still, and she could fly back over, but her whole body shutters. I’m just going back to the agency…

              On her way back she catches Iida on the road, “Yo! Iida!”

              He stops for her but jogs in place, “Tokage!”

              “Can I-” She notices Mina and Ochako aren’t with him anymore, “What happened to Mina and-”

              “We found Kirishima and Midoriya! I escorted them to Ms. Miruko’s beach house but I saw this strange light in the sky and decided to investigate.”

              “Forget about that, can I get a ride back to the agency, I’m tired of walking.”

              He squints at her, “Can’t you fly?”

              “Not right now.”

              His brain goes into overdrive trying to figure out what that could possibly mean. He comes to no conclusion, and sighs. “Fine, hop on.”

              “Yay!” She jumps on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he takes off. “You ever heard of a hero named Flare?”

              “Not that I can recall, why?”

              “Just wondering.” He’s gonna think I’m crazy if I tell him some DBZ chick tackled me out of the sky and wanted me to tell her who’s strongest. She probably flew off to some other island by now anyways.

              Setsuna sees Tokoyami and Kodai sitting around inside the main room when she comes in, “You guys!” She falls over and explodes into a dozen pieces.

              Normally Tokoyami would look away, but he forgot to and fully jumps at the gruesome sight.

              “Welcome back.” Kodai says plainly.

              She reforms, “Kodai, could you text Nirengeki for me, and let him know I came back.”

              “Okay.”

              Tokoyami squints, “Why her?”

              “Because I knew she wouldn’t ask a dozen questions, I’m hopping in the shower.”

              Kodai texts the group chat: Setsuna has returned.

              Nirengeki: Why didn’t she just tell us that?

              Kodai: She asked me to.

              Kaminari: Hey! You guys got the cells working again! :D Can someone pick me up from the beach, I thought the bar would still be open… :c

              Iida: Underage drinking is illegal Kaminari!!!

              Kaminari: You are so right, you should come take me home immediately.

              Tokoyami sits with Kodai, “Kodai, if it isn’t too much of a bother. I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

              “Mm?”

              “If you weren’t a hero, what do you think you would do instead?”

              “Why do you ask..?” She asks just as he did.

              Just as she answered before, he responds, with a small smile, “Just curious.”

              “Mm.” She shrinks and grows her phone in her hand a few times as she considers her answer. “Artist.”

              “You draw?”

              “No, but it would be nice to know if I could.”

              “Hmh.” His little smile grows.

              “What about you?”

              “I think I would like to be a writer. Just to see if I could.”

              “Mm.” She smiles, just a little, but bigger than anyone had ever seen her smile before.

              Setsuna watched all of this unfold as she got out of the shower. She floats quietly into her and Kodai’s bedroom, and snuggles up with Pony’s horn before texting her.

               Setsuna: “Hey girl”

              Pony: “Whaddup gur?”

              Setsuna: “I miss you =C”

              Pony: “Aww. Do you still have my horn?”

              Setsuna: “I sleep with it every night >w>”

              Pony: “Gross lol”

              Setsuna: “You’re just jealous of what me and Hornby have!”

              Pony: “Hornby?”

              Setsuna: “She needed a name.”

              Pony: “She???”

              Setsuna: “YOUR HORN!”

              Pony: “oh… I need to confess something…”

              Setsuna has a full heart attack reading that, “Yeah?”

              Pony: “I stole Mr. Ceratops…”

              Setsuna: “YOU STOLE GRANT!?”

              Pony: “HE NEEDED COMPANIONSHIP!”

              Setsuna: “How’d you even get into my room?”

              Pony: “Reiko’s the best lock pick in the seven seas!”

              Setsuna: “Really??? That seems like such a random hobby for her.”

              Pony: “Like with her quirk. She can literally just open any door from the inside.”

              Setsuna: “oh…”

              Pony: “are you mad?”

              Setsuna: “Is Grant happy at least?”

              Pony: “As happy as a plushy dinosaur can be!”

              Setsuna: “I need to ask you something…” She phrases it as dramatically as possible, hoping to give Pony the heart attack she gave her.

              Pony: “Yes? O.O”

              Setsuna: “Have you ever seen Yui smile?”

              Pony: “. . .” “Huh?”

              Setsuna: “I just saw her smile! Like actual smile! Not the Yui looking slightly brighter look, but an actual full smile!”

              Pony: “Cause of you?”

              Setsuna: “No, cause of Tokoyami!”

              Pony: “. . . Are you drunk?”

              Setsuna: “I’m serious! I don’t know how, and I don’t get why, but Tokoyami was spittin’ game!”

              Pony: “What is ‘spittin game’?”

              Setsuna: “He flirt with her good!” –

              Just then the door to Setsuna’s bedroom swings open dramatically, and Kodai stands in the doorway. Her unexpressive face would be a little unsettling if that wasn’t how she always looked. “Setsuna.”

              “Yes Yui?”

              “I’m going to sleep.”

              “Okay!”

              Yui wraps herself up like a burrito. Setsuna’s about to go back to texting, when Yui asks, “Setsuna?”

              “Yes?”

              “Can I tell you a secret?”

              “Sure.”

              “. . . I think Tokoyami is nice.” Were it not for the dim lighting, Setsuna might see the tiniest blush on Kodai’s face.

              “-”

              “Good night.” She turns away from Setsuna. Setsuna goes back to texting with Pony.

              Setsuna: “Don’t tell anyone, but I think they’re gonna get married.”

              Pony: “She can tell us about what his kisses are like!”

              Setsuna: “I still don’t want to know! \>o</”

              On the beach, Iida spots Kaminari from a distance, he’s about to call out to him when he notices a strange orange glow being casted over him and the ground.

              “Ingenium!” A woman’s voice calls from the sky, before scooping him up, in her arms. “It’s been so long, I never thought I’d see you again-”

              “Woah woah woah!” She almost drops him right there, and while she immediately looks disappointed, she lowers him gently back to the ground, and lets him speak. “I think you have me confused with my older brother.”

              She shakes her head, “No. The Ingenium I knew was a woman.”

              Iida takes off his helmet, “Sorry to disappoint you, but-”

              “I know.”

              “There hasn’t been a woman Ingenium in… Well, since my grandmother.”

              Her head falls. “Have you at least heard of me. The Hero, Flare?”

              Iida really wishes he did, but his grandmother didn’t really share that many stories of her heroing days. If she did, he feels like he’d certainly remember a spiky haired, glowing amazon. “I’m afraid I don’t…”

              She sighs, her glow fading. Her hair falls to long white locks. “Then, could you tell me who the Strongest is?”

              “I don’t understand.” There’s so many factors one could measure strength by. I’m probably… maybe, the fastest. Midoriya’s quite strong at the moment but his strength comes at a cost usually. Endeavor’s quite powerful. Can’t forget Miruko she’s strong, fast, and has fantastic reflexes. Though Hawks is also quite- His mind swirls through heroes for a while.

              “The Strongest. The greatest hero in Japan?”

              “I’ve not heard of them either…”

              “No- It’s a title, not a specific-” She groans. Her bones creak as she tries to work out a crick in her neck. “Not a specific person. I saw a flying girl earlier, reminded me of another hero I knew, but she didn’t know what I was talking about either.”

              “Oh- We don’t call them that anymore, but the current Number One Hero, is The Rabbit Hero Miruko. She’s staying over there...” He points out Miruko’s beach house, but as he looks at it, and the words leave his mouth, he’s realizing he probably shouldn’t have.

              “Yo Iida!!!” Kaminari finally runs up to him. “Who are you talking to?”

              “The Hero Flare of course-” When he turns back towards her, she’s gone. “… Did you, not see her?”

              “Was she hot?”

              There’s a lot of factors one could define ‘hot’ by. Temperature wise she was probably quite warm, she appeared to be on fire though… That’s, -probably not how Kaminari means it. “Well…-” Attractiveness is also hard to define. I don’t believe she was unappealing though, she was quite a bit older. Though I don’t know if that would make a difference to Kaminari. “She was tall, muscular, probably in her sixties or seventies.”

              “Grandma, got it. Let’s get back to the agency!” He hops on Iida’s back. “Onward!”

              Iida trills his lips and takes off. I doubt Kaminari’s ever heard of her anyways.

Chapter Text

              Izuku sighs, blowing bubbles into his drink. “I can’t believe Miruko didn’t know those guys…”

              Kirishima considers it fully logically, “It’s not that weird man. She’s not that much older than us if you think about it.”

              “Is she not?” Mina squints.

              “She’s twenty-seven.” Ochako answers, sadly sipping her own shake, leaned up against Deku.

              “That’s like ten years older than us!” Mina argues.

              Izuku leans back on Ochako, “It’s just… she always has the answer we need.”

              Mina flicks a crumpled up ball of napkin- which bounces off Ochako’s head to hit Izuku’s. “You two are seriously bumming me out! Also, did you maybe consider this is a part of the test?”

              “What makes you say that?” Ochako rubs her head, for some reason expecting there to be a bruise.

              “They said they wouldn’t help us unless there’s a real emergency. They’re not helping us, so obviously this isn’t a real emergency!”

              Izuku argues, “Well, to be fair, it’s not an emergency at all. We saw some suspicious people in the woods, and even the cell tower got fixed.”

              Mina groans. Kirishima snickers, “Why don’t we talk about something else? Who knows when we’re all going to get time off like this again.”

              Ochako claps. “Before the food gets here! We have this game to decide who’s paying for it…”

              Mina snorts at how suddenly serious Ochako sounds, “Okay?”

              “We all put a hand on the napkin!” She sets one at the center of the table putting her hand on the closest corner. “First person to take their hand off, has to pay for the last person to take their hand off.”

              Mina takes her corner. “Are there any rules?”

              Kirishima takes his, “Yeah, am I allowed to just pull Midoriya’s hand off?”

              Izuku imagined he meant pulling his hand from his wrist, and holds his hand to his chest in response to the brutal image, “Why would you do that?”

              Ochako giggles, “No violence! Any other shenanigans are fine.”

              Deku hesitantly takes his corner across from Kirishima.

              Mina strikes up conversation, clearly already up to something. “So, Ochako. Who normally wins this game?”

              “Me.” Ochako smiles so proudly.

              “And who loses?” Mina looks expectedly at Izuku.

              “Usually Ryukyu.”

              Izuku nods.

              Mina squints, “How does she lose?”

              Ochako smirks, “I’ll tell ya later.” She lets a moment pass in quiet concentration between the four of them. Not wanting to be the one to pay, she chooses her victim, by crime of proximity. She bites Deku’s cheek.

              Deku holds firm. I can’t risk losing first, if I have to pay for someone, and it’s Mina, I’ll have to say that to the waitress! Then she’ll think Mina and I are a couple, and I can’t let that happen!!! If someone’s going to get out first then it has to be-!

              “Sorry for the wait!” The waitress arrives with a massive tray balanced on her shoulder by their meals. She expertly distributes them all and leaves the couples to their game.

              Kirishima picks up his fork and knife, needing both hands for his giant steak, “Aw man! This looks so good!” As he digs in he notices the whole rest of the party staring at him. “wha?” he says with his mouth full.

              Mina looks to Ochako for clarification, “So he’s the loser right?”

              Ochako nods, taking up her silverware with one hand. “This is where the game gets interesting...”

              “But wait! I thought we were like, gonna take a break while we had food- how am I supposed to eat steak one handed?”

              Deku looks so intense as he cuts into his own steak, using Blackwhip to use the knife, and his right hand to hold the fork.

