Archive of Our Own

Izuku Midoriya really wishes All Might had warned him that One for All would make him insane.
Izuku’s not really that angry, after all, he had read somewhere that every great hero eventually gets listed as clinically insane.

Izuku had always thought that it was more of a, “rushing headlong into danger,” type of insane rather than “constantly hearing seven voices,” type of insane but maybe he was mistaken.

Still...

The voices are incredibly distracting. 

Izuku thinks nothing of them when they start, indistinguishable from the hubbub of conversation on the train to UA. His attention is more focused on keeping down All Might's hair and the imminent entrance exam. 

The voices spike as he crosses the famed UA barrier, and Izuku trips. 

“You feel it right? We’re someone new.”

Midoriya is so preoccupied with the voices that he barely notices the kind girl who keeps him from falling and wishes him good luck. 

“Maybe there’s someone with a rogue psychic quirk around,” Izuku mutters as he falls into the herd of humanity heading to the exam rooms, unconvinced with his own excuse, “that’s got to be it.”

By the time he sits in front of a stack of paper and begins his written exam Izuku can deny it no longer. This is One for All’s fault. 

He can feel this gifted power buzzing faintly in his bones, safe and warm, but it’s the voices’ murmured conversation, full of dropped words like ‘stockpile’, ‘transfer’, and ‘Toshinori’ that gives it away. 

The voices are midway through a banal argument that Izuku tries to ignore, focusing instead on his entrance exam, when their tones begin to rise. Increasing in annoyance and volume. 

He clenches his teeth, scribbling down the answer to a math problem but it’s just too much. 

“Will you guys please,” Izuku stresses as another burst of conversation bounces around his skull, spiking a headache, “Just shut up.”

The sudden silence is almost louder than the previous clamor, and Izuku can actually hear the muffled sounds of the UA entrance exam room for the first time since he started the written test.

“He…” The moment stretches like a pool of water before him, undisturbed and mirror-smooth as a shocked voice asks, “He can hear us?”

Like a rock thrown in that pool, the moment shatters and shouts ripple out. 

“Holy shit!”

“What’s happening?”

“Seven, could Yagi hear us?” One of them, his calm and steady voice undercut with excitement, asks, “Could he hear you?”

“No, Toshinori couldn’t,” the first voice, a woman who feels… familiar responds, a hopeful tint to her confident tone, “Four, this is new.” 

Izuku’s headache spikes even worse as the voices begin to shout, their excitement growing. 

“Quiet,” a new voice commands, soft and low but with an underlying note of steel, “let Nine focus.”

“Sorry, First,” the remaining six voices chorus with various levels of sincerity. 

“Is this your entrance exam,”  the woman asks as Midoriya rubs the bridge of his nose. 

“ -knew you could do it, Toshi,” a gloved hand ruffles the blond kid's hair, “You’ll become the symbol the world needs-”

“It is,” Izuku responds, his head spinning, “To UA’s hero course.”

-A man in a military uniform stands in front of a crowd. Back ramrod straight and gaze firm as he lectures them. 

“This is your last chance to be something more. To put these meta powers to use for good. This brand new program will turn you from vigilantes to heroes. 

The word sweeps the crowd, faces he’s used to seeing fighting on the street whispering to each other, the air electric. “Don’t let me down-“

Izuku shakes his head, trying to clear it of the memories that aren’t his. 

“What was that,” he bites out, “Who- who are you all? Why are you in my head?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Izuku can practically see the smirk on her face, “My name is Nana Shimura and we’re the former holders of One for All.”

Izuku’s jaw drops, drawing the attention of the exam proctors as Nana finishes, “Or at least their imprints.”

“Ah that’s it,” Midoriya thinks, waving off the concern of one of Ectoplasm's clones, “I must have died when All Might gave me One for All. It probably blew me to pieces and I’m lying on Dagobah beach.”

Izuku does his best to direct the mental image of an exasperated glare at Nana.

“No. That’s not obvious,”   Izuku might sound a bit hysterical as he tunes out the exam room and focuses on the seven beings crowding his head but he doesn’t care, “Because quirks don’t carry imprints or ghosts or whatever you people are.”

“Who you calling a ghost, punk?!”

“Daigoro shut up,”  Five hisses. 

“Quirks can’t be transferred either,” Seven, Nana apparently, says smugly, “and yet here we are.”

Izuku can’t really argue that point so he presses for more information. 

“So if this is One for All why didn’t All Might tell me about this?”

“Toshinori couldn't do this,” Nana says with the mental equivalent of a shrug. 

“Then why can I?”

It's the fourth user who responds, “One for All stockpiles everything, willpower, energy, quirks, and us. It’s finally picked up enough power to manifest us.”

“You’re talking about the quirk singularity theory,” Izuku realizes, fiddling with his pencil, “Right?”

“Eh, you can call it that,” Four waves off, “it doesn’t matter why, only that we’re here.”

“You’re losing time on your test,” Nana points out, jolting Midoriya out of his head. 

It takes a moment for Izuku to refocus and when he does he realizes that fifteen minutes had passed while he was wrapped up in his head. Fifteen minutes that should have been spent on the written exam he is now falling behind on. 

“Shit,” he mutters, loud enough to be shushed by the proctors. 

Izuku stutters out an apology and tries to drag his focus back to his test. 

It doesn’t work. 

The holders keep talking, it’s quieter but no less distracting. Between the conversation bouncing around his head and his own thoughts whirling Izuku can barely make out the numbers of the math question in front of him. 

“Let him focus,” the voice that had ordered the others earlier, First, repeats. 

After a moment, blessedly, the former holder’s conversation peters out, sliding into soft murmurs and whispers just behind his attention. 

Izuku can’t help his sigh of relief. 

“The answer to that question is 42,” someone whispers. 

Midoriya barely resists the urge to slam his head into the desk. 

“Number thirteen is wrong,” Five tacks on. 

“Isn’t this cheating,” Midoriya groans as he wrestles down the urge to scream in frustration, “it feels wrong.”

“I’d call it a creative use of your resources,” Five quips, “Besides, it’s not cheating if you don’t get caught.”

“I’d argue that the fact that you can get caught makes it cheating,” Izuku points out. 

“Stop corrupting Nine,” Nana chides the others. 

“There’s no rules against us helping you,” Five grumbles. 

“How do you know that?”  

“You read the rules and were in your head, punk,” Five manages to convey a mental eye roll, “Figure it out.”

“You guys can see my thoughts, my memories?”

“For all intents and purposes, we’re you, kid,” it’s Four who responds, “One for All is your quirk, and we’re just along for the ride.”

