Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia, nor Worm. Those belong to Kohei Hirokoshi and Wildbow respectively.

Lighter(3)

Walking into the room, Izuku paused to study every corner of the place. The walls were barren, recently cleaned of any and all picture frames or memorabilia. A couple of fixtures still dotted the room, though. One desk with a moderate amount of papers, and two chairs sat in front of it, cushioned with dark red leather. Izuku knew from experience that they were bolted down to the so that it would take a Quirk strong enough break the concrete flooring to remove them. It was a place that tried to maintain an image of being as non-threatening as possible; there were no spaces for anyone to hide.

Especially for the two men in suits who were in the room before he entered. One was an older man, greying hair salting his original black here and there. His face was neutral and as plain as they come, broken only by some sunspots and wrinkles that creased around his eyes as well as the corners of his lips.

Izuku saw that the old man made no move as he entered; just slowly turned his head and displayed his empty palms as if to prove that he wasn't a threat. The green-haired boy knew the man wasn't. His new therapist, Stefano Mariani, was someone who was pulled directly from Italy's hero support department in order to help him after their mistake with his last one. Izuku had already gotten to know the older man; even seen the rather unimpressive light-production Quirk Stefano had shown.

The man was no threat.

At least, Izuku knew he could handle most attacks the older gentleman tried, if he chose to do so. In the end, it wasn't a complete trust, but more of a trust in himself that allowed Izuku to relax into the leather seat across from the man.

However, it was the other man in the room that set Izuku's hackles arise. A bone-thin man who looked as if the wind would easily knock over at any given moment. His eyes were sunken so much that the only thing visible, other than the shadows concealing them, were the bright, blue pupils that stared out from within seemingly empty sockets.

Two long strands of blonde framed the man's face, drawing Izuku to the fact that he was breathing a little heavily. His clothes disheveled as if he just ran there at the last minute. It said something about how much the man wanted to be there, and that only drew Izuku to being more aware of his presence.

"Good afternoon, mister Midoriya." Stefano said, taking a moment for Izuku to settle in his chair.

Slowly, the boy put the skinny man out of mind. He could still see the blonde in the corner of his eye, but he wasn't important at the moment. Izuku needed to get better; if not for his sake, then for everyone else's.

"Good afternoon."

The old man nodded, offering a deliberate smile. "I don't want to take up too much of your time, so let's start off where we left off last time. Would that be okay?"

Izuku nodded, letting the man speak again. The smooth baritone was offset by the man's accent, jarring a bit of his fluent Japanese. "Great. You mentioned how you were feeling much better these days. Your relationships were fulfilling… and you now have a much greater sway over your Quirk. Though you've mentioned that you were on the fence about a couple things, too."

"Ye- yes." Izuku stuttered, wincing at the nervous tick. He might have exaggerated some things, but most were true. "I've been able to control more of the Nine now, and… I just feel that I can do it. Be a hero, I mean."

The skinny blonde choked on something in the corner, turning away from the duo. Izuku and Stefano both looked over at the man. "Could we help you… mister Yagi?"

"No, no!" he waved, frantically schooling his features from an emotion Izuku missed. "I'm just here to watch! Send the message. All Might should be here in a second should anything happen."

"Then let's hope he shouldn't need to appear." Stefano replied, turning back to Izuku. "Now, your desire to be a hero… have you thought of what you want, both long and short term, to achieve this?"

"Well," Izuku faltered a bit, his eyes wandered around the room while his fingers twirled in his lap. "I think being a hero could help a lot of people, and Hitoshi wants to do it, too. Himiko is a little iffy, but I'm sure she has her heart in the right place. It's just…" he paused, finding his words harder to say by the second. "I don't know if I'm going about this right?"

"Mister Midoriya," Izuku's head craned up to see his therapist looking at him. "I said this when we first met: I cannot speak for whatever decision you make; those are yours alone. Sure, I will offer advice here and there, but I cannot make you do anything. Just like now, you say you want to be a hero, yet I can ask: does being a professional hero help you achieve your goals? If you want to help people, then being a doctor can be a good line of work for you. I've been told you have been volunteering at the hospital with the help of Recovery Girl. Though, should you still desire that being a hero is what you want, I will advise you that guilt is sometimes the poison of motivators."

