z-iridest

[z-iridest]

GIRL POST IT, I WANNA SEE HOW PRETTY U LOOK! 🥺🥺🥺

tempted to post my prom fit rn

[z-iridest]

GIRL POST IT, I WANNA SEE HOW PRETTY U LOOK! 🥺🥺🥺

tempted to post my prom fit rn

[z-iridest]

you are valued, you are loved, you are worthy, you are capable, you are brave, you are pretty, you are you 🎀 🧸

[z-iridest]

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO POST THIS HERE…………….

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I am Phoenix:

Chapter 19- Confrontations and Encounters:

Just as I got back to the screen room, the announcement came that Uraraka and Aoyama had passed the final too. "Uraraka's judgment was great! I can't believe she thought to use her opponent's power to get in close!" Izuku was fawning over her. Awww, how cute! I thought.

"Ribbit, I don't know... It looked to me like Ochaco just lost focus and let go for a second." Tsu replied as I stood on Izuku's other side.

"Oh, really?" Izuku asked her. 

"Uh-huh, the two of them were talking." Tsu pointed out.

"If that's the case I wonder what Aoyama said that shocked her so much..." I mused, unintentionally making my friend jump.

"Hino!" He squeaked.

"We really need to put a bell on you, ribbit." Tsu told me. I grimaced.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." I apologized. That was when the door opened.

"Uraraka won, not surprising. I'm happy for her." Iida joined the conversation as he and Yaomomo entered the room. 

"Yeah, and all three of you guys passed too! Congrats!" Izuku told us, Tsu giving a ribbit of agreement. The three of us nodded.

"Thank you for your enthusiasm." Iida replied. 

"Now that this match is over, which team is taking the field next?" Tsu asked. 

"Ashido and Kaminari are paired up for the next battle." Yaomomo answered. I grimaced again.

"Yeah, against our principal." I added.

"It's rare we get to see someone like him in action..." Izuku mumbled.

"We'll have to watch this round carefully." Iida brought up. 

"Yeah." Izuku and I replied as Tsu gave another ribbit of agreement.  We watched as Kaminari and Mina went up against Nezu. The longer we watched, the more I realized just how sadistic our principal was, and how awful it would be if he ever turned to the villain's side of things. Depending on what he destroyed with the crane he was using, he caused chain reactions, taking out all possible escape routes for our classmates. I could barely watch before it finally ended, the speaker announcing that Mina and Kaminari had both failed their exam due time running out.

"In the past, humans conducted horrible experiments on Nezu. So, in times like this, he gets his vengeance." Looking from our school nurse to my friends, their faces reflected the same thought I was just thinking. We'd be screwed especially if Principal Nezu went bad... Then again, hearing even a little of what he went through, he had every right to become one... 

"So, it's over... They lost."

"They never even saw their opponent.... I can't imagine how frustrated they must be." Iida commented. Just then, the doors opened again.

"What?! Mina's team lost their battle?!" Ochaco asked in shock as she joined us.

"Yeah, they ran out of time." I told her. 

"The principal's game plan was flawless, they just couldn't beat him."

"That's terrible! Oh man, they must be so crushed!" She exclaimed.

"But, you passed." Iida was quick to try to cheer her up.

"Congrats." I added. She smiled back.

"Thanks, you guys too." She replied. 

"Ochaco. What were you talking to Aoyama about right before the end of your match against Thirteen?" Tsu asked. I could wager a guess judging by how red Ochaco suddenly turned. I snorted when she suddenly went into panic mode, saying it was nothing and that we had it all wrong. It was made even funnier by the fact that Iida pointed out how red she had gotten... Tsu and I exchanged looks, we'd have to confront her about it later... But, before we could launch into our interrogation mode, the buzzer went off for the next exam.

"Team Koda and Jiro, practical Exam. Ready... Go!" The computer announced.

"Here we go." I turned to the screen, hoping for Jiro to pass.

"The practical exams match students up with teachers they're supposed to have a hard time against. That's the whole point, right?" Iida asked.

"At least one of the reasons, yeah." I answered, looking at our class president for a second.

"And it's easy to see what this team's weaknesses are." Midoriya added.

"I agree... What are they gonna do against Present Mic?" Tsu asked.

"Both have sound-related Quirks. But, their opponent will be able to drown out everything around them." Izuku replied. I nodded.

"Animals would be scared away by Present Mic's volume, and even the ones that aren't wouldn't be able to hear Koda use his Quirk. Jiro might be able to lessen the blow of Present Mic's volume, but her sound wouldn't be loud enough to completely drown him out." I continued. I covered my ears as Present Mic began using his voice.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" We couldn't hear anyone else, how the hell was Present Mic's voice able to come through the damn thing?! "Hurry up and COME OUT! I'M GETTING BORED! HURRY UP ALREADY!" Present Mic used his Quirk over and over again. How were our friends supposed to beat him?! I got lost in my own thoughts for a second, trying to think of possible plans before it hit me like a freight train. Sound doesn't travel underground! If Koda could control insects to attack Present Mic from below ground and allow them to pass right through the gate. Admittedly, it was a brutal strategy, but, if Koda could pull it off....

A sudden scream burst from the monitor speakers made me jump out of my thoughts and when I looked, I saw Koda looking white as a sheet next to Jiro, who had an ant on her hand. When Jiro put it closer to him, he screamed again and took off running, this time behind a tree to hide. Well... so much for that idea.... "THERE YOU ARE!" I covered my ears again as Present Mic's voice came back through the speakers, Jiro using her Quirk to try to block him out this time. "LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE! HEY!" Oh for Pete's sake.... I watched as Koda's face went from terror to absolute worry because Jiro's ears were bleeding. From there, the plan I had in mind played out... And it was more brutal than I thought since Present Mic absolutely went whiter than Koda did as soon as the bugs were on him.

"That's tough, even for a pro..." Iida sounded strained.

"Wow, Koda... Harsh move." While Izuku seemed just as shocked as our other friends, Recovery Girl just looked pissed.

"He let a bunch of bugs beat him?!" She exclaimed in disbelief. But, Jiro and Koda had passed thanks to the harsh attack, so.... We watched as Toru and Shoji went up against Snipe next. Shouji dodged bullets before going right toward Snipe and surrendering, leaving Toru open to cuff Snipe. 

"Just as expected! Hagakure is the best there is at stealth ops!" Yaomomo exclaimed in admiration.

"And Shoji has the guts to face Mr. Snipe head on and be their distraction!" Izuku added. Ochaco and Tsu both nodded in agreement as the computer announced Toru and Shoji passing before it was Sero and Mineta's turn... Oh boy... 

"Hey, Deku? Isn't your match up next? Shouldn't you be waiting in the exam area?" She asked, turning to Izuku. 

"Oh." He nodded. "Probably, but I wanna make sure I see everyone else fight. It's definitely interesting to see how each team uses their Quirks. But, I also feel like I'm getting stronger watching them. Our classmates are just so amazing, even if they didn't pass, they fought until the very end. Everyone of them embodies what it means to be a UA student!" Ochaco and I exchanged smiles at how passionate Izuku was. We both nodded.

"Well, uh..." Iida trailed off.

"Mostly." Yaomomo finished, turning our attention to the screen. 

"Looks like one of our peers is giving up." Tsu commented, the three of us turning to see Mineta crying and running away.

"What... the... Hell is he doing?" I asked as I watched.

"But, he was looking forward to the training camp so much. Why is he ready to give up now?" Izuku asked.

"I don't know if he can bounce back from this." We all turned to the school nurse as she talked. "As far as the practical exams go, All Might, Present Mic, Cementoss and Midnight are especially hard opponents for you kids to best. It's not hard to imagine someone feeling as though they have no possible way to win." Recovery Girl pointed out. When I turned back, Mineta was crying tears of blood now. What the hell, Grapehead? I thought, and looking at my friends, they were thinking the same thing.

"Mineta..." Izuku trailed off.

"It might be hard for a kid like that to make it out of this school." Recovery Girl piped up again. 

"Wait, what'd you mean?" Izuku asked as he turned to her.

"UA is constantly making new obstacles that our students have to overcome. In order to keep moving forward successfully, students need a concrete goal to focus on. If your desire is just to be a hero for no reason, your path isn't going to be easy. If someone who's only wish is to become a hero reaches their goal, then they have no real future. I wonder... Is there a goal in that child's heart he can focus on to win?" Recovery Girl pondered. I thought about it. Mineta was perverted, and often chased after girls when he wasn't harassing one of the girls in our class... About a second later, I was snapped out of my thought process by Recovery Girl. "Well, that's straight forward." She commented. Mineta looked lost in thought before I grimaced as Midnight whipped Mineta, snapping him out of it and making him tremble as she approached, her eyes those of a predator stalking their prey.

"Move it, idiot!" I shouted, watching as he was frozen in place as Midnight used her Quirk. After a second, he finally snapped out of it and ran for it. We all watched as he ran and hid behind a rock. After a second, he came back out, armed to the teeth with his sticky head balls in hand and Sero's tape over his mouth and nose. Just as she used her whip again, Mineta tossed his head balls at it, getting it stuck where it landed so he could run for the escape gate, one even sticking her hand to her whip. "Damn, Mineta..." I trailed off.

"He managed to trap her far away from the gate! Midoriya exclaimed, looking excited for our classmate. "There's no way her Quirk can stop him now!" 

"Oh, so he's pretty clever. I think that kid pulled one over on all of us." Recovery Girl added.

"Yeah." I agreed. The little shit... I added in my head as I watched Mineta tear the piece of tape off his mouth and carry Sero through the gate. The buzzer went off.

"Team Mineta and Sero have passed the exam!" The announcement came from the computer.

"All right, they did it!" Iida happily exclaimed.

"Mineta actually had a solid plan!" Yaomomo sounded happy but surprised while Tsu gave a ribbit of agreement. That was about when I noticed that Izuku had already left for his match... I felt nervous all over again for him. It wasn't going to be easy, and unless he could get Bakugo to agree on a solid plan, it would be near impossible for this team to win...

"Team Bakugo and Midoriya. Practical Exam. Ready, go!" The computer came over the speakers again as I wished my friend good luck in my head, praying that some kind or miracle would cause Bakugo to work with Izuku. I watched as Izuku tried to reason with Bakugo, but the blond was having none of it. Recovery Girl sighed.

"Oh, dear. There's absolutely no teamwork between those two. Don't they realize the trial that's ahead of them?" She said.

"You're telling me, that's probably why Mr. Aizawa put them on the same team." I replied. I watched painfully as the two began to argue and were interrupted by my Dad making his attack. I've said it a thousand times before, but...

Watching my Dad fight as a hero had always filled me with comfort and hope. But watching him as a villain, even if it was just a simulation.... It terrified me. He would be the one villain I never would have been able to fight, even considering I knew his weaknesses. He was the man that raised me to be who I was, the man who cared for me like his own. How could I fight him if he turned evil? We watched as Bakugo tried to stun my Dad before charging. My Dad caught him and held him up by his face, only for the explosive blond to blast him several times. We all gave groans as we watched Bakugo get slammed to the ground. I watched as Izuku got scared and used his Quirk to jump into the air, but was bumped into by Bakugo, who had gotten up shortly after Dad had turned to Izuku. "One wants to defeat All Might. The other only thinks of running. The latter probably admires the man too much. To Izuku Midoriya, All Might is like a god. Untouchable. It's true that I don't know much about this other boy, but based on his grades and the Sports Festival, he has amazing combat sense. I wonder why he's in such a rush to win this." I watched as Bakugo stood back up, looking more pissed than ever. I watched as Izuku once again tried to reason with Bakugo as the blond went right past him. Izuku once again tried to stop Bakugo, but the bickering only let Dad get another attack in. This time, he pinned Izuku with a broken part of a fence, making sure Izuku was trapped between the bars. Bakugo went to blast him again but I groaned as Dad punched Bakugo in the gut, causing the blond to throw up before he rolled and landed face first. 

"Dad, you're overdoing it..." I mumbled, watching as the boys struggled to get up. I couldn't hear what Dad said to him as he walked over to Bakugo, but whatever the blond said in retaliation... It pissed off Izuku so much that he managed to get free and punch Bakugo just as Dad was going to knock Bakugo out. What the hell did the blond dumbass say to piss off Izuku that much? I thought. I just hoped that Bakugo would pull his head out of his ass now. Bakugo rolled again before Izuku grabbed him and went into an alleyway, carrying the stubborn blond. "Can Bakugo get his head out of his ass already? It's getting old." I commented.

"I wish he would, but you know how stubborn he is." Yaomomo told me. 

"I know, I know..." I trailed off. Before I could say anything else though, Bakugo popped out of the alleyway he'd been carried down. I watched as Bakugo blasted Dad over and over again. "Least he got his head out of his ass..." I mumbled under my breath. But, looking closer, I saw that one of Bakugo's gauntlets was missing. That's weird... Where's the other one? I wondered. I didn't have to wonder for too long, considering Izuku popped out of the alleyway armed with Bakugo's other gauntlet. Just as I realized what their plan was, Izuku pulled the pin on the gauntlet, firing off a giant explosion like the one Bakugo has let loose during our first day of combat training, even limiting the damage to the city to places Dad had already destroyed. It was already a big improvement from the first combat training. As the boys ran though, they started arguing again, much to my own disappointment. Just when I thought they had finally learned to work together.... I watched as Dad caught up to them before they reached the gate and destroyed both gauntlets before either of the boys could fire off another blast. He kneed Bakugo in the face, making me grimace again. Izuku tried to run after him, but got caught by Dad. Bakugo launched himself toward Dad again, but he used Izuku to slam both of them to the ground. I heard Tsu and Ochaco whimpering. When the dust cleared, Dad had his foot on Bakugo and was holding Izuku by the arm. "Come on, you guys..." I murmured, holding out hope for them. Izuku kept struggling, until Dad threw him, keeping his foot on Bakugo's back. After a minute though, Bakugo let a giant blast out of his hand, knocking Dad off him. We couldn't see anything for a minute before another huge explosion went off and we say Izuku flying out of the smoke, and it didn't miss my gaze that Bakugo grimaced in pain after the blast that threw Izuku across the line. "He's gonna make it to the escape gate!" I shouted. If Izuku could make it through, both of them would pass due to them working together. But, that was shortlived because Dad used a smash to get clear of the smoke and ended up knocking into Izuku again, this time hurting Izuku's back. I grimaced as it caused Izuku to fly off course and hit a bus before hitting the ground. Bakugo let off another blast, but he was definitely in pain, even as he kept fighting, letting off big blast after big blast. But after Bakugo tried to protect Izuku, Dad grabbed him by the face and slammed him into the dirt again. I watched as Bakugo still tried to fight back, even though he was hurt. Izuku used One For All to charge Dad, punching him before grabbing Bakugo and running through the escape gate as Bakugo passed out. "YES!" I jumped into the air, pumping both arms as our friends cheered. 

"Team Bakugo and Midoriya have passed the exam! All matches for the practical portion of Class 1A's final exams have now been completed." The computer announced. Recovery Girl and I locked eyes and she nodded toward the door to the Infirmary. I went with her. True, she probably didn't need my help to heal either of the boys, but I wanted to chew out my Dad for going all out like that. He could have killed one, if not both of, the boys. Then again, I had no idea if Bakugo would have accepting passing if Dad hadn't gone all out... Probably not considering he wanted me to go all out on him during the Sports Festival, but still....

As I used my healing tears to heal Bakugo, Recovery Girl used her own quirk to heal Izuku. "Thank you very much, Recovery Girl, I think I feel better." He managed to get out. 

"You're not getting up right now, though." I mumbled under my breath. 

"All Might, you really don't know how to hold back! If you'd hit these boys any harder, they'd have permanent damage! Midoriya's back was horrible. I was barely able to heal it." She sighed as she and I traded places so Recovery Girl could heal the rest of Bakugo's internal wounds. "Bakugo probably won't wake up for a while. For now, the two of you should stay here and rest." 

"Yes, ma'am. Thanks again." Izuku responded. 

"You're so much stronger than when we first met that sometimes I hardly recognize you, Young Midoriya. And the same goes for you. Young Bakugo, do you realize that you were able to smile in the face of defeat? I can't wait to see how much stronger you both get." Dad told the boys, and I couldn't help but agree with him. Both boys were stronger than when I had first met them, and I couldn't wait to see how far they went either...

The next day, Mina, Sato, Kirishima and Kaminari were all miserable. "E-everyone... I'm looking forward to hearing your stories of how fun camp was." Mina sobbed.

"Maybe they'll let you go. There might be a last minute twist or something." Izuku tried to reassure them. 

"Stop, Midoriya. By saying that out loud, you're just jinxing them." Sero told him.

"They said whoever failed the exams would have to skip training camp and live in summer school hell. We didn't pass the practicals, so we're doomed. Don't you get it, Midoriya?! Or did All Might knock all the brains outta you?!"

"Whoa, Kaminari, take it easy." I tried calming our electric blind friend down.

"Yeah, ease up, Kaminari. I'm not sure I'll get to go, either. Our team only passed thanks to Mineta. I got knocked out and since we don't know how they're scoring stuff, I might have flunked." Sero brought up, Mineta looking smug as he listened in. 

"At least bring back lots of camp souvenirs, please?!" Kaminari exclaimed. Before anyone else could promise that they would, the classroom door swung open. 

"Once the bell rings, you should be in your seats!" Aizawa called, causing most of our classmates to scramble into their seats and a silence to fall in the room. "Morning." He greeted us. "Unfortunately, there are a few of you who did not pass your final exams. So, when it comes to the training camp on the woods... Everyone is going!" 

"We really get to go to camp?!" Kirishima questioned in disbelief.

"Seriously?" Mina teared up happily as she followed up Kirishima's question.

"Yeah. The good news is that no one bombed the written exam. Five failed the practical badly. Two teams, of course, and then Sero as well." Aizawa replied. I shot a glance toward Sero, who had covered his face with a hand.

"Aw! Crap, I knew it! Mineta made it to the gate, but I didn't do near enough to pass." He mumbled.

"Allow me to explain. For the practical battles, the teachers made sure to leave a way for the students to win. Otherwise, you never would have stood a chance. We were interested in observing how you each worked together and approached the task at hand." Aizawa explained.

"But, didn't you promise that the teachers wouldn't be holding back?" Ojiro asked. 

"That was just to get you on edge." Aizawa answered him. Besides, the training camp will focus on building your strength. Those who failed need those lessons the most. We were never going to separate you that was just a logical deception we used." The class burst into an outbreak, Iida most of all.

"Mr. Aizawa, this is the second time you've lied to us! Aren't you afraid we'll lose faith in you?!" His voice cracked as he jumped upward out of his seat with his arm raised. 

"Uh, little blunt there, Tenya..." Ochaco replied, and I had to admit that I agreed with her.

"That's a good point. I'll consider it." Mr Aizawa continued, "But, I wasn't lying to you about everything. Failure is failure. We've prepared extra lessons for the five of you." His words cut five of my friend's celebration short. "Frankly, they'll be far tougher than what you'd face at summer school." He told us. 

"This is gonna be great! I'm so glad we're all going together." Ojiro said a few hours later.

"Looks like we'll be at the training camp a full week!" Iida exclaimed.

"I've gotta find a bigger suitcase..." Izuku trailed off. 

"Yeah, I don't even have a bathing suit, guess I need to buy some stuff." Kaminari added. 

"Like night vision goggles!" Mineta snorted, something I hit him for. 

"Well, guys, since we're off tomorrow, and we finished final exams, I have the best idea! Why doesn't Class 1-A go shopping together!" Toru suggested.

"That's a great idea, Toru!" I told her. 

"Hey, yeah! We've never hung out as a class before." Kaminari buzzed excitedly.

"Bakugo, see you there, right?" Kirishima turned to the blond.

"I can't think of anything more annoying." Bakugo replied.

"Aw come on, why do you have to be a buzz kill?!" I asked, looking at him before I turned to Todoroki. "You'll come with us, won't you, Todoroki?"

"I visit my Mom on days off." Todoroki answered. I looked down, a bit disappointed that neither Bakugo or Todoroki were going. 

"Oh, that's right..." I trailed off.

"You party poopers! Don't you ever get tired of being so serious?!" Mineta yelled.

"Can it, grapehead!" I snapped at him, forgetting my disappointment for a minute. The next day, we met up at the mall, dressed in casual clothes. 

"Oh, man do I love this place! It's got a ton of different stores to shop at, and they're all super cool and hip! The Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall!" Mina squealed. I didn't know why I suddenly had a bad feeling just being there, but I tried to just ignore it and enjoy the day ahead of me. 

"They carry designs for all body types, and have a range of gear for everyone from teens to seniors. The logistics of..." Izuku started off on another ramble tangent.

"You're going to scare the children, stop." Tokoyami told him before Izuku could really get going. 

"Whoa! Aren't those UA students?!" A civilian cried out. Oh no...

"1-A!"

"I saw 'em on TV!" 

"The Sports Festival was so good!" I felt sheepish under everyone's gaze, and out of habit, my wings popped out and tucked around me in a protective cocoon. Ochaco laughed nervously.

"I can't believe they still remember that." She said.

"I wanna track down a new duffle bag to bring to summer training." Kyoka was talking to Yaomomo.

"Oh yeah? Maybe the two of us should browse together." She replied. The pervert grapehead was mumbling something about a lock picking kit and a small drill before he wandered off on his own. 

"Guess I should probably buy some outdoorsy shoes for this thing." Kaminari mused.

"Oh, that's smart, me too!" Toru exclaimed. 

"The guide said your shoes should already be broken in though!" Iida exclaimed, ever the mother hen. "But, wait. Perhaps it's not a mistake to factor utility into the equation..." And there goes him convincing himself of the opposite of what he was saying a split second ago.

"So then, why don't we split up and look around? We can meet here again when we're done." Kirishima suggested. The bad feeling came back stronger than ever. Why did I feel like this?! 

"Great idea!" Mina replied.

"Perfect. Let's say we're all back around three?" Kirishima questioned.

"Sounds good!" Everyone but me chorused, my bad feeling keeping me quiet. Before I knew it, it was just me, Ochaco and Izuku left.

"Looks like it's just the three of us left." Izuku pointed out.

"Yeah..." Ochaco trailed off.

"So, what're you gonna shop for today? I wanna find a few heavier wrist weights so I can up my training." Izuku asked her.

"I mostly just need bug spray." Ochaco answered before she turned red and suddenly took off running. "Yep, gotta keep those pests away!" 

"Do you mean me?!" Izuku asked. "We came together as a class, but it's just us now by ourselves..." I shook my head before the bad feeling got stronger. What's going on with me today? I thought. "Whoa, Hino, you okay?" He asked. I looked at him, tucking my wings away again.

"I'm fine, I just..." Before I could finish my sentence, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at a raspy voice.

"Oh, it's someone from UA, nice. I want an autograph." A guy about Todoroki's height approached us, and the bad feeling I'd had all day cranked up to a twenty as he put an arm around me while the other went around Izuku. "You were the one who got beat to hell at the Sports Festival, right?" He asked Izuku, who looked awkward before the guy turned to me. I couldn't see his face, but his skin was fairly pale and his hair was a greyish blue that hung in his face... Just like... "And you were the baddie that won it all." The bad feeling turned into a sickness at the pit of my stomach. 

"Uh, yeah." Izuku answered as the guy turned back to Izuku.

"Aren't you guys two of the students who ran into the Hero Killer in the Hosu Incident, too?" He looked between the two of us. "You're practically famous."

"You sure do know a lot..." I trailed off.

"What can I say? I'm just a big fan of the two of you." He responded. "I can't believe I'm running into you two again." That last part put Izuku on edge, I could see it in his eyes. That was the moment both of us realized who we were dealing with, and it confirmed everything my bad feeling was trying to tell me... "It makes me think it might not be a coincidence. No, no, this feels like it's destiny." Before either of us could react, his hand grasped our throats, but he was careful to leave one finger up. Shit, shit, shit! I thought. If we were truly alone with no civilians, I could have easily burned his hand off of me, but with everyone around us plus Izuku in harm's way, I wouldn't be able to do anything without someone getting hurt or killed, whether it was by my own flames or Shigaraki's Quirk. "Oh right. From your point of view, we haven't met since the attack on UA." A growl left Izuku, and he sounded more pissed than I had ever heard him before. "Why don't we spend some time catching up, Izuku Midoriya and Hinotori Yagi?" Shigaraki lifted his head so we could see his face. His eyes were crimson red, his face wrinkled with a scar over the top of his lip on the left side. "Act natural now, don't make a scene, either of you. I'm just an old friend who ran into you at the mall. Calm down and wipe that look off your faces. I think we should have a conversation, is all. A friendly little chat. Oh, and of course if you two try to run or fight me in any way... Well, it'll be fast." His middle finger wiggled dangerously close to touching our necks, but he kept his fingers up. "Soon as all five of my fingers touch both your necks, your throats'll be the first thing that disintegrates. In a matter of seconds, both of you'll be nothing more than dust and powdered bone."

"You'd never get away, though. The heroes would catch you and if you did anything to hurt him, I'd turn you to ashes in seconds. I can ignite my entire body if I wanted to." I told him.

"Are you sure you can ignite your Quirk is fast enough to stop your own body from disintegrating? Do you really want to test that? Besides, just look at these sheep. Any one of them could use their Quirks and start a massacre whenever they wanted. And yet, they're all here, smiling. They think laws and rules will protect them, because they assume everyone has their same morals. They're convinced nothing bad could ever happen to them. After the 2 of you, I could kill 20... 30... Maybe even more before a pro showed up and managed to stop me." The thought chilled me to the bone. My entire body trembled, and I grit my teeth.

"You little snake..." I trailed off, knowing he put us in this position on purpose. Unlike the attack on the USJ, he had thought this out...

"We get it... Let's talk." Izuku's fist relaxed, though he looked just as defeated as I felt.

"Just don't hurt anyone." I added. What choice did we have? Shigaraki chuckled in response.

"This is nice. A real moment. Let's go grab a seat and get comfortable, why don't we?" He asked, leading us over to one of the big plants off to the side of it all and sitting down with us on either side of him, still holding onto our necks. I mentally kicked myself. If I had just pushed Izuku toward Ochaco and made him go after her, he wouldn't be in this position too... Instead, we were both in trouble and our classmates had no idea that Shigaraki was here... "When it comes down to it, I hate basically everything. But, the Hero Killer pisses me off the most right now." Shigaraki revealed to us.

"Isn't he one of your guys?" Izuku asked. 

"Not technically, but that's what the media made it look like. And that's what my problem is. It's like suddenly, everyone is obsessed with that stupid Hero Killer. The attack on UA, the Nomus I released on Hosu- He upstaged all of it. No one's even giving me a second thought. Why is that? Despite what he claims to believe, all he did was try to get rid of whatever things he didn't like." He leaned into Izuku and then me, the closeness of him making me shudder slightly despite my every attempt to look calm. "What do you two think the difference is between us, Midoriya? Yagi?" 

"What's the difference?" Izuku asked.

"You we don't understand. Your goals, and your villains... We don't agree with anything you do."

"Neither of us agree with the Hero Killer either, but we can understand him. At least, sort of. Because the Hero Killer and we have something in common. All three of us are inspired by All Might. That night, he even saved me from the flying Nomu." 

"He might be a maniac, but he doesn't destroy things just because it sounds fun. And when things were looking bad for him, he didn't abandon his mission the way you did. Even if the way he acted was wrong, he held true to his beliefs..." 

"That's the difference." We both looked at him as he finished at the same time, but the look he gave us... If looks could kill, both of us would have died then and there and this story would have been over before things truly got nuts. 

"Ah... That's like a weight off my chest. I see it now... All the dots connected. Why he makes me so angry, why you both irritate me so much- Everything makes sense." A wicked smile crossed his face. "It's him. The problem is All Might. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's the most rational explanation." A laugh left him. "I didn't see it, even though it was right on front of me the whole time. What was I worrying about so much? It's simple. He's why these morons are able to smile thoughtlessly!" I could barely breathe as Shigaraki's grip on my neck grew tighter. "They feel so safe because that garbage pro is smiling thoughtlessly, as if there's no one in the whole world he can't save! Oh, I'm glad we had this chat. I feel better, I can't thank either of you enough. I don't need to change my ways after all." I reached up, grabbing his hand and attempting to pull it off of me. "Whoops, don't struggle now, either of you, unless you both want to die. You want all these people here to crumble as well?" He threatened.

"You said you'd leave them alone if we talked." I barely got out.

"Uh, Deku? Hino?" We both froze at the sound of Ochaco's voice and panic struck me. No, no, no, no! "Is that a friend? No, that can't be right." Shigaraki turned toward her and I felt my panic get worse. "Uh, hey, let go of them..."

"This is nothing!" Izuku shouted, trying to calm her down before anything could happen. 

"Everything's fine, Ochaco." I forced my voice to sound calm despite the panic I was in and the panic Izuku had just blurred out. "Just stay back, no closer." Shigaraki suddenly let Izuku and I go, the boy dropping to the floor.

"Oh, you two were here with a friend? I didn't know, sorry about that." Shigaraki said as Izuku and I both coughed, gingerly touching our throats. "I'll see you soon, little bird. You and I are due for a more private talk." The last words Shigaraki spoke to me that day chilled me, and it was said in my ear, too quiet for either of my friends to hear. "If you try following me, I'll get angry." He told the both of us as he got up, putting his hands in his sweatshirt pocket as he began to walk away. As soon as he passed Ochaco, she rushed toward us. 

"Deku, Hino!" She sounded worried.

"Shigaraki, wait." I managed to speak, getting up as Izuku kept coughing. Ochaco gasped.

"Shigaraki?" She looked at him.

"We have a question too." Izuku got out.

"What's All For One after?" I asked as my friend coughed more. He was quiet for a minute, looking at his shoes.

"Who knows, really. But here's a little word of advice, friends. Be careful. The next time we meet, Midoriya, I'll likely have to kill you." He warned us. Ochaco gasped in fear, but Shigaraki disappeared into the crowd after that. I pulled out my vial of healing tears, making Izuku tip his head up. 

"Open." I told him, and once he did, I put a drop of it into his throat to heal any damage done to him by Shigaraki, though I doubted it was more than maybe a red mark from where he was grasping us so tight. 

"Hino, are you okay?" Izuku asked.

"I'll be fine." I shrugged him off, but I didn't have to look at either of them to know they were worried. Ochaco reported the incident and the shooing mall was temporarily closed. The heroes and police in the area conducted a massive sweep, but there was no sign of Shigaraki. Later that day, Izuku and I were taken to the police station. Uncle Naomasa, who was investigating the League of Villains interviewed us both, though he nearly had a heart attack when he saw me. Izuku and I told him everything we could about Shigaraki's appearance and the conversation we had. 

"Huh... From what I'm hearing, it sounds like they're not a monolithic organization. And it sounds like his desire to defeat All Might hasn't changed one bit." He replied after we had told him the whole story. I glanced down at my hands. I wanted to tell Uncle Naomasa about what Shigaraki had told me low enough for only me to hear, hut I figured doing so would scare the crap out of Izuku... "Anyway, thanks for the report, you two. This helps." 

"Oh, sure." Izuku answered. 

"I just wish there was some way we could have detained him..." I trailed off. 

"Don't worry, you both did a great job holding it together when so many lives were on the line. Most people would have panicked and lost their cool in that situation. No one got hurt today because you were both able to remain calm." Uncle Naomasa told us. While Izuku was leading the way outside the station with another officer, I figured it was a good time as any to bring it up.

"Uncle Naomasa, there's something else... Shigaraki told me he would be seeing me again soon..." I told him, keeping my voice low enough for only him to hear. He looked pale.

"It sounds like he's going to try and target you again, that's not good..." He trailed off before he collected himself. "But, try not to worry so much. I doubt he'd try anything so soon after pulling something like this, it'd make it too easy to catch him." 

"I'll try not to..." I replied, but I still felt uneasy as we stepped out into the night air. 

