31

Overhaul felt nothing. He was drifting weightlessly in a void, and he could hardly recall what happened after he got back to the Shie Hassaikai compound. His mind was in such a fog that even his own identity felt extremely fluid. It took an exorbitant amount of effort that he managed to dredge up from who knows where in order to get a grip on any concept of self and regain his senses to assess his current situation. When he could finally observe his surroundings without the compulsion to scream through his existential crisis with no mouth, he slowly craned his head to take a long look out and around the void. Just about the only thing he could make out for miles was the cool glow of the sapphire flames burning below him.

Well, perhaps burning wasn't the right word, as he felt no heat coming from the flames. Then again, he still couldn't truly feel anything at all, as if he was past the point of being ethereal. It was so incredibly perplexing, as was the sapphire flames crescendoing in luminosity below him. He watched in muted fascination as the flames danced and swelled about, intermingling and crashing about in a fiery ocean. Then, the flames intensified, casting a much more vibrant glow on his form, and they opened up like an eldritch abomination peering into his very existence. To the transfixed Overhaul, it was almost as if the flames were alive and reacting to something.

They were.

"Kai Chisaki…" a smooth, deadly intonation filled every fiber of his ethereal being and rattled the bones he knew weren't present but could still feel.

His eyes were as wide as dinner plates at the usage of his real name in such a strange environment, and his wide, golden gaze was met by the opening of two pools below him. Blue flames surrounded two bright, slitted eyes of different colors that held nothing but unspoken horrors, malice, and merciless terror deep within them. He was fixed in his spot in space as a hulking figure rose from the fire, the two eyes rising with it, and standing before Overhaul was a massive, two-tailed cat wearing pristine, white robes and red prayer beads around its neck. The wicked, cheshire grin he was receiving from the creature gave him hundreds of jagged reasons to fear his predicament.

"Ordinarily, I would simply eat you, but you truly intrigue me, Kai Chisaki," the cat spoke, revealing itself to be the owner of the frightening voice and the knowledge of his true identity. "You had the ability to manipulate matter at your will. With the slightest touch, you could obliterate, repair, or merely reconfigure whatever you please. It's such a fascinating power to wield, particularly how you used it."

The cat's grin grew even sharper, filling Overhaul with the deepest of dread. "What is more interesting is your philosophy towards the state of your human society. You abhorred the proliferation of quirks and maligned them as diseases, and yet, your own disease was such a fundamental aspect of your very existence. You were as diseased as the rest of humanity, yet you saw fit to cure them all of their sicknesses and guide the new world order to salvation."

The death god's grin took on an even more threatening edge, and their slitted pupils narrowed into blades primed to cut Overhaul down where he floated. "Your quirk, one that allowed you to all but rewrite matter as you so desired with merely a touch made you powerful, your stolen empire of loyal subjects made you influential, and your greater ambitions for a restoration of the old made you a visionary."

There was a momentary pause where Matatabi's piercing stare did not make bones about the utter disdain that was held for the man before them.

"You fancied yourself a god."

Those five words hung around Overhaul's neck like a noose. It told him everything he needed to know about his situation; his fate wasn't just sealed; it was welded shut.

"Well, how about I show you what true godhood looks like?" Matatabi purred dangerously as they loomed over the man, nearly salivating at the fear that was bursting out of his gaze.

Overhaul was still rooted in his spot in space, not able to move a muscle as his imminent doom drew closer and closer with a perverse glee. Matatabi lowered their giant head to bring it a rough approximation of eye-level with Overhaul, and only then did their grin finally drop. It was the most frightening thing Overhaul had ever witnessed.

"Welcome to my world, bitch."

It had been a while since Nezu's smile made Izuku nervous; he almost missed it. On the one hand, it was familiar enough to give him comfort, and that was sorely needed with how comically hectic the last week had been for everyone in his life. On the other hand, however, it was familiar enough to compel him to pack everything he owned and put a few oceans' distance between himself and whatever this devilish creature was cooking up. The fact that the quirked animal was sitting behind his desk and staring right at him with his beady eyes accompanying his unnerving smile without saying a single word was only making it worse. He couldn't even fathom why Nezu was screwing with him like this…

Eri shifted in his lap as she turned the page of the coloring book from within a warm blanket, both of which his mother had bought for her on the way to UA.

Okay, he could kind of fathom why Nezu was screwing with him. He and his mother had stumbled upon an abused child in an alley and murdered her abuser on the spot. Granted, it was self-defense… at least on Izuku's part. The point was that it was an addition to the growing list of cover-ups involving the Midoriya family, not that Nezu had much of an issue with that in principle.

On top of that, though, the details of Eri's confinement were troubling to say the least. Apparently, the man they had rescued Eri from was part of the Yakuza, and he was a rather notorious figure in the growing trigger trade of Tokyo. From Eri's description, Nezu was able to link him to the details he knew of Sir Nighteye's investigation of the Shie Hassaikai and the man in question from Mirio Togata's descriptions of his work-study with the former sidekick of All Might.

The real troubling parts were what Overhaul had been doing to Eri. When asked about her bandages and her ratty hospital gown, she would retreat into herself and start to shake. It was only the tender touch of Izuku's hand softly running through her hair and across her scalp that began to ease her little by little, and she was able to open up about her experiences a bit more. She still didn't go into a lot of detail, however, immediately tipping the other three off that what the man was doing was exceptionally traumatic.

Inko would not apologize for just casually erasing him.

So, Izuku could maybe understand why Nezu was screwing with him, and his mother choosing not to break the silence and comfortably sipping her tea with her legs crossed wasn't helping matters whatsoever. Fortunately, he was rescued by the bundled-up girl in his poking his chest to get his attention, and she gave him an inquisitive, doe-eyed stare as she did her best to lean in.

"Is he an animal, or a manimal?" Eri asked in a failed attempt to be inconspicuous, pointing directly at the principal.

Just like that, the nervous tension Nezu was trying to create was shattered like sugar glass on a movie set. Neither Izuku nor his mother dared fight the giggle fit they were thrust into, and that seemed to lighten Eri's mood even more after having to peel back the curtain into her life.

