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Tomura scowls as he watches the fight around him. Eraserhead is undoubtedly super cool, but Tomura has seen more impressive fighters. Had been there to observe Hikari train Kibou. In a way, the pro hero moves similarly to how Hikari used to. Not as fluently and graceful as her- but in the basics Eraserhead knew her and her family's style.
Almost subconsciously his fingers feel for Mother on his shoulder. Sensei had told him to place the hands in certain places, to make him feel like they were trying to drag him backwards. But Mother he wouldn't place anywhere but on his shoulder, just where she used to hold him to tell him to leave something to her, where she used to squeeze lightly to encourage him.
The chaos makes his skin itch, driving him insane. All Might didn't show up, a student escaped and Eraserhead doesn't have a single issue taking out his cannon fodder. Tomura feels his time running out.
So he acts. Not against the kids, they are busy taking down small fry just like he intended. Busy but in no real danger. Sensei had raised him to be a villain, but Hestia taught him first. He acts against Eraserhead. Uses all of his training to outmaneuver the hero, get behind him to not be subjected to the quirk disabling red light.
And then he disintegrates the man’s elbow. Not deeply. Not fatally. Just enough to hurt. To remind the man when it is better to run. To pick his battles.
But Tomura’s lesson must have not been perceived well because Eraserhead still fights. Admirable. And annoying as fuck! Why does Tomura even try? He can't even answer that himself. No, instead he has to play the perfect little puppet! So fucking exhausting.
Eraser is still defending his students though. Just as planned. Another proof of the man being a good fucking hero. Even if he's stupid. He’s still cool.
“Nomu!”
Tomura wants to give the monster a command to fixate the hero as a sharp whistle rings through the arena. And everything stills.
Kurogiri flickers just like he used to do when Tomura first met him. When Sensei first introduced them. When Kurogiri still had a streak of malicious compliance in him and hummed along to the radio. Kurogiri even called Tomura by another name when Tomura had requested it. When he had asked for the name his mother had given him. But the doctor had killed that part of Kurogiri, at least Tomura thought he did. He isn’t sure anymore.
The Nomu doesn’t react to the whistle, it just takes down Eraserhead. Which is fucking annoying and was not Tomura’s plan! But Kurogiri can’t keep secrets from Sensei, so ordering the Nomu off is impossible. Instead he plays along, plays like it was his idea in the first place. Like he wasn’t taught better.
His attention turns to a group of three kids, two green ones and a purple one. They all look terrified. Or… the boy with the curly hair looks rather furious. Like he is insulted. What a fucking brat. Can't he appreciate the careful plan Tomura has laid out? He seems to be taught a lesson too.
Tomura zones in on that expression, drinking it up. His red eyes gleam with joy as he dashes forward, ready to turn the predator into prey. The green kid bares his teeth. “Get sensei to safety! Now!” And Tomura’s previously outstretched hand is twisted behind his back. A shiver of fear..? No- anticipation. Tomura isn’t allowed to be afraid. He is just enjoying the prospect of a worthy opponent. Of course he is.
The green child is ripped away from him by the Nomu. Which - ow - fucking hurts. Pain shoots through his entire left side.
That kid had a good grip on him, his shoulder is definitely not properly in its socket anymore. Fucking emergency programming. He wanted a proper fight!
“Nomu! Stand down! This one is mine!” Tomura can't trust the Nomu to keep the brat alive. Not with how it almost massacred Eraserhead. And decaying it himself would get him into trouble with Sensei. Also the beast regenerates too fast.
The green brat gets into a fighting stance. A familiar stance. Similar to Hestia. “A mini boss? Interesting!” Tomura scrapes over the dry skin at this neck. He wants to scrub it off properly, let a soothing cream take away all the irritations. But Sensei forbids it. Tells him how his body needs to overcome the side effects of his quirk. Oh, how much Tomura wants to lay his hands on Sensei and watch the man suffer under the quirk too.
“I'm not a mini boss. I'm a world mod. You broke the in-game rules. You aren't supposed to hurt children.” The green kid attacks, quick jabs and kicks that graze over Tomura's pressure points. The kid is better than Eraserhead . Better trained in the distinct style that can be used combined with any quirk and none at the same time. A style made for stealth and speed.
Tomura laughs. And lets himself fall into the dance that is their fight. He lets himself enjoy the danger, the thrill, the familiarity.
