They had done it!

It had seemed impossible when they started. So many things had been against them. So many plans, so many loopholes closed, and so many blocks, were a constant threat to stop them from succeeding. They kept fighting against the seemingly unending tide and against almost the entire government's power. They hadn't beaten it, because that was impossible. They had circumvented it and succeeded in spite of it.

Izuku stood there behind Tanya and held her in a tender hug as they both stared down at the provisional hero license in her hands. It felt like she was holding the key to the country. To the whole world.

“They even spelled my name right.” Tanya whispered. “My real name.”

“That was me.” Izuku said and Tanya tilted her head back to look up at him. “It's logged as a clerical error and the change somehow percolated throughout all of Tanya DeGraff's electronic records. No one can explain how a change of name form was submitted and approved without anyone noticing. It would have been a huge scandal if anyone ever knew about it.”

Tanya reached up and cupped the side of his face. “Someone is getting a special treat tonight.”

Izuku grinned at her and she grinned back before she looked back down at the thing in her hand. She had worked hard to achieve it so soon. Years before she should have gotten it or could have gotten it, without Izuku's help.

Her justification for her life.

Her right that was almost denied to her.

Her revenge on the killers of her parents.

Her key to power.

Tanya's manic smile came out in full force. “Tanya Degurechaff has finally arrived.”

“The world will never know what hit it.” Izuku said and kissed the top of her head. “We need to train even harder now.”

“With our licenses in hand, we don't have to be so secretive about that or with our operations.” Tanya said and her smile didn't fade. “We can operate more publicly and we don't have to worry about the police or the Hero Agency Association branding us as vigilantes.”

Izuku's grin expanded to become as manic as hers. “Suggesting Mirko as a liaison was brilliant.”

“She operates everywhere in the city that her patrol goes and she changes her routes every week to a new city. It's going to open up so many options for us.” Tanya said. “It will also let us track down more of Being X's followers.”

Izuku nodded. “Constant sweeps with your sight will definitely root out some new targets for us.”

“If we're lucky, we can find one that will lead us right to him.” Tanya said.

Izuku's grin faded. “I don't want to ask what your sight revealed today.”

Tanya opened her mouth for a moment, then she shook her head.

“When should we handle it?” Izuku asked in a whisper.

“As soon as possible. You know how infectious it can be.” Tanya whispered back.

“Tonight, then.” Izuku breathed and hugged her close. “Our world will change again tonight.”

“It has to be done. You know that.” Tanya said.

“I do.” Izuku said and the pair stood there at the side of the room while the rest of the class celebrated becoming pro heroes.

*

Aoyama, The Sparkling Hero, returned to his home for the first time since the school became a boarding school. He had passed his hero exam and the teachers had let them all go home for the weekend to tell their families. He wasn't worried about being exposed to a villain attack, because he had a secret. Well, two secrets.

One, he had been the one feeding information to the Network. Two, he had found religion.

He had been so torn up about saving his family and turning on his friends and classmates, until he accepted god into his heart. Now everything was all bright and sunny and his sparkles were more powerful than ever. He knew he was actually saving his friends by helping the villains and his own family was also protected.

As he sat at the dinner table with his family, as if none of them were guilty of treason, a specialty pewter pellet entered through the window at subsonic speed and hit the side of his head. The explosive pellet incinerated him and took out the dining room, his corrupted family, and half of the mansion in a single strike.

Three more shots destroyed the entire mansion and the surrounding grounds, killed all of the staff, and ensured that none of the Aoyama family survived to spread the corruption.

*

Toru Hagakure hugged her invisible mother and her father before heading to bed. She had been so happy to have been chosen to be a pro hero and she spent several hours with them after supper and told them all about the empowering feeling she had felt after talking to Aoyama when they had started boarding at the school.

His views on a higher being watching over them had given her an internal peace that she had never felt before. Toru's parents were very receptive of the ideas and said they would discuss it tomorrow when they could all enjoy the weekend together.

There was just something wrong with that peaceful feeling whenever Toru was near Tanya. It didn't lessen, as far as she could tell. It actually... kind of wanted to... go to her. It was a little scary, because she didn't want to lose that feeling if it left. She had avoided being near her as much as possible, even when she really wanted to be next to Izuku.

That thought gave her shivers of pleasure as she thought about getting him alone and telling him all about god and then asking him to be with her. She had heard several whispered rumors and she had seen how Mina acted around them, like she was a second girlfriend or something. That told her that Izuku was actually having sex with other girls and she wanted him. She really wanted him.

Toru never felt the pellet hit her forehead that blew her head off.

*

Kojo Koda, the animal whisperer from Class 1-A, was wiped out with the group of squirrels he was talking to. The birds were taken out next and the stray dog was eliminated as well, just in case.

From Class 1-B was Neito Monoma with the quirk copy power, Kojiro Bondo with the glue quirk, Yui Kodai with the resize quirk, and Sen Kaibara with the drill quirk, were killed and then blown up to remove the evidence. Thankfully, none of their families had been infected with Being X's energy.

The most difficult target to remove was Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, because his body was made of a pseudo-metal. It took six penetrating shots to the head, three to the heart, then two phosphorous grenades to his back to destroy the body completely.

