A Hero Lost In A Hollow World.

[GhostJade45]

Note: Yo, everyone, Jade or Ghost here. I'm new to QQ and just forum posting in general. As you probably know AO3 is down so I wanted to try out different sites to upload on and see if my fic will get any attention there.

I thought I'd be lost but maybe the loss of AO3 has made me be able to understand things here better than before, though I definitely still need help and explanations.

I'd appreciate feedback on the fic, I noticed MHA doesn't have too many fics, especially with Izuku as the MC so hopefully mine can get people interested in him.

---

Rain came down hard over Osaka. Izuku Midoriya was crouched on the edge of a rooftop, watching it flood the street below.



Osaka still had people able to move through the city without too much worry, which made it better than most places.



He could see a few of them moving under umbrellas down on the street, hurrying home with their heads down.



A woman was pulling a child along by the hand. An old man with a bag of groceries walked fast to beat the weather so he could get home.



'It's really been almost a year...' Almost a year since he had left U.A., since the war and the scar it had left on Japan, since he had seen his friends and his mom in person.



He had turned eighteen out here alone somewhere between Kyoto and Kobe, and he hadn't told anyone about it until All Might called and he had let the call go through by accident.



It had been a while since then, and Izuku was nearing nineteen now.



The past year had done things to his body that no structured training plan could have predicted.



He was broader across the shoulders than the design had accounted for, heavier through the arms, the frame underneath the green fabric carrying more muscle than when he first put it on.



His face had lost most of its softness. It had become more mature and less plain. But his freckles still remained on each cheek.



The cape given to him by Gran Torino that was around his neck like a scarf, and worn since before he died, was fraying badly at the edges. But he had stopped caring about how it looked three months into this.



Same with his iron soles, which had warped over time into something almost talon-shaped, and his gloves, which had taken enough punishment to develop a faint resemblance to claws. He had lost count of how many people had mistaken him for a villain.



"...You're doing that thing again." Banjo's voice came from behind him, easy and unhurried.



Izuku didn't turn. The vestiges didn't need him to look at them to know they were there. It had been that way since his second year at U.A., since the wall between him and all seven of them had started coming down, and two years with them in his head had made their presence almost natural.



"I'm not doing anything," he replied quietly.



"You've been crouching there for almost forty minutes," Banjo continued, folding his arms, "in the rain, not moving, staring at nothing. That's the thing."



Izuku sighed slowly, resting his elbow against his knee as he adjusted his position just enough to ease the tension in his shoulders. "I'm thinking," he said simply after a moment.



"Yeah," Banjo shot back, "that's what I said."



Izuku grumbled and let his eyes drift across the abandoned cars three floors down, noting the way two of them still had their doors open, angled awkwardly as if their occupants had left in a hurry.



"You need to eat something. You can't keep going without food," Nana said, appearing at the corner of his vision.



"I ate," Izuku told her simply.



"That protein bar you ate two hours ago doesn't count," Nana scolded.



"It had protein in it..." He didn't put much effort behind the words. Coming up with convincing excuses required energy he didn't have to spare anymore.



"What about sleep then? When did you last actually sleep? Not the twenty-minute naps you call rest. Real sleep," Nana asked him.



"It's fine... I'm still functional without full sleep or food," Izuku responded.



Nana put her hand on her face and shook her head. "You'll collapse before you ever get to fight All For One, or your body will not function as well as you'd like."



Izuku paid no mind to her words and just kept staring below.



Kudo was there, somewhere at the edge of things, saying nothing. He rarely did unless there was something tactical to note.



Which unfortunately at the moment there was nothing — it was just raining within a city All For One wasn't in once again.



His jaw tightened slightly as he leaned forward. He had run down every lead the assassins AFO sent after him had given him.



He had gotten better at getting information out of them, though... he wasn't proud of how, and every single lead had put him somewhere AFO had already been and left.



His grip tightened against the guard over his knee.



He had followed assassins through collapsed districts, tracked escaped villains from Tartarus across prefectures that barely had infrastructure left to support the people still living there, and stepped into fights that weren't his because there had been no one else close enough to respond in time.



He had done all of that while chasing a bastard of a man who always seemed to be just out of reach.



'It's always just another dead end...,' he thought, his frustration edging through, tightening in his chest.



AFO moved like smoke. Like he knew, every time, exactly when Izuku was coming.



"He probably does," Kudo said flatly from somewhere behind his thoughts. "He's been reading people for two hundred years. Don't underestimate that."



'I'm not underestimating anything...,' Izuku thought back.



There were nights when he didn't even know if what he was chasing had ever been real in the first place — nights where the idea that All For One was still out there started to feel less like certainty and more like something he needed to believe so everything he had been doing didn't collapse in on itself.



His breath came out a little sharper than before, and he exhaled slowly through his teeth.



'Stop it,' he told himself. 'That kind of thinking doesn't help anything.'



But knowing it didn't stop it from creeping in at times.



A flicker of memory surfaced. He remembered an alleyway in a different city, a man bleeding out against a wall while Izuku pressed his hands down to try and stop it, the smell of smoke still hanging in the air from the fight that had ended minutes too late, the sound of distant sirens that hadn't arrived fast enough.



'I got there as fast as I could... but I couldn't—' Izuku blinked once, hard, and forced himself back into the present, his fingers pressing briefly against his forehead before dropping again.



"You really need to stop doing that," Nana said quietly, and this time there wasn't an attempt to soften it.



"Doing what?" Izuku replied, though he knew exactly what she meant.



"Letting everything pile up and pretending it's not there," she answered, her gaze steady on him. "That only works for so long."



"It's been working...," he said with a slight edge.



"Has it?" Banjo cut in, raising an eyebrow as he leaned back slightly. "Because from where we're standing, it looks more like you're running on fumes and stubbornness."



Izuku groaned, his eyes dropping back to the street as he watched a pair of people cross at an intersection, one of them pausing to adjust the other's umbrella before continuing on.



'Fumes and stubbornness...,' he repeated internally, and for a moment, he couldn't even argue with that.



His hand moved almost unconsciously to the side of his belt. He took his phone out from his pouch, turned it on, and looked at it.



There were messages and missed calls, all from All Might, whom he hadn't directly spoken to in months.



He just stared at his phone for a while before turning it off and trying to put it away.



The phone buzzed in his hand.



He sighed, pulled it back up, and glanced at the screen, already preparing to decline.



But the number he saw made him stop immediately.



It wasn't a person he ever called, but he knew who it was. He had made sure to memorize the number when he had given out his own before.



He answered after a moment of hesitating. "Hello...?"



"...Midoriya..." The voice came through rough and strained and so quiet he almost couldn't hear it over the rain. "You're... still alive..."



He shifted, his grip tightening around the phone. "Nagant... Yeah, I am... I'm glad you're well enough to be conscious... but don't—" He stopped himself. Telling her not to push herself would be hypocritical, because she was already pushing herself to make the call.



"I assume you know why... I had a doctor have you contact me the moment you were awake..." Izuku said, getting straight to the point.



Kaina exhaled and swallowed. "...Haibori Woods," she said. "There's a... mansion. Used to be the Creature Rejection Clan's. All For One kept me there sometimes... between missions..." She paused, trying to catch her breath. "He was still there... when I was moved. He'd been—"



A cough cut through the sentence, rough and wet. "...been working on something for months. Something he wouldn't leave behind."



Izuku stood up immediately. "Did you see what it was?"



"...No. I couldn't get close enough... most of the time. But whatever it was, it had him... fixated." Another shallow breath. "He didn't care that I'd seen through him. He stayed. Whatever he found... he thought it was worth the risk."



That made his chest feel cold. 'All For One is staying put? When he has been running from me and other heroes for almost a year...' he thought while clenching his fist.



"That can't be good... but it's a lead I can work with...." His voice had dropped, becoming quieter. "Thank you for—"



"Don't," she cut him off sharply. Then, quieter: "...Midoriya. He's expecting you. Whatever you walk into... he's already planned for it." She shifted before continuing. "You throw your life away like it doesn't... belong to you. Don't prove me right about that."



"I'll be careful...," he said.



There was a long pause. He wasn't sure whether she believed him, though he wasn't sure he did either.



"...Okay," she said finally. Then the line went quiet, and he could hear the faint sound of the rain before she ended the call.



He stood there for a second, staring at his phone. Then he put it back into his pouch.



"It's a trap," Kudo said flatly.



'I know,' Izuku replied, his gaze shifting toward the edge of the rooftop as he stepped forward. 'But it's also the best lead I've had in months.'



"And the one most likely to get you killed," Banjo added, not sugarcoating it.



Izuku moved his hand up to his mask, pulling it into place as he took one steady breath through the respirator.



'If I don't go...,' he thought, 'then I lose this chance completely.' And he couldn't afford that, so he activated Full Cowling and leapt off the roof, activated Float and kicked off the air, flying off through the rain.



—----------------------------------------------------



After nearly an hour of flying and using his phone to find the location, he arrived at Haibori Woods.



He came in low over the treeline, slowing his speed on his descent, and landed in the undergrowth about two hundred meters from the edge of the woods, then moved in on foot from there.



'Danger Sense is quiet,' Hikage noted, his voice low but alert. 'But it doesn't mean he isn't here.'



'If he's here, he would want me to come in cleanly,' he replied.



"And you're just going to give him that?" Banjo questioned.



'I don't care if that bastard All For One has a trap set, I'll deal with him and Shigaraki no matter what's thrown at me.' He moved through the trees, watching for movement.



The rain made it harder to hear, which was annoying, but it also masked his footsteps, which helped.



He got about sixty meters out from where the treeline broke into the grounds of the mansion, then he heard voices up ahead and stopped.



Izuku recognizd them, which only made him groan. He stood up straight and started walking again.



He crept forward until he could see through the last stretch of bushes, and his eye twitched seeing who was here.



Endeavour, Hawks, Best Jeanist and Mt. Lady were all standing on the grounds just outside the mansion's front, gathered around a cluster of tied-up guards, all unconscious.



Hawks had a couple of his feathers doing lazy slow circles in the air above the entrance. Jeanist was retracting his fiber threads.



Mt. Lady had her arms crossed and was pacing a short tight line, her expression making it clear she wasn't happy about something.



'How the hell did they—?' Izuku thought as he stepped out of the treeline.



Endeavour saw him first and didn't say anything, turning to face him fully with a measured look.



"You were going to do this alone, weren't you, Izuku?" Endeavour asked flatly.



Izuku ignored the question and kept walking toward them. "How did you find this place?"



"The doctor monitoring Lady Nagant flagged us," Hawks answered, dropping from a low branch in a crouch before straightening up.



"We figured you'd get the lead from her before you thought to share it, so we made sure we would hear it at the same time." Hawks pointed at Izuku.



Izuku turned his head and glared at him.



"You're still trying to babysit me?" His eyes narrowed more. "Of course you are, you always do when you guys have the chance."



Hawks shrugged slightly. "We took precautions," he replied, sharpening his gaze. "You've got a habit of not looping us in, kid. We couldn't exactly let you go do something catastrophic on your own, now could we?"



Izuku groaned, but shifted his attention back toward the mansion. "You didn't need to come," his voice dropped with an edge. "This is something I have to handle myself."



"Again? Seriously? Do you have any idea—" Mt. Lady cut herself off, stopping her pacing and turning to Izuku. "Do you know how many scenes we've walked into after you were already gone? Burn marks, wrecked ground, people saying some scary looking guy in a dark green costume handled it, then vanished, and we're told you're clearly exhausted and hurt, but you continue to move on without rest..."



Her voice rose strained as she looked at him steadily.



"You don't wait...," taking a step forward, she continued, "you don't call. You don't even stop long enough to make sure you're okay. How long do you think you can keep that up?"



Izuku glanced at her for a moment, seeing the frustrated look on her face mixed with her concern. He shifted his gaze back forward.



"I'm still here...," he replied. "Still functional... that means it's working."



"Barely that is, and for how long even for that?" She shot back immediately.



"And it's quite an issue, because if you collapse and die due to pushing yourself too much," Best Jeanist added, his tone calm but firm, "then we lose the only person capable of stopping All For One and Shigaraki." He said it quietly and directly. "You know that as well as we do."



Jeanist's threads drew back into his sleeve completely as he studied Izuku in the rain. "Your efforts are admirable, Midoriya, but admiration doesn't make recklessness sustainable."



Izuku's jaw tightened, his fingers curled harder at his side."Stop wasting my time with your lectures! I am going in there, no matter what you fucking tell me!" he shot out.



"You're not doing a solo operation, Deku," Endeavour told him. "But you keep ignoring what we tell you... So we'll compromise. We'll let you go in alone and confirm whether All For One is actually here. You only have 10 minutes, no more, and the second we hear a noise that suggests fighting, we will move in."



"That's as good as you're going to get. Take it or leave it," Hawks added.



Izuku glared at him, then at the others, his gaze lingering briefly on each of them.



His eyes narrowed. This wasn't something he could go against; they would jump in no matter what he said, so it was better to let it go for now. "Fine... do what you want," Izuku responded coldly and just walked past them toward the mansion.



Hawks sighed while rubbing the back of his neck. "Sometimes I wonder if letting him stay out there alone this long was the right call."



"We didn't have a choice in that either," Jeanist replied. "We can only hope this ends soon."



They all weren't sure if this would work out, but they couldn't let themselves get dragged down by the possibility of failure.



—----------------------------------------------------



Izuku entered the mansion and immediately smelled old blood.



The League hadn't cleaned up after themselves properly by the looks of it.



He had read the reports on what happened to the Creature Rejection Clan here, but he made himself forget the details.



He moved through the ground floor, checking corners, and watching for any traps or if anyone was watching him. Danger Sense hummed low at the back of his skull but didn't spike.



'He's waiting somewhere inside,' Kudo said. 'Keep moving. Don't stop in any room long enough for him to box you in.'



Izuku passed through a hallway with a collapsed ceiling and into what seemed to have been a dining room. The double doors groaned as he pushed through them.



A white light bloomed on the far wall before he was halfway through the door.



Izuku stopped, looking up to see a hologram of All For One being projected by a device.



'Tch... of course he isn't here...' he rasped. He stared at the All For One hologram intensely.



All For One's face coalesced in the projection, smiling in the way he always smiled, like he was genuinely delighted by his own patience.



"Izuku Midoriya..." he said warmly. "You really are tireless. It's almost admirable. A boy your age, barely nineteen, spending a year hunting me down and taking down everything I send at you, though not without some struggles."



"Where's Shigaraki!?" Izuku replied, ignoring what AFO was saying. All he cared about was getting him and Shigaraki.



"...I thought we might talk first." AFO sounded mildly injured by the interruption. "You've gone to such lengths to find me. The least you can do is listen to what I have to say."



"CUT THE CRAP! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY, JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU AND SHIGARAKI ARE!" Izuku yelled out, sparks of green lightning appearing briefly.



AFO's smile shifted slightly, becoming softer around the edges and more deliberate. "One For All... should have been mine from the start," he said.



"My brother chose to give it to strangers. To hand it down through generations of fools who were never its rightful owners. I have spent nearly two centuries trying to take back what Yoichi and that nuisance Kudo stole from me... But I failed each time, even while in Shigaraki's body... I failed because of those vestiges of yours...."



Izuku's fists clenched harder. 'He's still stalling... but I'll have to play along for now if I want any actual answers.' "He left because you imprisoned him. Because he chose something better than the hell you offered him."



He paused before continuing. "And whatever you think you understand about One For All, about what it carries, you don't. You never fucking did. Every person who held it gave it forward because they believed in something better. Something a bastard like you will never trample!"



"He doesn't see it that way. Not now." Something passed across AFO's expression. "The dead don't retain their grudges, Izuku. I know. I've had time to observe that. But you—" He paused.



"You've met them, haven't you? The previous holders. My brother's inheritors. All those fools who burned themselves up in service of an ideal that was never theirs to carry. And now you're doing the same thing. Alone, exhausted and hunting me through the ruins of a country you feel personally responsible for...."



AFO tilted his head. "You really are just like every one of them."



Izuku growled, a vein popped on his head as his body shook.



"If I can't have One For All..." AFO said, and his voice had shifted into something quieter, "then I will simply need to remove you from the equation...."



The floor bursted upward.



'SHIT!' Danger Sense went off too late, but he managed to quickly move out of the way.



He blew through a wall to his right in a burst of green lightning as a wave of air went through the whole area.



He hit the floor of a ballroom beyond, then rolled and came up fast, turning back immediately.



Tomura Shigaraki stepped out of the dust on the other side of the room.



'Shigaraki was his trap!?' He immediately moved into a fighting stance and raised One For All up to Full Cowling 75%, making large sparks of green lightning spark intensely around his body and the area around him. His teeth gritted at the strain.



'He looks better than he did before...' That was the first thing Izuku clocked. The last time they'd been in the same place, Shigaraki had still been adapting to everything AFO had pushed into his body, and still moving with that jerky, barely-controlled energy.



Now he was still. His shoulders were loose. The tics and twitches were gone, and his red eyes tracked Izuku with a flat, patient attention that Izuku had only ever seen in AFO.



'Losing Garaki didn't slow him down as much as we hoped,' Bruce said quietly.



"I knew another assassin wouldn't be sufficient," AFO said through Shigaraki's mouth. "You've become too difficult to approach that way, so I had no choice but to take you on myself."



'Looks like he has control of Shigaraki's body fully now...' Izuku clenched his teeth. He could never forgive Shigaraki for killing Gran Torino and many more people, but he wasn't sure if he felt less disgusted by the fact AFO was now puppeteering his body. He couldn't dwell on that now.



Shigaraki raised his arm up and fired an Air Cannon.



Izuku ran forward, side stepped the cannon and came in from the right, feinting for the head and pulling low at the last second.



Shigaraki stepped back, exactly what Izuku wanted. He wound up for a counter punch into the dodge, but Shigaraki blocked with a shield and fired a black ball that caught Izuku in the left shoulder.



The impact threw him sideways; he caught himself with Float an inch from the far wall.



'His reaction time has increased as well,' Kudo said in his head sharply.



'I can tell. Let me deal with it,' Izuku launched himself forward and shot out Blackwhip. Multiple tendrils went to try to catch Shigaraki but he managed to avoid all of them.



Shigaraki shot out Rivet Stab at Izuku.



Izuku flipped and slided past each of the tendrils barely, as he moved in.



He leapt up and grabbed Shigaraki by the wrists, pushing him back. They crashed through multiple rooms of the mansion.



Shigaraki kicked him off but Izuku attached Blackwhips to his wrists and tied his hands together.



He flipped in the air, landed on the ground, then ran at him to deliver a punch aimed at Shigaraki's side.



But Shigaraki used a quirk to harden his body around that area and Izuku felt the impact crawl up his arm after hitting it; it felt like hitting a diamond wall.



Shigaraki took the opportunity to snap the Blackwhips around his wrists. He made a yellow ring around his feet, using it to push himself forward.



Raising his left arm, he threw his hand forward toward Izuku's face. Izuku twisted around the hand and dropped under his reach. He had been paying attention to that hand since they started this fight. He wasn't going to let it touch him.



—



Outside, the rain had thinned to a cold drizzle that clung to Endeavour's flames. He stood rigid, arms crossed, watching the mansion, and every few seconds his fingers twitched.



"He's been in there four minutes," Mt. Lady muttered, pacing a tight line in the mud and chewing on her bottom lip. "I don't like this. It's too quiet, and—"



She was cut off by a muffled crash that came from inside. Hawks quickly fanned out his feathers and his head tilted. "That's not just him searching. That's a fight," he said, and the lazy drawl was gone from his voice. "He's tangling with something big."



Best Jeanist stepped forward, threads extending out his sleeves. "We gave him ten minutes, but I think we've heard enough to know he found what he was looking for." He glanced at Endeavour. "We need to move."



"Agreed," Endeavour growled, and flames flared up his shoulders and face. "We're done waiting."



They started running toward the mansion door. The ground below started shaking beneath them and erupted upward. Each hero moved out of the way immediately.



Endeavour groaned as he stared at what just came out of the ground. A bunch of Near High-End Nomus were standing there and he turned to see more bursting from the ground behind them.



Hawks went airborne, and sent his feathers toward the Nomus, slicing into the first one's shoulder joint, sending it skidding sideways, along with others.



Another Nomu lunged for Mt. Lady, who was still growing, and she caught it across the chest with a forearm that was still expanding, the impact jarring her teeth and forcing a grunt of pain through her clenched jaw. She pushed it off once she was big enough and went to full size.



Endeavour's flames roared as he sent a wall of heat that caught two Nomus mid-charge and drove them crashing into trees. "They're blocking us!" he barked, and even as he said it, three more shapes circled wide, cutting off the direct path to the mansion. "They don't want us reaching him."



Jeanist's threads snapped out, binding multiple Nomus' legs and he dragged them through the ground. "Then we go through them as quickly as we can!"



Inside the mansion, they heard another crash which was followed by a quake through the ground.



Hawks' head whipped toward the sound, while keeping some Nomus with wings away with his feathers. 'Come on, kid,' he thought, jaw tightening. 'Don't you dare die in there before we get to you.'



Mt. Lady roared as she slammed her fist down on a Nomu that got too close to Jeanist's flank. "Just once," she snarled, "I'd like a mission where we don't have to fight through a wall of these things to save the self-sacrificing idiot." She kicked a few away and another caught her foot and managed to hold it in place.



"Let go!" She pulled her leg up as hard as she could, managing to lift up the Nomu, and she grabbed it off her foot and tossed it far away.



Endeavour incinerated the bodies of the nearest Nomus and stepped over their dissolving mass without looking down. "Save the commentary. Push through."



---



The mansion wall facing them bulged outward, the old stonework shrieking, and the night filled with the sound of everything breaking at once. 'What the—' Izuku thought but was cut off.



More Near High-End Nomus crashed through from inside the mansion, going toward Endeavour and the others.



"I took precautions as well to make sure you couldn't get any help. I knew you wouldn't come alone, even if it wasn't your choice to come with them. You're all so predictable, it's quite fun seeing my predictions coming true," All For One said with a wide grin on Shigaraki's face.



'DAMN IT!' Izuku clenched his teeth and grunted. He couldn't let All For One keep having his way.



Izuku heard Endeavour's flames, then heard Hawks's feathers slicing through the air, and heard Mt. Lady's shouted curses.



Shigaraki raised one hand and set it on the floor. Decay rippled outward in a spreading wave, and Izuku launched upward with Float, Blackwhip snapping from his knuckles to pull himself toward the ceiling near a wall, and then he flew toward it and crashed through.



The decay destroyed the entire mansion and Shigaraki quickly followed him out, flying after him.



He fired a massive radio wave that caught Izuku, causing him to be thrown out of the air and come crashing down toward the trees.



Izuku recovered, getting up and spinning around. 'Enough of this!' Izuku quickly moved his arms and legs around in repeated motion, making them glow red and the energy surge even more the more he moved.



He kept charging his arms and legs at the same time, Fa Jin built up more and more. Moving, he positioned his body a specific way and motioned his arms through the air and his body emitted a blue glow around it.



Izuku layered Gearshift over Fa Jin, his whole body ran hot. Once he built enough Fa Jin, he launched himself upward, destroying the ground below him. Multiple sonic booms went off as he flew through the air toward Shigaraki.



Turning around, he flicked and kicked the air, sending himself hurtling faster toward him. "NEW HAMPSHIRE SMASH!!"



His back slammed hard into Shigaraki. The force sent massive shockwaves throughout the area, sending multiple trees flying. "OKLAHOMA SMASH!!" He twisted around fast, creating a tornado as he spun with Shigaraki.



Izuku spun until he had built up enough momentum and pushed him off his back, sending Shigaraki flying fast toward a mountain, which he crashed into, completely destroying it and leaving only a massive crater.



Turning off Gearshift, he charged up his legs again with Fa Jin, then concentrated 75% of OFA into them as they ached, making Izuku groan. Izuku kicked the air multiple times, sending air force blasts at the crater, hitting Shigaraki. Each blast caused the crater to sink and grow.



'That's it kid! Keep the pressure on him, don't let him get a chance to counter,' Banjo said in his head.



Izuku double-kicked the air one more time before repositioning himself and flew toward the huge crater.



Danger Sense went off. A weird spiked creature came out of the smoke, going to chomp on him.



He pivoted left, barely dodging it. Putting his arms up and crossing them, he moved toward the long tendrils forming the creature. "CAROLINA SMASH!" Izuku did an X slash with his hands and cut through the tendrils, and the creature started falling apart.



Shigaraki came rocketing out of the smoke from the crater toward Izuku and blasted a huge yellow laser that hit Izuku.



"UGHH!--" Izuku screamed in pain as the hot laser pushed him through the air back to the area the mansion used to be.



He pushed his hand up, straining against the force of the laser. But he managed to put it straight up and shot out Blackwhip, a huge amount of the dark energy forming. He expanded it, making it big enough to shield him from the laser.



Then he flew to the side, moving out of the way. Smoke came out of his body and filled the air around him. Izuku started huffing intensely.



'Be careful, he can still find you in the smoke,' En said, his voice tight.



'Using multiple quirks at once is still too straining for him, En. He needs a second to breathe,' Nana said as she appeared beside Izuku and put her ghostly purple hand on his shoulder.



'Your body is exhausted and doesn't have the proper strength or energy to handle using your quirks at full strength. And you're pushing yourself even more by using 75%. If you listened to me before, you wouldn't be having this problem,' Nana said to him.



'It doesn't matter now! I'm still able to deal with him, so shut up!' He snapped at her.



Nana's grip tightened on his shoulder and her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth but closed it quickly, pulling her hand away before fading away.



He wiped his face with his hand, then got into position, motioning his hands again through the air, and his body started glowing blue intensely.



Everything except the rain was quiet and Izuku closed his eyes and waited as he floated.



"You really thought I wouldn't see you through the smoke? How foolish are you?" AFO said as he came pushing through the smoke, his arms both having dark purple lightning sparking around them, the holes on his hands glowed. He put both arms forward and fired a combined ray of quirks at him.



Izuku disappeared from All For One's view before the ray hit him. "Huh? Where did he—"



A kick to his side cut him off and sent him flying through the air fast.



Izuku almost instantly moved far ahead of the way AFO was going and raised his arms up, locking his hands together. "WYOMING SMASH!!" He roared out as he dropped his arms down, hitting AFO down to the ground.



The impact sent a bigger wave of force, clearing the entire woods of trees.



Endeavour had to take Mt. Lady, who had shrunk down to normal, with him to the air. Hawks helped Best Jeanist up by using his feathers, and he flew further up with him. The pressure sent them back a bit and all the Nomus were blown away or crushed by debris.



Once the force stopped, there was only a wide and enormous crater with smoke. All For One lay there, his body having multiple cuts and leaking blood from them. He barely managed to get up, only standing on all fours and coughed up blood.



Looking up, his eyes widened at what he saw.



Izuku stood over him, his eyes shadowed under the mask.



All For One tried to raise his arm but Izuku stepped on it hard, shaking the ground. Blackwhip came out of Izuku's leg and wrapped around All For One, covering his entire body, and he reinforced it with all the Fa Jin he had built up, though his body twitchched while doing so and Blackwhip almost unraveled but he managed to hold it.



He lifted up All For One and put some distance between them. Izuku then turned slightly, lifting his leg up before slamming it on the ground, lifting up dirt. He wound up his arm so fast it made a vortex appear around his arm that pulled in everything around him, including AFO.



Once he was close enough, Izuku uppercutted him, sending him rocketing up to the sky incredibly fast with more force than before, all controlled to a specific point so the area barely was affected.



Blackwhip stretched before reaching a specific limit that catapulted All For One back down at Izuku.



Izuku clenched both fists. The rest of his Fa Jin surged into his arms. Green lightning sparked violently as he threw punch after punch. Each hit made Blackwhip snap AFO back into position, faster and faster, until Izuku's arms blurred. His hits created a tornado around him.



Izuku's teeth gritted hard, as veins popped on his head, his green lightning sparking violently everywhere as he kept pushing himself further, his arms hitting harder and faster.



He didn't let up no matter how much his body ached and his vision felt like it was blurring. He had to make All For One pay for everything he had done throughout the years, how he had left Japan and what he had put him through this entire year. Izuku roared, his nose starting to bleed.



'IZUKU THAT'S ENOUGH! YOU CAN STOP!' Yoichi shouted at him.



Izuku groaned, but he listened. He stopped his assault and grabbed All For One by the neck when he came back a final time. The sudden stop made a shockwave that dissipated the tornado around him.



The glow of Gearshift and Fa Jin faded and his sparks of Full Cowling dropped down in intensity. His legs nearly stumbled but he caught himself. His breathing became heavier. It felt difficult getting any air in at all. The respirator was barely helping.



'You tried too hard to push yourself. It's a miracle your body didn't give out while you were doing that,' Hikage said as he appeared by his side.



'Look, I get it. All For One is a monstrous asshole who deserves a thorough beatdown, but you really almost overdid it there,' Banjo added.



'We can't worry about that. He managed to overwhelm All For One and look at what it resulted in,' Kudo said as he stared forward.



Izuku and the vestiges looked up, seeing the state Shigaraki's body was in. His limbs were mangled and twisted, and his body had various wounds with blood coming from them, and it seemed like his body was cracking in many places. His face looked like it was ready to completely fall apart and his eyes were completely white.



Once Izuku properly caught his breath, he tried to focus One For All in his ears, aiming his hearing toward Shigaraki's chest. He heard a faint beat of a heart, which anyone would miss if they tried to listen normally.



"So... he is still alive..." Izuku's voice came out strained. 'Doesn't seem like super regeneration is working... meaning he must have used a hardening quirk because taking too many direct hits would have been risky for him,' Izuku pondered.



'Losing Garaki cost him. Now his prized new body is ruined,' Bruce said as he crossed his arms before adding, 'We shouldn't risk him still having it. You have to finish him completely. We'll deal with the actual him later.'



The other vestiges all nodded, but Nana had a conflicted look on her face and glanced at Shigaraki's body, looking at it for a moment before turning away and closing her eyes. 'Do it, Izuku...' she told him quietly.



Izuku drew his fist back and looked at Shigaraki's face one more time. "I'm sorry... Tenko..."



