Deku and I were soon on our own, though I could hear everyone else in the background. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima were the loudest. Near as I could tell, the only training they’d decided to do was smash into each other with all their strength, so a loud clanging sound came from their direction.

Izuku was clenching and unclenching his fists in front of me, raising his hands up, then lowering them. I stretched, trying to loosen up a bit. “I’ll be honest, man. I’ve been kinda wanting to fight you.”

“You have?” Deku looked up at me, a little nervous. “W-Why?”

“Well… your power is probably one of the best to take me down. You can literally toss me into the ocean if you feel like it, make me fly like Team Rocket. You can give me a real fight. And honestly, we should be looking for those. If we want to be heroes.”

I could tell he understood. Fighting wasn’t the only part of being a hero. When you broke it down, being a hero is sort of a 55-40-5 thing. 55 percent saving people, 40 percent fighting villains, with the other 5 in service in doing those first two parts of the job much more efficiently. Something like that at least.

Deku seemed to get that. He nodded, clenching a fist shakily. “Yeah. I get it. Then, what uh… what are the rules?”

“You punch me for a little,” I said easily. “We aren’t sparring for a fight, we’re trying to learn. Just try and control your power like we talked about. And don’t worry about punching me too hard.” I smacked my shell on my belly, the dull sound of it echoing a bit. “I can take it.”

He still looked unsure. But he finally nodded. Hesitantly, he stepped forward.

At that point, I admitted even I felt a little nervous. After all, I was tough. But not as tough as adult Bowser would be. And Deku had the power to create tornadoes in his body. His problem wasn’t a lack of strength, but an overabundance of it. I had no idea if I could really survive a full power blow from him. Considering All Might could turn city blocks to powder.

But I also felt kind of excited.

So when Deku stepped forward and lightly tapped my stomach with a hit that wouldn’t have damaged a snowflake in mid-melt, I had mixed feelings.

“...Really?”

“I know,” Deku said nervously, pulling back. “I’m just testing it. I need to make sure I can start small. Maybe… if I focus. I can use a small percent. Maybe 2 percent of my power?”

His lips turned down. His eyes flickered with determination. I crouched a bit, setting my stance. This was it! He reared back. And this time, his fist glittered with emerald sparks snapping around his knuckles.

His punch echoed as it slammed into my chest. I stumbled back, grunting as the breath briefly left my lungs. Damn. Two percent of OFA was actually kinda impressive in terms of power. The two of us quickly turned our gaze onto his hand.

For a moment, I almost panicked. His knuckles had some blood on them where they had split, and I worried we’d failed. But then he spoke.

“I-It worked!”

“It did?”

“Yes!” Izuku looked at me, grinning proudly. “My knuckles were split, but that was because I was punching your shell. But I can feel it… My bones aren’t broken. It’s not perfect,” he winced as he clenched his fist again, but his grin was still massive, tears at the corner of his eyes. “But I can make this work!”

“Wow,” I said, genuinely surprised. “Well… we better test it. And maybe this time you should hit me on my arms while I guard.”

“R-Right.” Deku raised his hands. “Here I come!”

He stepped forward, snapping out a quick jab. I blocked it on my right forearm, wincing a bit at the impact, though it didn’t hurt too bad. Both of us feeling more confident now, Deku started throwing his fists while I took the blows across my arms and legs. Soon we got into a rhythm. Deku danced around me, jabbing and throwing crosses. His determined face shone with sweat as he started treating this less like a chore and more like a fight.

I took a quick swipe at him. He ducked it, then uppercutted me in the jaw. I stumbled back, staring at him. Then I spat out some blood.

“S-Sorry,” Deku said weakly. “I just, when you swiped at me-”

“It’s cool,” I said with a grin. “Like I said. I want a fight. Now that we know you can throw a punch without killing yourself… How about we take this more seriously?”

I think my smile worried him. Or terrified him. But he still nodded shakily. “O-Okay Bowser-san! Let’s do it!”

I nodded back, raising my arms up. I stepped forward and jabbed at him. Deku ducked the punch, only to yelp in surprise when my other hand wrapped around his shirt. I pulled him upwards and tossed him at the wall behind me. The kid twisted in the air, landing on the wall feet first and jumping away in time to dodge my tackle as I smashed through the wall he’d been on. He leaped back towards me, punching me across the chin.

Damn, kid had some power. Not as much as one of Cow Lady’s blows, but comparing him to a pro hero wasn’t fair.

I raised my other arm and brought it around in a quick hook, barely brushing Deku’s arms.

He let out a shout of pain as he was sent back, sliding on the ground. I rushed after him, dropping to all four feet the way that Cow Lady often did.

