Chapter 76 - 11–12

Chapter 11

Thankfully, the rest of the week passes without much drama. Izuku spends most of the weekend reading the other book Recovery Girl assigned to him, the one that she's made notes in about the most common injuries she sees hero students get. He also wants to start doing research on ways he can help his classmates deal with the effects of their quirk overuse, but that's probably going to take a while so he tells himself to finish the book first. It's bigger than the first aid book, but it's nothing compared to Human Anatomy and Physiology. He'd be grateful to read literally anything other than that monstrosity of a book.

When he meets Recovery Girl the next Monday morning, she looks slightly less surprised when she learns how much he's read already.

"I suppose there's no point in me telling you to go slow," she says with a deadpanned voice and Izuku smiles sheepishly. She sniffs and turns back to her desk, seeming rather annoyed. "The same goes for Toshinori-kun, apparently."

Izuku blinks. "Hm?"

With an irritated sigh, Recovery Girl says, "Ever since his strength has been returning, his time limit has been steadily increasing as well." Izuku nods. All Might has told him this. His mentor purses her lips. "Because of this, he's been staying out longer and longer- he doesn't know how to limit himself anymore! That man has been a teacher for only a week and he's already been late twice! He was supposed to meet me before school starts because I wanted to check on his injury, but alas…" She gestures to her infirmary, which is notably All Might-less.

Recovery Girl almost always seems annoyed when talking about All Might, so Izuku knows not to take her displeasure too seriously. "He probably just got a bit side-tracked," he says, pulling out his phone to check his social media. One of the All Might accounts he follows reports that the number one hero has already resolved three incidents this morning.

He shows her his phone. "See? He's working."

Recovery Girl remains unimpressed.

Izuku texts All Might as he walks to homeroom.

(Midoriya 8:20AM)-Beware of the angry Recovery Girl-san 

(Read at 10:45AM) 

During lunch, Izuku checks the news again and sees that All Might seems to be caught up in a hostage situation. He frowns. Even though All Might doesn't teach any morning classes, it still isn't a good idea to tire himself out before their afternoon lesson. He'll probably be late…

"What's with the face, Midori-kun?" Ashido asks.

Izuku startles out of his thoughts and puts his phone away. "Nothing," he says, turning back to his lunch. Lunch Rush makes good katsudon- but not as good as his mother's, of course.

Kacchan wrinkles his nose. "I don't understand how you can eat that stuff so often."

Izuku scowls at him. "I like katsudon!"

"Me too," Sero agrees, "Although, I can never really finish the whole thing. It's kind of heavy, you know?"

"Not exactly healthy either," Kacchan says pointedly.

Izuku gives him a shrewd look. "Am I being fat-shamed here?"

Kacchan's eyes widen slightly and the others laugh in response. "What the fuck? No!" He snaps. "I'm just wondering how the hell a guy your size can pack away so many fucking calories without becoming fucking obese!"

"I don't eat that much, Kacchan," Izuku says sniffily, turning up his nose, "Sure, maybe I have a bit of a sweet tooth and maybe I like to have a few snacks here and there, but-" He's interrupted by Kirishima laughing.

"Nobody's shaming you, Midoriya-kun!" Kirishima grins. "My quirk requires me to eat a lot of protein."

"Yeah, lay off, Bakugou-kun!" Ashido pouts. "It's not his fault his quirk makes him hungry. Yaomomo has to eat a lot too in order to use her quirk."

"A lot of people have specific diets tailored to their quirks," Sero adds.

Kacchan arches a brow, looking at Izuku in confusion. "Wait, what the fuck? I didn't know you had to eat a lot."

Izuku is confused too. "Um… I don't? At least, I don't think so…"

Ashido tilts her head. "Huh? Are you sure?" She asks. "I mean, I just figured. Didn't you say your quirk relies on you transfering your energy or something?"

Izuku nods.

"So… the more energy you have, the better it works." She looks at him like it should be obvious- and shit maybe it is.

Izuku stares at his katsudon, dumbfounded. How did he not realize this sooner? It's not like he eats an outrageous amount more than normal, but he's definitely never shied away from putting a little extra on his plate, or going for a snack between classes. He's even noted something similar in his old quirk journal, about how if he doesn't sleep so well the previous night or skips breakfast then his quirk is more sluggish and he tires out a lot faster. It's something he's noticed but never really thought too much about.

"Oh," he says lamely, "I guess… I guess I didn't realize…"

"You didn't realize that food affects your energy?" Kaminari looks rather amused. "Haven't you ever taken health class, Midoriya-kun? Food basically is energy."

Izuku blushes. "Well, I mean, it's just something I do automatically. Eat a lot, I mean. I guess I just figured I had a big stomach…"

He feels very dumb right now.

Kirishima snorts. "Well, at least now you know."

"Maybe you should talk to Yaomomo," Ashido suggests, shoving some rice into her mouth, "You could, like, talk about what foods to eat. Or, I dunno, get addicted to energy drinks."

"Ha! I'd love to see Midoriya-kun all hopped up on caffeine!" Kaminari laughs.

"I don't think that'd be too healthy," Izuku says as he smiles, "But good idea, Ashido-kun."

With this new information in mind, he makes sure to finish his food by the time the lunch bell rings. He's not quite sure exactly what is going to happen in their hero class today, but Recovery Girl said they'll be doing rescue training in an off-campus facility. And, since it doesn't involve combat with quirks, Izuku will be expected to participate.

He and his classmates are excited when Aizawa announces what their training session will be later in class.

"Disasters, shipwrecks, and everything in between," the teacher grunts, "It's rescue training."

"Rescue? Looks like it'll be a lot of work this time, too," Kaminari says, looking at Ashido who pumps her fists eagerly.

"Idiot, this is the duty of a hero," Kirishima says behind him, "My arms are ready to rumble!" He grins, then glances at Izuku. "Hey, Midoriya-kun, are you gonna train with us?"

Izuku nods. "Yeah! Recovery Girl-san said that sometimes healers act as combat medics and join search and rescue agencies." Kacchan grumbles at this but Izuku ignores him. "I'm not quite sure yet about what I'm going to do in the future, but I definitely want to do as much as I can!"

"Hey, I'm not done," Aizawa grunts, "You can decide if you want to wear your costumes or not this time." The panels on the wall slide open and Izuku's heart leaps to his throat. He gets to wear his costume again!

Since the training is taking place off-campus, they're going to take a bus. They all quickly get changed into their costumes and make their way outside. As soon as they're ready, Iida starts blowing a whistle very loudly and commands them to file into the bus in a neat and orderly fashion.

Izuku glances at Yaoyorozu, who looks like she doesn't know whether to join in Iida's overly-enthusiastic leadership or to just let him do his thing. Izuku's eyes meet hers and he gives her an apologetic smile. He had no doubt that Iida would take to his responsibility of vice-class representative well, but he hopes Yaoyorozu isn't feeling overshadowed by Iida's strong personality.

To his relief, though, he watches as the girl straightens up a moment later and tentatively approaches the blue-haired boy, helping him order their classmates onto the bus in a much calmer manner.

The ride to the training facility goes by quickly. Izuku listens as his friends talk about their quirks and how popular they'll be as heroes, and laughs when Kaminari makes fun of Kacchan's personality.

"I'll kill you!" The blond snarls and Izuku hastily pulls him back.

"Easy, Kacchan," he says, "Kaminari-kun's only teasing."

Kacchan plops back down into his seat with a huff, grumbling, "Little shit," under his breath. Izuku pats his shoulder placatingly.

Asui says with a blank voice, "Well, even if his personality is crap steeped in sewage, at least we have Midoriya-chan here to tame him."

Kacchan explodes again. "Tame me?! He's not fucking taming me!"

"Kacchan," Izuku says, frowning. The blond's muscles subconsciously relax ever so slightly and he turns to give the greenette a withering glare.

Yaoyorozu haughtily turns her nose away and comments, "It's a miracle you've been able to deal with his outrageous behavior for so long without going insane, Midoriya-kun."

Kacchan wordlessly snarls at her and Izuku giggles, "Who's to say I haven't already gone insane?" Kacchan gives him a look of utter betrayal while everyone around him laughs.

"We're here." Aizawa's voice calls out, interrupting the laughter, "Stop messing around."

The bus soon comes to a stop and everyone starts getting off. As they stand up, Izuku gently nudges Kacchan with his shoulder, giving him an apologetic smile. Kacchan huffs sharply but nudges him back, albeit a little roughly, before he turns away.

Forgiven.

The training facility seems to be a large dome of some sort, and when they walk inside they're greeted by the Space Hero Thirteen. Izuku immediately recognizes them from his hero journals. Everyone is super excited to see them, especially Uraraka, who apparently really likes this particular pro hero. Thirteen introduces the training ground as the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short, which was created by them. It contains different kinds of disaster zones including a shipwreck, landslide, fire, windstorm, etc.

As Thirteen explains, Aizawa looks down at his phone and scowls.

"By the way," Thirteen asks, glancing at Aizawa, "Where's All Might?"

"Late," Aizawa huffs and pockets his phone, "Said he'll be arriving at the school soon, but to go ahead and start the lesson."

Thirteen doesn't seem discouraged. "Ah, well, he'll get here soon enough. Anyway, let's see…" They turn back to the students. "...Before we begin, let me say one thing… or two… or three…"

The numbers keep increasing and the class winces. Thirteen gives a long speech about quirks and how they can do good but also can kill easily if people don't know how to use them properly. The pro hero emphasizes that the students do not have powers so they can harm one another, but so they can use them to save people. Izuku glances at Bakugou at this, but the explosive blond is merely scowling.