The rest of the test goes quickly, between his intense study habits and the former holder’s help Izuku is handing in his papers to an Ectoplasm clone and wandering to the auditorium in less than an hour. 

Izuku doesn’t notice the weird looks he gets as he wanders down the halls, eyes glazed and face vacant as he converses mentally with the holders. Before he knows it, he’s sitting down next to Bakugou and waiting for the practical exam’s instructions to start. 

Midoriya ignores Bakugou’s glare as he sinks into conversation with the former users. The fifth, Diagoro, promises to keep an eye on Present Mic’s instructions while he talks. 

“You haven’t used One for All yet, right?”

“No,” Izuku tells Nana, “I just got it this morning.”

Remembering what they had said earlier, he asks, “I thought you guys know what I know? Shouldn’t you have known that?”

“We have your knowledge as well as ours,” Nana shrugs, “but it’s rude to go digging around in your head. Maybe. I think.”

“You don’t sound very confident,” Midoriya points out. 

“This is new for us too.”

“That’s fair,” Izuku concedes, “you were talking about One for All?”

“Right,” Nana replies, “I should probably hand this over to Four, he had One for All the longest so he’s probably the best for this.”

Izuku feels a shift as one of the men from before starts talking. 

“We decided to have one person at a time talk,” Four says, answering Izuku’s question before he can ask it, “that way it doesn’t overwhelm you.”

“Thanks for that. Headaches suck.”

“You have no idea kid,” Four chuckles mirthlessly. 

“Anyways, we should work so One for All doesn’t blow your bones up the first time you activate it.”

“That’s an option!?” Izuku’s mental shout is depressingly squeaky, “I thought my training with All Might was supposed to prevent that?”

“Your training with All Might allows you to hold our quirk without blowing your limbs off. But One for All is an unimaginable well of power. Trying to use too much is dangerous.”

“Then how-“

“Cut this short Four,” Diagoro cuts in, “someone’s talking to you, Nine.”

Midoriya drags himself back to attention just as a tall boy with glasses finishes scolding him.

“It is disrespectful to ignore Present Mic,” the stern-faced teen shouts. Izuku has to ignore one of the holders muttering, “Presentation Michael,” as the scolding continues. 

“UA applicants should be taking this seriously!”

Izuku opens his mouth like a fish, unable to come up with anything to say as the interrupter bows ninety degrees and sits back down. 

“Wow,” Four says, “ he seems uptight.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Diagoro mutters, “I’d call it having a stick up his ass.”

“Language, Five.”

Izuku has to choke back his laughter as the holders bicker, settling into his seat as Present Mic finishes the presentation.

It’s nice, Izuku thinks as he boards the bus, having people who will listen to him. Even if they are in his head. 

He knows he must look a little strange, eyes semi-vacant and attention elsewhere, considering the looks the other hero hopefuls are shooting at him, but Izuku doesn't care.

The former holders slip into easy conversation, drawing him in with easy comments and little jokes. There's none of the deriding and jeering that he’s used to at school, no pointless hate and discrimination sent his way. He can feel his confidence slowly rising as time goes on, a small smile flitting across his face. 

“The first step to controlling our power is to access One for All.” 

“How do I do that if it’s gonna blow me apart?”

“Access it,” Four says with a mental eye roll, “I didn't say anything about using it.”

“What’s the difference?” 

“Movement, mostly,” Four replies, “Close your eyes.”  

Izuku shrugs and leans against the bus that took them to the practical exam site. Everyone is milling around and waiting for the start of the exam. Thankfully no one is paying too much attention to him so he follows Four’s instructions. 

“Do you feel that?” Four's voice is little more than a whisper, quiet and reverent, “that warmth in your core, our power?

As he searches inside of himself Izuku finds it. 

Deep inside a ball of power sits, thrumming at the base of his spine. He reaches out, touches it, and is instantly overwhelmed. 

His skin buzzes as Izuku brushes against infinity, power humming in his bones as the universe crackles at his fingertips. 

The scale of his quirk dwarfs him, a never-ending well of power that stretches out before him, arrayed beneath his feet.

Vertigo nearly overwhelms him as he stands on the cliff, on the precipice of One for All. 

The power calls to him, it calls, it calls, like a half-forgotten memory. 

Tears prick at the edges of his closed eyes but Izuku doesn’t notice, he can feel it tugging at him, coaxing him to the depths of infinity. 

“Let go,” this power whispers, soft and sweet, “accept this part of you and soar.”

It should scare him but it doesn’t. It wraps him like a cloak and leaves him warm and protected. 

“Follow it’s pull,” Four says, “we’ll see you on the other side.”

Izuku stretches out for that power and let’s it sweep him off his feet. 

One for All tugs him through an infinite void. Shadows nip at his fingers and lips as he hurtles down towards a tiny light in the distance. 

Eight blinding colors whirl out of the darkness and spin around him, settling on his shoulders and in his soul like old friends. 

“Don’t worry,” they whisper, the soft voices of the holders reaching his ears, “Go toward the light.” 

“Isn’t that typically the opposite of what you want to do,” Izuku tries to say, but his mouth is gone, wreathed in the same shadow that makes up the rest of this world. 

“Shut up kid,” Nana says, hearing him anyways, “You’re almost there.”

He looks up to see that the pinprick of light has grown. 

Before he can blink Izuku slips through it into blinding light. 

Izuku’s heart leaps into his throat as he falls, slamming into soft sand with a grunt. 

When he finally blinks the spots out of his eyes Izuku looks up to see an ocean stretching out for miles, multicolored mist at its edges. 

“Where…” His voice is shaky, but Izuku thinks he can’t really be blamed for that. This whole thing has been one hell of an experience. 

“Where am I?

“This is One for All.”

Izuku spins to see eight shadowy figures ringed behind him, each with a ball of light in their chest. 

As Izuku recognizes Four’s voice as the former holder steps forward and asks, “Don’t you recognize it?”

It’s hard to tear his eyes away from the shades of the former holders but Izuku manages to eventually and observes his semi-familiar surroundings. 

It takes Izuku a moment, but recognition strikes. 

“This is Dagobah,” he mutters in confusion, “Why is One for All Dagobah beach?

“One for All tends to manifest as someplace special to you,” Four explains, sprawling down in the sand next to him, “A place where you feel comfortable or at home.”

-An endless forest stretches across the horizon, impossibly wild and deep-

-A makeshift obstacle course made of scrap metal and determination. Well-worn paths practiced again and again. The air so heavy you can taste it-

-a home filled with trinkets and photos. A fluffy blanket that warms you to the core. Someone’s humming in the kitchen and comfort burns inside-

Izuku surfaces from the cascade of memories with a gasp. 

