"E-EH?! ME?!" Izumi couldn't believe this situation. It was too ridiculous to be real.

Of the twenty students in 1-A class, she was chosen as the class president.

To start with, Izumi hadn't been interested in being the class representative and felt poorly qualified for it... She still got ten votes, though.

"H-how?" It was flattering to have their classmates' trust, but it also was kind of unbelievable.

"You left a good impression yesterday, Izumi-chan," said Tsuyu, smiling comfortingly.

"I d-didn't even vote for myself..." she muttered, ignoring the amusement in the frog girl's croak.

Izumi liked the sound. It was cute, and it made her feel funny... A soothing kind of funny.

"You didn't, kero? Then, who did you vote for?"

"E-eh? I..." Suddenly, she was too busy examining the floor tiles while Tsuyu laughed softly.

That was going to be her second favorite sound in existence.

---

Later that morning, Aizawa made them review the recordings of the previous day's practice.

'Oh, god...' It was uncomfortable for Izumi to realize how visceral her fight against Katsuki was now she rewatched it with a cold-head. Considering Tsuyu's reaction -stuck to her side, gripping her arm, and flinching every time Katsuki hit her in the video-, Izumi had to thank their teachers for at least cutting the audio.

The funny part is that despite everything, she had fought well. She even used OFA as All Might did, even if only for an instant and unaware of how she did it.

However, that didn't appease Tsuyu, who stared at her silently after the video finished.

"You d-did a good job with Iida-san, Tsu. Your reflex were-."

"Izumi." Tsuyu's voice was severe, making her gulp. "Distractions won't work."

"S-sorry." She lowered her gaze, ashamed. However, she suddenly felt Tsuyu's hand caressing the top of her head in an affectionate gesture. And there it was, that funny but pleasant feeling again.

"I'm not mad at you, Izumi-chan. I just want to know what happened with Bakugo, kero...? I can't understand why he dislikes you so much."

Tsuyu's touch made her relax, washing away the worries she had, and suddenly the prospect of talking with Tsuyu about her problems with Katsuki didn't seem a bad idea. It was weird, considering she hadn't talked of that with anyone before, not even with her mother.

"As weird as it m-may sound, he was trying to protect me. Or, well, at least he t-thinks he was."

Tsuyu was rendered speechless for a moment. Unable to understand such ridiculousness.

"That doesn't make sense, kero." It was the only thing she could say.

"It d-does, in a twisted way... Katsuki and I used to be friends when we were kids, but he changed a lot after getting his Quirk. He started b-believing that strength was the most important thing for a hero and couldn't allow himself any weakness if he wanted t-to be the best." Izumi frowned with remembrance. "He turned cruel and eventually distanced from me, telling me how he had no time to spare on w-weaklings." She felt angrier the more she talked, and Tsuyu seemed to be the same. "And yet, more often than not, he was around to m-mock me!" Tsuyu grabbed her hand to calm her a bit.

"I still can't understand what you meant about him protecting you. It seems the opposite."

"It is... I only realized the t-truth after being put in a different class than him in my last middle school year. I think Katsuki acted the way he did to make other b-bullies know I was out of limits; that no one -except for him- could m-mess with me. And it worked. The others left me alone, or Katsuki b-beat them up. But that also meant I had no friends whatsoever... Because of him, I was isolated." She felt that righteous rage flare in her chest again. "And the worst is that he t-thought he was doing me a favor!" She fumed. "He reminded me constantly that I had no place trying to be a hero without a Q-Quirk. But despite how painful his words were, t-they still motivated me to keep going, so I'll..." Suddenly, her ire extinguished, and she quieted.

"You'll what, kero?"

"I-I'll kick his ass a-and prove him wrong." She completed the phrase, sheepish.

Tsuyu giggled in response.

"I think you did."

---

Towards the end of that day, the journalists trespassed, activating the campus alarms.

While she went into a panic, not knowing what to do, Tenya solved the problem by himself. After that, it was only fair to give her position to Momo so Tenya could assume the class vice-presidency.

Seeing them now, coordinating their classmates while they took the bus to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, she knew it was the right decision.

"I still think you would have done a good job, kero," commented Tsuyu, seated at her right side.

"Nah." She waved a hand dismissively. "It's like Aizawa-sensei said, I wasn't m-made for such responsibility."

He was more cynical about it, of course. Something like 'that is better; having the problem child as class president is laughable'.

