"You… do this… every day?" Yaoyorozu panted out as Midoriya effortlessly jogged beside her.

"Everyday," Izuku answered.

"...Why?"

Izuku stuttered for a moment. He had yet to tell her about the true nature of his Reawakening. The System seemed a dangerous tool and no matter how much he trusted Yaoyorozu, he wanted to keep its secret under wraps.

"Even after I went through my Reawakening, I was pretty weak. I mean… I had all the increased strength and stuff, but I became exhausted really easily." He gestured at himself, "Heroes can't increase their strength or speed after an Awakening, but we can lessen the strain those attributes have on us by training. And as someone who's Quirkless, I can't really speak on this subject, but apparently, those with Quirks can decrease the Mana drain said Quirks have by similarly training them." Izuku looked back to his side, where Yaoyorozu should've been, only to find that she had been left behind. "...Oops."

Turning back around, Izuku began to wonder how he had repeated his same mistake as a chime rang out, signifying his Running goal had been completed for the day. Though the two hadn't run that far, he had done several "warm-up" laps before she had arrived to meet him.

It only took him thirty seconds to backtrack far enough to find Yaoyorozu collapsed onto a bench, her chest heaving rapidly. In fact, the breathes were so violent, Izuku noticed her voluptuous ch- "Nononono." Izuku nearly slapped himself in front of the girl and instead chose to lightly shake his head to clear the thought.

"Sorry, I space out a little during my runs. I guess it's just kinda become second nature at this point."

Yaoyorozu shook her head and waved him on, "Just… go on… without me."

Izuku almost laughed at the dramatic declaration and instead decided to lower himself to the ground, beginning his push-ups goal. "Don't worry," He said, "I'll keep you company." With one hand keeping his body in rhythm, he reached behind his back and grabbed the water bottle tucked into his sweat pant's pocket. He quickly tipped a bit of water into his mouth, allowing Yaoyorozu to marvel at his multitasking skills before he offered her the container.

She took it and self-consciously spun the bottle 180 degrees to avoid drinking from the same side as him. Of course, it was an action Izuku felt a great deal of amusement towards.

"So, enrolling in UA… do you really think that's the best idea?"

"All the best Agencies were started thanks to UA. Might Towers, The Endeavor Agency, Genius Office, and Prime Heroes are all Agencies that exist solely because of UA High and the Heroes they trained."

"And you think we could start an Agency as successful as theirs?"

Izuku's mind faltered for a moment and he accidentally let slip his inward thought, "We?"

Yaoyorozu flinched upon realizing what she had said, "We… as in both of us starting Agencies!"

Izuku smiled, "You don't have to defend it so vehemently. I wouldn't exactly mind running a Hero Agency with you."

Slowly, but surely, the girl's mouth curved up into an embarrassed smile that matched Izuku's in happiness, faltering only slightly as his head turned to gauge her reaction. She was so red, Izuku thought she might have some sort of Blaze Magic inside her.

Changing the subject, Izuku called her back to reality, "Well you seem a bit more rested, why don't you join me for some push-ups!"

The request seemed so jubilant that Yaoyorozu couldn't help but acquiesce, even as she groaned on the inside about the workout.

Two Weeks Later:

"Uh… w… what?" Yaoyorozu stammered out as she watched Izuku insert a key into mid-air spawning a Gate.

"I was wondering if you would be able to see this. After all, the last time I used a Key, only I could see the Gate," Then murmuring to himself, "I wonder if the System sensed my intentions and adapted accordingly."

"How… How can you do this? Where'd you get that Key?" Yaoyorozu was overcome with confusion as she observed the Gate just outside of Aldera Middle School.

"It's… a long story, but for now, just know that it's part of my Reawakening." Izuku once again felt bad holding back the truth from Yaoyorozu and that feeling was only amplified tenfold when the onyx-eyed beauty gave him a nod of complete trust.

"So then where's our Raid Team?"

"You're looking at them."

Yaoyorozu paled, "You want to take on a Dungeon by ourselves?!"

"It's a C-Rank, nothing to worry about for us!" Izuku declared hopefully. "If we can't take it, then I've got two Hearthstones to use." He began walking through, only for Yaoyorozu to grab his arm.

"I trust you enough to not ask about that Key… but… to handle a Dungeon on our own?"

Izuku stopped and nodded solemnly, "You're an A-Rank, someone that would be on the frontlines of plenty of Agency's Assault teams. That's the sort of future you want right? To be a strong Hero?"

Yaoyorozu froze in place, was that what she really wanted? A-Ranks made plenty of money and lived more comfortably than most, but it was also a dangerous life. Every time she entered a Dungeon, there was the chance she wouldn't come back. "Just go back home and live like the rich girl you are." A voice whispered in her head. "Why risk your life with this guy? If you gave up and apologized to your parents, you know that they'd welcome you back?" Yaoyorozu shook her head, to go home meant to be a tool, nothing more than someone to create items for her parents.

"Yes! I want to be as strong as possible! So that I can be independent and live only as I want to!"

Izuku smiled and this time, when he let himself sink into the Gate, Yaoyorozu let herself be pulled along, entering with a deep breath.

Like the E-Rank Dungeon Key from before, this one turned the landscape into a ruined mess. The Junior High School was now more of a decrepit prison, shambling Villains filling its courtyard, their heads now turned in their direction.

Izuku summoned his gauntlets as a floating pink mist began to spread itself around the courtyard. As it struck the zombies around them, he realized it made them slightly bigger, "Yaoyorozu make a gas mask for yourself."