“What was that?”

“That was us,” Four shrugs.

“That was our One for All and this,” his shadowy hand gestures to the beach, “is yours.”

“This is just Dagobah though, I don’t understand?”

The hair on the back of Izuku’s neck stands up and he has to suppress a shudder. 

“Take a look at the ocean,” Four says, something buzzing in the air, ”and tell me what you feel.”

The ocean breathes, water lapping at the beach that he’s walked thousands of times. The waves roll in time to the beating of his heart and swell with a power power power that sends shivers down his spine. Midoriya understands. 

“You are on the cusp,” Fours says as Izuku sits in quiet rapture, “you can feel One for All buzzing in your soul. It would be easy, so easy, to let it drag you into its depths and lose yourself to our power.”

Izuku can practically taste it, ozone on his tongue and static in his bones as he sits, listening to the call of that intoxicating power. 

He sways, leaning forward before Four’s voice cuts through his reverie. 

“Losing yourself to One for All will destroy you.” 

Izuku blinks rapidly, swallowing past his suddenly dry throat, “What do you mean?”

“One for All is more powerful than you can even imagine,” Four says. 

“I mean, I’ve seen All Might,” Midoriya replies, “I can imagine a lot.”

“One for All in its current state, in you, is more powerful than it was in All Might,” Four drops that bomb nonchalantly, “It will keep growing as you do. 

“That’s… hard to imagine,” Izuku says, looking down at his hands. He’s seen All Might change the weather with a single punch, decimate villains with a flick of his finger, and perform feats beyond superhuman. To think that he will be capable of that and more? It blows his mind. 

“You won’t be able to control it.”

Four chuckles at Izuku’s worried look, “Quirks are like muscles and you’ve never used it before. Your body isn’t used to it, using full power will likely shatter you.”

“How do I get past that,” Midoriya asks desperately, he’s not sure how long they’ve been in this dreamscape, but he knows that the exam is starting soon. 

“How do I use One for All?”

Four raises his arm and Midoriya watches as it begins to solidify. 

For a brief moment, he sees a lean man with white hair and dark vivid cracks across his face before the former holder is covered in shadow once again.  

The man’s extended arm seems to bulge, glowing energy crackling across its skin. 

“You need to start at the lowest level of output you can hold,” Four says, eyes glued to Midoriya’s, “and slowly work your way up.”

Izuku watches as the glow intensifies and he feels something in the air, something running beneath his skin. 

He opens his mouth to ask another question but a voice cuts through the dreamscape. 

“Excuse me! You are being incredibly disrespectful!”

Iida isn’t sure what he’s expecting when he goes to scold the examinee who appears to be taking a nap against the bus. An apology or an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, Iida was prepared for but not... this.

He knows Tensei would tell him to lighten up a little, but he is anxious about the practical exam- not that he’d ever admit it- so he falls back into what he knows best. Rules. 

“If you aren’t going to take this test seriously then you should go home,” Iida tells the green-haired teen, arms chopping the air as he marches up to him, “It’s disrespectful to the other examinees to-“

Tenya chokes. Stumbling back as the teen’s eyes snap open, glowing green irises pinning him to the concrete. 

He can’t breathe, pressure fills the air as the teen straightens up, kicking off of the bus.

Tenya’s heart pounds as he panics, the feeling of a predator stalking toward him contrasts with the feeling of safety as that pressure, that power, washes over him, the whiplash nearly sending him to the ground. 

Those glowing green eyes blink, and just as quickly as the pressure hits Tenya it vanishes, the glow fading from the teen’s eyes.

Iida sucks in air as he regains his composure.

“You're being rather rude.”

“What?” Iida’s head is still spinning from the whiplash that this teen is, barely registering his statement.

“You thought I was ignoring Present Mic and disrespecting the exam, right?” The green-haired teen’s eyes are slightly vacant as he speaks as if his attention is elsewhere.

Iida nods sharply.

“Didn’t you think that maybe I was preparing for the test,” the other teen asks, “Meditating? Preparing my quirk? I wouldn’t be the only one."

A lazy hand directs Iida’s attention to the other applicants, lingering on a boy who is flexing his quirk on and off, stone rippling across his skin, and a girl with her eyes shut and fingers steepled like she is praying.

“Why come after me rather than them?”

Iida doesn't have a good answer, not one beyond him being nervous and self-righteous and so full of his own shortcomings that he burns. But he opens his mouth anyway, to apologize and explain himself.

“You're right,” He bows his head, “I’m sor-”

“BEGIN!”

Both of their heads snap up as Present Mic shrieks.

“What are you waiting for,” the voice hero shouts, pumping his fist, “There are no countdowns in real life. Go! Go! Go!” 

Iida’s engines rev as he realizes that the test has begun, and he joins the rest of the applicants in sprinting for the gates of the mock city.

He spares one last glance back as he crosses the threshold and Iida catches sight of the teen he had scolded, still standing at the start line, his eyes down as green begins to crackle across his legs.

Izuku watches as the rest of the applicants pull away from him, the crowd of a hundred teenagers scrambling for points in a city full of robots. 

“Okay,” he mutters, casting his attention back to One for All, “let’s give this a shot.”

Reaching deep inside, Izuku draws One for All out. 

He feels energy burn into his legs as he steps into that infinite ocean. 

He lets the power swell, lapping at his feet as electric green sparks shower from his skin.

It’s electric, it’s overwhelming, but after a moment Izuku wrestles his power back till it's simmering beneath his skin. 

“Here goes nothing,” he tells the former holders as he crouches to leap forward. 

“Kid, wait!”

Nana’s shout reaches Izuku just as he pushes off, but it’s too late. 

The hold he has on One for All slips just a little bit, but it’s just enough for him to lose control. 

He struggles against the current, straining against that overwhelming power but despite his best efforts Izuku is pulled under and swept away by the riptide, deep into the ocean of One for All as 100% slams into his legs. 

One for All detonates on the pavement with the force of a bomb as Izuku hurtles through the air, leaving a crater in his wake. 

Izuku passes the other examinees in an instant as One for All flickers off, soaring above the city in an arc. 

Something flutters in his core as Izuku nears the apex of his jump, as he crosses that split second between rising and falling that feels like flying. 

The ground grows bigger as Izuku transitions to falling and he lands roughly, slamming into the ground near the center of the city and rolling to a stop in an empty intersection. 

His legs burn as he stumbles to his feet, and when Midoriya looks at his calves beneath his workout clothes he has to suppress a gag at the sight of mottled purple skin and burst blood vessels. 

