Aizawa entered Mirio’s room with his usual lazy steps “Are you fine with a visit?” he asked nonchalantly but Mirio knew Aizawa enough to know that he was amongst the most observant heroes.

“You know Mr. Aizawa?” Mirio said, hopping out of his hospital bed with a flip that ended with a goofy landing, a wide smile on his face that brightened the room “You should smile more… a bright smile makes everyone’s day a little better.”

“Okay…” Aizawa replied, scratching the back of his head awkwardly “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better right now…”

“Yes! And look!” Mirio pointed at his biceps which looked leaner but also stronger “After my mood stabilized… even my muscles have muscles now. I might even be strong enough to exchange blows with Allmight at full strength…”

There was a bit of humour in Aizawa’s eyes that didn’t make it to his facial muscles “No you’re not.”

“Ugh!” Mirio made a sound as if being pierced through the heart but recovered quickly and pointed at Aizawa with determination “I see, you don’t have a sense of humor and that’s why you didn’t understand my joke… that explains a lot…”

“Anyways… yesterday you refused to see anyone, I am hoping today would be different… I was hoping that Deku could be the exception…” Aizawa muttered, his eyes glazing over with sleepiness “After all, it was because of the two of you that Eri was rescued…”

Mirio held his head, the cheerful act he was currently putting on was giving him an intense headache but a hero would not be thwarted by migraines “Okay… I want to know how Eri is doing but I didn’t dare to go see her with my unstable emotions... but I will see her soon with a smile on my face since that’s what heroes do!”

Knock

Knock

“You can enter Midoriya!” Aizawa shouted, stepping aside while putting eye drops in his eyes in case Mirio’s quirk started to go haywire again.

Recently, a specific group of individuals that knew about Allmight’s quirk gathered to discuss what may have happened to Mirio and the conclusion they came to startled everyone.

The moment Midoriya stepped through the door, it was as if the atmosphere of the room rushed through the window in fear. There was a palpable pressure that nobody had an idea where it came from.

Suddenly, both Midoriya and Mirio clutched their chests as if suffering from heart attacks and screamed out in intense pain.

“AAARGHHHHHHH!”

“AAARGHHHHHHH!”

Their veins bulged and became visible under their skin, threatening to burst and cause internal haemorrhaging.

“Get Midoriya out!” Aizawa yelled, using the full extent of his quirk to stare at Mirio.

He wasn’t sure what was happening but the obvious answer pointed towards Mirio and Midoriya reacting negatively to being near each other.

Midoriya was quickly dragged out of the room by the doctors and Mirio flopped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been severed.

Mirio fell into a deep slumber to recover the damage sustained by his body…

Two Days Later --------------

Mirio held his head and attempted to lift himself up but the fluids connecting to his body hindered him from moving as he wished.

“You’re awake Young Mirio?” Allmight asked concerned, his voice a bit lame in his skinny form.

Mirio was utterly confused and a bit gloomier than usual “W-w-wh-what ha-happened?” he inquired, still feeling the strain on his muscles.

“You seemed to react negatively to Deku… we are still running tests to see how much of your quirk that bullet actually changed but our information sources are limited with Overhaul’s unwillingness to talk.”

“Oh…” Mirio responded but there was none of his usual cheerfulness behind his voice “Is Deku alright? I hope he is not hurt because of me…”

Even with his personality being adversely affected by his strengthened quirk, Mirio considering the safety of others before himself was second nature to him. After all, great heroes were the heroes that didn’t try to be heroes in the first place.

Allmight patted Mirio’s back gently “Ironically, he asked the same question before he was discharged yesterday… You have been in a coma for two days young Mirio but I have faith that you will pull through this predicament without as much as a scratch…”

“Don’t worry! I won’t die before I save at least a million people!” Mirio shouted, jumping out of bed, a sudden bout of cheerfulness reinvigorating his soul causing him to rip the fluids connected to his body “Oops!”

“There is one more thing…” Principal Nezu said, crossing his paws thoughtfully like someone would their fingers “Sir Nighteye has come out of surgery and things are not looking very good… he would like to see you before any other emergencies arise…”

Mirio looked at Principal Nezu hopefully “Can I see him?”

“That may not be the best idea considering your fragile psychological state…” Principal Nezu stated before Allmight could agree out of pity and guilt.

“I will keep it under control!” Mirio argued with determined eyes that promised he would not let the matter rest until he saw Sir Nighteye.

Creak

Aizawa pushed open the door, leaning against the partition coolly “Let the boy talk to his mentor… it’s not every day that we get to say goodbye to the people who made us who we are today…”

“But-”

Aizawa frowned at Principal Nezu’s and Allmight’s hesitant faces “Wouldn’t you guys want to say goodbye to your mentors given the chance? I know I regret not saying goodbye to a couple of my friends in the past…”

After a couple of minutes of hesitation, Principal Nezu acquiesced under the condition that only himself, Mirio, Allmight, and Aizawa be allowed into the room during the discussion.