              Kirishima looks to Ochako, who’s eating her cost-effective miso chicken, leaving the knife floating in the air when she’s not using it. He argues, “I feel like that’s cheating man!”

              Mina kisses at his cheek, “I thought you’d be stoked to be in such a chivalrous position.” She stuffs her face with the one-handed pasta she got.

              Once again, Mina has caused such a paradigm shift inside Kirishima, he hadn’t considered it that way. He fully crosses his arms in thought, “I guess it is pretty manly to pay for someone else.”

              Though none of that was aimed at Izuku, it feels like an attack on his heart, and he has to debate, “Miruko taught me to respect women as equals! I would be letting her down if I just let one of these two take the free meal!”

              Ochako does a spit take, and right when she turns her head, Mina takes her chance! She pulls, but Izuku keeps his fingers pressed to it, and the napkin tears. Ochako is left without her corner. She despairs, “I would’ve ordered something cheaper if I knew I was going to lose!”

              She ordered the cheapest entrée- does she mean like just an appetizer?- Or just a drink???  Izuku feels a little bad for her, “If you’re that short on cash, I can pay for you.”

              “-No!” Before Ochako can debate, Mina’s intense glare locks on Izuku from across the table. “You dishonor the game of our people by bending the rules for her sake.”

              The game of our people? “But Mina, you just learned about it today.”

              “And today, I shall win it.”

              Kirishima offers, “I don’t mind paying for both of you-”

              “No!” The rest of the party agrees in unison.

              For a moment, Kirishima doesn’t know what to do with his hands, he decides to just go back to eating his steak while this resolves.

              Mina thinks of a strategy between bites. “So… Izuku.”

              This simple use of his first name flusters, not only him, but Ochako as well. He tries to play it cool, “Yes Ashido?”

              “How come Ochako and I are on a first name basis, but you and Kirishima aren’t?”

              “I-it’s nothing against him! I just- It feels…” He tucks his face into his shoulder, “too intimate…”

              Kirishima scratches his head, “I just never really thought about it. I still call Bakugo, Bakugo. Katsuki just doesn’t fit him as well ya know?”

              Mina leans against Kirishima, “I think we should all be on a first name basis by now, I mean, we’ve been in the same class for two years. Plus, we’re the only members of a very exclusive club.” She glances at Ochako with a devilish little grin.

              She blushes, “M-mina! Did you tell Kirishima that???”

              Mina snorts, “Dude come on, none of us are that subtle about it.”

              Izuku is deeply confused. He looks to Kirishima who just shrugs.

              Ochako also thinks to argue, “You still call him Kirishima sometimes! Why should Deku and I have to call him -Eijiro?”

              Mina snorts at the slight hesitancy, “Ochako, I never said you had to. I just figured since you and I are on a first name basis, the boys should be too ya know?”

              Ochako, oddly feeling very passionate about this, “-That should be up to them to decide! We can’t force it!”

              Izuku takes a deep breath, “Eijiro, and Mina, I…” Mina perks up to hear what he has to say, and just then, Izuku pulls the napkin away. “Aha! Free dinner is mine!!!”

              Mina pouts. After everyone enjoys their food with both hands finally freed, the bill comes around, and Kirishima decides to pay for everyone regardless of winner. Ochako laments that she didn’t order more food, Izuku feels less special, and Mina’s happy to be treated by her boyfriend, despite her earlier protest.

              As they’re walking back, Izuku can’t stop wondering, “Ochako… why does it matter so much to you if I start using their first names?” He realizes that sounds awfully confrontational, and stammers to rephrase, “I-I mean I’m just curious like why you got so worked up about it- Not that-that’s a bad thing!”

              Ochako just gets bashful, “It’s just that… I like when I’m the only one you call by their first name- and also it took so long to convince you to do that!- If Mina gets to be called Mina after one conversation about it then I demand a cute nickname like Kiri or Eiji!”

              Kirishima blushes off to the side, Why my nicknames?

              A streetlight goes on above Deku’s head, “Urachako!”

              “Nyo! Cuter!”

              “Urarara!”

              “Am I a dog???”

              Mina snickers against Kirishima as they listen to this conversation. Eijiro snaps his fingers, “Mimi!”

              Mina bites his face, “You’re worse than Midoriya!”

              With the cell-tower restored, most of the students manage to go to sleep peacefully that night. Certain that whatever caused it wasn’t some oncoming villain attack, but Kirishima feels a little unsure… Though he waved it off as nothing before, he thinks on his run-in with that woman at the cabin, Zero Tempo…

              She looked older than most heroes he’s seen, but she was dressed in this black and white spandex costume that disguised a strangely hunched posture. He remembers what she said, “You might think you’re training to be heroes, but you’ll just be tools for the government, and when they no longer need you, or you defy their will… You’ll be thrown away. Just, like, us.”

              “Who’s us?”

              She held up some vintage device, and clicked a button, an audio track played, and at first all Kirishima heard was screaming, panic, “Someone help us ple-!!!” and then just quiet wind... The woman looked just as upset to be hearing it as he was.

              She said, “I was the hero they were depending on, Zero Tempo, but I was denied authorization. When I released the distress calls, countless like this one, and the responses I got from the hero commission, they arrested me, and my comrades. They threw us away, and erased us from the public records… I don’t care who remembers me, but the new generations need to learn who they’re working for.”

              “That had to have been so long ago, they’re not like-”

              “You think I was the last one?!” She laughed, indignant. “Tartarus was filled with ex-heroes just like me, heroes you surely never even heard of old and young. Just keep an ear out kid… War is coming.”

              “We just fought a war you can’t be-!” She vanished. No puff of smoke, or flash of some quirk or another. She just disappeared like she had never been there at all. Kirishima peeked inside the cabin, but saw nothing of note. Nothing that seemed like some conspiracist’s hideout. The manliest thing he thought to do was not worry his friends with all that he was just told. At best, she was a crazy old woman, at worst, he was going crazy.

              So, tonight, he sits by the phone. Waiting to hear another of her old distress calls. Hoping that if he tells her the right thing she might talk to him again, explain more of her story, because no matter how he searched the internet, he could not find any trace of a hero called Zero Tempo…

              “No!!!” Mina jolts awake from a dream, though her heart pounds, all she remembers is dusty air, and blood covered hands and- Kirishima’s not with her. A chunk of her bed was melted away by her acid while she slept… not so peacefully. She worries briefly that she melted him away, though she reasons that would probably look much different. She swings the door open, and sees that spiky red hair of his sat in front of the glow of a computer screen. She says nothing but goes to wrap her arms around him, her hands tremoring just a little as she buries her face in the nape of his neck.

              He runs his fingers into her curls, and speaks so gently. “Sorry I got up. I realized no one was watching the phone…” This wasn’t a lie, he did believe someone should be listening for the phone at all times.

              She shakes her head against his shoulder. “It’s okay. Can I…” Her voice sounds so strained.

              “Yeah, of course.”

              She comes around to curl up on his lap, and hugs him as tight as she can. “Kiri…”

              He put his forehead to her hoping to bring back that smile of hers, “Yes?”

              “Do you think the world is done being so scary?”

              Since Shigaraki’s been defeated, and All For One was gone, the future felt so much brighter. The world could take a sigh of relief, but Kirishima, and many others worried that respite would only last for so long. He hopes, for Mina and so many others that this wish of hers comes true, and he says, “I do.”

              “Also, don’t be mad… I did melt the bed a little.”

              Don’t be mad? As if he’s ever been mad at her over something like that. “We can just get new bed sheets again, it’s okay.”

              “n-No, it’s like… The mattress, and the frame…”

              This did shock him a little, but he still couldn’t imagine being upset with her over it. “We can replace those too. Don’t stress about it.” He kisses her forehead, finally getting that adorable smile of hers. “We can sleep out here tonight if you want.”

              She nods, and he gets up to grab a spare roll-up futon, leaving her in his chair by the phone. She sees his web browser open to resultless search for ‘Zero Tempo’ she checks his other searches, hoping to find something salacious or silly she can tease him about, but all she sees are old hero news sites, and articles about the Hero Commission. “Eiji, are you doing some sort of extra credit research project?”

              “No, I uh…” He rolls out the futon between the desks, so they can stay close to the phone. He really doesn’t want to lie to her, but he doesn’t want her to worry about something for no reason. “I was just thinking about that lady I saw in the woods and some of the stuff she said- I couldn’t find anything on her though, so she’s probably just some crazy lady. Making it all up or something.”

              Mina raises a brow at this, trying to figure out what exactly Kirishima’s not telling her. “What’d she say that’s got you all… detective mode?” She remembers before he just said it was something about society, but she realizes now he must’ve been lying then if he’s still worried about it now.

              He sighs, knowing he really can’t hide anything from her. “She basically said that we shouldn’t trust the hero commission, and they locked her up for trying to expose them-” He realizes how that must sound, “I don’t believe her. I’m not a conspiracy theorist kinda guy, but I wanted to see, if they did lock her up, what the full story around it was but…”

              “But?”

              “She did also say that they erased her from the records. I thought then that she was just talking, like, metaphorically you know, but since I literally can’t find anything about her...”

              She gets up to kiss his forehead, “That would drive me crazy too, so instead. Let’s just forget about it and unless something happens, we just assume she was crazy.”

              “You’re probably right.” He decides not to tell her that Zero Tempo was the source of the crisis calls they’ve been getting, but more because he knows if he pulls her down that hole with him then neither of them will get any sleep.

              Once they snuggle up on the futon, Mina’s able to sleep peacefully again. Carried off to sleep by the steady beat of Kirishima’s heart.

Chapter Text

Izuku sneaks through the forest with his girlfriend. "Are you sure about this Ochako..?"

"Positive."

"This could be dangerous. I mean, what if someone sees us?"

"That just makes it more exciting doesn't it?" She smirks at him as she tows him deeper into the woods.

"What if I give you too much and you get hurt?"

"I can handle it, just like before."

Mina was just trying to catch a stray cat, she chased it up a tree, but couldn't find a way to get as high as the cat did, and then these two come along talking crazy- the branch beneath her feet snaps and she falls in front of them, glad to see they're both still fully clothed at least. "What are you two doing!?"

"H-how much of that did you hear?"

"Literally, all of it!"

Deku squeaks, "All of it?" He shares a look with Ochako, that makes Mina believe, just briefly they're about to kill her. Then Ochako says something way more concerning.

"Maybe we should let her join us Deku-"

"As bisexual as I am Ochako, I am a committed woman!!!" She doesn't know what response she was expecting them to have to that declaration, but them staring wide-eyed at her was not it.

"We're proud of you?" They start clapping for her.

"Neither of those things should be news to anyone!"

Ochako is so confused, "Mina, wait, what did you think me and Deku were talking about?"

"You guys were gonna do the nasty out here in the woods!!!" Judging by the blush that comes across both their faces, she senses, maybe that wasn't it.

Deku's mind is too busy boiling to form any sort of coherent response. Ochako says, "That is not what was happening! I thought you said you heard our whole conversation!"

"Did you hear your conversation? Because that's what it sounded like-"

Deku despairs, "Oh god, it diiiid."

Ochako clarifies, "We were talking about training Deku's quirk, but we have to do it in secret, well- because..."

