"Why?"

Todoroki's voice rang out across the empty classroom, echoing off of the desks, the tiled floor, and Izuku turned to face him, clutching the letter in one clenched fist.

"Because you were going to accept, weren't you?"

The two faced one another, seven feet apart. Outside, a bird called, and Todoroki took a breath, closing his eyes for a couple of long seconds. When he opened them again, the look in them told Izuku he'd conceded defeat.

"How'd you know?"

"As much as you hate your father and his power, you couldn't get him off your mind during the festival, could you?" Izuku gave a rueful little smile; it wasn't comparable in terms of sheer magnitude, but he knew what it felt like. "Hating someone, but always tagging along, trying to prove yourself to them, that you're either not like them or that you're worthy to stand next to them…you decided to go the minute you got the letter, didn't you?"

Todoroki was silent. Izuku bowed his head.

"I'm gonna go with you. Even if you don't think you need anyone, it can't hurt to have a friend there."

"…A friend?" Todoroki echoed, softly, and Izuku gave a single, firm nod. "Even after…?"

"Yeah." A beat. "I'd probably take the internship there anyway. He is the number two hero, and we both have a fire-based Quirk."

"About that," the other interrupted. "Your Quirk isn't just fire. It's not just…being able to come back to life, either."

"I mean, it gives me phoenix powers, which…I guess includes wings." The atmosphere was suddenly very, very thin, and Izuku had a feeling –

"Are you All Might's secret love child?"

Okay, never mind. He hadn't been expecting that at all.

"Todoroki-kun – well, no, but – what even gives you that idea?" he spluttered, torn between laughter and panic. "Why - ?"

A shrug. "You name your attacks with smash at the end and they have similar destructive power, though All Might's Quirk doesn't hurt him like yours hurts you."

"Uh, nope, just a fanboy," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, shouldn't we get to lunch?"

On and off for the past week, he'd been unable to really get the rumors out of his head. As with all "breaking news", the story of the attack on Yuuei's stadium had come and gone (though, to everyone's relief, the media hadn't blamed Yuuei this time; the situation had simply been too freak for them to start pointing fingers). Aside from lunch the day the internship invitations had been handed out, he'd been keeping to himself in classes, only walking with Ochako and Iida and rarely speaking.

He wasn't sad per se; the Yuuei teachers had called him into the lounge the next day to reassure him that the tornado was not his fault after the rumors had come to light, and when Nezu explained what the villain's Quirk was, he felt much better about that side of things.

Even so, there was still one thing nagging him: he'd had the power to save a life and had forgotten about it. He tried his hardest to push the thought out of his mind.

When he and Todoroki returned to the cafeteria, they were immediately waved over to 1-A's usual table by Ochako, Yaoyorozu, Sero, Mina, and Kaminari; to the boys' surprise, two trays had been set aside for them, sparing them a trip to the other side of the room. The awkwardness of Todoroki's presence was minimal, and Izuku had a feeling that his own forgiveness of the other as well as his response to the accident (and possibly Yaoyorozu) had convinced the rest of the class that it had been just that – an accident. It's not like Quirk-based accidents are unheard of. Just look at Mount Lady…

"Thanks, Ochako," Izuku huffed thoughtlessly, sliding into his usual spot between her and Iida, and he didn't quite comprehend the stares he received until Mina squealed and began whispering furiously in what he could only presume was Tooru's ear.

"A-ah, Deku-kun, you…um…" Ochako stammered out; he only had a momentary glimpse of her face, burning red, before she buried it in her hands (largely to hide the grin that had spread across her treacherous lips).

Oh. Oh, no.

Ordinarily, using a first name with no honorific was indicative of a very close relationship. It was common to hear parents refer to their children as such, but between two people who weren't related, that relationship was usually lovers, and while he and Ochako weren't lovers, he couldn't deny there'd been something between them for a while now…

He remembered the half-kiss she'd pressed to the corner of his lips all those weeks ago and shivered.

Yaoyorozu, sensing his discomfort, cleared her throat loudly. "So, our internships. Have we decided where we're going yet?" she asked, half-shouting, and Iida glanced up from his notebook.

What has he been doing all day…?

"I've decided I'm interning with the hero Manual, in Hosu," the vice-representative announced, straightening his glasses (compulsively, Izuku noted). "I think such an internship would be good for getting some simple, on-the-ground experience in the day-to-day activities of a hero."

"I um, haven't decided yet," Ochako admitted, gaze drifting down to her chopsticks as she toyed with some rice. "I wanted to do something with combat to help me get an edge, since it's not really my strong suit, y'know?"

"They have internships with combat heroes in the general listings," Yaoyorozu pointed out. "If you want, we could look over some later? I'm not going for a combat internship, but I'd be happy to help you look."

"Really? Thanks, Yaomomo!" Suddenly, both girls went from dead serious to beaming, and none of the boys knew what to do until Sero spoke up.

"I'm gonna be getting some general training with Lancelot, the Lance Hero!" – except there was a dab of soy sauce on the edge of his cheek, and a couple of people snorted. Kaminari threw a napkin at him. When he'd cleaned himself up, he went on, albeit more subdued than he'd been: "My tape's got a lot of uses, but one thing I lack is power. Found that out the hard way against Bakugou. I'm thinking maybe I'll figure something out with his help that'll help me get stronger."

"Maybe a support item?" Mina suggested, ducking back into the conversation.. "I was thinking about getting one myself to help me spray my acid further. I have to get too close to do much right now…"

"Like a hose nozzle?" prompted Yaoyorozu. The pink-skinned girl nodded enthusiastically, curls bobbing.

"Yeah! Just like that. Hey, what about you two?" she added, leaning across the table to poke Izuku and Todoroki with a chopstick each. "What are you guys gonna do?"

The two boys exchanged glances; seeing Todoroki's carefully neutral expression, Izuku swallowed his food and answered her. "We're gonna be interning with Endeavour."

"Both of you?" Kaminari cut in. "Wow. I gotta be honest, I'm kinda surprised after…well, y'know."

"Tactless!" hissed Jirou from his other side; evidently, she'd been keeping an ear on things, and Izuku had to wonder why they kept sitting together as she gave him a sharp poke with one of her jacks.

"No, I understand." Todoroki's voice took them by surprise. "I lost control of myself. Most hero agencies don't want that kind of liability, especially on someone with such a dangerous Quirk."

Kaminari nodded. "I feel you. My One Million Volts is enough to knock people out as it stands, but if I get stronger, I might reach a point where it turns lethal."

Yaoyorozu was the only one unfazed by his unexpectedly serious prediction, but before anyone could say anything about it, Tokoyami cut in from further down, opposite Tooru.

"If you want to discuss uncontrollable Quirks, Dark Shadow is exactly so in the night," he rumbled. "It becomes an insatiable beast, a devourer of the pure and wicked alike. Only the light may stay its bloodied hand."

There was a very, very long silence, then Mina gave an awkward little smile and asked: "So, uh, who are you gonna intern with, Tokoyami-kun?"

"Hawks."

"Whoa, really?" said Kaminari, all excitement; Izuku, too, jumped up, followed by Tooru, and from her other side, Ojirou leaned in, listening.

