Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was the day of the sports festival, and the stadium was buzzing with energy. Each round had pumped them up more and more, each exciting twist or new play had let them see another side of the nation’s future heroes, and now that the third round was here, the excitement had reached a fever pitch. Admittedly, the first match of Brodoroki versus Sebro (Eijirou was still workshopping that particular nickname) had been a little bit of a letdown, but the anticipation was building as they cleaned up the ice from the field. 

Eijirou’s own class was no exception, every member of 1-A expressing their excitement for one of their own to be the next to fight. Sure, Bakubro may not have been the most popular member of the class, thanks to his… abrasive personality, but class loyalty trumped all that!

He and Brominari were definitely the most excited though.

“Man, this is gonna be so cool!” Eijirou cheered.

“Yeah!” Brominari agreed easily, “He’s real strong, shame about his dumpster-fire personality though!” Eijirou couldn’t exactly disagree with that sentiment.

Yaoyobrozu hummed in thought, “Who is he up against again? I’m not sure I recognised the name.”

“Eh,” Mina shrugged, “someone from 1-B I think. I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“And THAT will be your downfall, 1-A!” Out of nowhere, Monoma popped up from behind the dividing wall between their two classes. Brominari screamed and leapt out of his seat at the boy’s sudden appearance, but he just continued to boast, “Never underestimate 1-B! We’re the SUPERIOR class, and we’re about to show you our secret weapon!” He laughed maniacally, “The looks on your faces will be HILARIOUS! You’ll be shocked, shaking, screaming, CRYING for your-”

THWACK

The blonde boy collapsed like a sack of potatoes from Kendou’s strike, and she sighed and shook her head, “Sorry about him, 1-A. You know how excited he gets.”

“N-no problem…” Brominari offered weakly, still recovering from his sudden shock.

“Still,” the ginger girl picked up her classmate and shrugged, “he’s got a point. Don’t count us out just yet. Midoriya’s…” she struggled to find the right word, “unique, but I bet she can give Bakugou a run for his money.”

Eijirou grinned and gave her a thumbs up, “Sure thing! Good luck to ya!”

The rest of the class offered similar wishes, and Kendou returned them with a smile before heading to sit down, placing Monoma in his own seat, just in time for the next match to begin.

Eijirou leaned forwards in his seat and grinned. He had a feeling this was gonna be a match to remember.

Katsuki grinned to himself, assured of his victory. He sat in his prep room waiting to be called out to the field, but it was mostly a formality at this point. After all, he was Bakugou Katsuki, future Number One hero. 

And his opponent? Some no-name 1-B extra. He hadn’t even noticed her throughout the first two rounds, even when his cavalry horse ran into that one 1-B kid’s team. She’d somehow managed to sneak through the festival so far, but she wouldn’t be getting any further. She and the rest of these extras would be little more than a pebble on his path to victory. He already knew he was going to win.

A voice came over the intercom, calling him to the field. Showtime.

He stood in the tunnel threshold, waiting for Present Mic to call his name. One part of him, the part that had never quite gotten over the hero worship of his youth, squirmed in excitement over the idea, but he schooled himself quickly, spreading a cocky smile across his face.

“ AND NOW OUR SECOND MATCH!!! He’s big, he’s bad, he’s blasty, it’s… 1-A’S BAKUGOU KATSUKI! ”

Katsuki smirked and strutted out onto the field, basking in the applause of the crowd as he swaggered over to take his place on the concrete. They knew who to root for.

“ And up against him… she’s snuck by so far, but what has she got up her sleeve? It’s… 1-B’S MIDORIYA IZUMI! ”

He frowned. Midoriya… why did that name ring a bell? He shook his head; probably some extra he’d had in class once. The crowd applauded politely though, Katsuki noted, far less than they did for him. They knew who this match was really for; not the 1-B extra, but him, the Great Explosion Murder God! 

He watched his opponent walk onto the stage, and stifled a laugh. For some reason, she wore an intricately stitched eyepatch over one eye, and held a long staff in her hands. It was well-carved, with bandages wrapped around the middle and an orb seemingly hovering in the crook, but combined with the UA gym uniform, she looked ridiculous. He knew support items were banned for the hero course - he’d tried to get his ExplodoKill Gauntlets in - but it didn’t matter either way to him. He could beat this extra no matter what crutch she used.

The extra reached her starting position, slammed her staff down and straightened up to her full height… of 5 feet. “Well met, neophyte!” She called to him, “I see you, too, are a follower of the Path of the Explosion, but I am afraid this is where your journey ends!”

Katsuki stared at her for a moment, before bursting out into a fit of laughter. So she was one of those chuuni types, like Bird Brain, huh? “Whatever ya say, extra! I’m gonna crush ya beneath my heel in front’a all these people!”

Midnight chuckled and stepped up to her podium, “Well, such passion! Remember kids, I want a nice, clean match, okay?” The extra nodded and, reluctantly, Katsuki did as well. The teacher, satisfied, smirked and thrust her arm in the air, “Alright kids, get ready!” 

Katsuki tensed. The extra gripped her staff tighter.

“GO!”

Immediately, he went on the offensive, blasting off the ground and towards the extra. She hadn’t shown her Quirk yet, as far as he knew, so it was best to blitz her before she had a chance to react. As he approached he hurled explosions at her, though she dodged them easily. She retaliated with a few pathetic bursts of fire from her palm that he didn’t even need to dodge. If that was her Quirk, how the hell did she even pass the exam?!

The game of cat and mouse continued, Katsuki flying through the air and the extra dodging him. She may not have had any offensive capabilities to speak of, but she was slippery, and dodged past even his bigger explosions.

Little did she know that would be her mistake. After all, with a Quirk like Katsuki’s, the longer the battle went on the more powerful he got. He was able to push himself further, creating bigger and bigger explosions that even she couldn’t dodge entirely, her green hair starting to singe at the ends. 

Finally, he’d managed to back her into a corner. No way out except over the line. He paced towards her menacingly, flexing his fingers as a threat, but she stood fast.

“Any last words?” He sneered at her.

She took a deep breath, spun her staff through the air in an, admittedly, impressive display, and slammed the butt into the ground. “Darkness darker than dark, blackness blacker than black, I beseech thee!” She muttered, her green eyes glowing with a sudden red aura. 

The wind around the arena seemed to pick up and began swirling around her. “Come forth to me! Come and mingle in my crimson and viridian hues!” 

The swirling wind turned into a thin ribbon of darkness as a glowing circle marked with intricate runes appeared beneath her, and Katsuki realised exactly what this was.

This was her ultimate move.

Growling, he tried to press towards her, but the spiralling tempest of darkness buffeted him back as rainbow sparks popped through the ribbons. “Grant me that power, that ancient, unknowable power first devised by the gods long thought dead, the gods who slumber beneath the earth and await their new dawn!” 

Katsuki couldn’t even think about moving forwards now; it was all he could do to dig his heels into a couple of the craters he had made earlier in the fight as the sky turned black. “I harness that power, wield it, bend it to my will, and I name it:”

She tore off her eyepatch, throwing it to the winds. He braced himself.

“ EXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSION!!! ”

A thundering boom. Katsuki’s world turned white.

Eijirou gaped at the field below, his expression mirrored on the faces of every single person in the stadium. When the fight started, it had looked like an easy win for Bakubro. Don’t get him wrong, Midoriya looked super cool with her eyepatch and staff, but he could barely see her own fire over Bakubro’s explosions! And sure, she had some fancy footwork, but she looked totally outclassed! 

And yet, she’d just unleashed an explosion that had literally formed a mushroom cloud over the stadium. That was a greater power than they’d ever seen Bakubro pull out, and she’d only had a month of training! The kind of power she could have by the time she graduated… he shuddered at the thought.

The stadium was deathly silent as heroes and students alike stared intently at the field. The explosion had sent a cloud of dust and rubble into the air, and they were waiting for it to clear so they could see who won. 

Finally, the teachers managed to activate a large fan, dispersing the dust cloud and giving them a clear view of the field.

In a crater, in the centre of the stage, Bakubro lay unmoving. To the side, Midoriya was leaning on her staff, swaying.

There was silence for a moment. And then…

“ MIDORIYA IZUMI WINS!!! ”

1-B were the first to cheer, leaping to their feet and whooping wildly for their classmate, and that broke the spell. The audience started applauding and cheering for the green-haired girl, and she seemed to smile tiredly before collapsing soon after. Eijirou’s class cheered as well, perhaps not enthusiastically, but politely. The most enthusiastic member of their class was, oddly enough, Brokoyami, who muttered something about a “mad banquet of darkness”, whatever that meant.

It took a while for the next match to start, as they needed to reset the stage and clear all the rubble away, but the rest of the first round went ahead without much incident, though Eijirou’s own match against Tetsutetsu did end in a standstill. By the time the second round came, Midoriya apparently still hadn’t woken up, disqualifying her and allowing Brodoroki to win automatically.

In fact, it was Brodoroki who ended up winning, though by the sounds of Endeavor’s screams, Eijirou would have thought his classmate lost the whole thing.

Sekijirou drummed his fingers against the desk as Nedzu rifled through the files of the latest batch of hero students.

Being in school on a Sunday morning wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time, but he recognised it was important admin work. After all, they were there to assign students to their respective classes, and he knew that if he didn’t come in, Aizawa would just poach all the good ones and leave him with the problems.

No, he had to be there to defend his honour. This was going to be 1-B’s year!

The principal hummed, picking up one of the unsorted files and nodding to himself. Sekijirou straightened up and, although he hid it better, he knew Aizawa well enough to know he did too.

“Yes, I think we’ll do this one next! Midoriya Izumi!”

He nodded; as the 3rd place scorer in the entrance exam, her performance was quite memorable.

“Powerful Quirk,” Aizawa grunted, “able to wipe out that Zero Pointer. But she has no idea about modulation, either.”

Nedzu hummed, “Why do you say that?”

“Simple; before her stunt with the Zero Pointer, she was using attacks that barely harmed the One Pointers.”

“So it’s all or nothing with her.” Sekijirou added, not wanting to get left behind, “She either uses 1% of her power, which barely does anything, or 100% of her power, which destroys everything in the way and completely wipes her out for the rest of the day.”

“Mm,” Aizawa nodded, “I can teach her modulation. There’s clearly potential there, but she needs control.”

“Hang on,” he interrupted, “I can teach her modulation just as well as you can. We can’t just decide based on her practical exam performance.”

“I agree!” Nedzu piped in, and pulled out her written exam, leafing through it, “Her academic results were nothing short of exemplary! Though she had some interesting responses to the essay questions.” He then pulled up her biographical details;

Name: Midoriya Izumi

Age: 15

Birthday: July 15

Quirk: EXPLOSION!!!

Previous School: Yamanouchi Middle School, Yamanouchi, Nagano

“Explosion, huh?” Sekijirou rubbed his chin, “Sounds familiar.”

“Her Quirk is officially called ‘EXPLOSION!!!’,” Nedzu corrected, “but there is a marked similarity to one Bakugou Katsuki’s ‘Explosion’.”