His fist charged forward, hitting Shigaraki's face and shattering it apart completely.



Blackwhip finally disappeared around Shigaraki's body and Izuku let go of his neck as well, dropping his body to the ground.



Izuku stood there for a couple of seconds, his arm shaking. He pulled it back down. Using One For All in his ears again, he listened toward Shigaraki's chest. Hearing nothing at all, not even a flicker from a vein or any blood moving through his body.



He was completely dead. His eyes stared almost coldly down at his lifeless body.



Izuku's fist clenched and his eyes narrowed. He almost felt like crying but he held himself back.



His body finally gave out and he stumbled back, falling onto the floor on his butt. He took a few more deep breaths.



"It's almost over..." he spoke out. Without Shigaraki's stronger body and All For One's quirk, the real All For One wouldn't stand a chance against him or the other heroes. His army of villains wouldn't be too difficult if he was there to help everyone.



He'd finally be able to see his mother, All Might and his friends again. That almost made him smile, but he couldn't until he actually brought Japan back to how it used to be.



Getting up, his legs felt numb and still shook as he tried to move. His arms weren't responding too well either.



After getting himself stable, he started walking forward. 'I should... find Endeavour and the others. Hopefully they got out of the way of the crossfire.'



Izuku kept walking, each step sending a dull ache through his thighs, his knees threatening to buckle. He clenched his jaw and kept moving.



'Just a little further... Then—' Danger Sense went off and he felt a specific presence behind him that made the hairs on his neck stand up.



Izuku pivoted, slow and heavy, raising his fists despite the protest in his arms.



A puddle of green liquid was spreading across the crater floor. Thick, oily, bubbling at the edges. It rose, formed a column, then split open like a wound.



All For One stepped out. The real one. The scarred face, the life support apparatus wrapped around his neck and chest like a mechanical collar. His breathing was labored — a wet, rasping sound that echoed across the empty crater.



He looked worse than Izuku remembered. His face was pale and sweating. His hands trembled slightly at his sides.



But his smile was the same.



"Well, well, well..." AFO's voice came out thin and strained. "You really did it..."



Izuku moved immediately toward him. He crossed the distance, cocking back his fist, green lightning sparked around his body despite every muscle screaming in protest.



"You don't get to talk about him!" Izuku shouted.



AFO raised his hand, activating Goop Warp and put it between them. Izuku's fist passed through it along with his whole body. He stumbled, trying to catch himself, then twisted around.



He gritted his teeth as he looked at AFO, who was now twenty meters away, leaning against a chunk of rubble, still breathing hard. "I'm not here to fight you, Izuku. I can't. You made sure of that."



He gestured at his own trembling body. "This shell has maybe one good move left in it."



"Then why show yourself?" Izuku's voice came out ragged. "You could have run and hidden like a coward. Licking your wounds for another year again."



"Because running doesn't work anymore." AFO's smile faded. "You proved that. Every assassin I threw, every trap I set, and every plan I made was all overcome by you... You just kept coming and now managed to defeat my new body despite the state your body was in...."



AFO paused as he clenched his fist. "Trying to face you head on even through other means isn't working...."



He reached into his coat, slowly and deliberately, and pulled out a small, dark object. It pulsed in his palm, black and purple, like a heartbeat. "I've decided to remove you instead."



Danger Sense went absolutely insane. A constant, shrieking alarm that made Izuku's vision blur at the edges.



"What is that?" Izuku asked as he took a careful stance.



"I'm not entirely sure myself...." AFO's hand closed around it before he continued. "It seems to be a form of energy or substance possibly... it's corruptive and unstable. I found it in the ruins of a research facility..." His voice dropped. "It cost me months of work and dozens of test subjects to understand even this much..."



The object began to glow. Black energy crept out from between his fingers, reaching toward the air in front of him like it was searching for something.



Izuku ran toward him. 'If that thing is dangerous, the safest place is inside AFO's reach, where he can't use it without hurting himself!' He thought as he ran faster, every fiber of his body screaming at him.



AFO's eyes widened for a second, realizing what Izuku wanted to do. "Clever," he muttered. "But predictable."



He raised his other hand and activated Goop Warp. A hand appeared in front of Izuku, firing a massive beam of compressed air, dark energy, and something that crackled like lightning, and it slammed into Izuku's chest before he could dodge.



"GUH—!" He flew toward the rift, arms flailing, trying to use Float but it was difficult in his current state. So he tried another quirk.



Blackwhip shot out from his hand, desperately latching onto a chunk of debris. The tendril held — barely — and Izuku jerked to a stop, hanging inches from the rift's edge. The cold coming off it was unbearable, and sank into his bones, making his teeth chatter.



"Persistent," AFO muttered. He walked toward Izuku — slowly. The rift flickered behind him, unstable. "But futile."



Izuku pulled on Blackwhip, trying to drag himself away. The tendril stretched, thinned, started to dissolve.



"No — NO —" Izuku panicked.



AFO reached him. He looked down at him with his eyeless face. Raising his arm up toward Izuku's face.



"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Yoichi...," he said. "WAIT, ZEN, YOU DON'T HAVE TO—" Yoichi tried to speak but was cut off.



AFO fired an Air Cannon directly at Izuku's face.



"SHIT—!" Izuku fell backward into the rift.



Nearby, he heard Hawks scream "IZUKU!" — raw, desperate, nothing like his usual drawl. Mt. Lady's voice cracked: "NO—!" And Endeavour roared "DEKU!!" louder than Izuku had heard in months, tearing at the edges in a way it never did—



And then the cold closed over him as he completely passed through it.



—----------------------------------------------------



Everything was dark around him. He couldn't see anything or hear anything. He was just falling with no clear indication of when the ground would arrive.



His body twisted around, and he felt something creeping into his body, something strangely hot. It made him dizzy and a headache started forming.



Each fiber of his being ached in pain as he started to struggle to hear and see.



'W-what's... happening... t-to...?' Izuku barely managed to think. 'W-where... am I?'



'This substance... this void... it's... cutting into... into your body and our connection...' Kudo's voice came through strained in a way that made Izuku's chest seize, because Kudo was never strained. 'The energy here... it's something we're struggling to fight against...'



Static washed over the link, and Banjo's voice cut in, fractured and fading: 'K-kid... just hold onto—' then swallowed by noise.



Nana tried to say something, her tone desperate and fraying, and Izuku reached for her the way he'd been reaching for all of them every day for two years, but he kept finding less and less of her there. A broken groan clawed its way up his throat.



'What's... happening... p-please...,' he pleaded. 'Please don't—'



Yoichi's voice surfaced last, quiet and steady despite everything. 'We're still here. We're not gone, Izuku. We're just... on the other side of something that's shut between us. Find your way back to us yourself, and we'll find our way back to you... at least we hope so...'



Everything fell silent as Izuku fell. His body slowly started regaining its functions again.



Then the void spat him out.



—----------------------------------------------------



He was falling through open air with wind screaming past his ears.



He twisted, instincts overriding the panic, and tried to activate Float, but nothing happened.



Izuku reached again, pushing harder, and felt a flicker somewhere deep in the quirk like a muscle severed from its nerve.



A frustrated growl ripped from his chest as the ground rushed up.



He crossed his arms in front of his face, braced himself, and hit the cracked concrete with a brutal impact that drove every scrap of air from his lungs, his body skipping off the street and slamming into the side of a car.



It took a bit for his vision to clear. He was lying face-down on cracked concrete, his ears ringing, his whole body screaming. He tried catching his breath but something in the air made it tough for him.



'Breathe...,' he told himself. 'Breathe, damn it!'



His lungs finally kicked in with a raw, scraping gasp. The air that came with it tasted strange.



He lay there still for a while, taking three more breaths.



His eyes opened slowly, blinking as the sun's light shined on him. Once adjusted, he stared up at the sky above.



It was mostly clear, with some clouds scattered here and there. That didn't match up at all with what time it was when he arrived at Haibori Woods.



Izuku sat up, struggling as his body ached. 'W-What... happened...? Where... am I?'



He observed the surrounding area. It looked like a city block. But there were many abandoned cars. He could tell many were old based on the rust and flat tires.



'That thing All For One used... was some sort of warp quirk?' he contemplated to himself.



That didn't make sense. AFO wouldn't think simply warping him to another place would actually get rid of him.



'What he used didn't feel like a quirk either... he told me it was a form of energy. I even saw and felt it... That black energy seemed like a separate thing from him. Nothing he said about it looked like a lie...' Izuku recalled everything All For One said.



He gazed up at the sky again. 'If it's daytime here, then I could be in a different country... but there's no way All For One would risk using something he even felt was dangerous to him as well to send me to another country...'



Izuku put his hand on his chest, reaching inside himself. 'Yoichi? Nana? Anyone?' He called out to the vestiges.



No response came back. His teeth gritted. Closing his eyes, he tried going into his inner world.



'Something's wrong... I can't reach them...' Everything in the vestige world of One For All was completely void. The vestiges' thrones and the ground they always stood on were gone.



'Where the hell is everyone!? What—' He cut himself off mid-thought as he remembered what happened in the void.



'Something went into my body... that energy... it did something...' His fist tightened. 'But why? If it warped me, why did it affect my quirks and the vestiges!?'



He raised his hand up and tried to use his quirks. A flicker of green lightning appeared on his hand and sparked around it. The power was there but faint. He tried to draw more but didn't feel any increase.



Moving to his other quirks, he tried Float again. It actually responded but barely took him off the piece of rock he stood on, and he dropped after a few seconds. He checked Smokescreen but it barely produced a small fog.



Repeating a motion with his arm, he tried to build up kinetic energy. His arm didn't produce much energy at all. Something was there but so small it didn't amount to anything. And Gearshift didn't seem to work when he touched himself to try to use it. Blackwhip came out of his wrist but the energy was thin and he could barely keep it formed.



He growled and shook. 'Everything is here but weakened... they don't feel like they can even activate on time or stay active...' Izuku looked up and stared at the empty space of the vestige world.



His head leaned down as he thought. His quirks were something he had trained to manage at the levels they were before. And now they were extremely weakened... The power built over generations was only a spark of what it used to be.



And those who had helped build its power were no longer here with him...



Izuku remembered what Yoichi had told him — they weren't gone... but he didn't know how he would find them either or where to start.



He didn't even get the chance to apologize for all he had said to them throughout the year. He couldn't do anything he wanted to do after his mission was over.



Tears started dripping out of his eyes. He tried to hold them back but they kept coming.



'I-I'm sorry... everyone... I... I—' The words could barely form. Despite how he had treated them and thought about what they often told him during the year, he found himself getting used to their presence.



Each of them had come before the war so he got some time with them, even if they could only appear and wanted to appear for a short time, usually in his sleep.



Being alone in his mind like this... wasn't something he ever wanted this way.



Izuku started sobbing, and his body kept on shaking more and more.



He let himself finally break, falling to his knees. A scream that came out of his mouth was silent and ragged.



He didn't know how long he stayed there.



Then something pulled him back.



A spike of pain behind his head. Danger Sense gave a sharp feeling like usual.



Izuku's eyes snapped open. He was back in the real world, sitting on cracked concrete. 'What—?' He was brought out of the inner vestige world.



'Danger Sense is still working?' The realization cut through his spiral. 'But why? Everything else is weakened... The vestiges are blocked. Why is this one still functional?'



He took a shallow breath through the respirator. The air still tasted weird and had a strange feeling in it.



And then he heard screaming from the distance, making his head whip in that direction. 'There are people here...?'



His body immediately stood up without hesitation. He activated Full Cowling and sprinted toward where he heard the screams.



It didn't matter where he was, or that his Quirks were on their last legs. Screaming meant people needed help, and he couldn't ignore that.



Izuku ran past various cars and leaped over a few and turned a corner by a building.



He ran a few seconds further until he saw something ahead.



His brain needed a moment to categorize what the hell he was looking at.



A tall black creature with long arms ran fast after something. The body had clusters of jagged crystals growing from its shoulders and spine.



Looking ahead of it, there were three people being chased by it and the creature raised its spiked arm as it got closer to them.



'NO—!' His arm came up fast and he immediately shot out a Blackwhip tendril.



The tendril came out weak and pale compared to what he was used to, but it shot across the distance and wrapped around the creature's forearm, and he immediately yanked on it.



The creature lurched sideways, and its arm missed the people in front of it.



He ran toward them and then flipped over the creature, landing between it and the civilians.



His eyes widened as he saw it up close. Its head was split open and the interior of it was green. And an almost black hole-looking orb was at its center, with its edges having a weird glitchy effect.



The thing somehow roared at him, despite having no real face or mouth, then went to strike him.



Izuku blocked it with his forearm and felt the crystalline edge scrape across his Mid-Gauntlets.



Groaning, he went in to kick the thing in its chest, pushing it back far.



Losing most of One For All didn't remove all the strength, skill and experience he had built over the years.



The creature recovered from his hit and lunged back at him again, then tried to slash at him aggressively.



Izuku dodged its slashes, weaving each one easily. 'Its movements are predictable... it's just attacking wildly with no coordination,' he thought as he stepped to its side and wound up a punch and slammed his fist into its side, sending it flying into a car, making it tilt before slamming back down.



Before he could go attack it further, another one came around the side of a building — smaller, animal-shaped, moving with the same mindless aggression. 'There's more of these things!?' He growled out.



He sidestepped the creature and reached for its tail, grabbing it, then pulled and spun around with it.



Using what little Fa Jin he had before he got here and what barely built up, he threw the creature into the first one which had barely gotten up.



The impact sent both of them through the car and they crashed into a wall hard.



Izuku watched them. They didn't seem out just yet — they moved but were dazed.



'They're tough... I might need to try something else.' His eyes analyzed them while they still got their bearings.



They landed on that black orb in their centers. A small spark of Danger Sense went off a bit. The feeling they gave off felt familiar... like that black energy.



The first creature managed to get to its feet and instantly ran toward him, roaring even louder than before.



'Still just mindlessly charging in.' He grunted as he focused the small amount of One For All he could use into his left leg.



The creature came close, about to strike at him again.



Izuku just moved out of the way and leaped up a bit, throwing a kick up at its face. Landing in its center, the hit shattered the surrounding area of its head.



It fell back onto the ground and stopped moving.



And then it came apart. The body broke into fragments that flickered. Each fragment was a small cube that dissolved completely, and a trace of green light scattered and glitched as it disappeared.



Izuku stared at the empty space where it had been. 'Did... that thing just glitch away...?'



The animal creature roared as it moved fast toward him.



He turned and drove an elbow into the side of its equivalent of a skull, and shattered the orb inside.



It fell limp onto the ground and the same thing happened to it like the first after he hit its core.



His vision blurred for a second. He blinked, shaking his head and pushed past it.



Once everything seemed finished, a cough scraped out of his mouth.



Hunching over, he hit his chest hard. 'This air is getting difficult to handle... what exactly is it!?'



His chest was heaving.



'This place... it's making less and less sense the more I'm here... these things are made of black crystals... and they give off the same feeling as that black energy did... but they look humanoid and animal-like...' He thought, clenching his fist as he narrowed his eyes.



'Are these things mutated people and animals?... or are they made directly from the energy...?' He pondered.



Izuku was starting to wonder if he was in some simulation, but everything felt too real and only those things had a digital effect.



But he wondered why this was never reported anywhere. He was sure world news would report about a city area being filled with a specific type of substance that mutated people or animals or made creatures similar to them.



'All For One said he found this in a specific place, but this energy is in an area that isn't close to a facility as far as I can see. But this must be where it came from — but All For One didn't seem like he traveled to a different country to get it...'



He checked world news often to see how the rest of the world was doing and reacting to Japan's current state, so there was no way he had missed this.



'There's no time to ponder this. I gotta get these people out of here...' He twisted toward where he last saw the people who were running.



Further ahead, three people were hiding by the side of a car. A woman, a man and an older man.



They were all staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.



He had seen that look in their eyes before. 'Right... I don't look like anything they should be relieved about saving them...'



A sigh escaped his nose as he started walking toward them.



Once he got close enough to them, he pulled off his mask. Then he unclipped his respirator and held it at his side. He had to show his face if he wanted to have them see he didn't mean any harm.



Danger Sense went off, but it was smaller, like small blades kept stabbing the back of his neck repeatedly. The sweetness at the back of his throat got stronger immediately without the respirator filtering it, and he swallowed against the scrape of it.



Whatever was in the air was starting to give off the same feeling as the black energy as well, but he forced his mind to focus on what was in front of him.



"Hello, I'm not going to hurt you..." he said in English, due to not being sure which language they understood but English was the most well-known language. His accent was off a bit but the words were clear. "Are any of you hurt badly?"



Nobody answered for a moment, and just watched him. Seconds passed without much happening.



Then the woman spoke out first carefully, "...You're not a gang member?" she asked in English.



'Good, they do speak English but they think I'm a part of a gang?' He thought. His costume and face didn't really look too well and many gang members he often saw didn't look too put together.



"No," he responded. "I heard screams and came to help." He looked at the man who stepped up to guard the woman. His expression read as conflicted and unsure.



"You saved us from those Ethereals... so I guess we can trust you," she said, and both men turned to look at her in surprise a bit.



'Huh? Ethereals? I haven't heard of that name before... Is she talking about those things I took down?' He contemplated quickly before he replied back.



"Look, we don't have time. We should get out of here. This place is clearly a hazardous zone and I can't risk staying too long, and you have an injury on your face..." he said to all of them, then at the older man.



The old man let out a short breath. He was pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead, slowing the bleeding from the gash above his brow. "You're talking like a Public Security Officer instead of a Hollow Raider... I guess we can trust you..." His voice came out tired.



"I've seen worse. At least you're helpful." He looked at Izuku. "Can you lead us out? We tried to get our things from our home. This Hollow appeared a week ago. H.I.A. were too busy with other requests and same with Hollow Raiders and proxies, but we couldn't risk our things getting corrupted, so we came ourselves... and things didn't go too well on our way back..."



Each term they mentioned, which he didn't recognize, rattled his brain.



"What... are you guys talking about?... I haven't heard anything you're saying..." Izuku said, sounding genuinely confused.



The three people were all bewildered by what Izuku said and the expression on his face. The man looked at the older man, then at Izuku. "You... don't know?" he said. "Where exactly are you from?"



Before Izuku could answer that, the sound of engines cut through the air from somewhere to the north. Then the crunch of tyres on debris, and voices giving sharp clipped orders.



"It's PubSec!" the man said, sounding relieved.



Two vehicles came around the corner — armoured, large, with the letters N.E.P.S. and PUBSEC in white on the sides. They both stopped and the doors immediately opened.



Officers in blue uniforms moved out fast with weapons by their sides, which most didn't look like standard guns, and then a man in a slightly different uniform stepped forward and raised his hand.



"We received a distress call—" His eyes went to the civilians, assessing quickly. "Ma'am, sirs, are any of you injured?"



"We're okay," the woman said. "He helped us. He took down the Ethereals that were chasing us."



The captain's gaze shifted to Izuku. He observed Izuku carefully, scanning every inch of him, which made Izuku a bit worried.



"Sir," he said, "I need you to identify yourself. This is a condemned Hollow and unauthorized entry is a violation of New Eridu Public Security regulations. Are you a registered Proxy or licensed Hollow investigator?"



'New Eridu? Is he talking about a city? I've never heard of it... nor have I heard about a police force called Public Security...' His mind tried to process everything.



Izuku looked at the officer, then at the civilians. The older man gave him a small, almost sympathetic look.



"I'm—" he immediately stopped himself, hearing what the officer just said. It made him start to question his own thoughts and wonder truly where he actually was.



'I can't explain myself... if I'm right... trying to explain would only get me locked up... I can't... I can't let that happen...' He thought.



He didn't know exactly what these things the people and this officer had said. But he knew the look on the captain's face. He was just an officer trying to do his job, but he couldn't let himself go with them, not when he had to first confirm something that really made his heart clench.



"Sir," the officer said firmly. "I need you to come with us peacefully. We can sort out the details at the station. If you've assisted these civilians, that will be taken into account."



Izuku looked at him for a long moment. Then he said, quietly, "I'm sorry... I can't."



Izuku quickly turned around and ran away from them.



"STOP!" The captain's voice was immediate.



He turned around to look at them, some officers starting to chase him, while others stayed with the civilians. That made him feel slightly relieved but he was still being pursued.



Danger Sense spiked, and he dropped his shoulder as multiple bullets clipped the top of his right shoulder guard.



He cut left, hitting a gap between two buildings, and kept moving. His legs felt heavier than they should. Like something was weighing him down from the inside.



He put his respirator back on his face on instinct. The air through it tasted worse now that he was sprinting, which made his throat burn and his head spin slightly. He could hear the officers behind him, their footsteps getting closer.



Blackwhip fired once, weakly, and he used it to pull himself around a corner and buy a few seconds. It dissolved before he could use it again. Float still wasn't working, so he was on his own legs in unfamiliar terrain.



He turned down a side street without really picking it, and his lungs were starting to actually hurt, and swallowing felt like swallowing sandpaper, with him getting genuinely angry at how badly his body was handling this place when Danger Sense spiked again.



It was almost pulling him toward a direction. Ahead and slightly right, off the main road and toward an open plaza. The same kind of directional sense he used to get pointing him at a threat — but this wasn't a threat. It was more like an opening.



He cut right and ran faster.



A plaza was open and wide and had a cracked fountain in the middle that had been dry for a long time.



His pursuers were closer behind him now. He could hear boots on concrete, getting clearer. He was running out of room.



Pivoting to an alleyway, he ran in but hit a dead end. He was going to run into a wall. He immediately raised his arms and braced to possibly smash through it.



But he didn't hit anything at all and everything fell dark suddenly.



'Wait, what!?' He stumbled as he tried to stop himself.



Izuku scanned the area. It didn't look like anywhere he had been before, and he turned around, looking at where he came from, and his eyes widened.



Looking up, he couldn't help but be bewildered by what he was seeing.



A black-looking barrier or field was where he just came from.



'D-did... I just come out of that? But I was already outside...' He couldn't wrap his head around this. Was he actually inside somewhere that looked like it was normal from the inside? Was it an illusion made by this barrier?



He tried to breathe. This was too much... but that made him realize something else. "The air... it's normal. It's far more breathable..." He thought while taking careful breaths.



His body took in the fresh air, and he stayed crouched on the pavement for a moment, breathing carefully.



The sound of footsteps approaching from the black barrier interrupted him.



'I gotta move from here first...' He thought as he got up.



Using Blackwhip, he shot out two tendrils. The tendrils caught a ledge three floors up and he pulled on them to stretch the tendrils, and then he slingshot himself up onto the rooftop of the building.



His body bounced off the roof until he came to a stop. Izuku lay there on his back, taking more breaths. The footsteps of the officers below echoed past the building.



They didn't see him. Good.



After listening to be sure they went further away, he sat up and balanced himself with his arms. His gaze spun behind him.



The dome sat there, roughly spherical. Overlapping buildings at the edges where it met the street level.



He sat with that for a moment. 'Am I...?'



Izuku glanced up at the sky and found his eyes widening in horror.



Izuku had been looking at the night sky his whole life. When he was small and couldn't sleep, his mother would point at the moon through his bedroom window and say things about it watching over them. He had memorized the shapes of things, the way the stars were arranged in the sky over Musutafu.



So he knew that the moon was definitely not like what he was seeing now.



He stared at it for a long time, working out why. The stars around it weren't arranged like anything he knew. And there was a section of it, that shouldn't have what was on it and Earth's shadow had no reason to cover at this phase or angle.



But it was covered by a patch of absolute black with a violet glow that bled around its edges.



It had the same black, violet and texture as the dome... as the Hollow.



'T-That's not the moon I know...' He thought in complete horror.



He sat there... shaking... he tried to think of an explanation that fit. Time travel didn't fit... the moon didn't look like this at any point in recorded history.



A different country didn't fit; no matter which country you went to, it wouldn't look any different. Besides, the moon wasn't the only thing that didn't make sense... the stuff the people mentioned, what he saw, and that black dome...



"Am I...in another world...?" he spoke out quietly and painfully.



Dimensional transport wasn't supposed to be real, or possible... But here he was when he was supposed to be seeing how Japan would finally recover.



His hands moved to his head and everything came down all at once. His mother, All Might, Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki and Bakugo, who he had kept away from himself for a year to protect, who he told himself he would see again as soon as this was over.



All the people he could have seen again after he killed Shigaraki and gotten home... 'All For One... he took me away before I could even see them all again...'



A growl escaped his mouth. 'Damn it... DAMMIT!' He hit the roof of the building hard enough to crack it.



Izuku started screaming and crying. He punched the roof hard again, leaving a bigger dent and kept punching. He couldn't contain himself.



The vestiges were gone and his power was weakened. He didn't have the power he worked so hard to control or anyone to talk to or guide him.



He was alone and weak... It all seemed hopeless and there was nothing he could do.



His hand stung under his glove. He hadn't noticed when he punched the roof.



'Stop...' The word came from somewhere deep. From whatever was left after a year of running and a day of losing everything.



'You can't let yourself lose here... they wouldn't want you to...' The thought was the only thing that allowed him to keep himself from breaking down further.



Izuku wiped his face with the back of his hand. He forced himself to breathe in deeply.



'I need to survive first. Figure out where I am...and how this world works... I can't let everyone down by just falling apart...'



It was barely an idea. But it was something to hold onto while the rest of him was still falling apart.



Izuku caught his breath more, and his mind immediately went back to the three civilians. He looked at the black dome — the Hollow they had called it.



'The officers will help them. They said they came for them anyway and some stayed behind with them...'



It didn't make him feel much better. He left them. But he couldn't just believe they wouldn't get out when they had help. For once he had to trust things were going to be okay without him.



This made him think about home. All For One, the league, prison escapees and an army of villains were still out there.



But even without him, the heroes stood a chance. Shigaraki was the biggest threat, and All For One seemed to still be pretty weak. Trying to figure out that energy, seemed to have costed him more than he had planned.



It annoyed him that it took him being sent to another world to believe in everyone.



Everything would be finished and everyone would smile again... just without him.



He hoped that everyone would be able to move on without him. His mother wasn't someone he ever wanted to see fall apart because her son was gone from her forever...



Izuku shook his head. 'I need to get off this roof, I can't stay here...'



Forcing himself up, he tried to walk off to the fire escape of the building and went down on it.



After getting to the ground, he looked around and saw nothing — the officers didn't seem close by anymore.



'I should probably find a place to sleep,' he thought as he ran.



He didn't want to go too far. If these officers worked like ones at home, they would assume he went far, so he should hide out close by.



He scanned around the area and his eyes landed on an apartment building. He immediately ran to it.



Once there he stopped running, then carefully made his way up the stairs until he got to the second floor.



He passed by some doors through a hallway and stopped at the door in the middle. Checking it, he twisted the knob and it opened, and he pushed inside.



Looking around, he saw it was mostly empty with just a desk at the corner. It wasn't much but it was better than sleeping on a roof.



He made his way to the desk and put his yellow backpack down onto it. It was something he almost forgot he had with him.



He carefully took off his respirator, cape, iron soles, Mid-Gauntlets and gloves. Putting them all down by a wall, he then laid down onto the floor and turned over.



His body immediately started shutting down. His adrenaline was wearing off and whatever else was pushing him stopped. Vision blurred as his eyes closed and his body relaxed.



Everything fell silent, except for his breathing that echoed throughout the room.

 

[GhostJade45]

Izuku stirred awake on the hard floor. He opened his eyes and blinked slowly.



The ceiling above him was starting to become clear in his vision. He turned his head and saw a bright light coming through the gaps of the curtain, meaning it was morning.



He tried to feel for the vestiges, but found nothing at the moment.



'Looks like it was all real...' he thought while he yawned and put his hand over his mouth. One For All as well didn't feel any different from yesterday, so neither it nor the vestiges had come back.



He stayed lying there for a moment, letting the reality settle in again. Being stuck in another world wasn't something anyone would look past easily, but he needed to if he had to move forward.



His body ached all over, but he pushed himself up anyway, then stretched his arms out and his back.



Izuku did a few more stretches and scratched his chest before he slid over to a wall and leaned against it with his back as he tried to organize his thoughts.



'What should I do today?' He needed information about this city, about Hollows, and how this world functioned. He needed food, water and a consistent place to stay, but that required him to have money.



Everything felt overwhelming when he had almost nothing to start with. 'I can't just stay hidden forever. I need to explore carefully and see what this New Eridu is actually like.'



Izuku glanced around the room first. The other parts of his costume were still sitting in a neat pile against the wall where he had left them last night.



He stared at them for a second before looking down at himself. 'Right... I need something to wear before I go out. I can't walk around like this.' He didn't know if those officers had already reported him.



They had gotten a good look at him without the mask, but if he at least wore something different he might be able to not be recognized.



He stood up and moved over to his yellow backpack, opening it and digging through the contents. Most of it was the usual emergency supplies he had carried for so long.



He pushed through them and his hand brushed against something at the very bottom. He paused and then pulled it out.



'...I forgot about these.' He held a dark hoodie in his hands and looked down at the bag again to see a plain green t-shirt, pants, and red shoes.



He had packed them as spares back home but almost never used them. There had never been a reason to change out of his costume when he was constantly on the move.



'These should work for blending in,' he thought, as he took them all out and set them down on the floor. He stood up and stretched a bit.



He took off the rest of the costume and placed it next to the pile. Reaching down, he went to take each piece of clothing.



It didn't take long for him to put them on, and once done he tried to move around in them, testing how they fit.



"They're pretty loose, but I prefer that anyway, it helps hide my body as well," he thought, moving his arms a bit to check the range.



After that he went to reach for his costume pile and started folding it carefully to pack it into his backpack. 'I'll keep this with me for now. Can't risk leaving it behind.'



He zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulders, then walked toward the door.



But he stopped as something came into his mind and he pulled out his phone and turned on the front camera, using it like a mirror.



Izuku looked at his face on the screen, seeing his eyebags were still there. Along with his exhausted look, his face still carried the weight of the past year.



'...I look like a mess, but I can't do anything about this now...,' he thought as he turned off his phone and put it in his pocket.