"Yes. Though I fear his offer has less to do with my ability and more so to do with the fact that I have the head of a bird." There was something impossibly taciturn about this, to the point where it was almost funny, and a few people giggled. "Still, he is the number three hero. I shall learn what I can from him."

Lunch ended, and before any of the first years even knew it had happened, so had the entirety of the next week; ever since the previous Wednesday – the festival, or what it had devolved into – everything had been a blur, and it was only after Izuku and Ochako boarded their usual bus that either of them really registered what was about to happen.

"Hey, Izukkun," she mused aloud. "We're not gonna see each other in school 'til next Monday, and I'm gonna be headin' to Kanagawa the day after tomorrow…"

"Yeah?" He waited, politely.

"I was thinkin' maybe we could, um, hang out tomorrow?"

"Sure, where at?" he asked, not noticing her behavior until it was too late – she wasn't quite meeting his eyes, and she pushed the tips of all of her fingers together, something he'd already noticed she did when stressed.

"Um…well, just my place. I um, I'm not feelin' like going out, y'know? Just a day at home to enjoy some peace 'fore we go out on our internships."

Izuku stiffened.

He may have spent most of his life up until Yuuei completely isolated, but he had a keen intellect, the mind of an analyst; he'd noticed the differences in the way she interacted with him versus the way she interacted with the rest of her classmates, and something was definitely up. Maybe it was just their closeness – they'd been through a lot together in their short time at Yuuei. He couldn't believe that it could be anything other than that, really; he could pick out a dozen and one reasons he wasn't cut out for the alternative, which was…

Thinking about it made him shiver, and he didn't realize just how long he'd been silent until she coughed and he jumped. "Um, sure, I guess?"

"Great!" Her attitude brightened immediately, and that little smile lingered for the rest of their bus ride.

By the time they'd reached their stop, the sun had passed its highest arc, hanging about three-quarters of the way up between the sky's midpoint and the horizon. With a yawn, Izuku leaned forward, stretching; its hot rays warmed his shoulders through his uniform, and he cracked his fingers, studying the scarring on his knuckles from the entrance exam. It seemed so long ago that he'd smashed in the head of a robot the size of a skyscraper, terrified and exhilarated and absolutely desperate to save Ochako…

"Are you nervous?" he asked her.

"Really nervous. Yaomomo helped me find an internship with a combat based hero who goes by…Va-ru…mon-tu?" She stumbled over the name's pronunciation, then shrugged. "Anyway. He's pretty good at martial arts, so I'm gonna try and learn to fight and move to get in close with my Quirk."

My Quirk. Memories of the entrance exam still fresh in his mind, he bit his lip, remembering how she'd used it to drop robots like ragdolls…how she'd forced herself into the air, knowing it would make her sick, to float him and save his life as he fell –

Wait.

"Ochako, your Quirk's called Zero Gravity, right?" he asked her, shooting her a sidelong glance, and she nodded enthusiastically, pressing her fingertips together.

"Mhm! I thought you'd know that by now, Izukkun," she teased, grinning, and he chuckled.

"Well…remember that maths lesson the other day? They gave us a word problem about gravity…but something in it bothered me…." He slipped his phone out of his pocket, then opened the browser, keying in a few words; a moment later, he handed it over, and she read over the screen, swiping the tip of one finger up its face a few times to scroll.

"So, if my Quirk actually removed gravity, it would send anything I touched into space?" she mused. "I mean, we haven't had physics lessons yet outside middle school…"

"Well, no, but this isn't a difficult concept to understand. Removing the pull anchoring something to the planet would immediately subject it to the other forces still acting on it…which makes me think that maybe your Quirk isn't zero gravity. Plus," he added, the entrance exam replaying in his mind's eye a third time, "if it just removed gravity, I'd have still hit the ground during the entrance exam…."

Silence, for a few seconds. When Ochako spoke next, her voice was thoughtful, which sent a thrill of hope through Izuku – was she catching on to what he was trying to say? "So my Quirk's somethin' else entirely…?"

"Most likely. If you want, I can work on some ideas for it tonight?" he offered, pulling one of his many notebooks from his bag with a flourish. "If your Quirk has other uses, you might be able to do more with it in combat, too."

"Sounds awesome, Izukkun!" she declared, pumping her fist, and he couldn't help laughing. "We can go over it at my house tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Alright. I'll be looking forward to it."

Overhead, the sun shone just a little bit brighter.

That evening found Izuku hunched at his computer, notebook in hand and pen scrawling across its pages at mach speed.

He'd spent the past hour combing through possible Quirks for Ochako, attempting to figure out just how exactly her Quirk operated. The first thing he'd thought besides Zero Gravity was "Antigravity", which would keep things operating within the reasonable laws of physics for the planet, but the thing that kept nagging at him was the fact that, by all accounts, he should have been killed on impact during the entrance exam…

"Think, Izuku," he lectured himself, rapping the pen smartly against his temple. "What would have let her decelerate me like that without killing me?"

He'd been stationary midair after smashing the zero-pointer, so by the time she'd slapped him –

"Twenty-three times the force of gravity!?" he screamed out loud, and a few seconds later his mother poked her head in, understandably concerned. When he'd reassured her that he was quite all right, she asked what he was up to, and he showed her the calculations he'd been doing; to his surprise, Midoriya Inko giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Oh, isn't that sweet?" she gushed, hand over her mouth. Izuku was baffled.

"Uh, mom? What - ?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing! I just think it's sweet that you're so focused on what Uraraka-san's Quirk is, that's all!" Inko trilled.

He blinked.

"But maybe," she went on, expression turning thoughtful, "you're focusing too much on the idea of her Quirk making a force act on something? If you're trying to redefine it, start from the top!"

Start…from the top? "So…things her Quirk could do other than create a force…but that could still stop me falling without hurting me…?" he mused, and Inko nodded, enthusiastic.

"Izuku, sweetie, it's great that you're so focused, but sometimes you get tunnel vision," she chided gently. "Think outside the box a little more! It's okay to get creative sometimes, even if it doesn't work the first time."

"Think…outside the box…" Izuku murmured. "Thanks, mom. Do you, um, need help with anything?" he added, awkwardly; he'd barely been home for some time now, spending most of his time either at Yuuei or with Ochako, and as such he'd been neglecting the things he usually did to help out around the house. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd talked so much with his mother.

"I'm fine, Izuku," she chuckled. "But thank you. I understand you're growing up. You don't wanna be hanging around an old bag like me all the time." Though her tone was teasing, Izuku felt a stab of something like grief, and he stood, enveloping his mother in a very sudden hug.

"You're not an old bag, mom." His voice was unexpectedly hard with emotion, and though she was a little surprised, Inko returned the hug in full, patting her son gently on the back.

He'd always been close to his mother – it was likely a result of his Quirklessness, his absent father (though he provided for them, was he really a father? Izuku never felt like it), and his loneliness – but ever since he'd been accepted to Yuuei, his world had grown exponentially, and suddenly she wasn't such a figure anymore….

"Just remember I love you, okay, Izuku?"

"I love you too, mom."

"Heya, Izukkun!" Ochako waved, grinning as wide as her rosy cheeks would let her, and Izuku felt himself smiling in return.