A delicate step lets him know that his legs aren’t broken, but it’s a close thing. 

“What happened,” he asks the holders.

It takes a moment for someone to respond, a moment that drops a pit in his stomach, but eventually, Nana speaks up. 

“Don’t do that again kid,” her voice is staticky and echoey as if it had been filtered through an old radio halfway across the world, “You lost control.”

“I’m sorry,” Midoriya apologizes. “Why didn’t my bones explode?”

“We managed to filter One for All.” It's Four who responds, sounding exhausted, “We held back enough power that you didn’t disintegrate your bones.”

“You can do that?”  

“We weren’t sure,” Nana says, “and I’m not sure if we can do that again any time soon.”

“Okay,” Midoriya mutters to himself, “I can’t rely on the holders, I have to control this power.”

“What did you do wrong?” It’s Five who asks the question this time but Izuku isn’t sure of his answer.

“I don’t know.”

Five grumbles something about reckless punks before he asks, “Then what did you do?”

Midoriya outlines the sequence of events leading to him losing control, and after a moment of conferring with the other holders Five speaks up. 

“You were being stupid,” he growls, “that’s what went wrong.”

“Shut up, Daigoro,” Nana cuts Five off, “Ignore him, kid, he means well he’s just a sourpuss.”

“He’s right,” Izuku shakes his head, “I lost control, I can’t do that.”

“Then let’s fix it,” Nana says, “You tried to keep One for All localized to your legs, that was what went wrong.”

Izuku paces around the intersection, limping slightly as he listens to Nana’s instructions. 

“Localizing One for All is like trying to force the ocean into a plastic bottle,” she says, “you might be able to get some water in, but if you try to hold too much the bottle is going to pop.”

Diagoro makes a popping noise that makes Izuku flinch as he tacks on, “Popping is breaking bones, kid.”

“Yeah,” Izuku snarks, “I got that.”

“So how do you fix it then,” Nana cuts in, “You’re a smart kid, how do you fit an ocean in a bottle?”

“ You can’t,” Izuku says out loud, head cocked as he thinks and listens to the sound of robots and applicants getting nearer. 

“ There’s no way to fit the entirety of an ocean into a bottle,” he mutters. 

“Kid.”

“ Trying to limit the amount of power, or water in this analogy, could work in the short term but that relies entirely on my control which isn’t the best at the moment.”

“Kid!”

“The receptacle, in this case, one limb, is too small,” Izuku mutters over Nana’s shout, engrossed in his analysis, “ so the only way to get around both the control issue and the amount I can use would be to increase the size of the bottle or in this case the area I’m using One for All in which means that if I use One for All across all of my body at once I should be able to controls it better and use a slightly higher percentage as I-”

“KID!”

“Huh?”

Izuku breaks out of his analysis as Nana’s shout cuts through his wall of muttering. 

“What’s… oh.”

Izuku is standing in the middle of the intersection he crashed into but he is no longer alone. 

Villain-bots surround him, probably a dozen one and two-pointers are circled around the intersection and him. There’s a three-pointer in front of him, much bigger than it had looked on the presentation, with one olive drab arm cocked back.

“Oh shi-“

Glass breaks, cement crumbles, and rebar shatters as the three-pointer backhands Midoriya through a building. 

One for All flares around him, power crackling along his entire body as he slams into one too many walls and comes to a sudden stop. 

“Ow.”

“You’re lucky that One for All gives you some increased durability, kid,” Nana says, faint worry evident in her voice, “Otherwise that would have hurt.” 

Izuku somehow manages to wheeze mentally as he pulls himself out of the wall, hair white with concrete dust as cracked roofing tiles and stones shower him, “It did hurt.”

“ Not as bad as it could have,”   Diagoro, points out as he picks his way through several Izuku-shaped holes in the building, “You sounded like you have One for All figured out though?”

“Yeah,” Izuku stops just before the wall that separates him from the robots still outside, “I think I did.”

Reaching inside, Izuku lets the ocean of One for All swell, the current lapping up and over his bones and coating his entire body. 

Vein-like bands of red and gold surge across his skin as One for All flares, before fading slightly and settling down as Izuku wrestles control of his power, limiting its output to only the barest minimum to have it active. 

“Cool technique kid,” Five congratulates, echoed by the other users, “Got a name for it?”

Midoriya lets the power flare for a moment, gritting his teeth as green lightning and red bands cover his body, every inch of exposed skin glowing. 

“Full Cowling,” he says after a moment, letting One for All fade as the sense of rightness at the name washes over him, “One for All: Full Cowling.”

“Good,” Four chimes in, “You’ve got a name, but can you modulate your power?”

“I can,” Izuku nods, determination solidifying in his glowing eyes.

“You’ve got this kid,” Nana cheers. 

“Kick their ass,” Diagoro agrees as the other One for All holders chorus their encouragement. 

“Go Beyond, Nine,” the first user says as Izuku steps out of the building and back into the robot-infested intersection, “Make us proud.”

The fourth user calls time. 

“1 percent.”

Izuku ducks beneath a one-pointer’s swipe with Full Cowling active. One for All buzzing faintly as he lunges out of range faster than he should have been able to. 

“Two percent.”

Izuku’s return punch makes a dent in the robot’s armor and the flurry of follow-up strikes cave in the one-pointer’s chest, sparks flying as he wrenches his fist from the destroyed robot. 

“Three percent.”

Green and gold sparks are shedding off Izuku’s skin like a sparkler as he turns to face the crowd of villain bots, the noise from his attack drawing in the ones that had lost interest.  Their guns spin to action and rubber bullets trace Izuku’s steps as he races toward them. 

“Four percent.” 

The sparks sputter as Izuku sinks further into One for All, elongating and widening as he meets the blow from a two-pointer’s scorpion-like tail with a punch, stopping the dangerous appendage in place. 

As Izuku grabs the tail and slams it into a nearby one-pointer, the follow-up explosion destroys both robots. 

“Five percent.”

Izuku’s eyes glow as he rips off a robot’s arm, the spinning Gatling gun coming with it as his increased strength shears through the metal with a wrenching screech. The appendage arcs through the air before it slams into the three-pointer at the back of the crowd, the one that has put him through the building, and cracks its lense.

“Six percent.”

Izuku can’t help the exhilarated laugh that tears from his throat as he cuts through the crowd of robots. 

His knuckles are sore, his legs burn, and the taste of ozone and burnt medal coat his mouth but Izuku’s cheeks hurt from smiling. 

“If this is how All Might feels all the time,” Izuku thinks as he zips around a one-pointer too fast for it to keep up, “no wonder he never stops smiling.”