"I am an animal with a quirk, little one," Nezu kindly answered, genuinely amused by the girl's question. "Now, am I a dog, a mouse, or a bear?"

Eri furrowed her brow in thought as she analyzed the creature before her. Her face was the picture of furious concentration in her attempt to figure him out, and Inko had to hold herself back from melting at the sight.

"This is a trick question," she finally answered with a frown. "You're a weasel."

Nezu's eyes widened, and he quickly cleared his throat. "Moving on, so you need me to forge adoption papers?"

"If you'd be so kind," Inko confirmed with a nod, completely ignoring her son's frantic attempts to try to draw attention to what had just happened.

"That can be squared away by the end of the week," Nezu nodded, also pointedly ignoring his protégé. "In the meantime, there is another matter that must be addressed while I have you both here."

"And that is?" Inko questioned.

Nezu's usual smile returned. "To unveil my plan that has been in the works since I was informed of our Hero Commission's rather generous off-hours oversight."

"Again, we're gonna have to talk about that later, mom," Izuku reminded with a frown.

"And we will," she sighed in defeat. "What's your plan, Rat?"

"We'll be fully instituting a dormitory system for our students using the existing on-campus housing, just greatly expanded to suit the new influx of residents. We can kill two birds with one stone by not only better ensuring the safety of our students, but also eliminating any HPSC home surveillance from the equation," Nezu explained.

"That makes sense," Inko nodded. "I imagine that you're going to need to gain permission from parents to house their children."

"Indeed," Nezu confirmed. "Because you, as well as Eri, will also be moving in, Izuku is already accounted for. However, I intend to get all hero course students moved by the start of the semester, so I'm having Aizawa and Kan go out and meet with the parents of the first-years personally. Would you like to join them?"

Inko was initially confused about why he'd request that of her. He understood why the homeroom teachers of the two first-year classes would go, but she didn't quite understand why he'd ask the upperclass Underground Heroics teacher to do so…

Inko's expression became as dry as the desert when it finally hit her. "You're leveraging my fame to subconsciously muscle the parents into agreeing, aren't you?"

"See, Izuku's intelligence had to come from somewhere," Nezu cackled with a newfound cup of tea in hand.

Inko facepalmed and massaged her temple with her other hand. "Why not just send Yagi to do that as All Might?"

"Yagi will be preoccupied with his own public address this week," Nezu plainly stated, slightly shifting in his seat before taking a sip of his tea.

Both mother and son stared at the quirked animal intently. While the statement itself wasn't ominous, Nezu's disposition was somewhat concerning.

"…On a scale of 1 to Endeavor, what kind of address should we expect?" Izuku cautiously asked.

Nezu sighed and leaned back into his chair, placing his cup of tea down and lacing his paws together. "That depends entirely on one's perspective, I suppose. I advised him against doing so, especially with everything going on currently, but he insisted that it was time. His reasoning was admittedly sound."

Well, that certainly wasn't at all foreboding. Too many things were coming together to paint a potentially disastrous picture in Izuku's opinion. Melissa's presence in Japan in tandem with her bandaged arms and receiving an "offer" that she couldn't refuse…

Izuku really didn't like what was potentially on the horizon.

When he felt a light tug on his collar, he looked down at the little girl in his lap trying to get his attention. Her bright, red eyes were brimming with curiosity.

"Who's All Might?"

Hawks slumped in his seat at the long, black conference table. It couldn't have been a more uncomfortable morning. The atmosphere in the room was a lead suit jacket on every single person present, even those not wearing suits. Junji Mishima sat to his right, the man's usually combed, dark grey hair a frazzled mess to compliment his apprehension. Yokumiru Mera looked even more sleep-deprived than usual at the edge of the table, and he didn't even bother with a tie for his baggy, ruffled suit. The heavily armored form of Yoroi Musha right across from Hawks tried his best to maintain an unflappable, stoic countenance, but Hawks could easily parse the minute twitches of the man's beard as signs of his discomfort.

At the head of everything was Madame President herself. Gone was her trademark steely stoicism that never belied what she was truly thinking before she said anything (and even after she said anything). Granted, her current demeanor wasn't dangerously expressive on its own, but the air of cold fury emanating from her slightly narrowed, turquoise gaze and almost-frown had frozen everyone to their seats. If Hawks knew nothing else, he knew right then that she was absolutely livid in that moment.

"I don't believe I have to tell you all that this is approaching a worst-case scenario," she intoned in a dangerous monotone.

Hawks was more than a little bit perplexed at that. Sure, the nation's No. 2 Pro Hero outing himself as an abuser and exposing the HPSC's complicit and active hand in covering it up was really bad. The general public's heavy lambasting of the Commission and rising loss of trust in heroics wasn't great, either. The mountain of pro heroes and sidekicks coming out to decry the actions of Endeavor and the Commission (including the goddamn No. 1 Hero himself) was a terrible look.

Worst-case scenario, though? Hawks figured that designation would be left to All Might turning villain or a surprise MLA invasion. Hell, maybe even the Midoriya family and Nezu collaborating with an insurgent army of pro heroes to depose the government would be closer to an actual worst-case than what they have now.

"I see some of you aren't entirely convinced," she spoke up again, her cold tone silencing any thoughts that anyone may have been having.

Hawks fidgeted despite himself; she didn't say it or even look in his direction, but he knew that she was directing that comment at him. She always had a sixth sense when it came to thoughts she found uncouth in any manner.

"Allow me to recontextualize the current situation," she continued, her icy gaze trapping the entirety of the room. "In one fell swoop, the Hero Public Safety Commission lost its non-political leverage over the Number 2 Hero, his agency, and his influence, as well as public support tanking across the board as the days go on. The issue of public support would be a non-factor if this wasn't a calculated strike against the HPSC. Not only had Endeavor publicly confessed to his transgressions completely unprompted, but he took great care to heavily implicate but not directly state that he had help in keeping his family turmoil away from public or legal scrutiny. By not directly shirking the responsibility and merely laying some of it at the feet of associated parties, he created the perfect conditions for the public to direct their vitriol at us and feel as though they did so on their own volition."