"Hey, Ochako-chan."

"Ochako-chan?" she echoed, and her grin shifted to something a little softer. "I like it."

"I'm…I'm glad." Why am I blushing!? "I, um, I brought some notes?" he offered, trying not to appear too flustered, and she took the notebook, still beaming.

"Ooh! I can't wait to see what you came up with!" Excited, she clutched the book to her chest, spinning on one foot and watching the sky above.

They'd agreed to get lunch and bring it back to her apartment; when he met her at the entrance to her apartment building, she'd had her hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a tank top under a sheer crop-top and a pair of shorts. Naturally, Izuku had found himself steaming at the ears, but she hadn't even seemed to notice; by comparison, he appeared very plain, his hair in its usual bush formation and clad in his usual red high-tops with cargo shorts and a t-shirt.

"Hmm…so you think my Quirk's got nothin' to do with gravity at all, huh?" she asked as they walked, her sandals slapping mutely against the pavement. Izuku bit his lip and nodded, prepared to explain himself, but she flipped a couple pages and –

– oh god no that's the drawing that's not –

"Um, Izukkun…this is…"

"Y-yeah…"

She closed the notebook and the atmosphere suddenly became very awkward.

"You're…a really good artist," she offered, after a moment's silence, but all he could come out with was a feeble "T-thanks", and when they reached the noodle stand they'd been making their steady way towards, the woman at the counter stifled a laugh behind her hand.

Izuku was reminded, harshly, of the sweetshop vendor; from the way her blush immediately dropped and her face paled, Ochako had received the same impression. Awkwardness forgotten, he leaned down and squeezed her hand – her fingers tightened around his own, and even though he knew he'd lose circulation if she gripped any harder, he held on, rubbing his thumb soothingly across the back of her hand.

The woman, thankfully, didn't notice this contact, and by the time they found themselves walking back to her apartment, noodles in hand, things had more or less returned to normal, though it was clear Ochako had a couple of questions.

"Um…how much time did you spend looking at me in my hero costume?"

"Enough to sketch it out, why?" he asked; she still hadn't let go of his hand, so he supposed it couldn't be that bad…

"It's…really accurate. Um, down to…my, um, measurements."

When he realized what she meant, it was all he could do not to scream.

"N-not like that, Uraraka-san!" Izuku babbled, reverting to formal honorifics in his panic. "I just – I – "

"Izukkun," Ochako cut in. Something in her voice stopped him, and she went on: "It's – um, I'm okay with…"

With…with what!?

Her jaw cracked, and he realized just how hard she was clenching it.

"Are you okay, Ochako-chan?" he murmured.

"Yeah, I just – "

A hard swallow, and she didn't finish. Another silence fell between them, but considering neither had let go of the other's hand, the atmosphere was not rejection but rather uncertainty.

When they reached her apartment, she finally did release him to fish for her keys; they sat together at the tiny dining table then, talking as if the earlier exchange simply hadn't happened.

"Force Manipulation," she read. The phrase in question was underlined several times at the top of the page in front of her, and Izuku nodded.

"Yeah. If you check out the math, the deceleration from the slap you gave me would have still subjected me to twenty-three times the force of gravity." He pointed to some calculations, meticulously copied from the scrap paper now lying in crumpled balls in the wire wastebasket back in his room. "So…whatever you did, it's like you just removed the kinetic energy, instead of counteracting it. So who's to say you can't add kinetic energy, too? It looks like you do it when you float things, anyway…but instead of strengthening the normal force, you somehow change the way gravity affects things…"

"Huh…" Idly, Ochako floated her empty bowl, watching as it levitated a couple of inches off the table. "So I'm just changin' the way the one force is affectin' this bowl?"

"Um, theoretically. You release your Quirk by touching your fingerpads all together, right? Have you tried seeing what happens when you don't use all of them?" he offered.

"I remember trying to figure out how to 'turn it off' when I was little," she giggled; the sound was unexpected, but it made him feel warm inside. "I tried snappin' my fingers, but the toy I was floatin' just kinda spun around…"

Spun…that's it! "Try touching just your index finger and thumb pad together?" Izuku suggested.

She did. The bowl rotated a little and drifted about an inch to the left, still airborne.

"Aw, come on!" she snorted. "You're tellin' me that controllin' my Quirk wasn't a matter of thinkin' at it?" There was no response, and she turned to see Izuku scribbling frantically in the margins of his notebook. "Uh, Izukkun?" Ochako prodded, but she couldn't help a little smile seeing him so focused.

"Neh, sorry, Ochako. I was just making a note of that." Pen to his lips now, he held up his left hand, pinching his thumb and forefinger together. "Try turning your wrist and moving your fingers while keeping them together."

They spent the next couple of hours like this, making various objects float around Ochako's apartment; it started with the bowl, which simply floated in place, and moved on to a chair, a cup, Izuku, a lamp, the sofa, Izuku, the entire kitchenette set, the television remote, and Izuku. Slowly, she began to develop her technique, experimenting with different hand motions and fingerpad configurations to turn and accelerate objects in various directions, using her Quirk to reapply the force of gravity and send whatever she touched zooming around the apartment.

"Is there a reason you've used me for a test subject three times now?" he grumbled from the floor, rubbing his backside. He'd just suffered a rather unpleasant bump on the tailbone from an overexcited Ochako sending him across the room and failing to stop him before he collided with the wall.

"Because you let me, silly," she teased, and he couldn't even be irritated with her for the bruises on his elbows from a mishap with a table – he hadn't seen her this cheerful in a while, not since she'd found out that they'd both gotten into Yuuei. The past couple of months had been especially tough on her between her parents and the stadium attack, but he could see her starting to shine through again, starting to move forward, and –

It's beautiful.

He didn't realize she'd moved over to sit by him until she flopped onto the carpet at his side, letting out a long breath.

"Phew. My stomach hurts," she chuckled. "Let's take a break, Izukkun."

"Your stomach hurts already?" he asked, frowning. "You could go for way longer on the beach…"

"Yeah, I know," sighed Ochako. "Maybe it has somethin' to do with this new technique. I'm surprised I've never thought of doing this – I'm gonna be sixteen this year and I never thought about just usin' one hand…"

There was silence for a moment, and when Izuku glanced to his left, she'd closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, her breathing soft. "Occhan?" he whispered, tentatively, and she smiled, placing her right hand over his left.

"I like that name," she murmured back. "We match now, Izukkun."

On impulse, he shifted into a crouch, sliding one arm under her knees and encircling her middle with the other; standing, he brought her up with him, carrying her over to the sofa.

"Ah – Izukkun!" she squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck anyway. "What're ya - ?"

Softly, gently, he laid her down across the plush cushions, then straightened. "You looked sleepy," he pointed out. "I thought you might like to lay down somewhere more comfortable than the floor."

"Mm…but if I fall asleep, you'll just be sittin' here by yourself."

A shrug of well-built shoulders. "It's nothing I'm not used to." Even so, as he turned away, he felt a hand brush his bare forearm and, immediately afterward, the strange sensation of weightlessness that her Quirk brought; a second later, he floated into the air and backwards, plopping down onto the sofa with a muffled thump.