As they talk, Izuku looks around the USJ facility, eyeing the various disaster zones. He wonders how the training will go and if he'll be any good at it, without a combative quirk. Even though he appreciates his ability to heal, part of him will always be disheartened at not being able to become a true hero. Joining a rescue agency as a combat medic is probably the closest he can get to his original dream, so he hopes he does well today.

Suddenly, the lights in the dome go out.

Izuku is so lost in thought that he doesn't notice at first, but then his eyes slide to the fountain in the center of the facility. The water sputters a few times before it- becomes swirly? No, that's not right. Something is swirling, but a few seconds later it becomes clear that some sort of portal is forming.

"Sensei?" He asks, frowning in confusion.

Aizawa follows his gaze and instantly stiffens up. The portal suddenly explodes with purple and black tendrils. Amidst the fog, a pale hand reaches out.

"Gather together and don't move!" Aizawa suddenly orders, "Thirteen, protect the students!"

Izuku's classmates murmur in confusion before they notice the portal too. Their eyes widen as a man steps through the purple mass, almost immediately followed by multiple other large people.

"Those are villains," Aizawa growls, slipping his yellow goggles out of his scarf and putting them on. Izuku's heart stutters at his words. He watches as his teacher steps forward and peers down at the villains as they continue to pour out of the portal, a grim look on his face. Thirteen glances at him as he says, "The trespassing last week was the work of these scumbags after all, huh?"

Izuku tenses up. Trespassing? But- it was just the media, wasn't it?

Recovery Girl's worried face appears in his mind, telling him to stay close to Kacchan on his way home. His eyes widen.

As his classmates exclaim their alarm, Yaoyorozu speaks up, "Sensei, what about the trespasser sensors?"

Thirteen replies, "We have them of course, but…"

"Did they only appear here, or around the whole school?" Todoroki suddenly says, his voice impassive. Izuku is shocked at how calm both he and Yaoyorozu are, but he supposes they've had more training than the rest of them. "Either way, if the sensors are not responding, that means they have someone with a quirk that can do that. An isolated area separated from the main campus during a time when a class is supposed to be here. They might be fools, but they're not dumb. This surprise attack was planned with some sort of goal in mind."

Despite Todoroki's calm demeanor, his words only make his classmates even more uneasy.

Aizawa orders Thirteen to start evacuating everyone and to try calling the school, telling Kaminari to try as well. Then, he steps closer to the edge of the platform, his scarf flying up around him as he tenses up.

Izuku startles. "Sensei! You can't possibly be thinking of fighting them all by yourself! There's too many!"

He knows Eraserhead is a skilled fighter. He's seen for himself how easily the hero can deal with a small group of villains, but there must be dozens of them pouring out of the portal. There's no way he can fight them all! After the man saved him when he was ten, Izuku scoured the internet for every video he could find of him fighting. So he knows very well that Eraserhead is at a huge disadvantage here. His fighting style is to capture after erasing the enemy's quirk- long battles against a large group of people are not his forte. He's not physically enhanced, he'll get tired, his eyes will get dry, he'll get hurt- 

"Don't worry about me," Aizawa interrupts his panicked thoughts, not sparing him a glance, "You stay in the middle of the group and get back to the bus." Without another word, he grabs a few folds of his capture weapon and leaps down into the fray.

"Sensei!" He cries out, but Thirteen quickly starts ushering everyone towards the door.

Kacchan grabs him by the arm and drags him along. "You heard him!" He growls, pushing him ahead. Iida glances back at him and puts a hand on his shoulder, guiding him so that he's running in the center of the group. It makes sense, keeping the healer in the safest part of the group- and from the way the other students flank around him, he's not the only one who realizes. A tiny spark of indignance still erupts in his chest, though.

The retreating students suddenly skid to a halt as the portal villain materializes in front of them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the mass of fog says in a surprisingly polite voice, "We are the League of Villains. It may be presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves into the home of the heroes, UA High school, in order to have All Might, the Symbol of Peace, take his last breath. I believe All Might should have been here. Has there been some kind of change?"

Nobody responds, staring at the villain with fearful eyes. Izuku gulps. This is real! These are real villains right in their school! And they're here to kill All Might? The number one hero is already on his way, but Izuku almost doesn't want him to get here. The villains seem so confident in their abilities, surely they must be a real danger?

After a moment of silence, the purple mass continues, "Well, regardless, this is the part I am to play." He suddenly begins growing bigger, the fog spreading out.

Thirteen tenses up and raises their finger, clearly preparing to use their quirk, but suddenly Kacchan and Kirishima lunge forward. Izuku's heart leaps to his throat as his friends pounce on the villain. A large explosion from Kacchan's palms makes the ground rattle as dust and smoke fills the air, obstructing their view briefly.

"Did you consider you'd get beaten by us first?" Kirishima snarls, his forearms raised and hardened.

To everyone's surprise, however, the villain remains unharmed. "Even if you are students, you are excellent golden eggs," he says. As Thirteen orders Kacchan and Kirishima to move away, he adds, "My job is to scatter you all and torture you to death!"

The tendrils of fog suddenly dart forward and surround them all. Izuku panics as he loses sight of his classmates. Then, the ground abruptly disappears from under his feet and he falls, crying out as he lands on something hard a moment later.

"Aha!" A voice calls out gleefully, "Fresh meat!"

Disoriented, Izuku blinks rapidly at the sight of a large jaw full of razor-sharp teeth snapping at him. He immediately scrambles backwards and sends a hard kick at his assilant's nose, causing them to jerk back with a yelp. Jumping to his feet, the boy realizes that he's no longer in the plaza anymore, instead he's surrounded by the rocks and uneven ground of the landslide zone. His classmates are gone too, replaced by a villain with a canine-like quirk that glares daggers at him.

"Little twerp!" She snarls, rubbing her nose, "That fucking hurt! You're dog food now!"

She lunges at him again, teeth bared and claws swiping. Years of training kicks in and Izuku moves on instinct, ducking under her fist and punching her in the stomach as he darts past. She wheezes as the air is knocked out of her and stumbles, giving him time to aim a kick at the back of her knees. Once she's on the ground, he turns tail and runs away, only to skid to a halt at the sight of another villain.

Izuku can't quite tell what this one's quirk is. The man is large and has snake-like eyes, but no other hints as to what his quirk might be. He just barely manages to dodge his attack, but he doesn't have time to counter. The villain moves quickly, striking with such speed that all Izuku can do is just duck and dodge repeatedly.

Movement at the corner of his eyes catches his attention and he blanches, realizing that there are multiple villains surrounding him. One of them aims some sort of weapon at him and he flinches. It's enough of a distraction to prevent him from avoiding the next attack from the snake-like man.

Before the hit can land on him, however, everything around him freezes. Literally.

Gasping, Izuku whirls around and spots Todoroki standing a few feet away, a sheet of ice spreading from his right foot. The villains are all frozen in place, but Izuku remains untouched. It's a testament to Todoroki's impressive control over his quirk that he was able to avoid freezing Izuku in his attack.

"Todoroki-kun," Izuku pants, but the other boy just glares at the villains.

"It's pathetic to lose against a single child," he says, "Get a hold of yourselves. You're adults, aren't you?" His tone is flat, but just like during their sparring match, his eyes burn.

Izuku gulps, his whole body shaking with adrenaline and fear. "Todoroki-kun…"

Finally, the boy looks at him, but his gaze hardly softens. "Stay close to me," he orders before turning away. Still rattled from the sudden turn of events, Izuku wordlessly nods and scampers after him.

Todoroki leads the way downhill. Since they're in the landslide zone, it's fairly obvious that the exit is at the bottom of the hill. Still, it's a long way to go, and it soon becomes clear that they have more villains to worry about.

Villains seem to appear out of every corner, but no matter what their quirk is, Todoroki defeats them by simply freezing them. It's almost laughably easy, but it's also incredibly intimidating. Izuku could barely hold his own against two of the villains and Todoroki is just stopping them in their tracks within seconds. It's a reminder to Izuku that this boy really is the strongest in the class, and he isn't even using half of his power.

"Ha-Have you seen any of the others?" Izuku asks, glancing over his shoulder as they make their way downhill.

"No," Todoroki replies, "That warp villain said he'd scatter us and kill us. The others must be spread out across the facility."

Izuku lets out a trembling breath. This is all so crazy. He can't believe they're getting attacked by real villains on the second week of school! He hopes everyone else is okay…

"All Might will be here soon," he says in a weak attempt at reassurance. His hand moves to his phone in his pocket, only to remember what Aizawa said about the circuits being jammed.

Todoroki eyes his hand briefly before refocusing his attention on their surroundings. "I've been meaning to ask… how do you know All Might?"

"Eh?" Izuku blinks, taken aback.

"You seem familiar with him," Todoroki says, "And I'm sure Recovery Girl-san could have asked plenty of other heroes to sponsor you. So why him?"

He talks so casually that Izuku can't believe his ears. "To-Todoroki-kun!" He sputters, "I hardly think this is the best time to talk about this stuff! We're being attacked, how can you be so calm?!"

Todoroki gives him a look that he can't quite decipher. "You're scared," he states bluntly.