He pulled the hood of his hoodie up, adjusting it to cast some shadow over his face. 'Hopefully this way I won't draw as much attention right away.'



Izuku turned back and took one last look around the room. 'This place worked for one night. I should remember it in case I need to come back, though there are other abandoned buildings I can use here.'



With that, Izuku opened the door carefully, popping his head out only. Scanning around to see if there was anyone.



It didn't seem like there was, nor did he hear anything, so after being sure he stepped out into the hallway, then made his way down the stairs and onto the street.



The sun shone on his eyes and made him turn away a bit before they adjusted again. He looked around and instantly spotted tall buildings not too far ahead. 'That must be New Eridu...'



Izuku walked toward that direction. His steps were cautious at first, as he observed everything around him.



The streets stayed quiet at first, but the further he went, the more the noise of the city grew and the taller the buildings became.



Once he arrived in a more populated area, he stopped walking.



He hadn't known what to expect. After everything he saw and experienced in the Hollow, what those people mentioned and how the moon was, he had pictured something bleaker. Like constant tension in the atmosphere and people struggling to act normal due to what plagued their world.



Instead, the streets were alive.



There were bright signs blinking above shop entrances. Some people walked in groups, laughing about something. A woman pushed a stroller with one hand and held a coffee cup in the other. Two kids ran past him chasing each other. Shops were open, music drifted out of a record store.



'Well... this isn't what I expected...' he thought while looking almost stunned.



It was jarring to him. If he ignored the fact that he was for sure sent through a weird rift and saw everything he did yesterday, he could think this could have been any city back home before the war.



'I guess a city from another dimension usually isn't different in how it looks all the time...' He rubbed the back of his neck as he started walking again.



The city felt strangely familiar. He hadn't realized how much he missed seeing this. Just... a normal life and people living without worry.



He kept looking around, trying to see anything that stood out to him.



Spotting a sign by a building, his eyes narrowed on it.



Based on the Kanji, it was Chinese. Looking around more, he also saw English words on various other signs he noticed. Some had both English and Chinese on them.



'Those civilians and the captain spoke in English and the names on their vehicles were abbreviated English words.' His brain processed everything as he moved.



'So I expected English here, but they also use Chinese?' he pondered as he glanced at all the signage in the area. 'There's a fair bit of signage using it, so is this a Chinese city but people speak English?'



It wasn't a strange thing really. Certain cities or towns back home had the same thing.



As he passed a store window, his vision caught something. He noticed a poster that had an angular script he didn't recognize.



'What language is this?' He looked at the poster thoroughly.



Izuku may not have known every language, but he had seen enough to know there definitely wasn't one written like this. 'Hmmm... maybe this is a language from this world. They seem pretty multi-language, so a third isn't out of place. But this is their own type of language though.'



He was thankful there was a fair bit of English and Chinese. He could read Chinese script enough and could speak some Mandarin.



English was what he was most good at, and the fact that this city had plenty meant he didn't need to learn a whole new language to understand things.



As he was contemplating, something small, round with bunny ears, in a mailman outfit bounced past him carrying a delivery bag.



Izuku turned to look at it, his eyes blinking repeatedly. 'What is that?...' he questioned.



It looked like a weird type of bunny, but he saw it actually had a screen on its face and if he looked closely enough it did seem to be made of some type of metal.



His eyes ended up wandering and he saw more of them. One was carrying something for someone despite having stubby legs and arms. It was just as big as the thing it was carrying.



Another was standing outside a restaurant, seemingly promoting it and encouraging people to come in. It wore a waiter's outfit.



He caught another one on the other side of the street, and a man stepped around it without even glancing down, like this was completely normal.



'They have bunny-like robots here? And they do multiple tasks and help people?' He walked by a stand and turned, then saw three of those robots were running it. One tried to enthusiastically offer him something they were selling.



"Ehn-na ehn-nah watta ehn-neh~?" The robot said in whatever language it was speaking, while looking like it was smiling based on its circular eyes it had on its screen.



'They're kinda cute...' He almost felt compelled to reach out and pet one of them, but he felt like that would be rude.



"Uhm, sorry, I don't need what you're selling... but thanks for the offer." He wasn't sure if it would understand him, but it seemed like it did due to it nodding and going back to trying to get others to buy from them.



'These things are pretty advanced. They don't look it, but they seem to have a lot of personality and energy. They can understand you and do work most people do without issue.' He pondered.



'Though I don't know how practical their limbs are...' he thought about robots back home with artificial intelligence.



Most he had seen were pretty advanced. The one he remembered Mei building seemed to have a pretty high level of independent thought, but these things definitely had more personality and seemed trusted with jobs alongside people or alone.



He turned away from the stand and looked further ahead where he started seeing food stalls and more restaurants.



Izuku put his hands back in his pockets and moved toward the market.



As he walked, he saw something that caught his eye again by a restaurant table outside. There was a woman with fox ears poking through her hair and a tail swishing behind her. On another side, one man had rabbit ears that twitched when someone called out to him.



'So there are people with abilities here as well?' It wouldn't be strange if this world had quirks as well, but he felt like that probably wasn't the case.



Looking around carefully, he noticed there was a lack of people with extreme mutations.



Honestly, there were quite a few people with animal features as well. 'There aren't people using any quirks or abilities similar anywhere. Some people at least use them for their work, but everyone is using normal things and working normally.'



Though this wasn't the whole city — he couldn't expect to see everything about it in one area and without even knowing about it.



'I gotta ask for information... but I don't know if I should approach people.' He debated with himself. There was only so much he could learn by observing alone and he would have to ask some people about various things. 'Maybe I can—'



He tried to think but a certain smell caught his nose and cut him off. He stared at where the smell came from and he saw a noodle stand.



There was rich broth, noodles, something savory that made his stomach growl loudly.



Steam was rising from the counter where a man in an apron worked over a pot.



His stomach growled again even louder.



'I can't ignore this anymore.' He hadn't eaten any actual food in months, and seeing some hot-looking and amazing-smelling noodles really brought that out, and made his mouth water a bit and reminded him his throat was dry and hurt because of the air in that Hollow.



If he wanted to keep moving, keep thinking and keep surviving, he desperately needed food now.



He hesitated for a moment but approached the stand and pulled out his wallet. He still had some yen in there.



Izuku knew they probably had a different currency — this was an English and Chinese mixed city beyond just being another world, so the currency would be different regardless. But he had to check and know what they used here.



The vendor turned around and looked up as he approached. "Oh hey, what can I get you?"



Izuku hesitated, then held out a bill. "How much for a bowl?"



The man's eyes dropped to the money. His brow furrowed. "What's this? That's... not Denny," the man said slowly, while looking at the bill then at him.



Izuku pulled his hand back and put the bill back in his wallet. "Sorry. I just arrived in the city. Still figuring things out."



The vendor stared at him for another second, then shrugged and went back to his pot. "I don't know where you got that from, but you should probably try getting actual money and come buy with it."



Izuku nodded, then stepped away from the stand and started walking away.



'That was to be expected but at least I know their currency is called Denny.' He caught a glimpse of coins in other people's hands in other stalls. They seemed to have a star on them. 'Knowing the money is helpful... but what am I gonna do about actually getting it?'



There was no real way he could make money at the moment. He wasn't a registered citizen with an ID, so finding work would be difficult if it required some background.



'Hmmm... maybe I can find jobs that just need someone to do some heavy lifting. It's the only type of work that doesn't always need background and ID, if I'm lucky I can get one where they don't ask too many questions.' Despite luck not really being on his side, he couldn't let the possibility of failure stop him, especially when he hadn't even tried.



For now he'd just keep walking, and look around the city and just get a general map of the places he could cover.



Izuku walked past a building that blocked the sun. It shone on him as he walked on the street. He stopped for a moment and turned to look at the sun, bright and high in the sky.



'At least the sun isn't covered by a Hollow. Can't imagine how catastrophic that would be...' It was a grim thought to have, but it was hard for him to not think it when the moon was half covered by a Hollow.



He still needed to figure those out as well. Besides figuring out if one could lead him home, he couldn't help but wonder how people dealt with them and if there was no way to get rid of one.



Seeing all these people living their lives happily despite the disasters that plagued their world, made him want to protect their smiles.



'This isn't my world... but I can't ignore that these are innocent people with many lives. I can't let them lose the peace they have... not again...' He had failed his world in Japan. He couldn't protect the peace it once had. But here, he could try, even if it was an impossible task. He would at least try his best to save people from the Hollows.



He clenched his fist as his face looked resolved. Izuku looked back down and turned around, walking in whatever direction that led him.



-------------------------------------------------------



The bell above the door of Random Play chimed, and Belle barely looked up from behind the counter. She was stacking VHS tapes into a cardboard display — some old action movie with a cover that had faded from too much sun — and her mind was already two steps ahead.



'Wise is going to complain about the inventory again. He always does on Tuesdays,' she thought.



The back door closed with a soft click and her brother's voice spoke out.



"The new shipment came in. Three boxes. They're in the back," Wise said as he walked in.



Belle set down the tape she was holding and turned around.



Wise was already leaning against the doorframe to the back room, arms crossed, his silver-gray hair slightly messy like he'd just run his hand through it.



"Three boxes?" Belle raised an eyebrow. "That's more than usual. What'd you order?"



"Nothing. That's the problem." Wise pushed off the frame and walked past her toward the counter, pulling a clipboard from under the register. "The distributor must have sent the wrong lot. Half of it is horror, which we already have too much of, and the other half is instructional videos from ten years ago."



Belle groaned and dropped her head back. "Great. More tapes nobody is going to rent. We're going to have to do another clearance sale just to make room."



"We could use the extra floor space," Wise said, flipping through the pages on his clipboard. His green eyes scanned the list with focus. "The back wall has been too crowded since last month."



'He's not wrong.' Belle leaned her elbows on the counter and watched him work. Her brother had a way of making even inventory management look like a tactical operation.



"So what's the plan?" she asked, pushing off the counter and walking toward the window. Outside, Sixth Street was already waking up. A few early shoppers wandered past the noodle shop across the way.



Wise looked up from the clipboard. "We sort through the boxes, pull out anything worth keeping, and donate the rest. Then we take the commission from the client in Lumina Square."



Belle turned around, a grin spreading across her face. "The one with the Ethereal problem in the old factory district? I thought you said that was too risky for a morning run."



"I said we should wait until after lunch." Wise set the clipboard down and walked toward the back room. "But the client called again. They're willing to pay double if we get it done before noon."



"Double?" Belle's eyes lit up. "Why didn't you lead with that?"



"Because double means twice the risk." Wise made to his way from the back room, to the metal door with Staff Only on it. "I want to check the Hollow's Ether activity before we commit."



Belle followed him, stepping past the counter to the Phaethon room.



She watched Wise talk to Bangboo 6 so he could unlock the door to their workspace. The door clicked unlocked, and Wise pushed the door open.



"You coming?" he asked without looking back.



Belle grinned and followed. 'Like I'd miss this.'



The Phaethon room was dark except for the glow of monitors. Multiple screens lined the far wall, each displaying different feeds — Hollow data, client information, and a live map of New Eridu's underground tunnels. The H.D.D. system hummed in the corner, its lights pulsing slowly like a heartbeat.



Wise settled into the main chair, fingers already dancing across the keyboard. Belle leaned over his shoulder, watching the screens shift as he pulled up the commission details.



"Ether activity is moderate," he said, his voice low and focused. "Low enough for us to send Eous in, but the Ethereal density is higher than I'd like. There's at least one large one in the area."



Belle pointed at a blinking dot on the map. "That's the client's last known position. They're holed up in a storage room on the second floor. If we send Eous in through the west entrance, we can avoid most of the smaller ones."



Wise glanced at her. "You've been studying the layout?"



"Someone has to." Belle crossed her arms. "You can't do everything from the chair, Wise. I need to know the terrain if I'm going to guide Eous through it."



A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Fair point."



He turned back to the screens and started running a diagnostic on Eous. The Bangboo was docked in a charging station beside the H.D.D., its screen face dark and idle. Belle reached over and tapped its head.



"Wake up, buddy. We've got work to do," she said.



Eous's screen flickered to life, displaying a sleepy expression. Then Eous hopped off the dock and saluted, its little arm raised with enthusiasm. "Ehn-na!"



A new window opened on the center screen. A sleek blue interface with a stylized glowing eye appeared.



Fairy: "Confirmed. Ether activity is moderate, but a density spike is building in the eastern quadrant. Projected path deviation: 18% higher risk. West entrance optimal. I have also marked three micro-rifts along the secondary corridor that can serve as emergency extraction points."



Belle grinned. "Nice catch on the rifts."



Fairy: "Cross-referencing real-time data now. One large Ethereal has shifted 40 meters north in the last 92 seconds. Adjusting recommended route accordingly and uploading updated Carrot overlay to Eous."



Wise nodded, typing rapidly to sync the new data. "Good. That gives us a tighter window."



Fairy: "Efficiency increased by 27%. Client survival probability: 94%. Proceeding with guidance."



Wise shook his head lightly, but the smile stayed. He pulled up the Hollow navigation data and synced it with Eous. "We'll guide from here. Eous takes the west entrance, we update the Carrot in real time, and the client follows our markers."



"Got it." Belle stretched her arms above her head, cracking her neck. "Let's go make some Dennies!"



-------------------------------------------------------



Izuku had been walking for over an hour.



He didn't really know the area, so he got lost halfway through, though it wasn't something he hadn't experienced before. He was good at recognizing areas he had seen. He had been helping civilians through cities all across Japan, guiding them to shelters, though he was able to fly up or go onto a building and get a view from above which helped.



Trying to figure out the area on the ground definitely wasn't as easy. 'I really hope I can find a place to stay before the end of the day....' He sighed as he kept walking.



Izuku had at least made some progress on his knowledge. 'It would definitely seem there isn't anyone who is using quirks or something similar, and there are only people with animal features who might have them, but it could be a case similar to heteromorphs where most have body mutation unrelated to their quirks. But here it's more like people are just born with animal features. People here might not even have abilities.'



It was all he could gather on his own, which could be wrong, but it made him feel like he understood the world better. He also found other things he noticed.



The vehicles here in this world seemed to be mostly older ones, pretty ancient by his world's current time, but there were quite a few modern ones.



Though it made him see there was a weird mix of old and new things, like holographic displays there and normal ones, while also some old radios by people's sides in certain stores.



There were plenty of modern phones but a few flip phones were used as well. Though Uraraka used to have a flip phone, showing they still used them as well back home, it didn't really change his point.



His stomach growled again, reminding him he needed food. Walking even this much was wasting more energy than it should.



'Am I really gonna starve to death after only hours of being here!?' Izuku was somewhat annoyed. But his body was weaker and there was no telling what else that energy had done to him.



He'd seen a few more food stalls on the way, but most were crowded with people, and he didn't want to risk standing in line without any Denny to pay with. He needed a different approach.



'Maybe I can find a place that needs help with something. Trade work for a meal. I'd just hope they offer immediate work and reward for it.' He turned down a side street that looked less crowded, hoping to find a back entrance to a kitchen or a loading dock where someone might need an extra pair of hands.



The buildings here were older, the signs less flashy, and the noise of the main street faded behind him.



Then he saw something a few meters away. He saw a delivery truck, one of those boxy, refrigerated ones, barreling down the street toward the intersection ahead. It was moving fast. Faster than it should have been in a residential area.



'Something's wrong...' he said as he started to automatically move toward that direction.



The truck's horn blared, clearly the driver having lost control of the truck and couldn't stop it.



As he was running there, his vision caught something ahead.



A young woman with short dark blue hair was crossing the street at an intersection, her back to the truck.



She was holding her phone up and walking calmly, completely unaware of the vehicle bearing down on her.



'She won't notice in time!' Izuku moved faster, flickers of green lightning sparking around his body.



He ran past many people and cars at incredible speed, not letting anything get in his way as he sprinted to her.



After a successful but tense morning commission in the old factory district, Belle stepped out of Random Play for a quick errand.



The double pay had been worth it. Sixth Street was lively under the afternoon sun as she walked toward the nearby shops.



Belle had just finished sending a message to their client thanking them again for the pay, but a certain sound caught her ears, making her stop.



She looked up from her phone, frowning. 'What's that noise?'



Turning, she saw the street ahead was empty, or had been a second ago.



Now there was a truck. A big one, and it was coming straight at her.



'Oh no—!' she thought in horror.



Her feet moved but she wasn't going to make it out of the truck's path in time. The truck's front filled her vision, getting closer and closer.



A force slammed into her from the side.



She quickly turned to her left, and as if time slowed down, she could see a dark figure sparking with green lightning push her out of the way.



Then things suddenly went back to normal speed and she went flying.



Belle hit the ground hard, her shoulder taking the impact, and rolled twice before coming to a stop against the curb.



'What—' she tried to think but was cut off by the pain coming from her shoulder.



She pushed herself up onto her elbows, gasping. The world spun for a second before snapping back into focus.



The truck was still moving. It had passed her, or rather, it had passed where she'd been standing.



The driver's side door was open, and the truck was veering left and hit a building where people weren't walking past.



She then looked around, seeing the driver was somehow in a different street. She would expect him to be on the road like if he had jumped out.



Belle kept looking around. She couldn't see the person who had pushed her out of the way, which worried her.



But her eyes caught something. A figure in a dark hoodie was lying in the middle of the street, twenty meters past where she'd been crossing, and the building wall was cracked behind him. He wasn't moving at all.



'Did the truck hit him all the way over there...?' she realized. That man had taken the hit for her.



She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, and ran toward him.



Once she got there, she dropped to her knees beside the man in the hoodie.



"HEY?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Belle shouted.



His face was on its side, with his hood half-pulled off from the impact. She noticed he had dark circles under his eyes. And there was a yellow backpack that had come loose and was lying a few feet away.



She reached for his wrist, checking for a pulse. It was there and still strong and steady, which made her relieved.



'Thank God he's alive....' She held her hand by her chest and sighed.



She looked at his chest. It was rising and falling normally.



Belle checked his body for any injuries through the hood, but to her surprise there weren't any at all.



His body seemed okay, not even a single broken bone as far as she could tell despite taking a hit from a truck.



'How is he completely okay!?' While she was glad there weren't obvious injuries and that he was alive in general, it was strange he had taken a full-on hit from a speeding truck and got sent far and hit a wall hard enough to crack it, but barely had a scratch on him.



Recalling when she saw him push her out of the way, she remembered the green lightning that had sparked around his body.



'Who is this guy?' she asked herself.



His eyes fluttered and opened slightly.



Belle leaned closer. "Hey! Stay with me!"



The man's gaze found hers. His eyes were green like his hair, but something about them felt like they didn't have a light in them. He stared at her for a second, and then his mouth moved.



"Are... you... okay...?" His voice strained as he struggled to speak.



Belle blinked. 'He's asking if I'm okay? He just got hit by a truck!'



"I'm fine, you're the one who—" She stopped. His eyes were closing. "No, no, no, stay with me, please!"



His body went limp, and his head fell to the side. Belle's heart pounded faster. She quickly checked his pulse again. It was still strong and steady. 'He just passed out....'



Exhaling, she quickly pulled out her phone from her pocket and dialed Wise.



He picked up almost immediately. "Belle? Where are you?"



"Wise, something happened! There was a truck — I almost got hit, and someone pushed me out of the way... He took the hit for me and now he's unconscious!"



Wise was silent for a moment, then his voice came out, calm but urgent: "Where are you exactly?"



She raised her head up and looked around the area. "I'm at the corner of Lotus and... something. There's a green awning and a bakery. You can see the truck's smoke from there."



"I see it." The line crackled. "I'm two blocks away. Don't move him. Check his breathing and wait for me."



Belle nodded. "Okay. Hurry." She ended the call and looked down at the unconscious man. His chest was rising and falling. Slow, but steady. She looked at his face again — there was something about his expression that looked... tired.



She glanced over to the yellow backpack. It likely was his, so she stood up and went to grab it and brought it over to him. Belle then tried to pull him up but she noticed his large hands were quite scarred. They didn't look like normal scarring.



'What did he do to get scars like this? Is he an Agent?' she asked herself. The green lightning seemed like something an Agent would have... but she couldn't find any device or anything that could have been producing it.



A growling engine sound cut off her thoughts. She turned over toward the sound. Seeing the black and yellow boxy Random Play van.



It came to a stop and Wise jumped out quickly.



He took one look at the scene, seeing the crumpled truck, the crowd starting to gather, and the unconscious man on the ground. His expression grew more worried. Making his way to her, he stopped beside her.



"What happened!?" he asked as he kneeled by the man next to Belle.



"A truck seemed like it lost control and was gonna hit me... He pushed me out of the way and got hit instead..." Belle told him.



Wise's eyes flicked to the man's body, assessing. "Any obvious injuries?"



"I don't think so. I checked, there's no blood or broken bones that I can see. He was conscious for a few seconds and asked if I was okay...."



Wise looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "He asked if you were okay?"



"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either..." Belle replied.



They both stared at the unconscious man for a moment.



Wise reached out and gently pressed two fingers to the man's neck, checking the pulse himself. His expression shifted from worry to something more analytical.



"If he didn't break any bones...," he said quietly and paused before continuing, "then he isn't a normal person."



"Yeah." She looked at the truck, then back at the stranger. "He must be some agent. He managed to catch up to the truck and move me out of the way from what I can tell... there was green lightning around his body."



"We need to get him to a hospital," Wise said, already pulling out his phone to check the nearest one. "The one on Elm Street is closest. We'll take him there and let the doctors figure it out."



"No questions about who he is?" Belle asked.



Wise shook his head. "That's not our problem right now. He saved your life. We need to get him some help."



Belle nodded and moved to help him get up. Together, they lifted the man, who was heavier than he looked, and carried him to the back of the Random Play van.



She quickly went back to grab the yellow backpack and put it in the van as well. Wise laid him down on a blanket they kept for equipment.



Belle climbed in to sit beside him. Lifting up his head, she placed it gently onto her lap.



Pressing two fingers to his neck again, checking his pulse, which seemed to still be stable.



She looked at his face, and placed her hand on the side of it. 'Hang on, we'll get you help.'



Wise got into the driver's seat and started the engine. The van rumbled to life, and he pulled away from the scene, leaving the crowd and the smoking truck behind.



Belle stayed in the back, watching the stranger's chest rise and fall. The afternoon sun slanted through the windows.



The van turned a corner toward Elm Street, and Belle let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

 

[GhostJade45]

A faint ringing was coming through Izuku's ears as he started to wake up slowly, his consciousness forming in pieces as his body shifted against something strangely comfortable. His back didn't ache the way it usually did, and honestly he was feeling way warmer and better than he had in months.

His eyes flickered open, catching bright lights that made him close them again, turning his face away. Raising one arm over his eyes, he blocked the lights while his vision adjusted. A sharp beeping noise was coming from beside him.

When his eyes finally finished adjusting he lowered his arm, and saw a white ceiling.

'Where...am I?' He questioned, as he turned his head to the side slightly and saw a monitor. Beside it was also an IV stand.

This made him raise his arm and check behind his hand, seeing an IV line attached to it. 'I'm...in a hospital? How did I get here? And who brought me here?'

He tried to push himself up on his elbows, surprised by how little his body protested. A sheet covering him slides down as he fully sits up. Looking down at himself he noticed he was in a hospital gown.

His fingers brushed rough bandages beneath the gown. 'They treated the bruises... and some of the older injuries too, it seems...What happened?'

Izuku pressed his palm on his forehead, trying to recollect what happened to knock him out. His mind was hazy when trying to remember but he was managing to recollect piece by piece.

'Right I ran to save a woman who was gonna be hit by an out of control truck, and managed to get there, pushing her out the way.' He remembered before continuing.

'I used Blackwhip to pull the driver out', he recalled, his hand moving unconsciously to his chest. 'Then I tried to redirect the truck. I didn't brace properly and the impact threw me back...'

He remembered the sensation of flying backward, the jarring stop when he hit something solid, a wall, maybe and then everything went dark.

'But I woke up briefly.. ', he pondered.

A fragment surfaced and a woman's face leaning over him, teal eyes wide with worry, dark blue hair framing her cheeks. She had been saying something and possibly shouting, maybe.

The memory made his chest twist. 'She was the one I saved. She looked unhurt.'

He let out a slow breath and pressed his palm against his forehead. 'Good. She's okay, so I did that for something.'

But now he had new questions. Who had brought him here? How long had he been unconscious? And what had they done to him while he was out?

He looked down at his arms, flexing his hands. They had treated him. Medicated him and fed him through the IV, probably.

'I owe someone now for all of this...,' he realized.

He pushed himself to his feet, intending to test his balance, but the floor tilted slightly beneath him. He caught the edge of the bed and steadied himself, his jaw tightening.

'This is ridiculous', he thought, a spike of irritation cutting through the fog. 'A truck knocked me out. A truck. I've taken hits from villains that could level city blocks. I've been thrown through buildings and kept fighting. And now a delivery vehicle puts me in a hospital bed?'

He knew the reason why this was, and he hated it.

'I'm way weaker than I thought...', he admitted, and the thought sat in his stomach. 'If I can't handle a truck, I might be at a bigger risk as I can't take attacks I used to shrug off now....'

He clenched his fists, then forced himself to relax. Anger wouldn't help. Panic wouldn't help. He needed information. He needed to thank whoever had helped him. And he needed to get out of here before anyone asked too many questions.

The door to the room swung open.

A woman in blue scrubs stepped inside, carrying a tablet. And she stopped mid-step when she saw him standing beside the bed.

"Sir," she said, her voice calm but firm. "You shouldn't be up."

Izuku turned to face her fully, keeping one hand on the bed rail. "I was.... just testing my legs," he replied. "How long have I been out?"

The nurse-her name badge read Noma-crossed the room and set the tablet on the bedside table. "You were out for about Sixteen hours," she said, reaching for his wrist to check his pulse. Her fingers pressed against his skin, and she nodded to herself. "You came in yesterday in the afternoon. A young man and woman brought you. Said you pushed the woman out of the way of a truck and took the hit yourself."

'Then I was out longer than I thought...', he contemplated.

"Is she okay?" he asked, the words coming faster than he intended. "The woman I pushed. She wasn't hurt, was she?"

Nurse Noma gave him a small smile. "She was fine. Just a slight shoulder bruise, but nothing serious. She and the man she was with stayed until the doctors finished their initial assessment. They paid for your room before they left."

Izuku's chest tightened again. 'They paid for me? Why? I'm a stranger, and they wasted their money on me....'

"I need to thank them...," he spoke out. "Do you have their contact information?"

The nurse released his wrist and picked up her tablet. "I can give it to you when you're discharged," she said. "But first, I need to ask you some questions. Standard intake stuff. You were unconscious when you arrived, so we couldn't get your information then."

He nodded, though his stomach knotted with unease. 'This'll be tricky...I'm not from this world so I don't have a background they can find...I can't tell them the truth. But I can't lie too much, either.'

"Name?" Nurse Noma asked, her stylus poised over the screen.

"Izuku Midoriya," he said.

She typed it in, her expression neutral. "Date of birth?"

He gave it and she typed again. "Any emergency contacts?"

He hesitated, and looked down for a second. "I don't have anyone currently...," he said quietly.

The nurse's eyes flicked up to his face, but didn't comment on what he said. "Do you have a place to stay in New Eridu?"

'Another question I can't fully answer.' "I'm ...between places right now," he said carefully. "I'm new to the city."

Nurse Noma typed something else, then lowered the tablet and looked at him directly. "Mr. Midoriya, your intake scan showed some unusual results. Your Ether aptitude is significantly higher than average, and we found traces of Hollow contamination in your system-not enough to cause corruption, but enough to suggest you've been inside a Hollow recently. Combined with the fact that you survived a direct impact from a speeding vehicle with no fractures or internal bleeding..." She paused, tilting her head. "Are you an Agent?"

Izuku blinked. 'An Agent? She's mentioning it like it's expected of someone who goes into a Hollow and can survive a truck hit...so there's people with special abilities here after all....'

He noticed the other terms she mentioned, but he didn't have time to figure them out.

But he knew he wasn't an Agent, but he couldn't tell her the truth or say no, either, because that would raise even more questions about how he had survived.

"I am...," he said, hoping the word sounded confident.

"I see..." The nurse didn't look entirely convinced, but she didn't argue. "Do you have your Agent registration number? We need it for the paperwork."

'If course they have registration numbers....' "I, um... lost it," he said, which was technically true-he had never had one to begin with. "I've been trying to get it replaced."

Nurse Noma studied him for a long moment. Then she sighed and typed something on her tablet. "We did find a card in your wallet that looked like an identification card," she said. "But the writing on it didn't match anything current in our system. The closest match was an older script from the Old Capital region. The photo on it also looks younger than you."

'They found my hero license and thought it was an old Agent ID?' He realized.

He forced himself to stay calm. "I'm from far outside the city," he said, echoing the lie he had started to build. "Things work differently there..."

The nurse nodded slowly, though her eyes remained thoughtful. "Well, whatever the case, your vitals are stable now. The doctor has already signed off on your discharge, provided your final check remains clear. I'll need you to complete some paperwork, and then you're free to go."

Izuku let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Thank you," he said. "Really."

Nurse Noma just smiled again and nodded and checked his IV stand and the monitor.

He thought of the woman's face-those teal eyes, that dark blue hair, the way she had leaned over him and shouted his name even though he hadn't told it to her yet. She had been scared, but she hadn't run. She had stayed.

'I need to find her', he decided. I need to thank her and the man who brought me here...' He couldn't let a debt like this go.

"I'd like to get dressed," he said, gesturing to the folded pile of clothes on the chair across the room. "And I'd like to be discharged as soon as possible."

Nurse Noma nodded and stepped toward the door. "I'll get the discharge papers ready. Take your time getting dressed, and don't push yourself. You may feel fine, but your body went through a lot from what we found."

She left the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

Izuku sat there for a moment, alone with the beeping monitor and the afternoon light slanting through the window.

He then got down from the bed again and walked to the chair and picked up his clothes-his dark hoodie, his green t-shirt, his pants and red shoes. His noise picked up something from them that smelt familiar.

The hospital had washed them. They smelled like soap instead of smoke and sweat.