Ochako, who'd sat up to make room for him, tucked her feet up onto the sofa and leaned on his shoulder, letting out a contented little sigh. "That's better."

Sleepy sunlight filtered in through the blinds, and silence had a five-minute reign before Izuku gave her a gentle nudge, pressing two fingers against her closest shoulder. "…Hey, Occhan?"

"Mm."

"What're we doing?"

"You're bein' my pillow." And, as if to make a point, she scooted a little closer and hugged his arm. He had absolutely no idea how to respond.

That's…not what I meant. I meant – what are you feeling? Are you just being friendly? Am I overthinking this?

Am I falling for my best friend?

To Izuku, romance was always something far removed from his plain, quiet, Quirkless self; even if a girl back in middle school had had a crush on him, he'd been paying them no attention. He'd lived in perpetual fear of someone recognizing him as that Quirkless weirdo, or of Bakugou showing up and outing him as such, and besides, even if he'd had one, he'd have been too plain to like that way….

And yet, somehow, here was Uraraka Ochako, and if these weren't feelings, he didn't know what was.

He swallowed, hard.

Regardless of how he felt, time marched along; the evening sped by, and Izuku found himself saying goodbye to Ochako much sooner than he wanted to.

"Promise me you're gonna stay safe, Izukkun." Her breath whispered across his ear, wrapped as they were in a tight hug, and he murmured back, feeling goosebumps prickle along his arms, his neck.

"I'll try, Occhan. That means you stay safe, too."

"We're trainin' to be heroes, silly. You an' I both know that means no promises…but I'll try, too." She pulled back a little, not letting go of him, and in the twilight, her radiant smile lit up the hallway for just a moment before she moved in and pressed her lips to his cheek.

A kiss…?

Stunned, blushing, he could only stand there as she giggled in a very girlish sort of way, then extracted herself from his embrace and gave his hand one final squeeze. "See ya in a week, Izukkun!"

"Y-yeah. Um, see you," he called back, and she closed the door with a soft click that was somehow impossibly loud in the deserted apartment stairwell.

Monday.

As far as Izuku knew, everyone who'd gotten an internship would be starting today; he couldn't remember where most of his classmates were stationed, but he did remember that Iida would be in Hosu under the hero Manual, while Todoroki would of course be interning under Endeavour with Izuku himself. Hawks, who routinely patrolled massive swathes of the prefecture, would likely be sweeping over Hosu with Tokoyami, so there was also a chance that they'd run into their moody classmate at some point.

He sat by himself on the train, wondering if perhaps he should have contacted Todoroki and offered to come with him – it couldn't be easy for his aloof classmate, agreeing to an internship with his own father, the man he detested – but there was no use worrying about it now.

The sky overhead was stained pink with the dawn, no signs of the storm that had devastated the Yuuei stadium a week and a half prior; Izuku had tried his hardest to put the guilt out of his mind, aided somewhat by Nezu's announcement that the villain's Quirk – Cataclysm – had likely been what turned the thunderstorm into a tornado, and not the storm's own power, but he'd still catch glimpses of that pale, drained face and smears of blood in his dreams.

The number two hero's offices were tall buildings, the interiors lavishly decorated with deep red carpeting and gold-plated statuettes; the walls were, for the most part, paneled in wood planks stained a brown so rich it was almost black. Izuku could have mistaken it for a high-end hotel, only there were no bellhops, no guests, no life, just a lonely clerk at the front desk.

There was an awkward few seconds as he approached the man, hesitantly placing the forms he'd been instructed to bring on the spotless marble surface. "I'm here to see – "

"I know why you're here," the other interrupted. Izuku blanched. Like Aizawa, everything about him (besides his state of dress) screamed disinterest, an utter lack of concern with current affairs; unlike Aizawa, his words didn't hint at any deeper emotion buried beneath the facade, and his tone was more irritated than bored. "He'll be with you shortly. The other one arrived not long ago, I imagine he's still – "

"Midoriya Izuku!"

Izuku jumped. He couldn't help it. Todoroki Enji was a very loud man when he wanted to be.

Spinning on the spot, he gave a hasty bow, fumbling for words, but it seemed that Endeavour didn't particularly care for formalities, as he clapped one (massive) hand to Izuku's shoulder and fixed the green-haired boy with a haughty glare down his pointed nose – a gesture made all the more terrifying by the fact that the man's facial hair seemed to be literally comprised of fire.

Todoroki Shouto trailed ten feet behind his father, watching Izuku's response; his expression was carefully veiled, revealing nothing, and when Endeavour had finished his scrutiny of the newcomer, he gave a curt nod that Izuku couldn't interpret.

"There's a lot of fire in this one," Endeavour declared to no one in particular. "As I suspected. I'd heard of your Quirk, but when I saw it for myself at the festival…" The number two hero gave a snort that Izuku couldn't interpret, then crossed his arms. "I've already told Shouto this, but we'll be spending today assessing what you're capable of. Once I've determined how weak you both are, we'll begin the slow, grueling process of making you stronger."

Is he trying to get under our skin…?

"So. Follow me. Try and keep up – my colleagues need to be competent, and if you can't manage, you might as well go home right now."

Endeavour set off at a trot and was halfway across the lobby before Izuku realized what was happening.

True to his word, the elevator they stepped into took them directly to the thirteenth floor, and after a brief, brisk walk down a hallway, Endeavour hung a sharp right and pushed open a mahogany pair of French doors, beyond which lay –

"A dojo?" Izuku couldn't help letting out a gasp. To his right, Todoroki shoved his hands into his pockets, utterly unenthused.

"That's just how he is," the other boy shrugged, and when Izuku shot him a questioning glance, he didn't elaborate.

They were instructed to change into the hero costumes they'd brought, then return to the dojo. Upon their return, Endeavour stood waiting in the middle of the room, hair and beard in full flame.

"First!" the hero boomed. The stained-panel walls here, Izuku noted, were scorched, and if he'd looked closer, he would have noticed that they were actually marble and not wood. The laminate birch-plank flooring of the hallway gave way to some sort of polished stone in here; it wasn't typical of the dojos Izuku had seen in books and online, but judging from the burns all over the room, Endeavour himself used it on a fairly routine basis, and wood wouldn't last long for obvious reasons. "I'll have you attack me to see for myself what you can do. Hit me with everything you've got. Shouto – you'll begin."

The reaction was instant – frozen fury screamed across the floor, but where a lesser man would have cowered from the wall of jagged ice raging for him, Todoroki Enji simply raised one hand and blasted crimson fire straight through Todoroki Shouto's attack, leaving nothing but a puddle that spanned the floor between father and son.

"Weak."

Izuku, from the corner of his eye, spotted Todoroki's left hand clench into a fist.

"Weak," Endeavour repeated, "and foolish. Why do you come at me with only ice, knowing my Quirk's power?" Teeth ground to Izuku's right, but Todoroki didn't speak, and Endeavour turned to his other intern. "Midoriya. You next."

He glanced at Todoroki, but the other was silent, unmoving.

What are you thinking?

There was no way to tell.