Taking a moment, Izuku caught onto just what the man was talking about. His guilt; the deaths that he could have prevented. "...It's not them." Izuku said, but so low that people would have to lean in to hear it. "I… I don't want to be a doctor, either. These powers," he looked down at his hands. "These people in my head. They're mine for a reason, and I can't change that now. I- I don't think I can only use one..."

"You've stated previously that your Quirk pits your will, your dreams, against these people. All Might can handle villains throughout the world, and helping him would be a great cause." Stefano started, pausing as the blonde started coughing again. "However, would doing that help you, mister Midoriya? There have been times that your control slips in high stress situations. Situations that a hero must be a part of on a regular basis."

Izuku shook his head. He understood what was being said; those were reasons he had always given himself before he was kidnapped. It was different now. He was different now.

"Its not just that…" Izuku spoke quickly, finding his words gaining strength with each syllable. "Its just… I remembered something. After the incident, I remembered when I first got my Quirk. Not when I suddenly had the N- Nine, but before then." His words were soft as he looked down, following his feet as they traced circles on the floor. "I used to have nightmares. I'd always be floating in space; I would always float aimlessly, never able to breathe, nor utter a cry for help. I felt broken. And it was… painful being that helpless. I used to wake up crying in the middle of the night, and my… mom would have to come to calm me down. Then one night, there was an All Might figurine on my nightstand, and when I woke to it, I just felt like he was there for a moment. A- and I just felt… safe."

He paused to look up at his quiet therapist, locking eyes with him. "So, I want to be a hero. I want people to see me, and feel safe. That's…" Izuku faltered, losing confidence suddenly. "Why I want to be a hero…"

For a moment, there was calm, contemplative breathing echoing in the room. No one moved from their designated spots in the room, and Izuku just waited for someone to break the silence. However, he never expected the silence to be destroyed by the normally quiet Yagi.

The man was in an almost silent, sniveling fit, and furiously wiped his nose with one arm as the other tried to stem some tears that were threatening to break out. He was so caught up in his emotions that he never noticed the stares that Izuku and Stefano were giving him. They both wondered why he was even there in the first place.

Still, Stefano sighed at the situation, turning to Izuku while he ignored the quietly sobbing man. "I normally don't try to bring my personal feelings into these interviews, but I feel that this is a time to put my thoughts on the table. Mister Midoriya, you are perhaps one of the most gifted people I have had the pleasure to talk to. You are more mature for your age, and I can only attribute that to your situation, but at the same time, I know that you are still inexperienced. You're a child who has the ability to change the world, but you hesitate because you feel that you need to."

Izuku blinked at the man, pulling the entirety of his attention into focus as his therapist continued. "You want to have recognition, and you want redemption. However, you are still a child." The man looked up, staring into Izuku's eyes. "I have a granddaughter, about your age, and she has a rather powerful Quirk, just like you. Of course, even if the nature of your abilities differ greatly, she still has problems of her own that trouble her like you. Yet, she doesn't have the same intensity your gaze has. She's not looking at things like they are entirely her fault when the problems she causes catch up to her. You are, though. You take your experiences, and decide that everything is your fault. You don't give yourself a chance to realize that some things are out of your control."

"But, but I-" Izuku started. "What if they really are my fault…"

"Then, you get up and learn," he said. "Don't let guilt weigh you down. And, now that I find myself beginning to sound like a half-baked motivational speaker, I need to say: Take things slow. You're still might have had a harsher spot in life, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a child."

"That's…" Izuku was stumped.

He'd always had an internal timer on his problems. First, healing his mom was a priority, and it had taken him so long to figure everything out. His sanity was always called into question, so he'd always been told to rush to get where he needed to be.