After all, Sir Nighteye had morphine in his bloodstream so there was no telling what secrets he would unconsciously spill while talking to Mirio in his state.

Sir Nighteye’s Room --------

Mirio was escorted to the door of Sir Nighteye’s room. He already had the perfect speech inside his mind, but the moment he saw Nighteyes’ state, he felt some more pieces of his heart shatter.

Just the look in Nighteye’s eyes told Mirio that there was no miracle to be had…

Mirio darted forward, tears leaking from the corner of his eyes “Please Live! You can’t DIE!”

“Mirio…” Nighteye muttered brokenheartedly. He could see the hopelessness in Mirio’s eyes and lamented the fact that he was going to be another reason for the light inside Mirio to dim even further “You suffered so much because of me… if only… I had been-”

“It was because… you taught me… that I was able to become strong… it’s because you taught me that I am alive now… I am even able to fight without my quirk. I hope you can teach me more… at least a million more lessons!” Mirio pleaded, letting all his emotions have free reign since he wouldn’t be able to do so in the future.

‘Mirio… forgive me… At first, I only lured you in as a vessel for One For All… But you followed me and believed in me… and before I knew it, you became my pride… Mirio, you will be-’

Nighteye closed his eyes and reopened them with his quirk activated, staring at Mirio intensely as he glimpsed into his disciple’s extraordinary future.

The light of how brilliant Mirio would become almost blinded Nighteye…

Admittedly, he was a bit out of practice since he never liked to look so far into the future, but the future he glimpsed of Mirio made him even prouder on his deathbed.

“fine… you will become the finest hero any world has ever seen… This is the only future that shouldn’t be changed… so smile, smile wider than anyone… smile so that the children of the world have something to aspire towards… after all, a society with cheer and humour will not have … a bright future… you will lose yourself for a time but you will always re-emerge when it counts the most! You may not become the symbol of peace but you will become someone who uplifts all!”

Bbbbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaapppppp

With those final words of wisdom, the monitoring machine flat-lined signifying Nighteye’s departure from this world and into the embrace of eternal slumber.

Mirio watched as Nighteye’s vision turned blank and his vision also turned blank to mimic Nighteye’s state.

Nighteye may have been physically dead but Mirio was spiritually dead with the passing of his precious mentor. Of course, it was not a change anyone noticed, even Mirio, himself, didn’t notice the subtle change in his mental state.

Other heroes, that previously waited outside to give Nighteye and Mirio some space, walked into the room one at a time to pay their final respects to a fellow hero and a close friend.

---------------

Mirio stumbled out of Nighteye’s room with unsteady steps that grew even more unsteady as his quirk began to activate in rapid one-second intervals.

One moment, he was walking on the sixth floor and the next moment, Mirio found himself walking through a wall on the fifth floor.

Normally, Aizawa would be right next to him to counteract his excited quirk but Mirio guessed that he lost Aizawa when he phased through the floors of the hospital.

“This is bad!” Mirio whispered, trying hard to restrain his quirk and stumbling in the direction where he saw Aizawa last.

However, with another loss of sensation that plunged him into wordless darkness, Mirio found himself on the third floor…

Specifically, Mirio found himself on the third floor in Eri’s room, she was staring at the wall curiously and it made him relieved that she had not noticed him as yet.

After all, he was currently naked.

The last person he wanted to see in his unstable state was Eri because he knew how much she would blame herself as a result.

Eri had already been through so much and Mirio didn’t want her to experience another day of sadness in her entire life.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Mirio shouted with all his might, activating his strengthened quirk to its limits before Eri could spin around and look at his sorry state.

Crack

Mirio heard something akin to a glass shattering, and then his senses went blank but instead of feeling the usual sensation of falling that accompanied his quirk, Mirio experienced the sensation of sliding across countless barriers, going deeper and deeper into dangerous territory.

He desperately tried to stop his quirk but it seemed that his quirk was resigned to go until exhaustion

Mirio drifted for what felt like a couple of seconds and when he reopened his eyes, he was in the middle of Times Square, New York City.

Everyone nearby snapping pictures of his body for some reason…

The only problem being…

“Hey, you!” A Police Officer yelled, tackling Mirio to the ground. “You’re under arrest for indecent exposure!”

Mirio glanced down at his body and noticed that he was absolutely naked. It wasn’t the first time such a thing happened, but he felt strangely uncaring for the world around him.

He felt nothing was worth his time - he wanted to indulge in women before he finally died from old age. He was absolutely, irrevocably depressed to the utmost.

It was at that moment Mirio noticed two things:

One – He could not feel his quirk at all…

Two – For the first time since he was six years old, Mirio didn’t want to be a hero at all…