Deku manages to compose himself. He's decided for a while he wants to tell everyone in class about his power since he doesn't think it could really hurt at this point, but he wanted to talk to All Might about it first, and he was planning to tell everyone at once, but Ochako was right in that it could be useful to attempt this training with more than just Ochako. So, he decides to tell her. "My power was passed on to me from All Might. It's this crazy stockpiling quirk called One For All. When we fought with All For One and Shigaraki, I realized that I could share the power instead of just passing it on. . . So that's what Ochako and I came out here to try."

Mina feels just a little overloaded by all this information, but she does feel honored to be brought into this trusted circle. "So you want to give me some of that power?"

"It's not like permanent, and I'm honestly not sure if I can. I only shared it the one time with Ochako and Miruko, and I might have only been able to because of how much I care about them."

Mina is now, just a little hurt, "You don't think we're close?"

Deku flails, "I-it's not that! I just- I mean there could be other factors at play too! Plus it could be dangerous!"

Mina remembers all the times she's seen Deku with broken arms. "Am I like going to explode?"

"I won't give you that much, but you're pretty fit Mina, so you might actually be able to handle it better than most." He's not meaning to flatter her.

Though that's definitely how Ochako and her take it. She gets a little smirk and tucks a tuft of curls behind her ear, "You think I'm fit?" Flexing just a little.

Ochako pouts, He's never called me fit.

Deku's danger sense doesn't need to go off for him to recognize he must tread carefully. "I uh... I think all our classmates are fit. We are hero course students after all."

Ochako supposes she shouldn't get twisted over such a benign observation.

Mina claps, "So, how do we do it?" She considers, "You don't have to kiss me right?"

Deku's about to immediately reject that outright, "I-" but he doesn't actually know. He can't quite recall if Miruko ever kissed him on the forehead, though he's pretty sure he never kissed her forehead. He's definitely kissed Ochako, and it wasn't the most absurd quirk activation requirement. Though he reasons, "Probably not?"

Swelling with confidence at that, Mina says, "Well okay!"

They find a small but secluded clearing, and Izuku takes just Ochako's hands at first. He explains, "When I shared the power before, I think I split it evenly between myself, Ochako, and Miruko. I want to see if I can control the amount I share before I try passing it to you, Mina."

"Fair enough." She sits and watches. I hope Ochako doesn't explode if he gives her 50% She considers saying this out loud, but they look so focused, she thinks it's best probably not to distract them.

Deku focuses on that feeling he had when he shared it before. Without meaning to, he summons his full cowling. Though he keeps it at a low 5%. He focuses on the image of taking the egg from the microwave, and handing it to Ochako...

Ochako feels it. Just like before, like lightning in her veins. Her hair rises just a little. She lets go of Deku, and the power is still hers. She feels as light as if she made herself float, but she's still on the ground. She bounces in place, "That's really incredible. How much did you give me?"

"I think just around five percent, but I could be wrong. I uh..." How can she test it out... if she throws a punch or kick, and she actually has 50% she'll break her arm for sure. We shouldn’t have done this so far from Recovery Girl or Eri…

"Okay, Mina. Check this out." Ochako jumps fifty feet in the air, easily clearing the canopy, she shouts, "Wahoo!!!" Just before she'd hit the ground, she makes herself float. Then she just starts swimming around in the air, little waves of her arms letting her move through the air like never before.

Mina gets up, "What exactly should I expect?"

Deku takes her hands, feeling just a tiny bit awkward. Though he at least is boosted a little by knowing he could give it to Ochako without her immediately breaking anything. He focuses on the same imagery as before, but tries conjuring Mina in his mind.

A moment later Mina feels that surge of energy, it startles her so much she leaps back, much further than she expected, almost hitting a tree. "-Woah. This is what you feel like all the time Midoriya?"

"Not all the time, but yeah." He gets a bit bashful.

Mina feels so free, she does a twisting flip, into a handspring. She bounces off a tree, and skates along the ground with more speed than she's ever had on her own. Ochako flies next to her, "You wanna race?"

"Guys. Maybe we should be more discrete-"

"Come on Deku! Just one race to the agency and back!"

He sighs, "I guess I can be the finish line."

"Yay!"

Mina already prepared to take off, "Ready? Go!"

The two blast off into the woods. Deku worries that maybe he gave them way more than he thought since they're moving much faster than he did at 5%.

Ochako takes a pretty clear lead as she uses her weightlessness to push off every tree. She was scared of smacking into a tree at first, but as she so freely twirls through the air, truly flying she gains confidence to go even faster.

Mina starts to catch up when she stops being afraid her legs will explode if she pushes too far. Every step, every push with her acid skating is so much faster than she thought. She tries adopting Ochako and Deku's technique a little, pushing off trees to gain extra momentum.

Ochako looks back at her as she flies, seeing Mina's starting to catch up. "You are fit Mina!"

"I try!" She sees the back wall of the agency fast approaching before Ochako's even turned around, the floaty girl has no idea- "Ochako!" She reaches out for her and something bizzare happens. Mina feels another presence and Black tendrils of energy shoot out from Mina's hand to stop Ochako just short of hitting the wall.

Black Whip???

The tendrils fade as soon as they appeared, and Mina's whole arm feels numb. She squeezes her hand and arm, and hisses. "Ow, ow."

Ochako pushes back to her. "Is it broken?" She gently touches at Mina's hand.

Mina winces, "I don't know, I don't think so-" It stops feeling numb, and more like pins and needles more intense than she's ever gotten from a leg falling asleep. She hisses. "Aghh, that's so weird..."

Ochako starts waving her hand in the air, "How'd you do that?"

"I was just trying to stop you from crashing."

Still waving her hand back and forth, Ochako tries, "Black whip, go!" With one more extension of her elbow, Ochako feels another presence and her arm starts to glow with red light. "Uhhh..."

"That's different." Mina almost touches it...

-Ochako swings her arm again and the energy is released. Rocketing her into Mina, and back through the woods! They both scream and hold on tight to each other! Mina, not weightless, tries to use that extra strength she has to slow them down, but she realizes she doesn't have it anymore, just as her feet touch the ground. She thankfully thinks to use her acid skates, but they're still going so fast!!! Too fast!

They crash- into Deku, who braced a web of Black Whip for them all. Though he definitely wasn't intending to take the brunt of it. He lays flattened out. Mina sitting on his back, a little dazed and lost, Ochako cradled in her arms. She realizes, "Heyyyy, we didn't die!"

"I call that a win!" She high fives Mina.

Deku mutters with his face in the dirt, "Speak for yourselves."

"Ah Deku!" Ochako is quick to float everyone back to their feet. She realizes her arm isn't broken. It doesn't even hurt. That blast she did felt like way more than just five percent though, with how it launched them she thought it seemed more like a maxed out Smash, but how was her arm not broken from that?

Deku brushes himself off, but sees the way Mina is holding her arm, and Ochako looking at her hand, he puts his hands on both their shoulders, worried they've both broken something, "Are you two-" the world shifts around them.

Mina finds herself with Ochako, and Deku in this weird cloudy place. "Wh-what's going on?" She's thankful at least Ochako and Deku look just as confused as she is. She notices then, or maybe it just happened in that moment, but they're surrounded by eight other people Mina's never seen before, many of them shrouded by the same mist that encircled them all.

A woman steps forward, muscular, and gorgeous. She is Mina’s dream of a perfect hero made manifest right before her eyes.

“I am Nana Shimura, the seventh wielder of One For All.” She looks fondly upon Ochako, “And I’ve been wanting to meet you, for a long time. You were the one who inspired Midoriya’s first use of my quirk, Float.”

Mina gets the feeling that maybe she shouldn’t be here, but then Nana looks at her.

“Seeing the both of you here is quite the surprise, but a welcome one.”

Mina gets a pat on the back, from a leather-clad bald man, “I’m Daigoro Bonjo, the fifth wielder. You used my quirk, Black Whip! Midoriya can probably explain my quirk pretty well to you later.”

 Ochako gets a pat from a man with a headband and spiky gray ponytail, “And I am the Third Wielder. You used my quirk Fa Jin. Through focus, and repeated motion you can build up kinetic energy, and release it with explosive force… I wouldn’t recommend using it like you did.”

“Wait, Ochako, how did you use it?”

“I was trying to use Black Whip like Mina, so I just kept swinging my arm out, then it got all shiny and red, and then, well I mean, you saw the effect.”

Mina squints at the third wielder, “You said you’re the Third Wielder?”

“Yes.”

“Do you… have a name too?”

“You may call me, the Third Wielder.”

“But like, they all said their number, and their actual name. So, like you have an actual name right?”

“Did he put you up to this?” He glares at the fourth wielder, a blonde man with a lightning bolt scar, who looks like he’s struggling to contain himself.

Mina tilts her head, “No?” How would he have even done that?

The third wielder sighs, “It’s Bruce Lee.”

Mina snorts, “Like… actually?”

The Fourth and Sixth wielders burst into laughter. Bruce glares at them until they stop, “Yes, actually. I was named after a great man!”

Mina struggles to not laugh at that reaction, she just squeaks out, “I’m sorry…”

Nana chuffs and looks to Deku, “There is more we came to tell you. Midoriya, though you’ve won the battle. The war is not yet won. You may have a few years respite, but All For One’s wielder will return…”

Deku’s eyes widen, “How do you know?”

“I have seen it, in the heart of my grandson. Though he was defeated, his heart has not found peace. I fear there may be but one way to stop him.”

“Oh…” She’s saying… I’ll have to kill him…

“But your victory has granted you time. Time to train, to prepare, to master this true gift of One For All. The gift of your bonds.” She gestures to Mina, and Ochako, “I look forward to meeting more of your trusted friends.”

Deku senses they’re about to be pulled out, and calls to Nana and the other wielders, “Wait I-”

“We’ll be here, when you have need of us.” And with that they’re returned to the forest, right where they were all standing.

Mina falls back into the grass. “Pff… That was…- You guys saw all that too right?”

Ochako and Deku both nod.

“I feel like I just watched a pivotal cutscene for a videogame I wasn’t playing.”

Deku scratches at his head, “Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize! That was so cool!!! So do you like talk to them in your head all the time?”

Deku shakes his head, “They normally just drag me in at random times, usually after I figure out a new ability. I didn’t think I could bring other people with me, but I guess that makes sense, you guys are like honorary wielders now.”

Mina raises her hand, “I really don’t feel like I did anything to earn that.”

“Of course you did Ashido! You’re a great friend!”

It’s hard to argue with Midoriya’s enthusiasm. “Well okay! Wait, so are we gonna get to train this together all the time?”

“If you want. Me and Ochako definitely will, but I was kind of hoping to bring the whole class in on it eventually. See how far we can push it together.”

“So I can tell Kirishima?”

“Yeah, why not?”

"What about Kaminari?"

“Uh… We should maybe try to keep it a little under wraps still, just so I can explain everything to everyone at one time, and it doesn’t become like a crazy rumor thing swirling around.”

“You’re worried Kaminari’s going to explain it wrong to Jiro, and then she’ll tell everyone else his explanation.”

“-Yeah.”

Ochako snickers, and Deku smiles with them, but he has the sinking feeling that this next battle Nana predicted to be years in the future might happen sooner than she thinks. -Then a cat lands on his head.

Mina cheers, "Oh hey you caught him!"

Chapter Text

There’s a big summer festival tonight celebrating heroes. The entirety of U.A.’s temp agency is expected to attend. Some of them, such as Awase, Kodai, and Sero are spending their morning helping set up the festival ground.

Kodai always takes joy in this type of work, since it’s what her quirk is most suited for. Though it was almost impossible to guess by her face.