"Young Midoriya, Hino, Tsukauchi!" Dad sounded out of breath as he approached, like he'd been running. 

"All Might? But how?" Izuku asked.

"I needed to talk to him anyway." Uncle Naomasa replied as I ran over to him. He wrapped me up in a tight hug, and I had to hold back tears as my Dad held me tight. Dad sighed heavily, almost like he was letting out a breath he'd been holding.

"What a relief, I'm so glad both of you are all right." I felt Dad let go of me with one arm to place a hand on Izuku's head. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be there to protect you and the others." I felt a pang of guilt as I remembered what Dad had said about the last time he hadn't been there to protect someone dear to him. I had gotten myself in trouble and I could have died easily... 

"It's fine." Izuku told him as Dad moved his hand. After a minute, he spoke again. "Um, All Might?"

"Yeah, what is it?" He asked. 

"Do you ever have times when you can't save all the people that you want to?" Izuku asked. The look that crossed my Dad's face... I knew he instantly thought about Mom. Considering Uncle Naomasa got the same look, I knew they both were thinking about Mom.

"Yes, I do. And often." Izuku looked surprised, but I should have figured he would be since he didn't know how my Dad had felt about my Mom. "Someone could be injured and calling out for my help anywhere in the world right now and I would never know about it. I know it's frustrating, but we're only human. There are always going to be people beyond our reach that we can't protect. But, that"d all the more reason to stand tall and smile. So that the "Symbol of Justice" is always there. Even when I can't be, a flicker in people's hearts, whether they be a hero or a villain." 

"They're both worried about what Shigaraki said. But, that was likely the villain's resentment talking. All Might has never failed to save someone after arriving at an emergency. Think we got everything we need, so you're both good. We're all done here." Uncle Naomasa told us.

"Izuku?" My friend and I both turned to see Inko standing there with Officer Sansa.

"Mom?" Izuku asked. She raced to him, grasping his hands as soon as she was close enough.

"Izuku! My baby! I can't do this anymore. I don't think my heart can handle another scare." She sniffled, and I turned my head away as tears stung my eyes, thinking how worried and scared Mom would be if she were here. Nothing scared that woman, but from what Dad had told me, anything bad that happened with me scared her to death. 

"I'm sorry, everything's fine. I'm okay, Mom, there's no need to cry." Izuku reassured her. "The heroes and the police have been taking really good care of Hino and I all night." He told her. She looked at me, tearing up all over.

"Oh, thank heavens you're both okay!" She sobbed as she pulled me into a hug. I hid my face as I hugged her back, feeling like crying that she had worried about me too. As her cries died down to sniffles, Dad spoke.

"I'm so sorry to intrude, ma'am, but since I have to talk with Detective Tsukauchi here but after what happened, I don't feel comfortable leaving Hino home alone... Can I ask that you keep her for the night?" Dad asked. 

"Nonsense, Hino's safe with me and welcome anytime." She answered without missing a beat. I had admit, I had been a bit surprised by it.

"Sansa, make sure they get home safe." Uncle Naomasa ordered. 

"Sir." Officer Sansa saluted in response before ushering me away from my Dad and Uncle. As we drove away, I couldn't shake the threat Shigaraki had told me in my ear before he'd disappeared again. Was it a threat of another attack? Or was he planning something else? 

"I know it's not very comfy, you two, but I figured you two would have more space in here." Inko told us as she set up the couch and a sleeping bag for us in the living room. 

"It's okay, Mrs- I mean, Inko." I changed my trajectory the minute she gave me the look, and it turned into a smile when I called her by name.

"Now, Hinotori, if you need anything, you tell me or Izuku, okay? You both need rest considering what the two of you went through today." Inko told me.

"Thank you for everything." I told her.

"Of course." She smiled, giving her son a kiss on the head before she went to her room. Izuku fell asleep fairly quick after that, but I couldn't sleep. 

How could I with Shigaraki's threat hanging over my head?

(Taglist: @qweenexplosionmurder13 @iheartbarbie )

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

Yu-Gi-Oh: Renegade

Chapter 5:

Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh: Renegade:

' "In 3 months, I will be holding a Derby Duel Tournament. It is open to all who wish to compete." Leon Dracnus announced on live TV.

"Look, everyone deserves to play the game they love without facing prejudice, without consequences… This baby," Yuko gently patted the broken down Phoenix Whirlwind, "is the key to jump starting that change. But, I'm gonna need you guys behind me on this."

"There'll never be a time you can't count on me." Adom replied.

"Good luck, Yuko, my girl." Pops told her before Yuko raced out of the garage and away from her chosen family.

"Remove your helmet and deactivate the gear, reject. I know you're a duelist, and one from the Jade Phoenix Duel Gang judging by the symbol on your back."  

"You have Derby Duel gear yourself, right, Takano? Duel me. If I win, I go about my business and you act like nothing happened." 

"And why should I listen to what a reject like you asks of me?"

"Winning against me means you could get redemption from the big man topside. See, you're right in assuming I'm a duelist, I'm the leader of the Jade Phoenix gang, their best duelist."

"You're on, Birdie. You're in for one heck of a match, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into, kid! Wait, that Duel Disk... Where did that come from?!" Yuko felt a smirk cross her face at the Chaser's shock of the tech she'd built herself.

"I built it into my gear!"

What have I gotten myself into? She thought nervously as a countdown began to the beginning of the duel.'

With the Duel World spell activated, the world around them had changed giving it a bluish hue. "Ready... Set... Duel!" The computer counted down. Both duelists took off, their Life Point counters set to 4000 Life Points. Wait, are my eyes playing tricks on me? Why are my Life Points only at 4000? Yuko thought, her brow furrowing.

"In case you aren't familiar with Derby Duel combat, allow me to explain the rules. In Derby Duels, our decks are cut down to 40 cards each and our Life Points are only set to 4000 points. Unlike Turbo Duels back in the old days, we're allowed to use normal spells, but we do have hurdles that make things harder. For one thing, in the actual arena, if you knock your opponent out of bounds, they automatically lose. The first two to take that first turn are the first duelists to begin dueling. If one of the duelists in focus gets knocked out, either by a duelist or an obstacle, either the duelist that butted them out or the duelist closest to the remaining duelist takes over the duel. Much like Turbo Duels, though, if you hit zero while Derby Dueling, your wheels will lock up and you'll be forced to wipe out." Takano explained.

"In other words, you wanna be the last duelist standing." Yuko summed up.

"Too bad it won't be you, Birdie." Takano smirked. 

"We'll see about that, Takano." Yuko glared.

"Ready... Set... Duel!" The computer counted off, the two taking off as soon as the countdown hit the go mark.

Yuko- 4000                                           Takano- 4000

"Ladies first, reject." Takano smirked. Yuko rolled her eyes as she drew. A frown crossed her face. Mystical Space Typhoon, Spell Shattering Arrow, Shield Crush, Blast Magician, Monster Reborn and Unexpected Dai... Not too much to work with defense wise, but one monster's better than nothing but spells the first draw... Yuko thought. "What's the matter, giving up already?" Yuko scoffed at Takano's taunt.

"You wish! I'll kick this off by activating Unexpected Dai from my hand! Since I have no monsters on the field, I'm allowed to Special Summon a Level Four or below Monster from my deck, as long as it doesn't have any effects... So, Flamvell Guard, take to the field in defense mode!" The metallic dragon roared to life, flames coming off its body as it curled up in defense mode (ATK/ 100 DEF/ 2000). "Next, I summon Blast Magician in attack mode!" Blast Magician spun his staff, taking his place next to Flamvell Guard and standing at the ready, his eyes trained on the enemy (ATK/ 1400 DEF/1700). I'll end my turn there for now. Your move, Takano." 

​​​Yuko- 4000                                           Takano- 4000

"My turn! I draw!" Takano observed the cards in his hand before smirking a bit. "First, I'll summon Honest in attack mode!" An angel looking monster took to the field on Takano's side of the field, his wings unfurled and his eyes glaring fiercely (ATK/ 1100 DEF/ 1900). "Now, since I'm not dumb enough to attack you with a monster that has less attack power than Blast Magician, I'll end my turn with a facedown." 

"Wow, who knew you guys were actually smart? It's my turn now!" Yuko remarked, but before she could take her turn, she noticed something hurtling her way. She moved to the side, dodging it by a hair. Takano laughed at her. 

"I told you there were hurtles... From here on out on every other turn, the Duel World field spell automatically throws obstacles our way. In an arena, it would have obstacles set up, but this isn't your typical arena." Takano revealed.

"You were hoping I'd get knocked down by one of those, didn't you?!" Yuko accused.

"Don't accuse me of such a ridiculous thing, girl, now take your turn or I'll take it as a surrender!" Takano threatened.

Yuko- 4000                                           Takano- 4000

"I draw!" Yuko kept a steady pace as she looked at the cards in her hand. While she'd gotten one spell card out of the way, she still had her original four, plus her trap card: Trap Jammer. Least he won't be able to do anything to me with a Trap Card this upcoming turn... Yuko thought. "Blast Magician, let's leave a scorch mark! Attack Honest!" 

"You won't be able to touch him, Birdie! I activate the trap card, Compulsory Evacuation Device! This card allows me to target one monster and return it to the owner's hand, and I choose my Honest!" Takano smirked.

"I guess your dueling skills are rustier than you thought, because all that does is switch Blast Magician's target from your monster to you directly!" Yuko called out his mistake as his monster returned to his hand and Blast Magician turned his attention on Takano. His eyes grew wide.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He shouted but it was too late, Blast Magician closed in on Takano and sliced through the Ex Chaser with his scepter. Takano stumbled due to the damage he took, but managed to get his footing back. Yuko smirked.

"I'll end my turn by throwing down a facedown. Your move, Takano." Yuko smirked.

Yuko- 4000                                           Takano- 2600

"You snot-nosed, insignificant little- AH!" Distracted by his need to insult Yuko, he was tripped up by an obstacle thrown his way, the teenager snickering as he barely managed to stay on his feet. "What?! You cheater! You did that on purpose!"

"You forgot one of the rules: Since it's just the two of us dueling and we're outside the normal arena, any time one of us takes direct damage, we have to avoid an obstacle at the end of the turn." Yuko reminded him, smirking. Takano growled in response. 

"I draw!" Takano drew a card, but the look he gained on his face made Yuko uneasy. What is he planning? She thought as she kept pace with the ex Chaser. "I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level Four! (Atk/1600 Def/1000)" Yuko's face paled as she came face to face with her own brother's dragon. There were 3 dragons with the same name: Level Four, Level Six and Level 8. Liam's entire deck had gone missing, and it chilled Yuko's blood to know that the dragons that her brother had once held dear were now on the hands of someone like Takano. Takano, meanwhile, smirked. "What's the matter, little duelist?! Dragon got your tongue?!" Takano cackled. Yuko glared.

"Take your turn, snake!" Yuko yelled. 

"As you wish! Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level Four, destroy her Blast Magician!" Takano announced the attack. The dragon roared and did as it was told, making Yuko cry out in pain as 400 life points were taken from her, her magician destroyed. "Now, his special effect activates! When I destroy a monster this turn, I'm allowed to send him to the graveyard and Special Summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level 6 from my hand or deck!" He laughed as the level four dragon disappeared, it's Level 6 version taking its place. It roared, Yuko recognizing the pain it was in. Don't worry, I'll find a way to get you guys away from him... I promise! She thought, hoping the dragon could hear her. "I end my turn due to Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level Four's effect!"

Yuko- 3600                                               Takano- 2600

"Then, it's my move now!" Yuko shouted before she dodged the hurtle coming her way and drawing her next card. Keeper of Dragon Magic! Yuko thought, smiling a bit before schooling her features. "I summon Keeper of Dragon Magic in attack mode! (Atk/1800 Def/1300)" She watched as the dragon armored magician burst to life, facing Takano and the level 6 dragon. 

"What is it with you and Spellcasters! You know that magician's far too weak to beat my dragon!" Takano called out.

"I know, I'm not attacking with him!" Yuko called out. "I activate his effect! By discarding Spell Shattering Arrow, I can draw Polymerization from my deck to my hand. But, that's not all! By revealing a fusion monster from my deck, I can special summon one of the materials needed to summon it in defense position! So, Luster Dragon, join us on the battlefield as I reveal First of Dragons!" She showed the fusion card as she summoned Luster Dragon (Atk/1900 Def/1600) in defense position. "Now that the effect is complete, I activate Polymerization from my hand, fusing my Flamvell Dragon and Luster Dragon together to Fusion Summon First of Dragons in attack mode! (Atk/2700 Def/2000)". First of Dragons roared to life, his grey scales glistening in the street lamp light and his tail hitting the ground as he roared. Yuko smirked. "Now, First of Dragons, attack Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level 6!" Yuko ordered the attack, and watched as a black lightning ball left her dragon and hit her brother's dragon, destroying it and knocking Takano's life points down another 400 life points. Takano cried out in pain and once again struggled to maintain his balance as Yuko took the lead, easily turning around to face Takano and skate backwards. The ex Chaser growled and the smirk on her face. "Now, Keeper of Dragon Magic, it's your turn, attack Takano directly!" She extended her hand, making Takano's eyes widen as the Spellcaster attacked, knocking his Life Points down another 1800 points and causing Takano to falter once more." I set two cards facedown and end my turn!"

Yuko- 3600                                                 Takano-800

"You no good reject! You'll be locked up for sure! I draw!" Takano barely avoided another obstacle before drawing his next card, and a flash of red caught Yuko's attention. The Dragon Kings were nearby...

"Says the guy about to lose this duel! Make your last turn count, Takano!" Yuko fired back. Takano suddenly started laughing.

"I plan to! I use the effect of Monster Reborn to bring my Black Flame Dragon Level 6 back from the Graveyard! Next, I summon my Honest back to the field! But, instead of attacking, I'll set one card facedown and end my turn!" Wait, why isn't he attacking? Yuko thought. It didn't make any sense...

Yuko- 3600                                               Takano-800

"I draw!" Yuko announced her turn as she drew a card. "I summon Dark Blade in attack mode! (Atk/ 1800 Def/1500)" She smirked behind her helmet. "Dark Blade, attack and destroy his Honest!"

"Not so fast, I activate the trap card Rising Energy! By discarding my Two Headed Dragon, I can give my Honest an additional 1500 attack points! (Atk 1100+ 1500= 2600)."

"Nice try, but you forget about my facedown! Trap Jammer! Using this trap, I can negate and destroy Rising Energy!" 

"WHAT?!" Takano exclaimed in horror as he watched his trap crumble and shatter.

"And that means Dark Blade is clear to keep his attack going!" Yuko exclaimed. Dark Blade's sword slashes through the angel, making it give a cry as it shattered and Takano yell in pain as he took the 700 point damage. He stumbled, barely managing to catch his balance for the final time. "First of Dragons, let's finish him off once and for all! Attack his Black Flame Dragon and end this duel! Black Lightning Attack!" She yelled out, the dragon roaring as it fired off another ball of black lightning, once again destroying the Black Flame Dragon. Takano cried out as the last damage of the Derby Duel rendered him down to zero, taking his last 100 Life Points and making him finally fall as Yuko came to a stop, standing tall.

Yuko- 3600                                         Takano- 0

"Should have attacked while you had the chance." Yuko snarled. "Now, you're going to give me my brother's dragons back right now. All three of them. It's the rules of a Derby Duel. Any rare cards the losing duelist has go to the winner." Takano growled, the snarl eventually growing so loud it eventually became a roar of rage!

"NEVER, I'M TAKING YOU IN!" Takano yelled in anger, but before he could lay a hand on Yuko, a punch came from over the female's left shoulder. When Yuko turned her head, she had to admit that she was surprised to see Kai Cunningham behind her, along with the other members of the Dragon Kings.

"Not in our turf. She beat you fair and square, and you had some of the rarest dragons in the game since the creation of the Blue Eyes. You don't deserve to be a duelist." Kai threatened, scooping up the cards Yuko had requested from the deck and glaring at him. Yuko tensed, ready for a fight if that's what it came down to. "Relax, Adonis, and take off your helmet already, Yang wants to see you." Yuko hesitated for a minute. "Look, idiot, you want your brother's dragons back or not?" He questioned. Yuko pressed a button on the side of her helmet that made the skates and her helmet collapse, allowing her to walk freely. Kai placed the dragons in her hand before leading the way toward the Dragon Kings' hideout. Yuko placed the dragons in her deck, smiling when she heard their spirits purring on happiness. Once inside the hideout, Yuko saw that it was a den, filled with members of the Dragon Kings either training or cooking a hearty meal, the smell of which made Yuko's stomach rumble. "Being this close to an entrance of Cypher City has its perks." Kai told her as he held her to the center of the den. "We also have informants all over Cypher City, they keep us updated if anyone even murmurs about an attack on the Underground." The closer they got to the center of the den, the warmer it became. Yuko noticed many of the members of the rival duel gang stopping to stare at her. Kai glared at them once they reached a door, making all of them head back to their stations. "Yang's through here." Kai opened the door for her, letting her go through.

"Thanks." Yuko spoke. "For the backup back there and bringing me here." 

"Just following Boss's orders." Kai replied before closing the door behind her. When Yuko turned her back to the now closed door, she found a haven of an office. Books of Duel Monsters history lines the shelves, titles listing the pat Kings of Games, their rivals and the history of the fame itself. A picture frame sat center stage in the middle of it all, a picture of a young girl with snow white hair and sapphire blue eyes next to a younger and much happier Yang.

"My younger sister." Yang clarified from the desk in the center of the room before Yuko could ask, not glancing up from whatever he was working on. "The last time Cypher City tried a raid, my sister was coming up the stairs and was killed. We were able to fortify the passageway to not allow anyone but residents of the Underground in, but the update came too late to save her. Her name was Kisa, and no, I don't want to talk about her other than to make you understand why I don't mention her." Upon closer inspection, Yuko noticed a locket around both siblings neck in the picture, a locket that still hung around Yang's neck now despite the pain it must have brought him to remember his sister.

"We're similar that way, I guess." Yuko responded, remembering her own grief as Liam's face flashed in her mind. She heard Yang's chair scrape against the floor before the sound of his boots marked him drawing closer to her.

"Sometimes I wonder if you're just as crazy as your brother. Risking your neck to go up top, all to take part in some tournament that'll just be another blip in the history of Duel Monsters and end with your death." Yang told her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I have to. Especially considering I have the chance to kickstart the chance for people to be able to duel freely." Yuko replied, facing her rival. He easily towered over her, his ruby red streaked, jet black hair hung in his face, his hazel eyes regarding her.

"You know they'll be able to keep track of you with your prosthetic, Yuko. You're not an idiot, don't do this over one stupid tournament."

"The gang and I thought of that, Raven was able to hack the systems so my ID shows as someone else rather than who I am, and it's also why my hair and eyes are a different color. I'm two steps ahead of you, as usual." Yuko turned to leave but found her arm in Yang's grasp.

"Yuko, please. One leader to another, don't go up there. You'll get caught, tortured and killed and your friends will be left down here alone." Yang reminded her of the punishments that waited for her if she were caught.

"And you know why I have to do this. Any day now, a piece of vital information could slip past your informants, Dracnus could lead an army down here and then Duel Monsters would be destroyed forever. That risk is why I have to fight back for us, because no one else will." She argued. Yang stared at her.

"I still think it's a stupid idea... But, nothing I say or do is going to change your mind, I've seen that look enough times to know. You die up there, I'll kill you." Yang let go, leading her to a bookcase that swung open when he pulled on a book titled An Incomplete History of Underground City and other Adrenaline Junkies. Yuko gave Yang a deadpan look.

"Cliche much?" She asked.

"Hey, it hides it better than an out of place stone tablet that's impossible to move." Yang replied. Yuko passed him to climb up the steps when a thought crossed her mind and she stopped, facing Yang.

"If something happens to me up there, will you make sure my gang stays safe?" She asked. Yang nodded.

"You have my word." He swore.

"Thanks... For everything." A smile crossed her face before she ascended the steps without looking back, the secret door swinging closed behind her. Her boots smacked against the cement stairs as she climbed higher and higher until she reached a heavy metal door. She touched the center of it, causing it to slide upward. Once she exited the staircase, the door slammed shut behind her. She was in someplace that looked like a normal apartment. It was abandoned, covered in dust and most of the furniture covered with a white cloth. Where she had just come from was behind a dusty old bookcase. Really? Just when I thought that guy couldn't be more cliche? She thought, shaking her head as she looked around. Since the applications didn't open back up again until the morning, Yuko set to work sorting out the apartment, dusting and cleaning until it looked almost like a new apartment. Once she finished, she looked out the window she had just finished dusting watching the stars glimmer in the sky above her. She gave a small smile, taking the stars as a sign of what she hoped would be a bright and peaceful future to come

But only time would tell for sure.

(Taglist: @kitsunephantom09 @iheartbarbie)

#fanmade original #Yuko Adonis #Yu-Gi-Oh Renegade #Leon Dracnus #Ritsu Takano

[z-iridest]

Katsuki Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki, and Izuku Midoriya - Them Using Their Quirks To Get You To Work When You're Running Late

Was inspired to write these little drabbles when I read this post by @izvmimi!

Izuku Midoriya/Deku

“Izuku… Can’t you go any faster? I’m running late to work as it is…” you groan out as the 2 of you float over the streets of the city towards your workplace.

“You’re gonna be getting there right on time (Y/N), don’t you worry.” Izuku reassures you.

“Are you sure, because- oh.” You say as you look down towards the city below just to see your workplace right across the street as Izuku slowly lowers to the ground.

“See, what did I tell ya?” Izuku chuckles gently as he sets you onto your feet.

“Yup, you were right Izu, but I really have to go because my boss will kill me if I’m-” you say as you unwrap you arms from his neck and start to walk away from him so that you can make it to work on time, only for Izuku to pull you back into his arms and press his lips to yours.

He lets go a moment later, giving you a smile as he looks into your eyes. “Have a good day at work okay.”

“Okay.” you nod with a smile.

“I love you.” he says.

“I love you too Izu.” you answer before turning away and jogging down the sidewalk to your workplace.

Katsuki Bakugo/Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight

Boom………… Boom………… Boom…………

That’s all you can hear as you hold onto Katsuki tightly as he flies through the air towards your workplace.

Now, usually you walk to work, but today you slept later than usual so, you couldn’t walk to work.

“You alright back there idiot?” Katsuki asks over the booms of his explosions.

You nod in reply against his shoulder as you have your face buried into his neck, not wanting to see how high the 2 of you are above the city.

“Good.” Katsuki replies. “We’re almost there so, get ready for the landing.”

“Okay.” you say against his neck as you tighten your grip on him slightly.

A few minutes later, Katsuki lands on the sidewalk just down the street from your workplace.

“Alright, dumbass, we’re here.” Katsuki tells you.

At his words you loosen your grip on his shoulder, sliding off of his back onto solid ground.

“Thanks Katsuki.” you say, kissing him on the cheek. “You’re a life saver.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” he grumbles which makes you giggle as you turn away from him.

“Bye baby, I’ll see you later tonight, okay?”

As you start to walk away from him, you feel him grab your hand and pull you back into his arms. “C'mere, dumbass.”

“Kat-” you begin to say, but before you can finish, he kisses you on the lips passionately.

“Mmm.” you hum against his lips as you wrap your arms around your neck, kissing him back.

A moment later, Katsuki lets go of your lips, a cocky smirk on his lips as he looks down at your dazed expression.

“You alright there sweetheart?”

“Mmmhmm.” you hum with a nod.

“Alright, now get to work before you’re late dumbass.” he says. “I’ll see you later.”

Shoto Todoroki

Shoto’s hand in yours makes you smile as the 2 of you glide along the formation of ice that you know the civilians below are gawking at.

A few moments later, you see your workplace just down the street from where the 2 of you are currently as Shoto makes the ramp slope down towards the street.

Shoto then stops forming ice before stepping down and helping you down as well.

“Thanks Sho.” you smile.

“Not a problem love.” he smiles back.

“Well I better get going before I get in trouble.” You say to him.

He nods.

“I’ll see you later alright?” You ask.

“Of course.” He nods before pulling you in closer to him and pressing his lips to yours passionately.

You kiss him back even though you know everyone around the 2 of you is watching the 2 of you kiss passionately in the middle of the sidewalk next to a formation of ice.

You’re the to let go a moment later. “See you later love.” Shoto says to you before he uses his quirk to for another ice formation and skating away, causing a chilly breeze to flow past you before you make your way to work for the day.

Please let me know if you guys want me to do any other MHA Characters taking you to work by using their quirks if you’re running late and enjoy!

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I am Phoenix

Chapter 18- Test of Heroes:

"All right, that's it for class today." Aizawa told us a couple days later. "There's only one week left until your final exams begin. I'm sure you all studying constantly, right?" I mean, I am, but I don't know about everyone else. I thought. "Don't forget to keep training. The written exam is only one element. There's also the practical portion to worry about. Good luck." With that, our teacher left the room.

"I'VE BARELY TAKEN NOTES THIS SEMESTER!" Mina and Kaminari exclaimed, Kaminari in horror and Mina laughing.

"And with the Sports Festival and the internship, I didn't have time to read the textbook!" Kaminari added in a panic. On the midterm, those two placed the lowest at 20th and 21st specially. 

"It's true that we haven't had much free time lately..." Tokoyami trailed off, having placed 15th, just outside the bottom five.

"We'd barely learned anything when we took our midterms, so they didn't seem all that hard, but I'm kinda worried about these." Sato was telling Koda, both placing 13th and 12th respectively. "We've been through a lot, and they probably won't pull any punches when it comes to testing us." 

"As someone ranked in the top ten, I'm not that concerned." Mineta bragged. Much as I hate to admit it, he placed tenth.

"I still don't know how you managed that, you little shit." I glared at him. I'd placed second behind Momo, but I still didn't know how Mineta of all people managed the top ten.

"WHAT?! YOU WERE TENTH IN THE MIDTERMS?!" They both yelled in shock.

"Aw man, and I thought you were one of us." Mina whined.

"Don't you know weirdo little creeps like you are only likeable if they're kind of stupid?! Who's gonna love you now?!" Kaminari added. I mean, I'm not convinced he's not an idiot... 

"Everyone, trust me." Mineta replied. See?

"Ashido, Kaminari! We've still got time to study! That way we'll all get to go to the training camp together, right?" Ever the optimist, Izuku encouraged both our classmates. Having placed in 5th himself in the midterms, he had a right to be. Iida, who placed in third right below me, raised his hand as if taking an oath.

"Yes! As Class Rep, I have high hopes that we'll make UA proud!" Iida shouted.

"It's pretty hard to fail if you just pay attention in class, isn't it?" Todoroki asked, the Peppermint boy placing in sixth right behind Izuku.

"You're not wrong." I shrugged, but Kaminari acted like we wounded him.

"Why you gotta cut me down like that?!" He whined. 

"Hey, don't worry about it, you two, I can catch you up to speed on the important topics if you want." Momo offered. I swear that woman's too much of a goddess for her own good...

"You're the best, Yaomomo!" Kaminari and Mina exclaimed. Since when has her nickname ever been Yaomomo? She instantly darkened, hanging her head.

"I'm afraid it won't be of any help when it comes to the practical, though..." She trailed off.

"I've been studying but... Could you help me out too? I'm having some trouble understanding quadratic functions." Kyoka had placed 8th, but approached our Yaomomo anyway.

"Really?"

"Tutor me, please! Classical Japanese is killing me!" Seto approached her next. He placed 18th on our midterms...

"Ah..."

"Is there room for one more?" Ojiro asked before Yaomomo could even have a chance to respond. "I'm afraid I'm falling behind a little." He placed 9th in the midterms.

"Pretty please!" They all begged her. She lit up again.

"This is wonderful!" She jumped out of her seat, pumping her arms in the air. "Yes! Let's do it!"

"All right!" They cheered.

"Okay, then. We can hold a study session at my residence over the weekend." Yaomomo went planning.

"Seriously?! I can't wait to see your fancy digs!" Mina squealed. As Yaomomo went on a tangent planning the study session, Todoroki approached me.

"Would you want to study together, Yagi?" He asked. I smiled.

"Sure, did you want to meet up somewhere?" I countered. He shrugged, signalling he didn't know. "Okay, well, there's this little café nearby Tatooine station if that's okay?" I asked. He nodded.

"Sounds good." He answered, making me smile.

"It's a plan then." I replied.

"You think I don't know enough?! Maybe I should be at the lessons into your skull!" We then heard Bakugo (4th place in the midterms) growling at Kirishima (who placed 16th). I sighed.

"I'm counting on it." Kirishima responded. 

"Hah, everyone's panicking right now. But it won't do any good to cram this late in the game." Aoyama stated as Shouji- who came in 11th- walked over to him.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned? You didn't do very well in the midterms." He asked, pointing out that Aoyama came in 19th in the midterms. 

"Are you talking about moi? I did just fine, thank you." Aoyama replied. At lunch, Izuku, Tsu, Toru, Ochaco, Iida, Todoroki and I sat together.

"I'm kinda scared about the practical. I have no idea what it's gonna be." Izuku said.

"Neither do I..." I trailed off.

"Hard to believe they'd give us anything too crazy." Iida answered, making me look at him.

"Considering those of us who weren't at recommendation level had to fight robots in the practical of the entrance exam, I beg to differ. For all we know, they could put us against our teachers." I brought up.

"Please don't jinx it, Hino." Ochaco and Toru begged me. I shrugged.

"I'm not, I'm just saying."

"Anyways, the written exam questions will all be stuff from class, so..." He took a bite of food. "I should be able to do those." At his words, Ochaco stiffened, probably remembering that she came in 14th during the entrance exam.

"Do you really think it's going be that simple?" She asked, sounding nervous.

"It's driving me nuts. I just wanna know what they'll have us doing." Izuku responded.

"It's a comprehensive test of everything we learned from this year." Toru replied, having placed 17th while Tsu had placed 7th.

"Yep, and that's about all we could get Mr. Aizawa to tell us." Tsu added.

"Okay, so then, it'll cover combat and rescue training. Oh, and basic training." Ochaco summed up.

"We can't just study-we have to stay in great physical shape-" Izuku's stomach suddenly hit the table as he got elbowed in the head. I instantly jumped out of my seat, glaring at the blond asshole who caused it, but got yanked back down by Todoroki.

"Oh, sorry, your head's so big that it's hard to miss." He cracked.

"Yours is bigger, should I put a burn mark on that big ass forehead of yours?!" I snapped.

"Hino!" Ochaco's tone was warning.

"He started it." I looked at her.

"You're from class 1-B. Um... Monoma, right? That really hu-"

"I heard you guys stumbled across the Hero Killer. Just like in the Sports Festival, Class 1-A isn't happy unless they're the center of attention." Monoma was really starting to tick me off.

"Maybe if you'd actually brought your A-game, you would have had the spotlight in the Sports Festival, not my fault your battle IQ's at 20. Besides that, it wasn't like we were looking for the Hero Killer." I replied. I mean, one of us was, but the blond Wanna-B didn't need to know that.

"But you do realize you're not in the spotlight because people think you're good heroes, right? It's just that you keep getting into so much trouble. Here's food for thought: Some day, the rest of us might get caught up in your mess, and then we'll all become unwitting victims as well. What kind of horrible villains will you bring down upon us?"

"Can I burn him yet?" I mumbled with my teeth clenched.

"He's not worth it, Yagi." Todoroki told me, keeping a hand on my arm to keep me from jumping across the table.

"What demon-" He got cut off by a girl with an orange ponytail. She caught his lunch tray as he dropped to the floor, Kairi standing over him.

"That's not funny, Monoma!" Kairi chided him.

"You heard what happened to Iida, chill out!" Kendo told him.

"Kendo." Iida spoke her name.

"I apologize for him... I'm pretty sure he has a hole where his heart should be." Kendo apologized. I glanced at Monoma. And I'm pretty sure you knocked him out! I thought.