Her eyes narrowed a centimeter more, her turquoise pupils remaining chips of ice at the head of the table. "It was entirely too coordinated to be merely coincidental."

A heavy silence set amongst the room as her words sunk in. Hawks could begin to understand her rationale for deeming this to be nearing a worst-case scenario, even if he didn't quite agree just yet.

"Are you suggesting that Endeavor is acting directly against us?" a man towards the other end of the table hesitantly asked.

The minute shake of Madame President's head was sufficient enough to declare the contrary. "It's more likely that Endeavor was just being used as a convenient pawn in a larger game."

It was Mishima that spoke up this time. "Then who is pulling the strings?"

Her eyes shifted to land on Mishima, and the man regretted speaking up. "Is that not obvious? It's Nezu, the biggest thorn in our side that can't yet legally be declared a villain."

Alright, Hawks could concede that it was becoming a little bit more concerning. The Commission and Nezu (and UA by proxy) had been waging a longstanding Cold War for a good amount of time. Nezu was completely opposed to the HPSC's existence in its current form, and the HPSC would rather Nezu and his unquestionable influence in shaping young heroes be off the board entirely. However, both sides were more beneficial to the other alive and functional than they were dead at the current moment, given the existence of common enemies such as the MLA and, more recently, the League of Villains and All For One.

Just as well, Nezu rarely ever left UA, so silencing him was difficult at the best of times, and declaring open war on the HPSC would do nothing but launch the nation into a vicious civil war.

So, yeah, Cold Wars and proxy wars were the way to go, as true cooperation was a pipe dream at best.

"I see that some of you are starting to get it," Madame President commented, and Hawks felt another shiver crawl up his spine. "Nezu is manufacturing societal conditions to slowly chip away at the public's trust in the bureau that keeps heroics afloat."

"But would that not simply undermine heroics in totality?" Yoroi Musha found the courage to ask.

Musha and Hawks were two of a handful of pros in the conference room that were trusted enough by the top brass to be in the loop for code red situations, of which this apparently happened to be one. Some others in the room were X-Less, Air Jet, and Mr. Brave, so not anyone too high up on the totem pole excluding himself and Musha, but all were heroes whose skills and natural abilities were effective at assassinations if necessary.

Hawks really tried not to think about that.

"No, he takes great care not to harm the public's trust in heroics itself," Madame President sternly corrected. "Rather, he'll shake the foundations of the status quo while pushing a more populist notion for people to latch onto, making himself and his allies appear more appealing all the while. You can see this with Endeavor, the consistent presence of Izuku Midoriya and the ideas he brings in the public consciousness, the newfound and pervasive presence of Inko Midoriya in the public consciousness, hiring All Might as a teacher for the most prestigious hero academy in the nation, etc.

"What doing so accomplishes is diverting the public's trust away from our hand in heroics while preserving the institution enough to allow for himself and his allies to fill the remaining vacuum. If our public approval rating becomes dangerously low, then disrupters with a vested interest in our destruction will take the opportunity to galvanize other disrupters, influence the minds of the general public even further, and sway pro heroes that aren't specifically aligned with us to coalesce against us. That possibility should never arise. However, radical ideologies pushed forth by anarchists, such as the Meta Liberation Army, terrorists, such as Stain and the swell of villains he emboldened, and idealists with too much influence, such as Izuku Midoriya, make that event a greater possibility every day."

The silence that followed was heavy once more. As much as he hated it, Hawks had to admit that the logic was sound. Scarily so. It always was.

"So, what's our next move, then?" Mera sighed, not even pretending to hide his exhaustion.

"I have no doubt that Nezu will advocate for Izuku Midoriya to take the coming provisional license exam, despite his status as a first-year hero student," Madame President clinically began with her fingers steepled. "A situation where Izuku Midoriya was to fail to obtain a provisional license and be gravely injured all the while, assuming that information was to become public, would not only spotlight a failure in his own acumen, but also on the part of the institution that groomed and showcased him for a path that he simply was not cut out for."

Then, something horrible happened, and the entirety of the room felt a bottomless pit open up in their stomachs. The unfathomable quantity of dread that filled their hearts at the sight that wickedly greeted them would remain fixed in their psyches for the rest of their unsightly, miserable lives.

Madame President was smiling.

"If Nezu wishes to shake the public's trust in the Hero Public Safety Commission, then we will shake the public's trust in UA as an institution. Do keep in mind that Nezu's reputation is only as solid as UA's, and there is a directly proportional correlation between them."

The soft sound of Hawks' feathers scraping against the back of his chair as they ruffled in apprehension wandered into his own ears. He didn't fear a lot of things in life, but there would never be a day where Madame President smiling didn't make him feel like little more than a velociraptor watching a meteorite hurtle towards the planet.

"Knock knock."

"No."

"Come on, Urameshi, humor me."

The tired corrections officer sitting at his desk sighed a portion of his soul away, as he knew that entertaining his redheaded coworker's incessant jokes only encouraged him to continue them later. On the same token, allowing him to make his dumb jokes was the only way to get them out of his system so that he'd shut up.

"Who's there?" he finally gave in.

The other CO grinned like a predator that just caught its prey. "Boo."

"Boo, who?"

"The fuck are you crying for? It's just a joke."

The redheaded CO cackled as Urameshi's head plunked down onto the desk.

"You legitimately make my existence unbearable," came the muffled voice of Urameshi.

"Don't be such a baby," the other CO snickered as a third CO wandered by the two, pushing a cart of dinner trays along his way. "Hey, new guy, you wanna hear a joke?"

"I promise you, I'd rather die," the third CO responded without turning around or breaking his stride whatsoever.

"Smart man," Urameshi muttered as the man continued on his way.