"Well, duh!" 

"Don't be," he says dismissively, already turning away, "I'm perfectly capable of-"

A loud voice suddenly yells behind Izuku and Todoroki whirls around. His hand reaches towards him and Izuku feels something whip past his ear. By the time his reflexes kick in and he stumbles away, Todoroki has already frozen the villain, who looks like he was about to stab Izuku with a spear. Five more jump out of nowhere, apparently deciding that ganging up on them is the best strategy, but Todoroki easily encases them in ice.

Izuku gapes in awe but the bi-colored boy simply gives the villains an unimpressed look.

"You're right, I suppose," he says, and it takes a moment to realize that he's talking to Izuku. "There are more important matters at hand." He turns to the villain that tried to stab them and says, "At this rate, your cells will slowly die. I want to be a hero, so I would like to avoid something so cruel if possible." Despite his words, his tone doesn't sound particularly regretful.

Izuku tenses up as Todoroki raises his right hand to the villain's face. Clouds of cold air billow from his palm and the villain's eyes widen in alarm. A hard ball forms in the pit of Izuku's stomach.

"Todoroki-kun," he warns.

Todoroki ignores him and keeps his stony gaze on the villain. "On what basis do you think you can kill All Might?" He demands, "What is your plan?"

The villain seems to be frozen, both with fear and ice. The air is thick with tension. When he takes too long to respond, the frost in Todoroki's hand increases.

Izuku can't take it anymore. "Todoroki-kun!" He barks, grabbing the boy's shoulder, "You'll suffocate him!"

Todoroki doesn't take his eyes off the villain. "Not if he tells me what I want to know." His finger twitches. The villain notices and his eyes well up with fearful tears.

"Todoroki-kun," Izuku warns again, his breath catching in his throat. He doesn't like this. He doesn't like this… this torture tactic. Villain or not, Izuku can't stand by and watch a man freeze to death- or worse, watch his classmate hurt someone for information. Just the thought makes him feel nauseous.

Thankfully, the villain caves a few moments later and starts sputtering, "A-Alright, alright, I'll talk! I-I don't know much, but- but they've got a guy who can take him down. All Might, I mean! They've got someone who can fight him!"

As soon as he finishes talking, a loud boom suddenly echoes throughout the dome. Todoroki and Izuku glance up at the platform to see a large cloud of dust. Then, All Might steps out of the fog.

Izuku lets out a sigh of relief. "All Might…"

The number one hero is still far away, his form looking a lot smaller in the distance, but they are able to see him jump down into the plaza, no doubt going to help Aizawa fight that mass of villains they saw earlier.

Todoroki looks back at the frozen man and utters a simple, "Thanks," before knocking him out. He uses his left hand to unfreeze him and does the same with the rest of the frozen villains, leaving a bunch of unconscious but ice-free adults on the ground.

Izuku must still have a displeased expression on his face because Todoroki takes one look at him and says, "I wasn't actually going to kill him. Relax."

He starts walking downhill again, his pace fast, but Izuku hesitates. "It was unnecessary force…" he mumbles under his breath. Todoroki's supposed to be a hero-in-training, and heroes don't act like… that. So cold and uncaring of the pain he was causing. Seeing anyone get hurt triggers an instinct in Izuku to heal, and his gaze trails to the unconscious villains.

Todoroki glances over his shoulder impatiently. When he realizes where he's looking, he says sharply, "Don't waste your energy on them."

"I wasn't going to-" Izuku suddenly feels the ground beneath him become slippery as ice forms under his feet. His arms flail as he slides down to Todoroki, who catches him before he can go any further.

"Having a soft heart won't benefit you when it comes to villains," he says, "I got the information we needed. Now let's go."

Before Izuku can say anything in response, Todoroki shifts to hold him with his left arm and turns the ground to ice again, creating a makeshift ice slide to take them downhill faster. He keeps his eye out for any other attacking villains, but it's clear that those were the last of them.

Unfortunately, being pressed against Todoroki's left side means being pressed against the layer of ice he has covering himself. That, mixed with the wind whipping at them from their quick descent, has Izuku shivering uncomfortably.

"Hey, Todoroki-kun?" He asks over the wind, "Now's probably not a great time to ask, but why don't you ever use your fire?"

Todoroki doesn't respond and when Izuku glances at him, he sees that the boy's jaw is clenched. "You're right," he grunts, barely audible, "Now's not a great time to ask."

Izuku wrinkles his nose. "Hey, you asked about All Might!"

"And you didn't answer." The slope evens out and Todoroki returns them to normal ground, pulling away from him. "Come on."

Pushing aside his annoyance, Izuku dashes after Todoroki as they race towards the exit. A loud boom and a cloud of dust erupts from the plaza, the sound rattling Izuku's bones. His heart leaps to his throat. All Might must be fighting someone, and if what that villain said was true…

He runs faster, passing Todoroki as he races over to where the dust is slowly clearing.

"Hey- Hey, wait!"

Ice forms underneath his feet, causing him to slip and fall backwards. Todoroki catches him, but keeps a firm grip on his arm to stop him from moving.

"You don't know what you're running into," he snaps, pulling him back.

Izuku's gaze slips past him and he gasps. Todoroki turns to look as well. The cloud of dust in the plaza dissipates, revealing All Might in a precarious situation as he grapples with a large, hulking beast. The warp villain, along with another man with strange hands covering his body, look on from a few feet away. The beast's torso is stuck in one of the warp villain's portals, but his head and arms come out from the ground underneath All Might, who is bent over backwards. Izuku flinches at the sight of the beast's fingers digging into All Might's side. Blood starts soaking his shirt and he knows the beast must be hitting his weak spot.

Nearby, Aizawa is still fighting against the mass of villains. Despite their numbers being steadily depleted, they refuse to let the teacher get past them.

The blue-haired man with the strange hands lets out an eerie laugh, "Were you trying to keep him from moving by sticking him deep in the concrete? You won't be able to stop him like that." Somehow, his voice sounds both chastising and amused at the same time. "Nomu is as strong as you are. This is good, Kurogiri. It's an unexpected opportunity." He glances at the warp villain beside him, who must be Kurogiri.

The beast- the Nomu- claws at All Might's side even harder, causing the hero to release his grip and try to pry the brutish hands off of him. Kurogiri eyes the number one hero.

"I do not want blood and guts flowing within me," he rumbles, "but I would be happy to take in someone as great as you." As he talks, the Nomu starts dragging All Might into the portal. "You're too fast to see with the human eye. Restraining you was Nomu's job. And then, when your body is halfway in…"

Izuku gasps as the portal starts closing around All Might's arms and torso. He lunges forward, but Todoroki pulls him back with a hard yank.

"Todoroki-kun!" He cries out, but the boy fixes him with a hard glance.

"Stay here."

"But-"

"Don't make me freeze your feet to the ground."

Letting out a frustrated groan, Izuku looks back at All Might, who's slowly being cut by Kurogiri's portal. His heart skips a beat. "Go!"

Todoroki whirls around and dashes over to the villains. Once he's close enough, he stops and stomps his right foot on the ground, causing ice to race across the ground and freeze the Nomu, stopping right before it reaches All Might. Then, he sends a jagged chunk of ice to Kurogiri, who narrowly dodges but the distraction causes him to loosen his portal slightly.

Then, all of the sudden, the portal disappears completely. All Might and the Nomu are forced out and onto the ground, the former freeing himself from the latter's grip and jumping to stand beside Todoroki.

"All Might!"

Aizawa's voice reaches Izuku's ears. His homeroom teacher rushes over to the scene, keeping his eyes on Kurogiri as he wraps his capture weapon around the villain and slams him down. He pounces on top of him and pins him to the ground, panting heavily as his body shakes with exhaustion from fighting the mass of villains. No doubt his eyes must be burning, but nevertheless he keeps his gaze locked on Kurogiri and avoids looking at All Might or Todoroki.

The boss villain makes a noise of fascination. "You're so cool, Eraserhead. So, so cool…"

"All Might," Aizawa grunts again. The question of 'Are you okay?' is silent.

Izuku is still standing a bit away, but he's close enough to see All Might's injuries. Kurogiri's portal created a large cut shaped like a ring around the hero's chest and biceps, and his left side is bleeding from where the Nomu dug into his weak spot.

Izuku swallows heavily. He desperately wants to help. He wants to run over there and heal All Might and make those villains stop but he can't. The familiar, horrible feeling of helplessness rises in his throat and makes his eyes prick with frustrated tears. It's just like that time with Furuya and Akamine, or when those villains tried to kidnap him, or even when Kacchan turned on him. He's useless, he can't do anything in a fight, he's not a hero, he's just-

"Nomu," the boss villain orders, "Save Kurogiri."

The partially frozen beast immediately rights himself into a standing position, completely ignoring how the ice breaks his limbs off in chunks. Izuku watches in horror as new ones grow back right before his eyes.

All Might is shocked too. "What? His quirk wasn't shock absorption?"

"I didn't say that was all he had!" The ringleader laughs, "This is his super-regeneration. Nomu has been modified to take you at one-hundred percent..."

Fear seizes his throat.

Crap, but All Might isn't at one-hundred percent! Do these villains somehow know of his injury?

In the blink of an eye, the Nomu darts over to attack Aizawa still pinning down Kurogiri. Before anyone can react, the beast punches and sends a giant shockwave across the facility. Something flies right towards Izuku and he dodges, squeezing his eyes shut against the dust and debris. The air slowly clears and he lifts his head, inhaling sharply when he sees that All Might is suddenly a lot closer to him than before.