"So, we were listening... We know you're all worried about what's going to be on the big final practical." Kendo brought up.

"We heard it's gonna be combat against robots like the entrance exam." Kairi tilted her head slightly.

"Huh?!" Ochaco and I both cried out.

"What? Really? How do you know that?" Izuku asked.

"One of my friends who's a few grades up filled me in. I know, cheating but... Oh well." Kendo answered. While the others were talking, Kairi noticed the fact that Todoroki still had his hand on my arm and looked at me, smirking. I looked away from her, hiding the fact that my face was burning.

"What kind of idiot are you, Kendo?" As Izuku was rambling, Monoma woke up. "You just have away our whole strategic advantage! This was our chance to finally pull ahead of that class full of idiots!" He got splashed with water courtesy of Kairi's quirk.

"You're the idiot!" She exclaimed just as Kendo chopped him again.

"Right, they're not the idiots!" Kendo told him before she dragged him away.

"Good luck on exams, guys!" Kairi beamed, hoping onto one foot as she waved goodbye. As I watched her walk away, I noticed Tetsutetsu join her and sling an arm around her, making her lean her head on his shoulder. Awwww, how cute! I thought. 

"ALRIGHT!" Mina and Kaminari exclaimed a while later after we told everyone else the news Kendo had given us.

"This'll be super easy if it's just robots!" Kaminari added.

"Such awesome news!" Mina exclaimed.

"Why do you sound so happy?" Shouji asked. "You both have a hard time controlling your Quirks."

"Yeah, but I can let loose with robots!" Kaminari pumped his fists. Why do I feel like my earlier statement's gonna end up jinxing us? I thought as Mina did the same thing as Kaminari.

"Now you just need Yayorozu to help you study and you'll be all set for finals." Sero was pointing out.

"We'll definitely be able to go to the training camp now!" Kaminari and Mina cheered. 

"It shouldn't matter if it's robots or actual people. Why are you morons so excited?" Bakugo growled out.

"Hey, who're you calling a moron?!" Kaminari yelled.

"Shut up!" Katsuki roared, making Kaminari shrink. "You need to learn how to control your Quirk! Ya got it?!" He then turned to Izuku. "Hey! Deku!" The intensity got so thick you could cut it with a knife. "I don't know what's goin' on with your power, but I saw the way you're using it now and I want you to know... It's seriously pissing me off." 

"Uh oh... He must mean how Deku was flying around like him the other day..." Ochaco trailed off worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, totally..." Mina realized.

"We'll be getting individual scores in the upcoming finals. New rankings. So we'll all know exactly where we're standing! I'll show you how much better I am." He then turned his gaze on our red and white haired classmate. "And Todoroki? I'll kill you, too." Todoroki didn't respond, and Bakugo turned his eyes on me.

"I'm not holding back." I replied before he could say anything... He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. I rolled my eyes.

"It's been a while since I've seen him that worked up." Kirishima commented after a minute. 

"Think it's impatience? Or hatred?" Tokoyami asked.

"Hatred? He wants to be the best at everything, so that's how he acts. He's just being competitive." I answered, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning against the side of my desk. With Izuku, it was different though... Ochaco was right, there was a rivalry there, though it seemed one sided. He did seem to hate me just as much as Izuku in the past, but... It didn't have as much bite to it as it did before the Sports Festival if that makes any sense... Anyway, for the next week, I studied and trained on my own and when the weekend finally came, I met up with Todoroki to do our own study group. I had dressed casually, just in jeans, a T-shirt and combat boots with my hair in a low ponytail pulled over my left shoulder. When I arrived, I was a little early, so I just ordered a drink and decided to study a bit on my own while I waited for Todoroki. But, much as I tried, I couldn't focus. The nightmare was happening every night now. I messed with the necklace around my neck as I sat back in my seat, taking my glasses off for a second to pinch the bridge of my nose. You were meant to be just like me.... What the hell does that even mean? And who's voice was it? The more the nightmare kept happening, the more the other voice took over my own until it was all I could hear...

"Yagi? Are you okay?" I looked up to see Todoroki had arrived. He had his school bag slung over his shoulder, and he was wearing gray pants, his usual light blue sneakers, and a navy blue button up that was left open the reveal the white shirt he had on underneath. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I gave a small smile. "Just lost in thought for a second. I'm glad you made it okay." I answered him.

"The directions you gave were pretty detailed." He shrugged off his bag and sat down across from me before he noticed my drink. He looked confused, making me have to bite back a giggle.

"It's strawberry milk tea with strawberry boba, do you want one?" I asked. He looked at me for a second.

"I couldn't ask that..."

"You're not, I'm offering." I interrupted. He blinked for a couple more seconds before nodding. I smiled. "I'll be right back then." With that, I got up and ordered another one for Todoroki. 

"Quite the cutie you got across from you." Jarsa, the barista that usually works when I come in, commented.

"Don't even, he's just a friend." I told her.

"Really? Because the way he looks at your reminds me of the way my husband used to look at me." She threw back. I felt my face burn, making her laugh as she gave me the milk tea for Todoroki. "You're not denying it."

"We're just friends, I'm not gonna get burnt again the way I got burned with... Well... You know..." I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck.

"He doesn't give me the bad vibes that blood manipulator gave me." Jarsa was quick to reply. "Go on." She shooed me toward him again. I shook my head before I rejoined Todoroki.

"Here you go." I gave it to him.

"Thank you." He replied. I watched him as he looked at the way it was sealed, looked at the straw, then looked at me for help. A few giggles left me before I motioned for him to give it back to me. Once he did, I showed him how to unwrap the straw and to stab it through the top before giving it back to him. I watched him stare at the cup for a few seconds before I giggled, muffling it with my hand. 

"Go ahead, try it." I encouraged him. Once he took a drink, I put my glasses back on and went back to studying. After a few minutes of silence between us, I heard him speak again.

"Have you always had glasses?" I looked at him to find him staring at me.

"Yeah, I wear them in class all the time." I answered. Had he not noticed this whole time? Then again, he was pretty oblivious so far, so...

"You look pretty with glasses..." He looked away. "Actually, you always look pretty..." Did this guy know what he was doing to me?! I looked at my notebook.

"Thank you." I murmured, feeling him stare at me.

"Are you all right? Your face is really red." I felt him out a hand on my forehead. "Your forehead's really hot..."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I managed to get out, trying to get a hold of myself. I could practically hear the giggle fit coming from behind the counter. Oh my god, kill me now... Once I got a hold of myself, the study session actually went pretty well. Todoroki was definitely smart, logical, and he could solve problems as soon as he saw them. Kinda made me wonder why he'd invited me to study with him in the first place... He probably could have done all the studying on his own in a much quicker time frame. It honestly did help since he knew how to solve the problems I wasn't sure of, and I even helped him figure out the answers to a few things when he wasn't sure. Once I got home, I trained, using everything I'd learned. I suddenly wondered how Kirishima and Bakugo's study group was going, snickering as I imagined Bakugo hitting Kirishima in the head with a rolled up newspaper everytime the redhead got an answer wrong. They probably even got kicked out of the place they were studying because of Bakugo's explosive temper... 

You were meant to be just like me. I got startled out of my thoughts by that same voice again, except this time, I wasn't dreaming. I looked around. No one else was there, and I was home, so I would have definitely heard something if someone had entered... I decided to call it for the day, going inside with a shudder.  The next day, the exams started. It felt like all the written exams passed in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it... "All right, put your pencils down." Day 3 of the exams had arrived. The last person in each row, bring the answer sheets to me." Mina and Kaminari were already out of their seats as Yaomomo collected our row's papers.

"Thanks so much for all your help!" Mina exclaimed gratefully.

"I didn't leave anything blank at least!" Kaminari added. That afternoon, we were brought to the Central Plaza training area after we were dressed in our costumes, only to find ourselves lined up across from all our teachers.

"Now then, let's begin the last test." Mr. Aizawa began. "Remember, it's possible to fail this final. If you wanna go to camp, but make any stupid mistakes."

"Why are all of the teachers all here?" Kyoka asked.

"I expect many of you have gathered information and believe you have some idea of what you'll be faced with today." Mr Aizawa answered.

"We're fighting those big ol' metal robots!" Kaminari had the gall to open his fat mouth. 

"Fireworks! S'mores! Here we come, camp!" Mina exclaimed.

"Actually, this year's tests..." Principal Nezu popped out of Mr. Aizawa's scarf. "... Will be completely different, for various reasons." What is it with our principal and our teacher's scarf?

"Principal Nezu!" Kyoka, Ojiro and Sero all exclaimed.

"You're changing things?" Yaomomo asked in disbelief.

"The tests now have a new focus." Principal Nezu was explaining while he climbed down from Mr. Aizawa. "There will be Hero work, of course. But also teamwork and combat between actual people." Oh no... "So, what does that mean for you? You students will be working together in pairs and your opponents will be one of our esteemed UA teachers! Isn't"t that fabulous!" I felt all the eyes of my friends looking at me. Looks like I jinxed it... Oops... Meanwhile, the rest of the class were wide eyed with shock.

"We're.... fighting the teachers?!" Ochaco questioned.

"Additionally, your partners and opponents have already been chosen. They were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades and interpersonal relationships. First off, Yayorozu, Yagi, and Todoroki are a team.... Against me." I glanced at Ochaco, seeing her look at me. I'm pretty sure my nerves were all over my face since she gave me a sympathetic look. "Then, we have Midoriya paired with Bakugo." They both were as shocked as I was, looking at each other, but our teacher wasn't done. "And their opponent is..." That's when Dad showed up and my eyes went wide.

"I am here to fight!" Dad exclaimed as he stood upright. I looked at Izuku, nervous for him. It wouldn't have been a problem for me to go against my Dad, considering I knew the exact time limit he was on and his weaknesses. Thinking about it, that's probably why Mr. Aizawa didn't put me against my own Dad, but to put Dad's number one fanboy and successor against him with the kid that hated said successor... This wasn't good...

"We're up against All Might?!" They both exclaimed at the same time. 

"You're going to have to work together, boys, if you want to win!" Dad told the two. One glare from Bakugo directed at Izuku told me he wasn't going to listen, though. Dad chuckled. 

"And now, let's announce the teams and teachers they'll be fighting in order." Principal Nezu announced. First up would be Sato and Kirishima against Cementoss, Tsu and Tokoyami against Ectoplasm, Iida and Ojiro against Power Loader, me, Todoroki and Yaomomo against Mr. Aizawa, Aoyama and Ochaco against Thirteen, Mina and Kaminari against Principal Nezu, Kyoka and Koda against Present Mic, Toru and Shoji against Snipe, Mineta and Sero against Midnight and finally Izuku and Bakugo against my Dad. Oh great, that fight's gonna be last? "To complete the exam, you'll have 30 minutes. In order to win, your objective is to put these handcuffs on your teacher. Or, you can win if one of you manages to escape from the combat stage." Principal Nezu explained.

"So, we've either got to capture the teacher or run away. It's basically like the combat training." Kaminari summed up.

"Yeah, but is it really okay to just jet?" Mina asked.

"Yup." Principal Nezu answered her.

"It's going to be much different than that combat training you all went through earlier. After all, you're up against people way better than you!"

"Better? Really?" Kyoka mumbled under her breath. "Wait, aren't you just the announcer?"

"Hey, watch your mouth, girl- Have some respect!" Present Mic answered.

"This time, your exam will be very similar to a real battle. As strange as it is, please think of us as villains." Thirteen told us, though her words only made me picture my Dad as a villain that towered over everyone and was too strong for any hero to fight. The thought honestly made me shudder. 

"Assumin' you come across your enemy, if you think you can win against them, then fight. However..."

"In instances where you're outmatched, it would be smarter to run away and find help. Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, Yagi. I'm sure the four of you understand." Mr. Aizawa finished Snipe's thought. 

"I won't make that mistake again. I will pass this test and prove that I'm a hero!" Iida exclaimed.

"So, we fight to win.... Or run to win." Izuku murmured.

"That's right! It's a test of your decision-making skills. But with these rules, you're probably thinking your only real choice is to flee. That's why the support course made these super clever accessories for us." Dad held up some kind of... metal bracelet?

"Behold! Ultra-compressed weights!" Present Mic told us.

"These babies will add about half our body weight to our physiques. It's not much, but they will eat up our stamina and make it harder for us to move around." Dad explained. I mean, in your case, you're adding double your body weight since you have four while the rest have two... I thought, just as Dad grunted. "Oh shoot... These are heavier than I thought! We had a contest to come up with these designs, and Young Hatsume ended up winning it." The girl with pink hair and goggles that was zipping across the second obstacle during the sports festival? I thought.

"You think we need a handicap to win against you?" Bakugo growled. "Well think again." 

"You seriously think you can take All Might without it?" I countered. Dad just laughed.

"This'll be fun." Dad replied.

"Let's begin. The teams will take the practical exams in the order you were called. We have a stage prepared for you. Sato, Kirishima, you're up."

"Yes, sir!" They exclaimed before the teachers filed into the building.

"Those waiting their turn to fight can either watch the exams or strategize together as a team. It's your choice. That's all." Mr. Aizawa told us before following the other teachers.

"Ojiro, I'd like to discuss how we might be able to coordinate the use of our Quirks." Iida was the first one to speak.

"Great." Ojiro replied.

"Tokoyami? Let's go come up with a plan." Tsu replied.

"Agreed." Tokoyami replied while they went inside together.

"We've got to figure out a way to destroy Miss Midnight's costume!" Mineta exclaimed.

"You are such a little scumbag." Sero mumbled as he followed Mineta inside. 

"Come on, Momo, let's come up with a plan." I told her before looking at Todoroki. "You coming?" I asked him. He looked at me before walking away. I sighed. "He already has a plan." I shook my head. Knowing him, it would be having us make a run for the gate while he holds off Mr. Aizawa. 

"Then my plan won't work..." Momo answered. I looked at her.

"Hey, not every plan works, we should still strategize just in case his doesn't pan out. Knowing Mr. Aizawa, I don't think the plan Todoroki has in mind will work." I told her. She looked unsure, but nodded, going with me into one of the waiting rooms. But, not even two minutes after we had sat down to talk, the buzzer went off.

"Sato and Kirishima have been knocked out! Exam over!" The automated system announced.

"Seriously?!" I asked, looking up. 

"That was fast." Yaomomo commented.

"Yeah, too fast... Looks like the match will be harder than we thought, I'm glad we agreed to strategize about this together." I told her. "What's the idea you have?" I asked after a second. She looked away from me. "Hey, don't close up on me. Please?" I tried again to get her to answer, but to no avail. "Momo, we're a team..."

"Team Tokoyami and Asui have passed the final!" The announcement came. Momo stood up.

"So Tokoyami and Asui have passed their exam... I'm not surprised." She finally spoke, leaving the room with me right behind her. 

"Team Ojiro and Iida have passed the final!" The automated system announced the end of Iida and Ojiro's match just as we arrived to our arena. We met up with Todoroki.

"It's our turn now. Let's go." Todoroki told us. Momo was still holding back, and she looked unsure of herself again.

"Yaomomo." I called her by her nickname, which snapped her out of it.

"What's wrong, are you nervous?" Todoroki asked her.

"Oh... No."

"It's okay... With our opponent, I don't blame you." Todoroki, she just said she's not nervous! I thought, but Todoroki wasn't done. "Don't worry, I have a plan in mind for us." 

"Todoroki, don't you think we should..." Before I could say anything more, I was cut off by the buzzer.

"Team Todoroki, Yagi and Yayorozu. Practical Exam. Ready. Go." The announcement went over the speakers. Shit, so much for hashing it out... As we ran, Todoroki told us his plan. "Yayorozu, listen, I want you to keep making small objects. When you stop being able to, it means Mr. Aizawa's close by." I knew it...

"Or at least we're within his line of sight... Todoroki, we should have-" I added, once again trying to get Todoroki to listen.

"Our success will depend on which one of us finds the other first. Once we spot him, I'll draw him to me. Then, you two can run to the escape gate and win this thing for us. Just stay close to me until then." Aaand once again, my protest fell on dead ears. This is oddly familiar... Momo opened her mouth to say something, drawing my attention to her. She does have a plan, I knew it! I thought. Todoroki noticed our focused had changed and spoke again. "C'mon, hurry up and start making things." She looked down.

"Sure... No problem..." Momo replied. No, no, you have to tell him your plan, Yaomomo, come on! I wanted to scream at Todoroki for not listening to her, but Yaomomo wouldn't speak up for herself either. As we continued to run, Yaomomo created Russian dolls, small and easy to store away. I will admit one thing, seeing Todoroki's look of utter confusion was hilarious.

"Um... I guess those work okay, but what are they?" He asked.

"Oh, these things? They're just Russian nesting dolls." Momo answered. 

"Right... Let me know if either of you notice your Quirks acting strangely at all." Todoroki activated his ice side before continuing to run. I noticed Yaomomo hesitate. 

"Yaomomo, if you have a plan, voice it. The only way we're going to pass is if we communicate with each other." I told her. She shook her head.

"It won't work... Come on, we gotta catch up to Todoroki." She told me before hurrying after our teammate, making the Russian dolls as she went. I sighed, following after her as I activated my fire on one hand, at the ready for a fight. "I'd expect nothing less from you, Todoroki."

"What'd you mean?" He asked.

"You were able to come up with a plan to use against Mr. Aizawa so quickly. You knew exactly what was best as soon as we started." It's not the best plan... 

"This is nothing." Todoroki waved off her compliment. Yaomomo stopped.

"No... You're wrong." Todoroki and I both stopped to face her. "As students who got into UA through recommendations, you and I started from the same place, Todoroki. But, in terms of the practical skills that a hero needs, I haven't really managed to do anything that stands out. During the Calvary battle, I just followed your orders, and then when it was my turn to fight, I failed before I could do anything..." That was when I noticed that my flames had stopped burning and the dolls were stopped.

"Yaomomo, the dolls!" I pointed out.

"He's coming!" Todoroki realized.

"I'm sorry!" Yaomomo apologized.

"If you know I'm here, then you should be acting." Aizawa spoke from above us. Todoroki and I turned as he dropped down from the telephone wires. "I would suggest that you prioritize evasion since I've taken your powers from you."

"Yayorozu, Yagi, go!" Todoroki attacked Mr. Aizawa.

"Would you pull your head out, there's gotta be another way! We need to regroup and actually talk about this like we should have before the rest even started!" I flared up in anger as Yaomomo ran for it, trying to get him to listen to me.

"Don't argue, just go!" He yelled back. I grit my teeth.

"Todoroki, listen to me-"

"I can handle this myself, Yagi! I don't need your help!" Todoroki shot at me, interrupting me. I stepped back a bit, his words stinging me a bit. Did he really believe that? That I wasn't strong enough to handle this? After everything? "Yagi, go!" He shouted again. I ran after Yaomomo. If Todoroki wouldn't listen, maybe I could get her to listen... I lost track of her after a minute, and despite it being risky, I jumped into the air to look for her with a bird's eye view. I saw Todoroki get captured before I spotted Yaomomo going the opposite way of the escape gate.

"What is she doing?" I asked myself before flying toward her, landing in front of her and getting her to a shadowed area in one movement. She was panting on a panic attack and looked extremely out of it. "Yaomomo, can you hear me?" I asked her. She nodded as Mr. Aizawa passed where we were hiding. "Name five things you can see." I told her. She gave me a weird look. "Just do it." 

"The sky, the street, the wall, you and my nesting dolls." She seemed a bit calmer as she answered. 

"Name four things you can feel." 

"Your hands on my shoulders, my heart racing against my chest, the ground below me and the wall behind me." She was continuing to calm down more.

"Good. Three things you can hear."

"Your voice, my own, and Mr Aizawa looking for us close by." 

"We're out of his line of sight for the moment, we're fine. Two things you can smell."

"My sweat and... Hino, are you wearing perfume?" 

"Yeah, I didn't go for too strong of a smell. One thing you can taste."

"My spit?" She was back to herself now.

"Gross, but it counts." I smiled back. "Now that we have a second, we can regroup."

"How are we supposed to get Todoroki back?!" She whisper-shrieked.

"Simple, I cause a distraction by shooting my flames away from the direction we're going to go. When Mr. Aizawa's back is turned, I use my wings to get us both back to Todoroki so you can tell us your plan. We'd be well out of eyeshot before he realizes what's happening."

"You're that fast?" She asked.

"Were you paying attention during the Sports Festival?" I countered.

"Besides, I doubt my plan will work." And we were back to the lack of self confidence.

"Well, I don't have a plan besides getting past Mr. Aizawa to get Icy Hot's dumb butt out of capture, so it's either we try yours or we fail this." I pointed out. She blinked.

"Hang on, did you just use Bakugo's nickname for Todoroki?" She asked.

"That's not important right now, do you think you can tell Todoroki and I your plan if I get us to him?" I asked. She stared at me, looking unsure for a minute before nodding, the look on her eyes changing. I smiled. I shot some fire out from where we were, which landed in the alley across from us just as Aizawa was passing by us for another patrol. Just as he turned to look where it landed, I shot into the air with Yaomomo in my hands. I flew as fast as I could, using my fire at my feet to go faster. That dumbass half and half... I wanted to smack him so hard for the comment he made. I knew he only said it to get me to run, but it still hurt... Besides, part of being a team was relying on each other. This wasn't like the Hero Killer, Mr. Aizawa knew what our Quirks were as well as our limits. He should have talked his plan over with us before all this...

"Todoroki!" Yaomomo and I both called to him as I landed, the two of us running toward him. 

"Yaoyorozu! Yagi!" He looked so surprised, I wanted to laugh, but remembered I was mad at him.

"I'm sorry I came back! I couldn't-"

"Hey, watch it! Mr Aizawa's coming!" Once again, Todoroki interrupted her, but it was to warn us that Mr Aizawa caught up to us. 

"So much for the distraction I caused..." I mumbled before noticing Yaomomo was starting to panic again. But, before I could say anything, Todoroki spoke up.

"Yayorozu, you've got a plan, don't you? I'm sorry to bother of you, I should have asked before and not told either of you what to do! But, you have an idea, right?" 

"Your plan didn't work, so there's no way mine will be any good. All of us are gonna fail." 

"That's not true." I put in.

"Spit it out already! I'm saying that you're the one who's the better at this kind of stuff, not me!" She looked up at him. "When we were voting for class rep, you had two votes, remember?! One of those votes was mine, because I thought you would be the best at leading our class!" I could see that his words really struck her, but before she could say anything, Mr. Aizawa jumped into the air above us.

"Giving up?" He asked.

"Not yet!" Yaomomo cried out. "Todoroki, Yagi, close your eyes!" She tossed them up into the air, Mr. Aizawa looking confused.

"What are these?" He asked, kicking one open midair. I realized the same that the doll opened what she had actually been making and shit my eyes, turning away for a second as the flash bangs exploded, blinding our teacher. "Flash grenades?" I heard him question.

"You're right! I have an idea. A plan for us to win!" Yaomomo told Todoroki as she let Todoroki down carefully. "This final exam isn't over." We both stood by him as the binds around him loosened, freeing him. "We can still beat Mr. Aizawa!" Just then, our teacher recovered.

"So, you've got a strategy."

"Yes, I've been thinking about it from the beginning. His weakness."

"Just tell us what to do, Yaomomo." I told her before Mr. Aizawa moved to a higher vantage point. We all knew that because of Mr. Aizawa's injuries from the USJ attack, he couldn't use his Quirk for as long as he used to, and he had to rest more between erasures. 

"Guys, watch it!" I warned as we all jumped back, avoiding Mr. Aizawa. Todoroki went to use his fire, but Mr. Aizawa used his quirk and erased it. 

"Yagi, Todoroki, we have to hide together!" All three of us ran, and I was honestly glad to have our rhythm back on track. "Since he was injured, his Quirk has become unstable!" Yaomomo was pointing out the very weakness that I had been thinking about just a second ago.

"Because of what happened at the USJ?" Todoroki asked. 

"We're going to exploit that." I added.

"Not yet. For now, we just need to get out of his field of vision. It's all a matter of timing. We're going to pass this final!"

"That's our Vice President." I grinned. 

"Timing? How is getting out of his line of sight gonna help us with that?" Todoroki questioned. "He can still take our Quirks whenever he sees us. 

"Just do as I tell you." Yaomomo replied as he turned a corner. "Keep checking to see if you can use your ice power, okay?" 

"Not fast enough, kids!" Mr. Aizawa shouted, his scarf heading toward me.

"He's wrong to think he'll be able to keep our Quirks erased the whole time. There will definitely be a single moment... A brief interval when Mr. Aizawa blinks before he can use his Quirk again!" Todoroki's ice power kicked in a second later. "And I'll be counting on you in that moment to attack like you did in the Sports Festival! A giant ice wall!" He used his ice power to create just what Yaomomo was looking for.

"I blocked him with the wall the moment my Quirk came back. We can use our powers again." As Todoroki activated his flame side to counteract the frost that has started on his right side, I noticed Yaomomo moving the sides of her shirt, and I immediately put my wings up to give her privacy. Considering how much shorter I was, I was barely covering her, and I looked away to give her more privacy as her Quirk activated. "So, can you tell me the rest of your plan now?" That was when he turned. Considering the top of my wing only came to just above her chest, it was probably a weird sight to see me standing with my wings out and covering Yaomomo who had her shirt open while I was looking away. Todoroki looked away, sounding hilariously strained as he spoke again. "Is that Aizawa's scarf you're making?" He asked.

"It is. I don't know the material it's made of or precisely how it's constructed, so it's not exactly the same. But, I created my own version with a special material woven into it. Since this is a residential area, we must keep the collateral damage to a minimum. And he moves his own restraining bonds so quickly, it makes it difficult to catch him. So, you see, here is my plan..." After she explained it, it made total sense, and I honestly knew it would work better than Todoroki's plan had. "What'd you think, Todoroki?" She asked our teammate as we looked at the catapult she had made a long with the scarf. "I believe this has the highest chance of success. Or at least... It's better than trying to run." She sighed softly. "We'll only get one chance." She looked at him. "So, is this all right with you?" She asked. I nodded.

"Let's make it count." I replied before looking at Todoroki. He nodded.

"Yeah, no complaints here." He replied before we put cloaks over ourselves and ran the opposite way that Mr. Aizawa was. "Hey, Yagi... I wanted to say to you... I'm sorry for what I said earlier." I looked at him as we ran. "I wanted you to run during my plan, and I realize that I must have hurt you with what I said by focusing on trying to keep you and Yayorozu out of harm's way." 

"I know you were doing what you thought was the best thing, Todoroki. Now, let's pass this final." I smiled at him, showing him that I forgave him. Just then, Aizawa took our bait, the cloaks being ripped off us, revealing the mannequins the three of us had been carrying. Yaomomo went to hit the latch, but missed it by a hair. I saw panic cover her face again. "Stay on target, Yaomomo!" I encouraged her, hitting it with her as Mr. Aizawa jumped back, giving us the opportunity to recover. "Todoroki, let's light it up!" I called to him, both us us using our flames before Mr. Aizawa could have a chance to react. Since Mr. Aizawa was in the air, we both aimed at the lowest part of the scarf Yaomomo had made.

"I'm not sure we would have a chance of beating you in a full battle, Mr. Aizawa, but that's okay! Tell me something: Have you heard of nitinol alloy? When heated, it returns to its original shape in an instant. It's a metal with shape memory!" The scarf tightened around Mr. Aizawa with the combined heat of mine and Todoroki's flames that same instant, capturing our teacher. We put the cuffs on him once Aizawa landed. 

"I told you it would work, Yaomomo." I gently nudged her.

"It went exactly according to your plan. It was almost a little too smooth." Todoroki piped up.

"Honestly, it shouldn't have worked out... When I was about to trigger the catapult, I made a big mistake. Mr. Aizawa noticed, but still jumped away, even though he could have stopped me easily. I think he allowed himself to be captured by my plan on purpose."

"I was just trying to see what Todoroki would do. Yagi and you were both in my sights, but he still has a cloth over him, remember? I thought he's try to freeze me. So, I decided it would be best for me to back off. In doing so, it looks like I ended up playing right into your hands." Mr. Aizawa revealed to us.

"It really was just a matter of timing like you said, huh? Thanks, teammate." Todoroki thanked her. 

"Exactly." I smiled at her. She started tearing up again, probably realizing what we had been trying to tell her the whole time. She covered her mouth.

"What's wrong? Do you feel sick?" Todoroki was instantly worried.

"No, it's nothing, really!" Yaomomo replied.

"If you feel nauseous, there's a pressure point you can press to-"

"No, I told you, I'm fine." Yaomomo interrupted him as the buzzer sounded.

"Team Todoroki, Yagi and Yayorozu have passed the final exam!" The announcement came, and I felt a sense of relief washing over me. Our test was finally over...

(Taglist: @iheartbarbie @qweenexplosionmurder13

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

[z-iridest]

I Am Phoenix- A My Hero Academia fanfic

Chapter 17- Nightmare's Shadows:

When I woke up again, I found myself in a hospital room. I groaned as I sat up, pain shooting through me. "Try not to move around too much. You lost about 35% of your blood volume from the wound from your stomach and your leg combined, so we had to give you a transfusion." Well, that explains the difficulty breathing and the dizziness...

"How long was I out?" I asked the doctor.

"About 12 hours. After the adrenaline of what happened last night, your body went into hypovolemic shock."

"Probably around when I passed out last night. The last thing I remember is the Hero Killer challenging the pros that were there to a fight before he passed out himself. How're my friends?"

"The three boys? Well, since the fluids to help your body restore the blood and the transfusions are done, I can go- What're you doing?!" Tired of hearing him prattle on, I shoved off the blankets of the hospital bed and forced myself up. 

"Going to see my friends." I answered shortly before heading out to find their hospital room while the doctor tried to get me back in bed. 

"Goddamn it, Hino, can't you stay still for two seconds?!" I heard Ember walking toward me.

"They shouldn't have put me in a different room than my friends." I told her. Once I found their room, I opened the door.

"Hino, you're awake!" Izuku sounded relieved.

"They told us you needed a transfusion, shouldn't you be resting?!" Iida asked me, looking worried.

"I'm fine, I wanted to check on you guys." I sat down on the bed next to Iida's. Looking at them, I saw that Izuku's arm and leg were bandaged, Todoroki had bandages on his arm, but Iida had both arms bandaged and in a sling. "You know, thinking about that fight, we actually did something pretty amazing." I continued after a minute. Izuku nodded in agreement. 

"Yeah, I agree." Todoroki replied. 

"After everything that happened back there, it kinda feels like a miracle that we're even alive. With my leg messed up, I was an easy target. He probably could have killed me if he really wanted to." Izuku pointed out.

"Yeah." Todoroki looked at his arm. "Seems to me, he let the three of us live on purpose. I'm impressed by you though, Iida. He was actually trying to murder you, but you stood tall." He turned his gaze to our class rep, who looked away.

"That's not true. I was-" Before Iida could say anything more, the door opened again, turning all of our attention to it.

"Oh, so the injured youngins are awake." He looked at me. "Hinotori, you should be in your own room resting." His voice was scolding.

"I just slept for 12 hours, I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon. Besides, I wanted to check on these guys." My answer made Gramps shake his head as he walked over to me.

"Gran Torino." Izuku smiled, but Iida looked ashamed when he saw Manual there as well. 

"And Manual, too..." He trailed off.

"Idiot." Gran Torino turned to Izuku. "I could yell at you and my granddaughter for hours right now." He walked over to Izuku.

"Yeah, I'm sorry..."