The new guy in question had long, black hair partially tucked away in a cap that barely did anything to prevent a few loose bangs from hanging over his dull, brown eyes. He meandered down the hall towards the secure housing unit where unstable, high profile, or otherwise vulnerable inmates were housed in isolation. Rolling the cart along, the unassuming CO did his duty by sliding the dinner trays through the slots in the cell doors, checking off each inmate and cell number as he did so.

311, 312, 313, on and on it went until he was standing before cell 321. Once there, he stopped and stared intently at the number printed on the door. Seemingly confirming something to himself, he reached into a pocket on his uniform and retrieved a small vial. Unscrewing the small cap on the vial, he grabbed the next available tray and sprinkled a white, powdery substance into the small bowl of barley rice as well as mixing some of it into the small bowl of miso soup on the tray for good measure. Then, he pocketed the vial and slid the tray through the slot. Only when the tray was taken from the other side did he finally move on to the next cell.

Inko sighed as she put away her phone, texting her son to ensure that he'd be alright with Eri back at the apartment while she and Aizawa were out canvassing the parents of 1-A. She wasn't so worried about their safety, so to speak; she knew that if, say, a giant, shapeshifting villain was to attack the apartment complex, Izuku could probably handle it and keep Eri safe from harm. What worried her was her son's ability to look after a damaged child if even for a single afternoon.

She knew from experience that trauma was a difficult monster to battle, and Eri had a lot of it. Fortunately, Izuku was brilliant, compassionate, and otherworldly empathetic, so she was confident that he'd try his damnedest to build sturdy mental and emotional bridges between them. Still, though, dealing with the trauma of a person who likely couldn't quite make sense of what they were feeling or what they really experienced was a different animal entirely than that of an adult. She'd just have to have faith in him.

Granted, the way that she more or less adopted and imprinted on them almost immediately was a good sign. She didn't seem reclusive or too closed off around them in the very brief time they'd spent with her.

Regardless, there was no further use agonizing over it. She had faith in her son and in the little horned bundle of unrefined adorable, and she still had the task at hand to focus on. Nezu was kind enough to provide her and Aizawa with a dedicated driver to chauffeur them to and from the residences of each student, but there was still a considerable amount to travel to. Speaking of…

"How many of these do we have to do?" Inko asked her temporary partner in crime.

"Nineteen," Aizawa replied before pausing and looking toward Inko. "Do you give your son permission to live on campus?"

Aizawa was impressed with the sheer magnitude of deadpan that the look he received from his idol- er, coworker contained. If this was how Mic felt around him, he had to admit, it was sort of amusing.

"Eighteen, then," he concluded with a small smirk.

"Get out of the fucking car."

"Heard we lost another inmate last night," a CO said to another as the two walked in step down a hallway towards the break room.

"Yeah, that kid with the tail who was spying on UA for villains," the other confirmed. "Poor bastard just keeled over in his cell mid-meal. They found his body earlier this morning."

"Shit, man," the first CO winced. "I'd hate to be the guy to have to bring that news to his parents."

The second CO shook his head. "That's the thing, they already kicked the bucket. Apparently, they committed seppuku in their home. Couldn't deal with the shame of their kid being a villain."

"…Well, fuck."

"'Fuck' is right."

As the two turned the corner into the break room, they were blissfully unaware of the third set of feet trailing soundlessly behind them. The owner of those feet smiled, brushing the loose, black bangs away from his eyes.

"I warned you not to become a liability, Tail," the man chuckled to himself as he turned around and strolled the opposite direction. "Now, on to the next."

Izuku sat cross-legged on the couch beside the newest edition to the Midoriya family. The first thing his mother did when they got back to the apartment was to get Eri out of the hospital gown and into proper clothes, which just meant that Izuku's old clothes were repurposed for the time being.

Currently, Eri was sporting Izuku's old All Might onesie while sitting on the couch with her newly adopted brother. She was having a bit of difficulty really fathoming her new situation after everything had calmed down. Merely a day after escaping the worst captivity imaginable, she found herself in a warm, safe environment with the people who rescued her; the culture shock was a lot to handle, even if she was the one who inserted herself into the new environment, not that she regretted it in the slightest.

Still, though, it felt really weird. She found herself defaulting to sitting in silence to avoid being noticed even though she had nothing to fear, since that's just what she was used to doing. Then, she felt a large hand softly caress her head, and she set her big, doe eyes onto the teen beside her. She felt significantly better upon seeing the warm, bright smile he was sending her way.

"So… what do you like to do?" Izuku asked, his reassuring smile masking the fact that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

"Oh, um…" Eri was taken aback by the question. She never really had a lot to do when she was with Overhaul. The scary men who worked for him usually gave her toys to keep her occupied, but they never really made her all that comfortable. She liked to draw, but she wasn't really feeling it at that moment. Then, another thought occurred to her when she glanced at the TV in front of them. She never got to watch TV very often…

Izuku noticed her gaze, and he nodded and cut on the TV with the remote. They were greeted by the boisterous laugh of All Might as an animated depiction of him rescued a group of civilians from a hulking fish-man. It was a rerun of the long-running All Might animated series, of which Izuku had unashamedly seen every episode. Eri's attention was immediately fixed to the screen, mostly due to the bright colors, but the triumphant display of All Might protecting the innocent from evil and valiantly defeating Deep Sea King was nothing short of mesmerizing to the little girl who had wished for a hero her entire life.

Looking over at Izuku, a soothing warmth began to blossom within. Seeing him and thinking about Inko, the hero she had always wished for had finally come. The crack she had slipped through wasn't too deep after all.

So lost in her reverie was she that she nearly missed the bombastic commercial that was broadcasted after the battle, featuring a giant, reptilian creature towering over the tallest skyscrapers in Tokyo. Standing across from it on top of one of the skyscrapers was All Might, his fists placed on his hips in his signature pose as he stared down the kaiju.

"All Might vs. Godzilla, coming to theaters this Christmas!"

Izuku snorted. "Can't wait to rub it in Tokage's face and put this to bed forever."

Eri gazed in wonder at the screen, then she turned to Izuku. "Who's Godzilla?"