'They've been kind to me here,' he thought as he pulled off the hospital gown and started dressing.

He finished tying his shoes and reached for his wallet on the bedside table. He flipped it open and stared at his hero license-the photo of a younger, brighter Izuku staring back at him, the one who still believed he could save everyone.

He closed the wallet and put it in his pocket.

'I can't save everyone anymore,' he admitted. 'But I can still help in some way and still try.'

He picked up his phone next. The battery was low, the screen cracked in one corner from a fight he couldn't quite remember. 'I gotta charge it and see if I can connect it to this world's networks, I might be able to search up information and learn things that way..'

Then he sat on the edge of the bed and waited, his hands resting on his knees, his eyes fixed on the window.

-

The afternoon sun's light shone through the windows of Random Play, and Belle was losing a fight with a cardboard box.

She had been at it for almost ten minutes now, trying to wrestle the thing open without damaging whatever was inside, but the packing tape had other plans. Her fingernail caught on the edge of the seal and slipped, and she let out a frustrated groan that made a customer browsing the horror section glance up.

"Sorry," she muttered, waving a hand at the man. "Didn't mean to, just the tape-"

The man shrugged and went back to his browsing. Belle watched him for a second to make sure he wasn't going to leave without buying anything, then turned her attention back to the box.

'Why do they use so much tape?' She grabbed a pair of scissors from under the counter and sliced through the seal with more force than necessary. The box flaps sprung open, revealing a stack of VHS tapes wrapped in bubble wrap.

She pulled one out and examined the cover. "Midnight Shadow 3: The Reckoning." She'd never heard of it. The cover art was a blurry photo of a man in a leather jacket holding a gun, and the tagline read: "This time, it's personal."

Belle snorted and set the tape on the counter. "Wise!" she called toward the back room. "The shipment came in. It's more of the same again."

Her brother's voice drifted through the door, calm and dry. " Define 'more of the same.' "

"Bad action movies from the nineties." Belle pulled out another tape. "Explosive Encounter." The cover was a man and a woman running away from an explosion that looked like it had been drawn by someone who'd never seen an explosion. "And I think some of these are direct-to-video."

Wise came through the door, wiping his hands on a rag. His silver-gray hair was messier than usual, and there was a smudge of something dark on his cheek that he hadn't noticed. Belle decided not to tell him about it.

"We could use the shelf space," Wise said, leaning against the doorframe. "Put them in the clearance bin. Five Denny each or two for eight."

Belle raised an eyebrow. "You think anyone's going to buy Explosive Encounter for five Denny's?"

"I think someone will buy anything if you price it low enough." Wise crossed his arms and looked at the stack of tapes. "We've had worse inventory."

"When?" Belle asked.

He didn't respond. Instead, he pushed off the doorframe and walked to the counter, pulling out the cash drawer and flipping through the bills inside. "We made enough from this morning's commission to cover the hospital bill."

Belle's expression shifted slightly. She set down the tape she was holding and looked at her brother. "Did they call yet?"

"Not yet." Wise closed the cash drawer and leaned against the counter. "They said they'd call when he woke up."

"And how long is that supposed to take?" She asked while looking at him.

Wise shrugged. "I don't know, the doctor and nurse weren't sure when. He took a hit from a truck, Belle. It's not like he stubbed his toe."

Belle frowned and turned back to the box of tapes, but she wasn't really looking at them anymore. Her mind was back on the street, on the sound of the truck's horn, on the impact that had knocked her off her feet and sent her sliding across the pavement.

'He pushed me out the way despite it being something that could have seriously hurt him....' She'd replayed it a hundred times since yesterday. The way he had appeared out of nowhere. The way he'd asked if she was okay even though he was the one who took the hit from the truck.

"Belle." Wise's voice pulled her back. "You're staring at the same tape."

She blinked and looked down at her hands. "Ninja Cop 2: Justice Never Sleeps." She set it on the counter and sighed. "I know. I'm just..."

"Worried?" Wise finished for her.

"Yeah...." She crossed her arms and leaned against the shelf behind her. "He saved my life, Wise. If he hadn't been there-"

"But he was." Wise's voice was quieter now, less dry. "He's in a hospital and getting treatment. And we paid for it." He paused, then added, "He's not your responsibility."

"He's a stranger who threw himself in front of a truck for me." Belle met her brother's eyes. "That makes him my responsibility."

Wise held her gaze for a moment, then looked away. She could see him working through it in his head, the risks, the complications, the questions they still didn't have answers to. He was always like this. Always calculating, always looking for the angle she was missing.

"We don't know anything about him," Wise said finally. "The nurse at the hospital told me they couldn't identify him exactly and said his wallet had money in it, but none of it was Denny. Foreign currency from somewhere they couldn't identify as well."

Belle frowned. "Foreign how?"

"She said the bills had writing on them that didn't match any current language in their database, only an older one." Wise's brow furrowed. "Which doesn't make sense, because they have a pretty extensive database. New Eridu gets traders from all over."

'That's weird.' Belle chewed on her bottom lip. "Maybe he's from the Outer Ring? They have their own currency sometimes."

"Maybe." Wise didn't sound convinced. "But the Outer Ring doesn't have a language that's old and hard to identify exactly. They just speak a rougher dialect of the same one we do."

"So what are you saying?" Belle questioned.

Wise was quiet for a moment. Then he shook his head. "I'm not saying anything. I'm just pointing out that there are questions we don't have answers to."

Belle knew what he was really saying. Be careful. Don't trust too fast. But she'd already made up her mind about the man in the hoodie. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe Wise was right and she was letting gratitude cloud her judgment.

But when she checked his pulse, and saw his face up close, she didn't see a threat. She just saw someone who looked exhausted and who looked like he hadn't slept in years.

"Doesn't matter where he's from," Belle said. "He needs help. And we can help him."

Wise opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, the phone behind the counter rang.

They both looked at it.

Wise moved first, picking up the receiver before the second ring. "Random Play, this is Wise." He listened for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then his eyes flicked to Belle. "Yes. We'll be there in twenty minutes." He hung up.

"Was that the hospital?" Belle was already reaching for her jacket.

Wise nodded. "He's awake, let's go see how he's doing then."

They both then went to the back room towards the door. Wise quickly told Eous and the other Bangboo to watch the store while they're gone.

Getting to the van they quickly got in and drove out from the parking lot towards the hospital.

-

Fifteen minutes passed as they had driven to Elm Street Hospital, because Belle told Wise to go faster and he pretended not to hear her while also pressing harder on the accelerator.

Wise parked the van in the visitor lot, turned off the engine, and sat there for a moment with his hands still on the wheel.

"Belle," he called her out.

She was already unbuckling her seatbelt and turned to face him. "What?"

"When we go in there, let me do most of the talking." Wise told her firmly.

She stared at him. "Why?"

"Because you're going to do something stupid, I would prefer we don't risk ourselves helping him too much like we have with others before."

Belle wanted to argue, but she couldn't. He wasn't wrong. "Fine. But don't interrogate him."

"I'm not going to interrogate him." Wise pulled the keys out of the ignition. "I'm going to ask questions. There's a difference."

"That sounds like interrogation with extra steps." Belle replied to him.

Wise didn't respond. He just got out of the van and started walking toward the hospital entrance.

Belle followed, her shoes clicking against the pavement. The afternoon sun was warm on her face, but her hands were cold. She shoved them into her jacket pockets and caught up to her brother.

"Hey Wise." Belle called him.

He turned to glance at her.

"If he doesn't want to answer something, don't push." She kept her voice low, even though there was no one else around. "He just woke up after getting hit by a truck. He's probably confused and scared."

Wise's expression softened, just a fraction. "I know."

They walked through the automatic doors into the hospital lobby. A receptionist looked up from her computer and they went to her, informing her why they're here. She made a quick call and after a few seconds, she turned back to them and told them they can find who they're looking for on the fifth floor in room 217.

Belle and Wise thanked her and went to the elevator.

Belle watched the floor numbers tick up and tried to figure out what she was going to say.

Then the elevator doors opened. Wise led the way down a hallway lined with rooms, some of them open, some of them closed. A nurse passed them carrying a tray of supplies and nodded in greeting.

"Room 217," Wise said, glancing at the room numbers as they walked. "Should be at the end."

Belle spotted it first and found herself stopping.

Wise stopped beside her. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She took a breath. "I just... give me a second."

He waited while he looked at her.

Belle thought about the way the man's eyes had looked when he'd opened them on the street. Green, like his hair, but empty. Like someone had taken something out of him and forgotten to put it back. He asked if she was okay despite what happened to him, which only made her confused and...somewhat curious.

'I don't know who you are. But I hope to find out.' She steadied herself and went to knock on the door.

-

Nurse Noma carefully reviewed the discharge papers after Izuku finished filling them out. She nodded to herself and then properly organised them. "Good, you should be able to leave now." She said as he put the papers into a file. "Wait here for now till the people who brought you here arrive." Noma added last before leaving the room, and closing the door behind her.

It was quieter now. He just stared out the window again, looking at the sky overhead and the buildings.

His ears then picked up footsteps out from the hall.

The footsteps stopped outside his door. Someone then knocked.

Izuku turned around and looked at the door. He figured this must be the people who brought him considering they didn't immediately enter. He stood there for a few seconds before he said. "Come in."

The door swung open. A young woman with vibrant dark blue hair walked in.

Izuku's eyes widened immediately, he recognised that hair. 'Wait...isn't she that woman I saved?' Running in to push her out the way made him not really focus on too many details, but it's hard not remembering her hair.

An orange "N" hair clip stood out prominently on one side of her hair. She wore a casual sleeveless orange and black jacket over a black long sleeved shirt from what he can tell.

Looking at her further down he saw she had a grey skirt on, and had a black legging on one leg, but a short orange sock on the other. He couldn't tell if it was intentional or not considering other elements about her.

Her expression shifted from cautious worry to visible relief when her eyes met his. Her large, expressive teal-aqua eyes locked onto him immediately.

Izuku's gaze lingered on her longer than it should have. '...She's kinda cute...' The thought catches him off guard enough that he immediately looks away.

Belle saw him look at her, really look and then immediately turn away. 'Did I just make him uncomfortable?' She glanced down at her outfit, wondering if the mismatched socks were finally catching up with her. But she shook it off for now.

Izuku turned back, and tried to look behind the woman.

A taller young man stood there, with neat but slightly messy silver-gray hair that framed his face. His build was lean and composed. He had the same facial structure as the woman, even their eyes were the exact same, so he figured they might be siblings. The man's eyes swept the room, before landing on Izuku.

He seemed cautious, which made Izuku feel somewhat nervous.

The woman took a step forward, then stopped, like she wasn't sure how close she was allowed to get. "Hey...," she said. "How are you...?"

"Fine...thanks for asking...." He replied.

"I'm-" She hesitated, then seemed to decide something. "I'm Belle. The one you pushed out of the way and who brought you to this hospital." She gestured behind her. "This is my brother, Wise. What's yours?"

The man gave a short nod as she looked at him and waited for his answer.

'Their names are Belle and Wise, huh?' He pondered while he watched both of them closely.

Since they helped him, he couldn't really try to not let them know his name. He owed too much to not at least let them know that much. "It's Izuku..." he said. "Izuku Midoriya."

Belle's eyebrows rose slightly. "Izuku? That's a nice name...it's good knowing it" She glanced at her brother, who shrugged. "Where are you from? We heard you're not from New Eridu exactly."

He couldn't say he was from Japan, they wouldn't know what that was, and even if they did, he couldn't explain how he'd gotten here, the fact that the nurse mentioned that Japanese seemed to exist but be older language that existed in the past and outside the city meant no one knows it here and would only make them ask more unnecessary questions.

"I'm from...far away," he said. "Outside of New Eridu..."

Wise's eyes narrowed, just a fraction. "I see, they told us before you had an old Agent ID, so you're from further out the Outer Ring right? Most things still used from the old Capital are found there."

Izuku tensed up slightly, but tried to act natural, it seemed like the story they're working with is holding up. He didn't know where the place they're talking about was, but guessed it was somewhere outside the city. With no better lies he could come up with himself this worked for him. "They told you guys about that?"

"They told us a few things." Wise leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. His tone was neutral, but there was something underneath it, curiosity, maybe, or suspicion. "But despite that we still paid for your room."

Belle took another step closer, her hands by her sides and were clenched. "You saved my life. It was the least we could do."

Izuku looked at her for a moment, then down at his hands. "You didn't have to do that-"

"Yeah, I did." Belle cut him off, her voice was firm. "You got hit by a truck because of me... and the first thing you asked was if I was okay...." Belle looked down for a second before meeting his eyes again. "There was no way I was leaving you alone after that."

Izuku's throat tightened. He looked down at his hands. He wasn't sure what to say to that. No stranger had ever helped him this much before. Considering his condition before, getting his old injuries treated and getting some medication and nutrition from what he could tell, into his body made him feel a whole lot better physically.

But he understood that he needed to show his gratitude as this wasn't something small.

"Thank you..." he said finally. "For bringing me here, and paying for me, I'm truly grateful...I don't know how I can make this up to you both..."

Belle waved a hand. "No, don't thank me or try to make this up for us. You're the one who-" She stopped, seemed to struggle with the words, then blurted out, " I just wanted to say...I'm sorry."

Izuku blinked and raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

"For needing you to save me..." Belle said, her face flushing slightly. "I wasn't paying attention. I was looking at my phone like an idiot, and if you hadn't been there-" She cut herself off and shook her head. "You got hurt because I wasn't watching where I was going. That's on me."

Izuku was somewhat stunned by her words, she truly sounded guilty for what happened and she wasn't being fair with herself. You can't blame anyone for being at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

It made him ponder something before he answered her.

"It wasn't your fault," he said. "The truck was out of control and coming in fast, you couldn't have known."

Belle's fists tightened more. "But I could have-"

"You couldn't have made it out the way in time, no normal person would have." He cut her off and looked straight into her eye's. "And I wasn't that hurt by the truck anyway, only knocked out... though being brought here...actually helped me more than you'd think. So it's fine, you don't need to beat yourself up over this."

Belle stared at him for a moment, then let out a breath and looked away. "If you're sure...then I can't complain," she said, as a small smile appeared on her face.

Wise pushed off the doorframe and walked further into the room. He stopped at the foot of the bed and looked at Izuku with an expression that was hard to read.

"The nurse said you're being discharged today," Wise said. "Do you have somewhere to go?"

Izuku hesitated, he already dodged the question when the nurse asked him, but he couldn't keep dodging it whenever it came up. 'There are abandoned buildings in that area with a Hollow, it's the only place I can stay if I want a roof over my head. But I don't know if I can find it in time before it gets dark...' He remembers he got lost before this all happened and hasn't come close to knowing his way around the city.

He could lie and say he had a place, he didn't need them knowing he doesn't...but he couldn't bring himself to lie to them after they helped him.

With a sigh he replied. "I don't...have a place right now..." he said quietly. "I just got here, and I don't have the money to stay anywhere.... but I'll find a way to manage so don't worry."

Belle watched him as he spoke. He was lying or at least downplaying. The truck had thrown him twenty meters. She'd seen the cracked wall. But he stood there like it was nothing, like getting hit by a vehicle was just another Tuesday. Her eyes drifted to his hands. Scarred. Burned, maybe. Old wounds that had never fully healed.

'What kind of life has he lived?' She didn't ask. She just held his gaze and nodded.

Izuku turned away from them and tried to walk past them both.

"Wait!" Belle said, as he felt himself being stopped.

He gasped slightly and looked back, seeing Belle was holding his arm and had a concerned expression on her face.

"You don't have anywhere to go?" She looked at her brother, then back at Izuku. "Or anyone to turn to?"

Izuku stared at her for a moment, then turned back, but nodded.

Wise stood in the doorway, watching. Seeing Izuku try to walk away, trying to avoid burdening them more. That told Wise something. He crossed his arms and waited. Belle had this handled, whether he liked it or not.

Belle's expression grew more concerned, her hand tightening around Izuku's arm. "Then...do you maybe...wanna stay with us?" She asked, struggling a bit.

Izuku flinched, he turned to look down at her, looking at her with complete shock. 'She's...offering me to stay with them?... I was a bother enough to have them take me to a hospital and pay for my stay. Now she's offering me to stay with them?'

He couldn't believe someone was willing to help him this much for such a small act, especially when he was just a stranger, he didn't deserve any of this...

"I-I...I don't think you should help me further...you've already done so much to help me...and giving me a place to stay is beyond what anyone should do for someone they don't know .." His words came low and almost strained, he hesitated as he couldn't bare rejecting someone's kindness like this.

Izuku tried to pull away but Belle's hold on his arm got stronger and she put another hand on it.

"You saved my life, that's not something I can look past, I wouldn't be here if you hadn't stepped in. I'm not letting the man who risked himself for me go out there to sleep alone ...please, come stay with us, at least until you sort out finding a place to stay." Belle spoke out.

Wise wanted to step in to tell Belle this was pushing how much they needed to help him, but he knew his sister wouldn't listen to him once she decided to do something.

'So much for doing most of the talking.' He just sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"It isn't something we should do, but it's something my sister wants us to do, you better take the offer as she's not stopping until you accept," Wise said finally, looking unsure of all this.

Izuku stared at Wise, then at Belle. Her hand was still on his arm, her expression a mix of concern and determination. She wasn't going to let him walk out alone.

He should say no. He should thank them and leave and figure things out on his own like he always had.

But he was tired and lost, the thought of sleeping on an open alleyway or street made his stomach ache.

For now, he'll accept. His debt to them was too great to ignore anyway, he needed to close to be able to repay them.

"...Okay," The word left him quietly, almost like it had been dragged out of him. Accepting help had never felt this heavy before.

Belle's face lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah...." He pulled his arm back gently, and she let go. "I'll stay with you. Until I find a place."

Belle straightened up, some of her usual spark finally slipping back into her voice. "Okay, good, because if you tried to wander off and sleep in some alley after this, I was absolutely going to drag you back myself," she said with a small huff.

Wise sighed. "We haven't left the hospital yet. Let's not celebrate."

Then it suddenly occurred to Izuku that he forgot to ask something.

"Hey, do you guys have my backpack right?" He asked them, his face looking nervous.

Wise put his hand on his chin and pondered. "Yeah I think it's still in the back of our van, we thought we'd give it to you once you were out of the hospital."

Izuku let out a sigh of relief and, turned back around to the hallway, already set on leaving again.

Wise caught that, and narrowed his eyes. But he let it go for now and stepped forward. "Let's go then."

Izuku nodded and started walking out into the hallway, with Wise beside him and Belle walking slightly behind.

The walk to the elevator was quiet. Belle pressed the button, and they waited.

"Sooo," Belle said, breaking the silence. "Your bag. You were worried about it?"

Izuku glanced over to her, but didn't immediately reply. The elevator doors opened. They stepped inside.

"It's got ...the few things I have from back home...You guys didn't look through it did you?...," Izuku said as he looked at them with a serious stare.

Wise caught how he acted and stared but he didn't let himself show he noticed and pressed the button for the lobby. "We don't go through people's stuff. It was in the van the whole time."

Izuku nodded. He wasn't sure if he believed them completely, but they'd had plenty of opportunities to look inside and hadn't mentioned anything. That was something.

The elevator descended. Belle stared at the numbers ticking down, and Izuku caught himself watching her reflection in the polished metal doors.

There was something strangely bright about her presence. Even worried, she still spoke with this restless energy that filled the room in a way he wasn't used to anymore. The thought made his chest tighten, and he looked away before it could settle too deeply.

The doors opened onto the lobby. Walking out, they went to the receptionists desk to sign a few papers before they left. Then they were outside.

Wise led them toward the parking lot. And then Wise pointed him towards a van that was boxy and black and yellow, parked near the curb.

He unlocked it, and Belle climbed into the passenger seat.

Izuku hesitated at the back door.

"You can sit in the back seat," Wise said, not looking at him. "It's not fancy, but it's worked for us so far."

Izuku nodded and opened the door. His backpack was on the floor, he picked it up and put it beside him on the worn seat. The van smelled like coffee and old paper.

Wise started the engine. As the van pulled out of the parking lot, Izuku watched the hospital shrink in the side mirror.

His eyes wandered to the window, looking at the streets of New Eridu. Seeing the crowds, the bright signs, and little rabbit‑like robots bouncing past pedestrians.

Belle turned in her seat to look back at him. "You okay back there?"

Izuku turned to her. "Yeah," he said. "Just... taking it in."

She gave a small smile. "Get comfortable then. We'll stick with you for a while!"

She turned back around, and the van fell into a comfortable silence.

Izuku leaned his head against the window and watched the city pass by. He thought about asking them to explain this world-the Hollows, the Ether, the Agents-but pushed the thought away. They'd already helped him too much. He needed to learn on his own.

The van turned onto a narrower street lined with small shops and apartment buildings. Belle pointed through the windshield. "That's Sixth Street," she said.

Then, a few seconds later, she added with a small smile, "And that's Random Play."

She pointed to a storefront on the left. Izuku turned to look.

The sign above the door was in stylised white text reading: Random Play, with a play and pause signs near it and another.

'A video rental store?' Izuku blinked. He hadn't seen one of those in years. Back home, most people streamed everything. The last time he'd walked into a shop like this was when he was a kid, trailing behind his mother while she picked out a movie for movie night.

Something about that struck him as deeply strange and yet... comforting. Like a piece of a slower, simpler world that had somehow survived.

Wise slowed down and turned left into a narrow alleyway driveway just past the building. A metal gate slid open automatically, and they rolled into a small parking lot behind the store.

"Back here's where we park," Belle said, unfastening her seatbelt. "The store's through that door." She pointed to a plain grey door at the back of the building.

Wise turned off the engine.

Izuku picked up his backpack from the floor and held it on his lap. This is it, he thought. I'm really staying with strangers in another world.

Belle hopped out first, stretching her arms over her head. Wise followed, quieter, his eyes scanning the lot out of habit.

Izuku opened his door and stepped out. The afternoon air around here smelt quite nice and clean. He looked up at the back of the building.

A single window on the second floor was open, a curtain shifting in the breeze.

'That must be where they live.' He thought to himself.

He still didn't know where this path was leading him. But for tonight, at least, it had led him here.

Belle walked over and held out her hand. "Come on," she said. "I'll show you around."

Izuku hesitated for just a second, then shouldered his backpack and followed her toward the back door.

 

[GhostJade45]

Note: Yo everyone. Ghost or Jade here.

You can always comment your feedback of the chapters and tell me if you guys want me to upload more chapters here. I'm still open to suggestions as well.

For now take care everyone.

---

Belle pushed the back door open, stepping into the dim back room of the building.

Izuku followed her closely, his heavy yellow backpack shifting against his broad shoulders.

Wise came in last, the solid click of the door echoed in the room as he locked it behind them. He reached to his left, flicking a switch. A warm, ambient light flooded the room, illuminating a metal door at the far end.

Belle continued walking, and she grabbed the handle to the door, pulling it open to lead them straight into the main heart of the building.

'So this is their video store...' Izuku's green eyes scanned the environment, his posture instinctively tightening.

The storefront seemed well kept. Sleek, dark shelves lined the left wall and stood in parallel rows across the floor, each one meticulously packed with vibrant videotapes encased in glossy plastic covers.

Looking up, he sees two boxy, retro-style CRT TVs hung from the ceiling corners. Each playing a movie or something on repeat as far he could tell.

'It's really like old VHS stores back home, and they have old TVs as well.' He hadn't seen monitors like that since he was a little kid, sitting on a plastic chair in a waiting room while his mother filled out medical forms.

"Ehn-na!" A sharp, digital chirp cut through his thoughts.

Izuku blinked, his gaze dropping to the space behind the main counter.

A small, round, rabbit-eared machine was bouncing happily on its stubby legs. Its digital visor face remained neutral for a second before registering its presence, instantly shifting into a pair of cheerful, curved arches as it raised its tiny stubby arm and waved.

'I guess they have these little robots everywhere,' Izuku mused, watching the mechanical clerk sway back and forth. 'And they just trust it to run a whole store alone.'

"Ta-da! Welcome to Random Play!" Belle threw her arms wide, spinning on the heel of her platform sneaker so fast she nearly clipped the edge of a horror-genre cardboard display with her elbow.

She bounced toward the far aisle, crouching low and wiggling her fingers toward the bottom shelves before snatching a tape at random.

In a flash, she lunged forward, closing the distance between them until she was standing mere inches from Izuku's chest.

She hoisted the plastic casing over her head like a hard-won trophy, leaning close. "We have the absolute best selection of movies, videos and more in the city! Action, sci-fi, psychological thriller-you name it! And as one of the official store managers, I can personally guarantee that 'The One You' Seek is an absolute masterpiece. You're checking this out tonight, Midoriya, no excuses!"

Izuku took half a step back, his eyelids fluttering rapidly as his face grew slightly warm at her sudden proximity. 'She's... an absolute whirlwind. I guess the quiet girl from the hospital room was just another side to her....'

Seeing her burst with this kind of relentless, chaotic energy was incredibly surprising. 'She reminds me of Mina,' he thought, watching Belle spin between shelves.

She moved without worrying about looking foolish, and her voice filled a room with her energy.

Mina used to do that in the common room - bouncing between couches, dragging people into conversations they didn't know they wanted to be part of.

His lips curved upwards slightly, but he caught himself.

"I didn't realize movie rentals came with a mandatory, legally binding contract," he muttered dryly, scratching his cheek as his eyes traced the shelf.

"Though, to be honest, I haven't actually seen a video rental store in... a really long time. I probably wouldn't even know what's considered good anymore."

Belle lowered the tape, a single eyebrow arching high as she slid the plastic case back into its perfect slot. "Seriously? What part of the Outer Ring are you from if you don't even have rental shops?"

She stepped closer, close enough that Izuku had to tilt his head back slightly to keep eye contact. Her finger jabbed at his chest, emphatically. "Do you guys just live in the dirt out there, or what?"

Izuku's shoulders went rigid. 'She's touchy as well...' His brain short-circuited for a second.

He leaned back another half step.

He wasn't used to someone invading his space like this, since Uraraka used to get close to him a lot. 'Focus.'

"Something like that..," he said, leaning back half a step. "It's pretty isolated where I'm from specifically, and watching specific entertainment wasn't exactly a priority for me..."

Wise walked past them, his quiet, measured footsteps a stark contrast to his sister's bouncing cadence. He stepped behind the counter, grabbed a pristine glass, and filled it from a sleek water dispenser. He set it down near Izuku with a soft clink.

"Drink up," Wise said, his voice calm and level. "You haven't had anything since the hospital staff cleared you."

Izuku stared at the glass. 'They're incredibly hospitable for someone they should be considering a stranger....' He picked it up, then drank it.

Once done he put the glass down. "I appreciate the water."

"No problem. The Outer Ring can be brutal. It makes sense that the city looks a bit overwhelming right now. But you'll adapt. For now, you're staying in the spare room upstairs."

Belle snapped her head toward her brother, her eyes wide. "Wait, we have a spare room?"

Wise let out a slow, long sigh. "Yes, Belle. The one we spent an entire grueling afternoon clearing out last year. The one where you insisted on carrying the light boxes and left me with the heavy crates."

"I thought that was a permanent storage locker!" Belle shot back defensively.

"It was, until we realized we didn't actually have enough inventory to fill a secondary vault." Wise turned his gaze back to Izuku, the ghost of a smirk playing on his lips. "She has a selective memory. It only retains things that benefit her directly."

Belle stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her arms. "You're just bringing that up because you're still bitter that I unearthed your middle-school mixtape from the bottom of those crates."

"That mixtape was a cohesive artistic expression," Wise replied without skipping a beat, his face perfectly deadpan.

"Wise, it had a five-minute synth track explicitly dedicated to the plight of a lonely dolphin."

"The dolphin was a metaphor for urban isolation, Belle." Wise shot back.

Izuku watched the two of them trade verbal blows, the rapid-fire back-and-forth completely devoid of malice or real anger. 'They seem pretty close,' he thought, a sudden, sharp ache blooming behind his ribs.

He looked down at the glass, his fingers twitching for a second. 'I wonder... if this is the kind of relationship Shoto wanted with Fuyumi, Natsuo and Touya. Just... normal sibling banter...'

Belle's eyes caught the sudden, heavy shadow that crossed Izuku's face. She cut their argument short, clearing her throat as she shifted her weight. "Anyway! It's a roof over your head, Midoriya. You can stay as long as you need."

"Right, the bathroom is right across from my quarters up there," Wise added, tapping his fingers against his forearm. "It's got a clear sign on the door. If you hear anything weird or need something in the middle of the night, just knock. I'm a light sleeper."

Izuku glanced at Belle for a moment, before he spoke. "I'm incredibly grateful, truly, but I don't want to be a burd-"

"Ehn-na!" The little white robot suddenly scampered out from behind the counter, halting right in front of Izuku's worn red shoes. Its digital screen flickered, displaying two massive, glowing circular eyes that radiated intense curiosity. It popped a tiny mechanical salute.

Izuku blinked, momentarily derailed by the interruption. He shifted his heavy backpack, slowly dropping into a low crouch to bring himself eye-level with the machine. "Uh, hi there..." He raised a hand, offering a small, awkward wave before looking up at Belle. "He's... yours right?"

Belle's eyes widened slightly, while Wise simply watched with a quiet, analytical stare.

The robot's screen brightened significantly, a pair of joyous upward curves flashing across the display as it puffed out its small canvas-covered chest proudly. "Ehn-na! Ehn-nah-ehn!"

"Yeah, that's our other resident store manager," Belle said, her voice softening as a warm smile returned to her face. "His name is Bangboo 18. He handles the store when we're out or just busy. We have more but they're mostly charging at the moment or asleep."

Izuku looked closely at the bright orange bandana tied around the robot's head, noting the bold white digits 18 stamped onto the fabric.

'So they're called Bangboo. But his actual name is just a number?' He ignored the thought for now, offering the Bangboo a respectful nod. "I'll be in your care as well then, Eighteen."

The Bangboo cheered, spinning in a circle before toddling back toward his stool.

