When Lock arrived at the scene, Midoriya Izuku happened to reach it as well.
Izuku was in the same class as Bakugo Katsuki. But while Bakugo believed he'd hit a streak of terrible luck, Izuku felt like the opposite—like everything had suddenly become blessed.
First, he had met Lock—his middle-school senior, now a full-fledged Pro Hero.
And just minutes ago, he had been lucky enough to encounter his idol, the Symbol of Peace—All Might.
He had even gathered the courage to ask All Might the question he'd held in his heart for years:
Can someone Quirkless like me… truly become a Hero?
All Might had spoken a lot in response—encouraging words, deflections, vagueness.
But beneath it all, thousands of words condensed into three:
Give up.
The answer was cruel, painfully realistic.
Yet for some reason—even in disappointment—the flame inside Izuku, the dream of becoming a Hero, had not been extinguished.
It was Lock's encouragement that continued to bolster that stubborn dream.
As All Might pulled open the rooftop door to leave, something in Izuku snapped. His mind went blank. His courage surged from nowhere.
He straightened his back, tears running uncontrollably down his face, and shouted at All Might's retreating:
"Dreams… never end!"
All Might froze for a moment with his hand on the metal door.
He sighed, still facing away. "It's not wrong to dream… but you must face reality, boy."
He closed the rooftop door and left behind a stunned, motionless Izuku.
BOOM!
The explosion snapped him back to the present.
He rushed into the crowd. And there—at the center of the chaos—was his childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki, his face twisted in agony.
Their eyes locked.
From Bakugo's expression, Izuku read a desperate plea for help.
In the next heartbeat, he sprinted forward without hesitation.
"You idiot—stop!! Stop!!"
"Why did a kid rush in?!"
No one—not even the Pro Heroes present—stopped him. His sudden charge triggered an uproar from the onlookers.
"That boy… why him?!"
Hidden in the crowd was a thin, frail blond man.
His fists clenched, eyebrows trembling, veins bulging.
He was furious at his own helplessness. His transformation time was depleted.
He had spoken grand, noble words to this young boy—but now he couldn't follow them himself.
At that moment, a hand rested on his shoulder.
"All Might. You're out of transformation time, aren't you?"
Lock asked with calm suspicion. He had spotted the emaciated All Might instantly.
From their previous talk at the police station, Lock knew All Might's condition—half of his respiratory system and his entire stomach removed.
That wasn't something any simple treatment could fix.
Even Lock's healing magic couldn't regrow organs that no longer existed.
"Lock, my boy! I can't transform today—save that child quickly!"
All Might pointed shakenly toward Izuku, who had already burst out from the crowd.
He had used up his transformation time defeating the horse-faced villain earlier, then forced himself to transform again to save Izuku and take down the sludge villain's raincoat form.
Now, unless he burned the last embers of One For All, he was physically incapable of transforming.
"I understand."
Lock nodded.
Unlike the original plot, the sequence of events had shifted because All Might had defeated the horse-faced villain himself.
[System Trigger: Rescue Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo
Mission Reward: One B-Rank Draw]
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in Lock's mind.
"Director! The villain's immune to physical attacks!"
Death Arms spotted Lock rushing forward and shouted a warning.
"Got it."
A moment later, Lock broke into a full sprint.
"Another kid?!"
"Didn't you hear? That 'kid' is a Pro Hero!"
"That's the Wizard—Hero Lock!"
The crowd erupted again—but this time in hope.
Everyone felt it: the villain was finally about to be taken down.
Up ahead, Izuku ripped off his school bag and hurled it at the sludge villain.
A preemptive strike!
But reality didn't cooperate.
A sludge tentacle smacked the bag aside effortlessly.
It made sense—how could a monster that several Pro Heroes couldn't subdue be stopped by a schoolbag?
"Brat—if you're in such a rush to die, I'll help you!"
Another tentacle burst out from the villain's body, lancing straight toward Izuku's chest.
With his small, untrained body, Izuku would never survive the blow.
At best, he'd suffer catastrophic internal injuries.
At worst, instant death.
"Rock Iron Wall!"
A voice Izuku knew well rang out.
A heavy thud followed.
A thick wall of stone materialized in front of him.
The attacking tentacle smashed into it—and shattered into clumps of sludge, splattering everywhere.
"Izuku. Your courage is admirable…but without the strength to back it up, what you did today was nothing but reckless suicide."
The fire's glow danced across Lock's profile as he ignored the sludge villain's rage and spoke to Izuku calmly.
Izuku nodded numbly, still unable to comprehend how Lock had appeared here.
It didn't matter.
"Another brat? Die already!"
Enraged by the repeated interruptions, the sludge villain sprouted multiple tentacles all at once.
"Noisy."
Lock's eyes chilled.
Wind-magic spiraled around his arm as he flicked it casually—as if brushing away an insect.
BOOM!
In an instant, every tentacle was crushed and blown aside by the wind.
The real trouble lay in separating Bakugo from the sludge without injuring him.
Originally, All Might used Texas Smash—a straight punch generating enough wind pressure to disperse the villain without harming Bakugo.
"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"
Magic roared through Lock's body.
Wind wrapped tightly around both arms as if forming spectral dragon wings.
He swung—
And the blast of wind slammed into the sludge villain like a storm.
Lock grabbed Bakugo by the collar—
WHOOSH!
A tremendous gale erupted, sweeping across the entire area.
The hair and clothes of every onlooker whipped violently in the sudden wind pressure.
The flames at the explosion's center were extinguished instantly.
The sludge surrounding Bakugo was ripped apart, blown into countless raindrop-like clumps that scattered across the sky.
And Bakugo himself—Lock caught him securely before he could be hurled away.
Sludge Incident: Resolved.
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