"He's a super powerful kaiju who can wipe out whole cities with ease," Izuku answered.

"Oh…" Eri replied in thought. "Could All Might beat Godzilla?"

"Yes, and don't ever let anyone tell you differently."

Eri wasn't sure how much she believed that.

"I can't believe my baby girl is being taught by such a rock star!"

"Technically, I'm not actually her teacher yet," Inko replied to the comically crying Kyotoku Jiro with a bashful scratch to the back of her head.

"Close enough," the Jiro patriarch insisted with his wife beside him.

Then, something occurred to Inko as she gazed at the two. "Have we met before?"

"Technically," Mika Jiro answered with a smile. "You saved the two of us from a mugger on our first date nearly two decades ago. I'm shocked that you remember."

"How could she forget yoinking a dude's gun and pistol-whipping him until he cried? That shit was metal," Kyotoku spoke up with a laugh.

"Alright, you two, that's more than enough gushing for one morning," the youngest Jiro announced as she stepped into the room with a tray of drinks for the two teachers. "We already discussed everything when the letter came, and they're both on board with the dorm idea."

"Damn it, Kyoka, I didn't even get a chance to put on my 'strict father' act!" her father complained.

Inko only vaguely heard the retort of "put a sock in it, old man," from the teenage girl while she was lost in thought. She remembered the mentioned incident very clearly; it was one of the key factors to realizing that she was losing herself and needed to step away. She never looked back on the moment too fondly, but…

Her eyes rested on Kyoka Jiro annoyedly bickering with her dramatically crying father. Izuku's own classmate was likely the result of that moment. Granted, it was probably self-serving to give herself credit for a child's creation, but the possibility existed that the mugger could have killed or seriously harmed them had she not been there to stop him, regardless of how overboard she went. It colored the situation with a perspective that she had never truly considered. She had a lot to think about when she got home.

Sir Nighteye stared right into Nezu's beady, black eyes with an impassive, unreadable expression. Nighteye was a proud man, and he wasn't easy to unsettle. That fact was both a blessing and a curse, however. Pride often lended itself to stubbornness, as seen in the fact that he hadn't spoken to his former friend and master, the No. 1 Hero, in over half a decade. Compounded by the fact that the immutable future he saw for the man with his quirk frightened him enough to double down in his thinking, and you get a very estranged relationship between All Might and his former sidekick.

Sir Nighteye wouldn't allow that to affect him, however. He had a duty as a pro hero to put his personal issues aside to protect the public to the best of his ability, and he did so with gusto. He had faced down all sorts of villains in his day, many with substantially more dangerous abilities than he wielded, but they all went down when faced with his unmatched guile. That guile allowed him to matchup with some of the most ruthless, calculating, and well-connected scum in the criminal underworld. He was nothing short of experienced.

Yet, while it wasn't a vicious, bloodthirsty villain, nor was it a vision of All Might's gruesome, unspeakable death, Nezu's smile unnerved the shit out of Nighteye nonetheless.

At least he had Mirio's unflappable positivity by his side to ease some of the tension, but damn it could he use a joint right at that minute.

"I will assume that whatever you had to discuss in person was imperative enough to warrant such a short notice meeting," Sir Nighteye dully intoned with a critical eye at the principal.

"Indeed," Nezu chirped. "It involves your investigation into Shie Hassaikai."

Sir Nighteye was internally taken aback, but he allowed nothing to break through his carefully maintained countenance. "What about it?"

"It has concluded," the chimera happily answered.

For a fraction of a second, that stern expression broke, a brief glimmer of shock shined through the cracks before it was ruthlessly shoved down. "I don't understand."

"Yeah, what do you mean, Mr. Principal?" the confused Mirio Togata inquired from beside his mentor.

"Kai Chisaki, also known as Overhaul, died two nights ago," Nezu explained, maintaining his smile all the while. "I figured you ought to be made aware of that before continuing a pursuit of a man who no longer walks this planet."

Both humans were silent, Sir Nighteye's stone-faced silence in contrast with his protégé's wide-eyed gape.

"How did it happen, if I may ask?" Mirio spoke up.

"Apparently, there was a conflict among rival criminal organizations that resulted in the destruction of an abandoned warehouse," Nezu began with an insincere shake of his head.

"I heard about that incident," Nighteye replied. "It's suspected that the League of Villains was involved based on the manner in which the building was decayed to rubble."

"Well, Overhaul was among that decay," Nezu cheerfully announced.

"How do you know?" the former sidekick questioned curtly.

"I had a trusted associate investigate the incident. I suspected that the League of Villains was involved, and I wanted to be sure of any potential movement of the group before we instituted the dorm system."

"Who is this associate that so quickly gathered this evidence?" Nighteye questioned further, his yellow eyes narrowing behind his rectangular lenses.

"You might be familiar with her," Nezu cryptically began. "She used to go by Verdant."

Nighteye's eyes widened, his unreadable façade all but abandoned as a faint blush began to develop on his face.

His third-year protégé, meanwhile, lit up in excitement. "Oh wow, really?! Verdant's so cool! She's wicked smart and a great fighter to boot. It's honestly kind of weird how someone that small can pack such a punch. Then again, she seems a lot taller than she actually is during a fight."

Mirio paused in his excitement when he noticed his mentor's state. "Uh, Sir, are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Nighteye quickly responded, forcefully regaining his composure. "I see, then. Give Verdant my thanks and regards. I appreciate you for sharing this information with me. If you excuse me, I must return to my agency."

Without another word, Nighteye hastily stood, bowed, and left the office, Mirio confusedly hurrying along behind him after a quick wave goodbye to Nezu. Nezu's smile remained unchanged as he saw them off, but internally, the chimera was cackling. Using FutureVision420's propensity to be horny on main against him so that he wouldn't ask any further questions was genius if he did say so himself.

"Inky, I'm glad you're here!" Mitsuki greeted with a smile as she opened the door for Inko and Aizawa. "Katsuki's being a little shit again, and you were really great with putting the fear of god into him the last time."