“Seven percent.”

A burst of One for All hurls Izuku into the air, and he slams down onto the shoulders of a two-pointer with a savage grin. His thighs clamp down on the robot's neck as he heaves, green lightning arcing off armored plates as he rips the robot’s head off. He leaps off easily as it sputters and crumples to the ground smoking, tossing the broken head behind him with a smirk. 

“Eight percent.”

Izuku thinks he’s somewhere around 15-20 points. He’s lost count between the exhilaration of using One for All, his focus on Full Cowling’s percentages, and the clamor of the previous users. There’s only one robot left from the crowd that had ambushed him, the hulking three-pointer at the end of the street, its cracked red eye glowing menacingly as it activates its rockets and stares him down. 

Izuku’s grin turns sharp as he meets its challenge, One for All buzzing across his skin. 

“Nine percent.”

Izuku stumbles as he tries to up his percentage again and immediately drops out of that ocean of power as pain spikes in his legs and arms, the energy leaving his body with a rush. 

“Keep at eight percent,” the fourth advises as he regains his footing, “ At least until your body has gotten used to your new power.”

“Got it.”

Izuku sidesteps the first missile the three-pointer sends his way easily. 

Submerging himself into One for All he revs Full Cowling to eight percent and charges. 

One for All hums as he spins out of the way of the second missile, zigzagging across the pavement in a blur of sparkling green as he punches the three-pointer, leaving a man-sized dent in its thick armor. 

“Duck!”

Izuku ducks beneath a swipe that would have knocked him out, sending silent thanks to Nana for her warning as he lunges behind a light pole. 

The three-pointer’s punch shears through the light pole like butter to his surprise. 

“This thing is not kidding around,” he mutters, One for All crackling in his legs as he jumps over the next punch and closes with the robot.

“Guess I shouldn’t be either.”

Punch after punch pound massive divots into the robot’s armor, eight percent of One for All cracking and denting the thick metal as Izuku wails on it. 

“I need more power,” he mutters, “these things are meant to be sturdy.”

A powered swipe of his leg knocks it off balance, but one of its legs blurs with speed, accelerating to prop it up before it can fall. 

Izuku grins as that gives him an idea. 

Turning and dashing away from the robot, Izuku dodges around the missiles it sends after him as Nana calls them out, his back turned as he kicks off the curb and jumps into the air. 

Soaring over the robot, Izuku spins into a crescent kick, his heel in a devastating arc headed right for the three-pointer’s head. 

In the instant before impact, Izuku increases the percentage of One for All in his leg to 12%. The extra force slams into the three-pointers head and crumples it like a tin can. 

A gust of wind blows and the robot’s head is jammed into its body as it crumples, falling to the ground with a whine. 

His leg smarts, but the increased force and the silent approval from the holders make it worth it. 

“That was smart,” Four says as Izuku catches his breath, looking over the wrecked street and the scrap metal leftovers of the dozen robots he had destroyed. 

“Thanks,” Izuku replies as he shakes some shrapnel out of his shirt, “I needed the extra oomph and I’m glad that worked, I think that’s as high as I can go for now though.”

“I wouldn’t go above eight except for an instant,” Four agrees, “not till your body gets used to higher percentages.”

“Right,” Izuku directs his attention to the other holders, “Any thoughts?”

“You’re doing good on a flat plane,” Nana says, “and you should definitely use your legs more. They’re stronger than your arms and All Might’s boxing style of fighting doesn’t suit you well.”

“You’re built for more dynamic movement,” Diagoro agrees, “Speed and strength are great and all but you need to think three-dimensionally.”

“How do I do that?”

-A black-haired woman spins in the air, cape fluttering as she pushes Float to it's limit and chases after a winged man covered in scales- 

-She watches as Sorahiko bounces from building to building, white cape flowing as his yellow boots slam into a villain made of metal. He ricochets like a bullet, each point of contact pushing him faster and faster till he’s a yellow blur, nearly too fast for her eyes to track-

-Daigoro swings towards the sky, blackwhip trailing behind him as he comes hurtling down, slamming into the shoulders of a giant-

Izuku stumbles as he comes back to the present, sliding out of the former holder’s memories. 

“Okay,” Izuku shakes his head, learning his mind as he jumps in place, shaking out his limbs as green lighting fills his muscles, “let’s give this a shot.”

It turns out that moving in three directions is much harder than in two. 

Izuku has mostly managed to replicate the movements of the hero from Nana’s memories, tossing in some of Nana and Diagoro’s moves for good measure and incorporating them into Full Cowling, but one look at him and his shredded clothes and you can tell that it wasn’t easy. 

Izuku lands next to some broken robots on a busy stretch of street where a trio of applicants are fighting villain-bots. 

One for All simmers down as he shakes broken glass out of his hair. 

A two-pointer notices him and turns away from the other applicants to attack, rubber bullets tracing a line on the asphalt towards Midoriya. 

Power crackles as a kick catapults a scrap of broken robot in between him and the bullets and Izuku wastes no time going on the counter-attack. 

Eight percent of One for All slams into his makeshift shield and sends it hurtling toward the two-pointer. 

The robot bats it out of the way but Izuku is right behind it.

A clumsy kick caves in its knee before he's bouncing away, springboarding off of another robot and leaping for the two-pointer. 

A crackling fist caves in its head with a punch and Izuku wastes no time turning to the next robot, tearing through it and the robots surrounding the trio of examinees with vicious punches and clumsy kicks. 

“I really need to learn more kick-based fighting styles,”   Izuku grumbles as he rips his hand out of the last robot’s chest, sending it crumpling to the ground, “I really suck at this.”

“Thanks for the save, bro!”

Izuku turns and looks at the boy who spoke to him, black hair hangs low over bright eyes and sharp teeth, the boy's skin is rocky and jagged like stone. 

“Maybe it’s some kind of hardening quirk,”   Midoriya thinks, eyes sweeping the other two applicants who seem worse for wear, “that would explain why he seems less injured.” 

“That was a great guess, bro,” the shark-toothed man says, “I can harden my skin like a rock.”

“Ah,” Izuku blinks, ignoring the chuckles of the former holders, “I said that out loud didn’t I? Sorry.”

“No worries man,” the other teen waves off, “it’s good you got here when you did, I’m not sure how much longer I could’ve kept those villain-bots off of these two.”

“I’m sure you’d have managed,” Izuku says, looking over the pair he had mentioned. 

Covered in dust, scratches, and bruises the boy and girl look terrified and overwhelmed.