Awase had gotten pretty good at reading her over the past year and a half, but Sero did not. Sero says, “Hey Kodai, are you okay?”

She just tilts her head at him.

“You just seem sort of… down…?” He wishes desperately he had said nothing at all.

Kodai stares at him for a moment, and then gets back to moving shrunken supply boxes over to Awase. Awase tries to comfort her, “He didn’t mean anything bad by it Kodai. You’re just hard to read for a guy like him.”

Kodai nods, but clearly, at least to Awase, she was still a little sad that to Sero, she looked sad.

“Hey man, what’s that supposed to mean?”

Awase smirks, “Sero, Sero. Not everyone can be as observant, and attentive as me.” He actually laughs to himself, like some sort of villain about to monologue. Though he doesn’t start a speech, he just welds together a stand in record time. Garnering an applause from some of the other festival workers.

The Beach Bar owner that Awase has a huge crush on stands out from the crowd. “That’s really impressive Welder!”

“O-oh hey Boss!” He trips on truly nothing but his own hubris.

Sero claps his hands together to say a prayer for his fallen comrade, “Pride goeth before the fall, poor, stupid Awase.”

Kodai, already finished with unloading all the trucks that have arrived so far texts Setsuna: “Are you awake yet?”

Setsuna snaps awake at the buzz of her phone. She stares at her phone with bleary eyes for a full minute before she can understand what she’s reading, “No”

“Okay.”

Setsuna knew that one dot meant a cataclysmic level of sadness and disappointment from Kodai, she quickly texts back, “I just woke up! I can come help with the festival stuff if you want.”

“It’s okay.”

She hates me now!!! “Yui! I’m sorry!!!”

“Ok.”

Now that meant that she had been forgiven, or at least Setsuna is pretty sure that’s what it meant because she didn’t have the bandwidth to handle the despair of disappointing Kodai this early in the morning, it’s not even eleven AM yet! She gets a knock on her door that nearly flings her out of bed.

“Yo! Tokage!” Kirishima calls from the other side, “A few of us are going paddleboarding after breakfast, you down?”

“Depends! Who is a few?” She opens her door to see, Kaminari, Nirengeki, and just a tuft of Mina’s pink hair poking out from around the corner. “Only if Mina’s going.” Mina seems a little distracted. Odd…

“Of course Mina’s going!” Kirishima also notices Mina, just kind of staring at her hand. “-Right?”

“Huh- Oh, yeah! I love… surfing?”

“Paddleboarding!”

“That!”

Setsuna snorts, “Where’s everyone else off to today?”

Tokoyami exits his room on cue, yawning as he takes a seat at the phone. “I will guard our fortress today. You all should enjoy revelry in the sun.”

Setsuna floats her head over next to him, giving him a small waking fright, “I bet Dark Shadow would love Paddleboarding.”

“He in fact, would not. Not today…”

“Okay, ominous…”

The phone rings, and Tokoyami’s quick to answer, “You’ve reached the Nabu Island Hero Agency. How can we help you?”

“Tokoyami?” It’s Deku, “Have you seen Iida? He’s not answering his phone.”

“I haven’t seen him, but that is quite unlike him. Should I go look for him? Is there an emergency-”

“N-no! That’s okay! Thank you Tokoyami!” Deku is quick to hang up.

Ochako pokes him with her surfboard, “Did he know where he was?”

“No.” Deku sighs and stashes his phone in his locker. “I was really hoping I could tell him about-Woah…” His brain cells begin rapidly failing as he sees Ochako’s swimsuit for the first time. It wasn’t anything obscene, but she just looked so pretty! It’s a simple two piece with a pareo skirt wrapped around her waist, all with the same color scheme as her hero costume. She even has a pink flower pinning her hair into a ponytail!

Ochako hides behind her surfboard smirking at him, “I take it you like my outfit?”

Deku comes to his senses, “You look amazing.” He scratches at the back of his head, “I feel kind of bad, I’m just wearing my trunks…”

Ochako has no shame in ogling the muscles of her boyfriend these days, “I don’t mind.”

Deku blushes under her gaze, scratching more intensely at his head. “Are you going to wear all of that though?”

Ochako’s eyes widen, “H-huh?”

“L-like to surf!” He realizes that’s still not super clear, “Like aren’t you worried about it getting lost in the ocean?” He points at the pin holding her hair up.

“Oh. It’ll be fine!” She walks with him out of the locker area. “What about Iida though? Do you think we should go look for him?”

“He’ll be okay. I’m just worried about how he’ll take it if he only finds out my secret when I tell everyone else.”

“I think you should lighten up.” She makes Deku float, giggling. “Can you believe I never thought to make that joke before?”

Deku chuffs, but more at the cute pride she took in that pun.

While he’s distracted Ochako makes a run for the ocean, “Last one to catch a wave buys dinner!” She releases him.

Deku faceplants in the sand, and takes off after her, “Full Cowling!” He leaps several yards into the ocean, but just as he’s about to mount his board and catch a wave, a pulse of weightlessness hits him.

“Zero Zone beats Full Cowling!” Ochako Moon Stepped to make a similar leap, she seems to float so gracefully down onto a wave before releasing him.

Deku uses a small air force blast, and Float to correct his trajectory and shred the same wave as Ochako. “You know I coulda totally beat you if I used Black Whip!”

Ochako slides past him, sticking her tongue out at him- Before slipping, and taking a plunge. Her board flying up and knocking Deku off his as she does so.

Elsewhere, Nirengeki is pulled back up onto his paddleboard with the help of Setsuna's floating hands. She drives him crazy whenever she does that because she always, ALWAYS, lifts him up by the arm pits like he's a toddler. Setsuna snickers, "It's okay Nirengeki. You'll learn to balance some day."

Nirengeki whines, "Why are you bullying meee?"

"I just helped you, it's not my fault if you just look like a cat that tripped into a bathtub."

He guesses he'll take cat over toddler.

"Well if you guys are ready to move again..." Mina sings the hokiest folk song she can think of as she guides her paddleboarding caravan around the island. Bouncing up and down on her board. “OOOOOH, and there’s a place we will discoverrrr, BROTHERRRR!!!~”

Kirishima bounces along to the song with her, even harmonizing, "Who's to say what we'll recoverrrr!~"

“Minaaa…” Kaminari tries to sing in tune with her, though he's really wishing she'll stop...

Setsuna, already exhausted by the singing tries to help Kaminari out, “Mina!”

“Yeeees?”

“Why are you singing blue grass music?”

“Cause of the hat.” She pokes at the brim of her big straw-hat. The pink girl wasn’t really wearing a cowgirl outfit. She had on shorts, a crop top, and the hat. Which, also wasn’t a cowgirl hat. It hardly even resembled one!

Setsuna floats back to her body, squinting at Mina the whole time.

. . .

Mina takes a deep breath… “SISTERRRR!~ You and I are here togetherrrr!” Her caravan groans. Nirengeki takes a dive back into the water for dramatic effect, but also with the hope of just making the singing stop.

Back at the agency, Kodai returns. She sees Tokoyami working on something on the computer. It takes a moment of her staring from the doorway, but he looks over at her, “Hm?”

She just nods, “Mm.” She’d grown to enjoy the quiet Tokoyami offered on days like this quite a lot. She wanders over to sit at the desk and computer in front of his.

Tokoyami continues working, also enjoying her quiet company. He catches a glimpse of her through the spaces between the computers, and notices she’s just idle. It seemed almost like she was meditating. Staring ahead at nothing. He wondered what was on her mind, or if her thoughts were as peaceful as she was.

She abruptly stands, and then wanders past Tokoyami. He hears her in the kitchen for a minute, and she returns, with a pack of trail mix. This time she sits next to him, though she stops herself from opening the pack, and actually asks, “Is it okay if I eat these here?”

“It wouldn't bother me.” What bothered Tokoyami, and bothered was a strong word here, was not the sound of her gentle crunching, but the fact that he could feel her staring at what he was writing. He tried to press onward, but eventually stopped and looked over at her.

Pretzel half raised to her mouth, she paused. “Mm?”

He sighs. “Hm.”

She holds out the pretzel to him, believing maybe that was the issue.

Tokoyami accepted, but confessed, “None but Dark Shadow has ever read my scriptures…”

“Oh. Should I turn around?” She asked, completely serious.

“It’s fine. Would you like to know about the story I’m writing?”

“Mm.” That tiny smile of hers appeared with a nod.

“It’s a tale of two brothers, Yami and Kage, and their war against the darkness that not only surrounds them, but resides in their hearts. Can they overcome the sins of their past, and work together to save the future?”

Kodai gives a gentle clap. She squints at the screen, “Who is... Yuko?”

Tokoyami’s body moved before he had a chance to think... He covered the screen with his hands, as if he was pushing a demon back into the computer. He pulled his hands away, and acted like he didn’t just do that. “She is… the love interest of the older brother, Yami...”

Kodai reads off the screen again, “She was a dark, and mysterious beauty. Raven hair, and so softly spoken. When she did speak, no matter how softly, Yami heard her.”

If Tokoyami did have ears, they would be absolutely burning right now. He never imagined just hearing someone read his own writing could be so embarrassing. To make matters worse on top of that, her voice was so soothing it was having a minor ASMR effect on him, and that felt bizarre. 

Kodai seems to be reading ahead on her own, and eventually she says, “Do Yuko and Yami look like anyone in particular?”

She’s figured me out! I must condemn myself to the flames of damnation! “Why do you ask?” He’s able to keep a straight face.

“I was hoping to draw them.”

“-Hm.”

Dark Shadow can bear to watch this no longer! He emerges from his brother’s stomach, “Yuko would obviously look like you Kodai!”

“Mm…”

Tokoyami is flabbergasted, absolutely speechless he never imagined his own brother would betray him. Just like Kage betrays Yami!

Kodai can see Tokoyami is quite distressed. She thinks on all the wisdom he’s shared with her, and wants to share some of her own. “-…” She, “-. . .” She just stares at Tokoyami, occasionally taking a breath like she’s about to speak, but then seeming to just decide against it. Then at last she says, “It’s good to take inspiration from the world around you. It will make the characters feel more real, and I am honored that you would consider me a worthy inclusion in your story.”

“-H-hm…” He had no trouble interpreting her little sounds, and the tiniest shifts in her expression. Though this… this could mean anything.

“I shall become your first fanartist.” She bows and leaves him.

Once he hears her bedroom door close, he growls, “Dark Shadow…”

“There is an alternate universe where I said that, and she was so overcome with emotion that she kissed you. Unable to hold back her feelings anymore.”

“Kodai is not that type of girl…” He sighs as his shadow pets him. I wonder if Midoriya ever found Iida...

After assembling and welding together over thirty stands, and tents for the festival with Sero, Awase falls over, the waves of exhaustion crashing into him all at once. An older woman stands over him, large and muscular with long white locs. “Are you alright?”

Awase shoots back to his feet, “Yep! All good! Haha…”

She laughs with him, “Make sure not to let them overwork you, young hero.”

“I’ll try.” In being bashful, looking down and scratching the back of his head, he notices old bruises on her knuckles, clearly she was once a hero too. Or a villain…Maybe just a boxer.

She notices his gaze and covers one hand with the other, she smiles and takes her leave.

At the end of their paddleboarding route, Mina hops off her board with a flip, striking a pose for extra flare. Her and Kaminari playfight with their paddles while Nirengeki and Kirishima struggle just to get off their boards. Setsuna lifts Nirengeki to the beach with floating hands like he’s a baby again. She giggles knowing he’s absolutely seething.