"Bite me, hag! I don't need protection!" her son shouted from the living room.

"It's for your own good, ya brat!" she shouted back before turning back to the two teachers to beckon them inside. "I figured you'd come by at some point, so I already made tea."

Once the 5 were situated in the living room with the offered tea, Aizawa started off with his only slightly rehearsed speech about UA prioritizing the safety of its students, especially those going down the dangerous path of heroics. However, it became clear fairly soon that their decision had already been made, regardless of his student's protests of being able to take care of himself.

"Take him, it'll be good for him," Mitsuki insisted with a smile. "I should've sent him to live up there sooner, in all honesty."

"Why so?" Inko asked.

"You know how teachers and other kids were during his early years," Mitsuki reminded, and Inko grimly nodded. "A lot of things come easy to him, even outside of his quirk, so everybody being up his ass like he discovered diamonds up there helped him develop a big head. I was honestly afraid that his head would swell so big that people would start treating him like the plague for just being who he is."

Her son steamed at being talked about so frankly while he was present, but he wouldn't dare interrupt.

"I'm really glad you're around to keep this knucklehead in line," she continued. "People only know how to praise him superficially, but you know him well enough to be able to reach him and keep him grounded."

"It helps that I had you to deal with at his age," Inko playfully sniped.

A vein protruded on Mitsuki's forehead as her son laughed in the background. "If memory serves, I wasn't the one who nearly got expelled the first day of high school for knocking a girl's tooth out at lunch."

Inko huffed and crossed her arms. "Stuck up bitch had it coming for calling you Slimer."

"How exactly did you get away with that?" Masaru asked while both his wife and his son were busy laughing.

"Crimson Riot was my homeroom teacher, and he threw me a bone. His exact words to the principal were, 'She's a little confused, but she's got the spirit.'"

The ash blonde teen's laughter was two-fold. The first reason was, of course, it was fucking hilarious. The second reason, though, was to ignore how nervous the green-haired woman made him feel at times. He had already learned his lesson well years prior, and then he learned it again at the start of UA, but it bared repeating:

Aunty Inko was fucking terrifying.

Aizawa, meanwhile, was simply glad that Izuku turned out to be marginally less inclined to violence than his mother. Perhaps the green head would be a better influence on kids than he was, and the scraggly man could retire early by handing his job off to him after he graduated.

"That guy's name is Hans Gruber," Izuku pointed at the bearded man on screen before shoveling a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "He's a bit of a weenie."

"Hans Gruber?" Eri tentatively sounded out with a plate of apple slices in her lap.

Izuku nodded. "He's a bad man with a gang of cronies that just like to steal money and hurt innocent people. Real villain stuff."

"So, he's like Overhaul, then…" Eri lowly spoke.

Izuku didn't respond verbally to that, gazing worriedly down at the girl that had All Might's signature tuffs of hair sticking out above her long mane of white. He was considering shutting the movie off and putting on something else in case she was flooded with bad memories, but he paused when he noticed her eyes narrowing at the screen.

"I wanna see him disappear," the little girl declared in a vindictive tone that had traces of righteous determination.

Izuku didn't know if he should have felt proud or concerned in that moment.

"Who's next after this?" Inko asked as the two approached the massive mansion of the Yaoyorozu family later that day.

"Ashido and Kirishima," Aizawa replied. "They live decently close to each other, though, so we could split up and get them done at once to save time."

"Sounds good," Inko said with a nod, but something caught her eye as they were nearing the front door. Or, rather, someone.

"Todoroki?" Aizawa asked in confusion, having noticed his presence at the same time as Inko and earning the attention of the heterochromatic teenager.

"Oh, Ms. Midoriya, Mr. Aizawa," he addressed in his typical monotone, blinking in surprise at the encounter. "What are you two doing here?"

"Canvassing the homes of your class about the implementation of the dorms," Aizawa carefully drawled. "Why are you here?"

"…I needed to get out of the house," he answered.

"Fair enough," the man conceded with a sigh. He really needed to get that boy into Hound Dog's office at the start of the school year, but he supposed that it was better late than never.

"How's everyone doing?" Inko asked with a soft, concerned tone.

"Fuyumi is with mom, and the shouting matches between Natsuo and my dad become a bit tiresome," Todoroki responded.

"How are you doing?" Inko followed up.

The boy didn't respond right away. He stared at the concerned mother that so strongly resembled his (best?) friend and couldn't help but see the other green head's form ghosting over her, offering him a concerned look, as well. Then, he turned his head and looked back at the mansion, and his eyes trailed to a specific section of the house and settled on a particular window. After a brief moment of lingering silence, he turned back to face the woman.

"I think I'll be okay," the teen said with a nod, and both adults could hear the sincerity in his voice. With that, he continued on his way back down the path leading to the gate of the property.

"Why was he here of all places?" Inko wondered aloud.

"It's best not to ask questions in situations like these," Aizawa suggested.

"Well, you'll be the one supervising them in the dorms, so I think you ought to be aware," Inko joked.

"Let's just get this over with," Aizawa groaned as he rang the doorbell, and The Cambridge Chimes could be heard from where they were standing. Mere seconds later, the ornate door was opened, revealing a dapper butler.

"Ah, the teachers of UA," the man spoke, welcoming them inside. "The Yaoyorozu family was expecting you. I shall let them know that you've arrived."

As the man walked away, the two teachers took in the sheer size and splendor of the foyer they had entered. Both parties felt completely out of their element in the luxurious abode occasionally peppered with maids and other employees quietly passing through, offering polite nods along the way.

"I am already uncomfortable," Inko whispered to Aizawa.

"Same here," he whispered back.

"The Yaoyorozu family shall see you, now," the butler that welcomed them in informed them upon his return before motioning down the hall he had come from. "Right this way."

Silently following the man, the two teachers were eventually led to another luxurious room with a fireplace and several parlor chairs surrounding it, three of which were already occupied by the Yaoyorozu family. The two teachers were greeted warmly by the fabulously wealthy family, and after being offered an absurdly large selection of tea and snacks, they were able to get down to business.