“They’re shaking,” Five observes, “That Present Mic dude said there’s a spot near the entrance where you can exit the test early if you want to. ”

Izuku relays Diagoro’s message, ignoring Nana’s teasing, “Aww Five you’re a big softy.”

Tuning out the holders, Izuku turns to the shark-toothed boy as they watch the pair stumble off. 

“You alright?”

“I’m fine,” the other teen waves off, taking deep breaths as he straightens up, “my quirk makes it hard to breathe while it’s activated, and I had to run quickly to protect those two so I’m kinda out of breath.”

“Fifteen minutes left,” Present Mic screams as Izuku nods.

“We should get moving,” the other teen says, hardening his forearms, “I’m not sure how many points I missed out on protecting those two, but it was worth it.”

“Mood,” Izuku can relate, he’d have more points but he has to keep rescuing idiots from themselves. Between pushing people out of the way of fallen debris, damaging robots to give people space just for them to get taken by other people, and dragging people away from applicants using their quirks recklessly he’s barely managed to pick up five points since figuring out movements with Full Cowling. 

It takes a moment for them to spot the nearest cluster of robots, around three blocks away. 

Izuku glances at the boy next to him, “Can you harden your entire body?”

“Yeah bro, why?”

One for All hums as Izuku lifts up a price of rubble the size of the other teen, tossing it up and down easily as he crooks an eyebrow at him, “Want a boost?”

Realization and a spark of excitement spark in his eyes as the other teen realizes what he means. 

“Oh hell yeah bro,” he hardens his entire body, slamming two rocky fists into each other, “Let’s do this!”

A twelve percent burst of One for All sends Kirishima, as the other teen had introduced himself as, hurtling through the air towards a cluster of robots. 

Izuku watches with amusement as Kirishima screams, “Manly!” Hardening himself and slamming into the robots with a shower of dust and sparks. 

Judging by the crashing of metal and shouts the other teen is fine so Izuku dashes off in the other direction, green lightning, a cloud of dust, and the taste of ozone left in his wake. 

Izuku bounces around a corner like a high-powered pinball. He ricochets off of the side of a four-story building and slams into a two-pointer feet first, punching through its armor and coming out the other side. 

He grabs an examinee by their shirt and yanks them back as a missile passes through where they were standing.

Izuku pushes off with a burst of One for All. 

A bench, the wall, and another robot blur by as he bounces between surfaces, springing off and increasing his momentum. 

Izuku latches onto a street light, ripping it from the ground as he leaps into the air-

-Diagoro snatches up a railing, Blackwhip curling around it - as Nana falls toward her target. The massive stone spike pulled backward as she throws it - forward, Izuku’s arm crackling with power as he drives the pole through the three-pointer, reducing it to scrap-

-Izuku lands in the wreckage. One for All humming comfortably on his shoulders as he steps forward, shaking bits of metal out of his clothes. 

The memories of the former holders seem to blend with his when he uses One for All. It’s… disconnecting, but also comforting, knowing he has their experience to fall back on if necessary. 

“ I don’t suppose any of you know how many points I have, do you?”

The former holders all murmur various negatives. 

“We’ve been more focused on you and One for All,” Nana says sheepishly, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Izuku sighs, running a hand through his messy hair and frowning when a spring falls out, “I guess I’ll just have to get enough that there’s no doubt I’ll get in.”

“That’s the spirit, kid,” Nana says as he leaps back into battle, “Plus Ultra!”

Izuku slams into the ground and tumbles, rolling to a stop on his back. 

His head falls back with a groan as he lets Full Cowling fade, “Ow.”

“Yeah, you need to work on your footwork,” Five says as he catches his breath, “that’s not something we can do during this exam but we can run you through some drills afterward.”

“That’s fair.”

“You need to get up now, though, Midoriya,” Nana adds on when he doesn’t get up.

“Don’t wanna,” Izuku mumbles, letting his aching muscles rest for a moment as he lies in the middle of the destroyed street, “m’comfy.”

“You’re in the middle of an exam-“

“Look out!”

Izuku rolls to his side on instinct, narrowly avoiding the fist of a three-pointer that slams into the ground where his chest was. 

He spins to his feet, One for All wreathing his limbs as a laser lances out from the person who had shouted, burning a line across his vision and punching a hole through the three-pointer. 

The robot staggers backward, and Izuku reaches inside the gaping hole with a crackling fist, unleashing a blast and destroying the robot. 

“Are you alright, monsieur?”

Izuku looks up at the blonde man jogging towards him, confused at the french sprinkled into his question. 

“I’m fine,” Izuku says, taking in the other boy’s odd expression and giant metal belt. A focusing lens sits near his midriff and after a moment Izuku realizes that that is where the laser had come from. 

“Not the weirdest thing I’ve seen,” he thinks. 

“But still weird,” Diagoro points out.

“I was worried that you were caught unawares,” the blonde tells him, doing an odd sort of twirl before turning back to Izuku, “but it seems that you were more than capable, oui?”

“...Oui.”

“Is this dude French??”

“Shut up, Four.”

Izuku looks at the blonde and then at the robot his laser had decimated, an idea forming in his head. 

Gesturing between the wreckage and the Frenchman's belt, he asks, “How many robots do you think you could punch through with that thing?” 

“For you, monsieur,” the other teen smiles, “enough.”

“Hold still then,” Izuku instructs, ignoring his strange behavior, “I’ll prepare the shooting gallery.”

“Shooting gallery? What do you mean,” The other teen asks as green power crackles over Midoriya’s skin, but Izuku is gone before he can finish his question. 

It takes Midoriya about a minute to get a crowd of robots trailing behind him as he rockets through the mock city’s streets, bouncing from floor to wall to roof to avoid their projectiles. 

By Izuku’s best estimate there are about fifteen different robots of various worths hot on his heels as he rounds the corner. 

Izuku hurtles onto the street he left the blonde teen at, his legs pumping and power thrumming at his fingertips. 

“Incoming!” 

Izuku sees the foreign-ish teen’s eyes widen as he sees the absurd number of robots barreling down the street after Midoriya, comprehension dawning as he realizes the plan.

“Duck!”

The second the blonde’s voice reaches him Izuku’s back hits the ground, skidding into a slide as the navel laser fires. 

The air warps in front of Izuku before the laser rips a seam in it, singeing his face as it zaps past, inches away from his skin. 

There’s an electric ripping noise as the laser impacts the horde of robots, punching through all of them and destroying several.

After a second the laser shuts off, and Izuku turns his slide into a spin, pushing off of the curb and tearing through the remaining robots that were weakened by the laser. The powerful blast from the blonde had destroyed half and One for All mops up the rest. 