Now though, someone was telling him to slow down. To have time to make more mistakes.

Izuku honestly had no idea how to think on that idea. Guilt clogged his thoughts, and always pushed him to get rid of it. Loss had poisoned his reason, and he was only left with bits and pieces that he forged himself. On top of that, small bits of blissful sanctuary stopped him from making any larger choices. He felt he wanted to change, but was afraid of what that might entail; what that decision would cause him to lose.

With the Nine in his head, Izuku didn't even know if he was allowed to be a child.

Luckily, a distraction from his thoughts came when Izuku saw mister Yagi beginning to approach him. The boy flinched at the hard gaze the man gave him, and was about to move when the skinny man stopped.

Yagi cleared his throat, and with the softest tones Izuku heard from the man, he spoke. "Young Midoriya, if you could… use a different Quirk, then would your dreams change?"

"Mister Yagi, I know you've been rather emotional for the last couple minutes, but I believe we had an agreement that you wouldn't interfere with these sessions." Stefano spoke, his voice low, threatening.

"It's... okay," Izuku spoke quickly, facing the most suspicious man in the room. He hadn't trusted mister Yagi since the beginning, but now he was interested in a bit of what he said. "Does this mean that you can give people Quirks?"

"No, er…" the man started sweating. "I mean, hypothetically, if you could choose to abandon your Quirk and use a… less volatile one, would you take that chance?"

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the skinny man; it sounded rather contrived that someone would offer someone like that without a catch. However, he still felt the need to answer honestly. "Even if that was real, I don't think I would take that deal. I would feel… like I was running away. M- maybe if it was before everything happened, but… This is my problem, so I want to deal with it myself."

Mister Yagi's eyes widened as if realizing something. "Right… forget I asked then."

The room fell into silence. Izuku had slightly expected it before he answered; the question was just so random that it broke the atmosphere the room had been in before. He could tell that his therapist was thinking of something to say, but the suspicion that mister Yagi had garnered was something that was hard to ignore.

Izuku wasn't privy to the exact reasons why the man had insisted to be put in the room for every single session, but he was forced to deal with it when his mom agreed with it. A fact that confused the boy even further.

Mister Yagi was the man who was supposed to be the secretary to All Might, yet his supposed work was always shunted off to Izuku's mom. On that alone, Izuku thought there might be a little more apprehension or ill-intent directed to the man from his mom. However, instead of opposition, all Izuku could catch from their brief conversations on the phone were hints of gratitude.

The whole situation confused him more often than he cared to admit.

Still, Izuku couldn't use Jack's Quirk to pry open the situation. After the boy had used the man's Quirk awhile ago, he had thought that they had come to an agreement of sorts. Yet, every time he used the Quirk, there would always be hints of something going on after Izuku allowed the man to either converse with his therapist or some other mundane conversation with a random passerby. It was the fact that he couldn't even find what was going on despite listening to every word that frightened the boy from using Jack's Quirk too much.

As for the others, Izuku was still trying to figure out what each of them reacted to. Hitoshi and Himiko were a great help to figuring out most of them, but his time limit for everyone's Quirk was cut to fifteen minutes unless he offered something they wanted. Safe to say he barely let them indulge in their choices.

While the trio in the room were busy putting their thoughts in order, the door creaked open a bit for an old woman to peek into the room. Small, black eyes roved over the room until they found mister Yagi, and her long, thin mouth stretched the wrinkles on her cheeks.

"Toshinori, have you been crying?"

Hearing his name, the blonde man perked up before his face grew an interesting shade of red. "Of course I haven't!"

The woman raised an eyebrow, shifting further into the room to reveal her doctor's coat worn over her dress. She picked the ends of the coat that were dragging on the ground before sighing. "I'll believe you this time… However, it's about time for you to get your check-up. When you get the time, could you come find me?"

"Oh! Right," Toshinori nodded, looking at the room. "A- actually, let's get started now."

"Of course you did something again Toshinori…" she mumbled, motioning for the man to follow her before turning back to make contact with Izuku. "Are you going to be going to the hospital today, dearie?"