The kid clearly received more proper training, not whatever Sensei did to him that Tomura had to combine with everything he remembered from Hestia. “You are too focused on your quirk. You make it your only weapon. You forget how easily a quirk can be disabled. Break a finger, remove a finger, remove a hand, cut the nerves that let you use your hands. Whoever trained you did a poor job,” the child taunts.
Tomura growls. It isn't her fault she never got to train him fully! Hestia had tried! Every night she tried. And Sensei killed her. Killed her and made it look like Tomura did it. “Take that back! She didn't have a choice!”
The bastard with icy green eyes just cocks his head. “Which one? Give me a name. Who fucked up your training? Made you reliant on your hands? Got that frankly disgusting costume idea in your head?”
He screams. His hand lashes out, trying to grasp the sorry excuse of a person who insulted Hestia. “Sensei didn't leave her a choice! He killed her! Stuck her hand on my body so I never forget!”
Green eyes harden into emeralds shining with a promise of pain. “And yet you follow him and break the law.”
Tomura finally grasps the kid, wraps his hand around his face. He can feel the skin crumble under his hand, give away to slimy flesh and ruby blood.
Except… nothing happens. The face doesn't disintegrate. Doesn't fall apart into dust like he had seen and felt so mang times. Instead a red light falls on him. Eraserhead. “So fucking cool…” he grits out.
The kid takes out his arm. Numbs it fully with just a jab. “See? You rely too much on a quirk. I haven't even used mine yet. But I think it is time to end this.” Red lines appear all around the brat's arm as he reels back, ready to hit.
Tomura panics.
And several things happen at once.
“Nomu!”
“I am here!”
The kid punches.
The Nomu absorbs the shock easily, at the same time Tomura falls through Kurogiri's portal and finds himself next to the bartender. And All Might enters the scene.
Tenya would cry if he wasn’t so terrified. If Stains blade hadn’t just pinned his shoulder to the wall behind him because otherwise he’d be unable to sit upright. Instead he screams from the pain, the animalistic side of his brain begging for help while the rational, grieving side told him he deserved all of it.
“Chizome!”
The voice rang clear through the alley despite all the noise of mayhem in the background. Stain halts in all of his movement, standing frozen. The hero killer seems almost scared in his petrification. But the voice was happy and cheerful. If Tenya could, he’d cower into himself, and pray for a quick death. Whoever called Stain by his civilian name must be worse.
The serial killer whispers out a name and Tenya strains to hear it. “Akatani.” And it sounds like a prayer to an angered deity, a plea for forgiveness.
Something makes a noise on the roof above Tenya, most likely Akatani. “Oh, so you do recognize my family! Well done, Chizome! You did half of your homework! Now, why didn’t you do the second part and follow our rules?”
The idea of an angered deity seems to be more accurate than Tenya is comfortable with. His world didn’t have space for angry gods. Especially not ones that call out serial killers for his sake.
“I followed the rules! I only go after false heroes and villain scum! I have never been with someone without consent! I have never sold a person! I have never hurt a child!” Stain defends himself. Suddenly, Tenya remembers what Tensei had told him about underground law. Operate with consent. Children are off limits. The only two rules that the underground follows, the only real laws it has.
The voice laughs. “Chizome, dear, look at the boy you have fixated on a wall with a sword through his shoulder. He is sixteen! His name is Tenya Iida, he trains to be a hero because he was inspired by the kindness of his brother, Ingenium. A true hero you forced into retirement because you are narrow minded! You are willing to kill a child here that is stricken by grief! A kid that barely knows how to live by himself, who is still learning! A boy who has never had to deal with loss!” The rant halts, allowing Tenya to process with horror how much Akatani knows about him. Stain looks almost contemplative.
“And you what? Expect him to be mature? To put his feelings aside and prioritize the rescue like fully licensed pro heroes should? Despite this being his first field experience? After a family tragedy that would give pros at least a month off so they can think clearly again? Have you gone fully mad? You would need to kill yourself if his acts of vigilantism are what make him a false hero! You became Stendahl! You were upset and bitter! Then you picked up blades because you couldn’t let bad people run wild! So what makes you two different, huh?” He paused. “Or are you just a hypocrite, Chizome?”
The hero killer chokes, tumbles backwards. And suddenly he growls, an aura promising pain and death emanating from him. “He chose to try his hand at heroism! He wants to wear the title! And until he strips himself of it, I can and will kill him!”