The number one hero has been forced back into a nearby wall, apparently having taken the brunt of Nomu's punch instead of Aizawa. He's been knocked back towards where Izuku has been watching, now only a few meters away from the greenette.

All Might is panting heavily as he recovers from the blow. He coughs a couple of times and Izuku can see the blood that escapes his lips. His eyes widen.

This is his chance!

Without giving himself time to think twice, he dashes over to All Might and grabs onto his exposed forearm. As soon as their skin makes contact, his quirk automatically activates and rapidly pours energy into the hero. He's so desperate to help him that he completely forgets why he always avoided healing All Might in the first place.

His quirk instantly reacts to the numerous wounds he feels on the man, but thankfully the majority of his energy begins pouring into his immediate wounds first rather than scars or missing organs. All Might startles at his sudden appearance and quickly pushes him away a moment later, stopping his quirk before it can do much to heal his older injuries. That's fine, though. All he needed was a few seconds.

The wounds from Kurogiri's portal and the Nomu's grip stop bleeding, the skin visibly closed once more.

"Young Midoriya," All Might rasps, looking torn, "Thank you for healing me, but you need to get out of here right now-"

"Oi, oi, what the hell is this?" The boss villain suddenly growls. "Why'd you stop bleeding?" He almost sounds like he's whining.

Kurogiri's golden eyes narrow. "Shigaraki, look at the boy's costume."

Izuku can't see Shigaraki's face behind the hand mask, but he gets the feeling the villain's eyes are on him.

After a moment, the man makes a noise of intrigue. "Oh? Not a hero…" His stance suddenly freezes. "A healer."

Izuku gulps and All Might tenses up beside him. Shigaraki is speechless for a moment, then a low growl rises in his throat. "That's… that's not fair…" he rasps, "That's… This is fucking cheating!" His voice becomes enraged. "You're not supposed to have a healer! How the fuck did he heal you like that?! How did he heal-"

He cuts himself off abruptly. Kurogiri, having been saved by Nomu, moves beside Shigaraki and whispers something in his ear. The boss villain stiffens. Then…

"No…" He hisses, "No, no, no, NO!" His hands reach up and he starts furiously scratching at his neck, spitting and snarling with rage. "No- it's not supposed to be this way, it's not supposed to- you're supposed to be weak, he said you'd be-"

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri says, tone sharp.

The wild scratching stops, but instead Shigaraki whips his head towards Izuku. "YOU! You're a fucking cheat code, you- you- NOMU!"

As soon as he shrieks the name, both the beast and All Might react. Now that he's healed and energized, All Might is able to meet the Nomu halfway as the latter lunges for Izuku. They strike each other simultaneously and the impact causes another shockwave, knocking everyone off their feet. All Might punches the Nomu again, but the beast doesn't show any pain and punches back.

For a few moments, all anyone can do is stare at the two massive forces of power as they trade blows back and forth. All Might soon punches the Nomu hard enough to knock him into a nearby forest area and the fight continues on there. They can still feel the effects of the shockwaves that are created as All Might forces the Nomu back, but at least now they're able to stand.

"BRAT!"

Izuku's head whips around to see Shigaraki lunging towards him, hands outstretched. A flash of blond suddenly crashes into Izuku. Arms wrap around his torso and the next thing he knows he's flying off the ground, explosions ringing in his ears.

"Kacchan!"

At the same time, grey tendrils latch onto Shigaraki and yank him backwards, pulling him away from Izuku. Aizawa pounces on the villain and Kurogiri moves to intercept him, but Izuku can't see what happens after that.

Kacchan carries him over to where Todoroki and- surprisingly- Kirishima are waiting. "You idiot!" He snarls as he sets him down, "What were you thinking, getting into the middle of a fight?!"

"It's not his fault," Todoroki says, "That thing knocked All Might over to where Midoriya-kun was hiding. Although, rushing over to heal his wounds wasn't a good idea." He gives Izuku a look.

"What was I supposed to do?" Izuku snaps, "He was injured!"

Kacchan's eye twitches. "What you're supposed to do is-"

"Oi, talk about this later!" Kirishima barks, eyes locked on something else. "We've got company!"

Izuku follows his gaze to see that a few of the villains that Aizawa took down have regained consciousness and are running towards them. Todoroki immediately freezes three of them, but one has a quirk that lets her fly so she's able to dodge his ice. Kacchan uses his explosions to launch himself into the sky and lets out a battle cry as he attacks her.

Meanwhile, one of the villains that Todoroki froze aims his silver fingers at them. Izuku has just enough time to duck behind Kirishima before an onslaught of bullets are fired at them. Todoroki creates a wall of ice to protect himself while Kirishima activates his hardening quirk, protecting both himself and Izuku.

A pained grunt catches the greenette's attention and he looks over. Aizawa isn't faring too well against both Kurogiri and Shigaraki. The man obviously can't risk letting Kurogiri out of his sight or else he might warp him-or them- away, and that is something that Shigaraki is clearly trying to take advantage of. He crumbles the hero's scarf beneath his fingers when Aizawa tries to bind him and makes to dart behind him and the man instinctively turns to intercept, to protect himself- only to have his vision blocked by the purple fog that descends over his face to cover his eyes. He curses and immediately lashes out blindly to strike Kurogiri, but it's too late.

Shigaraki grins beneath his mask, and Izuku watches in horror as the villain grabs his teacher's back with both hands.

Aizawa screams.

Chapter 12

A loud BOOM catches everyone's attention, including the villains. They all look up to see the Nomu go flying into the air, breaking through the glass windows of the dome and causing a massive vibration that shakes the earth. The beast disappears, but a moment later All Might is leaping towards them.

In the blink of an eye, he takes out the villains that are attacking Kacchan, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Izuku before going to rescue Aizawa. Kurogiri and Shigaraki barely have time to react before the number one hero knocks them back with an air pressure strike from his fist while he grabs Aizawa. He immediately brings the injured man over to Izuku and then steadfastly plants himself between them and the two villains.

Izuku can barely hear what All Might says then. He doesn't have time to worry about the hero's condition after his fight with the Nomu. All he can focus on is Aizawa and the sickening amount of blood that is pouring out of his back. He's almost glad that the man is unconscious, having passed out either from pain or just pure exhaustion from having fought so hard for so long.

He just barely manages to remind himself to analyze Aizawa's wound instead of automatically healing it as he drops to his knees beside him. The skin on most of his back is completely gone, leaving a mess of raw, exposed flesh and muscle. Thankfully, thankfully, despite the heavy bleeding, it doesn't appear to be very deep. Shigaraki's disintegration- or whatever his quirk was- doesn't seem to have had enough time to reach down to bone, so there's probably no spinal damage- thank God, Izuku wouldn't know what to do if that happened. It's still a horrendously disgusting wound to look at, though, so Izuku swallows down some bile that threatens to crawl up his throat and gently places his hands on Aizawa's bloodied back. He doesn't even think twice about the fact that he's not allowed to heal pros without Recovery Girl's supervision- he's just glad he doesn't have to spend time cutting away Aizawa's clothes like he did with Uraraka. His teacher's shirt has been disintegrated along with his skin, so it doesn't get in the way of his quirk activating.

Izuku feels himself weaken even more as his energy flows into Aizawa's body. Fighting and healing All Might's injuries has already taken a decent chunk of his stamina, and now as Aizawa's skin and muscle regrows underneath his palms, he finds himself struggling to stay upright. It's a good thing he's kneeling, he'd probably collapse if he was standing.

Aizawa's healing doesn't take more than fifteen seconds, but he still doesn't regain consciousness. Before Izuku can even begin to wonder why, Shigaraki's voice catches his attention.

"He used a cheat." Izuku looks up and feels his breath catch in his throat. The villain is staring at him, blood-red eyes peeking out from between deceased fingers making him feel pinned to the spot. A scratchy voice rasps, "He used a cheat. Hey, that's not fair…"

"What's wrong?" All Might taunts, "You're not coming?" Izuku is sure that the only reason All Might isn't going after them himself is because he doesn't want to get caught up in Kurogiri's quirk again.

Shigaraki startles at his words and takes a step back, looking at All Might. "He… he gave you a 1-Up! You… you were supposed to be weak…"

Izuku frowns. 1-Up? Cheat? He's talking like this is all just one of those video games he plays with Kacchan!

Shigaraki starts wildly clawing at his own throat again. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" He snarls, "We've been completely overwhelmed! I can't believe he did that to my Nomu!"

All Might quickly gets tired of his chattering. "Come now, villains. I'm sure we'd all like this to end as soon as possible. Surrender and come quietly, or I'll make you."

"I hate you!" Shigaraki spits, "I hate you! You don't play fair, hero!" 

"Shigaraki..." Kurogiri warns, but before he can say anything else, he suddenly shields Shigaraki from a bullet flying their way.

Izuku looks up to see that the rest of UA's teachers have arrived and are standing on the platform. He thinks he sees Principal Nedzu too, but he can't be sure since they're so far away. Despite the distance, he's able to hear Present Mic's scream loud and clear as the Voice Hero takes care of the remaining villains in the plaza.

"Damn, they're here already?" Shigaraki groans and then sighs, clearly disgruntled, "It's game over now. Shall we go home and try again later, Kurogiri?"