Izuku paused a bit at the sudden question, but he remembered his mom saying something about a drug addict a few days ago. "Would that be okay?"

"There's no reason to be shy; you're always welcome to come help out." she smiled. "Does your mother know where you're going, though? Should we contact her before we go?"

"No!" The boy nearly shouted, his eyes flicking everywhere for some answers. "I mean, mom already knows. We don't need to tell her, and distract her from her work…"

The old woman frowned a bit. "...okay, however, should anything happen, I will have to call your mother. We'll head over to the hospital with Toshinori here."

Saying that, she bowed to Stefano. "Sorry for taking your time, mister Mariani. I hope whatever time we took wasn't too much."

"No, you're fine, miss Shuzenji." The old man laughed a bit. "After all, I don't there's a hero out there that would think badly of you, Recovery Girl."

"We're using our hero names are we now, Luminescent?."

Izuku shivered at the way Recovery girl said those words, and suddenly he felt a little more in a hurry to get out of the room. He shared a looked at a green-faced Toshinori, and for once, the two of them seemed to understand the other's thoughts.

They left the room before they heard more.

Izuku breathed in the heavy scent of lemon and disinfectant. It clouded the almost pure white hallway as he kept pace with the older woman next to him. She hadn't said anything since they arrived at the hospital, but the boy wasn't sure if that was because she had talked to his therapist about something or he did something wrong.

Either way, the boy didn't know how to respond. He wasn't good at figuring people out, and his nerves canceled out any subjects he thought could spark a conversation. As such, Izuku spent his time watching the hospital's daily scene to have something to distract him.

The place was as clean as it could be. Either from them cleaning it everyday, or them preemptively powerwashing it in lieu of his arrival. In a way, Riley's Quirk kept them on their toes on how badly it could go from false alarm to run-at-first-sight.

However, despite how bad Riley's Quirk could be, everyone had gotten used to his appearances. Nurses in white scrubs meandered down the halls, shuffling papers and evaluations into the crooks of elbows while doctors gave him and Recovery Girl a wide berth. Still, no one moved to stop him or Recovery Girl as they walked.

That was mainly to the multitude of heros and policemen standing guard outside several rooms or were walking down the halls. They weren't there to get check-ups or anything; the hallway was for injured or drugged villains to be kept in. It was one of the support areas that people with healing Quirks and restraint Quirks who, instead of going on different assignments, wanted something a little closer to home. In either case, this section of the hospital helped to minimize casualties in case of a hero going too far, and to offer a way for villains to be held in more humane ways, as the government put it.

Izuku saw the place as somewhere he might have to spend quite a bit of time at. His Quirks rarely came with a safe and friendly option of takedowns, and unless he was going against someone extremely tough, Izuku felt that he might have to hurt them pretty badly. As such, getting to know the ins and outs of what is known as the "villain ward" would help him in the long run. It also helped that he could offer support here and there in the hospital.

In the beginning, he had to prove himself as ready and able to act as a support to both the doctors and police around, but after doing so, along with Recovery Girl vouching for him, he was let in under surveillance. And now he was currently being led to one of the rooms holding a recent villain capture.

"Did you read the overview on who you're looking at?" Izuku jumped at the voice next to him, looking down at the smiling Recovery Girl.

"A little… I was in a rush to get out of the house at the time."

"And why were you in a rush? If something's happening at home, you can tell us."

Suppressing a frown and the opportunity to say that he could handle it, Izuku put on his best fake smile. "Don't worry, I just got out of bed late and… mom had to get me to my therapy session."

"Of course," Recovery Girl held the word as if there was some other meaning behind it before taking a left and waiting for Izuku to catch up. "Just tell either All Might or I if something is bothering you. We can't be around all the time, but we can try to support you the best way we can."

"...thank you." Izuke felt his mind wander a bit. It was perhaps only him that had both All Might and Recovery Girl as 'support', even if it was only by his Quirk.