Aizawa sighed, “And Bakugou’s already in my class.”

The principal nodded, “And with two similar Quirks in the same cohort, we must ensure they are divided between classes, to ensure each gets the attention they need.”

“Bakugou would benefit more from being with me than Midoriya would,” Aizawa nodded, “he needs a harsher kind of discipline than Kan offers.”

Sekijirou ignored the subtle barb; he was proud of his supportive teaching style. Plus, someone like Midoriya would need more hands-on education than Aizawa’s sink-or-swim ethos allowed.

“Besides,” Aizawa added, pointing to the video of Midoriya taking out the Zero Pointer, shouting a very melodramatic speech, “1-B always takes the weird ones.”

Sekijirou wished he could say the other man was wrong.

Chapter Text

If you asked Midoriya Izumi to tell you about her childhood, she would proudly boast that she was born under a cursed star at 8:30pm on the 15th of July, 2234, to an ancient legacy of Crimson Demons. She would explain that, although she was masculine in form, her spirit was decidedly feminine, and she had been quite aware of the incongruity between the two from a very early age. She would tell you that she made efforts to mould her form into a more feminine vessel for her soul, that her parents supported her wholeheartedly in this endeavour, but that there were many around who simply were not enlightened enough to understand that the gods forced her into a masculine vessel because they feared her power and how she could wield it if she was granted her true body.

She would quietly admit that those people, incorrectly, only saw a boy in a dress.

All of this is true, in a manner of speaking. Izumi was, indeed, born to Midoriya Inko and Hisashi on the 15th July, 2234, at 8:30pm - 8:32pm, really, but who’s counting? She was indeed assigned male at birth, and she did quickly realise that she preferred the label ‘girl’ to the label ‘boy’. Her parents were supportive, and allowed her to present however she wished. She chose her own name, and used it with everyone she met.

And people did, indeed, hate her for it. She was a bold girl, you see, and was proud of her identity, because society had not yet taught her that such a thing was wrong, in their eyes. But people can be cruel, children especially, and they would say the most awful things to her.

It started out, as many things do, with relatively little things. Simple, childish jeers that Izumi could easily brush off because, as her momma had told her, they were simply jealous that she already knew who she was. Then, the words got sharper, more pointed and intended to hurt. Words they learned from their parents that neither of them quite understood, but Izumi felt the sting of anyway. She kept her head held high, however; she wanted to be a hero when she was a big girl, and she couldn’t let words pierce her hide.

That’s when they got physical. They would push her, pull on the hair that she was growing out, sneer and laugh and mock her, and they would encourage others to do it, and soon it would spread until everyone at school mocked her simply because she did not fit in.

This abuse at the hands of her peers, coupled with the recent demise of her father and the development of her Quirk, proved to be too much for the Midoriyas and so, when Izumi was 6, they moved from Musutafu to a small town in Nagano.

Now, Izumi’s Quirk is quite an interesting matter. Simply put, it allowed her to cause explosions originating from a certain point within her range. There was only one problem with that:

She couldn’t control it. Explosions would pop and crackle all around her at random times. Sometimes they were hardly a spark, but sometimes they would be strong enough to hurt someone.

Her momma was quick to take her to a Quirk counsellor, not wanting anyone to be hurt. 

“Well,” the counsellor said, rubbing his chin, “it’s not unusual that a child may have difficulties controlling their Quirk when it first manifests, but this is a larger issue than normal. There is a theory that particular clothes or items can help to control a Quirk, in the manner of a placebo, but it isn’t a long-term solution…” 

Izumi had stopped listening at that point, her mind already hard at work. She hadn’t started her new school yet, but she understood her position very well: she was the new kid. The new trans kid. The new trans kid with a Quirk that didn’t work and a dead dad and an anxiety disorder thanks to her last school. She knew what they’d call her: freak, weirdo, she’d heard it all before.

But what if she leaned into it? Constructed a personality so audacious, so weird , that she could wear it like a suit of armour, and the insults would slide right off. Izumi wasn’t weird, it was the personality she had constructed! The insults lost their bite when she was in on the joke.

And the counsellor had just given her the idea she needed to complete it. Her first eyepatch was little more than a scrap of cloth, her first staff a stick, but it worked . She believed with all her heart that they would keep her Quirk - her power - contained, and they did.

The debut of the new Midoriya Izumi at Yamanouchi East Elementary School was a rousing success. She marched into the school with her head held high and, when asked to introduce herself, she cried, “Tremble in awe, mortals, for you stand in the presence of the greatest Crimson Demon in existence, Midoriya Izumi! With my dark powers of destruction I shall become the most fearsome mage this land has ever seen!”

Needless to say, no one went anywhere near the new kid. Well, apart from one person.

“Aha! Well met, fellow traveller of the void!”

Izumi whipped around to find a girl with long periwinkle hair and deep indigo eyes smirking at her. She was slightly taller than Izumi, and held an expensive-looking monocle over her left eye. 

Before, she would have panicked at being approached like this, but the new Izumi never panicked, and especially not when they were so clearly alike!

“My true name is unknowable, but the mortals have deemed me Intelli Saiko!” She stuck her hand out, and Izumi took it and shook with the appropriate extravagance.

“A pleasure! But with what power have you been gifted? I myself was granted the surging fire of explosions!”

Lady Intelli shook her head, “Oh no, I was never blessed with such power as that. Mine is of a subtler nature; should I imbibe a certain mystic brew, my intelligence shall be increased a thousandfold! I wear my monocle to keep myself focused in that state, as the Wanderers Beyond do tend to draw my attention away.”

“Ah,” Izumi nodded sagely, “my staff and eyepatch are much the same. Without them, the explosive power would be too much for my mortal form to contain, and it would surge through me, destroying all in its path!”

Lady Intelli moved to speak, but the teacher interrupted them, telling them it was time for class. But that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Izumi and Lady Intelli grew up together. As the two outcasts of the class, they stuck together constantly, facing down anyone who dared pick on them with a fury unparalleled. 

It wasn’t long before Izumi felt comfortable enough to come out to Lady Intelli. And Lady Intelli did the same to Izumi. It turned out they had more in common than they thought.

From then, Lady Intelli became Lady Saiko and, after a suitably dramatic middle school confession involving copious amounts of not-quite-illegal fireworks, Lady Saiko became Izumi’s Dark Queen, the beauteous Lady of the Realm between, Saiko.

And there was much rejoicing.

On the last day of middle school, Izumi sat on the field outside with her Dark Love. They both had places to be, arrangements to make, but for now, they were content to watch the setting sun together.

“It is the end,” her Dark Queen observed, “but I should hope there are no regrets.”

Izumi smiled up at her, “None at all, dear heart.”

Saiko curled her lips up in a soft smile, resting her head atop Izumi’s own, “And I am still unable to tempt you away from UA’s siren call?”

She huffed fondly, “UA has been my beacon through the darkest days… though naught could ever shine brighter than you.”

A small, joking sigh, “‘Tis a pity. Together, we could have been the dual Witch Queens of Seiai.”

“Ah,” Izumi softly kissed her Lady’s cheek, “but you more than suit the role alone. You know my path has always steered towards UA.”

Saiko hummed, “Perhaps ‘tis for the best. Two great and powerful mages reaching their primes in one location… the very bones of the world would shudder.”

“We are not parting forever,” Izumi pointed out, “this is no farewell, my dearest, simply… a divergence. Our paths will converge again.” She looked up at the taller girl, “Our destinies are intertwined.”

The Dark Lady glanced down, and nodded, “Indeed. You shall forever be Queen of my heart.”

Izumi smiled, and cuddled closer to her side, “And you, of mine.”

Izumi’s first day at UA started with a long, drawn out introductory speech by the principal. Ser Nedzu may have been a creature of remarkable wit and intelligence, but gods was he long-winded. After that, Ser Vlad led them back to the classroom, and they were asked to introduce themselves, which she did, in the usual fashion.

“Venerate me, mortals, for I am Midoriya Izumi, the greatest mage and hero the Mortal Realm has ever seen!”

A few eyebrows were raised her way, but since the Kuroiro boy had introduced himself in a similarly ostentatious manner some time before her, the effect was lessened somewhat. Still, it was a good thing; perhaps she would find friends at UA after all. 

After introductions and admin were through, Ser Vlad ushered them all to one of the playing fields outside, and asked them to participate in a series of exercises that he called a ‘Quirk Assessment Test’, the idea being to ascertain where they were starting from.

And Izumi… came dead last.

She didn’t fail every single test entirely; she had some muscle on her at least. But as she was limited to only using the barest hint of her power, lest she spend the rest of the day asleep, she was quite limited in what she could do.

Evidently, Ser Vlad had picked up on this, as he asked her to stay behind after dismissing the others. He stared at her for a long moment, and then asked, “What’s with the eyepatch and stick?”

She puffed up her chest; her mom had bought her a new eyepatch and staff for getting into UA, and she was quite proud of them: the eyepatch was a deep crimson bordered with gold, and with a white cross in the centre, while her new staff was an intricately carved piece of wood with an orb levitating in its crook, held there through the magic of magnetism.

“My eyepatch seals my dark powers away, Ser Vlad, so they cannot harm anyone. And my staff ,” she corrected, “channels and focuses that power should I need to use it.”

Ser Vlad looked at her strangely, but she didn’t back down. Izumi had had too many bad experiences with teachers to let her guard down right now. Finally, the man sighed, “Fine. You only used a fraction of your Quirk’s power in the test just now; why is that?”

She huffed, as though the answer was obvious, “I am only able to utilise the barest hint of my dark magic without unsealing them. Should that happen, they would wreak havoc to those around me. And if I truly pushed this mortal form to its limit, it would leave my mana drained for the day.”

“Ah.” He nodded, before looking up at the sky as if asking it to swallow him whole. He took a deep breath in, a breath out, then turned back to her, “Well, I’d like you to meet me after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Quirk training. I want to teach you to modulate your Quirk’s power. You have a lot of potential, Midoriya, but I think you may need some help in reaching it.”

Izumi raised an eyebrow, “Many have tried to tame the wild magic of explosions, Ser Vlad. Even I am only barely able to shepherd it. But…” she considered the offer. She wanted nothing more than to control the raging power she had been granted, but was he the best choice for the job? Well, he was the only one reaching out a hand, so, “I shall be there, Ser Vlad.”

He nodded at her, dismissed her, and she eagerly ran inside.

Izumi’s first week at UA wasn’t all bad. Though she started lunch alone, the Kuroiro boy soon found her, and they wound up engrossed in a deep discussion over the darkness of each other’s souls. The Yanagi girl also seemed to gravitate towards them, though she didn’t speak as much.

She didn’t get along with everyone in her class, though. The attack on the USJ was a travesty, and her heart went out to everyone in 1-A. If only she’d have been there, perhaps she could have helped…

No. Down that pathway lay only madness. What’s done is done. Although, not everyone seemed to get the memo.

“That damn 1-A!” Monoma ranted to Tetsutetsu, “The sports festival is next week, and they’re still talking about them!”