“We make a good team,” the blonde says, clutching his stomach as he and Midoriya catch their breath, “Oui?”

“Oui,” Midoriya can’t help but laugh, clapping the blonde on his back as he giggles, “I’ll see you in the hero course, yeah?”

“Of course, monsieur,” the blonde calls out as Izuku runs off to find more robots, “À plus tard!”

“Why am I hurting so much,” Izuku asks Four as he slams a two-pointer into the ground, using its tail to pull it into a judo throw, “I’m not going over my limit.”

“Quirks are like muscles,” Four explains as Izuku takes on a pair of one-pointers, “And you just ran the equivalent of a marathon on brand new legs.”

“Ah,” Izuku says, “so because I’m not used to using One for All, the backlash is going to suck.”

“Basically, yeah,” Four shrugs mentally, “there’s not much you can do about it, only practice can build up your stamina.”

“Which is why you should probably take it easy, Midoriya,” Nana adds as he steps away from the wreckage of yet another robot, “there are only like five minutes left and you don’t want to push yourself too hard.”

“Plus ultra,” Midoriya says raggedly. 

“You know that doesn’t apply here,” Nana scolds, “I know Toshinori has talked to you about overworking yourself.”

“Yeah yeah,” Izuku grumbles, leaning against a crumbling building, “I think I’ve got enough points, so I’ll take it easy and stick to helping people.”

“Like that,” Daigoro cuts in, drawing his attention to the zero-pointer that erupts from nowhere, “Does that count?”

“What the actual fuck?” Midoriya watches in horror as the behemoth crushes a two-story building with one hand. 

“At least you don’t have to fight it,” Four says sympathetically, “Present Mic said you should just avoid it.”

Izuku takes a few steps away to do just that when a shout reaches his ears. 

“Help,” someone cries, desperate, “Help me!”

Izuku spins, One for All crackling to life as he looks for the source of the cry. 

There, at the base of the zero-pointer is a familiar girl struggling to limp away from the behemoth. 

His feet are moving before Izuku can even process it. Full Cowling swelling to eight percent as he sprints toward her. 

“She’s probably fine,” Four says, “UA isn’t going to let someone get crushed by their robot. There’s got to be fail-safes in place.”

Izuku watches as one of the robot’s massive feet swipes through the atrium of a skyscraper, taking out the support pillar on the corner and sending huge chunks of rubble flying. 

“They can’t plan for that,” Izuku grits his teeth as one chunk slams into the girl, pinning her legs as she strains to reach the massive piece of stone. 

“You’re right,” Four acknowledges as Izuku pours on the speed, “Go go go!”

Uraraka is panicking, she’s not ashamed to admit. 

She’s pinned down. 

Trapped in the path of a huge robot that is targeting her. 

Her struggle to escape the rubble pinning her is only serving to aggravate her very broken ankle and score new scrapes and cuts on her skin. 

No one seems to hear her cries for help and as the robot swipes at another building with its massive arm, sending a wave of rubble heading right at her, she can only think, “Mom, Dad, I’m so sorry.”

A massive chunk of building separates from the rest, the corner of the roof heading right for her. Uraraka can’t move, tears prick at the corners of her eyes as her death falls toward her.

All she can hear is the whirring of the robot, the screams of the other examinees, and… electricity?

Uraraka blinks as green fills her vision, power arcing through the rubble as a figure slams into the piece heading her way feet first, reducing it to gravel. 

The man, and that’s who it is, a man wreathed in lighting and force, spins into a kick. The air pressure from his kick pushes her hair back and scatters the remaining rubble, clearing the space above Uraraka. 

He lands between her and the zero-pointer with a thud. Electric green eyes pin her just as surely as the boulder does, and Uraraka nearly stops breathing as pressure fills the air. 

“Can you get up?”

Like a popped balloon, the pressure vanishes and Uraraka looks into the slightly vacant eyes of a freckled boy, his hand stretched out for her. 

“I’m pinned,” she stutters, only to watch as he lifts the boulder off of her and tosses it to the side like it's nothing. 

“Your ankle,” he mutters, barely audible as he takes in her injuries.

“It’s broken,” Uraraka confirms, “I think-“

Something catches her eye, flying at the back of his head, but before she can warn him with a shout it’s too late. 

His slightly vacant eyes snap into focus as the green-haired man spins into motion, his arm crackling with power as he languidly reaches up and catches the piece of rock that could have killed him. 

“Don’t worry,” he tells her, power thrumming in the air as he pins the zero-pointer with a glowing stare, “I’ll take care of this real quick.”

Uraraka watches in awe as energy pulses and he jumps into the air. 

The green ball of power rockets toward the zero-pointer, slamming into its treads and ricocheting off. 

Once, twice, three times, and then a dozen he leaps from surface to surface, each time rebounding to strike at the robot, each punch getting stronger and stronger. 

Uraraka watches as he blurs into a smear of green lightning, ripping a light pole out of the ground and wedging it into the robot's treads. 

He slams into the knee, cracking metal and sending the robot listing to the side. 

He bounces between the skyscraper and the robot, going higher and higher until he’s hanging in the air above the zero-pointer. 

Uraraka is vaguely aware of several dozen other students on the street watching in awe as he streaks downward, slamming into the robot’s shoulder and shearing the metal off with an ear-piercing shriek. 

The massive appendage slams into the ground with a cloud of dust and Uraraka watches as the green-haired teen walks out of the cloud, a tired smile on his face as he comes to her side and helps her to her feet. 

A gentle hand wraps around her wrist and pulls her arm over his broad shoulder, supporting her as they limp down the street.

The zero-pointer falls to its side behind them, kicking up a cloud of dust as it thrashes on the ground.

 Uraraka watches as the applicants around them get over their shock and begin mopping up the remaining robots, struggling to squeeze in more points as time comes to a close.

Her nausea spikes as her savior sets her gently down on a bench, slumping down beside her as she struggles to keep back her bile.

Her quirk backlash catches up to Uraraka, however, and she throws up onto the sidewalk next to them.

“Easy,” the green-haired teen’s voice is soft and nervous as he mechanically pulls her hair back, keeping it out of the way as if he is following instructions, “The test is almost over.”

“Thank you," Uraraka rasps, wiping off her mouth and ignoring the way her cheeks burn with embarrassment, “I’m Uraraka Ochako, what's your name?”

"It's no problem,” he smiles weakly, watching as the spasming zero-pointer sideswipes another piece of the skyscraper’s ground floor, “My name is Midoriya-”

A deafening crack echoes down the street, cutting him off as they turn to the source.

Rubble crumbles as cracks race up the side of the skyscraper at the end of the block, screeches and cracks echoing as metal and concrete shatter.