"I won't let you escape!" All Might says, tensing up.

Instead of looking at the pro hero, or even his ally, Kurogiri turns to Izuku. His golden eyes narrow. Izuku shrinks under his unnerving gaze.

"Actually, Shigaraki-" Kurogiri starts to say, only to be interrupted by a flurry of Snipe's bullets flying towards them. Shigaraki shrieks as he gets hit a couple of times before Kurogiri swirls around him. They both disappear into a portal a moment later.

"Hey!" All Might lunges towards them, but it's too late. His hand swipes on empty air.

There's a beat.

Then, Kirishima lets out a sigh of relief, "They're gone."

Beneath his palms, Izuku feels Aizawa stir slightly. He carefully rolls his teacher onto his newly-healed back, but he doesn't regain consciousness.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Kirishima asks, "You healed him."

"I don't know," Izuku replies, moving to check Aizawa's vitals. His breathing is rapid and shallow and when Izuku feels his unusually pale skin, it's cold and clammy. His hand moves to the man's neck, feeling for his carotid artery. Aizawa's pulse throbs rapidly under his fingers.

"I think it's from blood loss," Izuku says, a bit uncertainly, "I… I guess my quirk can't do anything to help that. His heart's going into overdrive trying to replace what he lost."

"Is he going to be okay?" All Might asks and Izuku glances up at him.

"Um…" He hesitates, eyeing the puddle of blood underneath Aizawa. "I'm not really an expert on blood loss, but I don't think he lost a dangerous amount. He probably just passed out because it was so sudden. And he also fought for a really long time so he's probably exhausted anyways."

"So are you," Kacchan grunts, grabbing under his armpits and lifting him up. Izuku tries to gather his feet underneath him, but his legs are too wobbly to hold him up. Kacchan wraps Izuku's arm over his shoulder and takes most of his weight. "Let's get these guys back to the bus," he says roughly.

"Shouta-kun!"

They look up to see Present Mic running over to them with Vlad King right behind him. His eyes widen when they land on Aizawa's unconscious form and All Might hastily lifts a hand to reassure him.

"Don't worry," he says, "He's alright."

"That's a lot of blood!" Present Mic protests, kneeling in front of Aizawa.

"Young Midoriya healed him," All Might explains, stooping to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "He's unconscious from blood loss, though. Did anyone call an ambulance?"

Vlad King nods. "And the police. They're working with us to gather up the remaining villains."

"Good." All Might picks up Aizawa and then turns to Kacchan. "Let me take Young Midoriya. I can get him out of here faster."

Kacchan hesitates, but then Kirishima elbows him and he reluctantly lets All Might gather Izuku into his arms alongside Aizawa. He ends up carrying each of them in one arm, with Aizawa's long legs falling slightly over Izuku's, and he's careful not to jostle them as he leaps into the sky.

"Once again, Young Midoriya," All Might says in a low voice, "I must both thank and scold you for running to me like that in the middle of battle."

Izuku makes a disgruntled noise, leaning his head against the hero's chest tiredly. "I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I felt so helpless…"

All Might lands on the platform with a sigh, "I understand it must be frustrating…" He glances at the various pro heroes and police officers that pass by as he briskly walks towards the exit. "Well, at least now we know of one way to stop you from overusing your quirk."

Izuku blinks, trying to focus his drowsy mind. He recalls his quirk stopped once All Might pushed him away, breaking their skin contact. So, while he can't physically move or stop himself once his quirk is activated, it seems that at least others are capable of doing it.

He makes a mental note to mention this discovery to Recovery Girl later.

All Might drops Aizawa off at an ambulance and the paramedics quickly start fussing over him, putting an IV into his arm and giving him fluids. One doctor asks about Izuku, but All Might explains that he's just tired from using his quirk.

"Is Recovery Girl-san here yet?" He asks.

"She just left with one of the other ambulances a few minutes ago," the doctor replies, already getting back into her own ambulance to take Aizawa away, "She's helping treat Thirteen."

Once they're gone, Izuku frowns at All Might. "Is Thirteen okay?"

All Might grimaces. "I'm afraid they got attacked by that warp villain. I arrived just as Young Iida was escaping and I had him continue on to the school. When I got inside, a few of your classmates had already driven the villain away and I saw Thirteen injured."

Despite his fatigue, the thought of one of his teachers being seriously hurt has Izuku squirming in All Might's grasp. The hero tightens his hold on him. "And no, you will not in any way be using your quirk on them or anyone else today. You're going to trust in your mentor's capability and you're going to rest." His tone is firm and leaves no room for argument.

Izuku pouts and hides his face in the man's shirt. "Bossy sensei," he grumbles. All Might lets out a huff of laughter.

"All Might!" A plain-looking man approaches them with a smile. His eyes land on Izuku and he tilts his head questioningly.

"This is Midoriya Izuku," All Might says, "Young Midoriya, this is my friend Tsukauchi Naomasa."

Tsukauchi's eyes twinkle as he gazes at Izuku with curiosity. "The famous Midoriya-kun. I must say, I've been dying to meet you after hearing everything that this one has said about you. Thank you for everything you've done."

His gratitude is so genuine and sincere that Izuku glances at All Might in confusion. He feels like he's missing something here.

The number one hero's brow twitches and he says, "He knows."

Oh.

Tsukauchi just keeps smiling at him. It's almost a bit creepy, but Izuku shyly smiles back.

"I was going to ask if you were okay after the fight," he says to All Might, not taking his eyes off of Izuku, "But I guess there's no need."

All Might nods, frowning a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine… but that Nomu was terribly strong. If I were as weak as I was last year, I might not have been able to defeat him." He seems troubled by the thought.

Tsukauchi asks if he can fill out a report and All Might promises to do so after Izuku is taken care of. His classmates are outside the bus being counted by a cat-faced police officer, but they wave at Izuku as All Might brings him into the bus.

"Rest well, young man," he says, gently setting him down on one of the seats, "Your friends will be with you soon."

"Do you think I'll be able to see Recovery Girl-san?" Izuku asks, then fails to stifle a yawn.

"Probably not, but I'm sure she'll text you. I will too, once this is all dealt with." All Might ruffles his hair gently and Izuku lets out a tired grumble when his ponytail gets messed up. As All Might turns away, he settles into his seat, hoping to nap on the way back to school. Something tugs at the edge of his mind, however, and he finds himself calling out to the hero before he steps off the bus.

"All Might?"

"Hm?" The blond glances back at him.

Izuku blearily blinks and asks in a tired voice, "Why did that man call me a cheat code? He talked like we were in a video game…"

Something flashes in All Might's eyes. "I don't know… We'll talk more once you feel better."

With that said, he leaves.

The rest of the day passes by in a blur. His classmates worry about him when they get onto the bus, but soon turn to chatting about their own experiences during the attack. Izuku idly listens to their stories as he falls asleep against Kacchan's shoulder.

When they get back to school, the blond ends up carrying him the rest of the way home. Since they don't have to stay late for Recovery Girl's lesson, they're joined by Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero, all of whom insist on helping the duo to the train station- although they really just end up making fun of the way Kacchan gives Izuku a piggyback ride.

The greenette is more than happy to let his friend deal with trying to soothe his mother's fretting when they get home. He naps on the couch while Kacchan explains to Inko- and later Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru when Inko invites them over- what happened at USJ. He wakes up long enough to eat dinner and then falls asleep again.

He sleeps through most of the next day too, waking up at 1PM and panicking when he realizes he's late for school, only for Inko to tell him that UA is closed today. After that mini-heart attack, Kacchan comes over to hang out with him, although he's still too tired to do much aside from cuddle with Sushi on the couch and play video games. He tries reading more of the book Recovery Girl gave him, but Kacchan yanks it out of his hands and threatens to burn it because apparently 'reading doesn't count as resting if it's for school'.

Both All Might and Recovery Girl text him repeatedly to see how he's doing, the latter having a hard time believing that he's actually resting until Kacchan takes his phone and sends her a selfie of him pinning Izuku to the couch with one hand. The next picture she gets is a blurred image of Sushi attacking Kacchan, taken by Izuku of course.

On a whim, he also decides to send it to All Might, just for laughs.

(Toshinori 3:23PM)-That cat is going to become the next number one hero 

(Midoriya 3:24PM)-XD 

When he goes back to school the next day, he asks Recovery Girl how Thirteen is doing.

"Don't worry about them. They're going to make a full recovery," she says, though she seems a bit tired.

"That's good…"

There's a pause as his mentor looks at him with an expression he can't quite decipher. Then, she sighs.

"I'm sorry you all had to go through what you did," she says, "I know it must have been very scary for you."

Izuku opens his mouth to reassure her, then closes it. He knows the older woman well enough by now to know that brushing this off won't help.

"It was scary," he admits, "I felt helpless. I thought… I mean, after what happened when I was ten… I've spent so long learning how to fight and I thought- I don't know, I just thought I was stronger than…" He struggles to find his words. "I just- I could barely defend myself. If it hadn't been for Todoroki-kun…" He trails off with a grimace.

Recovery Girl gives him a pitying look. "You're always going to be at a disadvantage in battle. This world isn't fair, and some people are just born to be more vulnerable than others. But, if it makes you feel better, I think you did everything right." Izuku looks up in surprise. "Ignoring the fact that you're not supposed to heal pro heroes-" She gives him a stern look and he winces apologetically before she continues, "Toshinori-kun told me how you ran to him at the most opportune moment, taking advantage of his distance from the villains to safely heal him as quickly as you could. He also told me how he was able to stop you from going overboard with your quirk, which is something we can look into more later."