“They were attacked by villains ,” Shouda pointed out, “they didn’t ask for this.”

Izumi nodded, “To claim this as 1-A’s arrogance would be demeaning to the horrors they faced. They saw beyond the veil too soon, and should be comforted, not shamed!” 

Though most of the class sided with her and Shouda, there were a few who tended towards Monoma’s point of view. She could understand it; they were being overshadowed by their peers before they even debuted, but still! To express such opinions was taunting the fates!

But, aside from a few hiccups like that, Izumi’s first few weeks at UA lapsed away peacefully. She had never struggled all that much with the academic side of school, though she could already see herself lagging behind her classmates during heroics lessons. She had been meeting Ser Vlad as promised, but no matter what they tried, Izumi’s power only ever expressed itself as the tiniest sparks.

Sekijirou was getting impatient. He hated feeling so frustrated, especially with one of his students, but he just couldn’t help it. Midoriya was a bright, if odd, girl, who had already shown an aptitude with Quirk analysis in class, and who was excelling everywhere else except in her heroics lessons which, as she was a member of the heroics course , was a problem. A big one. The theory came easily enough to her, but theory alone did not a hero make, and as she was at that moment, she was effectively Quirkless.

He kept these feelings hidden from the girl though. Despite her utter lack of progress when it came to controlling and modulating her Quirk, he still liked her as a person. She had a genuine spark of heroism, a desire to help people, that was rare even in the hero course. Hell, Aizawa even admitted she had potential, which was rare for the man. He knew if she could get the hang of this soon, she’d easily catch up with her classmates.

So why was it so difficult?

He had a Quirk training session with Midoriya the week before the sports festival. He’d hoped she’d have the hang of her Quirk by then, but it was getting less and less likely. So, he tried something else, an approach he hadn’t tried before.

Midoriya’s eyepatch and ‘staff’ were ever-present, always on her person even when it made things awkward. She claimed, in her own way, that they were there to dampen and control her Quirk, but perhaps they were acting as training wheels? If he could get her to go without them, maybe there’d be progress there?

So, he asked her to take off her eyepatch, and put down her staff.

It did not go well.

“Absolutely not!” She declared, “To do so would be endangering the very school itself!”

“Midoriya,” he sighed, “you need to learn to be without them anyway. What do you think is going to happen at the sports festival?”

“I shall be using them there, as well.”

He shook his head, “Hero students aren’t allowed support items.”

She raised an eyebrow, “There is a student in 1-A whose ability is actively detrimental to his well-being lest he wears a certain item. I have perused the Tome of Laws, Ser Vlad, and I understand perfectly well my situation.”

“Fine.” He folded his arms, “You need your homeroom teacher to sign off on those forms. Prove to me that these items are necessary.”

“Very well!” She frowned and stomped away petulantly, “Prepare to eat your words, Ser Vlad!” With a simple flick of her wrist she tore off her eyepatch and gently laid both it and her staff down on the ground before returning to his side.

They stared at each other, viridian meeting dark crimson, and for a moment, nothing happened.

Sekijirou smirked, and opened his mouth, but was cut off by a sudden POP as the tiniest flame burst between them. Then another POP slightly louder than before above their heads, raining down sparks upon them.

And then the flood came.

A louder BANG exploded further away, scorching the concrete ground. A red line streaked across the ceiling before exploding with a BOOM , knocking the lights to the ground. Sekijirou watched as the world around them burst into a brilliant, dangerous array of flames and explosions. This was Midoriya’s power, wild and uncontrolled. 

He turned back to his student, whose face was twisted in concentration, “Midoriya, try and feel your Quirk. Focus on it and-”

“I can’t !” She interrupted, brow beading with sweat, “It is taking all my focus to hold back the most destructive reaches of my power! Do you understand now, Ser Vlad?!”

Sekijirou’s eyes widened. The world around them was bursting apart and they both knew she could cause more damage. Images of the Zero Pointer flashed through his mind and he could only imagine what effect that kind of power would have when uncontrolled. 

“Fine!” He shouted over the explosions, “I’ll sign the forms! Go and get them back on!”

Midoriya nodded and hurried over to her staff and eyepatch. The moment she had them back, the explosions stopped, and Sekijirou breathed a sigh of relief.

Just what had he signed up for?

After Sekijirou had sent Midoriya home and called in repairs to the gym, he made his way to the staff room and promptly collapsed with a sigh.

“Problem?” Aizawa muttered.

There were only a couple of people in the room, the rest either working in their own offices or having gone home for the evening. Aside from him, Aizawa was curled up in that stupid sleeping bag, and Inui sipped at his coffee. God , why did Aizawa have to be there? It wasn’t like he hated the man, it was just… a schoolboy rivalry that never quite settled into a friendly one. He was the last person Sekijirou wanted to see when he was having trouble with his problem student. 

Still, the man wouldn’t let up now, so he simply ran a hand over his face, “Midoriya. So much potential but zero control.”

Inui hummed deeply, “I’ve looked through her files. There’s almost certainly a psychological element at play here. Send her to me after internships and I’ll see what I can do.”

He nodded; it was already an idea he’d had, so he had no issues there. Besides, he was sure all his students would be needing the school counsellor eventually. That was just how the heroics industry went.

“I was ready to take her for 1-A.” Aizawa pointed out in a flat monotone.

“But you wanted Bakugou instead. How’s that working out for you?” He bit back, not quite able to push down his annoyance, “Besides, you would’ve just expelled her on the first day. Some of us try to put the work in.”

“If she doesn’t make any progress soon, she’ll end up being a liability to herself and others. You might have to expel her anyway.” Aizawa seemed unbothered by Sekijirou’s ire, and he hated how the man was right.

Since starting his career at UA, he had never had a problem with his students that he couldn’t overcome. Aizawa often thought of him as the ‘soft touch’ of UA’s teachers, but his results spoke for themselves: he had a perfect record. Never once had he ever had to expel one of his students, or move them to a different course. 

But had he ever faced a problem like Midoriya Izumi before? She essentially had the Quirk control of a child, but with the power of a teenager. As she currently was, she’d only end up hurting herself and others on the field, and he hated the idea of that more than he did the idea of breaking his perfect streak.

Still, the sports festival was coming up, then internships. He’d hope she’d find a mentor who could help her better than he was at the moment, because if she couldn’t?

He wasn’t sure what more he could do.

Chapter Text

In the evening after the sports festival, Izumi returned to her Musutafu apartment, exhausted, sore, and worn out. She spent half an hour on a tear-filled phone call with her mom, who had been watching the whole thing back at home, before grabbing whatever remained of the previous night’s dinner and calling Saiko.

“ Congratulations are in order, my mighty mage. ” She could hear the smile in her Dark Queen’s voice, “ Your performance in the competition was exemplary! ”

Izumi flushed, scratching the back of her neck, “I am afraid I did myself a disservice, dear heart. For the first two events I merely followed my classmate’s direction,” Monoma was annoying, but he was a good strategist, “and I would have failed in the third, had I not brought the entirety of my power to bear.”

Lady Saiko hummed, “ ‘Tis unfortunate… you mentioned you were attempting to harness your powers under the direction of your mentor? Have those yet borne fruit? ”

“Not yet…” She admitted, scowling slightly, “Ser Vlad is trying his hardest, but, alas, I have been unable to tame the wild explosion. And…”

“ And? ” Saiko prompted.

She took a deep breath, “I’m… scared, Saiko. I’m scared I’ll fall too far behind my classmates, just because I can’t control my damn Quirk,” tears sprang to her eyes, but she tried to push them down, “I’m scared that Vlad will see that I’m just… a waste of time and effort, and he’ll expel me. I want to be a hero so badly… I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t.”

“ Oh, Izumi… ” Saiko’s voice was soft.

She sniffled, rubbing her uncovered eye, “Sorry, Saiko. I just… it’s a lot.”

Her girlfriend hummed, “ You know what the Izumi I know would do? ”

“What’s that?”

“ The Izumi I know would never give up, not even when the situation looked dire. The Izumi I know would destroy every obstacle in her path to reach her goal. She wouldn’t let a little thing like this stop her. ”

Despite herself, Izumi chuckled wetly, “I guess not… thanks Saiko, you always know what to say.”

“ Of course, my love… after all, ” Izumi could practically see the smirk return to her girlfriend’s face, “ I am the Witch Queen of Seiai Academy! Blessed with the Knowledge of Eden itself! And you are…? ”

Izumi smirked, “I am the Great Mage of UA! Gifted the power of explosions by a dark star!”

Saiko laughed, “ ‘Tis a pleasure, always. ”

She nodded, “I adore you, dear heart.”

“ You remain forever in my heart, beloved. ”

With that, Izumi hung up, wiping off her tears and quickly finishing off her meal.

After all, even UA’s Great Mage had homework to complete.

The next Monday, Izumi, Yanagi and Kuroiro ate lunch together as usual. The girls sat on one side and Kuroiro on the other, and Izumi was currently locked in a fierce debate with him, while Yanagi ate her lunch in peace.

“You speak falsely!” Kuroiro cried, throwing his hands in the air, “Clearly the darkest practitioner of our age is X-Less! His blazing vision strikes fear into the hearts of all who encounter him!”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Simply being granted that overwhelming power does not a great mage make. No, the blackest soul of them all must belong to Odd-Eye! Reaping another’s mind of their most shameful secrets is not inherently a powerful art, but he has honed that ability to a razor’s edge, and it is that determination to cover oneself in ever-greater darkness that truly brings one’s soul into alignment with the cosmic energies!”

Yanagi swallowed her mouthful, before adding, “I believe Ectoplasm to truly be the greatest hero of the modern age. Putting such a power as his to good use is not something one can overlook. Besides,” she shrugged, brushing some hair out of her eye, “his chosen name suggests he cavorts with spirits, and we have that in common. If only I had his talent with numeracy.”

They both opened their mouths, ready to offer their own rebuttals, but were cut off by someone clearing their throat behind Kuroiro. They turned, and were shocked to find four members of 1-A standing there, trays in hand. The bird-headed boy stepped forwards and bowed his head solemnly.

“I apologise for the interruption. However, at the sports festival I could not help but notice the inner darkness within you. I feel we may be kindred spirits. May we unite our clans?”

Suddenly, a shadowy, avian form seeped out of his shirt, the boy’s Quirk poking its head out, “Fumi’s asking if he and his friends can sit with you at lunch! He thinks you’re really cool!”

The boy - Tokoyami, her brain supplied - squawked, the feathers on the back of his head ruffling, “Silence, Dark Shadow!” The Quirk giggled to itself but did as it was told, and he looked back up at them in embarrassment.

Izumi glanced over at her friends, neither of whom seemed to have much of an issue with the proposition, and she nodded, “Certainly! To revel in the darkness with others is perhaps the greatest darkness of them all!”

One of the other students, a slim girl with purple hair and what seemed to be headphone cables dangling from her ears, sighed and rolled her eyes, “Great, there’s more of them now.” Still, the four of them sat down at the table; Tokoyami next to Kuroiro and opposite Yanagi, the rock-headed boy next to him, headphone girl opposite him and next to Yanagi, and the many-armed boy on the other side of Kuroiro.