"Any idea when you're going to have your hero uniform back, kero?"

She was currently using her PE clothes. Sadly, her hero uniform had to be repaired after all the damage it received.

"F-for our next practical class, I think. It'll probably take longer t-than normal because of the changes I requested."

"Changes, kero?"

"Taking off the All-Mig-, I m-mean, the bunny hood." It probably was for the better. She could almost imagine being a pro-hero and having her younger fans wanting to pull her 'ears'. It was embarrassing, and it had occurred to Mirko herself, so she didn't want to risk it.

Tsuyu's expression saddened. "You looked really cute with it, kero."

"I-I did?!" The frog girl nodded.

"Also, I found it nice that both our uniforms were green and animal-themed..." Watching Tsuyu feeling sad somehow made her feel sad too.

She needed to solve this.

"I'll tell the support people to k-keep it after all!" she blurted.

Having her hood pulled around by little kids would be worth it if she kept that precious smile on Tsuyu's face.

---

Once on the USJ, No.13 welcomed them.

The pro-hero took a moment to talk to them about the importance of being careful with their Quirks. She took it seriously, considering how dangerous One For All could be.

Serious mood aside, everything was fine at first. But then the dark mist appeared, and some shady-looking guy came out of it.

She knew it wasn't part of the training when her teacher's expression darkened.

"Huddle together, and don't move!" Yelled Aizawa, as more intruders appeared from the mist. "No.13, protect the students!" He ordered the other pro-hero.

"What is happening?" asked Kirishima in confusion. "Is this like the entrance exam?"

"I SAID DON'T MOVE! Those are real villains!"

Reality finally settled in between her classmates, as the hand-masked villain -the apparent leader- spouted some outrageous declarations about killing All Might.

She felt a big hand grabbing hers and knew it was Tsuyu without having to look at her. She just couldn't look away from the awful mess they were involved in.

The alarms and communications were not working. Everyone was panicking because All Might wasn't there. Not to mention, they were just a bunch of students accompanied by only two pro-heroes against dozens of villains...

But they got some hope back when Aizawa started stomping on all the criminals as if they were utter trash.

And they probably were.

Instead of the experienced and dangerous villains she saw on TV, these were mostly generic thugs. With the only exceptions being the leader, the huge bird-like guy with the brain-exposed, and the mist guy.

None of the first two had made much yet, but they were definitely dangerous. Especially the big one. Even if he hadn't moved an inch, his presence was unnerving.

And the mist guy? He made his usefulness obvious the moment they tried to evacuate the building.

First, he was unaffected by Katsuki and Eijiro attacks. Then his intangible body spread around like the black plague and reached for them.

Tsuyu and her tried to get out of the way and were close to succeeding. But the utter darkness was faster.

---

With a splash, Tsuyu fell into the water zone.

In other circumstances, she would feel blessed for the opportunity of swimming in such an amazing place. A shame the situation was less than ideal.

First, she noticed a shark thug attacking a cute girl with green hair.

'Izumi-chan!' Fueled with anger, Tsuyu advanced through the water like a missile and kicked the villain out of the way. Then grabbed Izumi with her left arm and pulled her away.

Immediately after, she saw a drowning Minoru some meters from them. And as much as he was in her blacklist, she would never abandon someone in such a situation, so she caught him with her tongue and swam to the surface.

Both of her classmates breathed deeply with relief.

"Are you guys fine, kero?" Minoru nodded while coughing some water.

"I am. T-thanks, Tsu," muttered Izumi, very close to her ear, making her shiver.

That made her hyper-aware of how Izumi clung to her.

"E-eh. Y-yuri is fine too," babbled the small purple boy, which Tsuyu responded by throwing him on the boat.

Then she turned to Izumi, and their eyes locked with each other.

Not only Izumi's body against hers was comfortingly warm, but the way she looked while wet was indescribable.

"Izumi-chan."

"Y-yeah?"

"Try to land on your feet, kero."

"E-eh, wha-?" Without another word, she wrapped Izumi with her tongue and throw her on the boat, just like she did with Minoru. Then she climbed up the boat's hull.

Once on top, she found Izumi pouting at her. "That h-hurt, Tsu." This girl was making it difficult for her to remain in control of herself...

Stupid pheromones.

"Sorry, but I think we are in a bad situation, kero." The three of them looked down at the water.

Villains surrounded the boat.

"We n-need to escape from this place." Izumi turned to her. "Tsu?"