"You're welcome, dearie. Oh, but before we get there, can you tell me what you know, so I can fill you in."

"Well… the man seems to have a hardening Quirk. However, his Quirk reportedly shouldn't have given him enough toughness to tank the heroes who arrived to stop him, but he still did. There was also a large amount of dopamine, testosterone and adrenaline, leading people to believe he was... drugged before his rampage started."

Recovery Girl smiled, patting him on the arm. "So you did read most of it. And what do you think of it?"

Izuku paused, pursing his lips as he wasn't expecting her to ask. He knew that Recovery Girl's Quirk only helped speed up the process of healing, so she had to know quite a bit of medical knowledge in order to use her Quirk as effectively as it could be. However, he was on a different spectrum as Riley was the one with knowledge, and he simply piggybacked off her, in a sense.

"I don't know…" he decided. "I'll have to… see the culprit to know for sure, but did they find the injection site?"

The old woman hummed, flashing her name tag at one of the police standing by a door. The policeman nodded, letting the two in before Recovery Girl started talking again. "Not yet," she pointed to a large man with a heavily bruised and swollen face laying handcuffed to the hospital bed. "Though, you can take a look, and tell me if you find anything."

"You're not going to…" Izuku frowned, looking back and forth between the man and the empty room. "Help me?"

"Think of it as a test, deary. You've spent around a month here, so I think you have enough practice to start doing things without me hovering over your shoulder."

Izuku flinched, remembering how much time he had taken from one of the world's best healing heroes. It was a sobering realization on how selfish he had been without seeing it. Quietly, he nodded in acceptance, feeling the gazes of the policemen who were staring into the room.

"Is that going to be okay. I mean, you've heard of what that Quirk can do to-"

"I know." Recovery Girl cut the man off, and Izuku blinked at how low the woman's voice got. "You don't need to tell me anything; just do your job and stand there… please."

Feeling a bit of warmth coil into his chest, Izuku turned his attention inwards, feeling the nine people in his head held back by the green chains. In what was only seconds, he had finished his ritual to pull Riley's Quirk close to himself. Knowledge and madness began to fill his head as he felt Riley squirm a bit in his grasp.

However, before Izuku could have any real trouble, the girl calmed down and began to act interested in the situation. It was perhaps one of the times Izuku took notice of the little things surrounding every Quirk's personalities.

Riley felt like was was twisted from madness and perpetual curiosity. It was only after Izuku dug a little deeper that he noticed other emotions buried underneath, as if terrified to be revealed. Something about the little things she constantly said were always trying to prove that she was crazy, and would create some mass pathogen at the drop of a hat, always struck Izuku a little oddly. Yet, the most peculiar thing was how easily her Quirk was twisted to what he wanted.

All he needed was a little distraction to keep her occupied, and he would be able to use her Quirk for much longer than the others. And in doing so, Izuku felt pretty sick at how accustomed to manipulating her he had become. He felt like he had switched one shackle for another.

Still, the boy told himself how horrible she could be. He persuaded his morals that he was using her Quirk and not her.

With his heart set, Izuku turned back to the person on the bed. Riley was chattering in the back of his head, adding in all the ways he could dissect the man to see what made him tick, but Izuku calmly walked over the bedside.

He pressed one finger onto the man's skin, and felt how the man's skin seemed a little rougher than normal. It wasn't outside a humanly threshold, though. That either dictated that the man's Quirk was more conscious in its application, or he needed a sufficient force to activate it. The severity of the man's injuries probably warranted out the latter, but Izuku just noted that for speculation.

Looking back to the man's bruised face, Izuku noticed the dark purple that crowded the edges of the man's eyes and cheeks. A broken orbital, cheek and possible dislocated jaw. Whoever had hit him definitely wasn't holding back, but considering the damage the man caused before being taken down, Izuku felt that maybe it was warranted.

The problem was that all that damage had most definitely given the man a concussion as well. That would affect the results of the investigation later. Still, that wasn't part of Izuku's reason for being there, so the boy just made sure the man wasn't in any danger while ignoring Riley's yelling about a 'chance to take some grey matter'.