Wise pushed himself off the counter, rolling his shoulders. "Let's get you upstairs before the evening rush hits Sixth Street." He glanced at his sister. "Unless you plan on giving him a frame-by-frame synopsis of our entire catalog."

Belle gasped, placing a hand over her heart in mock betrayal. "That would take at least three days, Wise. Give me some credit." She already had her foot on the bottom step of the staircase. "Come on, I'll grab you a fresh comforter. The spare room might be a little crisp."

"I'll pull the extra pillows from my closet," Wise muttered, falling into a step right behind her.

Izuku adjusted the straps of his yellow backpack, stepping forward to follow them.

As his foot reached the base of the stairs, his eyes instinctively darted to the right. A steel door sat nestled under the structural supports, a bold STAFF ONLY placard bolted to the center.

A strange, distinct prickle hummed at the base of his neck. It wasn't the sharp, violent spike of Danger Sense, but rather a bizarre sensation of being perceived-like an incredibly massive, analytical lens had briefly focused on him before looking away.

'Is something... watching me from inside there?' he wondered, staring at the steel frame until the feeling completely dissolved.

It didn't feel hostile, but it definitely wasn't an empty feeling either.

He turned away from the door. 'Could just be their other Bangboo's, but...that felt...strange, like something with a specific presence was watching me...'

Not knowing what to make of this, he put it away for now, hoping he is imagining it and quietly went up the stairs.

-

The second floor opened into a compact living space that looked quite comfortable.

"The bathroom's right there close to my room," Wise explained, pointing toward a door marked with a clean emblem. "Kitchenette is through that archway. Don't expect a gourmet setup-there's a microwave, a fridge, and an electric kettle. We practically live on takeout."

The adjacent living area featured a sleek, low-profile couch facing a perfectly maintained flat-panel display and a minimalist coffee table. Belle gestured vaguely toward the cushions. "You can hang out here whenever you want. No need to stay cooped up."

Wise walked past the lounge area, pushing open a metal door on the far wall. He stepped aside, allowing Izuku to look inside.

The room was small, and it was mostly cleared but had a few things in it.

A thin folded futon sat in the far corner, flanked by a sturdy wooden desk and a single, high-set window that looked directly down into the private rear parking lot and its heavy security gate.

"It's not a grand suite," Wise said simply, "but it's private."

Izuku stepped inside, and walked to the corner. He dropped to one knee, pressing his palm against the futon to test the density of the mattress.

It was firm, practical, and clean. He stood back up, turning to face both siblings with a serious, grounded expression. "Thank you. I genuinely don't know how I'm going to repay you for this level of trust."

Belle quickly waved her hand. "Hey, you pulled me out of a collapsing concrete nightmare. Consider the tab completely balanced."

"Take some time to settle in," Wise said, checking his watch. "Belle and I need to head back down to open the evening shift. We'll leave you to it."

"I'll drop the pillows and the comforter on the chair right outside once Wise gets them out of his room," Belle added, giving him an encouraging nod.

"Hm." Izuku nodded back.

They both turned and left the room.

Once the sound of their footsteps faded down the stairwell, the silence of the room closed in. Izuku stood motionless for a long moment. He set his yellow backpack down with a dull thud. 'I should clean up.'

His eyes looked around the room again and he spotted a broom and a dustpan tucked into a corner.

Moving to it, he grabs them and immediately gets to work.

He opened the high window, letting the cool evening air circulate as he swept the small space.

By the time he finished, Belle had already left a neatly folded blanket and a pillow on the chair outside.

Rearranging his sleeping space and closing the door, he then sat cross-legged on the edge of the futon.

His eyes darted towards his bag, then up to the door. They lingered there for a moment before as faint green sparks appeared on his ears, before disappearing.

'It should be safe to check it.' Exhaling through his nose, he turned to pull his backpack closer, unzipping it.

Resting right on top, untouched, was his dark, tattered costume.

He reached in, his fingers brushing against the scarred surface of his mask.

'Seems like they didn't touch it...' Pondering, his hand tightened slightly on the mask.

'If I'm going to protect people in this city, I can't do it as is,' he thought, his expression hardening. 'I have a safe place to stay now. If I get caught by the authorities or whatever forces govern this place without a disguise, I won't just ruin my chances of survival...I'll drag Belle and Wise down with me.'

After all their kindness and hospitality, he couldn't let two innocent people be dragged into whatever mess he makes.

Glancing at the window above him, he pondered. 'I can't let them see either, so I need to use that window to get out.'

Looking back down he put his mask back into the bag and zipped the bag shut.

His hand dove into his pocket to retrieve his phone.

He powered it on, the screen's light cast a pale glow over his face. The battery icon in the top corner flashed a critical, dying red.

Izuku groans, he just moved past that now to unlock his phone, and open his gallery.

He scrolled through the photos slowly-images of Class A laughing in the common room, a snapshot of All Might in his muscle form during a barbecue, and finally, a picture of his mother standing outside their apartment.

Her hand was raised to shield her eyes from the summer sun, a gentle, worried smile on her face.

The grip on his phone loosened for a moment and his mouth curved upwards for a moment. 'I hope...you're all doing okay without me.'

Izuku brought his other hand to his chest and reached inward.

Still far into the darkness, a black wall of energy was present. And a faint spark was visible in the middle.

He let his hand drop.

A breath escaped his mouth, turning off his phone, he got up from the futon.

'I should ask if they have a charger.' Swallowing he tucked the phone into his pocket and stepped out of the room, heading downstairs.

-

The shop floor was quiet, with Bangboo 18 managing the counter while Wise sorted through a recent delivery box.

Izuku made his way to him and stopped a few feet away.

"Uhm, Wise?" Izuku called out gently. "I'm sorry to bother you, but my phone is almost completely out of power.... Do you by any chance have a charging cable that fits my phone?"

He raised his black phone up, showing the charging port towards him.

Wise looked up from his crate, his eyes dropping to the device in Izuku's hands. "Hmm, not really sure, let me check."

He stood up and made his way closer. Leaning down with his hand on his chin he carefully looked at the port.

Though he couldn't help but notice the phone itself didn't look like any phone model he knew. His eyes narrowed for a second.

"I think we have one that'll fit." Wise made his way to the counter and crouched down and pulled out a box which he rummaged through a bit.

After about 30 seconds he pulled a cable and charger head out the box.

"Take this," Wise said, sliding it across the counter. "It should work just fine."

"Thanks," Izuku said somewhat quietly.

"If you want you can charge it here, the outlet in the spare room might not be working still at the moment." Wise spoke as he put the box back to where it was.

Izuku stood there without saying a word. His hand tightened around his phone.

Wise observed him, his eyes narrowing more. "If you don't want to you-"

"No...it's fine, I'll leave it here." He moved to the outlet near the counter and plugged the charger in, and then his phone to the charger.

It vibrated then showed the charging icon.

Belle watched from the horror section, pretending to reorganize a shelf. She saw the way Izuku's hand lingered after leaving his phone. 'He seems more worried about leaving phone than his bag...is it important to him?'

She thought and her head leaned down for a moment.

'Or maybe it's the only thing he has left,' she considered. The thought made her chest feel tight, but she shook it off.

Straightening up, Izuku pivoted towards the back door. Staring at it for a few seconds before turning back to Wise.

"If it's alright, I'd like to take a brief walk outside.... Just to get some fresh air and familiarize myself with the layout."

"Go ahead," Wise said, nodding towards the back. "Use the back gate in the parking lot. It connects directly to the commercial alleyway. Just make sure you're back before we lock up."

"I will," Izuku responded before making his way back up the stairs and coming down with his backpack, then he went into the back room.

-

Stepping out into the cool evening air, Izuku walked through the secure iron gate of the parking lot.

He wandered into the darker streets. Many signs of Sixth Street were fully illuminated now. Less people were roaming by as cars passed by him, lighting him and the streets each time they passed.

The streets looked different at night. Signs were brighter, shadows deeper, and everything that had seemed simple in daylight now felt stretched out and unfamiliar.

Izuku kept walking, trying to get a better feel for the route back to Random Play without overthinking it. Which turns led back toward the main road. Which alleys opened into busier streets. Where the light held. Where it didn't.

Building a mental map needed him to recognize the area even at night. Ensuring he could navigate the area completely blind if the need ever arose.

He turned a corner into a quieter, the ambient noise of the main street fading into a dull hum.

A sudden, violent jolt shot him, the electricity popping at the base of his skull, showing Danger Sense has spiked.

Izuku's body reacted immediately and moved to where the malicious intent and faint fear was coming from.

He dropped into a low, silent crouch behind a row of industrial recycling bins, his eyes narrowing as he peered down a narrow, unlit corridor between two brick buildings.

"I said, hand over the Denny, old man! Every single credit, right now!"

Three men dressed in aggressively studded leather jackets and painted respirators had a middle-aged man pinned against a brick wall. One of them was wielding a heavy, crude iron pipe, tapping it threateningly against the concrete. The victim was trembling violently, clutching a briefcase to his chest.

'I guess normal crime exists here too.' he pondered.

He didn't make a sound. In one fluid, practiced motion, he slipped back into the deep shadows of the blind spot, unzipping his bag and taking out his costume.

Seconds later, a massive, explosive burst of green lightning crackled through the darkness of the alleyway.

The thug with the iron pipe looked up and his eyes widened in horror. A dark figure dropped into the alley.

His grip tightened around his pipe and winded it back, trying to swing his pipe and bash the dark figure.

But his pipe was caught and pulled easily out of his hands then tossed it aside.

Before the pipe could hit the ground, a green-tinted blur slammed into the thug's torso, sending him flying backward into a stack of wooden pallets with a deafening crash.

"What the-!"

The second criminal lunged, throwing a wild, desperate punch. Izuku simply side stepped it to the left, letting the fist slide past his ear before catching the man by his wrist.

With an effortless pivot, he hurled the thug clean over his shoulder, slamming him into the opposite wall.

The third man dropped his weapon instantly, his eyes wide with pure terror as he stared at the glowing green eyes and the shredded, tattered cape of the monster standing before him. He didn't say a word-he just turned on his heel and sprinted out toward the main street, his boots hammering against the pavement.

The alley went quiet.

Izuku instantly turned to the man. Looking at him, he could see he was shaken.

Walking up to him, he knelt down and spoke, his voice coming out low and gravelly, but incredibly gentle. "Are you injured or okay sir?"

"I-no, I don't think so," the man stammered, staring at the terrifying figure.

"Good. You should probably walk down to the main avenue. There are security cameras and crowds there. Stay where it's bright," Izuku commanded softly.

He reached his hand out to him. The man hesitated for a few seconds but eventually took Izuku's hand.

He guided the man by his elbow until he reached the threshold of the street. "I'd like to thank you-"

The man turned, but there was no one. His eyes wandered around, while he twisted but he found nothing still, only the sounds of traffic and his own breathing. "Where...did he go?"

He clutched his briefcase, before he ran towards the main avenue.

-

Three blocks away, Izuku ducked into an alleyway. His chest heaved for a bit. He unzipped his bag, pulled off the mask, and sat for a moment in the dark with his back against the cool brick.

Pondering, he looked up at the night sky, seeing the moon that's covered by a Hollow. 'People here deal with big and small problems, huh?'

Putting the thought away he started taking off his costume.

He folded the costume carefully. Then he zipped up his backpack before standing up, and stepping back into the street.

His eyes wandered around for a bit. He wasn't quite on Sixth Street anymore from what he could tell.

'Already lost again...' A breath came out his mouth as he walked.

Following Danger Sense sent him off his mapped route. He knew the area around Random Play well enough now but not this far out yet.

'I didn't move too far away so I should be able to find the store again, I'll just take the opportunity to get used to the area further ahead and try to circle around.'

With that he kept walking and marking whatever he saw and could recognise.

--

He made it back to the parking lot gate later than planned.

Izuku slipped back into the building through the back door. He saw the store was closed and Bangboo 18 was wiping the counter.

Briefly waving at the Bangboo, he made his way upstairs.

Belle and Wise were by the living room, setting down several massive, steaming cardboard containers of local takeout on the low table.

Belle looked up, blinking as she noticed him. "Whoa, there he is! You took your sweet time, Midoriya. We were just about to send 18 out with a search party."

"Sorry," Izuku said, scratching the back of his neck, and put his backpack down by the spare room. "The streets look completely different after dark. I got a bit turned around looking at everything..." He looked away from them for a moment.

Wise paused, a container of noodles halfway to the table. His eyes squinted for a second, looking at him carefully.

But he simply set the food down without a word. "Just in time. Sit down before Belle eats your portion."

"Oh, it's fine, really!" Izuku waved his hands frantically, backing away toward the room. "I'm not actually that hungry, you guys should go ahead-"

GROOOOOWL.

A thunderous, violently loud rumble erupted from Izuku's stomach, echoing off the whole space.

Belle froze, a chopstick halfway to her mouth, before bursting into a loud, ringing laugh that shook her shoulders. "Yeah, right! Your stomach sounds like a literal Thug-level Ethereal, Midoriya! Sit down and eat before you collapse the floor!"

Cheeks burned as he got flustered, but shook his head making his way to the table.

Izuku reluctantly took a seat on the floor across from them.

Wise put the container of hot rice and seasoned meat in front of him, the rich aroma hit his nose, and months of surviving on whatever he could find finally caught up with him, completely overthrewing his restraint.

He grabbed the utensils and began eating with a terrifying, rapid intensity-practically inhaling the food without a single pause for breath, his broad shoulders hunched protectively over the plastic bowl.

Belle and Wise both stopped eating entirely, their chopsticks hovering in mid-air as they stared at him with wide, completely stunned eyes.

'Wow,' Belle thought, looking slightly amused and surprised. 'And here I thought Soukaku or Cissia were the only people in New Eridu capable of causing a local food shortage. He looks like he hasn't seen a hot meal since the old civilization fell.'

Wise, on the other hand, watched the display with an analytical gaze, but mild amusement as well.

Izuku swallowed a massive bite, suddenly realizing the absolute silence in the room.

He froze instantly, his face flushing with a fresh wave of embarrassment as he slowly lowered his bowl. "I-I'm sorry. That was incredibly rude of me. I didn't mean to eat like that..."

"Don't worry about it," Wise said, a faint, genuinely amused smile touching his face as he pushed a second container closer to Izuku's side of the table. "It's good to see the food's not going to waste. You can have seconds. We did buy significantly more than we needed, honestly."

Izuku hesitated for a second, but his body made the decision for him, a low gurgle prompting him to reach out and pull the next container.

Belle leaned forward, a small, mischievous grin playing on her lips as she placed a steaming cup of tea next to his hand. "Here, drink this before you choke, okay? We just got you out of the hospital, we don't need you taken down by a piece of pork."

He let out a low groan, but took the tea on the table. "Thanks..," Izuku managed to say, hitting his chest briefly before taking a quick sip.

He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. "If you guys don't mind, tomorrow... I plan on going out early to look for work. I need to earn enough money to properly pay you back for the stay and the meals."

Wise shook his head immediately, his expression shifting. "We told you, Midoriya, you don't owe us anything. It wasn't a problem paying for you."

"I can't just live under your roof for free," Izuku insisted, his green eyes flashing with a determined gaze. "Even if it's just for my own peace of mind, I need to pay you back in some way. But I'm doing this for myself as well."

Wise looked at him for a long, quiet moment, measuring the look in his eyes before exhaling softly through his nose. "Fine. If you're that determined, you don't need to scour the city for odd jobs just to pay us. Bangboo 18 has been complaining about the heavy inventory crates in the basement for weeks. If you want, you can help out around the store when you're free, we'll call it even."

Izuku's tense shoulders dropped. "I would really appreciate that."

Belle animatedly talked about a ridiculous complaint a customer had made earlier that afternoon, while Wise calmly corrected a minor logical detail of her account, prompting her to argue that the detail was entirely irrelevant to the punchline.

Izuku quietly ate the last bits from his fourth container, listening to the rapid banter between them, without adding much himself. Their noise from bickering was easier to sit with than he expected.

After the evening wound down, Belle took the empty containers to the trash with a lazy yawn, while Wise pushed back from the table to wipe the surface clean.

"Well, I'm off to my room for the night," Belle said, offering a casual wave as she made her way to it. "Goodnight, Midoriya. Don't let Wise keep you up talking about metadata."

Wise rolled his eyes, turning back to the stairs. "There's something I have to check downstairs. You'll take care of the rest, right?"

"Yeah, it'll be okay," Izuku said, gathering the cups and moving toward the small sink.

Wise simply nodded, his quiet footsteps descending into the darkness of the shop floor.

--

After washing and stacking the remaining mugs in the drying rack, Izuku flicked off the overhead kitchenette light and stepped into the small room. He closed the door behind him and turned the lock with a soft click.

The space fell into deep shadow, with just the silver moonlight shining through the high window.

Izuku rolled out the thin futon on the floor and set the blanket and pillow on top. Once done, he sat down, resting his back against the wall, and pulled his knees to his chest.

A faint sound of music came from the direction of Belle and Wise's rooms, but a distant voice cut through it and the music stopped.

Everything went silent.

Izuku blinked. His head leaned down, looking at the floor as he let out a slow breath through his nose.

He had a room now with a window, a lock and a futon that didn't smell like concrete or rain. He still wasn't sure what to do with that fact.

He looked down at his hands. The scars caught the moonlight, pale ridges against darker skin.

The image of Belle standing inches from his chest at the storefront flashed in his head. She moved into his space without hesitation, or actual careful consideration whether he was dangerous.

During his time hunting AFO, he had suppressed every normal emotion just to survive. He hadn't realized how starved he was for human contact until a girl burst into his personal space with the force of someone who seemed never learned to be afraid of people she didn't know.



He dropped his hands and looked toward the door. Beyond it, he could hear the faint creak of the floorboard. Probably Wise returning to his room.

Calling from earlier, when he had asked Wise for a charger, showing his phone.

Wise's eyes dropped to Izuku's phone and narrowed for a second before his expression smoothed over. He noticed something.

Izuku's fingers twitched against his knees. 'He saw, something was off, but he didn't push me for answers....'

He thought about the way Wise had looked at him in the hospital room, with assessing patience. Wise had decided something in that room, and continued to do so ever since.

'He's sharp and watches me carefully, catching details, but he doesn't say anything about them. Despite the danger I could bring to him and his sister....'

Izuku could see how kind and helpful Wise was despite his caution towards him, and he couldn't help but feel conflicted about that.

Izuku's eyes drifted toward the window. The moon hung there, wrong and half-eaten by that violet-black patch he'd seen from the rooftop. He looked at it for a long moment, then looked away.

'But Belle...'

She'd reached for his arm at hospital and held on like she was prepared to physically prevent him from walking into the street alone. She put tea next to his hand without making it into a gesture, or waiting for gratitude.

He knew people who were generous and people who were loud. He hadn't expected both from the same person, directed at someone she only knew for less than a day, with no apparent expectation of anything in return.

Izuku laid down onto the futon and pulled the blanket over his body.

For the past year, his nights had been defined by the cold drip of rain on rusted fire escapes, the constant, low-frequency hum of Danger Sense, and the suffocating isolation of carrying the weight of the world alone.

He almost forgot what a home felt like. He had forgotten what it was like to sit at a table filled with pointless, loud, affectionate bickering.

The two siblings were people he couldn't help but notice in different ways. 'And they think I'm from the Outer Ring. If they ever found out where I'm really from... or what I'm trying to do...'

He didn't belong in this world, but these two people had given him shelter and food without questioning him.

For the first time in twelve months, he felt strangely relaxed, but he quickly shook his head.

'You're staying here because you had nowhere else to go,' he reminded himself, looking at the ceiling. 'This is only temporary till I can survive in this world on my own.'

He closed his eyes, the sound of distant traffic filtering through the window, and silently resolving to continue his path of doing everything himself.

-

Wise went through making sure everything was secure and off.

He checked the register, turned off the lights, and double checked every door.

Turning to a corner, Bangboo 18 was already in their dock, his screen dark.

He gave the store floor one last look, going into their workspace room.

Wise made his way to the monitors, settling into the ergonomic chair before bringing up the main system hub. The dual screens bathed the dark workspace room in a cold, blue glow.

He typed the name: Izuku Midoriya.

The system ran the query sequence through registered Proxy networks, Agent databases, public citizen records, and New Eridu's General Identification System.

The terminal let out a sharp, negative chime. A clean, red bar lit up the center monitor: ZERO MATCHES FOUND.

Wise stared at the blank data fields for a moment, his fingers resting lightly on the edge of the keyboard. "Fairy, could you run an extended look up on the name I just searched?"

The interface opened to the left, the large, stylized blue eye instantly rotating to life. " Running extended search-name: 'Izuku Midoriya,' " Fairy spoke, as multiple screens flashed through deep encrypted directories. "Cross-referencing active Agent registries, Outer Ring tribal administrative records, Old Capital historical population data, and fringe settlement identification archives."

He watched the data streams cascade down the secondary monitors. Fairy was thorough in a way that the city's public administrative tools could never match.

If a single trace of an individual existed in any network she could reach, she would surface it.

The scrolling paused.

"Search complete," Fairy reported flatly. "No matches found. The name 'Izuku Midoriya' does not appear in any accessible historical or active record. He is a ghost within the system, Wise."

Wise's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Nothing at all?' He looked down at the keyboard, his thumb tracing the side of the spacebar.

He thought about the way Izuku had looked when they first walked into that hospital room. The heavy, localized micro-scarring on his hands and arms wasn't the result of standard work or an accident.

Those were the marks of someone who put their body through intense, repetitive physical violence.

An Agent hailing from the furthest edges of the Outer Ring should still leave some kind of digital footprints.

Even fringe settlements maintained automated data exchanges with the city for basic supplies. Even people who had never set foot inside New Eridu appeared somewhere in a trading ledger or a regional census.

'Considering the raw physical capability he showed during the collapse, he definitely isn't someone who should have a completely blank slate,' Wise contemplated, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms.

"There is an additional anomaly to report, master Wise," Fairy added, her digital eye expanding slightly. "During your arrival this afternoon, the guest's neural responses and muscle tension spiked significantly while passing through the main storefront hallway. He directly perceived my localized optical lens focus through the reinforced steel partition."

Wise's posture stiffened. "He noticed an internal security camera? Through a soundproofed, lead-lined vault door?"

"Affirmative. His heart rate shifted instantly, indicating an immediate preparation for evasive action. His environmental awareness operates on a frequency that standard ether-sensitivity scanners do not register." Fairy's terminal chimed again. "Shall I flag him as a potential threat to the premises?"

Wise sat in the dark for a long time, the low hum of the cooling fans filling the room.

He recalled how Izuku had acted through the afternoon and night. He had seemed guarded and distant at first, but his manners were remarkably polite and respectful.

He expressed deep, genuine gratitude for their basic hospitality, asking for absolutely nothing except a single charging cable.

His baseline attitude wasn't one you would expect from a hostile infiltrator or a common criminal. 'Though it's not like the Agents we deal with are ever exactly what they seem at first glance,' Wise thought dryly.

'But he's clearly hiding a massive weight. The way he kept watch over his bag, the hesitation before leaving his phone... he's running from something.'

No matter what the secret was, Wise knew pushing for answers right now would only cause him to bolt. Izuku clearly wasn't ready to open up, and his protective nature suggested he didn't pose an active danger to his sister or the shop.

"No, don't flag him," Wise commanded softly, exhaling through his nose as he reached forward to power down the primary screens. "Just keep a standard logistical eye on the perimeter cameras outside. Don't track him inside the living quarters. Let's see how he handles the inventory crates tomorrow."

"Understood," Fairy murmured, the blue eye dimming to a faint standby pulse. "Logging parameters. Rest well, Master."

Wise sat in the renewed darkness for a few quiet moments before getting up, locking the workspace door, and heading upstairs to his own room.

--

The next morning, the bright sunlight of New Eridu filtered sharply through the blinds of the upper floor.

Belle dragged her feet out of her bedroom, letting out a massive yawn that shook her shoulders as she stumbled up and tried walking out her room.

Her hair was a spectacular bird's nest pointing in every possible direction, and she was wearing nothing but a loose vest that hung loosely off one shoulder and a pair of frayed running shorts.

She was mostly blind to the world around her, her sleep-fogged brain entirely focused on reaching the kitchenette to use the kettle.

She stepped through the archway, her hand reaching for the counter before she froze. Her eyes caught something, making them widen.

Belle gazed at the living room, seeing how spotless it was.

The low coffee table had been wiped down until the wood practically gleamed, the magazines were stacked in perfect chronological order, the trash from last night's massive feast had been entirely removed, and many other things were organized and cleaned.

Izuku was standing by the window, adjusting the stiff cuffs of the baggy jacket Wise had lent him.

Hearing the faint scuff of her bare feet, he turned around. "Oh, good morning, Be-"

The words died instantly in his throat.

His eyes locked onto Belle's current state.

Belle was wearing a loose vest that gaped open at the chest, revealing the curve of her breasts and the lace edge of something beneath.

Her shorts rode high on her thighs. Her hair was a tangled mess, looking like it lost a fight with a pillow. This was her completely unguarded.

Izuku's mouth went dry and his cheeks instantly turned red, the heat moving all the way to his ears.

Having been alone for a whole year brought problems he didn't expect. 'I should really consider if I can last living with a beautiful girl under one roof...'

"I-uh-!" Izuku tried to speak but his words stammered out, his neck snapped upward so fast his joints let out a distinct pop.

He locked his gaze onto a completely random structural rivet on the ceiling, his hands shoving into his pockets as his entire frame began to vibrate with pure panic.

"The-the living room had some dust so I just-I'm going to check on the store before I go out to find work! So have a wonderful day!"

"Ah, wait-" Belle reached her hand out as she tried to stop him, but he already spun, grabbing his backpack and ran towards, then down the stairs insanely fast, making a gust of wind blow through the space.

Her hair flowed from the wind till it stopped.

She just stood there for a long moment, blinking. Her hand was still raised.

Then she looked down at herself. Seeing a loose vest hanging off one shoulder, frayed running shorts, and she could vaguely see her hair's reflection on the kettle. It looked like she'd been in a wind tunnel.

Her cheeks flushed, as a sudden heat creeped up her neck. 'He got that red just from seeing me like... this?'

She tugged at the hem of her vest, pulling it higher on her shoulder. The fabric was thin, but she hadn't thought about it when she stumbled out of bed. It was mostly just her and Wise here, and she was used to absolute comfort in her own home.

'But now there's someone else...'

Belle pressed her palm against her cheek, feeling how warm it was, and stared at the empty doorway.

A breathless, quiet chuckle bubbled up from her chest before she could stop it.

That mysterious hollow-eyed stranger who asked if she was okay after being hit by a truck-versus the guy who just ran downstairs from being completely flustered after seeing her in sleepwear.

She wasn't sure what she had expected, honestly. Most of the Agents they dealt with from the Outer Ring or the city's underbelly were exactly how they looked at first glance-rough, heavily armed, cynical, and hardened to the point where they wouldn't even flinch.

Instead, she got... this. A strangely polite and respectful man, who cleaned their living room before sunrise without being asked. Honestly he never asked for much of anything yesterday.

A soft smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She could tell he was clearly hiding things about himself, but it was impossible to see him as anyone bad.

His first action towards her was saving her and seeing if she's okay after. Everything he showed yesterday went against any idea that he was someone dangerous.

She's sure Wise probably is still being wary of him, but she couldn't see herself finding him anything more than a man who just looked lost and alone.

Turning back to the counter, she poured water into the kettle and flicked the switch. The low hum filled the kitchen as she reached for a mug, her eyes still fixed on the staircase.

'Maybe I can get him to open up about himself more, it would be fun seeing him react like that again,' she said herself.

Belle shook her head, just poured the hot water over her coffee grounds.

 

[GhostJade45]

Note: Yo Jade here. I got a lot of suggestions for girls to add on other sites and here as well. But I realised I actually have no idea how big the harem is. Will it be four girls or 8? Maybe seven or five?

From what I can tell, the current probably unchanging choices are Belle, Cissia, Caesar and possibly Zhu Yuan. Others are Promeia, Lindverne, Remielle , Yixuan and Sunna. Vivian and Grace still have possibilities to be added. But I am not sure if I can juggle this many love interests so I gotta decided on the amount then the fixed ones. Give your suggestions.

Also give me feedback on the chapter and tell me what ideas do you have for my fanfic in general.

----

Sunlight shone down onto Izuku as he stepped out the back gate of Random Play, his yellow backpack shifting slightly on his shoulders.

His face still felt warm, the image of Belle in her loose sleepwear refusing to leave his head no matter how hard he tried to shove it aside.

'What were you thinking earlier, idiot!?' he groaned internally, leaning his head down as he walked. 'There's no telling what Belle will think or say when I get back... ugh.'

He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing up at the sky for a moment. 'I'm already burdening them just by staying here, and now I've probably made things awkward with Belle. Wise definitely wouldn't take that lightly...'

Izuku let out a slow breath through his nose and shook his head. 'No. I'm overreacting. They don't seem like the types to get upset over something like that. But I should probably apologize properly to Belle when I get back.'

He shoved his hands into his pockets and picked up his pace, eyes scanning the street ahead.

Quite a few people were already moving about, starting their day. 'This should be a good time to look for work. Early mornings are usually when managers and owners are still setting up and might actually have a minute to talk.'

With that decided, he made his way toward the first promising spot he saw - a restaurant with its back door just being unlocked.

---

The man who looked like the owner turned when Izuku approached, raising an eyebrow at the sight of him. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Um, hello sir," Izuku said, stopping a respectful distance away. "I was wondering if you were hiring at all, even for temporary help. Serving, cleaning, lifting - anything, really is fine."

The man rubbed his chin, considering it for a second. "Could use extra hands for serving during rushes, but that takes training. And we need a proper background check for anyone working here, even part-time."

Izuku's stomach twisted slightly. 'I don't have any background here for them to check... which might be just as bad as them finding something suspicious.' "I'm from the Outer Ring," he replied evenly. "I don't have the documents sorted out yet."

The owner sighed. "Sorry, kid. We're not short enough staffed to risk it right now." He gave a sympathetic nod before turning back to the door.

Izuku nodded back. "I understand. Thanks anyway." He turned and headed out of the alley, the rejection settling heavy but expected.