“Forgive me,” Tokoyami spoke up as he began to eat, “what was it you were discussing before our arrival?”

Izumi huffed, “I was simply informing Kuroiro here that Odd-Eye is the greatest mage of our time!”

Kuroiro rolled his eyes, “And I was expressing that X-Less is a far darker magician than any before or since!”

“Ah,” he nodded sagely, “both excellent choices. But both wrong !” His feathers stood on end, “Truly, the practitioner with the blackest soul is none other than 1-A’s own Aizawa-sensei!”

“Ser Aizawa?” Izumi scoffed, “I thought him to be a vagrant when first I saw him.”

Kuroiro nodded, “How in all the Seven Hells can he have a darker soul than any other?”

Headphone girl - Jirou, she thought - huffed, “You haven’t seen any of his ‘logical ruses’ yet. Man’s a demon, I swear.”

The 1-A students all shuddered, and suddenly Izumi was thankful for being in Ser Vlad’s class.

“So,” Arms boy - Shouji - started, “did you all receive internship requests as well?”

Izumi shook her head, “I have, though most of our classmates did not, as they did not reach the final round. Though, Tokoyami, you came second, did you not?”

He gave a solemn nod, and Dark Shadow popped out again, “Yeah, Todoroki froze him into an emo-sicle!”

The boy’s feathers ruffled, and if he could, she was sure he’d blush, “Still, I am proud of my performance, and many powerful mages have extended an offer to me.”

“Yeah, like Hawks ,” Jirou groaned, “He’s gonna be having fun flying around with the Number Three hero, while I’m stuck with, I dunno, Death Arms or whoever.”

“Hawks?” Izumi scratched her cheek, “I would have thought him too busy for an apprentice.”

“He is rather bright, as well,” Yanagi added, “would he not banish your darkness in his presence?”

Tokoyami rubbed his chin, “True as that may be, I believe he has much wisdom to impart, should I take his offer. And you, Midoriya? You received offers?”

She nodded, “A few. There are not too many mages that would want an apprentice who cannot access her full potential.” She flushed slightly, “Still, there is only one offer I intend on taking: that of the great, powerful mage of darkness, Odd-Eye himself!”

Tokoyami nodded, impressed, and even Kuroiro appeared somewhat jealous. She politely ignored the quiet boy - Kouda - asking Jirou who the hero even was.

“As for me-” Kuroiro began, but was cut short by the sudden slamming of a tray next to Izumi. She jolted and turned to find the support course student, Hatsume, moodily sitting down.

“PL says I’m banned from the workshop during lunch so I can ‘eat’ and ‘socialise with people your own age’ and ‘Hatsume don’t touch that thing for the love of God!’ But you!” She whipped around towards Izumi, a manic gleam in her eye, “I saw that big explosion at the sports festival, and I gotta say, I love it! Explosions are the mother of progress and you know how to make a big one!”

“Uh-” she started, but Hatsume was already shaking her hand and sliding a business card into it.

“Hatsume Mei, President and CEO of Hatsumei Industries! Call me Mei, it’s faster! So how’d you make your explosion that big?!”

Izumi blinked at… Mei, “Uh, I am unable to adequately control the magnitude of my magic. It has a will of its own, I can only just direct it.”

Mei blinked, before shrugging, “Eh, we can work on that.” She started shovelling food into her mouth, talking all the while.

Izumi couldn’t help but smile. Between Kuroiro and Tokoyami’s embrace of the darkness, Yanagi and Shouji’s quiet stoicism, Jirou’s sharp tongue, Kouda shy, steady presence, and the absolute whirlwind of a woman that was Mei, she’d managed to build up quite the inner circle at UA.

It was nice. Really nice.

So of course Monoma had to come along and spoil it.

“Well, well, if it isn’t 1-A!” The blonde crowed, sneering at them all, “And oh! Some of my own class too; fraternising with the enemy, are we?”

Izumi scowled, “Silence, Monoma. As far as I am concerned, the only foe present is yourself! You antagonise 1-A far more than they have ever done to us!”

The boy gasped, clutching at his chest, “Well! I may have cheered for you at the festival, Midoriya, but that’s over now! If you insist on betraying 1-B like this, then I have no choice but to make an enemy of you! And you will find that all my enemies rue the day they cross-”

THWACK

Monoma collapsed, unconscious, and Kendou picked him up, “Sorry about him, guys. For what it’s worth, I think you all did great in the festival!” She offered them all a smile and gave them a thumbs up before walking away.

“Such madness.” Tokoyami muttered, shaking his head.

“I apologise for our classmate,” Izumi nodded, “he appears to believe your class to be our enemies. I believe he feels as though he has been living in the shadows cast by your greatness.”

“Jeez, seems like a loon to me.” Jirou shrugged, “But nah, it’s not your fault. 1-A has its own problems, after all.”

“HEY!” Came a shout that was rapidly coming closer.

“Oh, speak of the devil.” She drawled.

Izumi’s opponent in the sports festival, Bakugou, stormed over and slammed his hands down onto the table. His red-headed friend fretted around him, trying to drag him back, but he stood still, glaring daggers at Izumi.

“EXTRA! Whatever y’did at the sports festival was a fuckin’ cheat!”

“Bakubro, man, let’s just go…” the red-head sighed.

Bakugou shrugged him off, “We’re gonna have a fuckin’ rematch some day, and when we do, I’m gonna fuckin’ WIN IT! I’ll blow ya up! I’ll fuckin’ KILL YOU! Better fuckin’ be ready, EXTRA! Be ready for KING EXPLOSION MURDER GOD!”

Finally, with one last, incoherent yell, Bakugou allowed himself to be dragged away by his friend, who at least had the courtesy to send them an apologetic smile. The eight of them sat there in shock for a moment, too stunned to speak, before Izumi broke it by groaning and cupping her face with her hands, “Scarcely a month has passed, and already I have earned the enmity of two of my peers. What great sins lay upon my soul for this to be my fate?”

“Don’t worry about Baka-gou too much,” Jirou shrugged, “he’s like that with everyone.”

“And Monoma has our illustrious president to bring him to heel,” Yanagi nodded, “fret not over those whom you cannot control.”

“Plus!” Mei chimed in, “We can always blow ‘em up! You and me, we’re gonna make so many babies, I can tell!”

Izumi blinked, before turning a bright red, “W-well, I… while I am flattered you have designated me as a potential suitor, I am afraid my heart has already been claimed by another. N-not that you are not a ravishing young woman in your own right, but, ah…”

Mei blinked at her, uncomprehending, and Tokoyami snorted slightly, “I believe she was referring to her contraptions. I suppose they are, in a way, akin to one’s child.”

“O-oh…” Izumi slumped in her seat, drained. The others laughed slightly at her predicament but, unlike in the past, where it felt as though people were laughing at her, this was another, altogether nicer feeling, and Izumi couldn’t help but join in with a chuckle of her own.

Sure, she had two enemies now, and a Quirk that didn’t work right, but at least she had friends to help her share the load.

It felt good.

Izumi stood outside Ser Vlad’s office that afternoon, plucking up her courage. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous; it wasn’t like the man was going to judge her choice of internship!

Although… maybe it was because it was Ser Vlad . The man had worked so hard to help her… she just wanted him to be proud of her. Still, interning with Odd-Eye was like a once in a lifetime opportunity for her, and she wasn’t going to miss it for the world.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door, opening it at the muffled, “ Come in. ”

Ser Vlad sat behind a tidy desk, usual visor replaced by reading glasses as he looked over some paperwork. He glanced up at her, surprised, “Midoriya? Is everything okay?”

She nodded, stepped in, and thrust her form towards him, “I have decided upon my apprenticeship, Ser Vlad! Please authorise it with your seal!”

The man raised an eyebrow and took it from her, “That was… fast.” He glanced over the form, “Odd-Eye? I’ve only really heard a little about him.” He looked up at her, “Why’d you pick him?”

She straightened up, “Odd-Eye is a great practitioner of the mystic arts! I believe he will be able to guide me to even greater heights, and perhaps even assist me in gaining control over my powers!”

“Hm,” he grunted, noncommittal, “shut the door and sit down.” She did so, tapping her finger against her knees nervously, “Midoriya, I want you to understand your position here. You and I both know you’re standing on shaky ground, right?” She nodded, and he sighed, “I’m not here to stop you from going where you want, I just want you to seriously consider your options, and to consider what you think you need to work on, and who you think will be able to help you best with that, okay?”

She nodded again, and looked up at him with determination, “I truly believe Odd-Eye will best aid me in controlling my power.”

He looked at her for a long moment, but she did not back down, and eventually he nodded, sighed, and signed the form, “Alright.” He slid it back over to her, “I hope this was the right decision, kid.”

She smiled and stood, bowing her head, “Thank you, Ser Vlad. You shan’t regret it!”

Chapter Text

Izumi wheezed, trying to catch her breath. Odd-Eye’s agency was hidden off a Hosu backstreet, and the only entrance was up a seemingly endless flight of stairs. Before her stood the great stone doors, intricate circles and sigils carved into the imposing edifice. There didn’t seem to be a door handle, so for a moment, she wondered how she was going to get in. She raised her hand to knock…

Only for the doors to creak and grind as they slowly swung open.

Izumi bit her lip to muffle her squeal. This was going to be so cool!

Inside, the agency was dark, lit only by torches that blazed inside sconces along the walls. Only certain ones were currently aflame, and Izumi presumed she had to follow them. Costume case in hand, she walked in, only jumping a little when the doors closed behind her. She crept through the quiet stone hallways of the agency until they led her to a set of thick wooden doors. She knocked, and they opened.

The room beyond seemed to be a well-appointed parlour, a deep red carpet covering the floor with a large gold pentagram inlaid in it. It was warmly lit by a litany of candles, and shelves carried numerous items of spiritual significance. Around the central circle stood three heroes, one with brown hair, one with blue and one with blonde, and in an imposing throne directly opposite the door sat Odd-Eye, his white hair perfectly styled to give him an edge of mystery.

“Welcome, Midoriya Izumi, the Chosen One.” The man smiled, his mouth hidden behind his hand, “Enter my inner sanctum.”

Izumi stepped forwards, heart pounding in her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the brown-haired sidekick roll his eyes. She walked towards the throne, before bowing down to Odd-Eye.

“Ser Odd-Eye, I was honoured by your apprenticeship request. I would be delighted to learn the dark arts under you.”

The hero nodded, uncovered golden eye glinting in the candlelight, “Well met, novice. I recognise the blazing spark of potential you contain within you, and I intend to grow it into a soaring inferno. What do you say?” He held out a hand to shake, and Izumi couldn’t help but smile smugly.

“Do not think me so easily fooled, Master. I have a deep knowledge and understanding of your abilities; I am fully aware they are activated with a single touch.”

Ser Odd-Eye chuckled, leaning back in his throne and tenting his fingers, “It has been a long time since my opening gambit has been predicted like that. Unfortunately,” he smirked, “it will not save you.”