"But, before I do, you've got a visitor. And despite it being reckless, Hinotori, I do think you need to be in the room with them for this one. Makes things easier." I blinked, not knowing what Gramps was talking about until I saw who had joined us in the room. He was a very tall, sturdily built man with the head of a beagle. The area around his eyes and his ears were a dark brown, the two sides separated by a tan line which runs down his forehead, widening at his muzzle, which is flecked with pale brown. He had a large, black nose and dark eyes, and, although the rest of his body was of normal human shape, his skin appeared to be the same tan color as most of his face. He wore a suit, consisting of a dress shirt, and waistcoat, over which he wore an unbuttoned black blazer and matching dress pants underneath. He had a belt with a large buckle and a black and white tie that resembles a dalmatian’s coat. I slowly closed my eyes, knowing we were about to be in a crap load of trouble. "This is Hosu's chief of police, Kenji Tsuragame." Todoroki, Iida and I all stood in respect, Izuku moving to do the same, but Tsuragame spoke.

"No, please, stay seated, woof." He told us. Woof? "So, you four are the UA students who brought down the Hero Killer, huh?"

"Yes, sir." I answered.

"Stain has some serious injuries. Severe burns, and several broken bones. Right now, he's in the hospital under strict guard, woof. Here's a lesson you should have already learned. When Quirks became the norm, the police force sought to maintain the status quo. They decided we wouldn't use Quirks as weapons. That's when heroes came in. They could do what we couldn't, if they were licensed, of course, woof. It would be impossible for the police to condone the use of deadly Quirks. After all, we're here to stop such harm from being done. The only reason pros can use their powers now is because of the strict code of ethics that the early heroes chose to abide by."

"That's why you came all this way." I looked at my hands. "By fighting Stain and causing those injuries unlicensed, we broke the law."

"Whether you were up against the Hero Killer or not, none of you had the authority to harm the villain. That means the four of you, and your supervisors- Endeavor, Manual, Ember and Gran Torino- should receive harsh punishments for this gross abuse of your powers."

"Now, wait a minute! If Iida had not stepped in, Native would've been murdered." My head snapped up at Todoroki speaking up. He looked mad almost. "And if not for Yagi and Midoriya, both of them would be dead."

"Todoroki..." Iida quietly spoke. 

"No one else even realized that the Hero Killer was in Hosu. Are you saying we should have stood by and watched people die?!" He continued.

"Calm down." Midoriya tried to get Todoroki to cool down for a second.

"So, it's okay to break the law as long as it goes your way?" Tsuragame asked.

"But, sir, isn't it a hero's job to save people?" Todoroki countered. 

"This is why you're not a full fledged pro yet. It's obvious UA and Endeavor haven't been teaching you near enough. What a shame." He replied. An angry look crossed Todoroki's face.

"You damned mutt!"

"Todoroki!" Iida and I exclaimed at the same time, my stupid ass moving to stop him as he went to pass me, but feeling an intense pain as soon as I moved.

"Listen, he's right!" Iida continued, following him to stop him.

"Stop there, kid." Gramps moved in front of him, holding up his hand, which made him stop. "You'll wanna hear him out till the end."

"What I've said is the official stance of the police department. But, any punishment would only be necessary if this went public. If it did, you four would probably be applauded by citizens everywhere. But, there's no way you could escape from being reprimanded. On the other hand, we could say Endeavor saved the day. Stain's burns would support this story completely, and we could pretend you weren't even involved, woof. Thankfully, there were very few witnesses. This could be the last you heard of an punishments. It would mean no one would know about you, though. You'd receive no acclaim at all. The choice is yours. Personally, I know where I stand." He put a thumbs up. "I don't wanna damage any promising young careers. Not for a mistake like this."

"But, either way, we would still have to take responsibility for being negligent as supervisors." Manual put in. Iida walked up to Manual and bowed. 

"I'm sorry, I should have listened." He apologized. Manual chopped him on the head.

"Yeah! You caused us a lot of trouble. Remember that and don't do it again."

"Sir." Izuku bowed.

"And I apologize as well." He added. Todoroki and I both did as well.

"Me too, we'll leave it to you." I continued. 

"I know it's not fair. You won't enjoy any of the fame and praise you probably would have received otherwise. But at least, allow me as the chief of police, to thank you." Tsuragame bowed as well after we had straightened. 

"You know, you could have started with that..." Todoroki mumbled, making me shake my head. 

"Todoroki." Midoriya smiled a bit. My thoughts drifted to my Mom. I could just hear her, scolding every last one of us while doing what she could to help us heal, but expressing pride for us showing that we're true heroes through and through. But, thinking of Mom reminded me... Today was the anniversary of my Mom's death 9 years ago...

"Yagi? What's wrong?" I was brought out of my thoughts to see Todoroki and Iida looking worriedly at me. 

"It's nothing." I looked away from them. "I was just..."

"Thinking about your mom?" Iida asked.

"It was that obvious?" I looked at him. He didn't answer, only looking at me. I sighed softly. "Well, you're right. Today's officially 9 years since her passing."

"What happened?" Todoroki questioned.

"I don't know the full details, even after all this time... From what I was told, Mom was on patrol when she heard screaming coming from one of the back alleys. Thinking it was someone in trouble, she raced down it to help. But, when she got there, there was no one there... Except for a villain. Part of the villain's quirk allows him to sound like someone in trouble to lure victims to him. Just before he attacked, Mom got the feeling something was wrong and was able to block the first attack. They fought in that alley for a while, long enough for Mom to call for backup, but she ended up getting hurt, badly hurt. By the time Ember had found her, she had lost half of her blood and there was no sign of the villain that had attacked her anywhere. She was in a coma for a week, but after a week, her body finally gave out and she passed away in her sleep." I looked at Iida. "As you may have already guessed, Wendigo was the villain that caused those injuries." 

"Is that why you pushed me out of the way?" Iida asked. I nodded.

"Wanting to honor my Mom's legacy isn't the only reason I want to be a hero so bad." I looked at my hands. "I don't want what happened to me and my Mom to happen to anyone else again, not if I can do something about it..." I trailed off. Before Todoroki or Iida could answer, the door opened, Izuku coming back into the room. 

"Oh, hey, Iida, I just talked to Uraraka." Izuku told him.

"Midoriya." Todoroki got his attention. "Iida just got his test results back." Izuku turned to Iida, already worried.

"My left hand.. Might have damage that's permanent." Iida revealed to our friend, echoing what the doctor had told him. 

"What? Permanent?" Izuku asked.

"Both my arms were pretty torn up, but the injury to my left arm was especially severe, probably why Yagi's healing tears couldn't do much beside stop the bleeding. There was damage to my brachial plexus, which just means I'll have trouble moving my fingers, and my hands might have some numbness. Apparently, there's a chance it could be healed with nerve transplant surgery." He looked down. "When I came across the Hero Killer, I stopped thinking rationally. The first thing I should have done was call Manual. But, I got lost in my own anger. I hate him so much, but I can't deny he spoke the truth. That's why... Until I'm able to call myself a real hero, I'll leave my left hand as it is." Todoroki looked at him.

"Are you sure?" He asked. 

"Iida, I feel the same way. Let's get stronger. Together." Midoriya held out his clenched fist. 

"We all will." I smiled. Iida nodded in agreement. 

"I feel kind of bad." Todoroki spoke after a minute. 

"About what?" I asked. He was looking at his hand. 

"Whenever I'm involved, someone's hand gets all messed up. Is something wrong with me?" He asked. The other two boys looked just as confused as I felt. "Am I cursed?" 

"What?" I shook my head, a small laugh leaving me. "You're not cursed at all."

"Todoroki, I didn't know you had a sense of humor!" Izuku replied as he and Iida chuckled. 

"This isn't a joke, I'm like the Hand Crusher or something." Todoroki insisted, which only made the two boys laugh harder.

"You're not the Hand Crusher, Todoroki." I told him, despite my own giggles. Two days after the Hosu incident, the Hero Killer's identity and motives started being dissected from various angles. A 34 second video about Stain came out, though it was attempted to be taken down, it always popped back up at some point. The same day, Iida, Todoroki and I were released from the hospital, but due to his injuries, Midoriya had to stay a bit longer. The news channels and articles were full of the Hero Killer. The official story is that seven pros and four high school students came across the Hero Killer, then Endeavor rushed in and took care of the situation all by himself. The chief was true to his word, we were never named in connection to the Hero Killer, and our injuries were explained by accidents that happened during our internships. The same day Iida got his test results back, Iida went home to his parents' house so his Mom could take care of him. Todoroki's injures weren't all that bad, so he and I returned to our internships the same day. I continued patrols and training with Ember, and even got night combat training in with Aragami. By the end of the week, I was stronger with my flames, and faster with my wings. I bowed as I stood in the lobby with Ember on that final day. "Thank you for everything, Ember, and I'm so sorry I caused you so much trouble."

"Hino, I know you were trying to protect your friends, and you did just that. Your Mom would be proud of you, as much as she would have yelled at you for hours about breaking the law." That made me grimace. Mom had taught me to be a true hero, but, this definitely would have gotten me in trouble with her. "I want you to come back for your work studies when you have them. There'll always be a place for you here." I smiled at her offer, nodding.

"I will. Thank you, Ember." I thanked her. She nodded.

"Always... Phoenix." She replied before I left for the train to head back home...

"Hino! Are you okay?! What were you thinking taking him on?! You could have gotten yourself killed!" Not even three seconds after I walked in the door, Dad hounded me with questions.

"Don't you think that's a little hypocritical considering you would have done the exact same thing in my shoes?" I asked.

"That's not the point, Hinotori, I don't want to lose you!"

"You're not going to! This line of work is dangerous to begin with. You know that, I know that, and Mom-of all people- knew that! You, Mr Aizawa, Mom and now every hero in Ember's agency are training me to be a stronger hero, to be able to come out on top every time! I'm. Not. Going. Anywhere!" It was silent for a minute leaving me wondering why the hell Dad was so worried, so worked up over this.

"I know... I know you can handle yourself, Hinotori, and God, do I know you'd do anything to protect the people you love, just like I would, just like she did. But, please, I want you to be safe while you fight out there." He told me, his voice softer than a few seconds ago. "I worry, not just because you're my daughter, but because the last time something happened like this, I wasn't there to save the day like I was at the USJ... 9 years ago, I was patrolling, unaware of what was happening that night in Hosu. I even had a big plan to take your Mom out to dinner while the neighbors watched you, so I could finally tell her how I felt. But, then I got the call from Ember that something had happened to her. It turned into dropping you off at your friend's while I went to see her, because I didn't want the last memory of your mother to be a broken version of her that would never be able to say goodbye to you. My biggest regret, as a pro hero and a man, is not only not being there to save her, but not being able to tell her just how much she meant to me." That was when it finally hit me. Dad always thought about Mom, especially around the time of her death. My being away from him, even if it was just for internships that week, must have scared him shitless, not made better by the fact that I could have died from blood loss due to the same villain that had taken Mom and I had fought the Hero Killer while badly injured. I hugged my Dad, feeling him hug me tightly back.

"If things had been different, I probably would have, but... I wasn't alone in that fight, Dad. Todoroki, Iida and Midoriya... As stupid as they can act sometimes, they had my back the whole time. They didn't let me fight alone, and I don't think that's going to end anytime soon." I told him. He held me tighter. 

"I love you so much, Hinotori. More than you'll ever know and more than I could ever tell you." Dad told me. 

"I love you too, Dad." I replied as he pulled away slightly. We trained and ate dinner together as normal, but that night, I had the weirdest dream...

I couldn't tell exactly where I was. Darkness covered the space around me, and I couldn't see much of anything. I heard Wendigo's screeching, only to cry out as my old wounds suddenly reopened. But, when I looked at my blood, it was black. It covered my vision, and I couldn't breathe as I struggled against it. When I finally broke free, I was surrounded in a green light, tubes everywhere around me. There were countless Nomu in the tubes, but that wasn't what freaked me out so bad... I caught my reflection in one of the empty ones, but I didn't look right... My hair was snow white, a red streak in my hair that was now jaw length. My eyes, though... They were blood red. I backed up a few steps as my reflection came to life, smirking as her eyes glowed. Her fingers stiffened, and pain filled me as she took control of me, though I had no idea how this version of me had not only Bloodwork, but my own Quirk... I screamed in pain, feeling like my body was being pulled apart from four different directions. "You were meant to be just like me." She spoke with my voice, but something was wrong... Another voice, deep, suave almost, sounded over the top of mine. My clothes turned into a black version of my outfit with a red thorn pattern on it and she took over my body, forcing the real me out and to watch as she wreaked havoc on everything and everyone I ever cared about...

"NO!" I woke up with a scream, panting as I looked around wildly. I was in my room... No sign of the Nomus, no sign of that version of me that I had seen... I held my head in my hands. Whatever that was... It had felt too real. I checked on Dad. I didn't know how, but he was still sound asleep. He must have overworked himself again... I couldn't shake off the voice that had overlapped my own, though... Why did I feel like I'd heard that voice before? And why did that mirror image of me have my ex's Quirk? My head started to hurt, and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Hino? You're up earlier than usual." I looked up to see Dad at the bottom of the stairs. "Is everything okay?" I know what you're about to say... You told him, right?! Well...

"I'm fine, just a bad dream's all." I gave a sheepish smile. Dad looked at me for a minute. "Seriously, Dad, I'm fine." I insisted. Okay, yeah, I should have told him, but it was only going to freak him out more if I did! Dad kept pressing me, but I kept dodging and avoiding the question. I managed to avoid it until I got to class, taking a deep breath as I sat at my desk. I couldn't avoid the questions from Dad for long, but I didn't know how long I could avoid answering him for...  Not long after I had arrived, Kirishima and Sero were howling with laughter.

"HOLY CRAP! WHAT THE HECK, BAKUGO?!" They asked at the same time. I just about lost it myself when I looked over at him. Instead of his usual spiky hair, it had been combed over to one side and smoothed down. Bakugo looked about ready to kill them.

"Stop laughing... My hair's gotten used to this and I can't get it back the right way. Did you not hear me? I'll kill you both!"

"I'd like to see you try, pretty boy!" Sero's comment made me snort.

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?!" With his yell, Bakugo's hair exploded back to normal, which honestly made the whole damn thing funnier. Leave it to those boys to take my mind off things... 

"How was your week, Ochaco?" Tsu asked, but the vibe coming off our friend was... Well... Intense. 

"I'd say that it was... very enlightening." She replied before doing punches.

"I think she found her fighting spirit..." Tsu trailed off.

"Yeah, that battle hero must've been something else." Jirou commented.

"After one week, she's a totally different person." Kaminari put in. 

"Different? Don't be fooled, Kaminari... All women are demons at heart.. They just hide their true personalities behind pretty faces" Mineta looked scared.

"Remember that the next time you want to be a perv." I told him. 

"What the heck did Mount Lady do to you?" Kaminari asked him. "Everyone at my internship loved me, it was actually kinda great. Now, if you wanna talk about the ones who've changed, it was those four." He nodded toward me, Iida, Todoroki and Midoriya. 

"Oh yeah, the Hero Killer!" When I looked over at Sero and Kirishima, I saw that Bakugo was basically holding them by their shirt collars.

"Glad to see you guys made it back alive. Seriously." Kirishima told us.

"I worried about you, too." Yayorozu told us.

"You were lucky Endeavor showed up and saved you guys." Sato replied. Oh man, I wanted to tell them the truth so bad...

"So cool!" Hagakure added. "Just what I'd expect from the number two hero." He can't hold a candle to my Dad still. I thought. Todoroki looked down.

"Yeah, that's right. He saved us." Todoroki spoke.

"Did you guys hear the news about the Hero Killer?" We looked at Ojiro. What did he mean? "Everyone's been saying that he was somehow connected to the League of Villains. Can you imagine how frightening it would've been if that creep had been there when they attacked the USJ?" He didn't seem like the type to join up with them, they probably extended an invitation to him or something, but... I don't know... Stain works in the shadows while Shigaraki prefers to blast his message. It's not a viable alliance when two people have separate ideas on how to go about things. Then again... The timing on the Nomus and Stain's attacks on the pros seem to be too convenient to be a coincidence. Is it possible they agreed to provide the distraction for him so he could go uninterrupted?

"Kaminari!" Izuku exclaimed, bringing me out of my thought ramble.

"Uh- Oh! Dude!" Kaminari covered his mouth.

"No, it's okay. You're fine." Iida replied. "It is true, he is quite a tenacious villain. I understand why people might think he was cool. But, instead of helping the world, his beliefs led him to cold-blooded murder. No matter his motives, killing cannot be condoned. To keep anyone else from suffering like me, well, I promise: I will strive to be the perfect hero." There's our class rep...

"Yeah, let's do it!" Izuku added.

"It's time for class to begin! Please, everyone take your seats!"

"He's back." Tokoyami grumbled.

"This is your fault for talking about weird stuff." Jirou shot a pointed look at Kaminari, who almost looked like a sad puppy at that point.

"Sorry... I'm gonna keep my mouth shut." Kaminari promised. A few hours later, we met up with Dad in his hero form.

"I am here! Hope you're ready to return to our lessons. Today it's Hero Basic Training! Feels like I haven't seen you in a while. Welcome back!" I mean, technically it's been a week... I thought, but kept my mouth shut. "Now then, listen carefully for what's in store. We're going to be conducting a little race." I instantly looked at Bakugo, smirking when he looked my way, remembering the last time we had done a competition against each other. Take everything you learned from your internships and apply it to this rescue training." Iida's hand popped up and when I glanced over, I noticed Izuku looked like a rabid fanboy again. Seriously, after a little over a year now he still wasn't used to Dad being around him?

"If it's rescue training, then shouldn't we be at the USJ instead?" Iida asked.

"Ah, that facility specializes in disasters. As I said earlier, this is a race. So prepare. You're about to step into Field Gamma! Inside is an area full of factories that form an intricate labyrinth, so good luck finding your way around. You'll be competing in groups of five. Each person starts from a different location on the outskirts of the model city. I'll send a distress signal, and you must do what you must to rescue me. Whoever finds me first wins!" I smirked, leaning into Bakugo from behind.

"Bet I'll be faster than you." I taunted, making him pissed off.

"But try to keep the property damage to a bare minimum, please." Dad looked and pointed at Bakugo.

"Why are you pointing at me?" Bakugo asked.

"Maybe because you blew up the last mock city we were in." I reminded him, making him glare at me. "Hey, you asked the question."

"All right. First group, get to your places." All Might told us. The first group consisted of Ojiro, Midoriya, Iida, Sero and Mina.

"Wait, Iida hasn't completely recovered yet, right? He should sit this one out." Kaminari said, sounding worried about our class rep. 

"Man, everyone in this group had really good mobility." Kirishima commented.

"Huh... I'd say Midoriya is at a heavy disadvantage against those four." Yayorozu replied.

"That's what I think. Moving around quickly isn't really one of his strong suits, that's for sure." Jirou agreed. Boy, are they in for a surprise... I thought, remembering that Todoroki, Iida and myself were the only ones in our class aware of the progress Izuku had made during the week of our internships.

"And whenever he uses his powers, he always gets badly injured." Yayorozu pointed out.

"Who's your pick? I'm bettin' on Sero." Kirishima spoke up. 

"Oh yeah? I got odds on Ojiro." Kaminari countered.

"I choose Ashido." Mineta piped up. "'Cause she's got a super athletic body."

"I know Deku will be last." Bakugo replied.

"Even if he's still recovering, I think Iida's got this one." Ochaco put her bet in, Tsu nodding in agreement.

"Is everyone ready? Begin!" Dad called, the rest of us watching the race on the monitor. 

"Lookit him go! In a maze like this, it makes sense to be above everything else!" Kirishima exclaimed as he watched Sero. 

"So, that means Sero's at an advantage because he can take to the sky." Shouji observed. Why do I get the feeling that they're gonna say the same thing about me? I thought. But, just as I thought, Izuku blurred past Sero, moving quick. I snuck a glance at Bakugo, who was slack jawed for a quick second before he glared. The look on his face said it all.

"Whoa, Midoriya?!" Mineta and Kirishima exclaimed in confusion.

"Since when can he do that?" Kaminari asked.

"From what he told me, it was part of his training at his internship." I answered. 

"Crazy, those jumps... He looks just like..." Ochaco was standing in amazement, and Bakugo looked more pissed than ever. Izuku was looking like he might be the winner... Until one misstep threw everything off. I grimaced as I watched him go down. Dammit... Sero ended up winning in the end, and I was in the next group... Against Bakugo, Tokoyami, Kirishima and Kaminari. Funny enough, I was starting from the same place Midoriya did. I stretched out my wings and my arms. It made more sense to use my wings than my flames... After a bit of a shake off, I got into a ready stance before Dad hit the button to start it. I got a running start, flipping into the air and using my wings to shoot forward. I did have a little fun with it, showing off a bit as I landed, tucking my wings away to run through tight spaces before jumping into the air again and flying upward. When I caught sight of Dad, I tucked my wings into my back, back flipping and turning in the air to land in a squat, beating Bakugo by a couple seconds. 

"Wow, I was showing off on purpose and you're still slower." I teased him as I stood to full height.

"Shut up!" He yelled, as I cackled.

"And it's over! Thanks, hero, and congratulations!" Dad gave me the winner's sash. "Young Yagi might have come in first, but compared to the start of the year, you all have showed me some incredible improvements. Keep working and preparing for your upcoming final exams!"

"Sir!" We all responded before Dad called the next group. Before I could leave the field, he spoke.

"Find me after class with Young Midoriya. The three of us have something to talk about. It's time I told the two of you the whole truth... About me, and One For All." He told me. I nodded before leaving the field with everyone else. In the locker rooms, we changed into our uniforms. 

"Rockstar of the day, totally Hinotori." Hagakure gushed.

"Agreed. Hino, you're amazing." Yayorozu added while I was trying to not turn redder than my hair. 

"Guys, quit it!" My whine made them giggle. "Most of my training since I was a kid's been around my wings, which is why I'm so fast. If anything, I shouldn't be focusing on one aspect of my Quirk for mobility... I need to work on being faster while using my flames too." I was going into self critique mode, not knowing just how badly those words would come back to bite me in the future...

"Hino, stop, just accept the compliment already." Ochaco told me.

"Yeah, seriously, give yourself some more credit, girl!" Mina added.

"You should listen to them, ribbit." Tsu chimed in. We all froze at the sound of Iida's voice coming from the other locker room. 

"Don't even think about it! Peeping on them like that would be criminal!" No sooner than those words had left Iida's mouth, I noticed the hole, gasping.

"Guys!" I pointed at it, the ones who weren't dressed covering up.

"Got it!" Jirou plugged it with her earphone jack, and a yelp told us all that the little creep in our class had been about to look through it. She suddenly looked distressed, and I wondered what the actual hell she had heard.

"Uggh. Thanks, Kyoka." Hagakure told her.

"Despicable. We'll close this hole up immediately." Yayorozu chimed in. I gently touched Jirou's shoulder.

"Hey, whatever that creep was saying, ignore him." I told her. Once we were finished and school was over, Izuku and I looked for Dad in the teacher's lounge. Izuku knocked.

"It's us, All Might." When we entered, Dad looked grim. It made me pause.

"Dad?" I questioned as I closed the door behind us.

"Come have a seat." His hands were folded in his lap, and I saw a picture that looked familiar. Dad always kept a picture of Mom and him as teens with him, it was always folded neatly and kept in the inner pocket of his suit coat, the one near his heart. "You both went through a lot recently. I'm sorry I wasn't around to help you out."

"Dad..."

"You don't need to apologize for that. More importantly... Um... You mentioned One For All earlier."

"I heard that the Hero Killer swallowed your blood in the attack." Dad pointed out.

"Yeah, his Quirk made him able to paralyze someone after tasting their blood. Is that what this is about?" He asked. That was when I realized.

"Wait a second, I thought the passing of One For All only worked if he was willing to pass it to someone else." I told Dad. I should have kept my mouth shut, because Midoriya jumped out of his seat.

"Holy crap! Don't tell me the Hero Killer has One For All now?!" He shrieked.

"No, he doesn't. I just thought you might be worried about that, but... I see it didn't cross your mind." I leaned back in my seat.

"Nice job giving us a heart attack, Dad..." I mumbled under my breath. 

"But, you are right though, Hino... One For All can only be given to another person if you, the bearer, intend to pass it along. It's not something that can just be taken by force. Although it can be transferred by force... Kinda like a girl you don't really like telling you that you have to take the chocolates she made for you."

"What kind of example is that?!" Izuku and I asked at the same time.

"The Quirk you now have is unique, and you should know its origin." Dad looked at me. "Both of you should know. One for All was derived from another odd Quirk, a power that's very old."

"It used to be something different?" Izuku asked. Dad nodded.

"The name of that Quirk is All For One. It allowed its user to take Quirks from others. Then, the user could keep the Quirks for himself or give them to someone else." 

"What? You mean... He could steal powers?" Izuku asked, and quite frankly, I felt the same way he did.

"This was back when Quirks were just starting to show up. Before society had figured out how to deal with the newly powered among them. When Quirks first appeared, suddenly impossible to say what it meant to be a normal person. Laws and human rights were hotly debated. Civilization's progress stalled, society decayed."

"If superpowers had never appeared, then humans would be taking interstellar holidays by this point." I spoke up this time. "I remember hearing that from someone famous."

"I did too." Izuku replied. 

"Right. During that chaotic period of change, there was one person who managed to rally many people together. He went by the name of his power, All For One." A cold shudder went down my spine. "He stole quirks from others and then, with his overwhelming abilities, he spread his influence across the country. He manipulated people to serve his purposes, and committed evil acts with little resistance. In the blink of an eye, he became the leader of villains and ruled over Japan."

"I've seen plenty of rumors about this online, sure, but isn't that all just made up?" Izuku asked. "It's not mentioned in our textbooks."

"Probably because no one wants to be reminded of the mistakes made during that time." I answered, glancing at my friend.

"Exactly, it's the kind of shameful history people would rather ignore. Anyway, when a person gains true power, they enjoy showing it off to others."

"How does this all tie together though, Dad?" I asked. For once, I couldn't put the pieces together. 

"And what about One For All?" Izuku questioned as well.

"I said the All For One could give Quirks to others, remember? He made people trust him or submit to his will by altering their abilities. But apparently, there were many poor souls who couldn't bear the burden of the Quirks they were given. They became like mindless, living dolls, incapable of speaking..."

"Just like the Nomus are." I realized, putting a hand over my mouth. Dad nodded.

"Meanwhile, some Quirks actually evolved as they were passed on, some even combined with other power sets. This evil man had a Quirkless younger brother. He was small and sickly, but he had a strong sense of justice. They couldn't have been more different. It pained the brother to see All For One's deeds, so he kept resisting him. And then, All For One transferred a Quirk to his sibling, one that would allow him to stockpile power. We don't know if it was a gift he was giving his brother, or if he just wanted to force him to submit." I realized what that meant.

"Don't tell me..." Izuku trailed off.

"Yes, even though everyone thought he was Quirkless, turns out, the brother did have a Quirk. Though, even he hadn't realized this to be the case. He had a useless power that only allowed him to pass on Quirks. And so, the stockpiling ability merged with the younger brother's power, and that is how One For All came to be. I've always found it ironic that justice so often spawns from evil."

"Wait, hold on! I understand how One For All came about now, but this bad guy must be long dead at this point, so why are you bringing him up?" I looked at Dad at Izuku's question. The grim look on his face...

"One who steals Quirks has no limits. Anything's possible. There are Quirks that halt aging, he probably has something like that. The Symbol of Evil seemed pretty much immortal. With the state of the world at the time, and the huge difference in their combat abilities, the younger brother decided to entrust this new Quirk to future generations. Even though he couldn't defeat All For One, he hoped One For All would continue to grow in power, until it was strong enough to stop his older brother. Eventually, it was my turn, and I managed to defeat All For One! At least... That's what I thought. But, he survived and is now back in action as the brain behind the League of Villains." Dad got up and walked over to the window. "So, now you know. The entire purpose of One For All is to defeat All For One. As its holder, you may one day have to fight against this great evil yourself. Because I failed. I know you didn't expect this, but..."

"I'll do my best!" Izuku jumped out of his seat again. "I'll do whatever you ask. No matter what it might take. As long as you're with me, I can do anything! I know you'll have my back!" The look that crossed my Dad's face was one I'll never forget. Like he was holding something back, but couldn't say it for fear of hurting my friend. He hesitated for a few minutes, covering his mouth with his hand for a few seconds before opening his mouth. After a second though, he closed it, dropping his hand.

"Thank you." He replied. As Izuku and I left the school, I got a bad feeling rising in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't explain why... But, I felt like something was going to happen to Dad.

"Well, it's almost time for summer vacation. Don't get too excited, you can't just relax an entire month." Aizawa was telling us a few weeks later.

"Does that mean..."

"You'll be training... While you're camping in the woods."

"I KNEW IT, ALL RIGHT!" Kaminari and Kirishima exclaimed. 

"A big sleepover!"

"Baths!"

"Fireworks!"

"Springs!"

"And s'mores."

"Skinny dipping!" For each fun idea our classmates came up with, Mineta had a perverted idea. He's just lucky I was too far away to smack him...

"We've been training in cities, so these will be very different conditions for most of us." Yayorozu mused.

"No matter the environment, we must always remain vigilant. Yes. Very wise." Tokoyami was saying.

"Hanging out with everyone all summer, I'm so excited!" Hagakure squealed. 

"However, those of you who don't pass the final exam before the semester is over will have summer school." Aizawa continued.

"Everyone, do your best!" Kirishima and Kaminari turned to face everyone. 

"This is so stupid." Bakugo mumbled. God, I wanted to throw something at him...

"All you girls better pass this thing!" I rolled my eyes at Mineta.

"Wouldn't be such a bad thing for you to fail..." I mumbled under my breath. My mind wandered to Mom, part of me wondering what a class with her would be like. Not that we would ever find out...

I studied as hard as I could during the days that followed, memorizing everything we had learned up to that point. While studying, I made the mistake of using a special on a TV show called Live Till After Noon! as background noise for studying. "Welcome back to our live show! For our next topic: Is it really necessary for heroes to dress sexily? Let's ask our very special studio guests what they think. She's the rookie hero who debuted just this year. It's Mount Lady! And she's a pro who's currently teaching at UA high school; it's the incomparable Midnight!" The host announced. A debate with those two? Oh boy... "Thank you so much for joining us!" I bet everyone in that studio was blushing with those two there... "Please, have a seat. Let's start with you, Midnight. When you first debuted, your revealing outfit caused quite a stir. In fact, it eventually led to the Regulations for Exposed Skin in Costumes bill being taken before the legislature. You're a hero who's sexiness changed the very laws of the country."

"Her costume's still pretty racy..." Mount Lady trailed off in a sing song voice.

"Now, I rely on Ultra Thin fabrics. Because of the nature of some people's Quirks, clothing can restrict their abilities, sexiness isn't just an aesthetic, it's sometimes needed so we can do our jobs well. Besides, what's more attractive than a hero who get the job done quickly." Midnight answered the question. That was about when the peace in that studio went out the window with Mount Lady's next words.

"I think you just like the attention." She did not just disrespect Midnight like that...

"What's with you, Lady? Are you trying to start a fight?"

"Of course not, I look up to you! I think you're amazing... For someone of your age."

"You can act like the blushing ingenue all you want, but you're not that young yourself, ya know!" Midnight was out of her chair at this point. 

"All I'm saying is if the older pros try too hard, the rest of us have to go even further!" Mount Lady got up too and a fight ensued, causing me to shut it off.

"Geeze, those two were going at it pretty hard." Dad commented. I glanced up.

"I was just thinking that." I told him before we exchanged a smile. 

"So, I got an email from Melissa today... You want to tell me what's going on?" He questioned. I bit my lip, trying to hide a smile. "Hino..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about?" It came out as more of a question, making my Dad more suspicious. "What did she even say?" I asked.

"That she missed me and you and her were planning a special surprise for this year's I-Expo." He answered, making me unable to hold back my giggles anymore. 

"You'll have to wait until I-Expo to find out!" I managed to get out. Dad shook his head as he pulled me into a bear hug.