'One down,' he thought, keeping his expression neutral as he walked. 'Plenty of other places.'

---

The second attempt came at a furniture moving company off a side road. A crew was loading a van, and Izuku approached the man holding the clipboard.

"Need any extra hands today?" he asked directly. "I'm strong and I learn fast."

The foreman looked him over. "We could use someone, sure. But you gotta be in the company's labor system first. Residential ID required to process new hires."

Izuku offered a small, polite smile. "I see. Thanks for your time."

As he walked away, he let out a quiet breath. 'Of course. Everything here seems to need some kind of ID or record I don't have.'

---

The third place was a mid-sized hardware shop with a faded "PART-TIME HELP WANTED" sign in the window. Izuku stepped inside, the smell of wood and metal greeting him.

He made his way to the manager behind the counter and asked if he could work here.

The man seemed interested at first - until he asked which labor agency Izuku was with.

"I'm independent," Izuku said.

The manager's expression shifted into something wary. "Independent, huh? Look, kid, we deal with a lot of... unreliable types. Can't take the chance."

Izuku thanked him anyway and stepped back out onto the pavement. He stood there for a moment, watching a Bangboo in an apron hurry past with a box.

Three tries in barely an hour. It wasn't crushing, but it stung more than he wanted to admit.

'At least I tried the normal businesses first,' he thought, glancing left and right. 'But wasting time looking for work in places one by one isn't smart when I don't know the city well enough yet.'

He straightened up. 'Time for the main plan, then. I should find a construction site. Back home they usually took capable people without too many questions, so hopefully it's the same here.'

Standing still on the side of the street path, he closed his eyes as he focused.

His ears sparked faintly with green lightning, listening past the street noise for the telltale sounds of heavy work - drills, cranes and concrete pouring.

A faint rhythm caught his attention. 'This should be it.'

He pivoted toward the direction of the sound and started moving at a steady pace towards it.

---

A few minutes later, Izuku turned a corner onto a wider service road and the site opened up in front of him. Temporary fencing surrounded the area, with a sign reading BELOBOG HEAVY INDUSTRIES - NEW ERIDU EXPANSION PROJECT.

He paused at the fence, taking it to the site. Workers moved in organized patterns between equipment and the rising structure. His gaze caught on something unusual.

'Are those... bears?' he asked himself as he carefully looked at them.

There were several large, bear-like figures working alongside other people. 'I guess there are people with extreme mutations here, like heteromorphs back home,' he noted. 'Though it seems like they are still mostly limited to animals.'

His eyes wandered further and he spotted another bear-like figure. He was wearing a different outfit from the rest, and seemed to be overseeing the place.

'Looks like that's boss,' he figured as he started moving towards the gate to the site and walked past it. Heading straight to the boss.

"Excuse me," Izuku said politely. "Are you in charge here?"

The big bear turned towards Izuku. He got a better look at him. Noticing he had a missing eye, a gold chain around his neck and he looked quite gruff.

Izuku held his gaze politely, waiting.

The bear blinked once, then his shoulders eased. "I'm not the one in charge of the whole company," he said, voice unexpectedly calm despite how deep it is. "Though I do oversee matters here from time to time. Is there something you need, young man?"

The way he spoke caught Izuku off guard enough that he almost stared. 'He sounds... way nicer than I thought.' He pushed the thought aside and gave a small nod.

"I'm looking for work," Izuku said. "Temporary is fine. Even just for the day. I can lift, move materials, clean up and do whatever's needed."

The bear looked him over from head to toe, his eye measuring him carefully.

Izuku stood still and let him.

"Hm," the bear rumbled. "You don't seem like someone who can handle construction."

Izuku held himself still. "I can adapt pretty well to work I'm not used to."

"I did not mean to imply otherwise." The bear paused, then added, "Just that construction work is not a kind trade to those who overestimate themselves."

Izuku almost smiled at that. "That won't be a problem, I know my strengths well."

Something in the answer seemed to amuse the bear, because his visible eye softened a little. "Heh, we'll see then. My name's Ben Bigger. I handle Belobog's finances and asset management... among other things."

Izuku's eyes flicked briefly over his frame again. 'He does finance?'

Ben must have caught something on his face, because he folded his arms with surprising patience. "I receive that reaction rather often."

Izuku straightened a bit. "Oh, sorry."

"No offense taken." Ben inclined his head. "If you are here looking for honest work, then there is nothing to apologize for."

A breath came out his nostrils as he looked up at Ben.

Ben glanced over the site, then back to him. "The president is nearby. I can call her over. She will be the one to decide to actually hire you."

"The president is here as well?" Izuku responded.

Ben nodded once, then turned his head toward the upper scaffold platform. "President Koleda!"

The shout carried cleanly across the site.

A few workers glanced over. One of the bear-like workers set down a bundle of metal braces with a heavy clang. Another human worker wiped sweat off his forehead and muttered something to his coworker that Izuku didn't catch over the machinery.

A moment later, someone jumped down from a low support beam. Landing hard onto the ground, kicking up dust.

He looked over automatically.

A girl walked over to them. He noticed how she looked as she got closer.

She seemed quite short, and was wearing an eye patch. Her hair was tied into long fiery twin tails that looked almost too dramatic to be practical.

Izuku blinked. 'That's the president?' He asked himself while gazing at her.

Koleda stopped right in front of them, and folded her arms and really looked up at both of them.

"What is it, Ben?" she asked, her tone coming slightly rough.

Ben gestured toward Izuku. "This young man is looking for temporary work."

Koleda's visible eye slid over Izuku once, quick and sharp. "Him?"

Izuku looked down at her, noticing she seemed to have sharp teeth.

'She looks younger than me and looks like if Kirishima had a little sister who's going through a phase...' He pondered as he tried to look neutral.

Koleda's brow twitched.

Izuku had the uncomfortable feeling she'd guessed exactly what he was thinking.

Koleda tilted her head back, her single eye locking onto his face. "You got something to say?"

"No," Izuku blurted out, his hands shifting slightly against his backpack straps.

The response came a fraction too fast, and Koleda's brow twitched as she narrowed her eye.

Sensing the rising tension, Ben cleared his throat, the deep rumble vibrating through his chest. "President, he is looking for same-day work and same-day pay."

Koleda adjusted her stance, her boots crunching against the gravel as she stared Izuku down for another long second. "Have you done construction before?"

"Not professionally," Izuku admitted. "But I've done enough heavy lifting and physical work to know I can handle myself."

"That answer usually means no." Koleda spoke out.

"It means I learn fast." Izuku replied.

Koleda clicked her tongue softly, then jerked her chin toward a stack of thick reinforced support pieces laid near the fencing. "Fine, you can show off what you can handle, go pick one of those up."

Izuku glanced at the stack, then at her.

"Just one?" he repeated.

Her expression flattened into a deadpan look. "Got a problem with that?"

"No, it's fine." Izuku turned on his heel and walked over to the materials, leaving the speech tag behind.

Squatting down before the stack, he slid his fingers beneath the cool iron of the top support beam.

He paused for half a second, his muscles tensing as he estimated the mass and center of gravity-a hardwired habit from hauling various trash and things at Dagobah beach years ago.

It's heavy enough that a normal person would need real effort to lift it. But it wasn't impossible for him. He straightened himself and lifted it in one clean motion.

A nearby worker gave a short whistle.

Koleda's eye sharpened.

Izuku adjusted the support against his shoulder without really thinking about it. "Where do you want it?"

That got another beat of silence.

Ben let out slightly pleased hum as he stared at him.

Koleda uncrossed her arms. "Over there," she said, pointing toward a half-framed section where two workers were arguing over placement. "And if you drop it, I'm charging you for it."

Izuku carried it over. The two workers moved aside after one look at him and the support on his shoulder.

"Can I put this down here?" Izuku asked.

The closer worker, a broad man with dust all over his sleeves, pointed. "Yeah, set it down by the marked line- no, not there, there- yeah, that's it."

Izuku tried to be careful not to slam it down harder than necessary.

The worker blinked, then looked at his own hands like they'd personally offended him.

"...Right," he muttered. "Okay."

When Izuku headed back, Koleda was still watching him.

"Not bad, looks like you can handle yourself," she said, "Whats your name?"

"Izuku." He paused, correcting his instinct to give his family name first in this unfamiliar world. "Midoriya Izuku."

Koleda pulled a small device from her pocket. "Got a number?"

Izuku kept his expression perfectly smooth, though his thumb dug slightly into his palm. "My phone doesn't work properly anymore. I'm planning to replace the whole thing once I save up enough."

Koleda's expression didn't change, though it was hard to tell whether she believed him or just didn't care enough to argue. "You got any way to be contacted?"

"Not right now." He answered her.

She exhaled through her nose, then jabbed a thumb toward the site behind her. "Well it's fine for now, you can be a temporary worker, and do day labor. Show up when we tell you, do what you're assigned, don't get in the way, don't act smart, don't break anything expensive, and if you disappear without warning that's your problem, not mine."

Izuku nodded once. "Understood."

Koleda glanced at him one last time. "And if you can't keep up, say so before you drop on somebody."

"Don't worry I won't." He said with almost a smile on his face.

A grin tugged faintly at the corner of her mouth, sharp and brief. "Confident, huh."

Ben stared between them. "Shall I take that as approval?"

Koleda huffed. "He can work. Let's see if that confidence survives an actual shift."

Ben turned back to Izuku and gave a small nod. "Then welcome, temporarily, to Belobog Heavy Industries." He said as he raised up his large fur covered hand.

The formality of it nearly made Izuku smile slightly again. And he takes Ben's hand, shaking it.

"Thank you," he said to them.

Koleda had already started walking away before tossing out, "Somebody get him gloves and goggles. And if nobody's got a spare uniform that fits, tell him not to bleed on anything important and work with just a vest for now."

One of the nearby workers barked out a laugh.

Izuku watched her go for a second. 'I guess she really is the president.'

Ben followed his gaze. "Don't worry about her, she may seem a bit rough around the edges, but President Koleda is an excellent judge of people and cares deeply about her employees."

Izuku glanced around, seeing how the workers were and how they listened to her without much issue. "Seems she's kinder than she seems to act."

Ben's one visible eye rested on him for a moment. "Well you definitely cut it close to angering her earlier, she's not exactly a calm boss all the time."

Before Izuku could answer, the broad worker from before jerked his head toward the stacked materials. "C'mon, temporary guy. If you're gonna make the rest of us look bad, at least do it while helping."

Izuku shifted the yellow backpack higher on his shoulder. "Right."

As he followed him deeper into the site, another worker passed by carrying tools and called something out to one of the bear-like men.

"Oi, tell the Thiren crew we need the next batch moved before lunch!"

Izuku's steps slowed for half a beat.

'Thiren? He seems to be referring to the bear-like figures,' he contemplated.

'But based on what I can tell, it's probably what everyone with animal features are called.' He figured as it seemed like a broader term than just referring to the bear men specifically.

He noted it immediately and kept moving.

The broad worker noticed the brief glance and snorted. "First time seeing bear Thirens up close?"

Izuku looked back at him. "Is it that obvious?"

"A little yeah." The man jerked a thumb toward the others. "Don't stare too long unless you want them and Ben thinking you've got a problem."

"I don't." He replied.

"Good." The worker shoved a pair of rough gloves, goggles and a vest into Izuku's hands. "Then put those on and help with the beam stacks."

Izuku pulled the gloves on, flexed his fingers once, then put on the goggles and vest, and looked over the work ahead of him.

--

The next few hours blurred together into a rhythm of lifting, carrying, and stacking.

Izuku moved between piles of rebar and crates of fasteners, following shouted instructions from workers who stopped bothering to check if he was keeping up after the first hour.

He hauled support beams across the site, passed toolboxes up to scaffolding, and helped a crew guide a heavy conduit into a trench without crushing the lines already laid inside.

A worker with a shaved head and a permanent squint handed him a crowbar at one point and pointed at a crate. "Pry that open, gently. There's glass inside."

Izuku worked the edge of the bar under the lid and levered it up without splintering the wood.

The worker grunted. "Not bad for a day laborer."

"Thanks." Izuku replied.

By midday, sweat had soaked through the borrowed vest and the back of his shirt.

His shoulders ached the way they used to after a long training session.

One of the bear Thirens passed him a water bottle without being asked. Izuku nodded his thanks and drank half of it in one go.

The Thiren watched him for a moment. "You've done this before?"

"Not construction," Izuku admitted, capping the bottle. "But I've done a lot of heavy lifting."

"Clearly." The Thiren grunted and went back to work.

Izuku glanced around the site. Nobody was watching him closely or asking questions.

'This seems fine,' he thought, bending down to grab another stack of brackets. 'This is exactly what I needed. I gotta make sure I work hard and don't lose it.'

He nodded to himself as he moved with the brackets.

---

The afternoon sun had started to slant when Ben found Izuku.

Izuku was helping brace a corner frame, holding a steel column steady while two workers bolted it into place. His arms trembled slightly from the strain, but the column didn't move.

Ben waited until the workers stepped back, then gestured toward a cooler near the site office. "You should take a break. You've been moving nonstop since you arrived."

Izuku let go of the column and rolled his shoulders, taking in some breaths. "It's okay, I'm fine."

"You are sweating through your clothes and you haven't stopped once." Ben's tone was gentle but firm. "Just take a break for a moment."

Izuku hesitated, then nodded. He walked over to the cooler and pulled out another water bottle.

Ben followed at a slower pace. "President Koleda seems to be impressed by you."

Izuku glanced over at him. "She told you that?"

"She didn't have to." Ben's visible eye crinkled slightly. "She stopped watching you after the first hour. That means she stopped worrying that you would hurt yourself."

Izuku gazed at Ben for a moment, then at where he last saw Koleda. 'I guess she cares in her own way.'

He nodded to Ben as he drank more water from the bottle.

Ben turned forward and started walking. "Well rest up a bit longer before you continue working alright?"

"Yeah I will." Izuku answered.

Ben nodded and made his way to the other side of the site.

Izuku watched him go, then finished the water and tossed the bottle into a recycling bin and let himself sit there for a while.

---

Ben called out through a speaker, telling everyone it was the end of the shift for the day.

Workers started packing up tools and heading toward the site office in small groups. Izuku followed, unsure of the procedure.

A woman with a clipboard waved him over with Ben standing next to her. "Name?"

"Izuku Midoriya." He said.

She scribbled something down, then counted out a stack of Dennies from a lockbox. "You worked about six hours on a day." She handed him the bills. "Same time tomorrow if you want it. Show up before seven."

Izuku took the money, folding it carefully into his wallet. "I'll be here."

She grunted and turned to the next worker. Ben gave him a smile and nod.

Izuku smiled back and nodded back. Waving at Ben as he started making his way to the gate.

Koleda stood by the gate, her arms crossed as she looked at the workers passing by.

Then she turned towards him.

"Midoriya," she called out.

He stopped. "Yeah?"

She walked over, hands in the pockets of her coveralls. "Ben says you didn't complain once."

"I didn't have anything to complain about." Izuku replied.

She snorted. "First time I've heard that from a temp." Her eye flicked over him. "Tomorrow, ask for the uniform that fits. You got your clothes a bit too dirty and sweaty."

Izuku looked down at himself. The jacket and his pants were dirty and wet in many places. He wouldn't mind too much if this was his but they belonged to Wise which made him groan. "I'll definitely do that."

Koleda nodded once, then turned and walked away without another word.

Izuku stood there for a second, then shook his head and left the site.

---

Glancing around, he noticed that the streets were busier now, with evening traffic filtering through the main roads.

He walked without a destination at first, just letting his legs carry him while his mind sorted through the day.

'It's not much,' he thought, feeling the weight of the wallet in his pocket. 'But it's something I earned myself.'

His stomach growled loudly enough that a woman pushing a stroller glanced over.

'Oh, right. I didn't have breakfast this morning, or lunch during work...' he thought as he placed his hand onto his stomach. 'I prefer saving up, but I don't think buying some food would be too much of a waste.'

With that, he walked off to find a place to buy something to eat.

And eventually found a small food stall on a corner, the kind with plastic stools and a menu written on a whiteboard. The vendor, an older woman with grey-streaked hair, looked up as he approached.

"What can I get you?"

Izuku scanned the prices. A bowl of noodles and a bottle of water would leave him with enough to start saving. "Noodles. Whatever's fastest."

She nodded and turned to the pot.

While he waited, Izuku pulled out his wallet and counted the Dennies again. He still didn't have a good sense of what things cost, but the food was cheap enough that he wasn't burning through his pay too fast.

The vendor set a steaming bowl in front of him. He paid, took the food to a low wall nearby, and ate standing up.

The broth was hot and salty, and the noodles were chewy.

He ate fast and finished the bowl. Drinking the broth then, he drank the water from the bottle as well to cool himself off.

Setting the bowl back, he bowed to the vendor, thanking her and walked off.

-

Not feeling like rushing back, he decided to take a quick look around the streets he hadn't seen yet.

He noted how the whole district based on a sign was Janus Quarter, and there were other districts further deep into the city. 'I wonder how big this city is.' He pondered as he moved through the street.

About to turn left, the back of his neck prickled suddenly. Danger Sense spiked.

Izuku stopped walking. A group of teenagers passed him, laughing about something.

He turned his head slowly, following the feeling. It was coming from up ahead, past a row of shuttered storefronts.

'A Hollow,' he realized. Seeing there was one nearby.

His chest tightened. 'I could barely breathe in the last one I was in and that Ether the nurse mentioned seems to be what the Hollows are made of, and what was weakening me.'

Izuku clenched his fist. 'Going back in might be risky...I'm already weak enough..not to mention the corruption...'

Knowing the possibility of him becoming weaker and getting corrupted made him hesitate.

But the pulse that signalled fear was still there and got a bit stronger. Someone was in trouble.

Izuku exhaled through his nose, then moved.

-

Running into an alley between two closed shops, he slipped his backpack off while moving and shot out Blackwhip to pull his costume out of it.

He takes off the clothes he is wearing in a fast motion, quickly using Blackwhip to shove them into his bag as he changes into his costume.

The respirator clicked into place and he pulled his mask over his head to cover his face.

He zipped the backpack and slung it over his shoulder, using Blackwhip to cover it, then stepped back out onto the street on the other side and ran toward the Hollow as he activated Full Cowling.

The Hollow entrance was two blocks east: a compressed barrier dome behind a chain-link perimeter, the CONDEMNED signs faded.

He passed through the gap in the fencing and stepped through the threshold, bracing himself.

His eyes opened and blinked for a moment as he took in the air. 'I can breathe properly now?'

It didn't seem like the air was as difficult to breathe, but there was definitely still the taste from before.

Danger Sense hummed at the edge of his awareness, but barely felt like it was warning him about anything.

'What exactly changed?' he asked, but pushed the thought aside. ' I'll figure it out later.'

He ran toward the fear and malice he was feeling.

---

Arriving at an open street he saw something in the distance.

A group of five people were backed against a collapsed wall, with their weapons raised, facing something large.

Based on what he could tell, it was an Ethereal.

It was bigger than the ones he'd fought before-easily three meters tall, with a long, segmented body and too many limbs.

Its core pulsed in its chest, a dark orb ringed with that same glitching light.

The people were firing at it, but their weapons barely slowed it down. One of them-a man with a scarred face and a heavy rifle-shouted something Izuku couldn't make out over the crack of gunfire.

The Ethereal swung one of its limbs, and the group scattered.

Izuku immediately dove towards them.

He shot forward, Blackwhip lashing out to catch one of the creature's arms and yanked it off course.

The Ethereal turned toward him.

"Hey!" Izuku yelled, his voice distorted through the respirator. "Over here!"

The Ethereal wrenched its arm free from Blackwhip's grip and turned its full attention toward him. Its core pulsed faster, the glitching light around it stuttering.

Izuku dropped into a loose stance, rolling his shoulders. Sparks of green lightning grow slightly in intensity.

The Ethereal charged towards him.

He sidestepped it quickly, feeling the displaced air as a segmented limb slammed into the pavement where he'd been standing. The concrete cracked under the force.

'Despite its big size, it's fast,' Izuku contemplated, as he circled it, keeping his eyes on the core. 'But I should be able to handle it if I'm careful.'

The Ethereal lunged again, two limbs striking simultaneously.

Izuku ducked under the first and used Blackwhip to grapple the second, pulling himself up and over the creature's back. He landed hard, rolled, and came up running.

One of the people shouted something behind him. "Who the hell is that guy?!"

He kept moving, staying light on his feet.

The Ethereal turned, tracking him, and then swung where he was running towards, hitting him hard.

"UGHH-" He groaned as he was sent flying into a building, crashing through a wall and he skipped off the floor, pushing through whatever was in his path and he finally stopped at a wall which cracked from the impact.

Izuku tried to get up, removing the debris that was on him. 'Wait...I'm ok?'

He raised his arms, opening and closing his hands, while moving his arms a bit. His body was fine despite that hit being something way stronger than that truck impact from what he can tell.

'Is my body better? How?' Moving his hand to his chest, he felt inside himself. Feeling that lingering Ether that was blocking One For All was still there, but the spark of OFA was just slightly brighter at the centre.

'It's still blocked but it seems like there isn't as much Ether blocking it...and the only thing I can think of that could have done this is...' He remembers what the nurse mentioned yesterday at the hospital, about treating the Hollow Ether contamination.

Whatever they injected must have gotten most of the Ether weakening his body and some for OFA.

He checked a quirk with his hand, it seemed it work better than before but was still pretty weak.

'I'm still weak but at least I can handle more now again.' He looked up towards the hole in the wall.

The Ethereal roared outside, the sound echoing through the broken storefront.

Izuku charged up Full Cowling again and dashed out of the building.

"Hey! Big guy, we're not through yet!" he shouted as he ran toward the creature.

It turned toward him and roared again, then swung its limb at him.

Izuku dodged under the limb and drove his fist into its arm.

The impact jarred his shoulder, but the Ethereal staggered back a bit.

It recovered quickly and drove its nearest limb toward him and he flipped back from its reach.

Roaring the Ethereal dove at him fast.

Izuku cocked back his arm, and threw his fist forward towards it.

But it dodged his punch, moving to his side. 'Huh!?'

Its arm glowed and energy surged out as it winded up its arm and aimed it at him.

Danger Sense spiked and he quickly twisted, crossing his arms. Blocking its strike, the force sent him back.

Concrete got dug up as he slid back and he stopped himself from going further.

He lowered his arms and looked at the Ethereal.

His eyes narrowed as he let out a low groan. 'So that hit from before wasn't a fluke, it actually tracked my movements.'

Dust kicks up as Izuku charges ahead. 'Not every Ethereal seems to be completely mindless and move without thought, so I have to find an opening to deliver a big hit if I want to take it down.'

The Ethereal pivoted to face him again, its limbs spreading out like a spider's. It was watching him now.

Izuku stops in front of it and stares up at its head. "You got some good hits on me, but neither took me down, I guess that's the best you could do?" he called out. "Maybe try hitting me again, you might do better this time."

It shook and roared louder than before as it drove at him.

He narrowly dodges the attack and quickly leaps up towards its core but it blocks him and pushes him away.

Shooting out Blackwhip, it catches a lamppost as he flies back. Swinging around and using the momentum, and his arms to pull himself forward.

He shot out more, and swung around it.

Dropping onto the ground, he moved up to its legs and kicked one of them. It fell over as Izuku moved out of the way.

"You can't even keep yourself on your own two feet, I can't imagine how you lasted out here this long." Izuku said as he did a few quick hops before charging at it.

The Ethereal got up immediately and spun, catching him across the chest with a backswing.

Izuku flew backward, hit the pavement, rolled, and came up on one knee.

He stood up and dusted himself a bit. "That's really all you can give big guy? Looks like you're not as strong as you might think."

One of the people-the scarred man-lowered his rifle for a second. "Is he... mocking it?"

Izuku moved again, darting in and out, landing hits where he could. A punch and kick here and there. Blackwhip snagged a limb and yanked it off balance, while he kept hopping whenever stopping.

'It's still stronger than me,' he thought, dodging another swing. 'But it's getting sloppy.'

The Ethereal's movements were becoming more frantic. Less coordinated. Its limbs swung wider than they needed to. It overcorrected when he feinted left.

Izuku kept talking. "Over here. No, over here. You're missing, when I'm right in front of you."

His legs started glowing red and surged with energy.

The creature stopped for a moment. Looking like it was taking a breath.

Izuku skipped back a good distance away from it.

He raises his arm up, his hand gestures at the Ethereal. "Come on, I'll give you a free hit."

It popped multiple veins, somehow as it surged up with Ether energy and a slight wave of force blew around it.

The Ethereal charged at him more aggressively than ever, moving on all fours as its stomps destroy the ground where they impact.

Izuku just stood there, staring down as it came at him.

The woman with a bandana yelled out, "What is that idiot doing?!"

Izuku waited, until the Ethereal was almost on him.

He smirks under his mask as his eyes narrow. 'Gotcha.'

Launching himself straight up, he dodges the Ethereal at the last second, spinning in the air as the creature passes beneath him.

His leg surges with red energy. The kinetic energy he has been building up with his movements using Fa Jin was enough now.

Twisting in the air, he dove down with his leg raised up high.

Driving his heel down, he delivers a brutal axe kick to the top of the Ethereal's head which causes it to crack.

The force slammed the Ethereal into the ground. Pavement cracked in a spiderweb pattern around its body. A shockwave blew outward, kicking up dust and debris.

The creature shuddered once. Its core split open, the glitching light stuttering and dying.

Then it dissolved-body breaking into black cubes that flickered and vanished, leaving only a faint trace of green light that scattered like ash in the wind.

Izuku landed on his feet, breathing hard.

Things fell silent for a moment as Izuku just stood there.

His shoulders stopped tensing and he felt his body aching. 'I really shouldn't have moved around like that after working for hours, plus those hits stung more than I thought.'

After catching his breath enough, he pivots towards the group, making his way to them.

They were staring at him as he stopped a meter or two from them.

Now that things were calmer, he got a better look at them.

They didn't exactly look like normal civilians and the fact they even could survive against that Ethereal showed as much.

One of them - the scarred man with the heavy rifle - stepped forward. He wore a studded leather jacket with metal plates sewn into the shoulders, and his respirator was painted with crude red stripes. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

Izuku held up one hand. "I'm not trying to cause trouble. I saw you were struggling and-"

"Struggling?" Another Raider cut in, a woman with a chain wrapped around her forearm. "We had that thing handled!"

'You really didn't,' Izuku thought, but he kept it to himself. "Look, I was just trying to help. Are you all okay? Is anyone injured?"

The scarred man's eyes narrowed behind his respirator. "Are you just another Hollow Raider? Trying to poach our commission?"

Izuku blinked, remembering what the civilians from the first mentioned about, seeing these people must be Hollow Raiders. "What? No, I'm not-"

"That's our pay, asshole!" The woman with the chain stepped closer, her voice rising. "We were contracted for that Ethereal! You think you can just show up in some freak costume and steal our bounty?!"

Izuku looked down at himself - seeing his worn green suit, his claw-like gloves and talon-like soles. From their perspective, he probably looked like another Raider. A particularly weird one.

"I'm not trying to take anything from you," he said slowly. "I don't even know how commissions work here."

"Convenient," the scarred man muttered. He pulled out a small device - some kind of communicator. "I'm reporting anonymously about you to Pubsec through the Inter-Knot. They pay good money for suspicious looking people who illegally entered a Hollow. And I gotta say you look like someone who has done a lot that Pubsec would love to find out about. Maybe I'll get something out of this mess after all."

Izuku's Danger Sense prickled. 'This isn't good.'

Two of the other Raiders moved to flank him. One held a crude blade made from salvaged metal, the other had some kind of pneumatic hammer.

"Just come quietly," the scarred man said, not sounding like he expected cooperation. "Makes it easier for everyone."

Izuku sighed. "I saved your lives."

"Didn't ask you to." He replied.

The one with the hammer lunged first.

Izuku sidestepped, caught the man's wrist, and twisted just enough to make him drop the weapon.

The blade-wielder came in from the left, and Izuku used Blackwhip to snag a piece of debris and whip it at her feet, forcing her to dodge.

"Stop trying to fight me and just let me leave," he said, exasperation creeping into his voice.

"Shut up!" The chain-woman swung at him, and he ducked under it, feeling the links whistle past his ear.

He didn't want to hurt them. They weren't villains - just mercenaries who'd had a bad day get worse.

But he also couldn't let them detain him or call Public Security.

Izuku shot Blackwhip at a high point on the remaining wall structure, using it to pull himself upward and over them. He landed ten meters away, already running.

"Hey! Get back here!"

He didn't look back, running towards a Hollow barrier.

A gunshot cracked behind him, and something pinged off the metal guard on his shoulder. 'They're actually shooting at me, wouldn't Pubsec want me alive!?'

He poured a little more speed into his legs, the faint green lightning of Full Cowling flickering at his ankles. A rift was right ahead, a shimmering vertical tear in the air.

Izuku dove through it.

Passing through the Hollow's boundary, and he stumbled out onto a real street, the normal air of New Eridu hitting his respirator.

He kept running for another two blocks, taking random turns, until he was sure nobody had followed him out.

Finding a narrow alley between two shuttered shops, he ducks into it, pressing his back against a cold wall. His black whip unwrapped around his backpack.

His chest heaved, as he sat there.

'Note to self,' he thought, pulling his knees and resting his arms in them. 'Not everyone appreciates being rescued. But I get why those guys were mad.'

He pulled off his mask and respirator, sucking in a few deep breaths of clean air.

His eyes glanced around the alleyway.

Then he moved his hand to unzip his backpack, ready to change back into his normal clothes.

Danger Sense fired again.

A sharp, urgent pulse from somewhere northwest of his position. Multiple sources of fear and some malice coming from there.

Izuku closed his eyes for two seconds.

Then he sighed, pulled his mask back on, and stood up.

"Looks like I have more to do today...." he murmured out.

He checked that his respirator was sealed, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and covered it with Blackwhip again, then ran toward the feeling with Full Cowling surging around his body.

---

The lights of Random Play's living room cast a warm glow against the evening darkness.

Belle was sprawled across the couch, one leg dangling over the armrest, kicking lazily at empty air.

