Eight years ago...
UA's school canteen

"So... Uraraka... are you sure I can't convince you to..."

"It's okay, Iida" Uraraka smiled. "Hey, I heard you and Hatsume are going together! I"m glad, it looks like a plan."

"Yeah, a plan..." Iida sighed like a drama queen. He started to wonder if it would have been a good idea to be Hatsume's date at such a formal occasion, but after her inventions helped his brother walk again, it was impossible for him not to be nicer to the peculiar student. "I just hope she doesn't test one of her creations there. But... what I mean is... we are all going to be there. This is for our graduation after all."

"Oh, you know I'm not very good at dancing" Uraraka's joy was always like an armor to face everyday, but they had been friends for long, and Iida wouldn't be fooled. "And it's not like I have a date."

"Uraraka..." Iida said with all the care in the world. "I know last year's dance was a huge disappointment to you, but that shouldn't let you down tonight. Everyone will be happy to see you there."

"Mina has been trying to persuade me the whole week..." Uraraka sighed. Her friends were worried about her, and as much as she tried to keep it cool, after three years, every member of Class A must know who was on her mind those days. However, that wouldn't stop Neito Monoma from mocking them on the fact everyone from Class B had a date while everyone from Class A didn't. "But I'm fine, Iida. I just... need to move on."

Their common best friend had gone to America with All Might to continue his personal hero training as soon as the finals ended, and it was impossible for them not to miss Deku. Uraraka knew he would become the best version of himself and he had all the skills to be popular with girls as amazing as Melissa Shield. As for Iida, he could sometimes seem like a human chronometer, but he wasn't made of stone, and he hated to see a friend suffering in silence.

"Sorry, Iida" Uraraka muttered. "I think you should get going. You have a date for which you must prepare. And you are the Class President, so you'll be busy this evening."

"This is true..." Iida was going to have a really busy day indeed, and he wasn't going to be very useful to Uraraka at that moment. "Listen, Uraraka. We are your friends; if you really don't want to go to the prom, we shall respect it and won't try to bother you. We'll talk later, okay?" he said before getting up.

"See you, Iida! Have fun tonight!" Uraraka managed to flash her unique smile and make it look as real as the feelings she had behind it.

As soon as Iida disappeared from her sight, he was satisfied to check on his phone the notification he had been all day expecting:

"I'M BACK! I know All Might is going to kill me for this, but I have already landed in Tokyo! I'll be there soon enough to get ready!!!"

Iida wasted no time. Mina and the girls may have failed to convince Uraraka to go to the end of course's dance, but it didn't matter. Now their surprise special guest had returned to Japan, the operation every member of Class A, with the sole exception of one, was aware of would continue to develop as planned.

Another good notification: Momo had already created the dress. She happily claimed to feel like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.

"Sorry for lying to you, Uraraka" Iida thought in both guilt and delight. "I don't know if this will make us good or bad friends. But we are not going to respect your decision of missing the prom..."

*****************

July 10th, 3:40 a.m.
Tokyo centre.

The week had been exhausting until then, and duty was calling at a criminally early time, even for Tenya Iida. But the emergency couldn't be clearer: street violence had concentrated around the regular prison, where criminals, supported by villains and rioters, were taking control of the place.

Even worse, there had been reports about villains fighting heroes and other villains alike. And when Iida heard there had also been rumors of some being gruesomely dead by sword or blade...

If the rumors confirmed the presence of the man he was thinking of, that was a night his heart had awaited for years. Now Iida was a young man who honoured his family name, a leader and example for his friends and colleagues, and a hero with a flawless historial. Flawless... except for that night when he almost wasted his name, his future and his own life for giving into selfish motivations...

"Citizens are in danger. My priority is to protect them. I need nothing else on my mind now."

Armor, gloves, helmet, equipment; his fanatically organized persona always allowed him to get ready in a few minutes when he was required. As his head slowly tried to fight his tiredness back, he remembered that appartment wasn't his and that its owner rarely slept in that bed where he had woken up.

Iida found Hatsume exactly where he expected. She was trying to repair some of her items on her working table... with her eyes closed and lips mouthering something incoherently. That week sharing the inventor's messy appartment (her idea, not his) had revealed some new eccentricities from Mei Hatsume. One was that she was an sleepwalker. And, to put it simply and with no need to get into further details, she wasn't a fan of using pajamas.

"Well, at least this time she's wearing a housecoat..." Iida thought in relief.

She had somehow tricked him into staying with her in Mei Hatsume's fashion, but Iida was grateful in the end. The centre of Tokyo was exactly where he must be, and Hatsume had worked day and night to help him, like the just finished improvements on that table proved.

He approached to the table and carefully helped her to get up and started to guide her to the bed. That appartment where tools, pieces of junk, strange inventions, clothes and plans were spread in every corner was so opposite to Iida's personality that back in school he might have had a heartattack, but Hatsume's dedication and talent, along with that time working together for entire days, were such that almost overshadowed all the things Iida would find annoying. Plus, the adorability of the pink haired girl all calmed and mostly quiet was unquestionable.

"Let's go, Mei. You have done enough for me" he spoke as quiet as he could.