In a move faster than Izumi could see, the man suddenly shot forwards and tapped her forehead with his finger, and though she tried hard to fight the words spilling over her lips, she could not stop the first secret that came to mind from leaving them, “I’m scared I won’t be able to control my Quirk and I’ll be forced to leave the hero course!”

She slammed her mouth shut, but the damage was done, words hanging in the air like an electric charge. Ser Odd-Eye merely nodded sagely, “It was as I suspected. I shall retire to my chambers to ruminate upon your affliction, In the meantime, familiars!” He shot a hand out to the other heroes.

The brown-haired man merely rolled his eyes, “We’re your sidekicks .” He corrected.

Ser Odd-Eye chose to ignore that, “See the Apprentice to her chamber and prepare to battle the dark spirits of the Mortal Realm!” With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke, much to Izumi’s awe. 

The sidekick shook his head, clearly used to the hero’s antics, “C’mon, follow me.”

He led her out of the room, the other sidekicks trailing behind, and into a hallway she hadn’t seen before. As they walked, he tossed a friendly wave to her, “I’m Kazuma, and that’s Aqua,” the blue-haired girl preened, “and Darkness.” The blonde sidekick waved, “My Quirk is Steal; I can take any object someone has on them, Aqua’s is Healing Water; she can heal people with water, and Darkness’ is Total Defence; she’s impervious to any attack.”

She hummed, committing the information to memory.

“So you have a useless Quirk too?” Lady Aqua asked, and Izumi winced.

Ser Kazuma clicked his tongue, “You tactless-” he shook his head and turned back to Izumi, “Listen, we all had ‘weak’ or ‘useless’ Quirks once too. Then we signed up with Odd-Eye, and he helped all of us. He may seem like a nutcase, but he’s great when it comes to Quirks.”

Izumi nodded slightly. She supposed it made sense; Mind Reaper wasn’t exactly a powerfully offensive Quirk on its own, but Ser Odd-Eye had still built a successful career off of it. It gave her hope that she could learn to control her power by the end of the week.

They stopped by a plain door in one of the many branching hallways of the agency, and Ser Kazuma turned to her, “You’re in there for the week. Get dressed into your costume and we’ll go on patrol. Meet us at the entrance when you’re done.”

She nodded, and they left her to walk into the room. It was surprisingly normal, a plain bedroom with a simple set of furniture in inoffensive light blue hues. She set her case down, and got dressed.

She’d worn her costume several times over the course of the semester, but she couldn’t get over how good it looked. Her staff and eyepatch were her constant companions, yes, but now they were coupled with a red tunic and brown cloak, both trimmed in gold. On her head rested a large, floppy brown witch’s hat with buttons and sticking that made it look like a demonic face. She’d slipped on her choker and fingerless gloves, buckled her slightly oversized belt, wrapped her right leg in bandages and slipped a stocking onto her left, and completed the look with tan boots.

Yes, the costume looked great.

Izumi, on the other hand…

She cringed at the sight of her reflection, eyes instantly darting to every perceived flaw and imagined imperfection. She knew Doctor Kuina’s Quirk was perfect, that it changed her right down to the genetic level, removing any trace of her assigned gender. And yet some days she couldn’t help but see her old self anyway, or what she would have been. Her shoulders seemed broader than they actually were, she spotted several tufts of facial hair that didn’t exist.

Even after all this time, sometimes… she just felt gross. Wrong. Like she just wanted to scream and curl up and never go outside again.

But no. She was a hero student. And no matter how bad she felt, she still had to face the world. She took a deep breath, pushing the dysphoria aside as she covered herself in the familiar cloak of her constructed personality.

She wasn’t just Midoriya Izumi, an awkward trans girl with no Quirk control. She was the EXPLOSION Hero: Megumin! She was the greatest mage UA had ever seen, and no stupid, insidious thoughts could take that away from her!

Strutting out with a confidence she did not feel, she traced her path back to the entrance where the sidekicks awaited her. She looked over each one of their costumes; Ser Kazuma wore a fairly plain outfit, though the short green cloak he wore added a splash of colour to the ensemble. Lady Aqua dressed more extravagantly, with blue being the primary colour of both her vest and her stockings. Lady Darkness was the most striking, clad in a full set of armour reminiscent of Ingenium’s own.

Ser Kazuma snickered slightly, “It’s like Odd-Eye 2.0.”

She pouted, “I am the EXPLOSION Hero: Megumin! I will bring peaceful darkness to Hosu!”

Lady Aqua let out a sound like a deflating balloon before cackling wildly, “M-megumin?!”

Izumi wilted slightly, and Ser Kazuma rolled his eyes and chopped her over the head, “Ignore her, she was raised in a barn. If the name works for you, keep it!” She smiled slightly, “Now, are you ready for patrol?”

“What about Ser Odd-Eye?”

Lady Darkness stepped forwards, “Odd-Eye prefers to patrol at night.”

“So we’ll be taking you out during the day.” Ser Kazuma explained, “Today it’ll be all of us together, but usually it’s just one or two of us, so you’ll patrol with each of us individually at least once before the end of the week.”

Izumi nodded and, satisfied, the sidekicks headed out, trudging down the huge flight of stairs that seemed to drain all of them the same way they did her.

It was a bright day in Hosu, with plenty of people going about their business. Every so often, they’d catch sight of another hero streets away, but most of the time it was just the four of them, walking around the city. 

Something else that struck her was just how popular their group seemed to be, especially with the children. It seemed they were being stopped every five minutes by a civilian thanking them for their help or children hurrying out from a school to get their autographs. One or two of them even recognised Izumi from the sports festival, and her heart swelled when she saw schoolchildren reenacting her iconic ‘ 100% EXPLOSION!!! ’ she used against Bakugou.

Lady Darkness noticed her wonder, and smiled, “Odd-Eye is quite popular around this part of Hosu, Megumin. He has done a lot of good for the community.”

Ser Kazuma snorted, “And the kids like him because they find him ‘cool’ and ‘mysterious’.”

Izumi bit her lip, “I’m hopeful I will be able to master my power, claim it as my own, and wield it as both sword and shield to protect those in need.”

The blonde woman smiled down at her, “Trust us, Odd-Eye will help you. My own Quirk sounds powerful, doesn’t it?” Izumi nodded; being impervious to all attacks was practically Top 10 material! “But there is a significant downside: it also means I am unable to hit any attack I make. Essentially, while I act as an impenetrable wall, that isn’t much good when I cannot take down a villain. Odd-Eye helped me to learn how to turn my invulnerability on and off, allowing me to absorb damage when I need to while pressing the attack when there’s an opening.” She patted Izumi’s shoulder, “His advice may seem cryptic when you receive it, but I find that it always has a way of clicking when you need it most.”

She smiled up at the woman, choosing to take her at her word. It was true that Steal, Healing Water and Total Defence weren’t traditionally the Quirks of the greatest heroes, but looking at the admiration that Odd-Eye’s ‘Familiars’ received from the citizens of Hosu, they certainly helped people, and that was all Izumi ever wanted to do.

Perhaps, one day, EXPLOSION!!! would do the same.

Izumi let out a loud groan as Ser Kazuma placed yet another form before her.

The hero snorted, “Sorry kid, but heroics is 80% paperwork. It’s slightly better if you’re a freelance hero, but as an agency, we have to submit patrol times and routes, expenditures, all sorts of forms.”

She looked up at him, “Freelance? I don’t believe that has been covered in our studies.”

He shook his head, “Nah, it’s more of a third year type subject. Basically, there’s two broad categories of hero, in the eyes of the HPSC: Agency heroes and freelance heroes. Agency heroes, obviously, have an agency, like this one, while freelance heroes don’t. Most heroes tend to be agency heroes, but there’s some pretty big freelancers, like Miruko.”

She nodded, “And the difference ‘twixt the two?”

“Agency heroes are given a certain minimum number of hours they have to patrol for every week, and they have to get their patrol routes approved by the Commission. Freelancers don’t have either of those, which makes it more appealing for people who want a bit more freedom.

“Of course, agency heroes are subsidised by the HPSC, so necessary expenditures don’t drain the agency’s resources. Freelancers, though, have to pay for everything out of pocket.

“You won’t need to decide until way in the future, so don’t worry about it too much, but if you want more freedom, go freelance, if you want more support, go agency.”

Izumi hummed, “‘Tis a fascinating profession. Such depth!”

Ser Kazuma chuckled, “Yeah, just wait ‘til you get to the difference between patrol heroes and on-call heroes.”

“I am surprised not to have seen Ser Odd-Eye since Monday.”

Lady Aqua hummed, swaying from side to side as she walked along their patrol route for the day, “He pretty much broods in his room all day. We don’t see him a whole lot unless there’s something serious going down, which isn’t often.”

She cocked her head to the side, “For what reason?”

“Eh,” she shrugged, “he just has this dark and mysterious look that he’s going for, and thinks if he hangs around us too much it’ll ruin the effect.” She snorted, “Of course, you haven’t seen him when things get real serious!” She let out a mad cackle, “W-when he’s faced with some super tricky villain he ends up laughing uncontrollably and panicking!”

Izumi gasped, “I have witnessed this! I believed he had full faith in his power, such that he laughed in the face of mortal peril!”

Lady Aqua shook her head, “Nope! He just panics until someone else fixes it for him!”

She shuddered. Perhaps the old adage about meeting your heroes was true.

On Wednesday evening, Izumi found herself going over the day’s paperwork with Lady Darkness. It was an exceptionally dull, though necessary, part of the job, and she found herself wishing for something, anything , to break up the monotony of the task.

She really should have learned to be careful what she wished for by now.

A sudden BOOM off in the distance snapped them out of their focus. They glanced around in confusion. A second BOOM , closer, sent them into action. They dashed outside, the other sidekicks and even Ser Odd-Eye himself joining them. As they burst into the main street, they found Hosu in flames, smoke spiralling up into the sky, screams calling out from every part of the city.

Hell had come to Hosu.

Ser Odd-Eye burst into action, quickly glancing at HeroNet before paling several shades, “It appears Hosu is besieged by the League of Villains. They have sent demons to lay waste to the city.”

The League of Villains. The people who attacked 1-A, attacked her friends, were here now?

She turned to Ser Odd-Eye, “Then what is our quest?”

The man opened his mouth to speak, but all of a sudden, a crashing THUD heralded the arrival of one such demon, a pale-yellow batlike creature, its brain exposed to the elements.

“Ahaha,” her mentor chuckled instead, slowly inching away, “ahahahAHAHA!”

Ser Kazuma rolled his eyes, “Darkness and I will hold it off. You and Aqua go and take care of anyone injured. Got it?”

She nodded, and watched as Lady Darkness stood before the creature which swang at her, great crushing blows that nevertheless appeared to do her no harm. With a shout, Ser Kazuma unsheathed his blade and ran towards it, the cold steel biting into its flesh.