"So, UA wishes to house their students personally," Sen Yaoyorozu began to the left of his daughter. "I can certainly understand the rationale with everything that has transpired over the course of the semester, and allow me to say that I'm glad that your son is safe and back home with you, Mrs. Midoriya."

"Thank you," Inko nodded with a smile, not having the energy to correct him about no longer being married.

"With that said," Hyaku Yaoyorozu spoke up to the right of her daughter, and both Inko and Aizawa noticed how the teenager's eyes lost a bit of their brightness when she heard her mother's voice, "while our daughter thankfully wasn't badly injured, it concerns me that you're moving on so suddenly and implementing a dorm system as if nothing ever occurred once the situation was resolved."

Inko sent a quick glance to Momo, particularly the way she was beginning to clasp her hands together. The girl was tense. Inko didn't like where this was headed.

Beside her, Aizawa chose to address Hyaku's concerns. "We agree with everything you've said. It is true that we have become complacent, and it is time that we took action to better protect our young heroes-in-training. The safety of her and all other UA students is our number one priority."

Aizawa bowed his head before the family, shocking his student. "Adjacently, we solemnly swear that we will train her to the best of our ability to become an excellent hero. Your daughter is brimming with potential to do fantastic things, and we want to nurture that and allow it to blossom. Will you be willing to entrust the safety of your daughter in UA's care once again?"

The reactions from the family were incredibly varied. Momo was swimming in a mixture of shock, pride, and hope. Sen's smile of approval told Aizawa that what he said was exactly what the man wanted to hear, and it boded well for the future of his student.

"No."

Four heads snapped in the direction of the stern-faced Hyaku Yaoyorozu.

"…Excuse me?" the daughter of the family managed to sound out, the dread present in her tone indicating that she was afraid of this exact outcome.

"Your father doesn't want to say it because it will hurt you, but it's time to move on, Momo," Hyaku bluntly stated. "Your heroics fancies were cute when you were younger, but you're nearly an adult, now. It's time to grow up, be realistic with yourself, and make use of your actual talents."

Momo was the picture of crestfallen at the brutal declaration, and one frantic look towards her father for any sort of lifeline only faced her with a look of sad resignation from the man. Tears welled up in her eyes as she hung her head.

Inko silently observed the deteriorating interaction with a piercing gaze. Aizawa made to speak, but Inko put a hand on his wrist and motioned for him to let her handle it.

"Mr. Yaoyorozu, could you give us a minute?" Inko calmly asked the man.

Sen blinked, completely taken aback by the request but not having an issue doing so. "Oh, um, certainly."

As he stood up and left the room, Inko turned to her coworker. "Aizawa, why don't you go with Mr. Yaoyorozu into the other room and tell him about your cats?"

Aizawa stared blankly at her. "…What?"

Inko's green eyes filled with unholy darkness as she stabbed through the scraggly man's very being with her glare. "Tell. Him. About. Your. Cats."

"Right, let's go talk about my cats," Aizawa quickly acquiesced without another moment wasted, leaving the woman to it.

Momo thought she was reading the situation correctly, so she stood up and excused herself, as well, but Inko stopped her. "Stay, Momo."

"A-are you sure?" Momo hesitated.

"Positive," she answered with a kind smile, then that smile vanished when she turned to Hyaku. "What exactly did you mean by 'actual talents'?"

"My daughter is brilliant," Hyaku began, pleased to gush over her daughter's intellictual acumen. "She has enjoyed reading encyclopedias for pleasure since she was 4, and she has memorized just about every chemistry dictionary there is. The Yaoyorozu Company is the largest developer of pharmaceuticals and medical instruments in Japan; she is a literal goldmine for that field, even discounting her powerful quirk. She could be doing so many other fantastic things if she wasn't wasting her energy on heroics."

The mother paused. "No offense."

"None taken," Inko replied in a completely unreadable tone.

"I merely want the best for her," Hyaku sighed. "If she stopped dividing her time and energy amongst things that don't matter, she can finally become perfect at the things that do. She's an heiress, and she's being primed to take the reins of the Yaoyorozu Company when the time comes. She needs to focus on what matters rather than passing fancies."

"Who says heroics is just a passing fancy for her?" Inko challenged.

"Isn't it for everyone? Provided they don't die in their 20s or 30s, I mean," Hyaku responded.

"That's…" Inko sighed and closed her eyes. "That's not technically incorrect, I suppose, but it doesn't tell the whole story."

Inko opened her eyes and set her sights on the girl in question. "Momo, why do you want to be a hero?"

Momo flinched, and she shrank under the newfound attention.

"You have nothing to worry about," Inko kindly assured. "Just be completely honest; you're allowed to speak your mind here."

Momo looked at Inko with hope flickering in her eyes once more, and then she took a hesitant glance toward her mother. After a brief moment to collect herself and her thoughts, she cleared her throat.

"…I have everything," she began, mustering up the confidence to continue speaking. "I've never wanted for anything. I know that isn't the case for everyone, and it can't ever feasibly be so. Even still, if I'm in a position to help someone in need, regardless of what it is, I want to do it. Be it financially, emotionally, spiritually, or physically by protecting and defending them with my life. I have a lot of power, both figuratively and literally. What good what I be if I just let it go to waste when I could be out there making lives better with it?"

She turned to her mother. "I know you've always wanted me to be perfect, and I know I've always been a disappointment to you in that regard. But I don't need to be perfect in order to help people; I just need to do everything in my power, and I'll always do that, no matter the situation. Even if it's not perfect, when lives are in danger, they'll never get less than my best. That's my promise to you, to father, to Ms. Midoriya, to Mr. Aizawa, to the entirety of Japan, and to myself."

Hyaku was speechless. She had no idea that her daughter's desire to be a hero went that deep, and it made her feel a bit of shame for never truly inquiring why she wanted to go that route in the first place. Alongside that, her daughter felt as though she thought she was a failure.

"Is that… is that how you really feel?" she quietly asked.

Momo nodded, and she struggled to maintain eye contact with her mother. It didn't go unnoticed.