The person on the roof tuts. “He is not a hero. He isn’t acting like one right now. You just refuse to listen, Chizome! It’s why nobody in my family took you in to train you, make you better, give you a chance at the legacy. Your mind is too cemented. Another thing you and Tenya here have in common. You never give people the chance to better themselves. And your golden standard? Told a quirkless kid they couldn’t be a hero before leaving them on a roof without a safe way down! All Might doesn’t always act selfless, most times he acts driven by emotion. Because he is prideful, he gets angry, he lashes out, gets greedy. But worst of all, he pretends! Pretends to be better than all the others around him, like he isn’t a regular human! And he is your golden standard? Him, and not Hawks- who does everything the commission tells him because he has to believe the HPSC to be good? Him and not Thirteen- who refuses to harm with their volatile power and instead chooses to rescue? Him and not any underground hero you can think of because they don’t do it for publicity, rankings, or a big paycheck?” He scoffed. “Chizome, you are a disappointment. And you broke our rules. If you want a hunt, run now. Otherwise I give it only a few seconds until a hero is here.”
And then Akatani whistles, loud and sharp, letting the sound resonate in Tenya’s bones. It is like nothing he has ever witnessed before.
Stain seems to almost tremble with fear. And then he attacks, tries to kill Native and Tenya, once again the boy can see his life flashing before his eyes.
But a flash of green redirects the blades. “Hero Killer Stain! I will not let you hurt these people!”
Tenya releases a breath as he recognizes Midoriya. Akatani must have left the scene after his whistle. A signal his green haired classmate must have followed. And again the blue haired boy wants to cry.
Stain tries to cut Midoriya, but a wall of flames separates the two. “Midoriya! You also got an SOS text from a censored number?”
Suddenly, Tenya gets why Akatani talked for the time that they did. They had bought him time. They stalled until somebody in the area would be available to fight Stain.
The battle doesn’t last long. Stain must have come to the same conclusion as Tenya, as he tries to rush his executions. Luckily, stress makes people sloppy. By the time heroes arrive on the scene, Stain is encased in Todoroki’s ice up to his neck and Tenya can feel his fingers move again, the quirk slowly wearing off.
Touya hates being in groups of people. It's not that he can't work with others, it's more that he prefers not to. Most people don't mesh well with his style, his rhythm, his code. But it is just that attitude that makes it easier for him to maintain the persona, follow the plan.
Touya knows he is a clone at the moment in the position he is in. He is a clone, the version of him that is lighting up the forest is a clone, every single Touya except for the one is a clone. Every single one is expendable, as long as the original survives and makes it back, the others can do whatever they want.
And Touya has just watched himself turn into slime thanks to Eraserhead. Which, honestly, fucking disgusting. Would not recommend. He wants to vomit.
But it means he can stir up some shit, frighten the kids so they stick close together. Let the mission fail. And then he hears it, the loud and sharp whistle that calls for help.
So Touya lets himself shift. And Nogareru runs to his brother's aid.
As he sprints up the mountainside he sees Muscular towering over Mikumo and a small child. He sees red. Red like Endeavour's flames that burned him so often. Red like the back of his fathers head when the man turned on him. Red like the blood he spat and vomited just to be seen.
And so he lights up, ignites his flames, lets the blue fire engulf Muscular.
Your father is an idiot. Of course your fire burns hotter than his, you give it a different fuel than him. But you fuel your fire with a cryogenic! It's why your body is made to sustain cold! You have been working in the wrong direction, your flames aren't meant to burn. They are meant to freeze!
Frost coats the man's body but it slowly cracks and breaks apart as he turns. Muscular bares his teeth. “Dabi! What are you doing?!”
Nogareru tilts his head. “I stopped you from breaking the law. Even you have to follow the code of darkness. The Akatanis make no exceptions. Now step away from the children, they have places to be. And we need to find our target,” he grits out, blue flames still flickering in his hand.
“I kill whoever I want! And no fairytale family can stop me!” Muscular screams.
Mikumo had used the distraction to hide the little kid far out of Muscular's reach, covered in green lightning he rushed back for an attack from above, aiming for the man's head.
Nogareru grins and lets go of his fire, once again hitting the blonde in the chest, slowing him down, distracting him. The two work together like a well oiled machine, covering for each other.