“Come on, we haven’t got all night!” Lady Aqua cried, and Izumi shook off her stupor and nodded. She couldn’t use her Quirk, not tonight. It would only cause more problems, and besides, she didn’t want to be a dead weight. Instead, she followed after the blue-haired woman as they hurried to a hastily-erected triage centre. 

Izumi was quite adept at basic first aid, so she was able to keep up with the demand. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lady Aqua using her Quirk, water pouring out of a hip flask and flowing over civilians wounds, the marks all but vanishing at its touch.

It was an awfully long night. The fighting continued into the early hours of the morning, and she even heard rumours of the Hero Killer lurking. By the time the last civilian had been taken care of, she felt as though she had fired off an explosion.

But she hadn’t. She hadn’t used her Quirk at all that night. And she was ashamed of it. EXPLOSION!!! could have been a game changer on the field. If she’d been able to destroy that winged creature, Ser Kazuma and Lady Darkness would have been able to go on and help more people. She may even have been able to assist in the fighting herself.

How many people died because Izumi couldn’t control her Quirk?

She shook her head. Down that path lay despair. The past was written in indelible ink; the future was a blank page. She would learn from this, push herself harder to truly tame the wild beast of her Quirk, and ensure that, the next time civilians were in danger, she’d be able to push herself and truly save people.

She had to.

The rest of the internship was a more subdued affair. They had mountains more paperwork to get through, thanks to their involvement in what was being dubbed the Hosu Incident. Despite that, all the news coverage was talking about was Endeavor’s arrest of the Hero Killer. Izumi could understand why, but it still felt like they were ignoring the damages caused by the League of Villains during their attack.

The official death toll was still being tallied up. Izumi forced herself not to pay attention to the news.

Her thoughts must have been clear to the sidekicks however, as they did their best to cheer her up. Even Lady Aqua toned down her more abrasive qualities. They couldn’t help, though; she just couldn’t stop herself from thinking what if ?

She knew it was futile, but no matter how much she tried to remind herself of that, she couldn’t help but wonder. 

On her final day, Ser Odd-Eye and his ‘Familiars’ gathered in the entrance to see her off. The hero himself, whom she hadn’t seen for most of her internship, stepped forwards, “I have thought long and hard about your predicament, Novice. I have read the cards, the leaves, the stars themselves, and they all indicate one thing: you must become one with your power, Midoriya Izumi.”

She blinked. She was expecting him to be cryptic, but… “May I ask for clarification, Master…?”

The man smiled and shook his head, “Become one with your power,” he reiterated, “and you shall soar.”

“...But-”

Suddenly, he lunged forwards, tapping her on the forehead before she could react, and although she tried with all her might to stop it, the words fell out of her mouth anyway, “I want Lady Saiko to crush my skull with her thighs like a watermelon!”

Silence. 

Lady Aqua snorted.

Izumi turned as red as her costume’s tunic, turned around and ran away, not stopping until she reached the train station.

Her blush did not abate until she was well on her way back to Musutafu.

Chapter Text

UA on the Monday morning after internships was a buzzing hive of gossip, as people swapped stories from their internships and settled back into a routine. The topic on everyone’s lips, however, was Hosu; more specifically, the Hero Killer, finally caught by Endeavor after a years-long campaign of bloodshed across the country. Everyone wanted to talk about it, to share their own views on the villain, and it was no different for Izumi’s friends.

“To think such a black-hearted villain has finally been sealed away…” Tokoyami’s feathers ruffled.

“Took them long enough,” Jirou grumbled, “hey, did you hear about IIda?”

Izumi and her 1-B friends shook their heads, “Who is Iida?”

“1-A’s Vice Pres. Apparently, he got split off from his mentor during the whole noumu incident.”

Kuroiro shuddered, “To travel through such mad, roiling chaos alone… a unique terror.”

“Midoriya, weren’t you in Hosu?” Shouji added, and Izumi nodded.

“Ser Odd-Eye and two of his familiars were tasked with banishing one of the demons, while I and another familiar aided the good citizens of the city.”

“Wow,” Jirou blinked, “must have been pretty scary.”

“It… was certainly intense,” she admitted, “although I saw little of the true face of danger.” A shame that still burned within her, even days after the incident.

They all nodded, and Yanagi piped in with, “Aside from such madness, how did you find your mentorship?”

Izumi hesitated, “It was… certainly enlightening. I feel as though I learned much from Ser Odd-Eye and his familiars.” It wasn’t technically a lie, though she didn’t exactly learn what she wanted to, “I was even given some odd guidance regarding my power. Ser Odd-Eye told me that I must ‘become one with it’, though I am as yet uncertain as to what he meant by that.”

They all blinked at her, perplexed, and Jirou muttered, “Sounds like a scam to me.”

She shot to her feet, “I beg your pardon? Ser Odd-Eye is no confidence trickster! He is no sham!”

The purple-haired girl shrugged, “I mean, it just kinda sounds like the sort of thing you’d see in a self-help book or pull out a fortune cookie. Y’know, the sort of mystic hocus pocus that doesn’t actually mean anything.”

“Well, I-” Izumi paused, cutting herself off. It wasn’t exactly like she understood what the man had meant, was it? But he wouldn’t do that! The familiars had all told her how he’d helped with their Quirks, so surely he knew how to help with hers? Still, she sank back into her seat, head in her hands, “I’m sure he meant well…”

Yanagi patted her on the back, “And I am sure that, if anyone can untangle the meaning of such riddles, it will be you, friend.”

Izumi smiled weakly at the other girl. It was nice to know she had people on her side, even if they believed in her more than she did herself.

After school, Izumi did not head back to her little apartment as she normally would have. Instead, Ser Vlad held her behind for a moment and told her she had an appointment with the school’s counsellor. She wasn’t aware of this herself, but apparently her teacher had booked it for her, and it was meant to help her. Seeing no way to avoid it, she begrudgingly trudged up to Ser Hound Dog’s office.

It wasn’t that she didn’t think he could help her. No, she knew she had a number of issues, only a few of which were being addressed in her sessions with Doctor Kuina, but just… the idea of opening up to someone, anyone , was terrifying. She kept herself locked up tight behind impenetrable walls of melodrama and pretension, and even the thought of letting those walls down for anyone besides those closest to her filled her with dread. Not even her friends could break through those walls, let alone a perfect stranger. Only Lady Saiko and her mom could see the real Izumi. And Chomusuke, her cat, but she didn’t count.

Still, trying to delay the situation would just lead to more trouble. She just had to go in there, assure Ser Hound Dog that there was nothing to worry about, and then she could leave. Simple as that.

She walked up to the counsellor’s door, took a deep breath, and knocked.

The door slid open, revealing Ser Hound Dog looking down at her with a neutral expression, but kind eyes, “Oh, Midoriya, you’re right on time. Come in, take a seat, get comfortable.” He turned and walked back to his desk, taking a seat, and Izumi trailed after. 

The counsellor’s office was comfortable, with a few armchairs as well as a sofa against one wall, against the other was a solid wood desk with various papers stacked beside the computer. Next to the desk was a filing cabinet, presumably filled with student records. Closing the door behind her, Izumi hesitantly took a seat in one of the armchairs.

Silence reigned in the office for a moment, before Izumi cleared her throat and spoke up, “S-Ser Hound Dog,” the man raised an eyebrow, “may I ask for what purpose it is that I have been summoned here?”

The counsellor nodded, “A reasonable question. I’d say it’s for two reasons, really. One, Kan has informed me of your issues with your Quirk,” she winced, “and I believe that sessions with me could help you with them. Two, as the school counsellor, I’ve read your medical files, and I think it’s wise to keep tabs on your mental health, and make sure you aren’t struggling.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand, “Don’t think of this as a punishment, or a sign of weakness. Heroics is a stressful industry, with a lot of pressure. Every hero needs a therapist sometimes, especially those who are already being seen for other issues. It isn’t a bad thing to need mental health support.”

Izumi let that sink in, before allowing a nervous yet bemused smile to play across her lips, “Was that something of a rehearsed speech, Ser?”

Ser Hound Dog huffed in amusement, “I’ll admit, most hero students tend to be resistant to the idea of therapy. At your age, everyone thinks they’re invincible. Mind you, most adult heroes think the same.”

She saw an opportunity to draw the conversation away from herself, and latched onto it with both hands, “Truly? I had heard therapeutic support for those in the industry was improving.”

The man smiled, clearly having caught on to what she was doing, “It is, but it’s still got a long way to go, and it starts with people like you.” She deflated, “Now, I know you already have monthly sessions with a Doctor Kuina Megumi regarding your transition; what would you feel comfortable discussing with me today?”

She chewed on her lip slightly. She was certainly not going to be opening up about any of her deepest fears, not in the first session, but she also had to throw the man a bone - no pun intended. After all, he was still giving up his valuable time, and seemed to genuinely want to help her. So, maybe she could get something out of this as well, in the form of another opinion on her Quirk difficulties? It was an aspect of her insecurities, but the only one that wasn’t as deeply tied in with her core identity as, say, her gender or anxiety. Her Quirk issues still hit quite close to home, to be sure, but there was a far simpler solution to them than there was for anything else.

She nodded, “As you are aware, I was born under a cursed star that bestowed upon me the raging power of the explosion. For years, I have been unable to fully control it; instead, I must utilise my staff and eyepatch in tandem to suppress and, when needed, harness the full might of my power. Naturally, I find that this… disadvantages me in battle.”

The counsellor nodded along, “And this lack of control, how does it make you feel?” He prompted.

“I… I feel as though my efficacy is limited. With access to only the barest dredges or full force of my power I have very little use as a practitioner of the dark arts.”

He hummed, “That’s reasonable. And is feeling useful on the front lines important to you?”

Izumi frowned, “Beg pardon, Ser?”

“Sorry, let me clarify. Your Quirk, I think we can both agree, is primarily offensive, yes?” She nodded, “But according to the reports of your internship at Odd-Eye’s agency, especially during the Hosu incident, you were specifically commended for your triage and first aid work, which is also a part of heroics. So, to rephrase my question, is it important to you that you work primarily as a combat and capture hero, as opposed to a support and rescue hero?”

Izumi opened her mouth, hesitated, and furrowed her brow. What did she want? It wasn’t exactly something she’d stopped to think about too much, her mind fixed solely on simply becoming a hero to consider too much more beyond that, but now that she thought about it… her mind turned to the Hosu incidents, the death and injury tolls that had recently been released, and she had her answer.

“It is…” she began slowly, piecing together her words as they came, “Had I access to my full power then, I could have saved far more than I did. It is… a simple game of numbers, I suppose. If I could harness my power, truly control it, I could defeat the blackguards without putting myself in peril. As you say, my power was granted to me precisely to combat my enemies; it is what I am meant for. So, I suppose… it is important, yes.”

Ser Hound Dog nodded slowly, and Izumi felt as though she had given the correct answer, despite there not being one. He glanced up at the clock and sighed, “Well, I think that’s as good a place as any to stop for the day. How do you feel, Midoriya?”

“I…” she felt lighter, as though a weight had been lifted off her chest. Her problems were nowhere near solved just yet, but it was like they were less important somehow, “I feel good.” She concluded.