Setsuna notices Kirishima gazing off into the woods, “Everything okay Kirishima?”

He takes a moment before asking, “Do you guys hear that?”

Deep in the woods they can hear the repeated firing up of a small engine. Setsuna squints, “Think it’s Iida?”

On cue Iida tumbles into view at the edge of the woods. Though he stands, looking determined, at least from the back.

Mina snorts, and calls to him, “Having trouble with a new move Iida?”

He fully collapses, rolling into the sand towards them. “Iida!” The group shouts in unison, running to his side.

Setsuna’s the first to reach him, she checks his vitals, “He’s still breathing, and his pulse is… I think normal.” Though they learned basic medical aid at UA, she'd never actually used it outside of Recovery Girl's class.

Kirishima runs up the hill into the woods, looking for whatever knocked him out, but he sees no one, no signs of a fight, he looks back at his friend, Iida wasn’t covered in battle damage or anything either. It really seemed like Iida just ran himself to exhaustion, but that didn’t sit right with Kirishima. “We should get him back to the agency…”

Chapter Text

It’s been a few hours, and Iida still hasn’t come to, but he looks to be just sleeping peacefully… Most of the young heroes decided it was probably fine to let him sleep it off, though a few felt bad that he’d probably miss the festival if he didn’t wake up soon.

Nirengeki decides to stay with him, he didn’t care too much about the festival anyways, and if Iida woke up he could tell him what’s going on.

While the others are taking their time getting all fancied up for the festival, Kaminari sits outside with Tokoyami, both having opted to wear their hero costumes rather than a yukata like the rest of their classmates. Kaminari groans, “Man, it sucks being single at an event like this.”

“Hm.” Tokoyami chuffs, and Dark Shadow emerges, “Have you ever had a date to one of these festivals?”

“DS, don’t be like that!”

“Like what?” The shadow snickers.

“You’re gonna make my life sound so sad!”

The shadow pats him on the back, “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll stay right by your side!”

Kaminari peeks over at Tokoyami, who seems to just be meditating, “Will he let you do that?” He whispers to Dark Shadow, as if Tokoyami wouldn’t hear it.

Dark Shadow shrugs.

Kirishima emerges, wearing a manly red and black yukata. “Thought you guys ran off to the festival already!” He slings an arm around Kaminari, “Thanks for waiting man.”

“Yeah man, of course.” He touches knuckles with him. He’d probably think I was a creep if I told him I was just waiting to see all the girls in their yukatas… “You’re not going to run off with Mina first chance you get right?”

“Of course not man! When have I ever done that to you?”

“Universal Studios Osaka…”

“You’ve gotta let that go man, I didn’t even buy the tickets!”

Kaminari pouts, but when he hears the door open he lights up to look and see- Sero and Awase, sporting yukatas in the same colors as their hero outfits. Kaminari groans.

Awase hasn’t spent nearly enough time with Kaminari to have any guess as to what that reaction was for, “Is it that bad?” He tugs at his yukata.

Sero snickers, and elbows Awase, “He’s just mad you’re not a girl.”

Awase doesn’t know how to handle that one, “Right- I’m gonna go ahead to the festival then!”

Sero taps knuckles with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Dark Shadow before following Awase. He knew why Kaminari was waiting, and why Kirishima was waiting, but he wondered why Tokoyami was waiting…

A few moments later, a white and red yukata peeks through the doorway. Kodai emerges, sees all eyes on her, and then closes the door and goes back inside.

Tokoyami chuffs, “Hm. Classic Kodai.”

Mina comes out a few seconds later, she’s wearing a lovely purple and teal floral print yukata, a small braid dangled in front of her ear, kept together with a flowery pin that matched her yukata, and in her hand- she swings a paper fan like a mallet at Kaminari and Kirishima, “Stop sitting out here like a bunch of delinquents! You’re creeping out the other girls!”

Kirishima takes his whacking, “I was just waiting for you.” He smiles at her, that adorable shark toothed smile of his, “You look amazing by the way.”

Mina smiles back at him, tucking her little braid behind her ear, but then she looks expectedly at Kaminari.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to say something nice about your best friend?”

“Yeah, yeah, you look great, like Kirishima said.” He’s clearly still more focused on the door.

Mina shares a look with Kirishima, she takes her boyfriend’s hand, and then grabs Kaminari’s arm. “Let’s go you two.” She tows them away.

Kaminari whines as he’s dragged into the distance, “But Mina, wait, if I don’t see what everyone’s wearing, how will I be able to spot them in a crowd?!”

Dark Shadow waves, “I’ll see you on the other side buddy!”

Kodai peeks out the door again, and when she sees Kaminari is gone, she finally emerges in full. Her hair done up in an intricate bun with a kanzashi, shaped like a small sword sticking through it. With her quirk, it very well could be an actual sword. She did her make up as well, dark red eyeshadow that matched her lipstick and the accents of her white yukata. Were it not for the floral pattern towards the bottom she’d look like a shrine maiden. She bowed her head at Tokoyami and Dark Shadow. “Mm.”

Tokoyami stood, catching her meaning. “Hm.” He walks with her down that twilit road to the festival ground, Dark Shadow retreats to allow them a comfortable quiet.

Back inside the agency, Setsuna pokes at Iida’s cheek, dressed up in a scaley orange yukata, but she didn’t see much reason to do much with her hair or make up since Pony wasn’t here, so she just has it up in a bun. She asks Nirengeki, who’s sat over at the computer watching some anime, “Should we maybe take him to a hospital?”

Hearing the word hospital, Izuku rushes from his room in an All Might themed yukata. “Is he okay!?”

The sudden yelling actually startled Nirengeki, “He’s fine! Will you guys get going already?!”

Izuku says, “We have to wait for-” He catches a glimpse of the love of his life. “Woah.”

Ochako absolutely sparkles in a cherry blossom themed yukata, though she fusses with the folds, “Two woahs in one day. I must be doing pretty good.” She looks up to see Deku’s All Might themed yukata, and giggles, “Of course that’s the one you went with.”

Deku blushes, “I can change to the green one if you want.”

She wraps her arm around his, “Don’t you dare.”

Deku could see now that she’d actually painted little cherry blossom petals in her eye shadow. She had a flower knot pin pulling her hair back to expose a patch of forehead perfect for Deku to place a little kiss.

Setsuna takes a selfie with them right at that moment, “Don’t forget I’m here too guys!” She sends it immediately to Pony.

Pony texts back, almost instantly, “Won’t you please take Hornby with you? 🥺”

Setsuna thinks for a moment that she might look a bit strange walking around with a horn, but it did sort of match her scaley yukata… She sees Ochako and Deku getting ready to leave, “Guys hold on!”

They stop, thinking it’s some sort of emergency, but then Setsuna comes back, taking a selfie with Pony’s horn, before tucking it into her obi.

“Okay let’s go.” She follows the couple out the door, much to Nirengeki’s delight.

Ochako snorts, “I think you’re the perfect match for her, Setsuna.”

Setsuna punches Ochako’s shoulder, “Thanks, Ochako!”

Pony texts, “Yay!” “What happened to Iida? o.o” “Did he get drunked?”

“Nah, that would’ve been way cooler, he just passed out. We think he was training till he fainted or something.”

“Training till you pass out is pretty cool too! Rock Lee would approve!”

“LOL you're so right"

Setsuna catches up to bump shoulders with Ochako, bumping her into Deku, “Hey, is the number one hero joining us tonight? I bet Pony would go nuts if I got a selfie with her.”

Ochako sometimes forgets their goofy mentor is currently the most iconic hero in Japan. She bumps against Deku again, “Is she?”

Deku checks his phone, “I don’t know, haven’t heard from her in a while, think I should call her?”

Setsuna blurts, “Yes!” As Deku starts to call her, Setsuna leans against Ochako, “Have I ever mentioned how happy I am that we’re friends?”

Ochako acts so cool hearing her say that, “You could stand to mention it more.” But she thinks, Setsuna considers me her friend? Aww!!!

Rumi runs around her beach house, dodging Ryuko like her life depends on it. “Ryuko! No!”

“Rumi!” The dragon leaps over the couch to try and grab the rabbit! “You- Have to!”

“I’ll look just as good in my hero costume- Come on!” She flips over the coffee table to dodge her again.

“I’m literally wearing a yukata already! Stop being a brat!”

“Nnno!” She runs for the bedroom, “I don’t wanna! You know I hate wearing those stuffy things!”

“Wearing your hero costume, as the number one hero, will not only draw attention, but it will send the wrong message!” She lunges after her, using a dragon claw to keep Rumi from slamming the door on her.

“It’s literally a festival to celebrate heroes! I’m sure the kids are all in their hero costumes!” She backs up against the bed, her prey sense goes crazy as she realizes she’s trapped. “Eheh…”

“You promised me that this was a vacation, and there’d be no suiting up no matter what. You said, you will let the kids handle it.” A deeper rage is starting to boil within her, and Rumi can sense it.

“N-now Ryuko, let’s be reasonable. What if-”

“No!” The dragon tackles the rabbit, pinning her to the bed beneath her claws.

Rumi flails beneath her, “It’s just a comfort thing!!! I’m not gonna fight anyone! I-” Her phone rings on the night stand next to her, “Oh hey, Usagito’s calling.”

Ryuko sighs, lets her go, and sits politely on the foot of the bed, while Rumi answers.

“Hola mijo.”

Deku panics on the other end of the call, he really was not prepared for a Spanish quiz today, “H-hola my- maestra-”

Miruko snorts, “Stop. We can just speak Japanese.”

“Oh, thank god.”

Ryukyu glares at Miruko as she pointedly fusses with her own yukata. Miruko squints at her, but then says over the phone. “Hey, Usagito. Ryukyu would like me to ask, what are you wearing right now?” She hears a big reaction from two girls on the other side, “Oi! Mija’s there too? Ocho! What are you wearing?”

Deku’s mind swirls as he really can’t imagine why she would ask something like that! Ochako very nervously over the phone, asks “Miruko, are you drunk?”

“Ay! Tu loca!- When have you ever seen me drunk?! I’m trying to settle a debate with Ryukyu! You guys are in your hero costumes for the festival tonight, right?”

A chorus of relieved sighs comes from the other side. Ochako says, “We’re actually all wearing yukatas.”

“Aha!” Ryukyu shouts at the phone, “Thank you Ochako! We’ll see you at the festival as soon as I get the rascally rabbit into a yukata!”

“Nooo-!!!” The phone call ends.

Setsuna has to wonder, “Is she like that all the time?”

“Pretty much.” Izuku and Ochako answer in unison.

The festival ground is gorgeous. They get there right at sunset, the decorated stands glimmer with light and life as it seems like almost all of Nabu Island has come to celebrate tonight. Paper lanterns, glorious mosaic portraits of heroes from the past, and delicious smells line the paths, and there is so many paths the trio could take.

Setsuna watches the couple for a moment, before deciding it’s probably best if she lets them explore this on their own. “I’m gonna wander around and call Pony, you two have fun.” She teases, “Stay out of trouble!”

Ochako and Deku wave her off. Ochako wraps her arm tightly around Deku’s “Shall we wander as well?”

He smiles, “We shall.”

           As Setsuna traverses the crowds, she listens to the ringing, as she waits for Pony to pick up. As it rings, she notices in the crowd, so many couples, ring… She can see Midoriya and Ochako back behind her. Ring… She sees off in the distance Kirishima and Mina. Ring… Ahead of her she even catches just the faintest glimpse of Tokoyami, and Yui… Ring… Her hand ran to Pony’s horn on her hip. It made her feel just a little less, painfully alone.