Learn to have each other's back, when push comes to shove- real family always supports another.
After at least twenty minutes of fighting, Muscular falls like a tree, his bionic eye missing after Mikumo punched it out. Nogareru ruffles the green curls of his baby brother. “Good work, kid. Now off you go, get yourself and the little brat to safety. I have some tasks to finish up before they turn me into sludge and the original me gets to go back to the base with your blonde friend.”
Mikumo gives him a nod, and given the situation it seems equal to Izuku's sunshine smiles. “Thank you for your help, Noga. I'm glad to see others enforcing the law too.” The unspoken words hang in the air. The exclamations of trust, of happiness to be around the other, the promise to get in contact soon.
But Nogareru just rolls his eyes fondly, shifts his posture and returns to Touya. “What are you waiting for?”
In a flurry of green lightning, Izuku leaves. Carefully Touya takes out his burner phone and texts the number listed under Inko:
Just saw the brat. He's okay but got some nasty bruising. I say he gets healed and we can finish the mission in two days. I'll look after the blonde bastard.
Carefully he returns the burner to his pocket and lets his flames grow hot again, lets them hurt him again. Then he lets them burn the trees to box in everyone in the cabin.
Inko smiles at her phone, at the thumbs up signals from her two sons. She can barely wait to hug Izuku and Touya again.
But the family duty comes first. It always has, it always will.
So instead of being all giddy with excitement Inko ties away her hair, hides it under a scarf, rolls up her collar, checks the weapons strapped to her body. Lastly, she cuts a dahlia from the flower pot reserved for special occasions.
Then she gets onto the train to Kamino Ward. To the hideout of the villain that has evaded her family for so long. The man who killed so many of them. The monster that broke their rules. But instead of death, Izuku had come up with something better for All for One. Her baby boy had come up with the perfect eternal torture method for him. All it would take is one small pull.
In Kamino Ward, Dahlia makes her way to a tall building, hopefully out of the destruction radius of All Might and All for One. And then she waits for the press conference to start. After all, she had been the one to hand the coordinates of the bar to Detective Tsukauchi, the only man that was both easy to reach and in the know about All for One and One for All.
Dahlia takes out a pair of binoculars, watching All Might take down the wall of the bar. She sees her adopted son, Touya, pretend to be knocked out. And just within her line of sight, barely within her quirk radius, she sees Mount Lady flatten the Nomu warehouse.
She smiles, knowing her two sons are once more just in the background of the big clashes, away from the attention yet close enough to pull all the strings. Everything just as Dahlia likes it, the way her family always handled things.
Then All for One steps onto the scene. He effortlessly takes out most of the pro heroes on sight. Around him, in a mass of black, the inhabitants of the bar appear. Katsuki is surrounded but Touya still plays unconscious, leaving an opening for the explosive teen.
Mom, do you need to see something to pull on it? Or do you just have to know it's there?
It takes a few seconds until All Might lands too. The fight starts, Katsuki makes his way up to his classmates while Touya follows Shigaraki and the others to whatever emergency safe houses the organization has.
Mom, can you pull on objects that are connected to other objects?
All potential risks are removed from the scene.
What about living organisms, can you pull on them, or parts of them?
All for One turns his back on Inko, most likely not even registering her as a threat.
Technically, if you just give this area of the human body light tug, you can temporarily paralyze them from the neck down!
Dahlia rises from her observing position on the roof, stands up to full height, and stretches out her right hand. Her senses reach forward, grasping at everything, offering her choices. They keep looking until they reach All for One, penetrate the man, find all the small bones and organs. Carefully Dahlia choses which bone to pick from him. Her hand closes and with all her power she pulls.
A sickening crunch echoes through Kamino Ward, All Might stills in shock as All for One screams in agony while collapsing down onto his knees, folding into himself. His body contorts itself out of his control, his nerves sending out signals that never reach their destination.
Then there is a small pop and the villain's lower neck splits open, releasing a single vertebra. And a speaker Nagoreru had conveniently left behind on the field crackles to life, playing a pre-recorded message: “We, the guardians of the underground, have found you breaking our rules, All for One. You have hurt children, have acted against consent, and actively killed members of our family. As punishment we have elected to permanently trap you in your own body, unable to use your own quirk, unable to move, unable to harm anyone else. You were warned.”