She held a game controller in both hands, tongue poking out slightly as she navigated a puzzle on the screen.

"You're going the wrong way," Wise said from his chair, while not looking up fully from his book.

"I am not," Belle shot back, mashing a button.

"You're literally walking into a wall." Wise replied.

"It's a shortcut!" Belle quickly answered.

"There's a door three feet to your left." Wise pointed towards the screen.

Belle paused, looked at the screen, then at her brother. "I knew that."

Wise narrowed his eyes. "Sure you did."

She made a face at him and steered her character toward the actual door.

Eous waddled past carrying a small box of videotapes, its screen displaying a satisfied emoji.

Belle managed to complete the level she was on and she cheered. She turned to the stairs for a moment then back at the TV.

"Midoriya's been gone a while," Belle said, not looking away from the screen.

Wise raised his head from his book and turned to her. "He said he was looking for work."

"Work doesn't take until night." Belle sat up, setting the controller in her lap. "What if he got lost? He's not from the city, so he doesn't know the area well."

"We could have called him," Wise said, his tone mild. "If he had given us his number."

Belle's expression flickered. She remembered this morning - how he grabbed his yellow backpack before bolting down the stairs, even though he was in a panic.

"He took his bag with him this morning," she said slowly.

Wise raised his eyebrow. "And?"

"And... who takes their backpack while trying to find a job?" She hugged one of the couch pillows to her chest as she sat up straight. "He seems to keep it close and not trust leaving it alone."

Wise was quiet for a long moment. Then he spoke.

"I ran a search on him yesterday. I found nothing on him even when I asked Fairy to search."

Belle's eyes widened. "Wait nothing at all? Not even from the Outer Ring?"

Wise nodded. "It's hard to tell if anything about him was wiped clean, or if somehow...he doesn't exist in any system..."

Belle frowned and looked toward the window.

They didn't know who he really was, but she had seen him do things you wouldn't guess any who could be dangerous would do.

"He isn't dangerous," she said quietly.

Wise didn't argue. "No. But he is hiding something. And doesn't seem to want us involved in it."

"Should we push him to tell us? When he gets back?" Belle asked as turned back towards him.

Wise shook his head. "No, if we push, he'll likely run." He paused, then added, "But we should pay attention to what he doesn't say."

Belle opened her mouth to respond, then stopped. Her head turned toward the stairs.

Loud footsteps were coming up them.

Izuku stood by the stairs, his yellow backpack hanging off one shoulder, his clothes dusty and dark with sweat.

The jacket Wise had lent him was streaked with grime, the knees of his pants caked with dried mud.

They both noticed how exhausted he looked.

Belle immediately stood up, dropping the controller and made her way to him. "There you are!"

Her voice came out loud, making Izuku winced slightly.

Wise closed his book, getting up from his chair and set the book on it. Then made his way to them, standing behind Belle, crossing his arms, expression mostly neutral.

"We were starting to think you got lost," Belle said, as she stopped in front of him.

"It's really late now. You've been gone since this morning, what took you so long?" She spoke out with a concerned and slightly frustrated tone.

Izuku shifted his backpack higher on his shoulder. "I managed to find work after a while of searching. It's at a construction site and they kept me there until late...."

"For almost a whole day and night?" Wise's voice was calm, but his eyes were sharp. "Construction sites usually wrap up by six."

Izuku's grip tightened on the strap. "They had a lot to do today..."

Belle scanned his face.

Her eyes dropped to his clothes-the dust on his borrowed jacket, the sweat stains, the faint tear on the knee of his pants.

"You look exhausted," she said quietly.

"I'm fine..." Izuku replied.

"You're lying, you look like you could collapse at any moment." Belle shot out.

Izuku looked away and just stayed quiet.

Wise walked closer to them. He stopped next to Belle, and looked at him.

Izuku pulled out a small stack of Dennies and some coins out of his wallet. He held them in his hand showing them.

"I got the clothes you lent me dirty. I'm sorry, I'll try to wash them tonight." He said as he closed his hand around the Dennie's.

Wise looked at the dust on the jacket, which definitely seemed to be from a construction site. But the way Izuku said "night" earlier - the slight turn of his head, the tightness in his shoulders - told him that's not all he did.

"It's fine, you can leave it by the laundry, we'll wash it in the morning," Wise said. "Go shower for now, you're clearly sweaty from working all day."

"You better come to get some food once you're done." Belle told him, as she leaned closer.

Wise turned to her and blinked for a moment.

Izuku just looked away and nodded.

With that he made his way to the bathroom.

Belle and Wise watched him closely as he went inside and closed the door.

"Since when we're you the one to be strict and responsible?" Wise said as he stared down at her.

"I can be responsible when I want to be." Belle said proudly as she put her hands on her hip.

Wise just chuckled and shook his head. "Well anyway, it's clear he didn't just work today, but it's hard to say what he did exactly after working."

Belle crossed her arms. "Yeah...it's hard to not want to pry, but it's obvious what he is doing is something he can't seem to keep himself from doing."

"For now let's leave it be until he opens up about it." Wise exhaled out his nose and turned towards his room.

"I'll order our dinner." Wise said as he took out his phone.

Belle immediately whipped around. "Oh no you don't, I'll order this time! You'll end up just getting us noodles again!"

Wise shrugged. "Well they're delicious and even leave you less thirsty."

"Yeah, but it's hard to enjoy them if we eat them everyday. We have a new guest as well, let's try something different like yesterday, I'm sure Izuku would appreciate it!"

Wise let out a sigh, he knew he wouldn't win this, so he put his phone away. "Fine order what you want, but make sure it's enough for all of us to eat. I can imagine Midoriya will have a big appetite after a long day."

"Of course! Now what to order." Belle smiled happily as she thought about what to order.

She seemed to have decided on something as she ran to her room.

Wise just smiled a little, before continuing to his room.

---

The shower ran for twenty minutes.

Izuku stood under the water, letting it wash away the dust and the sweat and soreness he got from all the stuff he did since getting off work.

His head looked up as he leaned a hand onto the wall.

'I managed to find both work and do some saving,' he thought. 'Hopefully soon I'll be able to live alone and not risk getting Belle and Wise caught in this.'

He closed his eyes.

Letting the sound of the shower running fill the bathroom as he stood there.

 

[GhostJade45]

Morning light filtered through the blinds of the upper floor at Random Play, casting thin stripes across the low table. A faint coffee aroma hung in the air, warm and grounding.

Izuku sat cross-legged on a cushion, both hands wrapped around a mug.

Small footsteps clattered from the kitchenette. Bangboo 18 waddled along the counter, a woven basket of pastries balanced carefully on his round head. Its screen face showed bright curved eyes and a tiny smile.

"Ehn-na! Ehn-ne-ne!"

Izuku glanced at him. "You made breakfast?"

"Ehn!" Eighteen puffed out his chest with pride, nearly tipping the basket.

Behind him, Bangboo 6 followed with a tray of cups, his orange bandana slightly askew. "Na-ehn nu-na!"

Izuku reached out quickly, steadying the tray as Six wobbled near the edge. "Careful there."

"Ehn-nah!" Six set the tray down with a triumphant beep and gave a crisp salute.

Eous bounded in from the stairs, screen flickering from sleepy half-closed eyes to alert interest at the sight of food. "Ehn-na? Ehn-nah ehn-ne!"

Footsteps creaked on the floor. Izuku glanced up.

Belle shuffled through the archway, her hair a chaos of dark blue tangles. She wore a loose black vest and frayed shorts. Her eyes were half-closed.

"Coffee...," she muttered, one hand outstretched like she was reaching for a lifeline. "Need...coffee."

Izuku's face warmed. He looked down at his mug. "There's some in the pot."

Belle made a vague sound of gratitude and stumbled to the counter.

She poured herself a mug with the coordination of someone who wasn't fully awake, then turned and shuffled toward the table.

She dropped onto the cushion a distance from him, cradling the mug like a precious artifact. For a long moment, she just breathed in the steam.

Then her eyes opened properly and landed on Izuku.

"Oh, morning," she said, her voice still rough. She took a long sip, her shoulders dropping as the caffeine hit. "You're up early again."

Belle yawned, covering her mouth. "What time do you even get up?"

"I like the quiet." He set his own mug down.

A slow, mischievous grin spread across her face. "Speaking of quiet... you've been pretty good about not bolting lately. No running down the stairs the second you see me?"

Izuku's grip tightened on his mug. His ears warmed. He turned his head, his gaze fixed on the kitchenette window. 'Not this again.'

"Surprised?" Belle leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand. Her elbow thumped softly against the table. "What, you've never seen a girl in her pajamas before?"

Izuku kept his gaze firmly on his coffee. "Not... exactly like that."

Belle's grin widened. She stretched both arms overhead, her vest riding up and her shorts shifting higher on her thighs. "Like what?"

Izuku's eyes flicked-just for a second-to the stretch of bare skin. He jerked them away immediately. His face heated.

"Ah." Belle's voice dripped with triumph. "You looked."

"I didn't-"

"You totally looked." She stretched again, slower this time, clearly enjoying herself.

Izuku's ears burned hotter. "You're doing this on purpose."

Belle laughed, bright and unguarded. "Maybe. You make it too easy, Midoriya." She held the pose a beat longer. "You sure you've seen a woman before? Like, ever?"

Izuku opened his mouth, ready to push back-

"Enough, Belle."

Wise's voice cut through the air, calm but firm. He stood at the top of the stairs, silver-gray hair neatly combed, jacket already on. His expression was mostly flat, but a faint glint of amusement showed in his eyes.

Belle froze mid-stretch. "What? I was just-"

"You were tormenting our guest during breakfast. Again." Wise descended the stairs at an even pace.

"I was teasing him. There's a difference," Belle protested, lowering her arms.

"Is there?" Wise reached the table and headed for the coffee pot.

Belle pouted. "You're no fun."

"I'm plenty of fun. I just prefer my fun once I have coffee." Wise poured a mug, then glanced at Izuku. "She's been like this since we were kids. You get used to it."

Izuku let out a slow breath. "It's fine. I don't mind."

Belle perked up immediately. "See? He doesn't mind."

Wise sat down with his coffee. "He's being polite. You should try it sometime."

"I'm always polite."

"You called a customer a 'walking disaster' last week."

"He was a walking disaster," Belle shot back. "He tried to return a tape that was run over by a truck."

Izuku blinked. "A truck?"

"He said it was 'water damage,'" Wise added dryly, taking a sip. "The tape was in three pieces."

Belle snorted. "I still gave him store credit. That's practically saintly."

The siblings traded easy jabs as Eous and Eighteen brought over plates of simple breakfast-rice, grilled fish, pickled vegetables. Six set down extra chopsticks with a proud "Ehn-nah!"

Izuku ate quietly, watching them. Their rhythm felt familiar after these past few days.

Belle teased. Wise deflected. They bickered over small things, then settled into comfortable silence.

He sat at the edge of it, still a guest, but it was warmer than being alone.

"By the way, Midoriya," Wise said, breaking the lull, "is the construction work going well?"

Izuku looked up. "Yeah. Belobog's crew have been good to me. I got used to the work pretty quickly."

Belle and Wise both paused, surprised.

"Oh, you work at Belobog?" Wise asked. "You never mentioned the company or the exact site."

"It's nice to know you're working for Koleda," Belle added, leaning over the table with interest. "Hope she's treating you well."

"You know Belobog?" Izuku asked, tilting his head.

Wise's expression flickered briefly. "We've... crossed paths. Belobog's been a client before."

"Client?" Izuku frowned slightly. "For the store?"

Belle and Wise exchanged a quick glance-barely noticeable.

"Sometimes," Belle said lightly. "They come in for movies."

Izuku narrowed his eyes for a moment. Something felt off about the exchange, but he let it pass. 'Probably just rented a lot of tapes. It makes sense if they know each other by name.'

"Belobog's been good to me," he said instead. "She's... energetic. A bit prone to outbursts."

"That's one way to put it," Belle grinned.

They finished eating. Izuku gathered his plate and the empty cups, carrying them toward the sink.

"I should head out soon," he said. "It's a forty-minute walk, and I don't want to be late."

Wise stood. "I'll take you there, then."

Izuku turned, surprised. "You don't have to-"

"It's not an issue. I have an errand in that direction anyway." Wise grabbed his keys from the counter. "Belle's got the store this morning, though I don't know if she can handle it alone..."

Belle made an indignant noise. "Excuse me? I'm perfectly capable of running the store alone."

"Last time you ran it alone, you sold three copies of the same movie to the same customer," Wise replied.

"He really liked it."

Wise's expression stayed neutral. "He returned them an hour later. You gave him store credit. Again."

Belle opened her mouth, then closed it. "That's... a fair point."

Izuku hesitated, hand on his backpack. "Still, I really don't want to be a bother-"

"You're not," Wise said, already moving toward the back door. "Let's go."

Izuku glanced at Belle. She shrugged with a small smile.

"Go on," she said. "He's stubborn when he wants to be. Also, tell Koleda and the others their favorite manager says hi!"

Izuku nodded. "I'll tell them if I see them."

He grabbed his bag and followed Wise downstairs.

-

Izuku followed Wise through the back room and out into the parking lot behind Random Play. A yellow van sat waiting, boxy and faded in patches under the morning light. Wise unlocked the doors with a soft click.

Izuku climbed into the passenger seat, setting his backpack down between his feet. His bag felt heavier than usual today-costume and gear tucked carefully inside.

Wise slid behind the wheel and started the engine. It rumbled to life with a low, steady sound.

As they pulled out onto Sixth Street, Izuku glanced around the van's interior.

Tools, a few spare tapes, and an empty coffee cup sat in the holders. It looked lived-in, practical.

"It's impressive," Izuku said after a moment, voice quiet but genuine. "You two have your own van, run your own business, keep a lot of stock. Even with the Bangboo helping, it seems like a lot. Do you ever struggle with keeping it all going?"

Wise kept his eyes on the road, one hand loose on the wheel. He reached for his travel mug and took a sip, the rich coffee aroma filling the cabin. "It's not as bad as it looks. We've got a rhythm."

A faint pause followed before he added, "Though there's... something else we deal with that brings in its share of difficult visitors. Makes the regular stuff feel easy by comparison."

Izuku's eyes turned toward Wise. His gaze narrowed slightly. 'Are they doing more than renting out movies?'

He caught the vagueness in Wise's tone, the careful wording. It wasn't a full answer. But Izuku had his own secrets, and he couldn't ask more from people he was indebted to.

He turned toward the window on his right, leaning against it as the city streets rolled past.

Their silence settled, not uncomfortable. Wise navigated traffic smoothly, occasionally glancing at the road signs.

After a few minutes, Wise spoke again. "What about you? Anything you were doing when you came to the city?"

Izuku stayed quiet for a long moment, watching people hurry along the sidewalks and Bangboo scurrying with deliveries. His fingers curled against his leg. 'I can't dodge every question. That would just make things weirder. But the full story... it would sound completely crazy. Better to say what's necessary.'

"I... had a dream," he said finally. "Something I was training for in the Outer Ring. With people who believed in me and wanted to achieve it their own way. And I wanted to be the best at it. The greatest even..."

"Did you achieve it?" Wise asked, voice steady.

"No." Izuku's tone flattened. "I can't anymore. Whatever I was going to become... that's gone now."

He didn't explain further. Even this much felt like a risk, but total silence would have raised more questions.

Wise was silent for a beat, eyes steady on the road. 'Sounds like he lost more than just a dream out there... I'd ask more, but pressing him now would only make him pull back.' He chose his next words carefully.

"We haven't achieved our original goal either. Not just yet." His head dipped slightly. "But along the way, we found other things worth doing. Other people worth knowing."

He paused, his fingers tracing against the steering wheel. "I don't know what you went through when you came here, but maybe... you could find something new to work towards. And find people to help you achieve it."

Izuku's fingers tightened. The words settled in his chest-warm, but uncomfortable. 'This world isn't mine. I can't belong here. I'd be wasting my time and others if I tried... but it's not impossible.'

"Maybe...," he murmured. "We'll see."

Wise narrowed his eyes for a moment. A smile appeared on his face. He turned back toward the road and continued driving.

Their drive passed in comfortable quiet. Wise sipped his coffee now and then.

Izuku watched the buildings give way to more industrial areas as they drew closer to the site.

Twenty minutes later, the Belobog Heavy Industries construction site came into view. Fencing, heavy equipment, and the distant shimmer of a Hollow barrier marked the location. Wise pulled up to the gate and parked.

Izuku reached for his bag. "Thanks for the ride, Wise."

Wise nodded. "I'll walk you in."

Izuku opened his mouth, then closed it, exhaling through his nose. "Okay."

They passed through the open gate. Belobog's construction site buzzed with activity-workers shouting over the hum of machinery, the metallic clang of beams settling into place.

Dust hung in the air. Near the perimeter, the Hollow barrier shimmered faintly, distorting the light beyond.

Izuku adjusted his bag strap on his shoulder. This place felt familiar now, after the past few days.

A tall figure spotted them from across the site and strode over with an easy, rolling gait. His white coat billowed behind him, catching the morning light.

Spiky dark brown hair jutted upward, orange-red highlights flaring at the tips like controlled flames. A heavy mechanical drill hummed against his left arm, mounted on his forearm, its industrial gears catching the light.

Izuku caught himself staring at the drill. 'Why is it attached to his arm like that?'

"Wise!" The man's voice carried easily over the noise. "Didn't expect to see you out here."

Wise gave a small nod, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Thought I'd drop by. How's the site holding up?"

"Busy as always." Anton clapped Wise on the shoulder. "Ben's been buried in paperwork for three days. Koleda's about ready to start throwing things."

"Sounds like her."

"How's Belle? She still owes us that movie night." He grinned. "She's been dodging it for months."

Wise's expression didn't change. "She has been saying she'll make it up to you."

"She says that every time."

Anton's sharp gaze shifted to Izuku. He studied him for a moment. A look someone gave when they were trying to place a face.

"Oh, you're that new green-haired temp worker Koleda mentioned." His grin widened. "Said you work hard and don't complain. Picks things up fast too."

Izuku blinked. "I... yes. I try to."

The man extended a gloved hand. "I'm Anton Ivanov. Onsite manager. If you need anything, you come to me."

Izuku shook it. The grip was firm. "Izuku Midoriya. It's nice to meet you, sir."

Anton's grin widened further. "No need to be so formal, bro. Just call me Anton." He clapped Izuku on the shoulder-hard enough that Izuku swayed slightly. "Koleda mentioned you could handle yourself. That's not easy to earn. She doesn't hand out compliments."

Izuku steadied himself. "I just do what I need to. Oh, also Belle told me I should tell you and the others she said hi."

Anton turned back to Wise. "You've been holding out on us, manager? Didn't know you had another friend who actually can work."

Wise's expression stayed neutral. "He's not my employee. He's just... staying with us for now."

Anton chuckled. "Sure, sure. Well, guest or not, he's been doing good work. Koleda's impressed." He turned back to Izuku. Anton clapped him again. "Alright, we should probably go."

Izuku nodded, then turned to Wise. "Thank you again. For the ride."

Wise inclined his head. "I'll be back later to pick you up."

"You don't have to-"

"I want to." Wise's tone was firm. "It's really not a problem, Midoriya." He gave Anton a final nod. "I'll see you later."

"Alright, see ya." Izuku responded.

Wise then walked toward the gate.

Anton watched him go. "He's a good guy," he said, almost to himself.

Izuku just made a small noise in agreement.

He turned back to Izuku. "Let's get you suited up."

Izuku followed him toward the equipment tents. Anton's drill hummed with a low, steady vibration as they walked.

-

It was a simple changing area-a row of lockers and benches under a reinforced tarp-stood nearby. Anton gestured toward an empty one. "Uniform's inside. Standard issue. Boots should fit. Holler if anything's missing."

"Thanks," Izuku said. He stepped inside, quickly swapping his clothes for the sturdy work pants, reinforced vest and coat, and heavy boots. The fabric was tough but comfortable.

He stowed his backpack in the locker, making sure it was secure, then stepped back out.

Anton gave him an approving nod. "Looks good. Come on, I'll show you where you'll be working today."

Morning passed in a steady rhythm of physical labor. Izuku hauled materials, bolted frames into place, and helped guide heavy conduits into trenches. The work was repetitive but demanding-exactly what he needed. It quieted the constant churn in his mind.

Other workers gradually took notice. A bear Thiren with thick arms gave him a nod as he passed a bundle of rebar. "New guy's keeping up. Not bad."

A woman with dust-covered sleeves handed him a water bottle without being asked. "Have you ever slept?" She studied his face. "You look like you haven't rested in years."

Izuku took the bottle, murmuring a quiet thanks. "I'm fine, I rest enough."

"Uh-huh." She didn't look convinced, but she didn't push.

Anton observed from a distance throughout the morning.

Izuku moved between tasks with quiet efficiency-helping a crew without being asked, listening carefully to instructions, and never once complaining or taking an unscheduled break.

Uncrossing his arms, Anton smirked and made his way to the other area of the site.

-

Lunchtime arrived, and the site quieted as workers went to eat their meals.

Izuku sat on a sturdy crate near the edge of the fenced area, with a paper bag on his lap. A food truck sat beside him on his right. He'd bought a few rice balls earlier. His first few were finished in just three bites.

Pulling another one out of the bag, he took slow bites while his gaze occasionally drifted toward a shimmering Hollow visible through a gap in the fencing.

'Why would anyone build so close to something that dangerous?' he wondered. 'I guess, they must have their reasons, but it seems risky.'

Footsteps approached. Anton walked up, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his glove. "Hey, Midoriya. Got a minute?"

Izuku looked up, swallowing his current bite. "Yeah, sure."

Anton leaned against a nearby stack of materials, arms crossed casually. "I saw how you worked this morning. You didn't struggle, complain, or take any breaks. Just kept working. I can see why Koleda was impressed."

Izuku gave a small shrug, finishing the rice ball. "I'm just used to doing heavy lifting and I've trained hard at my previous work."

"Certainly seems so." Anton then glanced over toward the Hollow before looking back at Izuku. "I noticed you were looking over there while eating. Curious about what we're building near it?"

"Kinda," Izuku admitted. "Seems a bit...close."

"It is," Anton said, crossing his arms, his expression turning thoughtful. "We're doing foundation work for a new expansion-offices, storage, reinforced access points, that sort of thing. The Hollow's been stable for a while, so we figured we could push the perimeter out safely until it shifts again."

He paused, glancing toward the Hollow. "But it means working close to it. Sometimes right on the edge."

'Seems like they can't let a Hollow slow them down to build what's needed.'

Izuku leaned over as he put his bag of rice balls on the side of the crate.

Anton glanced back at Izuku and studied him. "You know, you've got good strength and stamina. I could use more help in that section."

Straightening up, a smirk tugged at his lips. "If you're interested, you could come work over there-it comes with better pay. But first-do you have high Ether aptitude? It's still dangerous being too close to a Hollow if your aptitude is low."

Lowering his head, Izuku thought for a moment. 'More pay, huh... I could pay back Belle and Wise faster if that's the case. And I can stop burdening them every day.'

He met Anton's eyes. "Yeah, I have a high Ether aptitude. I've been inside a few Hollows before."

Anton studied him a moment longer, then let out a breath. "Alright. If you're sure. But if you ever feel off-dizzy, nauseous, anything-you tell someone immediately. Understood?"

Izuku nodded. "Understood."

"Good." Anton clapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Finish your lunch. I'll introduce you to the head mechanic and engineer afterward. She'll make sure you know the full crew and the smart machines we use out there."

'Smart machines? Does he mean construction vehicles or something?' Izuku wasn't sure, but he couldn't risk asking.

"Alright, I will," Izuku said after a moment.

Anton grunted in acknowledgement, then turned and walked off.

Izuku sighed, reaching into the bag for another rice ball. He bit into it, his gaze drifting back to the Hollow.

-

Anton led Izuku past the main construction zone, heading toward a cleared patch of dirt near the Hollow perimeter.

Two massive smart machines stood idle near a temporary shelter, their yellow-and-black frames gleaming under the afternoon sun.

Blue optical sensors pulsed slowly along their chassis, like sleeping animals waiting to wake.

Izuku's eyes lingered on them for a moment. 'Looks like this world is more advanced than I thought, if they have construction machines like these.'

Ahead, a woman was hunched over a third machine.

Her dark hair was tied back in a small ponytail. A heavy mechanical arm guard covered her left forearm, catching the light as she twisted a bolt.

"Grace!" Anton called out.

No response. She kept working, muttering something to the machine too low to make out.

"GRACE!"

She waved a hand without turning. "Not now, Anton. She's almost ready. The secondary housing is still lagging and I can't-"

Anton walked over and tapped her shoulder. She jolted, nearly dropping the wrench, then sighed and pivoted around, pulling her goggles up.

Izuku got a look at her face. Sharp red-orange eyes, smudged with grease. Red-lensed goggles on her forehead, catching the afternoon light. Her neck was wrapped in a black choker with red markings.

She wore a black and gray cropped top with straps and metallic details-sleeveless, exposing her shoulders and midriff.

One side had a mesh sleeve with padding, the other was bare with an armored arm guard and glove. Asymmetrical tactical pants-one side sleek, the other layered with a long utility panel carrying pouches and red mechanical canisters.

Grace tilted her head, her red-orange eyes narrowing as she studied Izuku. "Oh, right! Sweet Pea mentioned someone with green hair. Said you don't complain and you work hard with others." She wiped her greasy hand on her pants and extended it with a grin. "I'm Grace Howard."

'Is she talking about Belobog?' Izuku reached out and shook her hand. "Izuku Midoriya. It'll be nice to work with you for the time being."

"Same here." She released his hand and turned back to the machine, her attention already shifting.

Anton crossed his arms. "Grace. He's going to be working near the Hollow. He needs to know what he's dealing with."

"Then he'll see soon enough." She waved a hand dismissively. "I'll be calibrating my child for the next hour. You can show him the rest."

Izuku's eyes drifted to the machine behind her. It had four heavy legs and a central body with a massive crane arm folded against its back. Smaller secondary arms tucked beneath the chassis. But unlike the other two machines, this one had thicker armor plating along the legs and torso.

The secondary arms had barrel-shaped openings-weapon mounts. Dark grey metallic accents ran along the joints, giving it a more aggressive silhouette.

'This doesn't look like the other two. Looks more built for combat than just construction.'

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you working on?" he asked, looking down at her.

Grace's eyes lit up, a spark igniting behind her red lenses. She spun around, stepping closer-close enough that Izuku instinctively leaned back.

Her hands gestured wildly as she spoke. "Glad you asked! This is a next-generation smart construction child of mine! It's got a stronger frame, better Ether resistance, and a much more sophisticated logic core! She learns, adapts, gets excited when she does something right."

She tapped the machine's leg. It made a low, pleased humming sound. "See? She's happy I'm telling you about her."

Its optical sensors brightened, pulsing faster.

"Still trying to get the voice box working properly," Grace continued, practically vibrating with enthusiasm. "But when I get it dialed in-"

She gestured emphatically, her chest moving with the motion, the tight fabric of her crop top shifting.

Izuku's gaze flicked away before it could settle, locking onto a bolt on the machine's chassis. His ears warmed.

"She's also a combat prototype," Grace added, oblivious. "We build inside Hollows sometimes. The other workers aren't investigators-they can't fight. So I make sure my children can protect them."

Izuku blinked. "It can fight?"

"Of course she can fight." Grace patted the machine's leg like she was reassuring a child. "She has Ether energy blasters built into the secondary arms. Not just for defense-she can clear debris, break through barriers, and handle anything that gets in her way."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. 'Wait.., Ether energy blasters? Do they use Ether as a power source?'

She stepped even closer, making Izuku step further back. Her fingers brushed against the fabric of his borrowed work coat.

"The Ether resistance alone took me three months to perfect. Do you know how many prototypes I had to put down before I got it right? Fifteen. Fifteen children I had to bury because their cores couldn't handle the density."

Izuku leaned back another step. "That's... quite a lot."

"It was a lot of heartbreak." Grace's hand was still on his arm, her red eyes bright with manic passion. "But this one-she'll nearly be perfect, once I'm done. Here, let me show you how she is now."

She turned to the machine. "Kiddo, say hello to the new guy."

Its optical sensors flickered, and a voice emerged from its speakers-clear, with a slight mechanical edge.

"Hello... new... guy."

"A bit glitchy but she's definitely coming along great!" Grace beamed.

"That's really impressive. You managed to build these machines yourself and give them sentience," he managed.

Grace halted still. "Well, actually, while I did build these current heavy machines myself," she placed a hand gently on the machine, rubbing it gently. "I wouldn't have been able to give them sentience without the help from someone else's example and the crew's help with finishing the work he left behind."

She turned back to Izuku, a somber smile on her face. "I just hoped I can continue to honour his work and keep the people here safe."

Izuku's eyes widened. 'So she's carrying someone's vision forward and keeping people safe along with it...''

He looked at her for a moment. "You're..." He paused. "You're doing a good job as far as I can tell. I'm sure that they'd be proud to see what you've built."

Grace blinked. "Really?" she asked quietly.

Anton smiled. "Despite your mess-ups before, you've definitely done great keeping these smart machines functioning and able to do what they need."

"You're doing the previous president well." Anton spoke.

Grace lowered her head, nodding. "I should get back to calibrating. The secondary housing isn't going to fix itself."

Her attention drifted back to the machine. Her hand found its way back to the chassis, fingers tracing a seam.

Anton cleared his throat. "Grace. We need to get him introduced to the other workers. He needs to know the layout and how to work with the smart machines before he starts."

"Sorry, can't waste time on that. Gotta finish this kiddo soon. I'm sure you can handle it yourself." she said, not really looking at them.

Anton sighed and shook his head. "Right. Of course."

He turned to Izuku, clapping him on the shoulder. "Come on, temp. Let's get you adjusted."

He followed Anton away from Grace's work area, and toward a cluster of workers near a half-framed structure.

"I know she seemed like a lot," Anton said, not looking back. "But you'll get used to her. She's obsessed with her machines. Calls them her children. Weird, but she's the best mechanic we have."