Then, “Hello?” Pony’s precious voice. Setsuna’s sweet relief finally came. She can’t believe she’s crying over something so silly! She sniffles, wiping her face. Pony worries on the line, “Are you okay?”

“y-Yeah.” She sniffs, and groans, still in total disbelief she was crying at all. “I just, really miss you.”

“Did something happ- Do you still have Hornby?” She sounds so worried.

Setsuna giggles and sniffs, “Of course. She’s safe and secure in my obi.” She runs her hand along the side of the horn.

“I’m gonna try something… Lemme know if you can feel this.”

“Okay.” She can’t see it, and Pony’s barely making a sound on the other end, but Setsuna can feel the goofy look of utter focus that must be on Pony’s face right now. The thought of it alone almost makes her bust out laughing, She thinks she can move her horn, over hundreds of miles away? She wipes away the last of her tears and hugs the horn to her chest, wanting to feel Pony’s warmth inside it.

Of course, nothing happens, but Pony asks so sincerely, “Did it work?”

That sincerity lights up Setsuna’s heart, she can’t contain her laugh, so full of love for this girl. “y-Yeah. It worked.”

“No way! Really???”

“Yeah.” Setsuna feels as though, she had waited her whole life to meet this sincerely silly girl, she could hardly wait to get on the boat back home to her. “I really love you Pony.”

“D’aww. I really love you too! …Be so daggone for real though. Did it move? Cause if it did I gotta figure out how I’ma make use of this new power.”

She confesses, “It didn’t.”

“Dangit Setsuna!” She giggles on the other end.

Setsuna laughs with her, “I’m sorry!” She tucks Hornby back into her obi.

Tokoyami walks with Kodai sharing a few skewers of takoyaki. Lost in the delicious flavor, and the beauty of twilight, he doesn’t notice Kodai stops, until she pulls on his cloak, with a small pinch. “Hm?”

“Mm!” She points out a goldfish scooping game.

He gestures for her to go ahead to it, and she pulls him up to it. “Oh, you want me to try?”

She nods.

“Hm. As you wish.” He hands a five yen piece to the owner, for one of the paper scoops, and a glass jar. He’d seen this game before, but he’d never seen the goldfish so big. When he’d seen these games before the goldfish were normally tiny to make it easy for players to catch them without breaking the scoop. He’s about to make his first attempt on a smaller goldfish but-

Kodai grabs his arm and points out a large red one that’s caught her eye, it looked much more like a small koi fish, than a gold fish. Most of its back was covered by one big red splotch, but its underside and face were a lovely, though odd silver. It was by far the biggest in the tank, definitely a trap to ensnare overzealous tourists. One that Kodai was dragging Tokoyami head first into.

Tokoyami takes a breath, he needs total focus for this moment. He watches that large fish until the rest of the world fades to black, and all that exists is him, and the fish… “Skimming Twilight Slash…” In one swift motion, like a katana being drawn and sheathed with lightning speed. He slides the large fish into the jar, the paper scoop breaking at the last possible moment. A crowd of onlookers applaud him, having clearly tried and failed to do the same thing. Tokoyami bows and presents the jar to Kodai. “For you.”

The owner who took a moment to recover from slack-jawed awe, stops the hand off. “U-uh, hold on! Let me get you a bigger jar!- And some fish food.” She’s truly not even mad, just impressed. She gets out a proper fish bowl with a gold trimmed rim, and an ornate little box of fish food. She pours the large fish into the bowl for them, and puts a porous lid on top. She hands the bowl to Kodai, and the little box of fish food to Tokoyami. “Congratulations.” She whispers something to Kodai before sending them on their way.

Tokoyami gets to see a proper smile on Kodai’s face as she marvels at her new fish. He asks, “What will you name it?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she says with the utmost certainty, “Ultra-Hayata.”

Tokoyami had no clue what that could even be in reference to, but he smiles and nods all the same. “Hm.”

Mina munches the fishy head off her taiyaki as she walks comfortably between her two boys, bumping back and forth between their shoulders. She admires the mosaic hero portraits that decorate much of the festival ground, so many of heroes she doesn't even recognize. “Okay, so random question. If you guys could have anyone’s quirk, who’s would you choose?”

Kirishima considers it deeply before answering with utmost sincerity, “I think I would pick Shoji’s Dupliarms…”

Kaminari laughs, “That’s what you’d go for?”

“Yeah man! Multiple arms is so manly! Plus he’s so strong!”

Mina, takes a little nom of her taiyaki, coyly saying, “Why not All Might?”

“-Oh! I thought we were just talking classmates. If we’re talking pros I’d probably go for…Yeah I guess All Might would be pretty cool. Super strength, and speed. Kind of a lot of responsibility with a quirk like that.”

You have no idea… “What about you Kaminari?-”

“Yaoyarozu’s.”

“Why Yaomomo’s?”

“Are you serious? You can make anything!”

Mina says, “Yeah, but you also have to know how to make it, and you’re kinda dumb Kaminari. -Dummy Denki!” She laughs.

He can’t believe she’s bringing back his elementary school trauma! “You’re just as dumb as me!”

“Nu-uh! I’ll have you know I actually placed 18^th on our midterms this time around.”

“18^th out of 20 is still dumb Mina!”

They both look at Kirishima. He raises his hands and just says, “I was still 15^th.”

Denki and Mina cry on each other’s shoulders, “Our boy is so smart!”

“I’m really not! I just study!” He tries to veer them back onto a less volatile topic, “What quirk would you choose Mina?”

“Huh?”

Kaminari's jaw drops, SHE ALREADY FORGOT WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT!? 

She remembers, “Oh, I’d pick Midoriya’s for sure…”

They both just look at her for a moment. Denki leans towards Kirishima, “She said that really weird, right?”

“Yeah…” Feeling, just a tad suspicious of his girlfriend.

“He’s got a crazy cool quirk! He’s got that black whip thing, he can float, and Ochako told me the other day that he can actually sense danger!”

They’re still suspicious.

She cries, “Guys I’m not like a quirk stealing super villain! I was just trying to make conversation!”

“Come one! Come all!!!” A little girl’s voice calls out from across the crowd. “A show is about to begin!”

Kaminari says, “Hey wait, I recognize that voice.” He pushes through the crowd with Kirishima and Mina. They approach a little stage, with a little girl atop it, ornately dressed in what almost looks like a prismatic shrine maiden uniform. Kaminari remembers her to be “Mahoro?” and her little brother, Katsuma pops up next to her, similarly dressed.

“Happy Hero Festival everyone!” He says with such glee, that alone gets a cheer from the crowd. Mahoro weaves into the air around them a beautiful illusion of a pink mythical lion. The lion leaps onto string lights before being chased by a twisting green dragon.

The crowd applauds as they watch the dragon and the lion dance about the festival grounds.

On their way to the giant bonfire, Ochako and Deku spot the display. “Aw man! That’s a cool quirk!!!”

Ochako giggles, “It kinda reminds me of-”

In a rather morbid display, the lion eats the dragon before exploding into a swirl of fire and stardust. The distant crowd cheers, but Deku and Ochako are left a little mortified. Deku asks, “W-what did it remind you of?”

“Nevermind!”

A drum beat starts from the band at the bonfire, and couples all around start dancing. “May I have this dance?” He kisses her gloved hand.

Her gloves only cover her ring finger to prevent accidental quirk usage, though she still holds her pinky finger out, out of habit. “You may.” She tries to act proper, but cracks a smile almost immediately. They join in the dance with everyone.

They enjoy moments like this, time with each other, so effortlessly. There’s no longer a sense of panic or awkwardness with each other, there’s just comfort. They feel like they’ve known each other their whole lives, though they find it hard to believe it hasn’t even been a whole two years since they met.

They dance along with everyone else, but neither of them know the steps! As heroes in training they’ve grown used to learning by watching, but that can only take them so far, so fast, and Deku fully trips, but Ochako catches him before he can properly face plant.

“I’m still not the best dancer...” He tries to step away from it, worried of disrupting the dance for everyone else.

“You just need more practice!” She pulls him back, inspiring him as she always does.

Deku’s heart squeezes. “Ochako!”

The two finish the dance together with everyone else, and just at the peak of it. When Deku was starting to think it would never end fireworks light up the sky.

Ochako watches them in awe with Deku. The two smile at each other, and share a soft kiss, Deku feels there is no peak he cannot climb if he’s with her, but Ochako realizes, “-I completely forgot! Miruko and Ryukyu are missing it!”

“No we’re not!” Miruko just seems to appear, as she so often does, to wrap her arms around her two favorite students. “I just didn’t want to interrupt the cute moment!”

“Well you kind of are...” Deku mumbles.

Miruko, possibly one of the few people on the planet who could’ve heard it through the fireworks, hears it. Sassing him back she says, “Oh, were you gonna propose or something?”

Ochako fully dies. “-Huh?” She thinks for the briefest moment, that’s what Deku muttered, until she sees his face, just as shocked as her.

“w-We’re still in highschool!”

“I know!”

Ryukyu arrives with a little snicker, “Sorry we took so long. You can blame Miruko though.”

Miruko gnaws at the collar of her yukata like a wild animal. “No, you can blame this stupid thing keeping me from running here full speed!”

The Dragon, and the Rabbit are dressed beautifully, matching purple and gold yukatas. Ryukyu took the time to style Miruko’s short hair into a little bun, that almost makes her head look like a whole rabbit, from a certain angle.

The Dragon’s styled her own hair into an ornate traditional braid kept in place by two skewering pins. One of the pins has a little crescent moon charm dangling from it, and the other, a sun charm.

“You guys look awesome!” Deku and Ochako say in unison.

Miruko smirks, “I know, I’d say the same for the both of you but...” She stares daggers at Deku’s All Might themed yukata… Seeming to have just noticed it...

The four stand there, silent. Three of them wondering what the rabbit is about to say...

“Where’d you get that...” Miruko asks so quietly.

“All Might’s Anniversary Event in Tokyo two years ago.” He answers just as quietly.

Miruko shouts, “Gah!!! Of course the one I was too busy working to go to!!!”

The four of them watch the finale of the fireworks show in total bliss, unaware of the plot that was encroaching towards them at this very moment…

Iida snaps awake- “Villain!” He realizes he’s back at the agency, no one’s around but Nirengeki, who hasn’t even noticed he’s awake as he’s just watching anime on the computer. “Nirengeki?”

He pulls off a headphone, “Sup?” He pauses his show to look over at him- “Oh, hey you’re awake!”

“We have to warn the others, there’s a dangerous villain on the island!”

“They’re all at the festival man, what are you talking about?”

“There’s no time to explain, I have to go!” He hops up from the couch and takes off out the door.

“Wait I needed to ask why you keep calling me by my first name!!!” He’s long gone...-

To his surprise Iida returns, “What do you mean?”

Nirengeki squints at him… Is he actually, just an idiot? “You keep calling me Nirengeki, but that’s my first name, and I didn’t think we were that close.” God, this is so awkward…

Iida squints back, “I thought Nirengeki was your last name.”

“No! My last name is Shoda!”

“Wait, but then why does everyone else call you Nirengeki?”

“Pony got most of 1-B to use their first names with each other.”

“Oh… So, do you want me to call you Shoda or...”

“Man… I don’t know.”

“Right, well- I’m gonna go! VILLAINS!!!” He takes off into the night, his path lit by the dying light of the fireworks finale.