Gritting his teeth, Izuku bent his knees, feeling One For All surge through his body – a moment's concentration and the angry red lines crisscrossing his entire body crackled into green lightning instead, whipping and snaking its way across his arms, his legs, his torso: Full Cowling.

Endeavour's Quirk is Hellfire, which grants him incredibly powerful pyrokinetic abilities…but he's not the number two hero for nothing. Even at a glance, it's obvious he's trained his body as well as his Quirk, probably to compensate for the latter's potential shortcomings at close range….

His eyes flickered back and forth between Todoroki and Endeavour.

The problem Todoroki-kun has is that he's weak when it comes to close-quarters combat. His Quirk is best suited for fighting at a distance from his opponents, where he can focus and control his powers…on the flip side, Endeavour is capable of ranged combat, but he seems to prefer getting in close. Possibly because he can overwhelm people by augmenting himself with his own flames…?

Mind racing, Izuku didn't even realize he'd been standing still for so long until a vortex of fire whirled up in front of his face, making him jump. "Midoriya." – and somehow Endeavour's speaking voice was even louder than his earlier shout, in this quiet place, and Izuku bit his lip.

How am I supposed to get around so much fire? Fire isn't something you can just punch away…and without using One For All at one hundred percent, I don't exactly have the power to counter it unless it happens to incinerate me. I definitely don't want to trigger Rebirth, though…

Unbidden, his mother's voice reached his ears:

"Think outside the box a little more! It's okay to get creative sometimes, even if it doesn't work the first time."

His brain had immediately jumped to two possible solutions, both of which would incapacitate him. Instead of trying to work out a new solution, he'd instinctively stuck to that dogma. He'd been about to do the same thing he'd done during the entrance exam, during the apprehension test, during their first combat exercise – but if he wanted to be a hero, he couldn't do that. Even All Might, whose fighting style was deceptively simple, was in actuality always changing up his approach to new problems and finding ways to bend One For All to whatever purpose he needed.

Of course. I'm working with what I have, instead of making what I have work with me. Besides, this is designed to test our weaknesses…and even though Endeavour looks relaxed, he's probably expecting me to come in for a punch and I'll get tossed away the second I attack. So, instead of asking myself what I can do with my Quirk…what can my Quirk – no, what can my Quirks do for me?

One For All let him tap into a reservoir of power that his body physically couldn't handle all of, but he knew what its full strength was capable of from watching videos of All Might. Phoenix was still up in the air, but so far he'd figured out that it could grant him augmented strength, added heat to his blows, and – when he was able to summon wings - some form of air control. Rebirth, on the other hand – he'd exhibited true pyrokinesis while under its influence, as well as what he was fairly certain was full flight and a strength boost, though not on the same scale as One For All.

Maybe…maybe Rebirth is what Phoenix will be capable of if I train it enough? he mused. But right now, I don't have the firepower to deal with Endeavour's, so I think One For All might be the better option.

He might not be able to punch away the flames…but as he stared down at his own hand, he realized there was something he could do to disrupt them. If he could bait them out, then use them as a smokescreen…!

As if responding to the current of his emotions, red-gold fire licked up his forearms. Good. Whatever boost Phoenix can give me can only make this more likely to work -

"If you won't attack me," Endeavour rumbled, "then I'll just have to see how much you can take!" The hero's shout sent a thrill of excitement through Izuku – it looked like he wouldn't have to bait out the flames with a fake-out after all.

Now!

As another torrent of fire surged forth, Izuku braced himself, channeling as much of One For All as he knew he could handle and then some into his arm; his own flames coalesced along the outer edge of his ulna into a familiar pattern of jagged, burning feathers, and he bent his arm at the elbow, bringing it down in a sweep as he threw himself straight into the attack.

It wasn't the wave of wind he'd been hoping for – he'd need more power for that – but Phoenix's added strength gave him the extra push he needed to dispel the worst of the flames directly in front of him with a rush of air, and he quite literally jumped through the rest, bringing up his other arm as he burst out of the other side and drove a fist directly for the number two hero's chest –

"Hmph. Interesting strategy."

…Huh!?

Endeavour had, without much difficulty, caught Izuku's fist in his own palm.

"While it failed," he went on, raising a single eyebrow through his scowl, "it was certainly more effective than Shouto's plan of attack."

A pause. The larger man released his fist, and Izuku brushed off his smouldering clothes.

"You have potential, Midoriya."

"Wow. That's really cool!"

"Developing power is within thy reach. Thou deem'st it 'cool' by thy own ignorance!"

Sero Hanta sighed and planted his face in his hands.

He'd always figured that the Lance Hero, Lancelot, was simply putting up a front that would drop behind closed doors, but no – it seemed that Lancelot took his role-playing very, very seriously…for better or for worse.

"So, uh, how am I supposed to, um, develop power?" Sero asked, trying to remain attentive and respectful. It was his first day interning under the hero, and like Endeavour, Lancelot had decided to assess what his temporary protégé was capable of, starting with a brief demonstration of his own Quirk.

The Quirk in question, Lance, was relatively simple: when holding an object with a length of at least ten times its width, Lancelot was able to output incredible force by performing a jabbing or thrusting attack. The exact amount of force was affected by a variety of factors – the size of the weapon, the power with which the hero made his attacks – but, from what Sero had seen, a six-foot spear with a head the size of his own hand was enough for Lancelot to smash through a foot of solid concrete from five meters away.

"Simple, squire! I began with power and developed technique. Thou hath technique, but thy Quirk leaveth much to be desired within the realm of pure strength." The hero replaced the spear on a wall-mounted weapon rack (where it joined five identical copies of itself, all of which had some degree of damage along their shaft), then turned to Sero, hands on his hips. "Thy Quirk hast not force of its own, but hast thou considered using the world around thee to thy advantage?"

Sero took a moment to parse through the man's barely-comprehensible amalgam of imitation old English and Japanese – if Lancelot hadn't had a double-digit rank, he'd have probably written the hero off as a loon (and, frankly, that was still a risk), but Lancelot must have been doing something right to escape the triple-digits, where hundreds of aspirant heroes languished in relative obscurity. "What are you talking about?" was the question he eventually came out with.

"Simple!" thundered the hero once again, voice echoing inside his helmet; Sero winced a little at how loud he was. "In the aftermath of catastrophe, there is much to be turned to mine own use! Even the streets bear potential untap'd – a simple post, in my hands, becometh a spear to pierce the heavens!" To demonstrate, he grabbed the stainless-steel bar of an empty weapon rack and pulled it straight down, tearing it from its mount and cracking the floor beneath him with the force of it before whirling and taking a one-handed jab at the same concrete wall he'd broken through earlier.

A single crack appeared in the drab grey surface, and Lancelot waited for Sero's reaction.

"So, you're saying I should just…break shit and use it as weapons?"

…Not exactly what the hero had been hoping for, but it was a step in the right direction.

"He's just trying to make me look bad."

Izuku couldn't say he hadn't been expecting this at some point. Todoroki's silent, brooding rage had been boiling just beneath the surface for the entire assessment.

"I've never heard him praise anyone," the heterochrome went on. "And everything he said to me…couldn't you hear the scorn in it?"