Izuku looks down at his feet, processing her words.

"You did good, Midoriya-kun," she says resolutely, "As did the rest of your classmates. You've all gotten more combat experience within the first two weeks of your high school career than most second and third years do. And UA will be making drastic improvements to their security from here on out to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again."

Izuku nods, then recalls something. "Oh, um, during USJ… Aizawa-sensei mentioned something about the villains being the ones behind the trespassing last week?" It comes out sounding like a question rather than a statement.

Recovery Girl suddenly looks very guilty.

"Yes… I should have told you- I wanted to tell you, but Nedzu-san didn't want to cause any unnecessary panic…"

He tilts his head. "You looked kind of worried when you came back from… er…" He actually still hasn't found out where Recovery Girl disappeared off to last week after the stampede. "When you were late to our lesson… All Might said you were with Nedzu-san?"

"After the press was dealt with, Hound Dog was on patrol and discovered that one of UA's southern barriers had been destroyed," she explains, "We didn't know who was the cause, so obviously we were very concerned. I suppose now that it was some sort of declaration of war from this 'League of Villains'." She sighs again. "Well, anyway, that's why I was late. And why I wanted you to stay close to your friend on your way home. He seems like a good boy."

Despite the heavy mood, Izuku snorts.

Recovery Girl suddenly claps her hands, startling him. "Anyway, I don't want you to spend so much time worrying about this!" She declares, "We will leave this to the heroes. Now, Aizawa-kun will be telling you all some very important information in class today, so I want you to focus on that. Do you have any questions?"

Yes, he has a lot of questions. He's not ready to just push this out of his mind and forget about it. He wants to know who these villains are and how they knew All Might was weak and why they looked at him like that- 

But the warning bell rings and Recovery Girl sends him off to homeroom before he can say anything. And so he reluctantly does what she wants and tries his best to push his questions to the back of his mind.

He walks into class with Kacchan to find his classmates talking about the incident.

"Did you watch the news last night?" Kirishima asks, "They were covering the USJ attack."

"Yeah, all the channels made a big deal out of it," Kaminari says, sounding just a tad bit smug.

"Can you blame them?" Jirou feigns nonchalance. "The hero course that keeps pumping out pro heroes was attacked."

Sero notices Izuku's entrance and perks up. "Hey, Midoriya-kun! You feeling better?"

"Yeah, much better." Izuku smiles and goes to take his seat behind Kacchan.

As his classmates casually talk about the attack, he's suddenly struck by the oddness of it all. They all were attacked by villains and nearly died just a couple of days ago, and now they're chatting about it as if it's just a mildly interesting news story they heard. As if it happened to someone else and not them. Izuku doesn't understand how they can get over it so quickly. It was so scary!

Then again, once they're pros they're going to have to deal with villain attacks all the time.

Recovery Girl said 'leave this to the heroes' as if it has nothing to do with the two of them. As if it's not their place, as healers, to concern themselves with events like this. And… Izuku supposes that she's right. The USJ attack was terrifying, but it's unlikely that he'll have to deal with something like that again. For the first time in a while, he finds himself grateful that he's able to become a healer rather than a hero. The world of villains that the pros face everyday is not something that he was prepared for. He'd much rather concern himself with injured heroes rather than villains. And yeah, feeling helpless in the battlefield was awful, but at the end of the day the heroes came out on top! They didn't need him. He shouldn't have felt helpless because he shouldn't have worried about them in the first place. He's lucky he wasn't taken hostage at any point, really. He's not a hero, he doesn't belong on the battlefield, he-

Kacchan's words snarl in his mind, "You've got no business getting involved with fights! You're gonna be a healer, not a hero- so quit acting like you're anything more than a guy with a healing quirk!" 

Izuku frowns. A bitter feeling settles in the pit of his stomach.

"Morning."

Everyone jumps when the door slides open with a bang and Aizawa walks in.

"Sensei!" The class exclaims.

Iida's hand shoots into the air. "So you are alright, Aizawa-sensei?!"

The teacher raises an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Kirishima-kun said that you passed out from blood loss," Asui ribbits, "Even though Midoriya-chan healed you."

Izuku winces and curses himself for not remembering to mention that to Recovery Girl. He needs to learn a lot more about blood loss now that he knows his quirk doesn't do anything to help it.

Aizawa sniffs. "I'm fine. They gave me fluids and I went home later that day." His eyes slide over to Izuku. "Thanks, by the way," he grunts.

Izuku tries not to blush as he beams at the praise from the hero. He's pretty sure his eyes sparkle regardless, if the way Aizawa squints and looks away is anything to go by.

"We have a lot to discuss before your morning classes start, so pay attention," he says, "The UA Sports Festival is drawing near."

Kirishima and a few others immediately cheer, but Jirou and Ojiro express their concerns about another possible villain attack. Aizawa reassures them that security will be increased significantly and that the UA Sports Festival will be a good chance for young heroes such as themselves to get noticed and possibly scouted. He stresses the importance of this opportunity and to begin preparing for it.

"One chance a year- a total of just three chances. No aspiring heroes can afford to miss this event. If you understand that, then don't slack off on your preparations!"

"Yes, sir!"

Throughout the rest of their morning classes, the Sports Festival is all that's on anyone's minds. Izuku suddenly finds it easy to forget about the villains with such a big event to look forward to.

When the lunch bell rings, many students still linger in the room, chatting about the upcoming festival.

"Even though all that stuff happened, I'm getting really excited!" Kirishima grins, pumping his arms enthusiastically.

Sero joins him. "If we put on a good show and stand out, we'll have taken the first step to becoming pros!" He nudges the redhead with his elbow.

Izuku smiles as he idly puts his books back into his backpack, listening as his classmates express their excitement.

"Ojiro-kun, I'm getting kind of nervous now!" Hagakure's shrill voice catches his attention. "I need to stand out at the Sports Festival!" Ojiro tries to be supportive, but Izuku can easily tell what he's thinking. No doubt it would be difficult for Hagakure to get noticed with a quirk like hers.

"You're lucky, Shoji-kun," Kaminari says to the multi-limbed teen, "Your brawn stands out on its own."

Jirou giggles and teases Kaminari, claiming that he'll stand out when he short-circuits his brain. Izuku's never seen the effect himself, but apparently it happened during the USJ attack. He frowns in consideration. Obviously he won't be participating in the Sports Festival, but maybe he can help his classmates prepare for it?

Kacchan stands up from his desk and starts stalking over to the door, ignoring his classmates in favor of getting lunch. Izuku makes to follow him, but Ashido's voice calls out to him.

"Hey, Midori-kun!" She hops up to him. "So what does this whole Sports Festival thing mean for you?" Her question catches the attention of their other classmates.

"Oh yeah," Sero says, "You're not going to be participating, right?"

Izukiu shakes his head. "Definitely not. Recovery Girl-san will probably need all the help she can get. I bet there's going to be a lot of injuries." He perks up. "This will be a good opportunity for me to practice training my quirk!"

Kaminari snickers, "You're just excited that people are going to get injured!"

Izuku flushes and sticks his tongue out at him in response. Kaminari cackles.

"But still," Yaoyorozu says, turning the attention to her, "Even though you're looking to be a healer, your future career involves joining hero agencies, doesn't it? How will you get scouted?"

Izuku thinks for a moment before shrugging cluelessly. "I really don't know. I'm gonna talk to Recovery Girl-san about all this stuff after school. But she has said that healers are always in high demand, so I bet that whole process is going to be a bit different for me."

Kaminari grins and leans back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head while feigning nonchalance. "Don't worry, Midoriya-kun," he says smoothly, "Once I've got my own hero agency I'll be sure to hire you as my healer."

"What the fuck?" Kacchan turns away from the door and glares at the electric boy. "He's not fucking joining your shitty agency," he snarls, "He's gonna be my healer."

Izuku opens his mouth, but before he can speak Ashido pouts, "Says who?"

"Says me!" Kacchan snaps, "I already called dibs, like, ten years ago!"

Jirou wrinkles her nose. "What the heck? Why do you get dibs?"

"Yeah, you can't hog Midoriya-kun all to yourself!" Kirishima buts in.

"Um, guys-" Izuku says, but nobody is paying attention to him anymore. To his horror, even his more logical classmates are starting to join in.

Yaoyorozu makes a surprisingly snide comment about Kacchan making decisions for Izuku and Jirou backs her up, asking why Kacchan thinks he deserves Izuku any more than they do. Uraraka asks why he would want a healer if he claims he's so strong and even Tokoyami adds his own two cents to the argument.

Izuku loses all hope for salvation when Iida of all people joins the quarrel, claiming that it's selfish to confine a healer to one agency when they're needed by so many. The clock ticks by with Izuku just standing there watching the dispute, emotions swirling between flustered that they're arguing over him and irritated that he's being kept from his lunch.

An elbow suddenly knocks into his. He glances over his shoulder and, to his surprise, sees Todoroki gazing at him with his usual aloof expression.

"Let's go get food," he says, sounding more like a statement rather than a request.

Izuku glances back at his arguing classmates before nodding wordlessly at Todoroki. He's not even going to bother asking why the bi-colored boy wants them to eat lunch together- it's odd, they've certainly never eaten lunch together before- but right now he just wants to escape from his awkward situation.