"I can jump a third of the distance to the shore but not much more."

"The villains would follow us," she mumbled. "If possible, we should deal with them ourselves to diminish the weight on Aizawa-sensei's shoulders. What could we do-?"

"Wait a sec! What are you girls talking about?! Just look at those guys! Do you seriously want to risk yourselves to be eaten by them only to go where the rest of the villains are?" Both Izumi and her nodded. "WHY?! If we only wait, Aizawa-sensei and All Might-sensei will take care of everything, right?!" The guy asked in desperation.

She was not sure how to be delicate about it, so she decided to be blunt.

"Mineta-chan, these villains came here to kill All Might. So they must have a plan to do that. They wouldn't bother with all this mess if it wasn't the case."

"T-that's-?!" Minoru felt overwhelmed. It was normal. The notion of All Might being defeated sounded like fiction.

When he turned to Izumi, she looked grim.

"Tsu is right, Mineta-san. It must have b-been them who intruded into UA yesterday. And if they are t-that resourceful, then it's not unthinkable for them to have developed a method to kill All Might." Minoru was about to have a panic attack at that point. It only worsened when one villain sliced the boat, making it sink slowly.

"W-WE ARE DOOMED!" Minoru tried to jump at Tsuyu to hug her, but only got slapped away.

"Actually, um, I think I c-can get us safely to the shore and incapacitate these v-villains at the same time." Tsuyu's eyes widened.

"How, kero?"

"Mineta-san." The boy flinched. "Could y-you throw one of your sticky balls into the water?"

"E-eh?" He seemed confused for a moment, but then took one of the purple spheres off his head and did as she asked.

The sphere floated in the water harmlessly, but the closest villains immediately backed away from it.

"I was right. They d-don't know what our Quirks do!" Izumi smiled.

"U-uh?"

"That's the reason they're being extra careful with us instead of just getting on board. And why they brought T-Tsu to the water zone despite her having the advantage here."

"That was an awful slip, kero," commented Tsuyu.

"Which they tried to c-compensate with greater numbers. But that won't matter if they can't move." Izumi turned to Minoru again. "So t-throw as m-many sticky balls to the water as you can, Mineta-san!"

"Y-yes, ma'am!" The panicked boy used his Quirk until his scalp bled. "Taste t-the grapes, motherfuckers!"

"Tsu, p-pull me back to the boat after I'm done. Then we'll swim out of here." Izumi walked to the edge of the boat.

"Izumi-chan, wait a sec-."

"There's no time. W-we are sinking!" The girl jumped down towards the dozen of villains waiting in the water. Her determination surpassing any fear she felt. "Delaware... SMASH!" With a simple flick of her finger, the resulting air blast pierced through the water's surface, creating a huge void. And in consequence, the water trying to refill said void created a waterspout that pulled all the villains in. "NOW, TSU!" Tsuyu pulled her with her tongue, and after grabbing Minoru, jumped off the boat.

An instant later, the water splashed the villains away, all of them stuck together thanks to Minoru's Quirk.

"You should have mentioned the part when you throw yourself at the villains like a crazy person," she commented, non-amused. Her speech was unaffected despite her elonged tongue.

"S-sorry."

"Besides that, you guys were great, kero." She smiled.

---

With the villains dealt with, swimming to the shore was uneventful.

Arriving at the shore wasn't.

They immediately saw their teacher fighting against the villain leader.

At first, the exchange was quite even. But just a wrong move got Aizawa's elbow partially decayed, and just a pair of seconds later, he was being crushed to the ground with abhorrent ease by the villain behemoth.

"...Tell the Symbol of Peace he's wanted by the artificial human 'Nomu'!" Grunted the villain leader, revealing his ace under the sleeve.

If their teacher was defeated so easily by him, no, by it, then there was nothing they could do against such a creature.

However, when hope seemed lost, the mist villain appeared to entrust his boss with certain info.

"...I'm afraid he escaped." Despite having incapacitated No.13, the villain had failed to scatter all their classmates or kept them inside the USJ. So now they only needed to endure some minutes to receive backup.

The villain leader -Tomura Shigaraki- understood this and was planning to flee.

"Yay, w-we are saved-!" Tsuyu pushed Minoru deep into the water before he could put his dirty hands when they didn't belong.

"This feels off, Izumi-chan."

"It d-does. I mean, are they really going to give up so easily after everything they did...?"