Then, seeing seemingly not traces of an foreign injection, Izuku frowned as he found one bee sting along a major artery. It would make sense that bees were active at this time of year, but the area that it was found caused a little seed of doubt to be placed on the boy's mind.

The sting was already half-way healed, swelling had died down to only a raised bump while the stinger had probably been removed when the man was first admitted. Overall it was an injury that wouldn't be looked over too thoroughly, but Riley was gushing about some new injection applications for her ideas. There was something there. However, no matter how long Izuku looked, he found nothing out of place except what they already knew.

"Did you find anything?"

Looking over his shoulder, Izuku found Recovery Girl. "No… well, actually, it's probably nothing."

"If you have something, say it. No one's going to criticize you for not figuring it out after a couple minutes of looking at them."

"Well…" Izuku pointed at the bee sting. "I think this is probably something to look further into. Riley is talking about things again, a- and I think that's a cause for concern… probably. But, I- I don't think I found anything more telling on what this drug could be."

Recovery Girl smiled, humming. She raised a finger to the man's mouth and opened their jaw a bit. "Can you tell me what color their tongue is?"

Izuku frowned, peering into the barely open teeth. "It's… black? But why would that be the case? Is the drug actually orally taken? An adverse reaction or something?"

"The truth is: we don't know." Izuku blanked at the blunt reply from his mentor. Seeing his clueless look, the older woman chuckled a little. "Don't think too badly about our results. In fact, your guesses are something we're looking into as well."

"The way you say 'results'... does that mean that this man is not the only one affected with this drug?"

Recovery Girl gave him a wry smile. "We're calling it Trigger, or that's what the dealers have been calling it. Whatever it is, all we know that is artificially induces heavy emotions on the person taking the drug, and that subsequently causes the person to display a much stronger Quirk."

Izuku paused as the words sunk into his thoughts. The drug's effects were eerily similar to what Hitoshi was talking about a few days ago. Something about a correlation between emotions and Quirks. However, the people taking Trigger weren't only gaining a stronger Quirk but were also getting an equal amount of hormonal imbalance to replicate the effects of stress and elation. Either way, the drug was trying to get a reaction out of them to increase their Quirk output.

"If that's the case, and their brains are clouded by the sheer amount of endorphins…" Izuku mumbled, suddenly coming to a conclusion. "Then, wouldn't these people be acting on every impulse?"

"I knew you would get it. Yes, these sudden increase in villain activity is nothing more than a bunch of random people being injected with Trigger."

Izuku's eyes widened at the information. "Then… this seems much bigger than I first thought." Slowly, a bit of apprehension sneaked into his thoughts. "If that's the case, though, why are you telling me this? This seems a bit too much for my first assignment. Um, no offense…"

"Oh… yes," Recovery Girl sighed, looking back to the door for a second. It wasn't until the policemen standing outside silently closed it that the woman began talking again. "You see, All Might and I had thought that maybe you'd be able to piece together the details of Trigger when you first saw it. Perhaps we thought you- I mean, Riley's Quirk was strong enough to do something like that now."

"You both thought…" Izuku blushed, feeling embarrassment coloring his cheeks. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, dearie, perhaps we had been hurrying you a bit. Though," she paused in her sentence, looking a few seconds too long out the window. "I recommend you get comfortable using Riley's Quirk more."

The boy blinked. "Why?"

"Well… you never know when such skills might come in handy. For example, we have been thinking about raising the ban on your surgery abilities, so whenever you're ready, we can start anytime."

"Oh… okay." Izuku felt a bit of vertigo at the sudden trust in his abilities. They had specifically held him back to only diagnoses, and strictly banned him from touch even the water. However, now he was being held accountable for something so dangerous.

"I know its a lot to think about, so let's get you some ice cream before we get you home, okay? Or do you prefer a lollipop?"