"You're not a disappointment, Momo, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel that way," she apologized, her tone still muted.

Inko was trying to figure that little quirk out to determine if the woman was actually being sincere, but she couldn't quite parse it. She supposed it didn't really matter, either way. The goal was to get their permission for Momo to live in the dorms, and doing so would get the girl away from her mother regardless.

"I…" Hyaku trailed off, then she sighed and looked her daughter in the eye. "If this is truly what you want and what you feel you need…"

"It is," she resolutely nodded.

"Fine," the mother conceded, and Momo's face lit up. "I will support you."

A choked sob escaped the young girl, and she quickly excused herself from the room. Inko sighed in relief and a bit of exhaustion. The day had already been long, and this visit had only made it even longer.

"I'm placing my trust in you," Inko heard the woman say to her, and her attention refocused upon the stern-faced mother.

"I'll vest a personal interest in progressing her training myself if I must," Inko assured the woman.

"You'd best," she accepted with a nod. Her ideas of the profession hadn't completely changed, but she was given a lot to think about.

The bald doctor skittered about his lab like a neurotic roach. His coat was barely hanging on and dragging against the floor, his facial hair was a scraggly mess, and not even his goggles could hide the insanity in his eyes.

"That filthy traitor," Garaki growled, the image of Tomura in his mind warping into a lifelike hallucination of the man dusting his benefactor with a manic grin plastered on his face, staring right at the doctor with a wild gleam in his blood red gaze.

'You're next.'

"No, I am not! And All For One is not dead!"

He slammed his fist into the nearest table, sending empty trays and discarded equipment clattering to the floor.

"You are alive…"

Garaki placed a hand on a large tank that was situated away from tanks of High-End and Near High-End Nomus. "And I will bring you back to greatness."

The man's insane gaze looked blissfully upon the tank. Floating in purple liquid with a respirator on his face and his body stuck with a forest of tubes was an almost braindead Yuga Aoyama.

"Plan B will prevail."

"This is the last one, right?" Inko asked Aizawa as they approached their final destination. "You don't have any illegitimate students floating around that we don't know about, right?"

"God, I hope not," Aizawa replied. "I have enough problem children to expel as it is."

The two continued their approach to the large house situated a decent distance away from the nearest neighbors. Both Inko and Aizawa internally remarked that it was a great situation to live in given the amount of privacy it afforded. The French flag that flew on a small flagpole billowed in the evening breeze as the sun set over the long, tiring day, creating an explosion of orange and pink hues in the sky.

The duo of teachers reached the front doorstep, and they rang the doorbell. They waited for a response, but none came. That wasn't anything abnormal; it was a big house, and it could reasonably take some time for someone to reach the front door from the other side of the house. That also assumed that they were home to begin with, but there were several cars present on the property, so both teachers assumed that at least one person was home. They continued waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

"Who are we waiting on, again?" Inko asked Aizawa, growing mildly irritated at the wait time.

"The Aoyama family," Aizawa answered, not too dissimilar in his state of annoyance. "Someone has to be home."

"Have you looked through the window?" Inko asked.

"Curtains are drawn," Aizawa lamented.

"Is it locked?"

"…I'd rather you not break into my student's home."

"Party pooper," Inko joked with an exaggerated pout, and she absentmindedly surveyed the rest of the property from her vantage point until she spotted an odd patch of grass on the side of the house. Walking over closer to get a better look, she noticed that there was broken glass in the spot.

"Hold on a sec," she said to Aizawa before stepping over to investigate. Reaching the glass, she bent down and surveyed it, and much of the glass was stained with dried blood. Looking out at the rest of the grass surrounding it, even more shards of glass were scattered about, some stained with blood and some not.

"Aizawa!" she called over to the younger underground pro.

"What is it?" he called back, coming over investigate the issue.

Inko looked up at the side of the house and spotted one of the windows was completely destroyed. Then, she looked back at the approaching man. "We're breaking in."

Omake

Inko trudged up the stairs of her apartment complex and fished for her keys. Canvassing every student in 1-A and convincing their parents to trust in UA enough to let them house their children was a task in and of itself, never mind the fact that some parents were doubly resistant after their child had foolishly gone vigilante to rescue her son and put themselves in harm's way. She truly loved her son more than anything in the world, but sometimes, that boy was exhausting.

Seriously, inspiring so much trust and camaraderie in his classmates to the point where they'd literally and unashamedly break the law to rescue him from trouble? What happened to the days of simply flying under the radar?

She couldn't fight the snorts any further and lost her composure, laughing at the ridiculous thoughts of her son being at fault for being likable. If she was being honest, the world needed more people like her son and less people like herself. On that depressing thought, she reached her front door and unlocked it, opening it right as Izuku turned the corner in a strut with Eri sitting on his shoulders.

"-body once told me the world was gonna roll me, I ain't the sharpest tool in the she…"

Izuku trailed off when he saw his mother standing at the doorway and giving him an impossibly blank stare. The apartment was silent as the two stared at each other, Izuku's embarrassed blush growing by the second.

"…Welcome home, mom," Izuku awkwardly managed, only making the situation worse on his end by speaking.

Meanwhile, on Izuku's shoulders with her tiny hands holding fistfuls of his wild, curly hair, Eri had no such concepts of shame and awkward silences. "Yippee ki yay, motherfu-"

"Eri!" Izuku hurriedly shushed the girl, but the damage was already done, and Izuku met his mother's hard glare. "I can explain…"

Inko remained silent, allowing for Izuku to explain, as promised. No explanations came however, and Izuku merely floundered under his mom's glare and Eri's playful tugs of his hair. When his mother's eyes narrowed, Izuku knew that she was going to let him have it for corrupting the precious youth mere days after finding her.

"I can't believe you two watched Die Hard without me!" Inko indignantly accused.

Five seconds of silence passed before Inko burst into laughter once again, and Izuku, realizing his mother had been screwing with him, fell bonelessly to the floor in a frustrated huff with Eri safely planted on his back.