"Zzzz...come to meet...zzzz... our beautiful babies, Tenya...zzzz..."

Iida rolled his eyes as she kept mumbling in dreams and he put her on the bed. Puns about "babies" had also become recurrent there.

"Right. I promise when all this is over, we'll go out for a coffee."

Now he must leave. Iida went back to the table and picked the items he asked her for his costume. It was going to be a long day and his friends were waiting for him.

He hoped the ones already operating inside the closest prison were being lucky.

**************

Meanwhile, inside the prison...

"You put the boom-boom into my heart
You send my soul sky-high
When your lovin' starts..."

Kaminari kept dancing and playbacking the song that sounded from the earphones he was wearing across that prison's long walkway. Even the mad interns that tried to kill him found it hard to believe he was taking care of every one of them.

"There's Chargebolt! Let's get him!"

A big metal full of spikes hand attacked to a chain flied all the way towards the apparently ignorant Kaminari. But the hero that kept listening to that music dodged while he danced and the hand got stuck into the giant elastic mouth with giant sharp teeth whose owner threatened to eat him.

"My best friend told me
What you did last night
You left me sleeping in my bed
I was dreaming
But I should've been with you instead"

Kaminari electified the iron chain with his hand, and both criminals contorted in pain until they were immobilized on the floor. He didn't stop or alter the rythm of his dancing for a moment though.

"Wake me up before you go-go
Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
Wake me up before you go-go
I don't wanna miss it when you hit that high..."

Another solid dance movement left him in the perfect position to shoot an electric charge to bring down an arrow shooting villain that aimed at him from upside. Then two armed guys from ahead and other three from behind turned the corners and run towards him again; Kaminari's following dance movement included his fingers concentrating his electricity on a wall plug, from which thousands of volts travelled before finding their exit through the hanging lamps of the walkway's ceiling and falling over the bad guys like yellow lightings. The rain of sparkles after the bulbs exploded went to perfection with Kaminari's dance.

However, not all of them lost their conscience after that last attack: an intern whose Quirk turned his body into elastic rubber easily protected himself and was ready to catch the young man, who had started to sing in a louder voice, from behind. Luckily, a short haired girl descended using the earphones attached to her head, and by putting her sound amplifiers against the rubbery villain, she would make sure he fainted before he could carry out his attack.

"Please, Earphone Jack, don't be too noisy knocking him down" Kaminari complained. He hadn't even turned at any moment, more concerned about following the lyrics he listened to. "This is the best part of the song."

"You take the grey skies outta my way
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day
You turned a bright spark into a flame
My beats per minute never been the same"

"You are so much like a reckless little child" an annoyed Jirou put her hands on her hips. Kaminari had done a terrific job, but his still going cocky performance was out of place in such situation. "What if I hadn't interfered on time? Denki! Are you even listening to... WHOA!!" Jirou blushed in surprise when Kaminari grabbed her by the hands and made her join his silly anachronic dance.  "What the...!?"

"Of course I'm listening...!" answered Kaminari as he moved her around and the song reached his favorite part:

"...'Cause you're my lady
I'm your fool
It makes me crazy when you act so cruel
Come on baby
Let's not fight
We'll go dancing
Everything will be alright"

The dance concluded when Kaminari paused the song and held an inclined Jirou with his left hand under her back and his face shamelessly close to his woman's.

"Ever read Tsu Sung's The Art of War? Victory is settled in a field where you can fully unleash your potential and fully trust your closest allies" he grinningly said as Jirou narrowed her eyes from below. "And before you notice you'll be back at home, celebrating success with drinks, music and some beautiful woman..."

"You are an idiot, you know that?" Jirou sighed, pretty sure that book wouldn't say that last thing. She looked away before a bad timing urge to giggle betrayed her though.

"Luckily, my dear, you don't give a damn..."

"We may discuss that affirmation later, sugar" Jirou's index stopped Kaminari's face before it came any closer. Their team was working hard to regain control over the prison, but they were positively making progress, so maybe Kaminari's childish optimism should be kept, before they went back to the streets where chaos was not so controlled at all. "Now we better finish our job here: things seem to be getting uglier out there. Iida is already back in charge."

"Do you think it is true?" Kaminari asked. "That the Hero Killer is back?"

"It's not confirmed yet" Jirou answered. "But those hundreds of immitators wearing masks and red scarfs and attacking heroes and villains with blades are as real as they get. And they wouldn't have chosen this moment to show up without a reason."

"You're right" Kaminari removed his earphones and snapped out of his distractions. "No more acting like a child, I promise. Let's go find the others."

Jirou nodded. Both heroes hurried up when she received a call from another member of the team:

"I hear you, Fat Gum."

"Guys! The situation has been restored here, but we have more problems! It's Gigantomachia! He has been sighted again!"

"Gigantomachia? Where? Is he addressing here?"

"No! Wait... he's going the opposite direction. Oh my... could he be addressing...?"

****************

July 11th, 4:30 a.m.
Heroes' Headquarters

The whole Headquarters building trembled due to the legendarily gigantic villain that was shaking and breaking it from outside. Meanwhile, the villains that Gigantomachia had transported there had penetrated into it  with the plan of finishing the few heroes that remained inside there, directing the ones in action.