Tsuyu was too focused on the Nomu to notice the subtle glance the Shigaraki directed in their direction.

"But before escaping, why don't we make use of this opportunity to take the Symbol of Peace's pride down a notch?"

She barely blinked, and he was already in front of her, his hand closing on her face.

But nothing happened.

"You are truly amazing, Eraser Head," he said in mad glee.

Everything after that happened too fast.

"L-Let go of her!"

"Nomu."

"SMASH!"

Izumi threw a punch in Shigaraki's direction, but instead of him, it hit the monstrous abomination that followed his orders like a pet.

And not only the Nomu wasn't hurt by Izumi's Quirk at all. The worst part is that they didn't even notice when the humongous thing moved. It just did. It was absurd and dreadful beyond comprehension.

And now it had Izumi's fist caught in its iron grip.

"Smash, you said? Are you an All Might's fangirl or something? So pathetic..." Tsuyu knew it by the amusement and irritation mixed in his voice...

He didn't care who he killed. He would be happy with any of them.

Shrugging her fears away, she was about to intervene to pull Izumi out of the monster's grasp.

But then Izumi turned to look at her. And the girl she liked so much smiled sadly at her.

Tsuyu felt something inside her broking.

---

Izumi wanted to be a hero.

Since when?

It had been her wish since she could remember.

Why?

She admired All Might. So she wanted to be like him.

Do you want to be the No.1?

All Might was the No.1.

And Katsuki, who she used to respect, wanted to be it.

So she supposed being the No.1 hero was part of her dream.

Is it like that?

Yes, and no.

Her old-self -the one who was Quirkless- would probably be furious if it knew she said 'yes' to that question.

But now she had All Might's Quirk, so whether or not she liked, it was her responsibility to make her best effort to be worthy of being the next Symbol of Peace. Because she was no longer fighting only for herself, but for all the people that believed in her.

And yet, she understood something that people like Endeavor had problems to even conceive...

Being the No.1 was not a goal, but a result. A compromise.

It was not something you could -or should- dedicate your career to pursue, but something that would come by itself if you worked harder than anyone else and were the indicated to protect people's hopes.

And for that reason, she would never forget her true dream.

More than anything, I just wanted to save people.

And now she would accomplish that.

"Delaware Smash!" With a pained smile on her face, Izumi shot a low-powered attack at Tsuyu and Minoru, pushing them farther away in the water, so they would have a better possibility of keeping themselves safe from danger.

"Hah...? Was that one of those heroic sacrifices that are so popular lately?" The Nomu grabbed her other hand and raised her in the air. "Can you feel them? Your death flags are waving so wildly right now..."

She ignored the villain's words, and taking advantage of the way she was hanging from her arms, balanced her body forwards to throw a powerful kick at the Nomu's head. "SMASH!"

Her attack connected with a cracking sound from the artificial monster's neck, but it didn't let her go. It twisted its head back to place and caught her foot between its jaws. Leaving her defenseless.

"You heard it, right? You actually broke Nomu's neck for a moment there. And you call yourself a hero?! All of you act so righteously when you are just a bunch of violent psychos!"

She ground her teeth, more in anger than in pain. And she was in a lot of pain.

Shigaraki was just mocking her because he was in control of the situation. Because Nomu was currently stronger and faster than her.

He could have ordered it to kill her a long while ago, but he didn't because this was funnier. He just wanted her to drown in despair.

But he was underestimating her.

"You will not win," she muttered.

"I think that's clear. We failed this quest. Tough luck! But this right now? This is just me taking my fury out on one amusingly stupid NPC."

"No. I don't mean this time. I mean always." She breathed deeply. "As long as the hope that All Might raised in people's hearts survives, you'll keep losing." She saw Shigaraki approaching slowly in the corner of her eye. "Even after All Might's retires... You won't ever win!" He was standing at her side, his killing intent bleeding out of control.

"Nomu." He hissed. "Rip he-!"

""I AM HERE!"" Yelled both mentor and disciple, as the doors of the USJ opened.

Increasing OFA output to the maximum she could use without outright exploding, Izumi twisted her body, shredding apart Nomu's fingers and teeth.

Her movement created a blast that struck a defenseless Shigaraki. Nomu being suddenly too busy stopping All Might's fists to protect its master.

Fortunately, before her battered body could hit the ground, a pink something pulled her to safety.

All Might's hope and Nomu's despair collided. And then Izumi's words to Shigaraki turned the truth.