"Yeah," Izuku sighed. "Do you…want me to say something? I'm sorry I didn't." – and he meant this. The atmosphere had been distinctly uncomfortable, but he hadn't wanted to escalate it into anything more, and he couldn't think of a way to communicate this to Todoroki without actually speaking aloud.

"No."

They stood quietly outside the dojo room as Endeavour and a pair of his sidekicks did…well, something inside; neither boy knew what, but there was a lot of banging and shouting, and at one point the doors shuddered with some unseen impact.

"It's…not your job to fix things. I'm sorry I dragged you into this." Todoroki tucked his thumbs into the pockets of his hero uniform – navy blue now, and built to regulate his temperature, unlike the first iteration of the costume – and stared at his shoes, but Izuku shook his head furiously, pushing himself away from the wall to stand at full height before his fellow intern.

"Todoroki-kun, I brought myself into this," he corrected. "Besides, it isn't like I'm not going to benefit from it, so you don't need to feel bad that I'm wasting my internship or something. If I can be here as your friend and intern under the number two hero, I'm gonna do both." He knew it was making him sound selfish – as if Todoroki's well-being had been an afterthought – but if Todoroki knew that worry for his friend was why he'd been able to make his choice of internship so easily, the heterochrome wouldn't have forgiven himself.

The other didn't respond, but he tilted his head just enough for his hair to fall over the scars on the left side of his face.

"…Do you think you can make it through the whole internship like this, Todoroki-kun?" Izuku murmured.

"I've made it this far."

"And look where it's gotten you!" He hadn't been intending to snap, but he'd picked up a few unfortunate traits from Bakugou Katsuki at some point. "I…I think it's important to come to terms with who you are, Todoroki-kun."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Todoroki shot back. "Haven't we talked about this already?"

"Didn't you learn from the sports festival?" he whispered.

As if he'd uttered some kind of incantation, both the air and his classmate went deathly still and silent; after a moment, Todoroki straightened, raising one arm so that his forearm faced Izuku, the burn scars from Izuku's Rebirth trigger angry and red.

"I learned that I'm too weak," Todoroki hissed back. "I didn't control myself. I wasn't strong enough – "

"Stop it!"

Izuku's shout was absorbed by the plush carpeting, but it still rang off the walls and ceiling of the hallway.

"That's – that isn't the lesson you should have taken away from that at all!" he went on, and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. "Being strong would mean breaking away from all of this and not letting it touch you anymore!" Deep breaths, Izuku. "Todoroki-kun, I can't – I can't say I know anything about what your life must have been like."

No response, but Todoroki held his gaze.

"But what I can say is…have the strength to be your own person, Todoroki-kun," Izuku said. "It's not easy when you've lived your entire life under the standards someone else set you. I'll respect your wishes if you don't want me to say anything for you…but that means you gotta say it for yourself."

The doors creaked open again, and had Izuku still been leaning against them, he'd have fallen flat on his back into the dojo. On their other side stood a distinctly disgruntled Endeavour, a visible bruise on one cheek, and the two sidekicks, one of whom seemed a little dazed.

"Like I said." The hero crossed his arms. "My colleagues need to be competent. We're going to work on getting you there."

For the rest of that day, their training consisted mainly of basic hand-to-hand combat and honing their reflexes. The banging they'd heard had simply been the training equipment being dragged out, ranging from simple punching bags to droids designed to launch jabs at them from random angles. Izuku struggled with the latter, taking a few particularly nasty hits on the knees before he'd warmed up; he could have used One For All, which seemed to increase his reaction speed during Full Cowling, but Endeavour had explicitly stated that they were not to use their Quirks.

In spite of their treatment as "guests", Izuku rapidly found himself worked down to the bone in a way he hadn't been in months. He'd relented somewhat on All Might's "American Dream Plan", which had been designed to whip him into enough shape within ten months that he'd be able to handle One For All without his limbs exploding, but even so, he thought he'd been keeping a reasonable exercise schedule and dieting properly.

Just goes to show we have a long way to go, I guess, he thought to himself at the end of that first day, watching Endeavour – who'd trained right alongside them the entire time – replacing the equipment with the help of a different pair of sidekicks, completely unbothered by the rigorous exercise they'd just been put through. Izuku and Todoroki, on the other hand, were both winded and sweating, breathing hard and stretching their aching muscles.

On the morning of the second day, they were woken at eight sharp by a fully dressed Endeavour, who – from the looks of things – had already been up for some time. "Criminal scum likes to operate at night," he told them. "Catch them at their weakest, when they're retreating for the day."

Wait…he's already been out on patrol?

"Your plan for the rest of the week is this: today through tomorrow afternoon, we'll be working on those pathetic Quirks of yours. Tomorrow evening, you will join me on patrol. On Thursday, we will be patrolling. Friday will be training review, evening patrol, and then you will head home. Is that clear?"

"Hai! – ah, um, yes, sir!" Izuku stammered out, still half-asleep in the guest bunk; Todoroki was somehow already fully awake and heading for the shower, and when Endeavour left the room, Izuku scrambled after his fellow intern.

When they'd both showered and cleaned themselves up, they found both a minimal breakfast and their freshly laundered hero costumes folded nearly in the next room; after eating and changing, they made their way down to the training room again, Izuku trying to make small talk, Todoroki ignoring him.

"We'll start with having you two spar opponents on your own level," Endeavour rumbled the moment they entered. Izuku was confused – were there other interns there? – until he raised one arm to point, flipping his index finger like a lever between the two of them. "Stand at opposite ends of the center floor. On my signal, you will attack. Understand?"

Wait, what!? Wasn't he paying attention during the sports festival!? "I don't think this is – " he started.

Endeavour cut in. "Is there a problem, Midoriya?"

Yes, there is! He took a deep breath, then gathered his thoughts, trying to sound respectful: "I'm sorry, but I don't think having Todoroki-kun and I fight is the best idea after what happened at the sports festival." Izuku bowed as he spoke, hoping to avoid a repeat of the festival – he didn't think Phoenix would cause any serious damage to the room, considering its deliberate fireproofing, but unlike Endeavour, Todoroki had no innate flame resistance that Izuku knew of…

"That's exactly why I'm having you two spar."

…What!?

"If Shouto is too weak to control himself this time, then he's not suited to be a hero. Your Quirk allows you to regenerate from fatal damage, does it not?" Though his words were cruel, Endeavour's expression didn't waver from his usual hard, scowling stare, and Izuku felt a chill run down his spine.

"Only once each day that I'm aware of," he responded, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "And…the worse the damage is, the more powerful the activation…"

Which is why you caused a thunderstorm at the sports festival, and he shoved the thoughts aside.

"Hmph. I will mediate – if Shouto appears to lose control, I will wall you two off from one another," the hero (can I even call him a hero right now!?) declared. "He's too weak to get through."

Izuku knew this would incense Todoroki, and sure enough, his classmate's fists were clenched; still, the moment Endeavour turned to stride for the side of the room, he reached out and brushed his own fingers against the back of Todoroki's left hand, shooting him a look, an unspoken plea.

Don't let him get to you. You're above this, Todoroki-kun.

The fist didn't fully unclench, but it relaxed, and Todoroki crossed the room to face him from the opposite side of the ring.