She quickly did so, fastening it securely around her face, "What about you?"

"I'll be fine," Izuku assured her, "Probably."

Thankfully, as the pink mist hit him, he was greeted with a System message.

[Zombie Virus Poison Detected: Cleansing Body]

Yaoyorozu seemed to be fairing fine as well, so without further ado, Izuku gestured to the field of Zombies, "Those are your foes, kill them."

"By… myself?"

"Like I said, you're an A-Rank, those are D-Rank. It's like squashing bugs for you." Seeing the anxiety on her face, Izuku rested a calming hand on the small of her back, "I'll be right here to make sure nothing happens, but if you're going to be a Hero, then you need to get used to fighting. You're not going to get past the temple incident if you don't learn that you are your own force to be reckoned with."

"I… I don't know about this."

"You told me you could take on Kaito, Ryouji, and Hamada if you were going all out, and I know you weren't lying. Think about how quickly you were moving when you were fighting them," Izuku began speaking faster as the Zombie horde grew closer and closer. "If you move like that in- AH!"

One of the Zombies leapt at him, moving far quicker than Izuku had thought possible of the creatures. His right arm instinctively flew upwards, moving to decapitate the creature, but he stopped as he noticed a flash of silver and he instead sidestepped the Villain.

Collapsing behind him, the Villain lay dead, cut in half by one clean cut.

Izuku grinned with pride as he laid his eyes back on Yaoyorozu, her body lunged outwards, both hands gripping a katana. Her face was pale and her breathing was shallow, but it was nothing if not progress.

Her eyes met his and she gave a weak smile, "I couldn't let them hurt you."

Izuku grinned even wider, "Thanks for the save!" He slammed his fists together, creating a resounding CLANG! "Now, only two hundred more to go!"

A bit of life seemed to re-enter Yaoyorozu's eyes and she nodded back, pulling a second shorter blade from her arm, leaping into battle behind Izuku.

With every severed head, slashed torso, dented chest, and flying body, Yaoyorozu got into more of a rhythm, her body dancing on its own as she practically forgot why she had been afraid in the first place.

As Izuku dashed through his old middle school courtyard, blinking in and out of reality thanks to his new Camouflage Skill, courtesy of Shinso, he felt a rush of relief. He had never expected things to go this smoothly, for Yaoyorozu to recover like this. "Then again," He thought to himself, "She's never once killed a Villain, so that unknown was probably the only thing holding her back. It's like the first time you ride a rollercoaster, you don't know what to expect, so you're terrified, but once you go on it you want to ride again." It was that same sentiment Izuku felt right now. To kill a Villain was a scary experience at first, but the first time was always the worst, from there on, it was like a game. A cathartic experience of power over one's life.

"Thirty-four!" Izuku shouted across the horde.

"Twenty-seven!" Yaoyorozu yelled back, quickly ascertaining the meaning of the number.

"Game on!"

All Yaoyorozu had ever wanted in life was the strength to be her own person, to not be defined by who she was born as, but until now, she had never felt that power. Always hanging back as a healer she had never known what she was truly capable of. Even when under the control of Shinso, everything felt like it had been fuzzy, in a haze. But now, everything was crystal clear.

"Could I always do this?" She didn't for a second fool herself that these were some sort of crazy strong Villains, but they were Villains nonetheless. "I guess all that training with Midoriya was worth it."

"Thirty-nine!" She shouted.

Izuku punched away another Zombie, "Fifty-one!"

[Skill: Overwhelming Force Lv. 1 has been learned.]

70 Mana

Gauntlet Only

- You have Mastered the use of gauntlets, from now on, all attacks involving gauntlets will have a 33% increase in attack power. Additionally, upon activating this Skill, your Strength Stat will double for one strike.

"Fifty-two!"

"Huh?!" Izuku looked around, realizing that in his desire to look over his new Skill, he had activated Camouflage, allowing the rest of the Zombies to surge to Yaoyorozu and feed themselves into her blades.

"Hmph, fine!" Izuku said as he activated his new Skill and emerged from Camouflage.

The nearest Zombies were turned into a fine paste as Izuku's new Strength Stat of 150 tore through them with ease. The punches were so strong that they continued on with a piercing effect, killing row after row of Zombies.

Within no time at all, Yaoyorozu and Izuku each killed their last Zombie respectively.

Yaoyorozu, looking more alive than ever before, her eyes shining with intensity, threw her swords down with exhaustion and declared, "Alright you win. I know I got eighty-one, so you must've got a hundred and nineteen."

Izuku smirked, "One hundred and sixty-nine!"

"What?!"

"It looks like there were more than two hundred!"

[Alert: Zombie Horde Training is complete, Gate will now be closed.]

Izuku tilted his head, "There's no Boss?" Before he could get an answer or further look around, he found himself and Yaoyorozu once more standing outside Aldera Middle School, looking the same as ever.

[Secret Quest: Train a Partner, Completed! Would you like to accept your Rewards?]

"Accept," Izuku muttered, somewhat stunned.

[Reward #1: Item: Weapon]

[Reward #2: Stat Points +15]

[Reward #3: Item: Armor]

"Wait… this was all a Quest?" He looked down at Yaoyorozu, smiling wider than he'd ever seen her smile, "Oh god… I didn't cure her fear… the System did."

Thanks for reading! For real this time, the next chapter is the Entrance Exam! If you can't tell, I had a tiny bit of trouble writing out this chapter, so I kinda ended up with a plot point I didn't think I'd have, ie the System changing Yaoyorozu. Oh well! Hope you enjoyed this somewhat random chapter! See you next time!