He jumped over my charge. I watched him pass overhead, grinding to a halt as best as I could so I could turn and face him when he landed behind me-

He wasn’t there.

In the moment of surprise I had, I suddenly felt something pulling at my back. As I was lifted into the air to see the ocean of pipes above us, I realized what had happened. The kid had grabbed onto the pipes, spun around them, and landed right back in the same position he had been! He’d known I would try to turn and face him!

Of course. My shell was tough. But it made it damn hard for me to account for shit that was behind me. I just couldn’t turn my head enough to actually see things without turning around entirely. So I’d learned to twist as fast as I could, to keep my opponents in front of me when I wasn’t attacking with my spikes.

And Deku had noticed that. So he’d used that instinct I’d built against me.

The kid lifted me up with a scream of effort. “Yaaaaa!”

He launched me forwards, sending me flying at the pipes above us. I was pretty impressed.

But I still wanted to fight.

I pulled myself into my shell and started spinning. When I slammed into the pipes above, it was as a spiked cannonball, smashing apart the metal. I snapped out of my shell in time to see Deku below me, mid-jump with his fist pulled back. I punched. So did Deku.

Our fists met in the middle, his smaller knuckles smashing into mine. I went flying upwards a bit more, my fist a little sore.

Deku, on the other hand, smashed into the ground below, bouncing off the concrete. He gasped in pain, eyes rolling back into his head. Oh fuck!

“Kid!” I landed on the ground, rushing over to him. “You okay!?”

He coughed a bit, staring up at me. Then he grinned, raising a hand weakly in a thumbs-up. “Y-Yeah! I can still fight!”

From the looks of it, the fact he could might as well have made it Christmas. I frowned. “...Kid, are you trying to tough out your injuries in some sort of anime protag tough guy thing.”

He smiled more weakly. “I-I’m not an anime protagonist.”

Well, I walked into that bit of irony.

“Come on, Goku Jr.” I helped him to his feet as he winced, bruises growing across his arms and fists. “Let's go to Recovery Girl so she can yell at you.”

“She doesn’t always yell at me,” he said weakly, following me.

I chuckled at that. Man, I felt so much better about tomorrow now. With Deku now able to fight, at least on some level, we’d have a much better chance against the horde… actually-

“Deku, what do you think?” I asked him as we walked along. “If you had to fight villains now, or hell, if you went up against me or Bakugo. Does this help?”

He looked surprised at the question, then cupped his chin in thought. “I’m not sure. My power isn’t-damaging-me-like-before-but-I’m-also-sacrificing-a-lot-of-strength-and-it’s-hard-to-focus-on-individual-limbs-still-it’s-good-I-can-actually-fight-for-prolonged-periods-and-I-suppose-I-can-still-use-a-full-force-blow-”

I let him go off, listening carefully. I kinda agreed with what he was saying. Well… if things went well, then I’d never need to worry about us fighting. But if we had too, at least the kid had an option.

------

“It’s not as bad as the usual, but I’m still unhappy with you,” Recovery Girl said to a now shirtless Deku as he winced. “Your arms are severely bruised, as are your hips, buttocks, and abdominal muscles. And your knuckles are cracked, likely from punching this stubborn one,” she said with a little glare at me. “Not to mention your tendons are likely torn all to hell.

“Better than turning his limbs to spaghetti,” I noted. True to her words, the kid looked like someone had been getting beat up by a train. His chest, arms, and abdomen were all black, blue, yellow, and green.

“Barely,” Recovery Girl muttered. “Okay, stand still,” her lips did that weird extendo thing, landing on his cheek. He glowed green for a moment, then sank in exhaustion as the black and blue across his body slowly faded away. “Thankfully you still had plenty of stamina and the wounds weren’t as egregious as the last time you visited me. But I’d like it if every punch you threw didn’t end in a hospital visit, Midoriya-kun.”

“I understand, Recovery Girl,” he said respectfully, looking tired but much better now.

“Now, as for you,” she spun to glare at me. “Don’t tell me that you were going to hide your own injuries.”

“Injuries?” I looked myself over. I had a scrape on my knuckles from when our punches met in the air. Not really a scrape, more like a small mark on my scales. “Oh come on, this is nothing-!”

A pair of lips smacked onto my cheek. I grumbled as Recovery Girl backed away. “Seriously?”

“And take these,” she said, holding out a pair of lollipops, smiling. “Have a good day now, and be more careful you two!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Deku and I said in unison, going with the flow.

------

After that, nothing much happened. Deku and I said our goodbyes. I headed home, me jogging there, and arrived in time for the next part of my plan. I got everything ready to go.

If my plan worked, then none of the kids had to throw a punch. But if I had too, well… we’d see.