"Midoriya. Shouto," Endeavour announced, turning back to face them. "Your weakness is the other's strength. Victory is the essence of a hero, and you must learn to overcome your weaknesses to achieve it."

A pause. My weakness…is Todoroki-kun's strength?

"Begin!"

Lost in thought, Izuku was a little late to respond, and a wave of ice swept towards him from Todoroki's end of the ring; the sight of it was enough to spur him to action, and he barely managed to summon up One For All before throwing himself a little clumsily to the right. Todoroki wasn't fazed, however, and not a second later, the ice changed course, angling straight for him – he lunged forward, past the wall, but Todoroki sent up another right in front of him and he crashed into it, hard –

If I don't move, I'll be frozen in place! But where am I supposed to go…?

Ice walled him in from the left and front; Todoroki's response time was too quick for him to consider darting around the right side of the ice – which obscured him from his erstwhile opponent's view – but, as he took a step back to survey his surroundings, he realized there was one more opening he could take, one that Todoroki most likely wouldn't be expecting – and even if he did expect Izuku to attack from overhead, the "travel time" on his ice (that is, the brief delay between its formation and movement) would grant Izuku the window he needed, right…?

There was, however, one problem: when he jumped, he'd either collide with the ceiling, or he'd have to wait for gravity to pull him back down; either way, there'd be a lull. Is there some way I can change my velocity more quickly than that?

"Shouto! Are you so complacent as to give him time to plan out his escape!" he heard Endeavour bark. "Do not hesitate – finish the fight!"

…Oh.

Izuku could hardly believe he'd taken so long to figure it out. He'd yet again found himself locked into his current abilities – break free! Plus Ultra! – that he hadn't even considered using the ceiling to his advantage rather than viewing it as an obstacle.

Okay! Get ready for this, Todoroki-kun!

He jumped.

"Tokoyami, bud, you've got one hell of a Quirk, but you're always standing in one spot."

"What else am I to do? My Quirk and I are separate beings." Tokoyami rose gracefully from the floor, brushing dust from his cloak, and the number three hero – Hawks – burst into a carefree laugh, waving one hand in the intern's general direction.

They'd been sparring, but yet again, Hawks had been able to elude Dark Shadow and counterattack by striking the planted Tokoyami with a well-placed feather from one of his wings. The past three rounds had all gone the same, with Dark Shadow hovering closer and closer to Tokoyami in a vain attempt to deflect the incoming feather, but to no avail. Hawks was simply much, much too fast.

"How hard is it for you to move when Dark Shadow's out?" the hero asked him, sticking one hand in his pocket as he took a deep swig from a water bottle.

"No more than usual," Tokoyami rumbled, voice low. "Why do you ask?"

"You're more of a sitting duck than a 'lurking raven', or whatever the hell it is you wanna be called," came the response. "Dark Shadow might be good for ranged combat, but without him, there's not really much more to you, is there?"

Silence. Hawks was blunt, for sure, but his words weren't without significance, and Tokoyami Fumikage was no fool.

"You're saying I should train my body in addition to my Quirk." It wasn't a question, but Hawks nodded anyway.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." A shrug. "Dark Shadow doesn't take damage, does he?"

"No. Dark Shadow is a projection of my emotions," Tokoyami responded, twisting the cap off his own water bottle and taking a long drink. No motion was wasted, and when he'd finished, the water bottle returned to the exact same spot on the windowsill he'd taken it from, disturbing not a single extra speck of dust. "Physically indestructible, but my emotions affect its strength. Light and sustained damage weaken it, but the most that can happen is that it will be forced to retreat. Darkness and anger grant it strength, at the cost of control."

"Awesome." Hawks shot Tokoyami a grin that the teenager didn't return, then combed the fingers of one hand through his bangs. "So, have you considered taking that physical indestructibility for yourself?"

The number three hero's suggestion hung in the warm, musty air of the abandoned warehouse they'd been training in, and Tokoyami felt his feathers flatten.

"Taking it…for myself?" he repeated. "As in…adopting Dark Shadow's properties? I do not believe I am capable of doing that. Dark Shadow has always manifested as its own entity – an eternal agent of the night."

"Uh, that's not really what I meant. You're a bird, not a chameleon." Pushing off the pillar he'd been leaning against, Hawks spread his wings, a single crimson feather shooting out from the left to hover in the air before him. "The thing about Dark Shadow is that he's not a physical entity, right? Think about it. His shape's not necessarily fixed."

"…Hm."

There were a few seconds in which Hawks watched the gears turn in Tokoyami's head before the intern fixed him with another one of those intense, unblinking stares of his.

"Ah."

He waited a moment, but when there was no elaboration, Hawks sighed internally. "Didja figure something out?" he prodded.

"Mm. I believe I have." Without warning, Dark Shadow melted into being, and without a word, Tokoyami straightened, spreading his arms; the entity retreated along the black tether that connected it to his midriff and, as Hawks watched, rippled and blurred to cover the intern's torso, head and arms like a suit of armour.

"Oh. Shit. Awesome." Grinning now, Hawks raised one hand, and the feather he'd been keeping at the ready shot straight for Tokoyami, bouncing harmlessly off of Dark Shadow's form. "You're a fast learner. Got a name for that move yet?"

A nod. "I shall call it…Shin'en Anku! Tenebrous Abyss Body!"

Hawks sighed.

"Better watch yourself before you end up cutting someone with that edge."

"Smaaaaaaash!"

Todoroki, unable to react in time, took the hit at full force and staggered backwards, his focus disrupted; without giving him a chance to gather his wits, Izuku launched himself at his classmate again, sending him sprawling across the dojo floor.

I…think I see now. What Endeavour meant…my strength is his weakness! If I can get in close, Todoroki-kun is at a disadvantage…but as long as I'm not within arm's reach, he's got the advantage of range.

Izuku had pushed hard off of the ceiling to change his velocity as fast as possible, trying his hardest to get within range before the other could react; he felt a brief glow of pride at finally having made some breakthrough in his combat ability, but seeing Todoroki on the floor extinguished that with a flood of guilt. "Todoroki-kun, are you - ?"

"Don't!"

He winced as Todoroki's shout echoed off the polished floor, the scorched walls, but within a second the heterochrome was on his feet again, kicking off towards Izuku, ice forming along his right arm – Izuku cocked his arm, lunging in to disrupt Todoroki -

"Smaaa – unh!"

Todoroki hadn't come at him with a ranged attack.

Todoroki had blocked his punch with a shield.

As his fist collided painfully with the frozen bulwark, Izuku felt his concentration slip, One For All leaving his body; he crashed to the ground in a heap, blinking at the toe of Todoroki's shoe, and Endeavour gave a shout of "Enough!"

"Unh," he grunted again, from the floor. "Todoroki-kun, that was – "

"Midoriya," Endeavour cut in. "Watching you think causes me physical pain."

…Oh.

"Thinking on your feet is important, but if you had stopped to consider your options like that in a real fight against a real villain, you would be nothing more than a bloodstain," the hero scolded. "Work on your reaction time. Furthermore!" he added in a half-shout, as Izuku opened his mouth, "you have no style."