"What on Earth am I gonna do with you, Hinotori Yagi?" He asked me with a smile, causing me to smile back. 

(Taglist: @iheartbarbie @qweenexplosionmurder13 )

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

I Am Phoenix- A My Hero Academia fanfic

Chapter 16- The Hero Killer on Memory Lane:

The train ride into Hosu was pretty quiet, and I found myself struggling what to say for once. I was the only one of our friends who could understand what Iida had been through, and yet, I couldn't think of what to say. We walked together in silence too, but before we split off, I finally spoke. "Iida?" He looked at me. "Even if it's just to rant, you know I'm always ready to listen, right?" I asked. "We are friends, after all..."

"I know, Yagi. You don't have to worry about..."

"You know I can't help but worry. Especially since I know how you get. Please, don't do anything reckless." I asked of him. I watched as his face darkened, something that wasn't like him.

"You don't know anything about me, Yagi. You don't know what I've been through." I blinked. Was he serious? I turned away. Maybe I didn't know what it was like to have an older sibling that looked after me, but I knew what losing a parent was like.

"Right, because what would I know about having a family member being attacked by a villain?" I wasn't proud of my response, especially considering how cold my tone had been. It was dead silent between us for a minute.

"Yagi... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean..." His tone instantly changed.

"Just forget it. I know you want to find the person responsible and hold him accountable, but we don't have the power to do that. We're just students right now." I reminded him before I walked up the steps to my Mom's old agency. Nothing had changed much since the last time I'd been here. Sidekicks were still buzzing, busy at work and the same receptionist from a few years ago was still there. I smiled a bit, remembering all the times I'd walked in with my Mom and the receptionist would wave and give me a warm hello. The sidekicks would too, but from what I had heard, most of the ones from my childhood had built their own agencies after Mom had been in the hospital, some wanting to help out Hosu City and cover more ground while others branched out... 

"Hinotori! I haven't seen in ages." I was brought out of my thoughts by the receptionist. She had purple streaks in her now silver hair, her hazel eyes showing the same warmth from when I was still a little kid. "You've grown so much, we always knew you'd turn out beautiful, just like your mother."

"It's great to see you again, Mrs. Matsuko." I replied, smiling.

"And you as well, dear. You remember where the training room is? Ember's waiting for you there, so get on going." She winked. "And welcome back."

"Thank you." I exchanged a smile with her before taking the elevator to the tenth floor, where the training room was. Once the doors had closed, I took a deep breath. It was be a bit harder than I thought to be here without Mom. So much of my life was spent with her working diligently while I stayed in a small corner of her office, listening to her bark orders to protect the city and sometimes having me stay put so she could go with her sidekicks to support them on the field. It couldn't have been easy for her, but she always did whatever she could...

The sound of the elevator doors opening brought me out of my thoughts, letting me onto the tenth floor. Many of the sidekicks on that floor looked up, gasping a bit when they saw me. "Is that who I think it is?"

"I can't believe she's grown that much..."

"It has been 9 years since we last saw her..."

"Spitting image of her mother, all right" I could hear them whispering about me as I passed, but I ignored it for now. At least a few of the old ones were still around... I opened the door to the training room, seeing two sidekicks hard at work. One of which, I already knew. Their dark purple hair with a vine headband made them stand out, their hero costume being a purple tie up halter top with green vines on the sleeves and purple shorts with purple boots that had the same vine design. Willow, as I knew them by, used their powers to try to wrap up their opponent. I didn't know this sidekick... Who was he? The only thing I could really see of him was a red hood and a matching cape. He also had a red belt and red arm bands, one on his right wrist and the other on his left forearm. He stuck to the shadows as he fought Willow. Did he have a shadow quirk like Tokoyami? Kinda weird that he couldn't step in the light if that was the case... 

"Ember." I spoke my mentor's name, making her turn her attention to me as Willow caught the newer sidekick in the sunlight with their violet energy constructs. That was when Willow saw me.

"Oh my god, little Hino?!" They exclaimed before Ember could say anything, and before I could greet them, they were right in front of me. "My God, you were practically a baby when I saw you last, you've grown up so much!" Their eyes were hazel, much like Mrs. Matsuko, and I couldn't help but smile at them. If there was any of the sidekicks that was like a sibling to me, Willow would be it. They was a year younger than Ember, the two arriving to my Mom's agency at the same time, but back in the day, she'd always find time to greet me, if not talk to me about anything and everything I'd tell her.

"Hey, Willow." I smiled back.

"It's been 9 years, but I'm glad we finally got the chance to see you again." Ember smiled. Not much had really changed about Ember either in the 9 years I had been away. "Oh, that's right, you haven't met him yet..." She paused for a minute before looking at Willow. "Uh, Willow?"

"Oh, right! Sorry!" Willow snapped out of it to let go of the newer sidekick, the poor guy dropping to the ground with a deep groan. I noticed that he had a sword attached to his hip and other than the red, he was dressed in all black. The sunlight behind him hid his face, but all I could see of it was a pair of white eyes. The vibe I got from him, wasn't like the others... Every instinct in me was telling me to run from him, that something wasn't right...

"Aragami, this is the kid we've been talking about, Hinotori. Hino, meet our newest recruit, Aragami." Ember introduced us. I bowed politely, and after a second, he did the same. "Now, Hino, let's stretch. Afterward, I'll have you change into your hero costume and we'll see how far you've come since All Might first started teaching you." I nodded to acknowledge her and we started stretching as Aragami wordlessly left the room.

"So, Aragami... He's uh..."

"Isn't he something else? I heard you're sharing a class with a shadow user like him as well. I was kinda hoping we'd get to take the kid on too, but he went with Hawks of all people... Hawks isn't exactly the teaching type, I think he only put in an offer for the kid because the Hero Commission wanted him to investigate the League of Villains..."

"Tsukoyomi doesn't give me the bad feeling that Aragami does." I finally spoke up, using Tokoyami's hero name and watching as Ember froze, looking at me. The look on her face turned into a look of seriousness.

"What about him gives you a bad feeling?" Ember asked after staring at me for a minute. She knew full well what my instincts usually meant since Mom had gotten the same feelings from time to time. It usually meant someone couldn't be trusted...

"I don't know, but every instinct in me is telling me to stay away from him." I answered. 

"We'll keep an eye on him in that case." She promised as she stood. I did the same, letting my wings out to stretch them before getting into my hero costume and taking my place across from Ember. "Show me what you got, kid!" She called before I charged for her, starting our sparring match. She blocked each hit I threw, and I threw back every flame she threw at me. "I've seen these fighting moves before, and All Might didn't teach you a single one of them! The only thing he really trained you in was increasing your natural strength and battle stamina!" I backflipped away from her as she tried to punch me with her flame fist. I manipulated the fire away from her and fired it her way in a long distance attack... Which was my mistake as she split it and knocked me on my ass in one move. "Most of your moves are your Mom's, which means you watched her fights on repeat to learn when All Might couldn't teach you. That's dangerous, because any enemy who picks up on that is going to know how to take you down. You can't be a one trick gal, Hino." She finished after we caught our breaths for a minute. "This week is going to be about teaching you new moves, how to better handle your own flames, and the basics of hero work on the field all at the same time. You ready?" She asked. I smirked in response.

"Hell yeah." I got up and we got to work. She led me through some of the moves she uses, as well as letting some of the other heroes in the building teach me.

"Normally, we'd just be waiting for client calls to come in. Not really exciting." Blade Wing, a winged sidekick, told me as we fought in the air. She had the same costume design as the Winged Hero Hawks- probably because they were siblings-except the design on her top was blue, her goggles were blue, and her hair was a fiery red like Mom's had been. Her wings while white in color normally, turned redder the more she used them. From what Mom used to tell me, her wings being completely red meant they needed time to recover and that she had overused her Quirk, especially since she could harden them to look like a solid ruby gem in the shape of her wings.

"Things have been fairly hectic lately, though." Ember brought up.

"We've been using patrols to suppress crime and back up Manual's agency as well if there's trouble." Willow added on. 

"Pros receive wages from the government, so we're civil servants. But, there's a lot more to it than just that. With the Quirks we offer, our responsibilities are different from regular workers. Regarding our actual duties, the basic hero goal is to control crime. When a crime occurs, the police will contact us. The requests come in all at once, filtered out by district. We file reports based on the services we provided like assisting with arrests, rescuing people, et cetera... Then, a special agency looks at our work and decides how much we should be paid." Ember explained.

"You'll catch on quick, kid." Blade Wing winked. 

"Additionally, heroes are allowed to have side jobs. There were a lot of arguments about it back in the day when the pro hero world was still being established, but heroes ended up being so popular that the public demanded it. For example, Uwabami does modeling and ads if she's not patrolling the streets." Willow replied.

"Here at this agency though, we constantly practice and train when we're not on the field. No breaks even while we're on patrol." Ember continued. After a couple hours of training, I'd knocked Blade Wing out of the air, making her laugh.

"Hot damn, you got speed, kid!" She grinned at me as I landed, tucking my wings behind me for the time being.

"With her wings at least. Ace flew with her so much that it became second nature for her to use them." Ember remembered. "If you remember, Hino, it was your flames your Mom had no idea how to teach you to use." Ember pointed out. I nodded.

"That was why she started bringing me to work with her, right? For you to help me?" I asked. She nodded.

"Exactly, and I swore to her that I would continue helping you if something ever happened to her." Ember revealed to me. After dinner, we kept training, but it was maintaining the flames all over my body. "What we'll keep doing is building your body's tolerance to your flames, but to do that, you have to use your own flames, no else's. You've come this far because you've used the flames around you, but your body isn't able to handle your own flames for very long because of that. Honestly, I half expected you to go with Endeavor since he's been in the hero business longer and has a fire Quirk..."

"He's not in a mental place to train anyone other than his son." I interrupted. "Nor was he interested in training me. He's too focused on taking the number one spot from Dad." I remembered my encounter with the number two hero in the hall during the Sports Festival as I let my flames drop.

"Hinotori." When I looked at her, she was giving me the look Mom used to when she was being serious. "I know you didn't choose me just to train with your fire. We all heard about Ingenium, hell I was the one who found him... I also heard that his younger brother's here too, and if I'm right, you followed him here to make sure he doesn't go after the Hero Killer." I looked away.

"I was hoping to convince him not to on the train ride here, but when it came down to it, I couldn't say anything." I admitted.

"Hino, you know better than anyone that actions speak a whole louder than words. Words can be beautiful, powerful even, but they mean nothing if they're not backed up by actions." She put a hand on my shoulder. "You should get some rest now, we're starting patrols with Manual tomorrow." I nodded, starting to head out of the training room. "Hold on, I never asked you what you chose for your hero name." I glanced back at her, smiling a bit.

"Call me Phoenix." I told her. The two days that followed were pretty uneventful, beginning with training early in the morning and patrolling with Manual and Iida on the streets. Iida didn't really say much while on patrol, and honestly, I didn't either. I kept an eye out for crime occurring, besides, I didn't know what else to say to Iida other than the plea with him that he wouldn't go after Stain that I said the first day we got here. 

"It'll be a good idea to patrol Kyoto today too, Manual." Ember was saying as I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Sorry it's so monotonous." Manual apologized to us.

"No, it's better this way." Iida replied before I could.

"Hey... This is kinda hard to ask, but you're after the Hero Killer, aren't you?" Manual asked him, stopping and facing Iida. Ember looked at Manual, stopping beside him.

"So, Phoenix's instinct was right, then?" Ember questioned.

"How did you..." Iida trailed off. So was I right... He did only come here to go after the Hero Killer....

"I couldn't think of any other reason why you'd come to my agency." Manual rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad you did, but... You shouldn't be pursuing personal grudges."

"Even though we have the certification to fight, that doesn't include the authority to arrest people or punish them." Ember finished.

"The only reason we're allowed to use our Quirks because of the regulations put on them. That's why, no matter how noble the reason may be, a hero must not use their Quirk for themselves. If a pro used their power for their own selfish desires, it would be a very serious crime."

"Please understand, we're not saying that the Hero Killer isn't guilty himself. We just don't want you focusing on one goal and ignoring everything else." Ember clarified. Iida bowed.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." Iida replied, but I know that their words didn't mean anything to him. He was already too far gone mentally to be convinced out of it.

"Oh, it's fine as long as you get what we're sayin'." Manual said. "So, we good?" Manual asked as we kept walking, but judging by the way Iida's fist clenched, his answer was no. We kept patrolling as the sunset, and I looked up. Had it been this beautiful before Mom got into that fight? As night fell, I got a text from Midoriya. 

'Hey, Gran Torino and I'll be passing through Hosu on our way to Tokyo, how're things going with you?' I smiled a bit and went to text him back about Iida, but something urged me to jump. When I followed my instinct, I found a familiar villain right in front of me. My eyes widened. 

"No..." I murmured. Standing on all fours, with his skin a sickly grey that was stretched too thin across his bones, his eyes white and his mouth open, showing off jagged, sharp teeth as he gave a sound like a deer call, was the villain that had caused my Mom's fatal injuries... I was face to face with non other than Wendigo, a villain who's quirk overtook him over the course of several years from being a normal human to driving him crazy enough to be a cannibal and become the mindless monster he now was. The only weaknesses he really had was that he was blind to everything but movement, fire burned him, and he preferred to hunt at night. Before any of us could react to him, though, a building a few miles away exploded. "What was that?!" I asked, but before I got a response, Wendigo moved to attack Iida as he took a step forward. "NO!" Just like I did with Bakugo, I moved as fast as I could and shoved Iida out of the way, resulting in Wendigo's claws ripping through where my stomach was. I hit the ground hard, pain ripping through me.

"PHOENIX!" Ember blasted a circle of fire around Wendigo, trapping him as he made sounds that sounded somewhere between human screams and screeching.

"Phoenix, are you all right?!" Manual asked. 

"I'm fine!" I shouted back as I stood back up, heading for where the explosion had come from.

"Ember to HQ, all available units, come to my location, requesting backup! Villains have just arrived in Quad 2!" Ember called headquarters through her head piece as we ran, Manual and Iida right behind us. Or at least... I thought Iida was behind us. Once we got to the center of the action, I saw Nomus everywhere. How many of those damn things did the League create?!

"Iida, are you seeing..." I gasped when I turned. Right where I thought Iida would be was an empty space. My eyes slowly closed as it hit me. He had to have seen the Hero Killer... No, no, no, goddamn it! Not even ten seconds after the thought hit me, Manual realized Iida was missing.

"TENYA! WHERE ARE YOU, TENYA?!" Manual called for him.

"Phoenix, you need to get those wounds healed, it's not safe for you right..."

"Permission to find Iida?" I asked Ember, turning to her. She stared at me.

"Phoenix, you're not in a shape to..."

"Permission to find him?! Please!" I asked of her again. This was my fault... I'd promised Izuku and Ochaco that I'd keep my eye on him, and the moment I turned my back, he disappeared. 

"Granted, after you find him, get your butt back to HQ so you can get healed." After those words came from her, my wings tore from my back and I shot into the air, flying the way we came. Iida, please be okay! Damn it, you idiot, what were you thinking?! I thought as I searched for him. I stopped dead when I saw where he was, and everything I'd been afraid of happening had come to pass. There was another hero not too far from Iida, but immobilized as the Hero Killer loomed over my friend. I sent my location to Midoriya, the only thing I typed other than that was,

'Need help.'  After it sent, I withdrew my wings into my back, letting myself free fall as Stain lifted his sword. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I shouted as I landed, bringing my ignited hand down and creating a wall of my flames to make Stain back off.

"Yagi? What're you doing?" Iida asked.

"Iida, can you move?" I asked, taking a second while I still had one to glance at Native. Native was against a wall, badly bleeding from the same spot Iida was. If Iida could move, he could carry Native and we could get away before Stain did any more damage.

"Neither of us can... It's his Quirk.." Native spoke up, sounding weak. Pain shot through me, but I grit my teeth, getting into a ready stance. 

"Then I'll protect you both until help comes." I turned my attention to the Hero Killer, who had jumped back a few feet. All the rumors about him were true... His very presence was intimidating. He was pretty muscular, standing with a distinct hunch, and it looked like he'd be six feet tall if he had stood upright. His hair was black and messy, kept out of his face by a blood red headband and his mask, the latter of which covered the spot where his nose should be. The eyes that regarded me and sized me up were blood red with tiny irises, the eyes of a fanatic. He was wearing a dark combat suit, plated with metal armor across his body to holster his weapons. The torso was sleeveless, so he wrapped his arms in yellow bandages from just below his shoulders to his wrists. Stain also wore long black wristbands and a watch on his left arm, and his knees were protected with metal pads; black boots with steel armor and spikes completing the costume. He also had his signature blood-red scarf around his neck, matching his headband, and the mask we wore on his face was a tattered cloth. 

"Another child, huh?" His eyes dropped to my stomach. "And an injured one at that. You should get out of here while you still have a chance and get that healed before I have to kill you like I do these two."

"I'm not leaving without them, I don't care if you kill me or not." I answered him.

"Yagi... Get out of here, this doesn't concern you... This is between me and him..."

"Like I give a damn!" I interrupted Iida.

"You're already hurt bad, kid, you gotta get that healed..." Native tried to get me to run too.

"I'm not going anywhere or doing a damn thing until I know both of you are safe from harm." I let my hands ignite with flames. "I'm going to save you both or die trying, because meddling where you don't technically have to, that's what a true hero does!" The look in Stain's eyes suddenly changed.

"Didn't think I'd find a true hero in this entire city..." Despite the look in his eyes, he gripped his sword. "But, you're still in my way!" My eyes narrowed as I blasted fire at him, staying where I was. He dodged it moving fast, but his scarf made it pretty damn easy to find him and keep track. I had to buy time until reinforcements came! I had to! I kept using long distance attacks.

"I've done the research. You're no good at long distance attacks, which means if I can keep you back until more help comes, you'll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again." But, if it'll come before my body's limit is up, I have no idea. I'm running on pure adrenaline right now and I know it. The pain from my wounds is going to overpower me at some point, but whether or not help arrives before that, but, I'll do the best I can! It went on like that for a while until Stain threw a blade at my leg before I could turn to burn him. I cried out in pain as he withdrew it, dodging my flames as he moved back. I watched as his long tongue came out, liking the blood off. Just like that, I couldn't move from where I was kneeling. Shit, his Quirk... I thought.

"You put up a good fight, kid. But, it's over now. I'm not gonna kill you since you're a true hero in my eyes, but that doesn't mean your friend here is safe." Stain walked over to Iida as I struggled to get up. 

"Leave him alone!" I shouted in response. Shit, what am I gonna do, he's gonna kill them both and I can't move to stop him! My mind raced, but just as Stain went to stab Iida with his sword, a green blur flew right past me and punched Stain right in the face.

"SMASH!" Izuku's voice rang out as he punched Stain and flipped to land in front of Iida and I. I let out a breath of relief. "Guess I was right!" Stain slid backwards, looking at Izuku. 

"You found him too? But how?"

"I saw on TV. They had some stats about the Hero Killer. Most of his victims were found away from many people, and when I got the text from Hino, I knew she'd found you and needed help. Phoenix, let's go back toward the street and get more help!" 

"Neither of us can move." Izuku looked at me. "It's gotta be his Quirk. After getting my leg, he licked the blade, and I couldn't move after that."

"That matches the type of Quirk the people on TV said he'd have..." That's when he noticed Native. "I was gonna ask why you didn't get Iida out of here, but now I see why."

"That's why I texted you. I saw Native before the fight between me and Stain actually started." I replied. 

"Midoriya, please, don't get involved! This doesn't have anything to do with you or Yagi and she got herself hurt because of me!"

"Iida, what're you saying?" Midoriya asked, looking at our friend.

"You showed up to save your friend's life, just like she did." Stain finally spoke. "You even made a big entrance just like her, too. But, I have a duty to kill him and this so-called pro. When that friend of yours there chose to fight me, it guaranteed the weaker of us would be culled." Midoriya looked terrified. "So, what will you do?" Midoriya suddenly didn't look scared anymore, and I watched as he mass texted our classmates our location for help. 

"Listen to me! Stand down, run away! I told you, this has nothing to do with you!" I stared at him. Was he serious?!

"If you really believe that, then why are trying to become a hero in the first place?!" Izuku sounded mad, madder than I've ever heard him before. He clenched his fist. "There are plenty of things I'd like to say, but they'll have to wait. All Might was right, though... Meddling when you don't need to the is the essence of being a hero!" Just like it did with me, the look in Stain's eyes changed. With a chuckle, a fight began between the two. I watched as green electricity came off him, and I realized that in only three days, Izuku's training with Gran Torino had been a success. Before I could blink, he was moving faster than he had before. Granted, he wasn't as fast as me when I used my wings and fire together, but he was still fast. 

"Watch the blades!" I warned him, seeing him get in close before dodging the blade and sliding between Stain's legs, springing into the air before Stain could attack him from behind. 

"A 5%..... Detroit... SMASH!" Izuku cried as he got Stain in the back. He landed in a crouch on all fours, looking up. But, all of a sudden, Izuku was paralyzed too. My eyes widened. What?! Upon closer look, I saw that Izuku had been cut. It was so small, none of us had noticed it at first. When I looked at Stain's blade, the smallest amount of blood was there, about 2 inches from the hilt. 

"You're not powerful enough." Stain told him. "It's not that you predicted my movements, you just left my field of vision, and maneuvered so you could get in a clean shot. But, I saw through your plan. There are countless false heroes who are all talk, but just like her, I think you're worthy of staying alive. Both of you are different from these two."

"Wait, don't! Stop it!" Izuku yelled.

"Leave them alone!" I added in, trying to move in the way, but with my body being paralyzed, I was stuck. 

"Get away!" Izuku tried one more time as Stain lifted his blade to kill Iida again. Suddenly, a stream of flames erupted above Iida, making the villain jump back, and they weren't mine... 

"Someone else to get in my way..." Stain mumbled. "Today's been full of distractions..." 

"Midoriya." I knew that voice... "You need to give more details in times like this. I was almost too late to stop this guy." 

"You, too, Todoroki?" Iida asked. 

"How'd you get here?" I questioned.

"Hold on, you're using your left side?" Izuku added.

"How'd I get here? Good question. Your message took me a while to figure out. Next time, try to send more than just your specific location." Todoroki deactivated his flames. "But, you're not one to send cryptic messages without a reason, are you?" He activated his ice side, raising Native and Midoriya off the ground and out of harm's way as Stain jumped to avoid it. "So, I figured you were in trouble and asking for help! Everything's okay, the pro heroes will be here any minute!" Todoroki reassured us as he charged, switching gears and using his flames to fight. Stain jumped back again, and Midoriya and Native slid down the ice and toward Iida and I. Smart, moving all the people you have to protect in one spot. Damn it, I wish I wasn't paralyzed! I thought. "You're just what they said you were. But you won't be taking any more lives, Hero Killer."

"Todoroki! You can't let that guy get your blood! I-I think he controls his enemy's actions by swallowing it! That's how he got us!" Izuku warned him. 

"He ingests blood to keep people from moving, that explains the blades... All I've gotta do is keep my distance..."

"Todoroki, look out!" I shouted in warning, but it was too late as Stain threw a blade, managing to cut below Todoroki's left eye and the blade barely missing me.

"You have good friends, Ingenium." Stain was in the air, heading toward Todoroki. "Or, you did!" Stain attacked Todoroki, getting blocked by an ice pillar. Todoroki glanced up seeing Stain's sword in the air. My stomach dropped as I saw Stain pull Todoroki close and go to lick the cut, but Todoroki activated his flames, making Stain back off. A fight began as I watched, trying to move at least my hand. 

"He's strong!" Todoroki used his flames and his ice alternately in the fight.

"Just stop it..." Iida begged. "Why are you doing this?! His fight is with me! I inherited my brother's name, I'm the one who should stop him. The Hero Killer is mine!"

"You're Ingenium now? Strange. The Ingenium I knew before never had a look like that on his face! You've got a dark side. Guess my family isn't the only one." Todoroki never took his eyes off the fight.

"Careful, Todoroki!" Midoriya grunted in pain before a look crossed his face, one of shock. Stain cut through the ice wall Todoroki had put up. 

"You blocked your own field of vision against an opponent who's faster than you. Rookie mistake." Stain taunted.

"Come get me then!" Todoroki activated his flames, but before he could do anything, Stain threw more knives, getting Todoroki's arm in three places.

"Todoroki!" I shouted. Goddamn it!

"You're good, kid! Unlike him!" Stain had jumped in the air again, but this time, he was falling toward Native to kill him.

"Watch out!" Todoroki yelled. A green blur jumped into the air, and I watched as Midoriya clashed with Stain, throwing the villain off target and into one of the walls. Wait, how can he move? He got paralyzed after me! "Midoriya!" Todoroki was holding his arm.

"I'm not sure why, but I'm able to move now!" He replied. 

"So he has a time limit." Todoroki realized. 

"If that's the case, Midoriya should have been the last one to move, it has to depend on something." I told him.

"Midoriya, dodge!" Todoroki yelled, before Izuku jumped out of the way, landing in front of Iida and I again as Todoroki used his ice to try to trap Stain. Izuku coughed. 

"He swallows a person's blood to freeze them, but I was the one freed first. I've got three different guesses why. His Quirk could be less effective the more people he uses it on. The amount ingested could play into how long it works..."

"Or there could be a difference based on a person blood type." I finished Izuku's thought before it hit me. "Deku, what's your blood type?"

"Type O. Hino, where are you going with this?" Izuku questioned me.

"I'm type B if that thought's going where I think it is." Native told me.

"I'm type A." Iida added.

"I'm type A too..." That was when I realized. I didn't know how long Native or Iida had been down, but Midoriya had been down for 2 minutes... "Type O must be the shortest time limit, you were only down for two minutes." I told him.

"So, you figured it out." Stain confirmed what we were thinking. "Bravo, very impressive." 

"It doesn't really help us that much to know how his Quirk works though." Izuku told Todoroki.

"I thought we could hurry and carry them out of here, but with Yagi down too, that's not an option. Besides, he's too fast, and he can avoid ice and fire. Our best option is to hold until the pros arrive and avoid close combat."

"No, Todoroki, you've already lost way too much blood." I told him. 

"I'll distract him while you support me from behind, sound like a plan?" Midoriya's green electricity got going again. Todoroki looked at him for a minute while I realized what that meant.

"No, guys, that's too big of a risk!" I objected.

"Okay." Todoroki answered Midoriya like he hadn't heard me. "We can protect them!" Midoriya stood as the words left Todoroki. 

"Two against one, huh? This fight won't be easy." Stain commented as another fight began. I watched as Todoroki supported Midoriya. Even when Stain could get a clean strike due to dodging Midoriya's movements, Todoroki was able to use his ice and fire to block it. But, eventually, Stain cut Midoriya's leg, and with one lick of the blood on Stain's blade, Midoriya was paralyzed again. Stain's fighting style had changed completely.

"Midoriya!" Todoroki shouted as he used his ice and fire to protect everyone.

"Deku!" I shouted his hero name at the same time before trying to move again. "Goddamn it!" My body was still paralyzed. I wanted to join the fight, to give Midoriya and Todoroki extra support, but my body wouldn't move. I felt helpless.

"You have to take Hinotori and run." Iida spoke to Todoroki, his voice thick with tears. "I can't watch this." Todoroki grit his teeth. 

"You wanna make your brother proud?! Then stand up and be Ingenium!" He used his ice to block Stain's path, but Stain easily cut through it. "Become the hero he wanted you to be!" He used his flames again, Stain dodging again.

"Watch your right!" Midoriya warned, giving support to Todoroki even though he was paralyzed. 

"Ice and fire! Hasn't anyone ever told you that you rely on your Quirk too much?! Makes you a careless fighter!" Stain told Todoroki as he dodged the ice and fire. 

"Todoroki!" Izuku and I shouted, seeing that Stain had charged so he would be able to cut Todoroki's arm off. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Iida could move again, which meant I'd be free soon too.

"RECIPRO BURST!" Iida yelled as he joined the fight, using kicks to break the sword and knock him away.

"Iida!" Izuku and I exclaimed at the same time, both of us relieved.

"You're free too? Guess his Quirk isn't as great as I thought it was." 

"Todoroki, Midoriya... This has nothing to do with you, I apologize."

"Come on, not this crap again, Iida." I looked at him.

"I'm okay, and I won't let the three of you shed any more blood for me!" Iida finished.

"It's no use trying to pretend you're a hero now. A person's true nature doesn't change in just a few minutes. You'll never be anything but a fraud who prioritizes his own desires. You're the sickness that's infected society and ruined the name hero! Someone must teach you a lesson!"

"You're a fundamentalist lunatic. Iida, don't listen to this murderer's nonsense." Todoroki told him.

"No. He's completely correct. I have no right to call myself a hero... At all." I watched as blood dripped from Iida's arm. "Even so...There's no way I can back down! If I give up now, the name Ingenium will die!"

"Pathetic!" Stain yelled. Unlucky for him, that was when his time limit ran out on me. As he charged for Iida, I yelled, shooting forward in front of him and Todoroki and blasting fire at the villain.

"Bout time I can move again!" I exclaimed.

"Idiots! The Hero Killer is only after me and that kid in the white armor! Stop fighting back- Just get out of here!"

"Not happening!" I barked. 

"I don't think he'd let me run even if I wanted to." Todoroki pointed out as he fought beside me. "Something clearly changed in him just now. He seems rattled." Todoroki used ice to defend our right flank as Stain tried to close in on us again. Just like before, he kept cutting through the ice, but I kept following up with flame after flame.

"He's getting desperate to kill Iida and Native before the pros show up." I observed. 

"I was just thinking the same thing." Todoroki replied as I used more of my flames. I could feel pain around my forearms now, a clear sign that my skin was burning, but I pushed through.

"Wait, Phoenix, how long have you been bleeding like that?" Izuku was looking at the injury on my stomach, the one my right arm was keeping pressure on. I didn't look at him, knowing he now knew how bad my injuries actually were...

"Hey, Todoroki, can you regulate your temperatures?" Iida asked. 

"Not well with my left, but yes, I can."

"You gotta freeze my leg for me without plugging the exhaust." Iida told him.

"You're in the way!" Stain threw another knife, but Iida blocked it with his arm before it could hit me or Todoroki.

"No, Iida!" Midoriya yelled.

"Why won't you stay down?!" Stain yelled, throwing another knife into Iida's arm and knocking him down.

"Iida!" Todoroki expressed his worry next.

"Just do it, hurry!" Iida urged him. I blasted my flames again, trying to buy time. I could see Izuku up again, but his leg looked pretty bad.

"It's done!" Todoroki shouted after a second, blasting his flames again not long after I had stopped blasting mine. My vision was starting to blur, but whether it was from blood loss or the pain I was in, I had no idea. Just as Iida shot into the air with Midoriya, my legs gave out on me. I felt Todoroki's arms catch me. "I've got you." He assured me as we watched our friends fly through the air toward our opponent. "Go, guys." He spoke. I watched as Iida kicked Stain in the stomach while Midoriya punched him in the face again. But, not long after impact, Stain snapped out of it and tried to lunge at Iida, which he avoided. 

"I will defeat you, Stain! Because you're a criminal!" Iida shouted as he kicked Stain again. "And I am a hero!"

"Don't let him get away!" Todoroki and I both used our fire at the same time, burning Stain and finally knocking him unconscious. Todoroki then used his ice to bring Iida and Midoriya back down again, still at the ready for a fight even though he was holding me. "Stand up! Keep fighting!"

"Easy, tiger, I'm pretty sure that last impact knocked him out." I told him.

"He's gotta be knocked out after all that... Right?" Izuku asked, sounding unsure. Todoroki sighed.

"Then let's restrain him and get him to the street. Maybe we can find some rope." Todoroki replied. 

"Yeah, and we should probably take all his weapons too."

"Good idea." Todoroki then looked at me. "Yagi, be honest, how long have you been injured like this?" He asked.