Things seemed to go well for the villains, like one of them thought when he saw the ray shields of the cells turning off. Unfortunately for the confident villain, one of the cells wasn't empty and he couldn't see the cartoonishly big hammer that impacted against his head.

Momo got out panting and hammer in hands. She had been helping the active heroes thanks to a computer installed inside her cell, but now the energy supply was gone, she only had time to ask the Hero Commission for reinforcements.

From the room of cameras, things were worse than ugly: the few ones that still stood were fighting cornered in lower floors. Until reinforcements arrived they were on their own at Headquarters. And she was on her own to protect the baby inside her.

Now she had some information about the Quirks of the villains, her best option now was to clear the floor right under the rooftop, where she was.

For once she was particularly affraid. She never had to fight for that kind of life before but she wouldn't back down. That child was hers and Shoto's.

The building kept shaking. She wouldn't have much time and would need the best of her Quirk and abilities.

A boomerang of her creation would be enough to defeat the weaklings that came first, later a gas grenade to sleep another that looked like a human chamaleon, a fire extinguer to freeze the one that turned into a mass of tar...

She also installed turrets in the stairs to prevent others to come up there and sealed the gap of the elevator with cement and tools.

Now Momo had temporarily fortified the place she felt exhausted and needed to take a seat. While she thought what should be her first move, she softly caressed her womb.

"There, there. Mommy promises soon she'll take us both out of here" she sweetly muttered. "And Daddy will also return so he can know about you..."

Her moment of peace didn't last enough so she could finish her words: the wall in front of her was literally torn apart and she saw in horror the huge beastlike face of Gigantomachia looking directly at her.

She managed to reach the canon she had created for that desperate situation after a titanic arm blocked her way to the exit and shot right into the villain's eyebrow.

Momo held her breath and cold sweat covered her body, but she was smart enough to know it was useless to wait for a miracle. The canon ball had hit him above the eye and force him to turn his head a bit, but that was it, since Gigantomachia's Quirk would allow him to easily heal that scratch. And now he was slowly turning back, looking angrier than before.

Gigantomachia extended his other arm to where she helpessly was. There was no escape...

Suddenly the giant's arm was violently deviated from its direction after an out of nowhere flaming figure hit it. Only Momo could be more shocked than Gigantomachia.

"ENDEAVOR?!?!"

If the Todoroki patriarch was still recovering at the hospital a few hours ago, nobody would say it. There he was, on his costume and covered in powerful red flames like he would when he was twenty years younger. A burning torrent his hands shot at the villain's jaw, making him lose grip and landing on the closest building's rooftop on his back left no doubt of the image of a veteran hero ready to give everything he got.

"Endeavor! Thank goodness! I'm so glad you are recovered!" Momo almost happily cried after the fear she had felt. "Then reinforcements must be here!"

"I'm here on my own" he severely replied. "No reinforcements will be sent to Headquarters today."

"What? But why?"

They saw Gigantomachia was reincorporating from below and didn't look happy to see his new opponent.

"Explanations will have to wait" Endeavor spoke. "I took care of the other villains inside, but now it would be too dangerous for you to go down. Stay back, Creati; I'm going to handle this."

"But..." Momo felt exhausted and wouldn't be able to create a lot more of things in a while, but she couldn't leave Shoto's father to fight a villain like Gigantomachia alone. "... you just got out from the hospital... I can't just..."

Endeavor turned and his hard eyes posed on his son's girlfriend.

"Yes, I come from the hospital" he stated. "And I know everything."

Momo felt a different kind of fear when she heard that. Words simply didn't find the way to her mouth.

"You... you know..."

"And I guess Shoto doesn't know. Otherwise, he would have stayed with you."

Momo slowly fell to her knees. Stress and dizziness were accumulating again and that was the worst place and time to faint.

"Stay here, take deep breaths and rest" Endeavor ordered, before checking the enemy, who was climbing again. "That is your child, and this my fight."

When he finished the sentence, Endeavor used his flames to impulse himself towards the tough roaring opponent that awaited.

He knew he was far from his hundred per cent, and that he wasn't as powerful as he used to be when he was young and rivalled All Might. Keeping his flames alive required him far more effort and his injuries weren't fully recovered at all. It didn't matter. His hero career reached his peak a long time ago and he needed no more glory. If that was going to be his last stand, so be it.

If All Might retired knowing no defeat as the Number One Hero, he would retire being what he had dreamed about for years: a man who fought for his family.

As much as he still had to assimilate the news about the future new member of the Todoroki family...

"I never liked the UA's motto" was the last thing he thought before getting physical. "But today I need indeed to go beyond..."

End of Chapter 40.

A bit of our favorite ships and some divisive character development to close this chapter! Did you like it?

Wished I had the skills to draw these fights instead of writing them. They killed me!!😵😵

But anything for you, Watties;)...

You can't tell me the thought of Iida and Hatsume sharing an appartment doesn't look hilarious... and that you can't picture Kaminari dancing to that song...

Anyway, here's another chapter! Hope you are having a nice week, everyone!

See you in the next chapter!!