The speaker explodes. And Dahlia was never more proud of her little Mikumo than at that moment. A moment she wishes she could share with Jouki.
The vertebra is only half a meter away from her hand by now, so Dahlia grabs the flower she had prepared just for this moment, quickly threads it through the bone, before letting both fall, her hand never even touching a piece of the person she had just disabled.
Self satisfied, she cleans up after herself and leaves Kamino behind her, heading for the police station at a low pace. She takes out her burner phone and texts her sons: I am incredibly proud of you! Big breakfast in the morning to celebrate? Also, Izuku, I am on my way to the police station, I thought you were with your friends, trying to sort out your feelings about the training camp, in case anyone tries to question you. Also, we called about the issue. I might have to consider pulling you out of school if you are in danger so frequently ;-)
Love you!
Softly smiling, she hides herself in a public restroom, quickly changing from Dahlia to Inko; just in time to accept a call from Eraserhead on her private phone. After a deep breath to pull her emotions close to the surface she accepts the call, her voice lacing itself with faux fear and panic. “Midoriya Inko speaking. Is something wrong with Izuku? I haven't heard from him in a bit, Aizawa-san.”
Oh how fun it is for her to be both Inko and Dahlia, to be soft and emotional and cold and manipulative at the same time. Without her family code and devotion she might have been tempted to become a villain.
Katsuki is angry. More angry than usual. All of his life, everyone had told him he was the best. But today he failed. He was one of the two people unable to get through the exam.
How did he fail if he is the best? How did he fail if Deku succeeded? How did he fail?
Why was he so weak?
So weak he got kidnapped?
So weak he needed rescuing?
So weak he ended All Might?
How did Deku get better than him? When did it happen?
Back when Katsuki still called him Izuku, because he saw himself as an equal to the small boy, everyone always told him to stay away from him. And he just assumed they could see Izuku hiding a part of himself at all times, always switching between two faces. But nobody ever saw it, not after Izuku was announced- no, diagnosed quirkless.
Katsuki-kun, you can't just say things like that about the people around you, especially not Izuku-kun! He is quirkless, he is more fragile than you and the others. You have to be more careful around him.
And Katsuki knew it was bullshit even back then. Not the quirkless part, no, the fragile part. Because Izuku knew how to climb trees faster than anyone else, he could even climb trees without any low branches to hold on to. And Izuku was never scared of jumping back down from them once he got to a certain distance from the ground, not even getting any heavy bruises.
But after Izuku was diagnosed, people told him he shouldn't climb trees and jump back down, because it could hurt him. He wasn't allowed to run around in the forest anymore because he could get hurt.
And it annoyed Katsuki to no end. He knew the boy wasn't weak. Wasn't a baby that needed to be protected. So he wanted to show everyone. Wanted to show that his best friend was strong enough to play with him. Because Katsuki knew how to not hurt his friends badly. Knew what they needed. But nobody ever listened. Not when it was about Izuku.
And Izuku became Deku. Because Deku wasn't allowed to show his strength, his true self. Not with people who only care about quirks. So when Katsuki told Deku not to apply to UA, told him to jump off a roof, a voice in the back of his head added on: “Show them your strength in better ways, Izuku. UA is just like everywhere else. So wait until I am done with it. Then I can make sure everyone sees you as my equal, too.”
Who was Katsuki kidding though, Izuku wouldn't be Izuku if anyone could ever hope to stop him. So the nerd had gotten himself a quirk, got into UA, stood up against the coldest teacher Katsuki had ever seen, and even won at every turn. Yet, Izuku continued with his Deku persona, making himself small.
Katsuki's anger had turned on the teachers then, for not recognizing Izuku beyond a quirk the boy clearly had only recently gotten, a quirk that hurt him, a quirk he had never needed. Until he saw how Izuku sabotaged himself to be Deku around everyone else. He was the only one who had ever seen Izuku behind the Deku personality. Had seen the boy fully, without masks, fake stutters, meaningless gestures and alike.
So during the exams at the end of term Katsuki had punched Izuku, refused to work with only a persona, and demanded the real him. Despite his best efforts, nobody else ever saw the authentic Izuku after that encounter, nobody even questioned what had happened with Izuku, how Katsuki had gotten him to put down the mask.
But Katsuki had promised to himself that day to always be his true self, to never pretend.