The man bared his teeth in a smile, “Excellent. Then I’ll see you, same time next week. If you need me before then, knock on my door and I’ll see you as soon as possible.”

She nodded and slowly got to her feet, bowing her head slightly, “Thank you, Ser.”

He waved her off, “Just doing my job.”

For Izumi, Tuesday was filled with anxiety. She kept quiet most of the day, barely even talking at lunch thanks to the twisting of her stomach. She kept her head down, got her work done, and tried everything to avoid thinking of what was coming after school.

Her training session with Ser Vlad. The first one after the internship. Her teacher was expecting her to have improved during it, and she didn’t know what he’d do when, not if, she disappointed him.

Unfortunately, despite much begging, prayer and offers of sacrifices, nothing stopped the inexorable march of time, and soon she found herself standing in the usual gym with her teacher, who was scrutinising her with an unreadable expression. 

“So,” he eventually began, “what did you learn on your internship with Odd-Eye?”

Izumi flushed, “W-well, I gleaned a greater insight into the dark art of heroism…” Ser Vlad raised an unimpressed eyebrow, so she hastened to add, “a-and Ser Odd-Eye offered me some advice on harnessing my power!”

Some tension drained from his shoulders, and he nodded, “What did he say?”

Her flush turned brighter, and she couldn’t look him in the eyes, “That I-I must ‘become one with my power’...”

He stared at her for a moment, tension seeping back into his body, and he seemed almost pained as he let out a sigh, “Right…”

“B-but!” She hastened to defend the man, “I spoke to his familiars, and they all believed him highly capable with matters such as these! He aided each of them in unlocking their own true potentials!”

Ser Vlad nodded slowly, sceptical, “Sure… well, let’s try and put that into action. You can keep your staff and eyepatch on, just try and show me what you can do.”

She nodded, nervous but determined, and took a step away from him. She took a deep breath, and focused on Ser Odd-Eye’s advice. Clutching her staff in hand, she focused on the power coursing through her, all-but-begging it to follow her desires, and imagined an explosion somewhere between her maximum and her minimum. She thought of Lady Saiko’s love, the feeling filling her heart with warmth, and thrust her staff out with a shout…

A shower of sparks was all that greeted her. Izumi felt her heart plummet into the bowels of the Earth.

Silence.

She risked turning around to gauge Ser Vlad’s expression, but he seemed to be staring into the middle-distance, practically unaware of everything else around them.

The silence languished between them, the sparks fizzling out on the cold floor. After what felt like an eternity, the teacher took a long, deep breath, and slowly exhaled, before sitting down atop a nearby chair.

Izumi didn’t dare break the silence. Never mind butterflies, her stomach felt as though a dragon was flying around it. Her heart thumped against her chest.

Finally, Ser Vlad spoke, uttering a soft, “Midoriya…”

She bit her trembling lip, “Ser Vlad…?”

The man ran a hand over his face, “I didn’t want to do this. God knows I didn’t. But… I don’t have a choice.”

Izumi clenched her staff tighter, “What-”

“Midoriya,” he interrupted, not angry, just… tired, “I am a teacher, a hero. That means I have a duty of care to you, to your classmates, and to the country.” Red eyes snapped towards her, “I need to ensure that my students are ready to face the outside world, for their safety and everyone else’s. But you, and your Quirk, as it stands… are a liability.”

Her eyes widened and she rushed towards him, “I-I am striving to improve-”

“And how long will it take?” He snapped, before shaking his head, “Midoriya, your classmates are already so far ahead of you. You- We’ve been running in place this whole time, trying to play catch up. But there will come a point where… you’re just too far behind.”

“So…” she swallowed thickly, dreading the man’s next words, “w-what are you saying?”

He stared at her for a long, hard moment, before sighing, “We can’t keep doing this forever. I can’t keep devoting all this time to helping you. You’re top of the class in every area except practical heroics. So… if you can’t show me the tiniest bit of improvement by the end of this semester… I’ll have no choice but to move you to General Education.”

Izumi’s blood froze in her veins and tears sprang to her eyes, “But Ser-”

“I’m sorry Midoriya,” he held his head in his hand, “I know it hurts. It hurts me too. But letting you continue like this, putting you on the field like this?” He shook his head, “You would die . As a hero, as a teacher, as someone that cares about you, I can’t let that happen. I would much rather you live to hate me forever than die because you weren’t prepared.”

She choked back her tears, “I-I…”

“You have one month. We can keep meeting until your practical exam. I’ll do everything I can to help you…” He stood up and looked down at her, a deep pain filling his eyes, “But I think we should call it a day for now. I’ll give you some space to think over what I’ve said.”

She nodded slightly, and he gave her a small pat on the shoulder before leaving. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, she lost her composure, collapsing to the floor with a sob.

Her worst fears, finally realised. One month to improve on her Quirk, or lose her dream forever. She shook as fat, wet tears rolled down her freckled cheeks, and she held herself tight. This was who she really was. Not the Great Mage of UA, not a powerful sorceress, not even a hero , just some silly little girl playing dress-up, unable to do that most basic of things: managing her damn Quirk. A pathetic, snivelling, weak girl who couldn’t do anything.

They were right about her. Everyone that had ever said anything bad towards her. She wasn’t a hero, she never was. All that bluster and bravado was just an act to disguise how utterly useless she was. She’d even managed to trick Vlad-sensei into believing her, believing that she, Midoriya Izumi, could be in any way worthwhile.

He’d given her a month. It was more than she deserved. She’d already had one and a half since the start of the school year, and had made no progress no matter how hard she tried.

Maybe it was time to give up.

Chapter Text

The day after Ser Vlad’s ultimatum, Izumi walked into school with her head held high. She’d managed to gather herself overnight - with some help from her Dark Lady - and was trying to maintain a more positive outlook. Yes, her position in the hero course was threatened, but that was simply an even greater incentive to work on her control. Saiko believed in her, her mom believed in her, Ser Odd Eye believed in her… even Chomusuke believed in her. Well, she liked to think so, anyway. It was hard for a cat to express her support through the screen.

Still, with all those people in her corner, she couldn’t just let them down! No, she had to do this, for them and for herself. No matter what, she had to master her powers and bring them to heel.

She just… had no idea where to start.

That was the core problem, after all; Izumi was a whizz with Quirks, if she said so herself, but when it came to her own, she couldn’t think past the mental block in her mind. The power controlled her, not the other way around, and until she could change that, she couldn’t even begin to think about it from an objective standpoint.

Which left her at a bit of a loss as to what to do now. She had a little over five weeks before the end of the semester, but considering that the last day was more for admin than any actual lessons, her last chance to prove herself to Ser Vlad would be in her Practical Exam the preceding Sunday, the timing of which had annoyed her class greatly.

That was a… reasonable deadline. Preferably, she’d have mastered her powers by then, as the exam already had enough pressure on it, but it was good to know her options. There was, of course, a small hitch in this plan, and that was that they had no idea what the exam would entail. Oh, Kendou claimed that Lady Nejire told her that they’d be fighting robots like the entrance exam, but Izumi wasn’t spawned yesterday; that kind of exam was far too normal for a school as intense as UA.

Gods, when had fighting robots become normal ?

So, Izumi was rather at a loss, both at how to master her power, and how to prepare for the practical exam. She rolled the problems over in her head the whole morning, probably not paying as much attention to her lessons as she should have, and by the time lunch arrived, she still was no closer to the answers she was seeking. 

Her consternation must have been clear to her friends, as, at lunch, Jirou caught her attention with a, “Hey, Green, you with us?”

Izumi blinked and shook her head, thoughts flying away, “Ah, yes, my apologies. I was simply… ruminating.”

“Wanna share with the class?” The purple-haired girl asked, eyebrow raised.

She hesitated. Wouldn’t discussing this with them simply be an extra, unwanted burden? But, as she glanced around the table at the expectant, slightly worried faces of her comrades - Mei excluded, busy as she was with shovelling as much food as possible into her mouth - she felt as though she had no choice but to share.

“W-well, at my training with Ser Vlad yesterday, he expressed his… dissatisfaction with my lack of progress in controlling my power. He deemed me a threat to myself and others and warned that, should I continue to stagnate… he will have no choice but to move me to General Education.”

“Such bleakness…” Tokoyami muttered.

Yanagi laid a hand on her shoulder, “You are a member of 1-B, my friend. To lose you would be equivalent to losing a sister.”

“Yeah, Greenie, shit sucks. Sorry to hear that.”

Izumi sniffled, feeling tears well up in her eyes at her friends’ support, “I-I thank you all.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Shouji asked through his mouth-hand.

She bit her lip, “Well, that is the question, is it not? I have been striving for years to master this power, and yet have gained no greater control over it. I have exhausted all avenues I can think of.”

“Why not…” Mei suddenly butted into the conversation, speaking through large mouthfuls of food, “just ask…” she swallowed, “other people?”

Izumi blinked, “Pardon?”

The girl shrugged, tapping her chopsticks against the bowl, “Just ‘cuz you don’t have any idea about your Quirk, doesn’t mean anyone else won’t. So you asked, what, two guys about it? Ask more! Peer review is essential to make a good product, and you can’t get that with a small sample size!”

“I-I see…” she rubbed her chin. Her friend had a point… “But who would aid me?”

She was suddenly met with several flat, unamused stares from around the table, and even Kouda somehow managed to look disappointed.

“I would enjoy nothing more than to aid my fellow wanderer in darkness.” Kuroiro stated. 

Dark Shadow shot out of Tokoyami’s cape and cheered, “So would we!”

“The best babies are the ones you make with your friends.” Mei nodded wisely, and Izumi couldn’t help but splutter at the phrasing.

Jirou blinked, pink dusting her cheeks, “Yeah, uh, what she said.”

Her eyes stung, and she couldn’t help the tears that slipped out, “T-thank you all! I am forever indebted to each and every one of you!”

“It’s no problem, Green.” Jirou chuckled, “But, uh, how do you wanna do this?”

Yanagi hummed, “Perhaps we should take turns, each of us attempting to aid Midoriya in our own ways. I believe we may be able to acquire training fields, so as to minimise the damage of your Quirk.”

“Yeah,” Mei agreed, “buuuuuut you gotta book ‘em the week before, so if we want it, we’d have to start next week.”

“I am more than pleased with that!” Izumi nodded. Honestly, she would try anything, do anything that had even the slightest chance of working.

But, she had to admit, it was a lot better when she was doing it with her friends.

The rest of the week lapsed without fanfare, and Izumi’s anticipation for her friend’s training grew. They managed to book a training field for every afternoon that week, Monday excluded, as she had her weekly appointment with Ser Hound Dog then.

Speaking of whom, the counsellor warmly invited her into his office when she knocked on the door, and Izumi sat down in the same armchair as the previous week. She was less apprehensive this time, more willing to speak with the man - though that didn’t mean she planned to drop her persona. No, she couldn’t allow herself to be that vulnerable. 

“Welcome, how have you been?” The man began once she was settled.

“I’ve been well, more or less.”

He nodded, “That’s good to hear. Are you ready to get started?”