"Ah, what do you mean?" the intern asked, pushing himself to his feet. He can't possibly mean that my fighting style isn't fancy enough?

"Your punches are some of the most telegraphed I've ever seen, and you seem incapable of attacking any other way," came the response – a long, hopeless sigh – and Endeavour took a step forward, crossing his arms and giving Izuku another one of his signature down-the-nose glares. "Where are those flames from the sports festival? Do your legs work? Why do you need to wind up each punch and scream 'smash' like a child playing as All Might?" The questions hammered at him one after another, and Izuku nearly winced under the barrage, especially at the last one – he couldn't exactly tell the truth, after all.

Oh, sorry, Endeavour-san. I literally have All Might's Quirk and I have to scream every time I attack.

If it sounded that stupid in his head, he couldn't imagine saying it out loud.

Still, he had to admit that the hero made a lot of excellent points. His punches were very telegraphed, and now that he thought about it, didn't All Might only shout some variation of "smash" when he went for the photo finish at one hundred percent? The fanboy in Izuku knew with absolute certainty that All Might didn't yell with every single punch.

Wait, so why the hell do I keep doing it!?

Actually, he knew the answer to that one too: he was still operating under the instructions All Might had given him that very first day, when he'd had to choke down a distinctly sour golden-blonde hair. Clench your buttocks and scream within your heart! the hero had said, and Izuku had been following that every single time he'd thrown a punch under One For All's influence.

If he'd only had One For All, perhaps he would have tried to emulate All Might more closely, but as it stood, Phoenix was always his wild card, the so-called "x factor" that eluded his full comprehension and, though he hated to admit it, gave him some form of identity other than "successor". He'd been so wrapped up with everything going on lately that he hadn't really sat and thought much on it – hell, he'd put more time into working out Ochako's Quirk in one evening than he had his own in several weeks – but here, now, with the number two hero looming over him and spewing every stylistic criticism he could think of…Izuku realized.

He hadn't been growing.

All of his classmates had been so focused on their personal growth – Ochako, determined to learn to fight, excited at the way she'd developed her Quirk; Todoroki, who'd clearly just figured something out if the shield he still held was anything to go by; Iida, refining his style and learning the ins and outs of on-the-ground heroism; Sero, upping his power by finding new ways to use his Quirk; the stoic, unsmiling Tokoyami accepting the tutelage of the casual, carefree Hawks – and here he'd been, doing…what, exactly? He'd accepted an internship under Endeavour, but why? The vague concept of fire swirled in the dim recesses of his mind, and Izuku could have kicked himself.

"Shouto," the hero went on; the ambient temperature dropped a few degrees, and Todoroki stood stock-still, gripping the shield with white knuckles. "You held Midoriya off, but failed to account for an overhead attack. Work on your response time."

And that was all he said.

In spite of his refusal to outwardly acknowledge Todoroki's innovation, Endeavour didn't discourage it, either; he did, however, spend far more time working with Izuku than he did his own son. Todoroki, on the opposite side of a dojo, now bore a bo-staff with which he sparred with a sidekick. Izuku didn't have time to dwell on this – the hero demanded his full attention now, and for good reason.

"Your flames, Midoriya." Izuku, standing stock-still, nodded mutely. "Summon them."

…And now for the moment of truth. "I, um…I can't exactly…do it at will. At least, not like you saw at the festival," he admitted, glancing at a training dummy over his shoulder, and as expected, he received a question in return.

"Why not?"

"Well, y'see," he began, slowly. "It…my Quirk works on my emotions and my determination, as far as I know. So I can't just use them whenever." He'd always felt emotions very strongly, possibly as a result of his Quirk, but even so, he wasn't sure he could summon up the power he'd been able to pull out during the obstacle race by just standing there. "I can, um, use the enhancement part of it whenever I want, though," he offered, but this wasn't enough for Endeavour, who shook his head.

"No. If you're capable of producing fire like that outside of fatal injury, that is the part of your power you need to work on," he insisted.

Biting his lip, Izuku had to admit that Endeavour was right about that much; he had one hell of a Quirk at his disposal, if he could only figure out how to unlock its powers.

"Is there no other way for you to activate it?" For whatever reason, Endeavour seemed strangely intent on the idea that Izuku should work on his pyrokinetic abilities – a phrase that still sounded very foreign indeed, just as the phrase "my Quirk" had been several months prior – and he couldn't figure out why that was, though he could at least safely assume that it wasn't out of any interest in Izuku's development for the Yuuei student's own sake.

"Hm. Can I think about that one?" he found himself asking. To his mixed surprise and guilt, the other sighed, dipping his head.

"If you must. I will give you five minutes."

Instead of going to check up on Todoroki (whose bo-staff, Izuku realized, was made up of his own ice, though he wielded it two-handed with the shield reduced to a buckler on his right arm), Endeavour simply left the room, and Izuku found himself alone on his side of the dojo, the only sound the echoing crack of wood on ice and the occasional clattering as the staff Todoroki wielded snapped at one end or the other before reforming.

Focus, Izuku! he scolded himself. What can you do to activate Phoenix without being in a situation where your adrenaline is running high…? Think!

He'd been tired, that day at the stadium – so, so tired, after having Phoenix's Rebirth triggered – but he'd somehow still managed to draw out his wings, at that critical instant – so what? What had it been? What had been the catalyst?

It wasn't talking to All Might…it wasn't any kind of survival instinct…and it wasn't any kind of awakening of latent power. So it must have been…

At the thought of her – scared yet determined, clothes bloodstained, eyes fierce – fire blossomed along his forearms, and he knew.

Holding onto that feeling as tightly as he could, Izuku focused, watching the flames, their curious warmth creeping through his body; he'd worked on something similar with One For All, before the festival, but never with Phoenix. He didn't know why he hadn't trained this Quirk yet, though he could excuse the first ten months that he'd been aware of its existence, considering that the general consensus was that its purpose was to repair lethal damage. He'd known since sometime before the festival – since the attack on the mall, as a matter of fact – that it had some other aspect to it, but for whatever reason, he'd been neglecting it.

No longer. Focus, Izuku, focus! he nearly screamed, teeth clenched tight. Draw it out!

Drawing out One For All at anything other than full power felt like trying to let a dam leak just a little – its massive reservoir of power brimmed full close to the surface, and Izuku was in a position to harness as much of it as he physically could at his whim. Phoenix, on the other hand, was the opposite – it was if he had to fight to draw out its power. If One For All was a reservoir, Phoenix was an untapped well far beneath the earth's surface, and he was attempting to draw from it with nothing more than a straw – and, like trying to pull liquid through a straw, the slow battle against whatever kept Phoenix's power inside was agonizing and unsatisfying. On the outside, Midoriya Izuku stood still for two and a half minutes, watching golden fire flicker and dance across his forearms, but on the inside, he felt something, something burning and hot and powerful just waiting for that moment when it met the straw's brim and spilled over to the world above.

And spill over it did.

She'd submitted a form to the national Quirk registry to file for a change of Quirk the morning of her departure for Kanagawa – "Zero Gravity" to "Force Manipulation" – and explained the way it worked to Varumontu, but so far, Ochako hadn't had a chance to actually use it in any sort of combat situation.

"First, let us establish where we are