Uraraka is in the perfect spot to watch the building start to fall. 

She’s also in the perfect spot to watch horror and realization dawn on Midoriya’s face.

She’s in the perfect spot to see the way the air warps around him, shadows licking at his form as a blinding spark coats his skin. A beacon that flares brightly before his form flickers and Midoriya vanishes in a hurricane of force. 

Izuku feels the building start to fall more than he sees it.

Something tugs at him, dragging his attention to the end of the street as One for All surges and time seems to slow. 

He sees Uraraka’s eyes start to widen, horror flitting across her face as she turns. 

He hears the echoing cracks from the building, the twenty-story skyscraper that the zero-pointer tore through, as it starts to tilt. 

His eyes dart down the street as One for All flows and swells in his bones, the current nipping at his limbs stronger and stronger. 

There are probably fifty applicants on their street trying to mop up the remaining robots and squeeze in some extra points. 

He knows, knows that he won’t be able to get them out of the way in time, let alone Uraraka, not with the percentage of One for All he can safely use, not without injuring himself and them. 

The air warps around him as One for All’s energy grows in intensity. He hasn’t moved yet but it burns as he pushes it further. 

There’s only one option, one option that will let him save everyone. Izuku has to use One for All at its higher percentages. 

“Kid, are you sure about this,” Four asks as Izuku directs 100% of One for All to his legs, “This is going to hurt.”

“I know,” Izuku simply replies as he crouches, his form blurring. 

“No you don’t,” Four warns, voice getting staticky as One for All surges across their connection, “We’re not going to be able to filter 100% as we did before. This is going to take your full power. It's going to hurt a lot-”

“I get it,” Izuku cuts him off, gritting his teeth as pain spikes in his legs, “Plus ultra, right?”

Izuku surrenders to the flow, letting the riptide pull him under with open arms as he leaps forward and blurs out of sight. 

The concrete detonates behind him as Izuku blasts forward with impossible speed. 

He knows he broke something, each step hurts too much, microfractures widening as he pushes his body to the limit of how much One for All he can handle. 

“Demolition 101,” Diagoro says, voice faint and staticky as Izuku ricochets off the downed form of the zero-pointer with twelve percent Full Cowling, “The safest place for a building to fall is straight down.”

The building is leaning, Izuku realizes as he nears the structure. If it continues falling on its current trajectory it's going to destroy most of the street, and everyone in it. The only way he can stop that is to destroy the other three supporting corners.

He spins as he approaches the first corner, whirling into a crescent kick with 75% power. His shin slams into the massive pillar of concrete twice his size and shatters it. Shrapnel sprays as he demolishes the support beam with a single kick. 

A kick that also breaks his leg. 

Izuku screams as the bone snaps, frustration and pain melding as he pushes through it.

“Two more to go,” Nana says, worry clouding her tone, “Come on Izuku you've got this.”

One for All sparks erratically as he turns the recoil of his kick into a bounce, springboarding through the destroyed atrium of the skyscraper, rubble showering on him.

Full Cowling wreathes his limbs as he pushes off with 100%. Izuku’s foot breaks but he’s on a collision course with the next pillar at impossible speed. 

There's no room for error going this quickly. He can’t course-correct without coming to a stop and as the building groans and tilts, he knows that stopping isn't an option.

A wild haymaker destroys the pillar at the back, cracks forming on his forearm as Izuku pushes through the pain and rockets for the final corner.

“You're off course,” Diagoro warns as the pillar comes into view, “you're going to miss, punk.”

Izuku can see it, so he grits his teeth and feeds one hundred percent into the index finger of his injured arm. 

Moments before he passes the pillar Izuku flicks.

His finger shatters as an explosion of force and wind blasts him on course, slamming him through the final pillar and crushing it.

Izuku crashes through two remaining walls and out onto the street, concrete and plaster spraying from his exit hole in the skyscraper.

Izuku screams, back arching as darkness flickers at the edge of his vision. 

Every inch of his bones and muscles burn as Izuku pushes back his impending unconsciousness and heaves himself to his feet, faltering and nearly falling as he puts pressure on his broken leg.

A shadow crosses over his face.

Izuku looks up in horror as the falling skyscraper enters his vision.

“It didn't work,” he swears, the building falling at a lesser angle but still far out enough to hurt some examinees.

“It did,” Nana points out, drawing his attention to the collapsing bottom, “The top is still coming though.”

“I guess there's only one option,” his veins burn as Izuku submerges himself in One for All, letting the waves of power wash over him, “Overwhelming force it is.”

Full Cowling flickers to life and Izuku is gone. 

An anguished shout rips from his throat as he ricochets between buildings, ascending like a glowing bullet.

The voices of the other holders join him as Izuku nears the apex of his leap, coming perpendicular to the roof, screaming in defiance as the skyscraper and the entire city are laid out beneath him.

One for All sears his right arm as Izuku draws it back.

It pulses once, twice, three times as he feeds more and more power into it, wave after wave of that endless ocean of energy crashing and coalescing until his arm is shining, crackling with green lightning too bright to look at.

“It's time to go beyond,” Izuku says, a strange peace coming over him.

“Detrooooooit,” his shout echoes through the city, drawing every eye that isn't already pinned to him as Izuku begins to fall, “SMAAAASH!”

The air bends beneath the force of his punch as Izuku slams the full power of One for All into the skyscraper.

The twenty-story building crumples like a tin can, layer after layer of metal and concrete vaporizing as it collapses in on itself.

His arm hangs limply, flapping in the wind as he falls, the blowback from his final punch had shattered it.

The wind rushes past his face, tugging at his clothes and hair as Midoriya faintly notes that, thanks to his efforts, the building fell entirely in its own footprint, injuring no one.

He can’t hear the holders as he hurtles to the ground. 

For the first time since he started hearing their voices, they are silent, whether from exhaustion or something worse he doesn't know.

Izuku faintly recognizes that he's in shock, a strange calm that colors his vision and dampens his pain. He notes that the ground is approaching rather rapidly.

A shaky arm points his hand forwards and Izuku forces One for All to his finger in preparation for a blast. One last attempt slow his fall to a non-lethal speed.

He closes his eyes as he is about to fire off a blast of air, but before he can a small hand slaps his face and everything stops.

His momentum vanishes with his gravity.

Izuku opens his eyes to see the green-looking face of Uraraka where she floats next to him, gently lowering them to the ground.

The last thing Izuku hears as his back softly settles onto cracked cement and his eyes flutter shut is a voice.

The voice of the First Holder.

“Good job, Midoriya. We’re proud of you.”