But authenticity had lost him his provisional license, had lost All Might his hero work, and hadn't made him better than Izuku.
“Deku, go outside with me, we have to talk.”
The pair wander to Ground Beta, Katsuki still trying to figure out how to approach the topic. Instead he sets off a small explosion of annoyance.
Immediately Deku's mask falls, his full self appearing, covered in green lightning, ready to fight. And there Katsuki sees his conversation starter, “I have questions. Spar while you explain your quirk and how you got it. Because I know you would never go to some villain to get a quirk, not when you didn’t need one to get here. We both know you didn't give your all during the entrance exam on purpose.”
“I got my quirk from All Might. It's called One for All. He passed it down to me after I ran in during the sludge villain attack. Apparently recklessness is a heroic trait and after I got his attention I had to keep the persona up. Had to let it grow closer to who I am, who I want to show at UA,” Izuku explains while trading blows with Katsuki.
Katsuki shakes his head. Reckless really isn't a word that matches Izuku. Deku maybe, but not Izuku. Izuku always has a plan, a way to reach his goal. Even if nobody can see a way. “Why the fuck do you need the persona anyways? Why couldn't you just be Izuku? Why did you have to make other people think you are Deku?”
Izuku rolls his eyes. “To keep myself safe, dumbass.”
He growls, setting off a big explosion. Izuku dodges and bounces between the walls, leaving a few craters behind. Out of the craters stick sparking wires. The nerd had just killed the rat bastard's spy system.
“My family, well, mom's side of the family, are the people that took down All for One. Mom ripped out a piece of his spine and she left her signature on it. My sibling left the speaker on the field. I was in charge of playing the message at the right moment and detonating the speaker at the earliest convenience afterwards so nobody could trace it back to us. Mom trained me to defend myself and others for as long as I can remember. I had to be someone else around everyone else except Mom ever since I learned manipulation. And it worked on everyone but you because you knew me too closely!”
Katsuki feels himself go pale. “Auntie can pull on spines?”
Izuku smiles as he kicks at his side, the blonde barely managing to block. “I came up with it once Noga found out how much shit that guy was up to, how much shit he'd done.”
“Who's Noga? Magic Mask? Bartender Bitch? Knife Kink?” he finds himself asking. If they have an inside man Katsuki wants to know which fucker he isn't allow to blow up.
“Todoroki Touya. But the league calls him Dabi.”
He doesn't block or dodge the flat palm coming for his sternum, pushing him backwards into a wall. He chokes on surprise instead. “Scarface? You call Scarface your sibling? And he's what? Half'n'Half's long lost cousin?”
“Brother, actually, declared dead about 9 years ago. We adopted him illegally 6 years ago, helped him develop his quirk so it stopped hurting him, gave him training, a family, a purpose in life. And the scars are glued on latex, just like the hair is dyed.”
He nods in acknowledgment. “What about the names? You call him Noga but you also know his legal name.”
A jab into his back, making Katsuki take a knee. He manages to singe Izuku's legs though.
“We all have at least two names, one for the daylight, legalities. One for the underground, our Akatani name, our proof that we belong where we are and won't tolerate bullshit. Most of us get a police name. It’s what they save our files under because the HPSC doesn't want to acknowledge us as an organization of law enforcement. So they try to treat us like villains and vigilantes. Even though we usually fight without quirks. But, hey, that's institutionalized discrimination for you. By the way, we need to switch topics. I predict at least one teacher appearing here within hearing distance in 10 seconds.”
In that moment Katsuki finds himself on the floor, beaten by Izuku. The boy stretches out a hand to help him back up. Just like he had after Katsuki fell into that river. And like the little brat he was, Katsuki had denied the help, and had wanted to prove himself to Izuku. He wanted to show off his strength. But now, he can see the gesture as what it is. A sign of connection, of support, of acknowledgement. So, this time, he takes the hand and gets up.
He cracks his neck once back on his feet. “Round two? I think we haven't properly wrecked this place given how much detention we will get for being out here past curfew. Also, I want to vent. Do you know how unfair it feels that the shit head treats you like a son? Dotes on you? And yet he still can't fucking see you?”
Izuku cackles as the lightning around him buzzes.
The world blurs away as they both go all out, knowing each other well enough not to hurt another, trusting each other enough to set no limit. They just fight and train like they were always meant to, if society hadn’t gotten in the way for the past ten years.