"Since before I even found Iida and Stain." I admitted.

"The villain that you defended me from..." Iida trailed off, looking horrified.

"Wait, what villain?" Izuku asked, looking at me.

"Before the explosions, we ran into Wendigo." I told him, not looking at any of my friends.

"You mean the same villain who..." Izuku trailed off, but I know what he wanted to say.

"Is that the villain that put your Mom in the hospital before she died?" Iida asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah, her wounds were deeper than mine, though." I answered. It was quiet as the Hero Killer has bound and all his blades were taken away from him. 

"Native, can you move?" Izuku asked as I finished using my healing tears on him.

"Yeah, I think I'm good as new now." Native answered as he hauled Midoriya onto his back.

"You sure?" He asked.

"I saw you hurt your leg back there. At least let me do this for you." Native said.

"Thank you very much." Izuku replied.

"I should be thanking you." That was when Native saw me. "You should use your healing tears on yourself too. I still can't believe you did all that wounded."

"They don't work on my own wounds." I shrugged a bit before healing what I could of Todoroki's wounds.

"You shouldn't be worrying about everyone else, Yagi, you're going to make your own wounds worse." Todoroki told me. I ignored him, trying to heal Iida's wounds as well, but my tears did nothing.

"Crap, my healing tears weren't able to do much for your injuries but stopping the bleeding, Iida." 

"It's all right." He told me.

"We're really lucky someone threw this in the dumpster." Todoroki said as he finished tying up Stain.

"Todoroki, I can drag him from here."

"Are you forgetting that Yagi couldn't heal your arms all the way? Your arms are still messed up." Todoroki reminded him. I forced myself to start walking by myself. "Yagi, you really shouldn't..."

"I'm fine." I waved him off.

"I have to apologize. I'm supposed to be a pro, but I was useless back there." Native apologized after a few minutes had gone by.

"No, I don't think any one person could take the Hero Killer on, not with that weird Quirk of his." Izuku told him. 

"He's too strong, the four of us barely won against him." I added.

"Even then, it was because of his own mistakes." Todoroki continued. "He was getting riled up and desperate and forgot all about Midoriya's quick recovery time. Then, he wasn't able to block Iida's last Recipro Burst or Midoriya's assault." At that point, we had gotten back to the main street.

"Right, let's get him to the police as fast as we can." Native replied.

"What are you doing here, boy?!" Oh shit, I know that voice... Sure enough, Gramps was across the street from us.

"Gran Torino!" Izuku gasped. Gran Torino, my Gramps, was an extremely short, elderly man with heavy wrinkles and a scrawny build. He had a light complexion, and brown eyes. His hair was grey and spiky, styled short with some bangs hanging forward and a trimmed beard. His hero costume consisted of a full-body monochrome suit along with a yellow cape, a belt with the letter "G" on it, very thick yellow gloves and boots, and a dark domino mask which resembles two diamonds. Apparently, in his younger days, his height rivaled Dad's in his hero form, but I knew him as the short, crotchety old man, but sweet with me when I was a kid. He used his Quirk to jump into the air. "I was just..." Before he could say anything else, Gramps kicked Izuku in the face.

"I thought I told you to stay on the bullet train!" Yep, he's pissed.

"Who's this?" Todoroki asked.

"Gran Torino, the hero I'm interning with." Izuku answered him. That was when Gran Torino saw me.

"Hey, Gramps." I sheepishly waved.

"You just have to be just like your mother, don't you? You realize your Dad's gonna have a heart attack when he finds out?" He told me.

"Gee, the thought never crossed my mind." I sarcastically quipped. "Of course I know he's going to freak out. How'd you find us anyway?" 

"I was told to come here by someone else. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm glad neither of you are dead, at least." Gramps looked from me to Midoriya.

"Me too, and I'm sorry." He apologized. Just then, more heroes arrived. 

"Around the corner!"

"Who's that?" Izuku asked.

"Endeavor told us there was a request for help here, but..."

"Children?"

"Those injuries look bad., I'll call an ambulance right away." One of the heroes gasped.

"Hey, look!" A female hero gasped in shock.

"Is that... The Hero Killer?!"

"What?" Gran Torino looked over too. Had he really not noticed Stain before?

"I'll get the police on the line."

"Can you walk?"

"If you prop me up, then, I think so." 

"Okay, and you?" 

"I only had minor injuries, and my friend healed them." Todoroki nodded toward me. "But her and Iida..." I noticed Iida walking over to them.

"Iida..." I went to talk to him, but the pain from the movement was too much.

"Whoa, kid, you're bleeding badly. The ambulance will be here soon, but until then..."

"You guys..." Iida got Izuku and Todoroki's attentions. He bowed once they were looking at him. "All three of you were hurt because of me. I'm truly sorry. I was just so angry, I couldn't see anything else."

"I'm sorry too, Iida. You were going through so much by yourself. But, I couldn't tell anything was wrong even though I'm your friend." Izuku apologized. I gently placed a hand on Iida's back to comfort him.

"Hey, pull yourself together. You're the class rep." Todoroki told him. Iida sniffed, wiping his eyes.

"Right." He replied. Thinking about it, the fight against Stain only took about ten minutes, even though for the four of us, it felt like forever. All of a sudden, something appeared in the sky.

"Get down!" Gran Torino yelled. The Nomu was headed straight for Izuku. Despite feeling dizzy, I managed to push him out of the way before I got grabbed, crying out in pain when the Nomu grabbed me around my waist, right where my injury from Wendigo was.

"Hino!" I heard Iida and Izuku exclaim as I struggled in its grasp.

"Let go of me!" I yelled, trying to use my flames to get it to let go, but it was no use. The thing was bleeding and for some reason, trying to escape with me. All of a sudden, the Nomu yelped and we started falling, the Nomu unable to move. 

"The word Hero has lost all meaning in this society. The world is overrun by fakes and criminals like you who chase petty dreams!" In a quick movement, Stain was up, free and the Nomu had a knife going through its brain and I was free. Stain had a hold on the back of my collar. "You all must be purged." I looked at him. How the hell? "Everything that I do..." He withdrew the knife from the Nomu. "Is to create a stronger society." 

"Did he just save that kid?"

"He took her hostage, idiot." 

"He killed that guy with no hesitation." 

"Everyone, be on your guard, we've got a fight on our hands!" 

"Why are you all standing around like fools?" And of course Endeavor chooses now of all times to show up. "The villain must have flown this way, right?"

"He took care of the rest?"

"Mostly, things got a little rough at the end. Hold on, don't tell me that man is..." Oh, now you notice the Hero Killer?!

"Let go of me already!" I told Stain. He panted before seeing the Flame Hero.

"Endeavor." He growled, his mask falling off to reveal that he had no nose. What the hell? 

"HERO KILLER!" Endeavor ignited a fireball in his hand. Is he seriously gonna try to burn Stain with me over here?!

"Wait, Todoroki!" Gran Torino called out to him, making him pause. Stain got up, letting go of me finally, but I could barely move apart from turning to make sure my friends were okay.

"YOU FALSE HERO! I'LL MAKE THIS RIGHT!" Everyone, including Endeavor, looked about as intimidated as I was by the Hero Killer. "These streets must run with the blood of hypocrites! HERO! I WILL RECLAIM THAT WORD! COME ON! JUST TRY AND STOP ME, YOU FAKES! THERE IS ONLY ONE MAN I'LL LET KILL ME! HE IS A TRUE HERO! ALL MIGHT IS WORTHY!" No too long after those words left his mouth, the knife slipped from his hand.

"I think... He's out cold." Endeavor spoke after a minute. I let myself relax, feeling like I could barely breathe. All three of my friends fell to the ground, but whether it was out of relief or fear of what happened, I had no idea. Later on, we had heard what happened. No Quirk stopped the Hero Killer. One of his broken ribs had pierced his lung. He hadn't managed to lick anyone's blood. But still, in that moment, I don't think anyone could move until the ambulance arrived, by which point, I had already passed out.

(Taglist: @iheartbarbie @qweenexplosionmurder13

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

Updated list as of 1-11-2024 :3

Side note: Happy birthday Todoroki!

Ziri's Masterlist:

Attack On Titan:

Fanfics:

AOT- Warrior's Soul

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Yu-Gi-Oh! (DM):

Headcannons:

When You Call Him By His First Name

Asking You Out and First Date

Calling Him Pretty Boy (Before Dating)

Dating Duke Devlin (GN Confident and Witty Reader ver.)

When Duke Flirts With Their Crush (Yugi & Yami)

Seto Kaiba x Nurse S/O (G.N.)

The First "I Love You"- Yugi and Yami Yugi x reader

Finding Out You're Pregnant

Seeing You Dolled Up

One Shots:

Birthday Surprise (Joey Wheeler x reader)

She Thinks She Needs Me (Joey Wheeler x Reader)

What A Girl Is (Yami Yugi x female reader)

Phoenix Queen (Pharaoh Atem x oc)

Flirtatious Backfire (Yami Bakura x reader)

The Snow Angel and The Cream Puff (Ryou Bakura x reader)

Fanfics:

Yu-Gi-Oh: Rebirthing

Prolouge- Sacrifice

Chapter One- Family Bonds

Chapter 2- The Duel and the Decision

Chapter 3- Journey to Duelist Kingdom

Chapter 4- Into the Hornet's Nest, Yugi Vs Weevil Part 1

My Hero Academia:

Headcannons:

Night Cuddles +Lazy Morning (Bakugo and Kirishima)

Marriage Proposals (Bakugo, Kirishima, Todoroki, Mirio, Dabi)

Bikini Wax (Bakugo, Midoriya, Kirishima, Todoroki, Dabi)

Nightmare Comfort (Midoriya, Bakugo, Kirishima, Dabi)

First Time (Midoriya, Bakugo, Kirishima, Dabi)

Long Distance Dating- First IRL Meeting (Hawks, Shouto Todoroki)

When He Makes You Cry (Shoto Todoroki)

Stripper S/O (Bakugo, Kirishima, Kaminari)

One Shots:

Firestone Origin (Kirishima x OC)

Sweet Birthday Surprise (FatGum x reader)

Love Wins (Kirishima x reader)

Slipping Through My Fingers (Big Bro! Hawks and Little Sister! reader)

Love On Ice (Shoto Todoroki x reader)

Fly Me To The Moon (Mirio Togata x reader)

Kitten Cuddles (Kirishima x reader)

Home Sweet Home (Tomura Shigaraki x female reader)

Why Did It Have To Be Me (Denki Kaminari x female reader)

Hungry Eyes (Denki Kaminari x reader)

Arranged Marriage (Dabi x reader)

Dance With Me Tonight (Izuku Midoriya x reader)

Double Trouble (Dad! Shoto Todoroki)

Flashlight (Shoto Todoroki x oc)

Fanfics:

My Hero Academia: I Am Phoenix

Chapter 1- Origins

Chapter 2- Exams and Encounters

Chapter 3: A First For Everything

Chapter 4: Combat Training

Chapter 5: A Choice To Make

Chapter 6: USJ Incident- Part One

Chapter 7: USJ Incident- Part Two

Chapter 8: Ururaka's Reason

Chapter 9: The Sports Festival Part 1

Chapter 10: The Sports Festival Part 2

Chapter 11: The Sports Festival Part 3

Chapter 12: The Sports Festival Part 4

Chapter 13: The Sports Festival Part 5

Chapter 14: The Sports Festival Part 6

Chapter 15: What's In A Name

My Hero Academia: Ascenion

Chapter One- Birds of a Feather

Chapter Two- A Day For Firsts

Quest of the Phoenixborn:

Prologue- Salutations

Chapter 1- Revelry In The Dark

Chapter 2- The Dragon and the Barbarian

Persona 5:

One Shots:

Musical Muse (Yusuke Kitagawa x reader)

First Date (Goro Akechi x reader)

Homecoming (Goro Akechi x reader)

Detective Charming (Goro Akechi x reader)

Fanfics:

Out of Ashes:

Prolouge: From the Ashes of the Old

Chapter 1- Shall Rise the New

Chapter 2- First Encounters

Fanmade Series:

Yu-Gi-Oh! Renegade-

Prolouge

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

[z-iridest]

I Am Phoenix- A My Hero Academia Fanfic

Chapter 15- What's In A Name:

The first place prize for the Sports Festival was an invitation to I-Expo, but since Melissa and I were already planning to bring Dad to I- Island, it didn't make sense for me to have an extra ticket. Since Dad was mentoring Midoriya, I figured Dad would bring him along as a guest, which left one person I could think of that had earned the right to go...

"Bakugo, wait up!" I jogged to catch up with the blond after school the same day the Sports Festival ended. He stopped, turning around.

"What'd you want?" He asked, sounding as grumpy as he looked. I gave him the ticket, and he instantly looked confused while looking it over. "The hell's this?"

"First place prize for the Sports Festival. Since I'm already going, it's a thank you for going all out. I might have won, but you earned it." I looked away from him, feeling my face burning. "You can bring whoever you want with you as a guest, so maybe Kirishima or Kaminari'll want to go with." I shrugged a bit. My phone went off. "Gotta go, see you round." I gave a small goodbye before taking off, and I could have sworn I heard a small but gruff:

"Thank you." 

I stopped training for a minute, panting as I remembered giving the invite to Bakugo a couple days ago since I was already going to I-Expo through Melissa. I-Expo was pretty much a summer tradition between Melissa, Uncle Dave and I. That is, when Melissa wasn't busy with schoolwork like she was last year... And this time, Dad was going too, which meant that Uncle Dave and Dad could see each other again after... Oh geeze, how long has it been?

I took a drink of water, sitting down for a second. I probably could have given the ticket to one of the girls, but Bakugo had given me a real fight, he didn't hold back. It was something I could respect... I went back inside to shower after the training session. I know what you're thinking: Didn't Mr Aizawa tell you guys to take the next couple days to rest? Yes, but I can't sit still when I'm at home, gimme a break! Before I could jump in though, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. An unknown number? What the hell? Probably not the smartest thing, but I answered it. "Hello?"

"Yagi, it's Todoroki." How the hell did he even... You know what, I don't wanna know. 

"Oh, hey, Todoroki. How are you?" I asked, sitting at the island in the kitchen.

"I'm all right.... How are you?" He questioned. I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm good. So, what's up?"

"I just... Needed to tell someone this." I waited for him to continue. "I saw my Mom today. My old man threw her in a mental hospital when I was a kid, I haven't seen her in a long time."

"You did? How'd it go?" I asked, leaning on my arm a bit.

"We both cried... But, it felt good to talk to her again." I smiled softly at this.

"I bet... How're you feeling?" I asked.

"Determined... I... want to be the best hero I can... I want to save her from that place." While I didn't know the full story of what had happened, I was glad he had gotten to see his Mom at least to start repairing his relationship with her. We continued to talk for a while, and by the time we hung up, I felt my heart ache. I missed my Mom, more than anything, but I was happy for Todoroki. He was able to see his Mom again... I saved Todoroki's contact info for later before I got a text from Midoriya.

'Hey! Sorry, Hino, I probably should have told you sooner, but I gave Todoroki your number, he said he wanted to talk to you about something...' Oh, that's how he got my number... Makes sense. 'Listen, if you're not doing anything, do you wanna have dinner with me and my Mom? She's been dying to meet you.' Dinner with Mrs. Midoriya? While the thought made me nervous, I was curious to find out what Midoriya's mom was like.

'Sure! I just finished up training, so I'll get cleaned up and head on over, text me the address and I'll see you in a bit.'  I showered, and dressed in casual attire. It was just a T-shirt with my Mom's hero insignia and jeans with a pair of black sneakers, but I thought I looked good. I put my hair in my usual ponytail before heading for the address Midoriya texted me. I hesitated slightly before knocking on the door. When it opened, I saw Izuku in front of me.

"Hey, you made it! Come on in, Hino." He greeted.

"Hey, thanks for the invite." I smiled as I entered the doorway, taking my shoes off and putting on the house slippers Izuku showed me. Once I was ready, he brought me further inside.

"Hey, Mom, my friend's here." He called to her as he led the way. I looked around. They had a beautiful home that had an open kitchen and living room, and straight ahead of me in the hallway were two separate rooms, one of which the door held a sign that screamed my Dad's merch and had his name in gold letters. I smiled before going into the living room to meet my host. When I came face to face with her, it was like I was seeing double of Izuku. Big, round green eyes and green hair, though hers were darker than his, and her hair was straight and shoulder-length, with a small and spiky ponytail at the back. She was taller than me by an inch, but she was a round woman that reminded me of the comfort of home. "Hino, this is my Mom, Inko Midoriya. Mom, this is the friend I've been telling you about, Hinotori." I bowed in respect.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, especially considering Izuku talks highly of you all the time, and thank you so much for inviting me to your home. It's beautiful." I replied.

"The pleasure's all mine, Hinotori, it's lovely to meet the friend my Izuku's been talking about all this time." She smiled. "Dinner'll be ready in a few minutes, so why don't you two grab a seat in the living room and catch up."

"Is there anything I can help with?" I asked. She giggled.

"Oh, no, sweetheart. You grab a seat and dinner'll be ready soon. From what Izuku's told me, you've been training extra hard the past couple days, it's about time you give your muscles some proper fuel." She told me, gently shooing me toward the couch. I couldn't help but giggle.

"Okay, but if you need help, just holler my name." I told her.

"I will." She beamed before scurrying back to the kitchen. I smiled.

"So, Hino, did Todoroki end up contacting you?" Izuku asked.

"Actually, yeah, he did. He called before you texted me... He got to see his Mom." From the look on his face alone, Midoriya already knew the situation with Todoroki and his family, or at least part of it.

"He did? How did it go, how's he doing?" Izuku asked. So, I told him what Todoroki told me. By the time I was done, he breathed in relief. "I'm glad it went so well, and even more so that he's okay."

"Me too... Honestly, I hope things continue to work out for him. But, it's Iida I'm worried about." I brought up.

"Honestly, me too." Midoriya looked down. "I've been worried since you told me what happened. I just hope everything's all right."

"Me too. When he sets his mind to something, it's all he can see. He'll get himself into trouble if he's not careful..." I trailed off, not wanting to think about the consequences of Iida were to go after the person responsible.

"Now, now, you two, that's enough of that sad talk, let's give your bodies some fuel." Mrs Midoriya told us, shuffling into the dining area. My stomach rumbled at the smell of the katsudon she'd cooked, making both of them giggle. 

"Guess I'm hungrier than I thought." I sheepishly giggled.

"Come on, let's eat." Izuku replied as we got up, sitting at the table. 

"Hinotori, I couldn't help but notice your shirt. Is that Ace's symbol?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, Ace was my mom." I answered as I sat down. When I caught her glance, she was smiling softly. 

"Despite the horrible things you've gone through this year, I think it's safe to say your mother would be proud of the strong and sweet young woman you've grown into." Inko told me. I smiled.

"Thank you, Mrs. Midoriya." I replied.

"You call me Inko, sweetheart. If you need anything at all, you can come to me." She gently patted my hand.

"Thank you, Inko." I smiled, and when she smiled back, her eyes shone brightly, just like Izuku's when he smiled. I found myself at ease as I ate dinner with the Midoriyas, and afterward, we reviewed the Sports Festival footage together. I saw for myself how Midoriya had caught up with me. I sighed a bit after it got to the final tournament, watching his match with Todoroki. "We really need to find a way for you to control that power better... Maybe some way for you to hold it over your entire body like I do with my flame armor."

"At 100%?!" He shrieked, looking at me wide eyed.

"Not right away, you'll break every bone in your body if you tried. I mean starting from what your body can handle and building up, kinda like building a tolerance." I told him, pulling my feet under me and leaning on my elbow, my palm holding my cheek. 

"How am I supposed to do that?" He asked.

"Well, since Quirks are physical abilities, I'd assume training, though I don't think Dad would be any help in that department. I'd help, but I'm honestly not sure how to direct you how to do it." I crossed my arms over my chest, frowning in thought.

When we went back to school the next day, it was dark and raining, and it felt... Almost ominous... I scrolled through my phone as I rode the train to school, trying to ignore the fact that my Mom had been involved in that fatal fight 9 years ago that day. "Psst. Hey... Hey, you, kid." I raised my head to find a man smiling softly at me. "You're Hinotori Yagi from Class 1-A, right? You were amazing in the Sports Festival." The man's words had turned the attention of everyone around us. Pretty soon, I had everyone around me congratulating me. "Keep up the good work, young hero!" They all told me at the same time as I got off the train.

"Oh, thank you so much!" I bowed in respect before I left the station, heading to school. But, the bad feeling hadn't gone away. I felt like something was wrong, but couldn't place it... Why do I feel like this? Like I did the day Mom died? I thought, wishing that this feeling of dread would just be washed away by the rain...

"Morning, Hino." Izuku greeted, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Hey, good morning." I greeted back, before noticing he looked tired. "You okay?" He nodded.

"I just feel like I'm barely awake..." He answered. Before I could reply, we heard a familiar voice call out to us. 

"Good morning Midoriya and Yagi!" We both turned to see our class president heading toward us. He was decked out in rain boots and a green poncho with a hood that was pulled over his head, making it easy for him to run and stay dry.

"Whoa, Iida! You really went all out with the rain gear." Izuku observed. 

"Why on Earth are you two walking so slowly?" He passed us. "You'll be late!"

"There's five minutes until the first bell, what'd you mean we'll be late?" I asked as we hurried after him. 

"UA students should always arrive ten minutes early, don't you think?" He questioned in counter before speeding up. Izuku and I looked at each other before we followed our classmate inside. As I shook the rain off my umbrella and put it in the spot designated for our class, Izuku spoke up.

"So, um, Iida..."

"If it's about my brother, don't be concerned." Iida cut off Izuku as he put on his school shoes and took his hood off. "I'm sorry if I made you worry, everything'll be fine." He assured as he turned to look at us before we headed toward our classroom. Judging by the look on Izuku's face, he was just as worried as I was. The look in his eyes didn't match what he said, something was obviously wrong... Once we were in our class, everyone was buzzing from the past couple days.

"It's so weird that people recognize us from TV. Everyone wanted to talk to me on my way here." Mina was saying.

"Yeah, me too!" Kirishima grinned.

"People on the street were staring at me! It was kind of embarrassing..." Hagakure shifted a bit.

"Sure, but isn't that pretty normal for you?" Ojiro asked. Oh my god, this boy...

"You won't believe what a bunch of elementary school brats yelled at me." Sero spoke up.

"Nice try?" Tsu and I guessed at the same time, making Sero groan.

"All it took was one Sports Festival and suddenly we're like celebrities." Kaminari told Mineta.

"This school really is amazing." Mineta replied. The door opened as everyone stopped talking and took their seats. 

"Morning." 

"Good morning, Mr Aizawa." We all greeted our teacher in return. When he faced everyone, I saw that the bandages were off, and despite a scar on his face, he looked perfectly fine. 

"Ribbit, Mr Aizawa, you don't have bandages anymore, that's good news." Tsu observed. 

"The old lady went a little overboard in her treatment. Anyway, we have a big class today on Hero Informatics." Aizawa replied. Everyone tensed up. Geeze, how many times were we gonna do this where we all tense up because we're expecting the worst? "You need codenames." Mr. Aizawa finally finished after a silence way too long for any of my classmates' likings. "Time to pick your hero identities." 

"This is gonna be totally awesome!" Everyone cheered, before immediately quieting down when Aizawa glared, his eyes flashing red. 

"This is related to the pro hero draft picks that I mentioned the last time we were in class together. Normally, students don't have to worry about the draft yet, not until their second or third year, actually... But your class is different. In fact, by extending offers to first years like you, pros are essentially investing in your potential. Any offers can be rescinded if their interest in you dies down before graduation, though." I heard Mineta slam his fist on his desk before he mumbled.

"Stupid, selfish adults..." I kicked the back of his chair to get him to shut up. 

"So, what you're saying is, we'll still have to prove ourselves after we've gotten recruited." Hagakure spoke up. 

"Correct. Now, here are the totals for those of you who got offers." He pressed a button on a remote and it showed a hologram total of the offers. I was in first, Todoroki was in second, Bakugo was third and so on. I felt my face burn as most of our classmates, turned, grinning at me. "In past years, it's been more spread out, but there's a pretty big gap this time."

"Gah! That's no fair!" Kaminari exclaimed. 

"What about the real star? Moi?" Aoyama asked.

"Todoroki got more than Bakugo?" Jiro questioned.

"Yeah, it's the opposite of how they placed in the festival..." Kirishima trailed off. I was curious to see the list, but there was only one agency that I could think of that might have sent an offer in... My Mom's old agency in Hosu. It was run by the same sidekick who had been Mom's right hand while Mom was still alive... Ember. 

"You must be proud." I heard Yayorozu talking to Todoroki.

"These offers are probably because of my father." Todoroki replied. I had to cover a snort when I looked over at Ochaco and Iida. She had gasped and was shaking Iida.

"People want us!" She squealed. Meanwhile, my poor friend looked shocked, though, and when I looked at his name, I saw that he had gotten no offers at all.

"Midoriya, you got none." Mineta commented. "I bet everyone was grossed out by the crazy way you were fighting."

"Can you quit rubbing salt in the wound for two seconds, Mineta?" I asked. 

"Despite these results, you'll all be interning with pros, got it? Even those of you who didn't get any offers." Aizawa continued.

"Oh, so, we're all interning?" Midoriya asked. 

"Yes. You already got to experience combat with real villains during the attack on the USJ facility. But, it'll still be helpful to see pros at work. Up close and personal in the field firsthand."

"And for that, we need hero names!" Sato exclaimed. 

"Things are suddenly getting a lot more fun!" Uraraka added. 

"These hero names will likely be temporary, but take them seriously, or..." 

"You'll have hell to pay later!" Midnight finished as she opened the door. Kaminari, Sero and Mineta all gawked at Midnight as she entered the room. "What you pick today could be your codename for life. You better be careful, or you'll be stuck with something utterly indecent."

"Yeah, she's got a good point. Midnight is going to have final approval over your names. It's not my forte." Aizawa told us as he brought out his sleeping bag. "The name you give yourself is important. It helps reinforce your image and shows the kind of hero you want to be in the future. A codename tells people exactly what you represent. Take All Might for example." Aizawa then had us each get a whiteboard and marker. I uncapped it, but as I was about to start, I heard soft growling, and I froze for a second as I watch Bakugo scribble something on his board before another growl left him, making me roll my eyes. He was probably gonna come up something with the words Explosion or Murder in it... But for me, my codename had been decided a long time ago.

"Hey, baby bird, whacha got there?" Mom had asked me a couple years after I got my quirk. I held up the paper to her as best as my four year old arms could reach. 

"Possible codenames. When I grow up, I'm going to be a strong hero, just like you and Daddy!" I had told her, my hands squeezing into fists as I was on pins and needles, waiting for her response as she read the hero names. She smiled.

"There are some good ones in here like Emberfall, and Cinder, and Scarlet Wing... Oooh, Phoenix might be my favorite, though." She smiled down at me.

"But, it's just the same name as my Quirk... It's not very creative..." I trailed off. Mom lifted me up in her arms.

"But, a phoenix is a symbol of rebirth, remember? It shows that no matter how many times you're pulled down, you'll always soar back up into the sky again to shine bright. You did say you want to be a hero that gives a light of hope to people in times of trouble. What's a better name than Phoenix?" She smiled. 

I brought myself out of the memory as I wrote my hero name on my board. The Blazing Ace: Phoenix. No point in changing it after keeping it in mind for the past 11 years, right? After a few minutes, Midnight spoke again. "Now, students, who among you is ready to share?" Wait, we're presenting these?! I thought. Much to my surprise, Aoyama walked up first. 

"Hold your breath... The Shining Hero. My Name is I Cannot Stop Twinkling! Mon amis, you can't deny my sparkle." Oh, come on....

"It'll be better this way. Take out the I and shorten Cannot to Can't." Midnight advised.

"It's stunning, mademoiselle." Aoyama replied.

"She likes it?" Kirishima, Kaminari, Jiro, Midoriya, Sato and I all questioned.

"Also, you're not really french are you? That's just an act." Sato pointed out.

"Okie doke, lemme go next! My codename: Alien Queen!" Mina exclaimed as she took the podium next. Oooh, it definitely fit her...

"Hold on, like that horrible monster with the acidic blood? I don't think so." Midnight shot down Mina's.

"Dang it..." Mina sulked as she went back to her seat. Tsu raised her hand.

"Ribbit, I think I've got one. Okay if I go next?" She asked.

"Come on up." Midnight encouraged. Once she was at the podium, Tsu spoke again.

"I've had this name in mind since grade school... Rainy Season Hero: Froppy." 

"That's delightful! It makes you sound approachable. What a great example of a name everyone will love!" Midnight approved Tsu's.

"Froppy! Froppy! Froppy! Froppy!" All of us cheered as she sat down. Kirishima was next.

"Got mine too! The Sturdy Hero, my name is Red Riot!"

"Awesome!" I exclaimed, making him grin at me.

"Red Riot, interesting. You're paying homage to the Chivalrous hero Crimson Riot, yes?" Midnight inquired.

"That's right. He may be kinda old school, but someday, I wanna be just like he was. Crimson's my idol." Kirishima replied.

"Hm... If you're bearing the name of someone you admire, you have that much more to live up to."

"I accept the challenge." Kirishima told her, grinning. 

"Man.... I still can't think of anything that's cool enough..." Kaminari trailed off before he got tapped by Jiro.

"Hey, I've got one. How does Jamming-Yay sound to you?" Jiro asked.

"Oh, it's like Hemingway who wrote A Farewell to Arms, right? Real clever, I like it!" Kaminari answered.

"No..." Jiro snickered. "It's because even though you're powerful, you always..." A snort left her. "Jam your brain." I covered my mouth as a snort left me too.

"Aw come on, Jiro, quit messing with me!" Kaminari exclaimed. Jiro then went up.

"The Hearing Hero, I'm Earphone Jack!" 

"Now, that's a good one!" Midnight told her.

"The Tentacle Hero: Tentacole!" Shouji's was a play on words.

"Oh, I like what you're doing with that. A nice portmanteau."

"The Taping Hero: Cellophane." Sero's was pretty cool.

"That's on the nose, good work!" Midnight gave her thumbs up.

"Martial Arts Hero: Tailman!" Ojiro's was all right...

"No surprise with that one, I guess." Midnight's response was mediocre with his, but she approved it still.

"I'm The Sweets Hero: Sugar Man!" Sato's goes on the cool name list.

"Perfect!"

"PINKY!" Mina exclaimed hers at the top of her lungs.

"Make those looks work for you, girl!" Midnight approved the second attempt Mina had. 

"The Stun Gun Hero: I am Chargebolt! Electric, don't you think?" Kaminari's definitely goes on the cool list along with Kirishima's. 

"Makes me all tingly!"

"The Stealth Hero: I'm Invisible Girl!" Hagakure's was a little too on the nose...

"That really suits you!" Midnight's response to Hagakure's codename was pretty mediocre.. "Now, come on, who's gonna step up next?!" It's a wonder our teacher could stay asleep during all this ruckus... Yayorozu was next.

"I hope that I can live up to this name.... The Everything Hero: I'm Creati!"

"Creative!"

"Shoto." 

"Just your name? That's it?" Midnight asked.

"Uh huh." Todoroki answered her. Aw come on, why not something like ThermaFrost, Todoroki?! I thought, but kept the potential name to myself for a moment.

"The Jet Black Hero, Tsukoyomi." And Tokoyami adds a new hero name to the cool list!

"God of the Night..." Midnight swooned.

"The Fresh-Picked Hero, Grape Juice!"

"Very kitschy!" What the hell does that word even mean? Anyways, Kota was up next with showing us the name Petting Hero: Anima. "Yep, all about it!" That... was when Bakugo walked up...

"King Explosion Murder." He growled. Called it...

"I'm gonna say that one's a little too violent."