“I am! Please, ask anything you want of me!”

The man chuckled, “If that’s how you want to do this, very well. Today, I just wanted to discuss your support network. No one is an island, and everyone needs people who can support them. Do you have any?”

She nodded eagerly, pleased at the relative ease of the question, “Of course! There is my mother, who has been endlessly supportive of my struggles, and has gone to great lengths to ensure I am comfortable with myself.”

“That’s to do with your transition, yes?”

“Yes, she has been supportive of my Becoming, but there is more besides. I…” she hesitated, “As a child, I was… unpopular. The other children liked to tease me, as I was surer in my identity than they had ever been. So, for many years, it was just me and my mother. Well, and my Dark Lady.”

The man raised an eyebrow, an impressive feat for someone with the head of a dog, “And that is?”

“Ah, Lady Intelli Saiko, Dark Queen of Seiai Academy and ruler of my heart.” She flushed, “We met after I had moved to my new abode, and were instantly drawn to one another. It turned out, we were far more alike than we thought, and our courtship began thereafter. I… she has been my rock all these years, strong and stable, and always knows exactly the words I need to hear. Truthfully, I am bewitched by her, and helpless to her charms.”

He smiled, “It’s good to hear you had people like that in the past. Is there anyone else who supports you now, maybe at UA?”

“Of course!” She nodded, “I befriended Kuroiro and Yanagi soon after arriving at UA, and then after the festival we were joined on our path of darkness by Tokoyami, Jirou, Kouda, Shouji, and Mei - that is, Hatsume.”

Ser Hound Dog nodded, “And they’re your friends, yes?”

“Exactly so! Though we have not been acquaintanced long, they have already been willing to inconvenience themselves for my own sake!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well,” she explained, “you are already aware of my… difficulty in mastering my powers, yes?”

“That’s correct.” He nodded.

“Well… Ser Vlad recently issued me with an ultimatum: wrest control of my powers, or I shall be stripped of my membership in the hero course.”

“Ah, that must have been hard for you to hear.”

She sagged slightly, “It… was, yes. I must admit… there was a moment I considered giving up entirely…” those words lingered in the air for a moment, before she straightened back up and barrelled on with, “But! When I informed my companions of my struggles, they were quick to offer their time to assist me in gaining control over explosion magic! Indeed, after classes have ended every day this week, I shall be working with one of my allies and following their advice as if it were the words of the gods themselves!”

He smiled, “That’s a good idea. Though your friends may struggle with their own Quirks, I’m sure you would have plenty of guidance for them, so perhaps the reverse may be true as well?”

“Precisely!” She smiled.

“I’m glad to hear that you are well-supported now. What about in the past? Did you ever receive counselling for your Quirk as a child?”

She gave a small nod, “They advised me that objects can often be used to dampen and seal powers. It was after that that I received my first staff and eyepatch.”

His brow furrowed, “That type of thing is usually only used as a stopgap… Well, either way, I believe that is all we have time for. I wish you luck on your Quirk training this week. I hope it goes well for you.”

She smiled and stood, picking her staff up from where it leaned against the wall, “Thank you, Ser Hound! I am sure it will prove fruitful!”

It had to.

Five of Izumi’s friends had graciously offered their time to help her with her powers, and each one would be teaching her a different day that week. Mei had all-but demanded to take her on Tuesday afternoon, wanting to waste no time in ‘baby making’.

The girl never failed to make her blush, even though she knew she meant nothing untoward by it.

“So! Green! Tell me everything you know about your Quirk!”

Izumi scratched the back of her head, “W-well, without my eyepatch as a limiter, my powers go haywire, exploding all around me.”

“Mmmhmmm…” the pink girl hummed, scribbling a few notes down on a notepad that seemingly appeared in her hands, “So, have you measured the power of your strongest explosion? How much energy does it release?”

“I-I don’t know…”

Mei didn’t seem to hear her, however, charging onwards, “Maybe if we found a way to incorporate that patch and stick of yours into a more protective costume… Hey, can you control the direction of the explosions?”

“U-um, with my staff, yes, although I am unable to control their… magnitude.”

“Pssh,” she waved this off, “all you’ve gotta do there is reintegrate the prefrontal cortex into the limbic system and then kickstart your sympathetic nervous system with a good ol’ dose of nitroglycerine! It’s so easy, a child could do it!”

Izumi blinked, “I… don’t believe that’s scientifically accurate. On any level.”

Mei shrugged, “Probably not! I never got the hang of biology! Anyway, what were we doing again?”

She sighed. 

Very little got done that afternoon.

On Wednesday, it was Tokoyami’s turn, and he met her under the shade of a nearby tree, watching the comings and goings of their seniors. 

“I must admit, I feel a kinship with you, Midoriya. My Quirk, too, is difficult to control.”

The being in question popped out of the boy with a squawk, “Hey, c’mon Fumi! You love me really!”

Izumi nodded, “How did you come to master your familiar?” 

He shook his head, “Not master, no. It is a partnership, a balance between our souls.”

“Yep! Just call us the Dynamic Duo!”

“That name is already taken, Dark Shadow.”

Izumi chuckled slightly, before turning towards the training field and considering Tokoyami’s words. Treating her power as its own being, and striking a balance between them? Could that work for her?

Well, it wasn’t exactly going to make things any worse , was it?

She took a deep breath, and visualised her power, a roiling, rolling ball of brilliant flame chained tightly to her body. She imagined pushing it away from her slightly, giving it its own space away from her, allowing it some more freedom. 

The air around her grew hot, and before she could do anything, she felt the telltale pressure that heralded her largest explosions. She yanked back on the chain, trying desperately to hold back the coming bomb, but it was too late. Complex magical circles swirled beneath her feet as dark ribbons curled around her, and a thin red line streaked through the air some distance away, plummeting to the ground.

When it touched down, the world turned white, and Izumi’s ears rang with the sound of a deafening BOOM . She and Tokoyami were both flung backwards, and Dark Shadow was forced to hide away, so bright was the light.

When she came to, a moment or so later, her body was completely drained of all energy, and she was only just able to see the massive crater she had formed out of the corner of her eye.

She sighed, utterly depleted. Maybe giving her powers more freedom wasn’t the best idea.

Kuroiro was her teacher on Thursday, and he greeted her by silently slinking out of the shadows next to where she awaited him.

She did not scream, no matter what he said.

“Hmm,” the boy rubbed his chin as Izumi recovered from her scare, “when I become one with the shadows, I free my body from all restriction, and allow myself to succumb to the shadow’s grasp.”

Truthfully, Izumi wasn’t entirely sure it would work, not after yesterday’s debacle. After all, it just sounded like another way to give her powers free rein. Still, she wasn’t one to dismiss ideas out of hand, and so she imagined herself, freed from all bonds and ties.

It ended just as well as the previous day.

“For myself,” Yanagi began on Friday afternoon, “my Quirk is subservient to me. It follows my command and will as easily as breathing. Perhaps, then, you must tighten its leash, and demand that it obey.”

Izumi bit her lip, frowning, but returned to that blank void. Her power was held tight to her, bound by chains that connected to her eye and hand, and it sat snugly against her chest. Still, she pulled it in tighter, almost feeling the heat as it pushed into her. 

Holding it even tighter, she opened her eyes, and visualised an explosion. Not one of her biggest, or her smallest, but somewhere in the middle. She felt the pressure build, energy tingling in her hands, but it was smaller and more controlled than her 100% blasts.

For one moment, one glorious, shining moment, she almost thought she had it.

And then the pressure vanished, the energy dissipated, and she only let out a weak puff of fire.

She sighed and slumped to the ground. What was she missing ?

On Saturday afternoon, the last day of the school week, Izumi met up with Jirou. The girl wasn’t entirely happy with staying after school, but she’d generously offered her time nonetheless, and Izumi was endlessly grateful.

“I’m not really sure how much I can help you, to be honest.” She admitted, sheepishly tapping the tips of her jacks together, “My Quirk is a mutant type, so it’s kind of just… a part of me? And it does whatever I want, ‘cuz it’s literally just a part of my body, so…”

Her friend trailed off, and Izumi bit her lip, considering this. For some reason, her words struck a chord with her. Something about her Quirk being a part of her… was that all it was?

She turned to the field. Her Quirk wasn’t an external entity, it wasn’t something apart from her, no matter how much it felt like it was.

It was a part of her.

Wasn’t it?

Frowning, Izumi thrust her hand forwards, feeling that familiar energy tingling at her fingertips. In her mind, she desperately tried to remind herself that this power was hers , it wasn’t in control of her… but she had spent so long thinking of it as something other , she couldn’t help when her subconscious crept in to argue that it was .

The energy dissipated. The building explosion fizzled out into a weak shower of sparks.

Izumi collapsed to her knees, defeated.

That evening Izumi, dejected and tired from her endless attempts to master her power, texted Lady Saiko, asking if she could talk. Instead of receiving a response through text, her phone began ringing with the custom ringtone she’d set just for her Dark Queen, an old, pre-Quirk song that had become something of an inside joke for the two of them.

Izumi accepted the call and spoke, “My lady, how lovely it is to speak with you again.”

“ It could not possibly be as lovely as it is to hear your voice, dear heart. ”

She giggled slightly, flush heating up her face, “How is Seiai, dearest? Have you yet claimed your rightful throne?”

“ It has been quite busy! As you’ll remember, I was invited to join the student’s unseelie court, which has brought with it quite a lot of work. Still!” Her beloved huffed, “ There is no amount of work that could possibly keep me from you, beloved. ”

She smiled, “The forces of Hell itself could not part us for long, my unholy goddess.”

“ Nor even the river Styx, ” Lady Saiko agreed, “ now tell me, how goes life in our nation’s shining star? ”

Izumi sighed, dissatisfied, and relayed to her beloved the disappointing results of the week’s training. They’d booked the field again for the next week, but none of them had any great hope that they’d make headway with their current methodology.

Her Witch Queen hummed thoughtfully once she’d recounted her tale, and Izumi could hear her sipping; a telltale sign that she was using her powers to aid her, “ Quite the conundrum, dearest. While your friend’s efforts are admirable, have you considered searching further afield? Perhaps asking those outside your inner circle could give you the fresh perspective you require?”

She bit her lip. She trusted her girlfriend’s Quirk, and her intelligence besides, but that didn’t make such a prospect any easier. She was, after all, a socially anxious girl who was barely comfortable with the relatively quiet friend group she already had. To go out and ask someone she didn’t know as well to help her… such a thought terrified her.

Still, she had to admit that Saiko was right. There were many more students at UA than just her friends, and they might have a more helpful perspective.

“I cannot say I relish the thought, but… you are right, as usual. I shall seek aid from others in the coming week.”

“ As usual .” There was a smug, teasing lilt to Lady Saiko’s voice, and Izumi’s face practically burst into flames, it felt so hot.

Clearing her throat to disguise her embarrassment, Izumi quickly changed the topic to lighter conversation, not wanting to think about what awaited her on Tuesday. 

After all, who knew what other kinds of students there were at UA?