Miruko is the first to sense it, that rush in her blood, the hairs of her tail standing on end, the sudden intensity in her focus. Malicious intent aimed at her. Then Deku feels it, a lightning bolt striking in his brain.

A villain? They both scan the dispersing crowd fervently, then, just as the booming of the fireworks ends, and the crowd is gone, three figures just appear. Surrounding them.

Deku recognizes one of them from before, the older man in the water themed hero costume. Torrent? “What’s going on-” He realizes everyone but these three have stopped moving, even Miruko. Even what remains of the fireworks final lights, seems to hold in place- No, not stopped, but drastically slowed… This must be that Zero Tempo’s quirk… He looks at the older woman clad in black and white.

She speaks for the group, “You have a choice to make young hero...”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Hero Commission. We can end that corrupt organization, together. You can be the symbol of the generation that reclaims the meaning of the word Hero...”

She sounds just like Stain… “Or what?”

“Or get put down with the other government dogs.” She looks to Flare, the muscular glowing woman, and Flare flies straight for Miruko, and the others.

Miruko seems to see it coming, but she’s moving in slow motion compared to Flare.

A voice speaks in Deku’s mind, a man he’s heard before but hadn’t been formally acquainted with. The Sixth Wielder, “Now seems like a good time for a lesson.”

A purple mist explodes out from Deku, everything starts moving at normal speed again, Miruko kicks him and Ochako out of the way as she vanishes with an orange flash.

“Miruko!” Ochako and Deku cry out for her.

That voice speaks in Deku’s mind, “My quirk is called Smokescreen. In order to use it, focus on the feeling of wanting to hide.”

“Now’s not the best time!”

“I’d argue there’s probably not a better time.”

Ochako coughs, “Deku, what’s going on?”

Ryukyu shifts into her dragon form, and blows the smoke away with her wings, assuming it to be one of the villains' quirks. Just as she does that, everything slows down again.

Meanwhile, Miruko struggles in the grasp of her villain. “Get- the hell- Off me!!!” She kicks free and lands on the beach-

The Amazonian Grandma lands in front of her, “I was told that you are the strongest.”

“Wait a second… Do I know you?”

She lights up, “D-do you?”

“Aren’t you like, the number one before they even called it number one? What was your name...” Miruko seems to be trying so sincerely to remember it. “Flare?”

She could not be more excited, “Finally! Someone who remembers me!!!”

“Aren’t you like a hundred years old?”

And just like that, her mood crumbles to dust. “I’m-”

“Stop, I don’t care. Just tell me what you and your crew is after.”

Rude… “The other Bullets want to unite the youth against the Hero Commission. I just want to reclaim my title as The Strongest, by beating you.”

The Bullets? She pulls at her Yukata till she can free her robotic arm. Usagito and the others can probably take care of themselves for a little bit… “Been wanting to try this out on someone worthy.”

Her feral smile is reflected by Flare. They both think, Finally, someone who gets it.

Deku can’t move any faster than the others this time, the Sixth’s voice returns to his mind, “Is now a good time?”

Deku tries to nod.

“Good, try to grab Ochako or Ryukyu this time.” He looks over at Zero Tempo who’s just walking towards them. “Spooky.”

The smoke explodes out of Deku again, and he grabs hold of Ryukyu’s claw before she can try to blow the smoke away again, “Wait, Ryukyu!”

“Yeah, it’s you, I got that after I did it. That woman’s power must be based on what she can see-”

A sudden rush of water sweeps them all away from the festival, through the woods towards the ocean. Deku tries using float to escape, but it’s so hard to focus as he’s getting tossed around in the water. He tries desperately to reach for Ochako, to share his power with her. It was becoming harder and harder for any of them to keep their heads above water.

Ochako realizes in this moment, that she can’t make water, or any liquids weightless. Even with her Zero Zone. She can halt their momentum, for a moment, but the water was being pushed onward by Torrent’s quirk, not gravity.

She hears Torrent shout at them, “This can be over as soon as you agree to join us!”

“N-no way!” Just as all hope felt loss, she hears a familiar engine.

“Recipro!!!-” Iida blasts through the water, grabbing Ochako and Deku as he does, but as they come out the other side, something strange happens. Iida finds himself in an old and crumbled building with them. Surrounded by gray clouds and nine unfamiliar figures emerge. One of them still wrapped in cloud...

“Iida!” Deku was not expecting him to find out like this, “There’s something I’ve been really needing to tell you.”

“What is this...” He looks over the faces of each of the figures. He notices wings on the one still wrapped in cloud.

Ochako says, “This is Deku’s quirk. One For All.”

“You knew about this?” He squints at Ochako.

“Iida I’ve been wanting to tell you about this for so long, but I just never found the time-”

Iida gestures to cut him off, “It seems now is the time. Explain...”

Zero Tempo catches up with Torrent as he searches for the kids, “Where’d they go?”

“I don’t know! That Ingenium kid, snatched them and then they vanished in the trees.”

“What about the Dragon?” She looks to the sky, and then she hears Torrent yelp with an impact. She looks back at where he was standing but he’s gone. “Torrent!?”

Ryukyu’s voice comes from above the trees, “Let me see if I understood you before. You want to declare war on the Hero Commission?”

Zero Tempo sneers, glaring into the canopy for just the smallest glimpse at the overgrown lizard, “They use us as pawns, and then discard us when we damage their precious image- I rotted in prison for 35 years!!! We can’t stop them on our own, I know that. The Commission is so strong, if we just rally together though-”

The tree she was looking at shatters and flies towards her, she evades, and she sees a trail of gold lightning, but before she can follow it the dragon’s claws grab her by the back of the head.

Keeping Zero Tempo turned away from her, Ryukyu says, “Even if I agree, I won’t let you sign those kids up for another war.”

Zero Tempo growls, and closes one of her eyes… “You’re just another fool...”

Miruko goes blow for blow with Flare, they seem to be evenly matched in terms of speed, and physical strength. Every collision between them creates a shock wave that splits or pushes back the tides. However, Miruko can tell Flare’s running out of stamina far faster than she is. It’d be really lame to win this just by tiring her out. “Hold on!”

Flare slides to a stop, in front of the rabbit hero. Trying her best not to seem out of breath. “Don’t tell me you’re giving up.”

“Not a chance! But I know you have an ultimate move you’re not using. If you don’t give me everything, then I’m going to kick your ass.”

Flare bares her teeth in a crazed smile, “You think you can handle my Solar Wave?”

Miruko smiles right back at her, “Why don’t we find out?”

“Just remember, you asked for this!” Flare swings her arms in a circle in front of her, orbs of energy forming on her palms, before she brings them together. “Solar...” The orb grows bigger, brighter, until she can no longer hold the energy together, “WAVE!” A massive beam of amber light blasts towards the Rabbit Hero. It evaporates the water, and turns the sand to glass as it blasts towards the Rabbit Hero.

Alright, Hastsume, Shield… Let’s see if this works. She raises her mechanical arm to the blast, and takes it head on. The hand withstands the blast, and can even hold it back as Miruko pushes against it with all her strength. A gauge on the arm quickly fills with light. Miruko can actually feel the energy building up inside of it. She twists out of the way of the before her arm overloads, and she unleashes, for the first time, “Luna Ray!!!” She blasts Flare with a powerful, but much smaller beam of her own, that sends the old woman skipping across the coast line.

Flare flips, and skids to a stop. She wipes a bit of blood from her mouth, “-Not done yet...” She flies at Miruko for one last attack. This one she puts the last of her energy into, one punch.

Miruko runs straight for her, “Let’s go! LUNA-” She weaves Flare’s Final Strike, and with another twist crosses the old hero’s jaw in a devastating, “COUNTER!!!”

Flare finally goes down, and with a smile on her face.

Iida almost can’t believe what they’re telling him. “So you can share this One for All with us?”

Deku laughs a little nervously, “That is what the name implies...”

“Alright then, let’s do this.” He holds his hand out, “Ochekuten?”

Ochako smiles, surprised he remembers their silly combo move name, “Ochekuten!” She puts her hand on top of his.

Deku chuffs, and joins the stack, “Ochekuten.” They’re returned to the forest, the three of them glow with pink, green, and blue lightning.

Torrent raises a massive tidal wave against them, “We could’ve ushered in a new age together!” He sends it crashing towards them, as he vanishes within it.

The trio share a look, and run towards it together!

“That’s what you old guys never seem to get!-” Ochako halts the wave with her amplified Zero Zone, she holds it back just long enough for Deku to blast through it with a

Delaware Smash! Deku knocks him out of the wave. “We are the new age!!!-” He tries to grab him with Black Whip, but the old man dodges.

Torrent careens across the surface of the ocean, maintaining control of his quirk, he ‘s about to launch a volley of spiraling spears of water at them-

“VILLAIN!” With a combination of Fa Jin and his Recipro, Iida rockets into him with such incredible speed, and with a kick he sends Torrent skipping across the ocean like a stone. Well off into the horizon.

Before Iida can fall into the water, Ochako pulls him back with black whip. “Hey! I got it to work!”

Iida actually laughs, as he feels the power fade from him. “That was incredible...”

Deku’s amazed his and Ochako's yukatas survived mostly intact! Of course he lost a sleeve, and they got a little bit shredded on the ends, but he worries over Iida’s leg. It seems he miraculously didn’t break it, “Are you okay Iida?”

Iida smiles, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt better. Thank you Midoriya.”

“We definitely gotta work on our group speeches though.” Ochako chimes in, “Villain, Iida? That’s what you went with?” She giggles.

“Am I wrong?-”

“Yes!” Zero Tempo shouts, and at the same time, Ryukyu is sent crashing past them, like someone put her on fastforward. Zero Tempo slows them all down before they have a chance to fight back. “I am sick, and tired, of people not listening to me! We were heroes! War is coming, you can either be on our side, the side of freedom- Your freedom! Or you can-!”

A swift kick to the back of the head from Miruko is all it takes to drop her to her knees. Zero Tempo tries to turn on her, but Miruko pushes her face into the dirt with her metal hand. “You’re the one who needs to listen...” Miruko feels her struggle and she slams her knee down into the ex-hero’s back. “If you try anything, I’m gonna cave your fucking skull in! Because it sounded- like you were about to say to those children- my children, ‘ or you can die.’ Did I get that right!?”

The children watch in shocked silence, Deku and Ochako aren't sure they've ever seen her this angry.

Zero Tempo speaks as much as she can, as much as Miruko allows, “N-no… If you would just listen, please.”

Miruko squeezes the back of her skull with her mechanical fingers, “Choose your next words very carefully.”

“The Hero Commission is using you, all of you!” Her voice breaks, “Your lives, your time, it all means nothing to them! You’re just tools- weapons to them! We can finally stop them, but only if we work together!”

Miruko sighs, and for a moment it seems like she’s calmed down, but only a moment. “The government doesn’t have our best interest at heart?” She mocks her. “Mi mam á was an immigrant you stupid old woman. You think you recognized some great injustice, like you were the only one who could see it from behind bars?! The rest of us must be blind because we’re living in it! They make our children soldiers, and you think we don’t notice!? I want you to look at them, just look at them-! and tell me what you see...” Miruko raises Zero Tempo’s head.

She looks at Tenya, Ochako, and Izuku, and says...“Y-young Heroes.”

“They’re children.” Miruko growls. “They just survived a war they should’ve never been dragged into! I don’t care what the commission took from you. You are not dragging my kids into another war! Do you understand me???”