"HUH?! WHADDYA MEAN?!" Bakugo shouted.

"Why don't you be Explosion Boy?" Kirishima called out to him, half teasing him.

"YOU SHUT UP, WEIRD HAIR!" He shouted as Kaminari and I both snickered. "OR ELSE I'LL TAKE YOU OUTSIDE AND SHOW YOU WHY EXPLOSION MURDER SHOULD BE IN MY NAME!" 

"Not very heroic, Bakugo." I teased him, making him glare at me before I ignored him for Uraraka.

"This is the name I've thought of: Uravity." And there's officially a cute list.

"I just love that!" Midnight gushed, making Uraraka sigh in relief. "To be honest, choosing names is going faster than I thought it would. All we have left is young Bakugo who has to rethink his, Yagi, and Iida. Oh, yes, and Midoriya too." I stood up.

"It's not that I had trouble coming up with mine... It's just meant so much to me that I haven't thought of anything else." I replied as I walked to the front. "Everyone else's is so creative..." I looked at my hero name as I got to the podium, nervous about revealing it to everyone.

"Go ahead, Yagi." Midnight encouraged me, and when I glanced up, I found matching grins of encouragement on Kirishima and Kaminari's faces. I gave a small smile back before showing my hero name. 

"The hero I want to be is one who is able to be a light of hope for everyone... From now on, call me the Blazing Ace: I am Phoenix." I told them.

"Paying homage to your mother as well as making it your own. It's perfect." Midnight nodded in approval and I saw Kirishima pump his fist in the air. As I went back to my seat, Kaminari and Kirishima both held up their hands for high fives, which I gave them as I walked by. Once I sat down, I glanced over at Iida. He looked like he was remembering something awful. When he finally walked up, his first name was on his board.

"You're using your real name too?" Midnight asked. He doesn't feel like he can take on the name of Ingenium yet... I thought, seeing the look on his face. "Well, Midoriya, are you ready?" 

"Oh... Yes." Izuku replied as he stood up. I smiled at his chosen hero name, but it made everyone else gasp.

"Really, Midoriya?" Mineta asked.

"You sure about that?" Kaminari looked unsure himself.

"Yeah, man, remember, that could be your name forever." Kirishima added. 

"Right. I used to hate it... But, then, something changed. I guess.... Someone taught me that it could have a different meaning., and that had a huge impact on how I felt. So, now, I really like it." Ochaco and I exchanged smiles, knowing what he meant. "Deku. That has to be my codename!" I smiled at Izuku, finding him smiling back at both Ochaco and I. Once he sat down, though....

"LORD EXPLOSION MURDER!"

"That's basically the same thing." Midnight voiced my thoughts on Bakugo's second attempt. That was when our teacher got up.

"Now that everyone's decided their hero names, we can go back to talking about your upcoming internships. They'll last for one week. As for who you'll be working with: Those of you who were on the board will choose from among your offers, everyone else will have a different list. You have a lot to think about. There are around 40 agencies across the country who've agreed to take on interns from your class. Each agency has a different specialty that its heroes focus on. Keep that in mind."

"Imagine that you're Thirteen. You'd want to choose a place that focuses on rescuing people and not fighting villains, understand?"

"Think carefully before you decide."

"Yes, sir!" We all acknowledge our teachers' words as the bell rang. When I got my list, I saw that pretty much every agency except for Endeavor's agency put in an offer for me. I wasn't really all too surprised that Endeavor wasn't recruiting me, he's only interested in training his own son, after all...

"Turn in your choices before the weekend." Aizawa told us as I looked over the list. It wasn't too far from the list that I saw Ember's agency. I hadn't seen her in a few years... I wonder how she's doing... 

"Wait, we've only got two days?!" Sero asked.

"So much for no rush..." I mumbled. 

"Yeah, so you should start now. You're dismissed." Aizawa replied before he closed the door. Once lunchtime came around, Mina spoke up.

"So, guys, have you decided what pro agency you wanna go for?" She questioned all of us.

"Mount Lady's my top choice!" Mineta was the first to answer.

"Why doesn't that surprise me, ya little pervert?" I questioned. 

"You made it pretty far in the tournament... It's pretty surprising you didn't get any offers." Ojiro told her.

"I know!" Mina exclaimed.

"Hey, Deku, who's on your list?" Ochaco asked. 

"There are only 40 heroes who'll take us, so after looking up their specialties and splitting them into groups, I can start narrowing...."

"Here we go again..." I mumbled, but Izuku got snapped out of his ramble.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, what'd you guys say?" He asked.

"You're really thinking hard about this, aren't you?" Tsu countered.

"That's the curse of overthinking everything." I shrugged. 

"It'll all work out, I've settled on my pick." Ochaco replied.

"Yeah? Who'd you go with?" I asked. 

"The agency that the Battle Hero, Gunhead, runs." She responded.

"Huh? Gunhead's a big brawler, though. Are you sure that's where you wanna intern, Uraraka?"

"Yep, he sent me an offer!" She punched the air, and I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face. 

"Whoa, really? But, I thought you were trying to be a hero kinda like Thirteen, more into rescuing than fighting." Ochaco let her fist drop.

"Ultimately, that's the plan..."

"But since your match against Bakugo, you wanna expand your skill set to include being able to handle combat situations as well as rescue missions." I finished, making her nod at me before she shifted her position and punched the air with her other hand. Why was she so cute?!

"Plus the stronger I am, the more possibilities I'll have! Plus, learning from a battle hero will give me a different perspective, right?" Izuku blinked for a few seconds.

"Yeah, totally." He replied. 

"More importantly, there's something I've been meaning to ask you all day... Why are you trembling?"

"Oh, this? It's exercise." He answered. 

"Exercise?!" That was about when I saw what she was talking about. Izuku was sitting, but he was keeping himself hovering about an inch above his chair.

"Geeze, you're training your body even when sitting still?" I asked. 

"Were you doing that for the whole class?"

"There's no way!" Mina exclaimed. 

"That's such an old fashioned way to train."

"A smart way, though." Ojiro countered Mineta. "The isometric muscle contraction that's needed to hold your body above your seat makes it an easy way to work out without moving." I glanced at Bakugo while Ojiro was talking and saw that the blond in front of Izuku looked even more pissed off than before. 

"Idiots..." He growled out.

"Tis skill not strength that governs a ship." We heard Tokoyami muse. Ochaco turned to me.

"What about you, Hino? Have you chosen your agency yet?" She asked. I nodded.

"Actually, yeah, I'm going to Ember's agency." I answered.

"Wait, isn't that one your Mom's old agency?" Ojiro questioned. I nodded.

"Mmhmm, Ember's also the one who helped my Mom teach me how to use my flames when I was little. I need to work on improving my body's resistance to my own flames, so it's the best option for me." I replied. Plus, it's in Hosu City. Judging by the look on Iida's face, he's going with his brother's old agency, which allows me to keep an eye on Iida. I thought, glancing at Iida as he looked like he had chosen too. When it was time to head home, I gathered up my things, being pulled to the door by my arm by Ochaco.

"Hey, Deku! Wanna walk together?" She asked him. He nodded, smiling at her in response.

"Iida, come with u- Huh..." When we turned toward Iida's seat, we found that our friend had already left.

"I bet he already decided where to do his internship."

"Honestly, that's what I'm worried about." I told Izuku.

"He's probably off turning in his forms right now..." Izuku replied. My Dad pretty much slid in front of the door just as Izuku opened it, startling the crap out of both of us. 

"I AM HERE IN A BIZZARE POSITION!"

"Really, Dad, did you have to give me a heart attack?!" I asked. 

"Yeah, what's that about and why are you in such a hurry?" Izuku asked. 

"Hi, come with me a sec." Dad didn't answer Izuku's question. 

"Uh, sure, okay." Izuku replied. We both went with my Dad. Once we were secluded enough, Dad spoke again.

"I'll get straight to the point. You've received an offer from a hero who'd like to take you on." Dad told Izuku. 

"Wait, seriously, who?!" He asked.

"Yes, the hero's name is Gran Torino." The name sent a chill down my spine. Gramps?! "He taught at this school back in my day, but only for one year. In fact, the man was my homeroom teacher. He knows about One For All, as well... Actually, I suspect that's the reason he asked for you." I watched as Izuku's face went from excited to super excited. "This guy sounds totally awesome!" Then he came back down to Earth. "Wait. So, he knows how your Quirk works too? But how?"

"Gran Torino was the sworn friend of my predecessor. He retired a long time ago, so I forget to count him among the people that know." That's when Dad started shaking. I remembered the first time I met Gran Torino. It was one of the times Mom had been working and Gran Torino had come for a visit. I had only been three years old at the time, but he had told me he'd trained both my Dad and my Mom, to which Mom confirmed he had been practically a Dad to her after her own parents had passed away.  Dad had always been intimidated by him, but to me, it was Gramps, the same man who had been just as much a part of my life from the beginning as Dad had. "Is this because I wrote about you in the letter I sent him? Or did he watch the festival and think that my teaching was inadequate? If he went so far as to use his old hero name when making the offer... It's scary! Too scary!"

"Been a while since you freaked out over Gramps..." I trailed off under my breath.

"Wait, Gramps?" Izuku asked me. I nodded.

"He taught Dad and my Mom and he's been in my life since before she died." I explained. "He's the closest thing I have to a grandparent." I answered.

"Dammit, legs, stop shaking!" I heard Dad growl, but he was only freaking out Midoriya more. "Anyway, it is my duty to train you. But, since you got an offer, you should work with him this week if that's what your heart says. Anyway, h-h-here's the-the-the-the-the address." 

"You really gotta get a hold of yourself, Dad." I told him. He shook it off before looking at me.

"Did you already pick your agency, Hino?" He asked me after Midoriya thanked him and walked away. I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm going with Ember's agency."

"Be careful in Hosu City, Hinotori." I blinked at the use of my Dad's full name. He never usually calls me that... "I heard that the Hero Killer already attacked Young Iida's brother in Hosu. The next few times he'll be there, it'll be to kill."

"I'll be careful, Dad, I promise." I swore to him, knowing I probably wouldn't be able to keep it if Iida did what I thought he was going to do... It had been all over the news after the Sports Festival, what happened to our friend's older brother. The Hero Killer had been responsible for 17 hero deaths, and had injured 23 so badly, they'd never work as heroes again., Ingenium being the 24th victim to be left for dead. When I had gotten home, I did a little more research on The Hero Killer. Stain, as he was known, had been first known as a killer vigilante, Stendhall. After an encounter with the hero Knuckleduster, he changed his ideals from killing villains to killing those he considered to be sham heroes. His M.O.? Critically injuring the first hero he came a cross to send a warning before killing three other heroes in the same city, after which, he would move on and the process would start all over again... That chilled me more than any villain could...

The next morning, we were all gathered at the train station. "Everyone has their hero costumes, right?" Aizawa asked us. "Remember, you don't have permission to wear them out in public yet, and don't lose them or anything." 

"Gotcha!" Mina exclaimed, holding up her case as she hopped onto one foot.

"Speak properly! It's 'Yes, sir', Ashido." Aizawa reprimanded. 

"Yes, sir." Mina sulked. 

"Make sure you mind your manners with he other heroes during your internships. Now, get to it." Aizawa told us.

"Yes, sir." We all echoed, but I noticed the look in Iida's eyes and my stomach dropped at the sight. He was planning on going after Stain if the two crossed paths... Shit... I walked with Iida towards the station we were leaving toward.

"Yagi? You're going to Hosu too?" He asked once he noticed me. I nodded.

"Yeah, the agency I chose is my Mom's old one. There's a hero there that has a fire quirk similar to mine, and since I need more control over my flames, I'm going to learn from her." I answered.

"Iida, wait!" We both stopped at Izuku's voice, turning to face him. Ochaco and Izuku both joined us. "Hey, if you ever wanna talk or anything, just let us know." Ochaco nodded to affirm that she thought the same thing. "We're friends, right?" He asked. Iida smiled, though it was half what his normal smile was.

"Yes." He replied, reaffirming that we all were friends before he walked away. Ochaco and Izuku both looked as worried as I felt.

"I'll keep an eye on him, guys. It'll be okay." I tried to reassure them before I left, but even from a bit behind Iida, I could feel the urge to kill Stain coming off of Iida. In that moment, I should have tried harder to get him to tell Izuku and Ochaco the truth, how he was feeling. In the days to come, my biggest regret would be not being there for him...

(Taglist: @euphorical-angel @qweenexplosionmurder13

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

Kaiba and Joey's relationship gets outed because they keep picking up each other's habits. Joey starts using complex tech jargon cause Kaiba uses him as a sound board and to help write tutorials or manuals for non-tech people.

Kaiba slipping up an catching Joey's (English dubbed) Brooklyn accent on some words (could be just more swearing if your more of a japanese subbed watcher). Joey starts cleaning things way more than before and generally more tidy (because he hangs out in Kaiba's labs and is not willing to loose that privilege over even the smallest smudge).

Kaiba sleeps in on the weekends.

Joey is on time for school more often than not now (Kaiba may or may not be giving him rides).

Joey getting better grades. (Kaiba forces him to finish his homework before they do anything and helps him with it).

Kaiba forgetting a whole assignment cause uhhh...Distractions.

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I am Phoenix

Chapter 14: The Sports Festival- Part Six

After the match against Todoroki and Midoriya, the arena had to be fixed before the next match, so I had gone straight to Recovery Girl's office to see my idiot of a friend. I had half a mind to kick his ass for hurting himself as much as he did. But, it got Todoroki literally fired up... He had used his left side, even if it was just for a brief moment, but Midoriya shouldn't have damaged himself that badly to get to that point. But, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard Recovery Girl say how bad the injuries really were...

"The bones in your right arm were shattered. I'm afraid it'll never be the same as it was before." I heard my Dad gasp before Recovery Girl continued. "I need to remove the bone fragments or they'll get stuck in your joints. I'll heal you afterward." She sighed softly, looking at Dad. "You lit a fire under this child and pushed him too hard. Look at what he's done to make you proud. I don't like it one bit, you're going too hear, you hear? You and the boy."

"I raised Hinotori and she turned out all right..."

"Raising a child and mentoring a child are two different things, and quite frankly, her knowledge of her limits and careful nature was what Asuka instilled in her, not you. But, I don't doubt that she also inherited your recklessness. Your daughter did sacrifice herself to protect her friends multiple times during the USJ incident if I remember correctly. You're lucky you haven't lost her yet..." 

"Hino? Shouldn't you be preparing for the next match?" Midoriya asked, diverting my attention away from the adults at the moment. I shook my head.

"They gotta fix it first. It did get blown up quite a bit." I pointed out. "But, putting that aside, I think it would be a good idea to figure out a different way of harnessing One For All. Once Recovery Girl stops healing injuries like this, I can't help."

"But, your healing tears..."

"They have a limit, Izuku. They won't be strong enough to heal broken bones until I turn 16, and if you end up with a fatal wound, they won't work if you've lost too much blood. I care about you, damn it, which is why you have to find another way. Because if this happens again, I can't do shit about it and I don't feel like losing someone else I care about." I interrupted. Midoriya looked at me, silent for a minute.

"You're not going to lose me, Hino. I promise, I'll be more careful." He told me. I wanted to believe him, I really did... But, I saw the look in his eyes. The next time we were in trouble, he was going to do this again, especially if it meant protecting everyone. Besides, Recovery Girl was right.... I was just as reckless when the situation proved dangerous to those I care about, so I couldn't really talk.

"You better, I'll kick your ass if you aren't, ya little shit." I told him, which caused a bit of a smile despite the pain he looked like he was in. That was when I noticed that my Dad and Recovery Girl had gotten dead silent, watching us. Before anyone could say anything, the door slammed open.

"MIDORIYA!" Tsu, Ochaco, Mineta and Iida were all at the door, worried as hell. Both Dad and I jumped, and I grimaced a bit when Dad coughed up blood. 

"You scared the crap outta me..." He trailed off as Ochaco approached Midoriya.

"Are you okay?" She asked the same time Dad mumbled under his breath. That's when she noticed him. Oh, right, she hasn't met Dad in his normal form... I thought.

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, sir." She said, bowing a bit in greeting.

"Uh, yeah." He waved a bit, making me cover my face with my hand. Seriously, Dad? 

"He's in no state for visitors." Recovery Girl told them.

"Hey, you guys... Shouldn't you be watching the matches?" Izuku asked.

"The stage was far too damaged, they're taking a quick break to repair it now." Iida was the one who answered while I looked at him. Didn't we just have this conversation?

"That match was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life, Midoriya. What pro's gonna want a sidekick that hurts himself?" Mineta asked, shaking as he pointed at Midoriya until Tsu smacked him with her tongue again. Good thing she did it before I could...

"Now you're just rubbing salt in his wounds, probably not a good time." She told him.

"Seriously, learn to keep your mouth shut, Mineta." I added on.

"Hey! I'm just speaking the truth!" Mineta snapped.

"You're much too noisy! I know you're worried, but I got to focus on surgery now." Recovery Girl started shooting them out, but her words only make them panic more.

"SURGERY?!" They all cried. I shoved them out.

"Come on, idiots, he'll be fine." I pushed them out of the room with Recovery Girl helping me shoo them out. I looked at her as she looked at me. "Anything I can do to help?"

"I'd like to say yes, but you need to focus on the next match. Go and get ready, dear and I'll handle things here." Recovery Girl told me. I nodded and left for the waiting room, even though I wanted to talk to Dad and my friend more. I sighed softly. Mom would be scolding both Midoriya and Dad right along with Recovery Girl if she were here. Maybe she'd even have some pointers for him... I took out my phone, looking at the last picture of my Mom that I had on my phone. It was a picture of her and I smiling with ice cream cones in our hands and laughing.

"I wish you were here, Mom." I didn't know why I had been thinking about her so much lately, but I missed her...

The next few rounds flew by for everyone. I used my wings to take Shiozaki out of bounds before she knew what was happening, and with Tokoyami using Dark Shadow to do the same thing to Mina, his match ended in about the same amount of time that mine did. "Whoa, he won that battle super fast!" Mineta commented.

"Tokoyami's Dark Shadow is so amazing, ribbit." She noticed Ochaco looking downcast. I knew she was worried about Midoriya, she had been since Recovery Girl had told her and the others that she needed to do surgery. 

"She said she had to perform surgery." She replied.

"Recovery Girl's the best, you've got nothing to worry about." Mineta tried to reassure her. Least he wasn't being a perv at the moment... 

"He's right." Tsu reaffirmed. She gave a small smile at them. 

"Sure." We continued watching the matches, though I worried about Midoriya. After a bit, I went to go find my friend and my Dad. That was when I heard the conversation between the two.

"Hey, All Might... You remember when you told me you came to UA in the first place? To find a worth successor to inherit One For All."

"Yeah?" I hid behind the wall they were walking toward.

"I put everything I had into the sports festival. But, still... There were other competitors, including Hino, who fought for the victory harder than I did. So.. Maybe..."

"You're thinking if it might be better for someone else to be my successor, yes?" He asked. I blinked in shock. No matter who Dad had originally intended to inherit One For All, I couldn't have imagined anyone else but Midoriya being Dad's successor! Much as I had thought about it in the past, I knew my body would have probably fallen apart years ago if I had inherited One For All...

"Yes..." Midoriya trailed off.

"You're not wrong... This place is full of incredible potential heroes. One For All is a crystallization of power. It bolsters Quirks. For example, if Young Todoroki were to inherit it, the strength added to his own quirk would probably make him an unbeatable superhero."

"Then-"

"But, you know, I was Quirkless too as a kid." Well, that was news to me. Dad was Quirkless when he was younger? I mean, I probably should have expected that considering he had said he got his Quirk from the user before him, but...

"Quirkless? Seriously?" Midoriya sounded just as surprised.

"Back then, it wasn't as rare of a thing, but it was still out of the ordinary. Even though I didn't have a power of my own, I had someone who believed in my potential. My master gave me One For All and raised me to become a hero." 

"You never told me that!" Midoriya exclaimed. Bro, he didn't even tell me!

"It's not my fault you never asked, which is honestly surprising." 

"I just can't believe the number one hero was Quirkless."

"It's true. When we first met, I saw a little of the old me in you. But, kid, you've gone beyond my expectations time and time again. One day, you're gonna do incredible things with One For All. That's something I truly believe." He told him. I smiled a bit.

"While I agree with you, Dad, that doesn't mean he should mess up his entire body like he did in the match against Todoroki." I showed myself.

"Hino, how long have you been listening?!" Izuku asked.

"Long enough, and you two shouldn't talk about One For All in the open like this. There's too many spots for people to eavesdrop and listen in." I pointed out.

"You worry too much, Hino." Dad told me.

"I worry just enough, thank you, especially when you two have the same mindset." Dad chuckled a bit at that. "Dad, it's not funny!"

"You know, I've been thinking about your Mom lately, and that's exactly what I imagined her saying if she were here." Dad told me. I blinked a bit, falling silent. He'd been thinking about her lately too? "Now, the Sports Festival isn't over yet. Get out there, both of you don't want to miss the end." Dad ushered us along. I saw Iida as we passed, and went over to him.

"Hey, everything okay?" I asked. 

"Oh, Yagi. I was just trying to call my brother, and... Well..."

"Still no answer?" I questioned, already knowing the answer. He nodded. "Patrols do take a while, he'll call back once he's done." I smiled a bit, trying to give my friend hope. He looked uncertain, and I remembered the feeling of dread that had washed over me as a 6 year old kid that day. It was all over Iida's face... When I returned to the stands with Iida, we watched as Kirishima and Bakugo fought against each other. I looked at the board as Iida talked to Midoriya. My next match was against Todoroki... I had watched the match Midoriya had against him. He would probably stick to just using his ice powers, since he still looked conflicted with the end of that match. Whatever he had left to do to sort it out, it wasn't something he could do here or now... It would be an endurance match as to who would outlast the other, Todoroki with frostbite or me with burns? I could use the torches around the stadium until that fire ran out, but how long could I go? We would find out sooner or later...

Present Mic's yell of excitement brought me out of my thoughts. "BAKUGO IS COUNTERING AGAIN! BUT WHAT'S THIS?! IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING THIS TIME!" 

"Kirishima's at his limit now." I observed.

"You've been straining to keep your body rock hard this whole fight, right? But, that means, you're overusing your Quirk. And sooner or later, you'll fall apart." Bakugo began a barrage of attacks, explosion after explosion while Kirishima struggled to keep his body solid. After a few minutes of explosions, Kirishima toppled to the ground and collapsed, exhausted. 

"WITH THAT VICIOUS CARPET BOMBING, BAKUGO ADVANCES TO THE THIRD ROUND! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, OUR FINAL FOUR!" Present Mic announced. I took a deep breath. 

"Wish me luck, guys." I told them before leaving the boys' sides. I waited in the entrance to the arena as Present Mic announced the match. 

"THE FIRST MATCH OF THE SEMI FINALS! BOTH COME FROM HERO FAMILIES, MAKING THIS A BATTLE OF THE ELITES! FROM THE HERO COURSE, OUR GIRL ON FIRE, HINOTORI YAGI! VERSUS... HER COOL CLASSMATE, SHOTO TODOROKI!" I'm not able to negate his attacks like Izuku did, but I don't have to. I'll melt the ice as many times as I have to to get in close. As much as I want him to go all out, it took a while for him to even do it against Mid. I can win this no matter what! I thought as I tied my jacket around my waist again. I got into a ready stance, staring down my opponent as he got into a ready stance as well. "START!" Just as Present Mic called for the beginning of the match, Todoroki used his ice powers. I ran forward, holding out my hand and willing the fire from the torches to come to me, just like I did in the fire zone back at the USJ.

"THAT WON'T WORK ON ME AND YOU KNOW IT!" I shouted as I jumped into the air, giving a yell as I landed, adding my own flames to the mix and creating a firewall that melted the ice as I flew toward him, using my wings for speed. The look on his face was priceless as he sent a blast of ice toward me and I used a huge blast of flames to cut through it. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" I exclaimed before I got close enough to where he couldn't use his ice the way he wanted to. We fought with our fists, and every time he tried to use his ice to freeze me, I used my flames to counter. We were slowly making our way to the boundary line behind him. I used kicks of flames from my feet to break his stance and eventually got to a point where I could throw him. But, once I did, he used his ice to surf around the ring and back toward me. I flew toward him, charging him. We were opposites with our powers when he was using his ice. But, I started seeing the frost, started seeing his movements slow down. "What's the matter?! Too tired?!" I was being cocky and I knew it. Just as the words left my mouth, he caught one of my fists, ice beginning to cover my entire body. Before I could even react, I was frozen in place. Goddamn it, I hate karma...

"Good thing you forgot I can do precision moves too. I've only been showing off ranged attacks today." Todoroki sounded almost relieved. I struggled for a minute before hanging my head to focus, closing my eyes.

"Hinotori, be honest. Can you move at all?" Midnight asked me. I grit my teeth, concentrating my body heat and bringing the fire from the last two pillars toward me.

"HELL YEAH!" I let out a loud yell as my eyes snapped open before letting out a huge blast of fire from my body, melting the ice wall around me completely. "Thanks for the cool down, Todoroki, it was getting a little too hot!" I charged toward Todoroki again, using punches and kicks to melt the ice heading my way. I was down to my own flames, which meant I had limited time before my body started burning to ashes from overuse. I punched him as hard as I could in his jaw. He stumbled back, using his ice behind him to steady himself as I charged for him again. That was when his left side ignited. I smirked. As soon as he blasted flames at me, I flipped over his head, twisting in the air as I absorbed his flames. I saw his eyes widen, realizing what I was about to do. "PHOENIX HEATBLAST!" I shouted as I blasted as hard as I could, shattering the ice wall in front of him and creating an explosion that sent Todoroki flying through the air. Todoroki barely managed to catch himself on his ice, but there was no more frost on him. "About time you got more serious! LET'S GO!" I shot forward again as Todoroki did the same, using his ice on his feet and his flames to propel himself. When we collided, it caused an explosion, smoke filling the ring. I panted, my arms red and burning, half hoping that the fight would be over now. 

"I don't get either of you!" I heard Todoroki's voice before I saw him. He was panting, just as tired by the looks of things. "Both of you are trying to get me to use my flames! Why are you fighting so hard?! If my father..."

"YOUR OLD MAN DOESN'T HAVE A DAMN THING TO DO WITH THIS! IF YOU WANNA BE A HERO, BE THE HERO YOU WANT TO BE! FIGHT ME AND PROVE THAT THE HERO YOU ARE CAN BEAT ME AT FULL STRENGTH!" I wasn't stupid. I saw the apologetic look in his eyes as I charged him for the third time. He was still conflicted, proven by the way he let his fire go out at the last second. I couldn't get through to him, and Midoriya's words had made him conflicted. I hated accepting a victory like this, but I wasn't going to lose to him half assing everything. With a final blow, smoke was kicked up once again.

"WHOA, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! SMOKE'S FILLED THE WHOLE STADIUM FOR A THIRD TIME!" Present Mic exclaimed. My eyes looked for Todoroki, and when I found him through the smoke, he'd been knocked out of bounds by the blast.

"Todoroki is out of bounds! Yagi wins!" Midnight announced. I collapsed to my knees from exhaustion. I was half surprised I hadn't heard Endeavor's old, stupid ass yelling the entire fight, but then again, I hadn't even been focusing on anything outside of our fight. I didn't listen to anything else Present Mic or Midnight had to say, I just healed Todoroki's injuries and left the arena so Recovery Girl wouldn't have much to do but wait for Todoroki to wake up and heal any injuries I might have missed. I happened to look up at the stands as I left the arena, spotting Endeavor. He looked absolutely pissed and he was glaring right at me. I glared right back as I entered the hall. I wasn't about to let him intimidate me...

"You won... Whoa, hey, what's wrong?" I looked at my Dad.

"It doesn't feel like a victory, Dad. He didn't go all out" I sighed. "Which, I honestly shouldn't have expected him to considering he looked conflicted about using his flames the entire fight, but still..." 

"It would have been more fulfilling to you if he did go all out." He finished. I nodded. "I know." He pulled me into a hug. "But, I think both you and Young Midoriya both hammered the point home and given him a lot to think about. It may take some time for him to show it, but I think you and Young Midoriya have sparked a changed in him, whether or not he knows it right now." I hugged back. It wasn't just Todoroki holding back that bothered me, though I didn't say that to my Dad. I couldn't really do much to help him, and I knew Mom would try to show him that his flames were his own, that he could be a strong hero with both sides of his Quirk and not let his Dad define him. After a while, he let go. "I should let you get ready for the finals. I'll see you afterwards." I nodded and let go of my Dad, giving him a small thank you. I couldn't act like I knew what Todoroki had gone through, and it wasn't like he'd talk to me about it as if we were old friends...

"Meddling where you don't technically have to is part of being a hero. Remember that, my little bird." I remembered when my Mom told me about being a hero.

"What does that mean, Mama?" I'd asked. She'd had me on her lap.

"It means that part of a hero isn't just saving their bodies, it's saving their hearts too. True heroes save people in every way, but words don't always work. You have to let your actions do the talking."

"Like fulfilling a promise you make?" I had asked. She'd smiled, gently tapping my nose as I giggled.

"Exactly." I clenched my fists, determined to follow my Mom's example for what hero I wanted to be. I just hoped everyone would be okay... Above me, I could hear Present Mic commenting on Bakugo's fight against Tokoyami, a match that went pretty damn quick in my opinion. The match up couldn't have been any worse for Tokoyami, which means that the final match... Was me against Bakugo... I would only have a few minutes to prepare in the waiting room, so good thing I was already headed over there... That was when I saw Iida on the phone.

"Hello, Mom? I hate to tell you this, but I lost." As I walked closer, I watched as Iida's face went from normal to completely pale. All alarms went off in my head as I hurried over to him as his arm went limp at his side.

"Iida, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly. He leaned against the wall behind him, looking at me.

"Tensei... My brother... He was attacked by a villain..." My blood ran cold with his answer. 

"Go tell Mr. Aizawa and get your ass on the next train there."

"But, Yagi-"

"But nothing, your family needs you right now, Iida. Yayorozu and I can take care of our classmates, just go." I interrupted him.

"I'll call you once I figure out what's going on."

"Iida, go." I shooed him, but my heart was pounding against my chest as he used his Quirk to speed to Mr Aizawa. It almost felt like my Mom's death all over again, but this time, I wasn't the one directly impacted. I texted Midoriya what was happening before heading to the waiting room. Before I could have time to keep it from entering my mind, the memory of my Mom's death, of that day, came back to me.

It was raining that day, almost as if foreshadowing the sadness of the situation. I had been in my classroom, playing with Tsukihara at the time with the news on in the background when my teacher had called out to me. I still remembered the look on her face as I hurried over, beaming up at her before noticing she looked upset. "Miss Matsuko?" I questioned before I noticed the pro hero next to her. My mom's sidekick, Ember, was standing by her. At the time, she'd been barely 18, with vibrant red hair with an orange streak on the right side, dressed in an ensemble of red, orange and yellow for her hero costume. I'd waved at her. "Hello, Miss Ember." I saw the look of sadness on her face crack for a brief moment as a smile replaced the frown for a brief moment.

"Hi, little Spark." She greeted.

"Where's Mama?" I asked, which made the smile drop from her face.

"I'm afraid that's why I'm here, kiddo. Your Mom went up against a really tough villain and she..." Ember's golden eyes had filled with tears and I remembered my teacher placing a gentle hand on my back. The news filled in the rest of the blanks, saying that against a fight against a villain, Ace had been severely injured, and the news reported that she had passed away just minutes prior to them coming. I had started crying in the hallway and Ember had picked me up. I remembered clinging to her, not able to make out what the adults were saying before Ember carried me out of the school. Once we got to the hospital, he had met up with All Might, and he looked like he'd been crying too. The minute I saw him, I'd reached for him, crying into him as he held me close, trying to comfort me... Months later, the adoption for him becoming my Dad officially was finalized, but I had already started training by that point...