I also looked into the various forums I’d joined. Nothing too crazy there. I’d have thought some idiot in the massive group of villains that showed up at USJ would have bragged about it somewhere online, but it looked like that Shigaraki kid had managed to keep a tighter hold on them than I’d expected. Then again, it was more likely his boss had. The hand-face idiot didn’t really strike me as a leadership-type of dude. Or a moisturiser-type dude.

On the other hand, the Hero Killer was still causing damage. He’d gained a following among those who hated heroes, and had yet to be caught. I stared at the postings from people, some cheering him on, others hating him. Then I shut it off.

------

USJ Day. It was finally time.

I got up way too early that day, considering I hadn’t been able to sleep very well the night before. I forced myself to get another wink or two, then headed out. I grabbed a bite to eat on the way and texted Pony to apologize that I couldn’t walk with her to school that day. Got into class and sat down early.

A couple of the kids streamed in and said hi. I mostly said hi back. But I felt like a bundle of raw nerves the whole time. I knew I could handle a fight. But somehow, waiting for the fighting made me more nervous than the thought of actually brawling.

The longer it took for us to head out, the more I wanted to freak out. I waited and waited and waited. I barely paid attention through my classes. At one point, Aizawa must have noticed I wasn’t paying attention. I almost snapped at him when he asked me a question. I gave a wrong answer, and he corrected me before continuing the class.

At lunch I ate a bit, but nowhere near what I usually did, which Pony noticed.

“Are you okay?” she asked me as we put our trays away, a worried look on her face.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just working through something.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I chuckled, patting her on the head, the tiny horse girl squeaking in surprise. “No. But thanks, Pony.”

She still looked worried, which oddly made me feel better. Knowing someone gives a shit is a mood lifter.

But by the time Aizawa stood in front of us and told us we’d be going off-campus for our special, I felt like I was going to break my desk just to relieve the tension.

We all got into our costumes except Deku, who went with his PE uniform since his costume was still getting repaired. Once we were all gathered together outside, I was stretching a bit, waiting.

“Bowser-kun,” Iida’s voice brought my attention. He was looking sternly at me, carrying a whistle in hand. “The bus will be here soon. I wanted to suggest that we line up by class number so that we may smoothly move into our seats, and therefore leave in a timely manner! Would you like to do the honors?”

Ah. What a diligent kid.

“I don’t think we should,” I said a little bit more gruffly than I’d wanted to. “We don’t know what the seating on the bus will be like. I think just going in single file will work for now. Okay?”

“Ah, I didn’t think of that,” Iida hesitated. “Also… Are you all right, Bowser-kun?” when I didn’t answer quickly enough, he continued. “It is just that you have seemed rather tense today. Is something worrying you? Have you been doing badly in class?”

“No… It’s actually just that…” I wracked my brain for a bit, then defaulted to the oldest excuse in the book. “Food poisoning, I think,” Iida’s eyes widened. “Yeah. My stomach has been bothering me all day. I’m trying to hold out, but I don’t like people worrying about me, so-”

“Say no more, Bowser-kun!” he saluted, looking proud for some reason. “To deal with such pain in silence for the sake of showing no weakness as a leader, I understand completely how you feel!”

Oh man, don’t do that, now I feel bad for lying to you!

As Iida shed dramatic tears in solidarity for the pain I didn’t feel, I sighed. “Thanks, Iida. You’re a good man.”

The bus rolled up then. I stretched a bit more and walked forward. “All right, Class 1-A, let’s go. Single file line so no one is running over each other to get a seat.”

“You heard the class rep!” Iida pumped his arms. “Let’s go, don’t make this hard for him!”

Well, now I didn’t feel nervous. Just guilty.

We all filed into the boss, the vehicle bouncing a bit when I stepped on last. I found a seat for myself and pulled out my phone to check the time. I hadn’t timed things right. In maybe 10-15 minutes, my plan would go into action. But I had to hope that was enough.

Any moment now…

------

Far away from the bus, in an alleyway, a smartphone taped securely to the bottom of a dumpster would send an automated text message. It would go to the phones of every UA teacher with a public phone number. At the same time, an empty email address would a message on schedule, emailing the school’s public email address, as well those of the teachers.

Both said the same thing.

An army of villains is going to enter the USJ facility to try and assassinate All Might using a genetically enhanced weapon with potential to hurt him. The students are in danger. Send your teachers there to defend them.

There were two specific people who got a special version of the message. To the public addresses of All Might and Nezu. At the end of the message, was a single sentence.

All Might’s Quirk is inherited and can be passed down from person to person.

But it would take some time for those messages to get sent, then responded to. And anything could happen in that time. Absolutely anything…