Zero Tempo mutters, “What kind of hero are you...”

          Miruko knows how she must sound in this moment, but, “I'm the kind who’s not going to let my kids die following a fool into battle.” She lifts her knee off her, “But I’m also the Symbol of Hope. I want the commission to change too, but you don’t fight a war against the use of child soldiers, with child soldiers .” She lets go of her, “Now, we’re supposed to be on vacation. So... Get off my fucking island, take your stupid friends, and if I see any of you go near my kids, or any kids again. I’ll make you wish you stayed in that prison.”

Zero Tempo gets to her knees, taking a moment just to breathe… She closes her eyes and she vanishes.

All the heroes stay on guard for a moment, but when Miruko’s prey sense doesn’t trigger again, she knows they’re safe. She sighs, “Kids, I’m sorry you had to see that...-” She sees that deep uncertainty in their eyes, most of all in Usagito...

He thinks, Meddling where you don’t have to, that’s the essence of a hero. That’s what All Might taught me, but…

Chapter Text

Rumi wakes up the next morning with an aching headache. Today was the end of their Nabu Island escapade. She’s thankful at least that most of the kids, and all of the civilians got to enjoy themselves, as the festival last night ended without a hitch. However, her mind torments her, Usagito, Ocho, and Ingenito have probably shared the story by now. How I nearly brutalized an old woman right before their eyes, and told her I don’t believe my kids could make it in a real war. Some awful abstraction of the story like that… Worse yet, “I’m sorry I broke my promise...” She nestles against Ryuko’s bruised back.

Ryuko rolls over to look at the rabbit, “The islanders didn’t see a thing, and you didn’t get beat up too bad, so it’s okay...” She kisses her forehead, “This time...”

“When I heard what she was saying, I just lost control...”

Ryuko snorts, “You know, the old Rumi wouldn’t think twice about something like that. You used to lose your mind in battle all the time.” She brushes a stray hair away from the rabbit’s mouth.

“This was different though...I’m supposed to be a symbol, like All Might. I can’t be crushing some old lady’s skull just because she pissed me off.”

“I almost did the same thing-”

“But Usagito and Ocho- they both looked so scared…” She clings desperately to the Dragon, wrapping her arm around her waist. “I don’t want to lose them Ryuko.”

“You won’t.”

“What if they think I’m some monster, and I don’t believe in them-”

“They won’t.”

“But what if-”

“Shhh...” Ryuko pulls her in close, kissing the top of the rabbit’s head. She just about whispers, “Tu puedes relajarte ahora.”

It always cheers Rumi up when she hears Ryuko speak Spanish. Just the fact that she decided to become fluent, just for me. She nuzzles against Ryuko’s chin, practically purring. Though the other thought lingers in her mind. I should’ve apologized to them right there, not run away…

Meanwhile, Iida is helping out with festival clean up when a particular hero portrait catches his eye. A beautiful young woman dressed in a familiar black and white bodysuit, that matches a black and white flowing braid. It can’t be... he stops one of the festival staff, “Excuse me. Do you know who this portrait is?”

“Hm?” The older man with pale violet hair takes a look, “Oh, that’s the Volleyball Heroine: Zero Tempo!”

“-Volleyball?” He sees now in the portrait that she is holding a volleyball, he thought before it was just some abstract orb for artistry. Her costume is also a little reminiscent of a volleyball player’s uniform… If he squints.

“Yeees. She had this incredible power to speed things up, or slow them down. Helped her always be right where she was needed most.”

Tenya’s really struggling to figure out what that has to do with Volleyball. “I see...”

“She disappeared when I was about your age. Most of us island folk assumed she just moved away, to one of those big cities, but I don’t think I’ve heard anything about her in… I don’t even know how long. You know her?” He looks so hopeful at Iida.

“I don’t think I do...” He bows to the old man, “Thank you for sharing the story though.”

“No problem!” He continues along his merry way.

Later on, the students of U.A.’s temp agency, gather in front of the docks as a whole crowd of islanders has come to see them off! Mahoro and Katsuma are lifted onto their dad’s shoulders so they can wave to all the heroes. They all cheer together, “Thanks for helping out!”

It’s hard for Miruko and Ryukyu not to smile at that as they help the U.A. students get loaded onto the ferry. Miruko notices no one giving her strange looks, no one except Izuku, and Ochako of course…

Once the boat starts moving, Miruko goes and finds them, “Can I talk to you two...” She’d ask Iida too, but he’s not with them, and she wasn’t particularly concerned with how Ingenium Jr. felt about her.

Ochako and Izuku look to each other and follow her quietly to the outer deck, where Ryukyu waits for them. Izuku just keeps remembering how Miruko said, all that she said, and then ran away. She didn’t even give them a chance to talk it out.

Miruko starts to talk, but she can’t handle looking at them right now… So afraid how they’re looking at her. “Look, I didn’t mean to scare you guys last night- All I’ve wanted for so long is to protect you two. I don’t want you to be afraid of me...”

“That’s what you think we’re mad about???” A barely contained rage was seeping into Izuku’s voice as he spoke.

Ochako tries to quickly calm him down, “Deku-”

“Miruko, it has nothing to do with that-”

“Stop!” Deku’s heard Miruko say that word so many times, but this is the first time he’s seen her say it with tears in her eyes, his first time hearing her voice break as the word escaped her. “I know, right now, you think what I was saying last night is that I don’t believe in you, and don’t think you should be heroes- but that’s not it at all!”

“Miruko...” Izuku and Ochako both say in unison.

“Usagi- Izuku, you told me when we first met, that you wanted me to be more careful, because you wanted me to see a bright future. I promised you I would be, but you have to understand, both of you- have to understand... The brightest future- The only future that I want to see is one that you’re both in.” She wipes away her tears, “That woman, I’ve seen so many just like her… They think violence is how you change the world, but it’s not. I learned that from the both of you. You can’t change someone with hatred, you can only change them with love, just like how you two changed me!”

“Mir-”

“What I’m trying to say is I love you two like you’re my own children, and I just want to keep you safe!!!-”

They both run to hug her, seeing no other way to make her understand, “We love you too!”

Ochako squeezes Miruko so tight as she tells her, “Miruko, I was only mad because you wouldn’t talk to us. I wanted us all to enjoy the festival together but you just ran away without saying anything!”

“I was ready to fight you if you were going to tell us we shouldn’t be heroes after everything we’ve been through.” He starts to pull away.

Miruko laughs through her tears, and pulls him back in. “I promise, that’s never what I’m trying to say.” She squeezes Ochako back, “And I only ran away, because I really thought you two were going to hate me, and that’s my worst nightmare.” She says it with a cheery voice, but she’s so embarrassed to admit that. Another thing she would’ve never done before meeting these two.

Deku’s heart breaks hearing her say that, “I’ll never hate you Miruko.” He tries his best to stifle a cry, tucking his face into her shoulder.

Ochako tags on, sniffling, “We might get mad at each other every now and then, but we’re all family now. You’re stuck with us!”

Ryukyu wipes away a single tear, “I told you it would be okay, Rumi.”

“Shut up and get over here!” She pulls Ryukyu into the group hug.

Ryukyu smiles, and wraps her wings around them all. “You two are the best kids.” When she lets go, and her wings recede, she finds herself, still with them, but definitely not on the boat anymore. In a strange and cloudy realm, as it starts to shift, and eight other figures slowly emerge from the mist. “Uh...”

Miruko’s a little awestruck, as she has an idea of where they’re at. “Is this...”

Deku scratches the back of his head, “I’ve been meaning to tell you two about this too...”

Ochako smiles, and says, “Welcome to One For All?”

Meanwhile, in the usual realm. Kodai sits on the railing, and watches the four heroes from afar. She nudges Tokoyami beside her, and points them out. “They’ve been hugging for a while.”

Tokoyami nods, “They’ve been through a lot together. Bonds forged in fire can be the strongest there is.”

Dark Shadow pops out to say, “It has been like a while though! It almost looks like they fell asleep.”

Kodai says, “Unlikely.”

Inside the boat, Mina gathers her Paddle Boarding Pals, she has them join her in a huddle because, “Guys, I have something very important to tell you.”

Setsuna has a feeling she knows where this is going already.

Mina looks at each of them, sharing a special nod with each of them, before declaring, with the utmost seriousness, perhaps the most serious she’s ever said anything in her whole life, she says… “I’m hungry.”

Nirengeki, Denki, and Kirishima all fall over. Setsuna falls to pieces.

Nirengeki says, “I thought for sure you were about to start singing a sea shanty or something.”

“Well since you asked, THEEEEEERE, ONCE WAS A SHIP NAMED THAT SAILED THE SEA, AND THE NAME OF THE SHIP WAS-” (Mina continues belting Wellerman loudly in the background for a while)

Sero pokes at Awase’s bandana, “Did you ever get boss’ number?”

“Dude, I didn’t even get her name...”

“...She gave me a hug before I got on the boat.” Sero says so smugly.

Awase fully believes him, “No way!”

Sero chuckles, “I’m just messing with ya.”

“No, I was saying no way, cause she actually gave me a kiss on the cheek.”

“You’re such a liar!”

Awase runs to the back of the boat, and shouts at the distant Nabu Island, “I’LL BE BACK FOR YOU SOMEDAY BOSS!”

Iida sits by himself by the front of the boat, rubbing at his calf as he remembers that power Midoriya shared with him…

Needing to escape the loud sea shanty inside, Setsuna slinks out, slamming the door behind her. She’s a little surprised to see Iida out here, spacing way out. She taps him on the head with Pony’s horn, making a fun little bonk sound. “Hey… class rep?”

“That was actually Yaoyarozu this year.”

“Would it make you feel better to know who 2-B chose.”

“Sure?”

“Kodai.”

“No offense to Kodai, but… why?”

“Because everyone loves Kodai!”

This was definitely news to him. “Uhuh...”

“Whatcha thinking about though?”

He stares at her, as if he could see through her memories just by looking at her face.

Setsuna makes a goofy face at him, separating her nose and ears from her head, hoping that’ll break his concentration on the spell he was obviously casting in his mind.

He decides to just ask, “Do you… Know Midoriya’s… secret?” Uraraka and him wouldn’t tell him just how many people they told before him.

“Oh about One for All, and All Might?”

“He told you!?”

Setsuna snorts, “No, Pony did.”

“I guess that makes sense you’d hear from her- Wait no it doesn’t, he told her about it??? Even the sharing thing!?”

Setsuna thinks about it for a moment, “You mean that thing he did with Miruko and Ochako in Esuha?”

“Maybe?”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, like I was there. They both got that same like ligtningy effect thing that Midoriya normally gets.” She can see something about this is really getting to Iida, “If it makes you feel better he didn’t share it with me or Pony.”

“Aha! I am special I knew it!”

Pony texts Setsuna: I’m so excited you’re coming home today!!!

Setsuna: “Did you know your horns make a great bonk sound when you hit someone with the wide end?”

Pony: “Omg lol! Who did you bonk?”

Setsuna: “Iida.”

Pony: “Wait did he wake up from his coma!?”

Setsuna: “Lol, yeah. He’s acting kind of weird though, I think he wants to chuu Midoriya or something.”

Pony: “Pffft! Well I’m gonna chuu you the second you wash ashore!”

Setsuna: “Not if I chuu you first!”

Miki Nekomata, the Cat Hero Purrsian gets a shiver down her spine as she bathes in the sun, back on the beach. “Why do I get the feeling I’m forgetting something very important...”