They make it all the way to the door before they're spotted.

"Oh no you don't, you candy-cane bitch!"

Izuku really needs to tell Kacchan to stop yanking him around- it's getting very annoying. He lets himself get dragged backwards by his collar and sighs when the blond gets all up in Todoroki's face.

"Thought you could sneak away with him, huh?" He snarls. Todoroki simply narrows his eyes in response.

A hand falls on Izuku's shoulder and Kirishima says, "Hey, Midoriya-kun, you've really gotta settle this for us."

"Yeah, who's agency are you going to choose?" Ashido asks. Behind her, Kaminari points to himself and silently mouths 'mine'.

With everyone's gazes on him, Izuku gets steadily more and more flustered. "Ah… well, I don't know…" His mind scrambles to find the right thing to say. Of course he's not going to commit to anyone right now, but he doesn't want to piss off Kacchan by outright denying him. He decides to settle on something light and teasing.

"I-I guess I'll just go with whoever charms me the most!" He laughs nervously and scratches the back of his head, completely oblivious to the sudden competitive tension in the air as his classmates glare at each other. "Anyway, let's go to lunch!"

As soon as he steps out of the door, a hulking flash of blond intercepts him.

"Young Midoriya is here!"

All Might enthusiastically points at him as he beams. Izuku jumps.

"A-All Might? What's the matter?"

"Lunch!" The number one hero exclaims, holding up a wrapped-up bento box. "Wanna eat togeth-"

"Yes!" Izuku interrupts, seeing his chance for escape. Ignoring the confused murmurs behind him, he darts towards All Might and immediately starts ushering him away. "Yes, yes, I would love to have lunch with you! Let's go right now!"

He practically runs away from class 1-A, All Might following with a bewildered smile on his face. When they get to the teachers' lounge, he collapses onto the couch with a loud sigh.

"Is… everything alright, Young Midoriya?" All Might asks, looking as if he doesn't know whether to be concerned or amused.

Izuku waves him off. "Yeah, I'm fine. You just saved me from an incredibly awkward situation though, so thanks."

"Oh!" Now All Might doesn't hide his amusement. Even after he shrinks into his normal form, his eyes twinkle with mirth as he sits down on the couch across from him. "I'd ask about it, but I'm afraid of what would happen if your face turned any redder."

Izuku rubs his heated cheeks and groans. All Might chuckles. "Anyway, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Hm?" Izuku blinks, surprised. "Oh! I'm fine."

It comes out like a reflexive response, his tone way too light and dismissive to show any real consideration behind his answer.

All Might tilts his head. "Did Aizawa-kun talk about the Sports Festival?"

"Oh, yeah. Sounds like fun," Izuku says. He thinks about saying more, but he gets the feeling that the Sports Festival isn't exactly the topic the man wants to talk about.

There's a beat, then All Might shifts in his seat. "I'm sorry, I would have met with you later, but you have your lesson with Chiyo-san and I don't want to take you away from that." He clears his throat. "Anyway, I just thought maybe we should talk about USJ…"

Izuku perks up. All Might notices and says, "I can't tell you much because it's still an ongoing investigation, but I just thought… if you had any questions, or something you wanted to discuss…"

"Yes!" Izuku straightens up. "Yes, oh my God, I have so many questions! Recovery Girl-san said not to worry about it and I've been trying to just focus on the Sports Festival but-" He rambles rapidly and the blond raises his hands.

"Easy, easy, kid," he says and Izuku forces himself to take a breath. Remembers why his mind has been so plagued for the past couple of days.

"No- it's not supposed to be this way, it's not supposed to- you're supposed to be weak, he said you'd be-" 

"All Might." He purses his lips, trying to hide his worry. "They knew you were injured."

All Might sighs and nods solemnly. "It seems so."

Izuku opens his mouth, but he doesn't know what to say. All Might continues, "There's a lot of things we don't know about this 'League of Villains'- how they knew about my injury being one of those things. We don't know how much information they're privy to, however I suspect it is very minimal, considering how surprised Shigaraki was when he saw you."

"Huh?" Izuku frowns, confused.

All Might clasps his hands together. "If I had been in the same state as I was in when I first met you, I highly doubt I would have been able to defeat Nomu." Izuku can't help but flinch. Even though he was heavily injured, All Might was still extremely strong back then. Strong enough not only to survive with a missing lung and stomach, but also to keep being the Symbol of Peace for years after that devastating fight. If he really believes that he would have lost to Nomu… then that beast must be terrifyingly powerful.

Not to mention the multiple quirks…

"I assume that those villains must've somehow created Nomu to be able to withstand the strength that I had back then," All Might says, "They knew I was injured and thought that they could defeat me while I was weakened. But they didn't expect you." 

Izuku is still a bit confused. It must show on his face, because the man says, "I've been thinking about why Shigaraki called you a 'cheat code'. There was something else he said about you, but I can't quite recall the term…"

"1-Up," the boy says, then explains, "He said I gave you a 1-Up. Er, in video games that's an extra life…"

All Might brightens and nods emphatically. "And that's just what you did! You basically gave me an extra life. Young Midoriya, you must understand…" He leans forward and looks at him very seriously. "You have done what countless other healers have failed to do. You've given me my health and my power back. And those villains weren't expecting that. They weren't expecting you."

Izuku nods slowly, processing his words. "So… that means…"

"That means that we have the advantage." All Might leans back, looking satisfied. "Their information was dated and flawed. I doubt that they'll try an attack like that anytime soon, now that they've realized how grievous of a mistake they've made. It was a bold attack that normal people wouldn't carry out even if they had thought about it, anyway. They may have escaped, but their ringleader is injured and Nomu has been captured. I don't think they'll be causing trouble anytime soon."

Izuku smiles, feeling a bit of pressure lift off his chest. All Might smiles back. "Does that make you feel better?"

"Yes," Izuku breathes out a sigh of relief and the man laughs.

"Good," he says, "I thought you'd be worried, so I figured the least I could do is help ease your anxiety."

Izuku looks down at his hands with a faint blush. He's confided in All Might about many things over the past year, one of which being his tendency to occasionally panic or worry over little things. Still, it's strange to be sitting here talking about it in real life, rather than over text.

"Oh!" All Might suddenly says, reaching over to hand him the bento box, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep you from your lunch. Here, I asked Lunch Rush to make this for you."

Izuku takes it gratefully and starts opening it. "What about your lunch, All Might?"

The blond waves him off. "Don't worry, I'll eat later." Izuku gives him a firm look. "I will! I promise! You know nothing can keep me away from food now that I have a stomach!" He grins and Izuku rolls his eyes.

They talk a little more about USJ while the freckled boy eats. All Might mentions how his healer costume can be both a blessing and a curse, since it'll identify him for heroes but could also put a target on his back for villains. Izuku shudders when he recalls how both Shigaraki and Kurogiri looked at him when they realized he was a healer. It was incredibly unnerving and he's tempted to bring it up, but he doesn't want the older man to think that he's being paranoid, or worse, cause him to worry too.

Naturally, the conversation moves to the Sports Festival and by the end of the lunch period Izuku is snorting with laughter as All Might recounts an outlandish tale from his own highschool days during the festival. He leaves reluctantly when the lunch bell rings and walks back to class with a smile on his face.

"Oi, Zuku," Kacchan says as they gather up their things at the end of the day, "What'd you and All Might talk about during lunch?"

Izuku sweatdrops and frantically tries to think of an answer, slowly putting his books in his backpack to give him more time. "Ahh…"

"Yeah, I'm curious too," Sero says, having heard Kacchan's question since he sits in the row across from them, "You guys seem familiar with each other."

"Oh, are you guys talking about All Might?" Uraraka calls out from across the room, catching even more attention. "He looked like a maiden when he asked you to lunch!" She giggles.

"Oh, yeah, Midoriya-kun, what was that about?" Kirishima asks curiously as he shoulders on his backpack.

Now with multiple sets of eyes on him, Izuku swallows down a wave of panic. Then, an idea pops in his head. Thankfully, as an apprentice healer he has certain privileges, so he simply says, "Sorry guys, you know I can't always talk about stuff like this."

"Aww, more secret stuff?" Ashido pouts as she comes over to lean on his desk, "Is it about tomorrow's hero class? You're so lucky you get to know things before us!"

Her comment causes murmurs of surprise and confusion to pass through the class.

"Hm? What is she talking about, Midoriya-kun?" Yaoyorozu asks, tilting her head.

Izuku waves his hands frantically. "It's nothing, really! It's just, you know, as Recovery Girl's apprentice, I'm just… Well, there's just some things that I need to be aware of beforehand, and sometimes those things involve our future classes. But it's not stuff I can talk about!"

Ashido puffs out her cheeks. "See? Secret stuff."

Izuku winces guiltily. "Sorry."

"Nonsense!" Iida shouts, making his way over with a firm chop of his hand, "It is merely part of your duty as a healer-in-training to be informed and prepared for all activities that require your abilities prior to their occurrence!"

Izuku blinks rapidly, trying to process what he said. He gets the feeling that Iida is trying to make him feel better. Eventually, he just gives him a smile. "Uh, right! Thanks!"

He starts making his way over to the door. Most of his classmates like to stick around for a few minutes after school to chat, but he has to get to the infirmary. "Sorry, guys, I've gotta go to Recovery Girl-san now. See you tomorrow!"

