Losing isn't horrible, Tenya decides. It isn't about losing, because the fight was fair, and he'd given it his all. After all, Todoroki was known to be the strongest of his classmates. But even if he decides the losing isn't horrible, he can't rid himself of the urge to cry. Something lays heavily on his shoulders, and he doesn't like thinking he's a failure, but he also can't quite help it.
Everything is a mess, he concludes.
The buzzing of his phone snaps him out of it for a moment, though it all crushes in on him even more when he sees the caller ID.
"Ah… Tensei…" The words burn, but he's glad that his brother thought to call at all, "Aren't you at work? It's terrible for a hero to take time off like this…"
"Tenya? I heard you nearly beat Todoroki-san! That's incredible!"
Tenya's brain short circuits.
"H…how did you hear that? It was only finished a few minutes ago!"
"I had to drag a kid out of an intersection before a car got him and he recognized me, I guess. Once I made sure he was alright, he mentioned that he was caught up in your match. Are you alright?"
Tenya's chest tightens till he can barely breathe.
"I… I know it was a fair match, and that Todoroki is strong but… Tensei, I…!"
"Tenya. No matter what, you did incredible making it that far. You're only going to get better. Feeling sad isn't wrong, it's human. Are you okay?"
Tenya breaks down after that, and all record of Ingenium's traffic stop in Hosu is forgotten by the Iidas.
Katsuki hears about the beach getting cleaned up in passing from his mother. At first, he ignores it. Some beach getting cleaned up means absolutely nothing in the face of Katsuki's plan. Then his dad mentions something about how public service projects should get recognized more, and that actually catches his ear.
He'd considered everything about becoming the best hero… right? People could think he had a shitty personality, but it didn't mean anything in the face of his potential and his work ethic.
But this had gotten his mother's attention. That took an act from the gods.
In hindsight, it's a great plan. Cleaning a beach fixes a public spot and restores the area. Everyone in the neighborhood is talking about it because now there's a beach within walking distance. Business is steadily growing from the newfound popularity, and morale is higher than Katsuki has seen it in a while.
He asks around. When no one knows who cleaned it up, or why, he goes to the internet. After the fifth article citing it as one of three different anonymous public service projects happening around their neighborhood, Katsuki can't help but wonder who's doing it. Even if the hero industry is about being heroic most of them do things like this as a publicity stunt.
A pin goes in his phone on each of the three locations. He takes a couple of people from class 1-A down to the beach to shut up his mother and prove he's not totally devoid of personality.
The beach doesn't suck.
Eijirō is just exiting the third athletics shop when someone snags him by the elbow and drags him to the railing of the mall. He barely catches green eyes and dark, curly hair before the stranger points to someone in a black hoodie down on the first floor.
"Sorry to drag you away, but I know who you are, and I need you to tell me if you recognize that person." The stranger tells him in a hushed tone, glancing over their shoulders suspiciously. Eijirō frowns and gets ready to harden up his right side, keeping his eyes on the black hoodie. After a few seconds, he sees a scraggly hand reach up and scratch at something beneath the hood, revealing…
Long, tangled blue hair.
The stranger is shaking him out of a haze a few moments later, looking him with concern clear on his face.
"Are you okay? Do you know them?"
"I… I think… maybe it's a villain? I couldn't see much. Who are you? What-"
"Look, there's no time." He's dragging Eijirō from the railing, muttering a million kilometers per second. "Aren't you here with your class? You need to get out of here, call the police. I'll track him, here's my number just in case, ok?"
Eijirō gapes as the stranger hops the railing and lands in the main walkway like its nothing, power walking after the black hoodie. Before he can stand there paralyzed, the stranger's words are replaying through his head and he's moving, whipping out his phone and clutching a scrap of paper in one hand.
No one questions his emergency message to meet up outside, and within fifteen minutes everyone who came to the mall is standing there with him. Uraraka takes one look at the way his hand is shaking and turns deadly serious, showing off a vibe that Eijirō really wishes he could imitate.
"What happened?"
"I think… I think Shigaraki followed us here." Everyone freezes, staring at him as he continues, "A guy pulled me aside on the second floor and pointed him out. I called the cops and they're on the way, but that guy, he took off after Shigaraki before I could do anything… I froze up."
"Someone went after Shigaraki?" Jirō is the only one who's voice actually cuts through the group's panic. "Wait, did he know who it was?! He could get killed!"
"I…" Eijirō replays the scene in his mind and pales. "I didn't tell him who it was, just that it was a villain…"
"Shit."
Before they can do anything about it, the police are there. He retells the story and hands them the crumpled piece of paper, to which they're all told to leave immediately and get home safely.
Eijirō spends the entire train ride imagining a rotting corpse left in an alley, or somewhere inventive. He can't help but feel guilty for it.
Aizawa calls him aside the next day, and he can't help but feel like it's the end of his career at U.A. When he retells the story, trying hard to remember something about the stranger besides 'green eyes', Aizawa remains lifeless the entire time.
"You did the right thing, Kirishima. The boy who went after Shigaraki is at fault for being reckless, but they've already scolded him. Everything is being taken care of. Good job keeping a level head." Aizawa pats him on the shoulder and sends him back to class.
The face is already fading from his memory, though he can't forget someone throwing themselves off the second story of a mall just to go chasing a possible villain. Whatever happened, he can't help but feel like they got lucky. If what Aizawa said is true, then the kid made it out safe.
Maybe they caught a break for once.
Meetings with Tsukauchi will probably always be under horrible circumstances. Their raid on the League's headquarters failed miserably, and Toshinori really, really just wants to punch something, but instead they're going out for coffee. Neither of them mentions the time, because coffee is just a really horrible excuse to take a little time away from work.
"I can't deny… I'm a little glad. If they'd actually been there, and we'd fought them tonight… We were really understaffed." Tsukauchi groans.