Being X was never to be allowed to possess a quirk-powered vessel.

*

The attacks that weekend on the provisional heroes and members of the testing authority by unidentified villains, made everyone sad and regret the losses of such promising heroes and some of their families. It also reinforced the Hero Association's decisions to make all hero schools into boarding schools and to give all of the provisional heroes the mentors they need within the pro hero ranks.

There was even a new government sponsored matching program that had been enacted that same weekend to ensure that provisional heroes were given the best mentors for their development. No one really knew where it came from and no one questioned it, because the matches it made were nearly 100% favorable for both the student and the mentor.

Students and mentors trained at the various hero schools for three months until December, when a second Hero Internship Workshop was announced to give the provisional heroes direct experience under their mentors and to evaluate their performance officially.

Everyone passed their evaluations with flying colors, especially Izuku and Tanya under Mirko, and all hero academies in the country ended for the winter break that would last for a month. The provisional heroes were assigned to their mentors and their agencies officially during that time and everyone was happy.

The students thrived in their new environments and proved to the Hero Agency Association that getting their licenses wasn't an accident or a fluke. They deserved them.

In fact, the UA provisional heroes of Class 1-A did so well that when school went back into session, they didn't have Hero Studies anymore and worked for their agencies instead. They still had to do normal high school classes, however. Slacking was not allowed to happen for the future heroes of the country.

Three months passed while Tanya, Izuku and Mirko systematically patrolled and took out criminal after criminal, some of which vanished before being arrested. The school year came to an end, as did the work study program, with most of the League of Villains dead or arrested. They were getting very close to finding one of their primary targets, All for One.

Everyone in Class 1-A passed their written exams and their extended work study program had given them an automatic pass on the physical part of the exam. They had been proving daily that they deserved to be heroes and a fake rescue set-up or hostage situation wasn't needed to prove that they could handle it again.

*

Unlike nearly all of the other provisional heroes, Izuku and Tanya did not stop working at Mirko's agency when they graded from Class 1-A to become Class 2-A. They stayed on and asked to work with the pro hero full time for the month break before the next school year started.

During the first week of that break was when Tanya and Izuku finally convinced Mirko that their mission was actually more important than arresting petty criminals. They would still stomp criminals and wouldn't ignore them; but, the priority was the safety of the entire human race and not just the civilians that lived in the cities.

“We want to remove the villains, Rumi. Completely.” Tanya said.

“You mean kill them.” Mirko said with a flat voice.

“We need to destroy their heads and hearts, the entire body when possible, and then we have to check anyone they talked to or convinced to follow their way of thinking.” Izuku added.

“You two make it sound like it's one of those fantasy vampire infections or something.” Mirko said with a laugh.

Tanya and Izuku gasped and stared at each other.

“How could we not see that! He needs followers and the more followers he has, the more powerful he becomes! His energy essentially takes them over and he can inhabit them!” Tanya shouted. “How could I have missed that! It's so simple!”

“What are you talking about?” Mirko asked and her rabbit ears twitched in annoyance.

“We just figured out that Being X isn't a god, even if he is pretending to be one.” Izuku said. “He's essentially an ascended vampire. He's incorporeal and able to change forms, he possess people and corpses, can manipulate a mind's perception for various effects when he has an appropriate sacrifice, and even traverses worlds when he has enough power to do so or decides to give up on a world and moves on.”

Tanya stomped around the room and cursed unlike she ever had before. It lasted for several minutes before she finally calmed down and Izuku walked over to her. “No wonder he loved seeing so many bloody battles performed in his name! Why he likes everyone praying to him as they die! Thousands of them! Maybe even a million of them that last battle I was in! He's absorbing it all!”

Izuku took her into a hug and Tanya hugged him back. They held each other tightly and Tanya shivered as she tried to come to grips with what they were facing. Being X might not be a god; but, he was possibly as powerful as one with all of the deaths that he had absorbed... including all of the people Tanya herself had killed. She was curbing his physical influence while also making him more powerful.

“I don't know what to do.” Tanya admitted. “My normal response to blow it all up will only make things worse and not better like it should.”

“We'll think of something.” Izuku said.

“Yes, we will.” Mirko said and put her arms around the both of them to comfort them. “You both look scared and that's not something people like you become without a good reason.”

“How do you fight an almost all-powerful being that doesn't have a body and can't be dealt with by physical means?” Izuku asked her.

“I have no idea.” Mirko said and then she smiled in a similar manic smile to Tanya's. “That doesn't mean I never will. We'll work together and we'll do our jobs, because it's just like you said, Izuku. We'll figure it out eventually. When we do, he better watch out!”

Izuku nodded and gave Tanya a quick reassuring kiss.

“I'm glad you agree, because for the next month, you're my coworkers and not my students.” Mirko said and let them go as she stopped hugging them. “There's only one very important question that needs to be answered right now.”

Izuku and Tanya watched as Mirko took a step backwards and grabbed the top of her hero costume by the neck, then she pulled it down and off to reveal that she was completely naked underneath.

“Which one of you gets to fuck me first?” Mirko asked with a manic grin.

Tanya and Izuku shared a knowing look. “ME!” They shouted and tackled Mirko to the floor.