He opens the door to see a crowd of people standing right outside.

"Ehh?!" He yelps, stumbling backwards in surprise.

"Midoriya-kun? Wha- oh!" Uraraka's eyes widen. "What's going on?!"

The crowd doesn't do much aside from lots of muttering and staring, but they're completely blocking the door. All of class 1-A has looked over at this point and Iida walks to stand beside Izuku.

"What business do you have with class 1-A?" The blue-haired boy asks firmly.

A scoff comes from behind. "They're scouting the enemy, Four-Eyes," Kacchan grouses. Iida sputters at the rude nickname and Izuku sighs, giving him an apologetic smile. "We're the ones who made it out of the villain attack. They probably wanna check us out before the Sports Festival."

The blond grabs Izuku by the elbow and walks to the door, glaring at the sea of students who eye him warily. "There's no point in doing stuff like that. We've got places to be, so get the fuck out of my way, extras!" He barks.

"Kacchan!" Izuku squeaks, glancing nervously between him and the other students.

"Stop calling people 'extras' just because you don't know them!" Iida scolds.

"He-He didn't mean that!" Izuku apologizes to the crowd, moving in front of Kacchan.

"Sure hope not," a drawling voice says from within the mass, "Although, it kind of sounded like he did." The crowd parts as a boy makes his way through. "I came to see what the famous class 1-A was like, but you seem pretty arrogant. Are all students in the hero course like this?"

Izuku makes a strangled noise as he hears Kacchan growl behind him. "No, no, of course not! He's just- oh."

The student who spoke earlier finally weaves his way to the front of the crowd. He's a tall, lanky boy with messy purple hair and dark circles under his eyes. He steps right up to Izuku, who takes a step back and bumps into Kacchan.

"Seeing something like this makes me disillusioned," the boy says, sounding rather uninterested as he rubs the back of his neck. His gaze briefly roams over the class before settling on Izuku. His eyes narrow. "You're that new healer everyone's been talking about, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Izuku stammers. People have been talking about him? "Uh, I-I guess so. My name's Midoriya Izuku."

The boy eyes him up and down like he can't quite decide what to make of him. "And how'd someone like you get into the hero course, Midoriya Izuku?"

"Er, through recommendations," Izuku replies hesitantly. Something about this guy makes him nervous.

Hardly any emotions pass over the taller boy's face, but Izuku thinks he sees his nose wrinkle ever so slightly. "There are quite a few people who enrolled in General Studies or other courses because they didn't make it into the hero course," he says, tilting his head and looking down at him with hooded eyes, "Did you know that?"

Izuku gulps. "Uh, um, I-"

"The school has left those of us a chance," the boy continues, "Depending on the results of the Sports Festival, they'll consider our transfer into the hero course. And it seems they may also transfer people out." He arches a brow at Izuku when he says this. The greenette feels Kacchan tense behind him.

"Oi, oi, what the fuck are you going on about?" Kacchan snarls, pushing Izuku aside with his shoulder so he can sneer at the purple-haired boy's face.

He remains unfazed. "I came to say that even if you're in the hero course, if you get too carried away, I'll sweep your feet out from under you." His indigo eyes roam over their classmates. "I came with a declaration of war."

As he speaks, the tension in the air continues to rise until Izuku feels like he can barely breath. Alright, time for him to do something about this! What was that Yaoyorozu said earlier about him being a neutral party?

Izuku puts on a friendly smile and laughs nervously as he steps back between Kacchan and the other boy. "Wow, that's bold!" He says, putting a hand on each of their chests and pushing them apart. Kacchan begrudgingly takes a step back, still glaring over his head the entire time, but the other boy doesn't move and instead eyes Izuku's hand on his chest disdainfully until the healer hastily removes it.

"Ha ha, you hero-types really do get competitive, don't you?" He forces his grin not to waver. "But, ah, th-there's really no need for all this, you know? We- We have an extra spot afterall. A boy got expelled on the first day of class, so-"

"UA entrance exam has the highest number of applicants and the lowest acceptance rate," the boy interrupts, "With such a limited number of spots in the hero course, forgive me for wondering why they would give one to someone like you."

Izuku's breath hitches in surprise. Then, it's as if a dam breaks.

"Hey, what's your problem, man?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"What is wrong with you?!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

The last one comes from Kacchan, who Izuku hastily restrains from attacking. The purple-haired boy seems mildly surprised at the sudden appearance of pretty much every student in class 1-A glaring at him fiercely as they surround Izuku. Still, he's not deterred.

"I'm just saying, he'd be perfectly capable of healing people while in the General course. Why waste a spot in the hero course on someone who's not even going to become a hero?"

This time, Kacchan doesn't even have to say anything because the rest of class 1-A is one step ahead of him. The classroom suddenly erupts into a loud cacophony as Izuku's classmates furiously scold and berate the boy for what he said. Kirishima and Kaminari just barely hold themselves back from pouncing on him. Iida nearly whacks him in the head with his chopping motions as he lectures him on the importance of healers in the hero society. Yaoyorozu sounds like she's trying to explain why healers need to learn how to handle themselves when it comes to the dangers of the hero world, but Izuku can't quite hear exactly what she's saying since everyone's talking and yelling at the same time.

The purple-haired boy looks like he's starting to regret opening his mouth.

Ignoring the ringing in his ears from the loud noise, Izuku shouts at Kacchan, "I need to go to Recovery Girl-san!"

He nods and shoves his way into the crowd, shouldering the boy roughly as he passes. Izuku averts his eyes and hastily walks after his friend. It's only when they're in the nearly empty hallway next to the infirmary that he starts to relax.

"Man, what a jackass," Kacchan growls, glancing back at him, "You alright, Zuku?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Izuku replies softly. He scratches the back of his head. "I… I feel kind of bad now…"

Kacchan wrinkles his nose. "What the fuck for?"

"I mean, I guess he had a point… There are so few spots in the hero course and I'm just a healer-"

"Oh, shut up, idiot!" Kacchan interrupts him, "Don't let what that fucker said get to you! He's just whining 'cause he was too weak to make it into the hero course and decided that he had nothing better to do than pick on a healer! I mean, how fucking pathetic is that?"

The blond grabs him and gives him a rough noogie, one that he loudly protests, before shoving him towards the infirmary. "Forget about that asshole. Focus on what's ahead of you. And if he bothers you again, tell me and I'll kick his ass."

"Alright, alright." Izuku rolls his eyes but smiles as he steps up to the door. "See you later, Kacchan."

"See ya."

The beginning of his lesson with Recovery Girl goes about the same as usual. They go through the list of patients that she treated today and see to the occasional student that walks in. After about ten minutes, however, they start discussing the Sports Festival. He'll be helping her during it, of course- his heart warms when she expresses her immense relief to be having someone helping her out this year. UA really makes this poor woman work too hard.

However, since the first week of school is over, she brings up how they'll be training with his quirk. The Sports Festival is going to be a great opportunity, but that's still two weeks away. There's no reason he can't start training now, so Recovery Girl helps him come up with a list of goals that he wants to achieve with his quirk.

One: Be able to touch someone without automatic quirk activation. Two: Learn how to control the speed and output of his energy. Three: Be able to slow down or completely stop his quirk before an injury is fully healed, therefore helping him save as much energy as he can. Four: Figure out how to direct his energy to specific injuries so that they're healed first.

Four goals doesn't seem like a lot, but Izuku still finds himself intimidated. Multiple people have claimed his quirk to be one of the most powerful healing quirks ever, but that doesn't make it perfect. Here are his four greatest weaknesses laid out on a simple piece of paper and he's just supposed to… overcome them?

He realizes now that he's terribly inexperienced when it comes to his quirk. He always just let it do its thing- never even tried to control it, not really. His mind flashes back to the first time he used his quirk on All Might, how terrified he was when he realized he could do nothing to control or stop the energy that was rapidly draining out of him, trying to reach as many wounds as possible as fast as it could. He couldn't do anything to make his body move, he felt frozen. 

"Midoriya-kun?" Recovery Girl's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. His worry must show on his face, because she says, "This is… Of course, I don't expect you to accomplish all of this right away. I know you like to do things as quickly as possible, but I would really rather you take your time with this. You have three years to master your quirk. Let's just focus on one thing at a time, alright?"

Izuku swallows, forcing his mind to calm down, then lets out a slow exhale. "Okay."

"Good," his mentor says, "I think a good goal to work on right now would be number three. Focus on the energy as it leaves you, focus on that flow, and try to harness it. The good thing about this one is that we know we have a backup for it in case you're unable to stop your quirk. If you need, you can ask your patients to pull away from you at a certain point to break the skin-to-skin contact."

"Okay," Izuku says, nodding resolutely, "Okay, that's… that's a good plan."

"Yes, but you're still going to be training with traditional methods, of course," she says, "You can't exactly train your quirk unless there's injured people."

Izuku smiles sheepishly and says, "Kaminari-kun made fun of me by saying that I'm excited that people are going to get injured in the Sports Festival because it means I can use my quirk."

Recovery Girl rolls her eyes with an amused huff. "Oh don't worry, there will be plenty of injured young hooligans for us to deal with on that day. I swear, all these grey hairs you see on my head are all from past Sports Festivals. Nedzu-san's ideas get crazier and crazier each year." She sniffs. "That rat drives me nuts."

Izuku tilts his head. "I thought he looked more like a bear?"

"Oh, who knows."

He snorts.