I wiped my eyes at the memory. I'd been only six years old, and as stupid as I felt for remembering that moment right before the Sports Festival finals, I could only hope that Iida's brother wouldn't be a similar case... The door blasting open startled me out of my thoughts, and when I looked, Bakugo's dumbass had kicked the door open. "Hey, what the hell are you doing in here? This is my place to- Crap! This is waiting room number 2?!" I stared at him for a minute before rolling my eyes at his stupidity and ignoring him. That only seemed to piss him off since I could practically feel the irritation radiating off him in waves. "All right, fine, so I may have walked into the wrong room. But don't think that means I'm not gonna be on top a my game, ya got that?!" He raised his hand before slamming it onto the table. "You better bring all ya got to this, Flame Hair!" He exploded the spot his hand was on.

"The victory I got from Todoroki was half assed. He didn't bring his best against me, so I'm going to make this shit clear." My voice was cold as I stood up, looking at him. "If you hold back against me once, I'm going to burn your ass." I glared. He grinned as if spurred on by the threat of what would happen if he held back.

"Yeah, I got it, just like I'll explode your ass if you so much as think about half assing it against me." Bakugo replied before I left the room for the entrance to the arena. God, that boy...

"WELCOME TO THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE UA HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS FESTIVAL! IN JUST A MOMENT HERE, WE'LL SEE WHICH FIRST YEARS COME OUT ON TOP!" I could practically hear Present Mic spinning in his chair. "YES, IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS FOLKS! SHE'S BEEN THE LEADER THIS ENTIRE TIME AND IS STILL GOING STRONG, IT'S OUR GIRL ON FIRE, HINOTORI YAGI OF CLASS 1-A! VERSUS HER CLASSMATE WITH THE MOST BANG! IT'S THE EXPLOSION BOY, KATSUKI BAKUGO! NOW, BEGIN!" We charged at the same time as soon as Present Mic called it.

"LET'S GO!" I shouted before we collided, using our Quirks as we fought. As he used his explosions on me, I manipulated one of them to hit him square in the face. He stumbled back, looking confused as hell. I was half tempted to laugh in his face. "What's the matter? Can't take it as well as you dish it?!" He charged me, but threw a right hook instead of trying to use an explosion on me. I sidestepped it, grabbing his arm and doing the same shoulder throw on him that Midoriya did. "You're getting predictable!" I shouted as I threw him to the ground.

"OOH, AND AFTER EXCHANGING A FEW BLOWS, HINOTORI THROWS BAKUGO OVER HER SHOULDER!" Present Mic's commentary was getting annoying.

"What was that about not holding back against me?! What? You think I can't take it?!" I was taunting Bakugo as he caught his breath. He got up after a second, glaring at me, but grinning like a Cheshire. 

"Oh, it's on, Flame Hair!" He shouted, using his explosions to blast forward before we went all out trading blows. I was careful to not manipulate the explosions as much so it hit hard and out of nowhere. It only served to piss him off even more, and it was honestly hilarious. The more we moved the bigger the explosions got, just like Midoriya had explained to me. After a minute, he launched himself in the air, his body twisting and turning. I smirked.

"Hell yeah, now you're getting fired up!" I ignited the arm facing him, ready for whatever he had to throw at me. Smoke kicked up as a cyclone of wind made itself visible to the naked eye. I saw Midoriya shoot to his feet out of the corner of my eye, but I was focused on my opponent.

"HOWIZTER..."

"BRING IT ON!" I shouted as I blasted myself into the air with my wings, able to feel my hair coming lose out of its braid with the force of the jump and as I did the same thing, creating a tornado of my own.

"IMPACT!" A huge explosion came my way, and I absorbed it. The look on his face when he realized what I was about to do... I winked at him before the impact hit and we both got knocked backwards from the force of the blast. I used my wings to stay within range of the arena as I landed on the stage again. I cleared the smoke, only to see that Bakugo had been knocked the hell out and out of bounds.

"BAKUGO IS OUT OF BOUNDS! YAGI IS THE WINNER!" Midnight held her hand up, announcing the end of the final match. I'd won...

"AND WITH THAT, THE FINAL MATCH IS OFFICIALLY OVER! THE FIRST YEAR CHAMPION OF THE UA SPORTS FESTIVAL IS OUR GIRL ON FIRE.... HINOTORI YAGI FROM CLASS 1-A!" Present Mic announced. I looked up toward the stands, seeing Dad grinning proudly. I smiled back at my Dad, raising my left hand just like Dad had against the slime monster. The crowd cheered louder. I was tired, but I'd done what I said I would do...

"The first year students have completed all of the events for the UA Sports Festival. Now, it's time to relax and enjoy the awards ceremony!" A little while later, I heard Midnight announce the beginning of the awards ceremony. The platform I was standing on began to rise, putting the top three in the center of it all, with me being on the highest part since I was in first place. In second, looking pissed off that he lost to me, was Bakugo and third was Todoroki and Tokoyami. Fireworks ignited the sky above us, cameras flashed as they took pictures of the three of us, but all I could think about was Iida. Was his brother doing okay? Would Iida be okay? I had no idea. I had told Midoriya and Uraraka the news, and they were just as worried as I was..."Now, let's break out the hardware! Of course, there's only one person worth of distributing the awards." Dad's boisterous laughter from in his muscle form came from above us before he landed in front of the stage. 

"CITIZENS! I AM HERE WITH THE MEDALS!" Dad grinned.

"Oh, for the love God, Dad..." I mumbled under my breath. Did he have to use his catchphrase for everything?!

"All Might, the number one hero!" Midnight announced at the same time. She sweat dropped. "Ruined that, didn't I? So, now that you're here, All Might, why don't you start the presentation?"

"Young Tokoyami and Todoroki, congratulations to you both." My Dad placed the bronze medals around their necks. "You both showed amazing strength out there."

"Your words humble me, sir." Tokoyami replied before Dad hugged him and I couldn't hear what else he said. He then turned to Todoroki.

"I'm assuming there's a reason you didn't use your left side that much, all though it cost you the semi final battle." 

"Midoriya opened my eyes during our match, but then I started to doubt myself. I think I now understand a little about why you're so interested in him. I want to be the kind of hero you are, but my path isn't as clear as I thought it was. I have a lot to think about, and I still need to settle some things with someone. Very soon."

"I've never seen this sort of look on your face before..." Dad then embraced Todoroki, and I couldn't hear the rest of his wisdom. "Young Bakugo, congratulations." He placed the silver medal around Bakugo's neck. "You fought well, but the final match was lost to you." 

"I didn't account for her being able to manipulate my explosions. I won't make the same mistake." He grumbled. Dad embraced him, imparting some words of wisdom to him that I couldn't hear before he turned to me.

"And finally, Young Yagi, congratulations. You did what you said you'd do in the pledge. You're true to your word." I bowed my head as my Dad placed the gold medal around my neck.

"I have a lot more to learn, but my aim is to be the best hero I can be. The road's just beginning." I looked up at him. He smiled, and I swear, I could see a glint of pride in his eyes before he embraced me the way he did with the boys.

"I can't help but feel extremely proud of you, my Hino. Keep training and never forget the hero you want to be." He told me before letting go and stepping back. "HERE THEY ARE, THE WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S SPORTS FESTIVAL! BUT LISTEN CLOSELY! ANY OF YOU FIRST YEARS COULD HAVE ENDED UP STANDING ON THESE PODIUMS! THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TODAY! YOU'VE CHALLENGED EACH OTHER, LEARNED, AND CLIMBED EVEN CLOSER TOWARD YOUR GOALS OF BEING PROS! I THINK THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEROES IS PROVING TO BE OUR MOST PROMISING YET! SO, I HAVE ONE MORE THING TO SAY! I WANT TO HEAR EVERYONE YELL IT WITH ME! YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS!"

"PLUS ULTRA!"

"THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR HARD WORK!" Dad shouted the same time the crowd said the school motto. It went dead silent before the crowd booed.

"WHAT?! THAT WAS THE PERFECT TIME TO SAY PLUS ULTRA, ALL MIGHT!" All of us students shouted.

"Well... Yeah, I guess, but everyone did such a good job!" I swear to God, Dad.... But anyways, the Sports Festival showed that our friends could also be a worth opponent. We learned a lot about each other and ourselves...

"Nice work. You have the next two days off of school to recuperate. I'm sure pros who watched the festival will wanna recruit some of you. We'll look over the draft forms and update you when you return. Get some rest, you still have a lot of training." Aizawa told the class. I glanced at Iida's seat as the class acknowledged his words, still worried about our Class Rep. After that, the atmosphere around school started to change, though it was gradual at first...

Later that night, I got a call from Iida, and he was really upset. He'd made it safely to Hosu City, his brother having just gotten out of surgery when he'd arrived, in stable condition, but in and out of consciousness. There was no word on if he'd be able to return to hero work or not, at least not yet...

(Tag list: @euphorical-angel @qweenexplosionmurder13 )

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I Am Phoenix

Chapter 13- The Sports Festival, Part 5:

"THE EIGHT AND FINAL BATTLE OF THE FIRST ROUND OF MATCHES! HE WAS KIND OF A HOT SHOT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, AND JUST LOOK AT THAT DETERMINED FACE! FROM THE HERO COURSE, KATSUKI BAKUGO! VERSUS THE ONE I'M PERSONALLY ROOTING FOR, ALSO FROM CLASS 1-A, OCHACO URARAKA!"

"You're not supposed to be biased, Mic Sensei..." I shook my head, though I couldn't lie, I was rooting for Ochaco too....

"LET THE EIGHT MATCH... BEGIN!"

I sat nervously as I watched the fight between Ochaco and Bakugo. There was only one way I could think of Ochaco to win: Activating her quirk on him. But, in order to do that, she'd have to get within point blank range, and there was no way Bakugo would let her get close enough to do it. I watched as she stayed low to the ground, charging Bakugo the entire time even though he kept blasting her back over and over again. I knew Iida and Midoriya were probably talking about the strategy Midoriya had in mind for Ochaco. I wasn't listening though. I was watching Bakugo mostly. Midoriya had told us himself during the Battle Training, when it comes to close combat, there were almost no openings from the blond. And because of his quirk, the more he moves, the more he sweats. The more he sweats, the more powerful he is. He can also use his explosions to move around in the air...

I watched as Uraraka charged Bakugo, getting blasted back by the blond. "URARAKA!" Iida and Midoriya shouted at the same time. Jirou gasped, covering her ears.

"He blasted her!" Mineta stated the obvious.

"Looks like Bakguo's not planning on showing her any mercy." Asui brought up as she watched. I watched the way Bakugo fought, never moving from his spot.

"You should have dropped outta the match. There's no way you can beat me!" He finally launched toward where we'd seen Uraraka last before the smoke from the first blast covered her, but when it cleared, his hand was on her jacket. I stood up, watching Uraraka move in behind him. 

"WHOA! SHE FLEW HER JACKET OVER AS A DECOY! WHAT INCREDIBLY QUICK THINKING!" Present Mic announced as we watched. Come on, Ochaco, you got this! I thought, gripping the railing. But, just as Uraraka reached out to use her Quirk on him, he turned and blasted her with a yell, making her yelp.

"Look at that reaction time!" Sero exclaimed.

"Seriously, this dude's insane." Kaminari agreed. "You can't get the drop on him, and since Uraraka can't use her Quirk unless she touches him, his lightning fast reflexes put her at a huge disadvantage." Bakugo cleared the smoke with his hand again before Uraraka charged again.

"Too slow!" Bakugo blasted her again, this time kicking up rubble. That was when I noticed the pieces of rubble already floating above Bakugo. Once again, she used the smoke to appear behind him. 

"I've got you!" She shouted. I face palmed. She shouldn't have yelled for a sneak attack... I heard Bakugo blast her again before looking up again.

"Is she okay?" Tsu asked. Jirou covered her face.

"I can't watch this!" She must have moved her hands at some point, because her next words were directed at me. "Hino, how can you watch this?!" Jirou asked.

"Because she's not doing this blindly... She has a plan." I answered.

"How do you know?" Midoriya asked.

"Look for yourself." I replied, choosing not to tell him. He was observant, he could figure it out by himself.

"Like I suspected... Bakugo's a total sadist." Mineta mused.

"One more word out of you, grapehead and I'll burn you to ashes." I threatened before turning back to the fight. It continued like that for a while, Uraraka keeping low to the ground as she  attacked only to get blasted every time by Bakugo, rubble being kicked up by the blasts and floating above him behind smoke screens before Uraraka's next attacks.. But, for how observant Bakugo seemed to be, he didn't seem to notice that part.

"Looks like she's not resting between attacks despite being exploded, the poor girl." Present Mic sounded worried about Uraraka. You've got the best seat for the action in the house, how the hell can you not see what's going on?! I glared up at Present Mic. It didn't seem like the other pros did either, because one of them started an uproar of boos that made both of them stop. "THE CROWD IS NOW BOOING BAKUGO! And honestly, I kinda agree with what they're sayin-" The sound of a hit came from the microphone. Sounds like Aizawa Sensei was finally getting involved. "HEY, WHOA, WHAT THE CRAP?!" 

"Where's the man that started this uproar?! Are you a pro?! Because if you're serious, you can go home and hang up your cape! I'd suggest looking into another career!" Aizawa defended our classmate.

"You know what he's talking about?" Midoriya meekly asked. 

"Look above Bakugo." I pointed out, not looking at my friend, but getting sick of Midoriya not getting it.

"Bakugo's fierceness is an acknowledgement of his opponent's strength. He knows she deserves to have made it this far, so he's making sure he does whatever it takes to keep her at bay and come out on top." He continued. Aizawa really understands him more than anyone ever thought...

"I think... It's about time." Uraraka spoke, and I saw Bakugo tense. "Thank you, Bakugo... For keeping your eyes focused on me!" 

"What?" Bakugo's confusion was obvious, and it was absolutely hilarious. That was the moment everyone else noticed what I had seen from the beginning... Uraraka released her Quirk with a yell, causing the rubble, a crap ton of it, to fall. 

"A METEOR SHOWER?!"

"Now you notice..." Aizawa trailed off. Midoriya stood up.

"Hey, she had a plan all along!" He shouted as he stood beside me.

"That's why I knew she had a plan." I told our classmates. Bakugo's attention was diverted above him as Ochaco charged him one last time. But, with one big blast, he took out the meteor shower she'd created, and the force of the blast knocked her to the ground.

"I knew you'd have some kind of stupid plan to beat me... You are friends with that damn nerd, after all." Ochaco looked almost scared.

"It took him one shot..."

"BAKUGO BANGS OUT A HUGE DEMONSTRATION OF POWER! HE BLASTED APART URARAKA'S FINISHING MOVE AND REMAINS UNTOUCHED!" Present Mic, but I could have sworn I heard Baukgo mumble something under his breath along the lines of:

"That was close..." We watched as Ochaco shakily got up. 

"Ochaco..." I murmured as I watched her. She could barely stand, but she wasn't giving up. She had just as much of a fighting spirit as Midoriya did...

"All right, then. Time for us to get serious, Uraraka!" Bakugo grinned as he charged for her. She turned to face him, but one step forward and she collapsed. No... Bakugo stopped in place as she hit the ground.

"She's so exhausted she can't stay upright..." I trailed off worriedly. 

"URARAKA IS DOWN!" Present Mic announced. She was struggling to move at this point. The look on her face screamed that she wanted to keep going.

"It's too much." Iida spoke up.

"Yeah, she's way past her limit..." Midoriya replied. I moved away from the railing, heading toward the exit.

"Yagi, where are you going?" Iida asked me.

"I have to get down there. When she's taken to Recovery Girl's office, Uraraka'll need my healing power. Recovery Girl's uses the body's energy, but due to attacking Bakugo over and over and exhausting herself, she has no energy for Recovery Girl to use to heal any injuries. She needs my healing tears if she's injured." I answered, not sparing Iida a glance as I walked away. But, I didn't tell them the real reason... Ochaco was so much like me, I held onto the thought that Uraraka could claim victory over him by taking that chance, but neither of us had expected Bakugo to pull the move he did, and I knew she would need support when she woke up...

"You don't learn anything, do you?" I was startled out of my thoughts by Todoroki. I smiled a bit. 

"I guess not." I replied. It fell silent as Todoroki fell in stride with me again, no sound but our footsteps walking together. We both heard Present Mic lacklusterly announce Bakugo as the winner. "He really has to quit being biased..." I shook my head. We got there before Uraraka, thankfully.

"I'll wait outside for you." He told me. I smiled and shook my head. 

"I'm probably gonna head back with Uraraka after, we'll be okay. Besides, you have a match to prepare for. I'll see you in the finals." I replied. He seemed to hesitate for a second before he nodded, still looking unsure as he walked away. As soon as I entered to office, I had about two seconds to move out of the way as the bots brought Uraraka inside.

"Oh, dear... I'm glad you're here to help me. Let's put those healing tears to good use. I suppose it's a good thing she only has bruises and scratches, but due to her overdoing things, her body has no energy." Recovery Girl told me. I smiled a bit.

"I thought she could use my help, our healing powers work differently." I watched as the bots got her onto a bed. Recovery Girl smiled.

"Yes, but all in all, our powers have the same goal, and that's helping the body recover." She replied. I nodded in agreement before using a healing tear on Uraraka. It took a second, but her injuries began to heal. I breathed in relief as I leaned back in my seat. 

"You were really worried about her, weren't you?" 

"Heh... She's a little too much like me for my liking..." I trailed off. Midoriya was learning to be that way from Dad, but Ochaco? 

"Midoriya's up to fight next against Todoroki, dear. Once she wakes up, why don't the two of you go grab your seats?" Recovery Girl told me. I nodded.

"We'll see what she wants to do." I replied. Well, once she got up, we walked to the waiting room she had used to get her phone, which is where we met up with Midoriya.

"Man, I lost. Too bad." Ochaco rubbed the back of her neck, Midoriya looking shocked that she was still being positive. "Guess I got a little carried away thinking I had it in the bag... Dang it!" 

"You seem fine. But... Weren't you inured?" He asked as he closed the door behind him. 

"Yeah, Hino and Recovery Girl took care of me." She told him. Her face then turned frustrated. "Jeez, I didn't realize how powerful that Bakugo was! He wiped the ring with me! Now I realize just how much more training I have to do!" They were both quiet for a minute.

"You sure you're good?" Midoriya hesitatingly asked. 

"Oh yeah, totally. I'm better than I expected!" Uraraka's phone began to vibrate, but I couldn't see the caller id. She held the phone to her heart. "Even if you've lost, you always keep looking ahead to what's next, Deku. This just means that I have to work harder now."

"That's true..." Midoriya trailed off before all three of us looked up as Present Mic's voice rang out from above us.

"WA-HOO! WE'RE FINALLY ABOUT TO LEARN WHO THE TRUE WINNER IS OF THE SEVENTH MATCH! KIRISHIMA OR TETSUTETSU! WHOEVER PREVAILS ON THIS ARM WRESTLING MATCH WILL ADVANCE TO THE SECOND ROUND! LET"S GO!" Present Mic commentated. Least he wasn't biased now... After a few minutes, Present Mic spoke up again. "NOW WE'VE GOT A FULL ROSTER FOR THE NEXT ROUND OF THE TOURNAMENT! LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED NOW, YA DIG?!"

"Already?" Midoriya asked before looking at Ochaco with a small smile. "Later." Ochaco got up, looking guilty.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Deku! You weren't able to prepare since I was here!" She apologized.

"Nah, this was perfect." The reply made her smile back.

"I'll be watching. Good luck out there." She told him. He smiled.

"Thanks." He replied before he walked out. I looked at her.

"Coming?" I asked. She nodded.

"I just have to make a call real quick. Do you mind giving me a second?" She responded. I nodded.

"I'll be right outside if you need me." I told her before leaving the room. As I waited for her, I could hear her talking to her Dad, which made my mind wander to my Mom. I'd seen her pictures, of her not having a scar over her eye when she was my age, but as far as I remember, she had a scar over her right eye. If I remembered it right, she'd told me she got the scar in a fight before I was born, but... Who did that to her? I frowned. Now that I remember, she had scars all over her and would tell me to be careful with those spots... Did she go through the same thing I did? That thought worried me. My mother? Being abused? The same woman who fought so hard to protect everyone else? The same Pro Hero who was in the top 5 back in her day and was on the same level of fighting as All Might had been abused? I couldn't wrap my head around it... My Mom had always beaten any villain she went up against...

"Hino? Are you okay?" Ochaco's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I smiled at her. "We should get back to the others before the next match starts." I told her, leading the way. We passed by Endeavor, though I didn't spare the Flame Hero a second glance. I was a little surprised to see that the match hadn't started once we got to the others though.

"So the match hasn't started yet?" Ochaco asked, making Tokoyami and Iida look at her, Iida recoiling a bit.

"Something horrible's happened to your eyes! You need to go see Recovery Girl!" He exclaimed.

"I already did, this is from... Something else."

"Ah, of course!" Iida exclaimed as she sat down between him and Tokoyami while I sat on Iida's other side. "If I were you, I'd be frustrated too..."

"You did lose to Yagi after all, Iida." Tokoyami reminded him.

"You put up a hard fight, though!" I quickly added, looking at our Class Rep before he could say anything or get downcast.

"But, it's no time to wallow. Use this next fight as a source of encouragement." Tokoyami replied.

"Will do." Uraraka replied, and I looked at our Class Rep, who looked struck.

"You're so wise..." He mused in a quiet voice, making me laugh a bit. The torches ignited again on the arena.

"I CAN FEEL THE ANTICIPATION IN THE STADIUM! AND THAT'S BECAUSE THE SECOND ROUND'S FIRST MATCH IS GONNA BE EPIC! IT'S THE GUY WHO WON HIS LAST FIGHT BY A LANDSLIDE AND LITERALLY LEFT HALF THE AUDIENCE FROZEN! THE HERO COURSE'S SHOTO TODOROKI! AND THIS KID ALMOST WALKED OUT OF HIS FIRST MATCH UP, BUT MADE A STUNNING COMEBACK BY SHOWING OFF SOME IMPRESSIVE MOVES! ALSO FROM THE HERO COURSE, IZUKU MIDORIYA!"

"Here we go..." I trailed off, on the edge of my seat already.

"Tokoyami, how do you think this match will go?" Iida asked.

"It depends on whether or not Midoriya is able to get close to him." Tokoyami answered.

"Yeah, that's the problem. How will Deku avoid the ice?" She questioned. 

"Either way, the intensity between them is so thick at the moment that you could cut it with a knife..." I trailed off. 

"BOTH OF THE HEROES-IN-TRAINING HAVE BEEN FRONT RUNNERS IN THE SPORTS FESTIVAL! BUT WHICH ONE OF THESE RIVALS WILL ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND?! PREPARE FOR... MIDORIYA VERSUS TODOROKI!" I watched as they both got into ready stances before the call was made. "BEGIN!" As soon as Present Mic started the match, ice came from Todoroki while Midoriya fired up One For All and used it the smash the ice. When the ice broke, it sent it back toward him, having to use more ice behind him so he wouldn't slide out of bounds. "WOW! MIDORIYA MANAGED TO BREAK TODOROKI'S INSANE OPENING MOVE!"

"And broke his finger in the process, that idiot..." I mumbled under my breath as I watched. To my annoyance, it kept going on like that a couple more times with Todoroki sending ice barrage after ice barrage and Midoriya breaking each of his fingers to counter it. Is he trying to piss off Recovery Girl?!

"Oh, no, crap!" I looked behind me to see that Kirishima had come back. "I'm missing it!" He ran forward until he was standing next to where Bakugo, Sero and Kaminari were all seated. 

"Hey, nice job making it to the second round, Kirishima." Kaminari told him.

"Thanks, man. Looks like I take down Bakugo next." Kirishima put his hand on his hip as he looked at the blond, who was more focused on the fight.

"I'll kill you." Bakugo bluntly told him, making me shake my head. 

"Yeah, sure, in your dreams. No, but seriously, it's crazy how you and Todoroki both have moves that blast the whole stadium! Must be pretty nice."

"Plus, you don't have to pause between attacks." Sero piped up. 

"It's not as easy as you think it is, guys." I got up and walked over to them. 

"If you overuse your muscles, you risk tearing them apart. If you sprint too much, you run out of breath, idiots."

"What he's trying to say is that we all have our limits, Bakugo and Todoroki included." 

"Quirks are physical abilities too. They can get worn out, you can't just use them nonstop." Bakugo finished. 

"It makes sense when you guys put it that way... I wonder if that's how Midoriya thinks he's gonna beat Todoroki..." Kirishima replied. Definitely doesn't look like he has a plan... He couldn't collect data on Todoroki since his moves are too fast... I thought. 

"TODOROKI WITHSTOOD MIDORIYA'S POWER AND IS NOW RUSHING HIS CLASSMATE!" I watched as Todoroki ran up an ice ramp to get air, causing Midoriya to break another one of his fingers to break the ramp, but Todoroki had already gotten in the air. Midoriya was barely able to dodge in time to dodge Todoroki's landing and the ice it brought, but his foot getting caught in the ice... which he resorted to breaking his arm to get free of! But, when I looked closer at Todoroki, he looked like he had frost on him... 

"If Todoroki doesn't use his fire this match, he'll end up freezing his entire body over just to prove a point..." I mumbled, and judging by the look on Midoriya's face, he saw it too... 

"With your hands like, that, you can't fight anymore, can you?" Todoroki spoke, everyone able to hear him because of it being so quiet. "Why don't we end this?" He sent another ice attack Midoriya's way.

"WHOA! TODOROKI CONTINUES HIS OVERWHELMING ATTACKS! COULD THIS BE HIS FINISHING MOVE?!" Present Mic commentated.

"I AM NOT DONE YET!" He shouted. 

"Don't even think about it, you damn..." I didn't even get to finish my sentence before he used his already broken finger to break the ice again! This time, Todoroki had slid back all the way to the other side of the arena, and would have gone out of bounds if he didn't put up ice for himself in time. "That idiot..." I trailed off as I watched. 

"Why are you going this far?" Todoroki asked.

"You're trembling, Todoroki. It's easy to forget that Quirks are physical abilities, and that means... There's a limit to the cold your body can take, right? I get it. Usually, you'd make up for the drop in temperature by using the heat on your left side, but now you're refusing to do that. Listen, we're all giving it our all... To try and win... To make our dreams into a reality, to become number one! You think you can win with half your strength?! Look at me, Todoroki! You haven't managed to out a single scratch on me yet! SO COME AT ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!" It was dead quiet for a minute.

"Midoriya... What're you trying to do here? You want my fire?! What, did my monster of a Dad bribe you or something?! NOW, I'M MAD!" Todoroki ran forward, rushing towards Midoriya. His movements are slower... I thought, and seeing the look on Bakugo's face, he was seeing it too. Just as Todoroki's right foot left the ground, Midoriya rushed forward toward him and once he was close enough...

"A SOLID PUNCH!" Todoroki managed to get a little ice on Midoriya's arm, but he went flying from the punch Midoriya gave him in the gut. "THAT'S THE KIND OF ACTION I LIKE TO SEE!" The ice barrage kept going as soon as Todoroki stood up, but they were slower, which allowed Midoriya to dodge it, so Todoroki tried a close range ice attack, which Midoriya broke free from again. It kept going like that, the boys trading blows back and forth... In a way, Todoroki was my equal and opposite. We both had fire, but he had ice to cool himself down and vice versa. There was a limit to how much of my own flames my body could take, meanwhile his was built for the quirk he had. Learning how to handle my own flames was something i always struggled with, hence why I had always used other fire if there was any around h=me, or i did shorter training sessions when it came to focusing on my flames.

"WHY ARE YOU PUTTING YOURSELF THROUGH THIS?!" Todoroki asked again.

"I want to live up to people's expectations. I wanna be able to smile while doing something good for them! I wanna be a pro! WHATEVER IT TAKES TO BE A HERO!" He headbutted Todoroki in the gut, kinda reminding me of a ram if I'm being honest... "THAT'S WHY I'LL GIVE IT MY ALL, JUST LIKE YOU SHOULD BE! There's no way I could know what you've gone through, or why you're even here. Your life has been so much different from mine, but right now, stop screwing around! If you wanna reject your father, fine, but you don't have the right to be number one if you aren't going to use your full power!"

"Shut up!"

"THAT'S WHY I'M GOING TO WIN THIS! I'LL SURPASS YOU!" He punched Todoroki in the gut a third time. 

"I refuse... to use my left side." What Midoriya said next, I'll never forget...

"IT'S YOURS! YOUR QUIRK, NOT HIS!" He was driving home the point I was trying to make to him during the side games... All of a sudden, Todoroki's side flared up, erupting into flames. 

"IS THAT-?!"

"He's using his fire!" Ochaco gasped. 

"Incredible..." Iida murmured. Little by little, the frost on him melted away. 

"You're helping your opponent... You fool. Even though, you wanna win this battle. Now which one of us is screwing around? I want it too! I'll be a hero!" Todoroki replied.

"YES, SHOTO!" Endeavor's voice broke through the crowd. Shut up, you old idiot... I thought, glaring to where I saw the glow of Endeavor's flames coming from. "Have you finally accepted your purpose?! That's it. Very good. This is the dawn of a new era for us! With my blood in your veins, you'll surpass me! You will live up to the reason I created you!" The more he spoke, the more I could feel the heat of my hair rising. Even Present Mic seemed confused, but Endeavor was just pissing me off at this point.

"Amazing..." 

"Why are you smiling? With those injuries, in this hopeless situation, you must be crazy. Don't blame me for what happens next." He started using his ice and fire at the same time, while Midoriya used One For All in his legs. 

"THAT'S IT, MIDNIGHT, HIS BODY WON'T HOLD UP!" Cementoss shouted. "One of them could be killed!"

"His body won't hold up!" Both teachers activated their quirk at the same time as the flames on my hair went out, my worry for Midoriya taking over my rage at Endeavor for the moment. I watched as Midoriya flew through the air, propelled by the force of One For All, while Todoroki readied a blast of fire.

"I see now, Midoriya... Thank you." I heard Todoroki say before the two clashed into the cement wall, the impact kicking up a huge gust of wind, though if it was from the sudden mixture of cold and hot air or if it was from One For All, I didn't know for sure... Koda was barely able to grab Mineta as he flew upward.

"HOLY CRAP BALLS!" Mineta yelped.

"THIS IS CRAZY!" Kaminari exclaimed.

"What's happening down there?!" Yayorozu asked. I looked for any sign of the boys as a smoke filled the stadium, but with it being so thick, I couldn't see much.

"Having a great power doesn't mean you'll be a good hero. But, these two are amazing." Cementoss commented.

"What happened just now?! What the heck is up with ya students?!" I could barely make out Present Mic's boots sticking up from the window. Did he get knocked off his ass by that blast?

"Th air around the ring had been thoroughly cooled down, and then rapidly expanded when heated up." Aizawa cooly answered. Present Mic jumped to his feet.

"WAIT, THAT"S WHAT CAUSED THE EXPLOSION?! HOW HIT DID THAT FIRE GET?! JEEZ, I CAN'T SEE A THING! IS THE MATCH STILL GOING ON OR WHAT?!" When the smoke cleared, we all saw that Midoriya had been knocked clean into the wall behind him, out of bounds. He collapsed to the ground face first.

"There... Midoriya is... Out of bounds! TODOROKI WINS!" Midnight announced. "HE ADVANCES TO THE THIRD ROUND!" He looked exhausted, and the left side of his uniform on his shirt had been burnt clean off...

But, the battles were just beginning...

(Tag list:

@euphorical-angel @qweenexplosionmurder13

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

#mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix #cannon x oc

[z-iridest]

The Good News: Your new roommate is a cute catboy. The Bad News: He’s an orange tabby.

#why did i automatically think of Bakugo? 🤣