Izuku nodded his head, still a little in shock over the previous conversation. Idly, he felt his body being led by the old hero, and calmly let himself be moved while his thoughts were all over the place. For some reason, he began to feel needed. It was a sort of elation he hadn't felt in awhile.

However, in the clouds of his thoughts, his eyes still landed on one nameplate and the open door next to it. The room wasn't any different from any other hospital room in the villain ward, but it was the visitor that caught most of the boy's attention.

To call the person a man was like calling a gorilla a monkey. He had muscles on his muscles, and every inch of the man looked like it had been sculpted for one singular purpose. An idle Riley in his head had almost screamed at how perfect the man's physique was for combat. And considering the thick calluses and scars that dotted the man's hands, he had definitely been putting that body to work.

Yet, those hands made for punching in skulls were clasped around a feeble, white hand that was handcuffed to the bedside. They held the hand with such care that Izuku almost thought the man was afraid to hurt the handcuffed individual.

A moment later, the massive man turned in his seat, and Izuku was faced with the most terrifying eyes of coal he had seen in his life. The man's dark hair was choppy, cleanly cut in places, but looked as if it was torn and burnt in others. His eyebrows were thick and bushy; almost shading his already deep, black eyes. There were traces of unshaven stubble on the block of the man's square jaw, and only a diagonal scar torn from his left cheek to his jawline. It looked as if someone had decided to put everything that was masculine and tough into one man before calling it a day.

Izuku felt his mouth dry up at the man's gaze, and pushed Riley's Quirk away in order to try and grab someone who might help him. Though, before he took a moment to call up someone useful, the man turned his blank face into something of an apologetic smile.

"Sorry 'bout that, kid." The man's voice rumbled down the hall. "...didn't see you there."

"I- its okay." Izuku stuttered out, finding Recovery Girl smiling at him and choosing to follow after her. He paused a bit to take a look back at the man again only to find him looking back to the woman in the bed, his hands still clasped around the singular one.

'Oguro' the nameplate read. Izuku put that name to memory as some instinct in him told him that that man was certainly someone to note. Whoever they were, Izuku was rather apprehensive on figuring out what Quirk they had in order to make him sweat so much.

"I see you found the gentle giant." Recovery Girl joked, smiling a bit at izuku.

"Gentle?"

The woman hummed. "Yes, mister Oguro comes every weekend to see his wife without fail. Everyone here ended up calling him by that nickname and it stuck."

"That… makes sense," Izuku paused, not really seeing the sense in that. "But, why is she here? She didn't look too… able."

"Ah, that…" the old hero had a look on her face that was a mixture of pain and pity. "Apparently, her Quirk overwhelmed her body, and her organs began failing en masse. Its lucky that she's still alive today. In the process of trying to stop her, several heroes were injured in her carelessness, so she ended up here."

Izuku accepted the information, and found that moments like this were rather odd considering his actual age. They juxtaposed his maturity and physicality in the same moment. However, that didn't mean he didn't appreciate it. He preferred the truth, after all.

Because he had enough lies to deal with himself.

"Could I…" Izuku looked back to Oguro's room.

The scenario Recovery Girl told him didn't have a happy ending like heroes were supposed to give. Thinking about it, Izuku realized that he wanted to help. That for once, he wanted to make things better instead of continually making things worse until one side gave out.

So, he wet his lips, and spoke with purpose. "Would I be able to save her with Riley's Quirk?"

The healer hero smiled, as if she had expected this. "We'll see, dearie."

"Yes, don't worry I'll-"

"Though, you will have to get your mother's permission this time."

Izuku blinked, staring at the still smiling woman. Busted.

Sorry for the extremely long time between this an the last update. I was trying to get back into the classes, and ended up getting distracted every time I sat down to write. In lieu of that, this is a fairly long chapter, but without much action. Lots of set-up, though. If you see anything that I missed, feel free to yell at me until I notice.

Trying to keep this short, so expect the next update at least faster than this one. Things are about to kick up. Also, I'm gonna stop doing the 'Next Chapter' stuff. It felt a little weird.