He paused. "We're doing our best to support her, and make sure whatever she builds turns out well."

"She definitely seems dedicated to her craft," Izuku said beside him.

"Too dedicated." Anton shook his head. "Last month she didn't sleep for three days trying to finish a new prototype. I had to physically carry her out of the workshop."

Izuku's lips curved slightly. He remembered doing the same thing to Mei, dragging her out of the support course workshop after she'd been working non-stop. "She may get too absorbed, but it's good she has people to help pull her back."

Anton glanced at him, a small smile appearing on his face. "I guess so."

They reached the group of workers. Anton gestured toward the half-framed structure and the surrounding equipment. "This is where you'll be working. You'll stay on the perimeter outside the Hollow-never go inside unless absolutely necessary. You follow the safety protocols, you listen to the foreman on site, and you tell someone the second you feel off or they feel off."

Izuku nodded. "Got it."

"Good." Anton turned to the nearest worker, a broad-shouldered man with a permanent squint. "This is the new temp. Get him up to speed on everything else."

The man grunted, jerking his head toward a stack of materials. "Let's get you started, temp. We've got a lot to move before sundown."

Izuku followed him toward the stack, the weight settling into his shoulders as he picked up the rhythm of the work.

-

The afternoon sun had shifted, casting long shadows across the rough ground of the worksite.

Grace knelt beside the prototype, her forehead pressed close to its chassis, hands adjusting the newly installed voice module.

Her tablet sat on a nearby crate, diagnostic readings scrolling across its screen.

"Alright, kiddo," she said, her voice soft and focused. "Voice box calibration is complete. Let's test it out."

She tapped the tablet. Its optical sensors flickered, and a voice emerged from its speakers-clear, with a slight mechanical edge.

"Hello, Mother."

Grace smiled, warm and genuine. 'Perfect.'

"Hello, Grendel," she replied, fingers sliding across the tablet. "How are you feeling? Is everything running smoothly?"

The machine shifted its weight, legs adjusting slightly-a child settling into a comfortable position.

"I feel... good. Systems are operational. Consciousness is clear." A pause. "I am ready to build!"

Grace's smile widened. "That's my girl."

She scrolled down, checking the combat subsystem readings. The combat system was her biggest concern.

"What about your defense systems?" she asked, tone casual but focused. "All subsystems coming online properly?"

"Combat protocols are online and ready," the machine replied, voice steady. "Weapons systems are functional. Target acquisition is operational. Defense protocols are active."

Grace nodded, reviewing the readings. "Hm. Let me upload the final calibration patch. I want to make sure both systems are playing nice together."

She tapped "UPLOAD" on her tablet. A progress bar crawled across the screen-63%, 81, 97%-

The upload completed. The machine shuddered slightly, a full-body tremor that passed through its frame. Its optical sensors flickered, then settled back to their normal blue.

Grace waited.

Nothing happened.

"Hm," she hummed, checking the readings again. "All systems show online. How do you feel, Grendel?"

A long pause. Then the machine's voice returned, slower now, hesitant.

"Build... and defend. Build. Defend. Both systems... are... online. But tasks... overlap. Conflict. Am I to build? Or am I to defend? I... don't know-"

The machine's voice cut off. Its body jerked-a violent spasm that shuddered through its entire frame.

Its optical sensors flickered from steady blue to an angry, strobing red.

Grace's blood went cold.

"Grendel?" Her fingers flew across the tablet. "Please respond. What's happening-"

"Conflict... build. Defend. Build and-ERROR-objectives-cannot-resolve-"

The machine's legs shot out, lifting its body off the ground. Its crane arm swung wildly, clipping a nearby stack of rebar and scattering it.

"GRENDEL, HOLD ON!" Grace shouted, scrambling to her feet.

The machine turned. Its red optical sensors swept across the site, locking onto the half-framed structure in the distance-where workers were stationed. Its secondary arms rose, barrels beginning to glow with orange light.

"Build. Defend. Threat to construction site-detected-must-defend-"

"NO-!" Grace ran, reaching for the emergency shutoff switch on the machine's neck.

The machine bucked, throwing her off. She hit the ground hard, her tablet flying from her hand, landing screen-down against the gravel.

"GRENDEL!" she shouted, scrambling to her feet. "PLEASE STOP! This isn't how we solve problems!"

The machine didn't listen. Its red optical sensors locked onto the worksite, its legs beginning to move-fast, heavy, relentless.

Grace ran after it. She grabbed her tablet on the way, the cracked screen flickering. Her thumb stabbed at the diagnostic interface-nothing. Frozen. No response. No override.

She had lost control.

Her child-her perfect, carefully calibrated child-was barreling toward the main worksite.

Grace ran harder, trying her best to catch up.

 

[GhostJade45]

Shadows stretched long across the construction site as the sun bled orange behind half-finished steel frames.

Dust hung in the air, catching the last golden light before it faded into deep blue. Izuku Midoriya wiped the back of his gloved hand across his forehead, smearing sweat and grime across his skin.

His borrowed work coat clung to his shoulders, damp from a full shift of hauling materials and guiding heavy equipment into place.

The ache in his muscles felt strangely comfortable, and reminded him of his training at Dagobah Beach, years ago, when the only thing he had to worry about was clearing trash and making his body strong enough to inherit a legacy.

A smart machine rumbled past him, its yellow-and-black chassis gleaming with fresh welds. It stopped a few meters away, optical sensors pulsing a calm blue as it swiveled to face him.

"Shift's almost over, greenie." The machine's voice came smooth and synthesized, carrying a warmth that still surprised him. "You survived another day without dropping a beam on anyone's foot. That's more than I can say for the new guy we had last spring." A warm hum rattled through its frame. "Cried in the break tent on his second day, I heard."

Izuku let out a quiet laugh, shaking his head. "I try to keep my mistakes limited to things that won't crush people."

"You do good work." Its sensors flickered-something like amusement. "But you push yourself too hard."

Bending down, he picked up a discarded wrench and slotted it into the nearby toolbox. "I just like the work. Keeps my mind busy."

The machine hummed, then rumbled off toward the equipment bay. Izuku watched it go, still mildly surprised at how naturally the machines here spoke-no stilted robotic cadence, no pre-programmed phrases. They talked like people. Like they had thoughts and opinions and even jokes.

A few meters away, two workers were packing up their tools near a half-framed structure. One of them-a woman with a faded bandana tied around her head-shook dust out of her gloves while her companion, a bear Thiren with a missing ear, stacked rebar into a neat pile.

"Are you heading home?" the woman asked.

"Yeah." The bear Thiren's voice came out as a low rumble. "Got a long ride back to the edge. Need to refuel before the weekend."

"Still living out that way? You know the city's safer."

The bear Thiren snorted. "Safer, maybe. But I know how to handle myself out there. The city's got rules I don't care to follow. Out in the Outer Ring, you live by your own code."

Izuku's hand paused on the toolbox latch.

'Outer Ring, huh...'

Straightening slowly, he kept his expression neutral. His ears sparked faintly for a moment before fading.

The conversation continued behind him, but his attention had sharpened.

"Hey." One of the workers called out. "You coming or just planning to stand there all night?"

Izuku blinked, then offered a small smile. "Sorry. Just thinking."

He finished closing the toolbox and turned toward them. The woman had already slung her bag over her shoulder. The bear Thiren was securing a heavy chain around a stack of materials.

Izuku walked over, keeping his movements casual. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Sure. What's up?"

"I'm from further out in the Outer Ring." He scratched the back of his neck. "Been in the city for a bit, but I'm curious-what do people here actually think of the Outer Ring?"

The woman and the bear Thiren exchanged a look.

"That's a weird question," the woman said slowly. "You're from there. You should know better than us."

"I've been away for a while." Izuku let his hand drop to his side. "Things change. Just wondering what the city's perspective is."

The bear Thiren rumbled thoughtfully. "Most folks in the city think it's a lawless dump." He said it bluntly, without malice. "PubSec doesn't go out there much, if ever. Got those bikers running the show-the Sons of Calydon. Plus raiders, gangs, Hollows, and other mess making things tougher than they already are. A lot of people wouldn't set foot out there if you paid them."

The woman nodded, her voice tinged with something between respect and wariness. "The Sons deliver supplies and protect the settlements and people-or so they say. Half the city thinks they're just bandits with a PR campaign. The other half figures they're the only reason people survive out there at all."

"And people actually live out there?" Izuku asked. "With all that going on?"

"Some folks don't have a choice." The bear Thiren shrugged his massive shoulders. "Others prefer it. Less rules. More freedom. You take the bad with the good."

Izuku hummed and nodded slowly.

"Thanks," he said. "Just wanted to get a sense of things."

The woman shrugged. "If you're thinking of heading back, don't do it without a plan. Out there, you're on your own."

Izuku gave her a small nod. "I'll keep that in mind."

The workers finished their packing and started heading toward the gate. Izuku stood still for a moment, staring at the distant shimmer of a Hollow barrier visible beyond the construction site perimeter.

'The Outer Ring sounds rougher than I thought. No wonder they assumed I was from there.'

A place without law enforcement. Limited resources. Gangs and criminals alongside everything else. It didn't sound easy.

His fist clenched at his side. 'If I can't stay here... then I could go there. I can handle things on my own terms.'

Glancing down, his jaw tightened. 'Or I could try to make a difference out there. Help people who are struggling. Fight off the bandits and gangs causing trouble.'

He didn't know enough yet to tell if the Sons of Calydon would be a problem if he started appearing on their turf. But he'd deal with them if he had to.

Either way, the Outer Ring represented something valuable: a place with no rules, no watchful eyes, and where he could act without dragging innocent people into his mess.

Belle and Wise wouldn't be burdened by him anymore.

But the thought of leaving them... strangely made his chest ache.

His feet carried him forward, away from the gate, toward the edge of the site.

Cool metal of the chain-link fence pressed into Izuku's palms.

The distorted purple light from the distant Hollow barrier shimmered across the darkening sky, reflecting in his wide green eyes. Fingers tightening around the steel mesh, his jaw set in a tight line.

'It's really been almost a week since I've been here...,' he thought, exhaling a heavy breath.

This world was familiar to his in many ways, and that honestly brought him some ease, but... it's still different and these past few days have shown him that even if small.

Reaching up, his hand rested flat against the center of his chest. His eyelids fluttered shut while he took a deep breath.

His consciousness drifted inward, slipping away from the construction site and descending into the depths of One For All.

Inside there was a pitch-black void expanded in every direction, silent and immense. The floor beneath his boots held firm, supporting his weight over the dark abyss.

Turning slowly, his gaze locked onto the massive barrier stretching across the center of his mind space.

Black and purple Ether swirled together in a thick wall, pulsing with suffocating pressure. Deep within the center of that dark expanse, a tiny spark of golden light flickered against the shadow.

Izuku's brow furrowed. He turned around fully and took a step forward.

A solid pathway materialized beneath his soles with every movement, leading toward the barrier.

He halted inches from the swirling energy, lifting his head up slightly, gazing upon the gold spark.

Raising his hand, he pressed his bare palm against the cold, vibrating surface.

"I don't know if you guys can hear me but...," he whispered, his voice echoing in the vast emptiness.

A slight tremor shook his fingers while he pressed his forehead lightly against his wrist. "I just hope..." he added, his voice breaking as his breath hit the Ether. "...that I'm making the right choices while stuck here.."

Dropping his arm, his eyes fell to the pitch-black floor beneath his boots.

'Is everyone...still fighting back home?' his thoughts drifted to the war across the cosmos.

Images of All For One, the surging armies of Nomu, and remaining villains flashed across his mind.

Perhaps the hero forces took advantage of All For One's weakened state following the rift.

'I hope Todoroki managed to reach Touya amid the flames.' He swallowed hard. 'And I pray Ochaco managed to reach Toga's heart where my own attempts failed with Tenko.'

'Please...let everyone be safe and be able to live on...without me..,' A sharp ache tightened in his throat.

Lifting his head, he searched the swirling wall for any sign of All Might's golden vestige.

Only silence greeted his search.

He was the only way he could find out the state of Japan and everyone back home.

But they were a dimensional distance away from the real All Might. So even if he was here, there's no guarantee he would be able to know...

His fists clenched at his sides until his knuckles turned pale. An image of his mother filled his thoughts, weeping over an empty bed while All Might stood nearby with his head bowed.

'All Might promised to protect me..' Yet Izuku pushed him and everyone away, then burdened everything to himself.

'She must be crying every night...wondering where her son...her precious baby boy...' His stomach started boiling.

Glancing up, he glared at the barrier. 'You reckless, stupid, selfish idiot!' His posture became more tense and rigid. 'Why...WHY DID I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF!?'

If he had worked with Endeavour and others, maybe even Kacchan and the others. He wouldn't have been trapped here, he'd be home seeing how everyone is smiling again and Japan rebuilding.

His fist drove right into the Ether wall, a sharp crack echoed through the void. He kept hitting the wall repeatedly, making it ripple with each impact.

Dark, green-hued lightning erupted from the impact point, crawling across the purple energy in jagged ripples.

Slamming his left fist against the surface, his teeth ground together in frustration.

His legs gave out beneath him, sending him crashing onto his hands and knees against the cold floor. Black lightning with a green glow expanded outward from his palms, pulsing in sync with his heavy gasps. 'W-What...is this!?'

His body ached and felt cold and warm at the same time. His consciousness almost drifted as he tried to push back against this energy.

'I-I.. can't let this..take me over..' The dark lightning grew and he felt something starting to grow inside him.

A flare of brilliant golden light suddenly burst from the center of the wall.

Arcs of pure gold energy swept across the barrier, neutralizing the dark green surges in an instant.

"Izuku... hold on... don't give in..!" Yoichi Shigaraki's voice called out from deep behind the wall, before fading completely.

Gasping, Izuku lifted his head as the golden warmth washed over his face. 'The first?' He stood up immediately as the ache and pain faded.

'Wait don't-'

"Hey, Midoriya!" A loud shout shattered the inner realm, pulling his consciousness upward in a violent rush.

Eyes snapped open to the warm orange dusk of the construction yard.

He blinked, and turned to see a worker waving him over toward the pay station.

"You done gawking or what? We gotta go and collect our pay and go home.' The worker said as they put their hands on their hips.

"Oh right..., sorry. I'm coming." He called out, pivoting his body and starting to jog toward the worker.

His eyes narrowed as he moved. 'That feeling from earlier... it felt like the Ether blocking me from the vestiges, but different... And that gold light stopped whatever was happening. Yoichi managed to come through and speak to me...seems like it was him and possibly the others who stopped the Ether from overwhelming me.'

So they were fighting to keep him from being affected by it and they're why he hasn't been corrupted.

His jaw tightened. 'They're fighting to keep me alive.... So I have to keep myself alive too.'

He'd definitely go to the Outer Ring after paying back Belle and Wise. He'd find Hollows there. He'd search for a way through one.

All For One had sent him here through one using Ether energy. There had to be a way back. There had to be.

It was wishful thinking. He knew that. But he couldn't just give up. Not when the vestiges were still fighting for him but could end up failing to stop the Ether and he'd be fully affected.

He doesn't want to know what will happen after that.

With a determined expression, he kept jogging, going past the worker to the pay station.

---

Halfway to the pay station, Danger Sense spiked-a sharp, electric jolt at the base of his skull that made his teeth clench and his body tense.

The ground rumbled beneath his feet, a deep vibration that traveled up through his boots and into his bones.

An explosion tore through the air behind him. A wall of heat and pressure slammed into his back, and he twisted instinctively, dropping into a low stance.

Workers scrambled everywhere. Tools clattered to the ground. Screams cut through the chaos.

A heavy machine-grey and black, its chassis thicker and more aggressive than the others-slammed through a stack of materials.

Rebar and debris flew in all directions. Its optical sensors blazed a strobing red, and its secondary arms were raised, barrels glowing with an orange light.

Izuku's eyes widened.

'Isn't that Howard's prototype!? What the hell happened?'

The machine fired-a stream of compressed Ether energy that tore through a nearby supply tent. Canvas shredded, tools scattered, and a worker dove out of the way just in time. Then it swung, unleashing multiple blasts that went in every direction. One was heading straight toward a worker frozen in place.

Izuku's legs moved. He lunged, grabbed the worker by the back of their vest, and hauled them sideways. The blast missed by inches, scorching the concrete where they'd been standing.

"Go!" He shoved the worker toward the gate. "Get clear!"

The worker stumbled, then ran.

Izuku turned back to face the machine. Up close, he could see the way its limbs twitched erratically, the way its optical sensors flickered between red and blue.

Its voice crackled from its speakers, glitching and fragmented.

"B-Build... a-and defend... Build... DEFEND... CONFLICT-"

'So it's malfunctioning. It can't decide between those two objectives.'

The machine's head swiveled, locking onto a cluster of workers trying to escape through the western gap.

"MUST-DEFEND-THREAT-NEUTRALIZE-"

It charged.

Izuku ran after it. 'It's going to hurt people if it isn't stopped, but I can't use my quirk while in the open like this!'

He tried closing the distance, but the machine was faster. It plowed through a stack of wooden pallets, sending splinters flying. Workers dove out of its path. One man tripped, and the machine's massive tread was about to bear down on him.

Izuku's body started sparking green lightning. His teeth clenched harder. 'NO-!'

He was about to leap forward-

A figure slammed into the machine from the side.

Anton Ivanov hit the prototype with his shoulder, driving it off course. The machine skidded sideways, crushing a pile of scrap metal instead of the worker.

'Huh!? Ivanov!? He managed to shove that thing that far and hard?'

Izuku stared as Anton straightened, turning to face the machine. His yellow-and-black jackhammer mounted on his forearm hummed with power.

"What did Grace do this time!?" Anton shouted, his voice carrying over the roaring engine. He waved his free hand toward the fleeing workers. "Everyone get back! I'll handle it!"

He charged again, leaping into the air and winding back his arm. The drill spun fast as he thrust his arm forward, driving it directly toward one of the prototype's metal limbs.

Its optics caught his action. A limb moved to intercept. His drill met with its metal limb. The clash sent echoes across the yard and a blinding spray of bright sparks into the air.

Izuku guarded his eyes from the dust. 'So that drill is a support item too... is he an Agent?'

It was the only thing that made sense. The nurse at the hospital had mentioned Agents-people with superhuman capabilities who did combat. If they were building inside a Hollow, they'd need people who could fight.

He lowered his arms and watched. 'Maybe I won't be needed...'

Anton gritted his teeth, muscles straining as the sheer force of the machine pushed him backward. His boots dug deep furrows into the dirt as he struggled to hold his ground.

'Damn, Grace wasn't kidding when she said she'd make this one stronger than the last ones!'

"STAY... BACK... THREAT... DETECTED... MUST... DEFEND!" The machine's voice shrieked.

"You're only hurting and destroying everything you're supposed to defend here!" Anton shouted, his drill sparking more. "Stop and-"

A secondary limb whipped around with terrifying speed, catching Anton right in the chest. The impact sent him sailing backward through the air.

"IVANOV!" Izuku shouted, his body flinching forward slightly.

Anton crashed hard into a stack of wooden crates that splintered on impact. He groaned, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, but his eyes flared with renewed determination. He scrambled back to his feet, letting out a loud shout.

"You think that's enough to stop me!?" He started sprinting back toward the machine, as his jackhammer powered up again. "Come on, Bro, don't quit on me now!"

Izuku exhaled. 'Okay... Maybe I should expect an Agent to be able to handle that.'

Anton slammed his drill into one of its legs. The machine pivoted, raising an arm to crush him-

A hail of metal projectiles shot into Grendel's joints, biting deep and forcing a hydraulic limb to lock mid-swing with a screech of protesting metal.

Grace Howard dropped from a nearby scaffolding, landing in a crouch before rolling up to her feet, nail gun already tracking toward the prototype's core.

Izuku blinked from behind the concrete barrier. 'Howard? She's an Agent too?'

Her fingers moved fast over the weapon, reloading with the kind of ease that came from doing it a thousand times before. A mechanic inventor who could fight. Not what he'd expected from her at all.

"Anton, don't you dare scratch my baby's paint job!" Grace's voice cut through the noise, equal parts fury and panic.

"Paint job?!" Anton ducked under a sweeping limb. "Grace, she's trying to flatten us!"

He came up fast, driving his drill into one of Grendel's legs. Sparks sprayed into the air and the machine staggered sideways, but the joint held.

Grace shot at Grendel. The nail punched into its chest plating. Grendel's sensors flickered between red and blue. "She's not thinking straight! The combat and construction protocols are fighting each other!"

The machine's head swiveled toward her. "GRACE-DETECTED-MUST-PROTECT-BUT-THREAT-CONFLICT-"

"I know you're confused, sweetheart!" Grace ran forward, dodging a blast that scorched the ground beside her. "But look around, you're destroying the site. And you're going to end up hurting the people you're supposed to defend!"

Her voice glitched. "P-PROTOCOL... O-OVERLOAD-" It twisted its barrels towards Grace.

'She's still not listening...' She raised her nail gun and fired at the machine.

Grendel raised an arm to block, nails clattering off the plating.

Anton came in running, circling in from the flank. "How do we shut this thing down!?"

"Emergency shutoff's under the chassis!" Grace shouted, weaving around another blast. "Can't reach it while she's still moving!"

She dropped to one knee, pulling a slim tablet from the pouch at her hip. Her fingers flew across the cracked screen. "Working on something that might force a reset. Just-" Red text scrolled past and her jaw tightened. "Damn it. She's rejecting every signal I send."

"Then we keep her busy while you figure it out!" Anton vaulted onto Grendel's back, drill digging into the plating.

Grendel bucked hard, throwing her weight side to side until a limb caught him and sent him crashing into a stack of crates..

He strung out from the splinters of wood and got into stance. His jackhammer roared as it spun. "Is that all you've got!?"

Grendel moved away from them as its construction crane came out and started spinning.

A wild swing clipped a stack of steel beams, sending them toppling toward a knot of workers who hadn't cleared the yard.

"WATCH OUT!" one of them yelled.

Anton ran towards them fast. He leapt, bringing the drill down on the lead beam hard enough to send a shockwave through the rest, deflecting the whole stack clear of them.

It clattered down harmless a few feet away.

"Anton, you magnificent bastard!" one of the workers shouted, already scrambling back.

"All in a day's work!" Anton grinned, spinning to face Grendel again. "Now get outta here!"

Grace didn't waste the opening. She fired point-blank into a joint that had shifted loose in the scuffle, nails punching deep. Grendel staggered, voice cracking. "S-SYSTEM... C-CORRUPTED-"

She wasn't down. Her barrels swung toward the fleeing workers instead.

"Anton, the workers!" Grace's eyes went wide.

"Already on it!" He dashed there, drill meeting the descending limb in a shower of sparks. The blast went wide, tearing into dirt instead of flesh.

From behind the concrete barrier, Izuku's hand curled into a fist. 'They might actually hold her...'

"Grendel, if you'd just stop, I could fix this!" Grace circled wide toward its leg, tablet still gripped in one hand, eyes flicking between the screen and the machine.

"C-CAN'T... M-MUST BUILD... AND DEFEND!" Grendel twisted a barrel toward her and fired.

"NOT ON MY WATCH!" Anton punched the limb aside mid-blast. The stream tore into the ground instead-then clipped the half-framed structure above.

The strut gave. Concrete broke loose and came down over workers who were hiding.

It didn't crush them, but it pinned them where they stood, their shouts rising over the chaos.

"Help! We can't get out!"

Grace's head whipped toward the sound. "Anton, get them clear!"

"Uhm... a little tied up here!" An extra limb had wrapped around Anton's waist, grinding him back a step no matter how hard he strained against it.

Grendel threw him off a second later, into a support beam hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

He shoved himself back up, rubbing the back of his head. "She is really starting to get annoying, that's for damn sure."

Grendel rounded on him again, sensors flaring. 'O-Obstruction of defence... MUST NEUTRALIZE... T-THREAT!'

"Coming after me now, bro!?" Anton reset his stance. "Grace, how's that program coming!?"

Her fingers snapped across the screen. "Almost-no, she rejected it again!"

Grace pressed a thumb to her earbud. "Koleda! Ben, come in!" Static hissed back before a foreman's voice cut through, strained. "They're stuck in gridlock-traffic's locked the whole outer ring bypass. They will make it here in twenty-thirty minutes at minimum."

She bit out a curse. "We're on our own for now." She turned back toward Anton. "We hold her till backup shows."

"Copy that." Anton set his stance as Grendel rounded on him, chassis lurching through the settling dust, sensors strobing between crimson and blue. "Focus on me, big girl!"

He met her next swing head-on, the impact shuddering through the ground and up into the base of a support pillar. Cracks raced up the concrete.

Anton gritted his teeth, straining and shaking out his arm.

Izuku's jaw tightened behind the barrier. They weren't going to hold her off much longer, and those workers were still pinned.

He made his decision.

He turned and sprinted for the equipment tents, yanking his locker open and dragging his backpack free. Work clothes off, costume on-the worn green fabric over his shoulders, gauntlets locked over his forearms, boots clanking into place, respirator dragged across his face. He shoved the empty backpack back into the locker and pulled his mask down.

Green lightning crackled to life around him.

He burst out from behind the tent and up onto the scaffolding, moving fast along the framework.

Below, Grendel had Anton pinned against a collapsed section of scaffold, one massive limb raised to come down on him.

Izuku dropped.

He hit the ground between Grendel and the trapped workers first, Blackwhip already lashing out to wrap the fallen slab. Muscles straining, he hauled it aside just enough to open a gap.

One worker scrambled through. Then another. Then a third.

"What IS that thing!?" a woman shouted, backing away from him instead of the machine for a second.

"Is it an Ethereal?!"

"It's moving toward us-"

"I'm here to help." Izuku's voice came distorted through the respirator, calm despite everything. "Get clear. Western gate. Now."

They ran, throwing warnings to each other as they went.

Grendel's limb was already falling toward Anton. Izuku crossed the distance in a blur, Blackwhip catching the descending arm and wrenching it sideways into the dirt.

Anton's head snapped around. "What the-?!"

Grace skidded up beside him, gaze locking onto the figure in the worn green costume-the scorched fabric, the crackling lightning, the black tendril retracting into his sleeve. "That material... I've never seen anything like it." Her eyes narrowed. "Who ARE you?"

"Are you both alright?" Izuku dropped into a stance, eyes on the machine.

"We're breathing." Anton grinned despite the blood running down his forehead. "Which is more than I can say for a few of those crates. But who the hell are you? And more importantly-" he spun the drill up again, "-are you here to help?"

"I saw trouble. I'm here to help." Izuku's voice stayed clipped through the mask. "That machine's going to level this site if we don't stop it. We need to work together."

Grace's grip tightened on her nail gun, studying him another second. His costume didn't match anything PubSec or the Agents she knew wore, and that lightning wasn't like any Ether signature she'd catalogued.

"UNKNOWN... ENTITY... THREAT..." Grendel's cannons swiveled toward Izuku's chest.

"We can talk after!" Izuku said.

"UNKNOWN-ENTITY-ANALYSIS-FAILED-THREAT-DETECTED-NEUTRALIZE-"

She charged.

Grace's jaw set. She didn't trust the stranger, not yet-but Koleda and Ben were still twenty minutes out, and the three of them weren't going to stop Grendel alone. "Fine. We work together. We're talking after, though."

"Don't care, as long as you're helping." Anton shoved past Izuku, drill spinning. "And hey-you've got style, I'll give you that. Let's move!"

The three of them sprinted in. Izuku broke left, Anton right, Grace falling back to fire from range, her free hand still working the tablet between shots.

"Her name's Grendel!" Grace called out. "Combat and construction prototype-shutoff panel's under the chassis, rear leg joint!"

"Then we hold her still!" Izuku drove a fist into her side, sending her skidding back a few feet.

"Easier said than done!" Anton's drill glowed orange at the tip. He leapt onto her back-

Grendel threw him clear before the drill could bite in, sending him tumbling across the gravel. She spun on Izuku next, barrels flaring.

'Wha-' He got his arms up, but the blast still caught him and sent him skipping across the dirt.

'Why didn't Danger Sense warn me?' He was back on his feet before the dust settled.

"M-MUST BUILD... D-DEFEND!" Grendel began backing away from all three of them, barrels firing wild in every direction as she retreated.

"She's pulling back!" Grace ducked behind a stack of debris, tablet still clutched in one hand. "Don't let her reach the fence!"

"She's heading for the fuel storage-" Anton rolled behind a pillar.

"If she fires anywhere near that-" Grace didn't finish the thought.

Izuku's Danger Sense flared, faint. He dodged a stray blast and crouched near a row of steel beams, mind racing. 'It's not trying to hurt anyone on purpose. Build and defend, that's all it knows. That's probably why Danger Sense keeps missing it.'

He vaulted the beams and ran her down again.

Grendel's sensors locked onto a knot of workers near the western equipment bay-right in the path she was retreating toward.

"THREAT DETECTED. NEUTRALIZE."

She pivoted and bolted for them.

'Not happening.' Blackwhip lashed from both his hands, wrapping around her legs. He planted his feet and hauled back, anchoring her mid-charge.

"What the hell IS that stuff?" Anton stared at the tendril as it snapped taut.

"No idea, but it's working! Hold her!" Grace shouted.

"C-CONTINUED OBSTRUCTION... MUST NEUTRALIZE THREAT!" Grendel twisted a barrel toward him and fired.

Izuku dissolved the tendrils and threw himself sideways, but the blast still caught his side. He hit a stack of crates hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.

"She's tougher than she should be," he said, pushing back to his feet.

"No kidding!" Anton's drill screeched off her plating without biting in. "This wasn't happening earlier!"

"She reinforced the joint alloys mid-fight!" Grace ducked another blast, breathing hard. "Standard rounds and drill bits aren't cutting through that anymore!"

"Then what DO we hit her with?!" Anton backed off, shaking out his arm.

"We stop trying to out-muscle her." Izuku circled, watching her patterns. "We need an opening that actually holds."

"I could try my electric grenades," Grace said, ducking another blast, "but she's built to shrug off electrical discharge. She won't stay down long even if it lands."

"Then we make it count." Izuku clenched his fist. "Ivanov, can you lock one of her limbs for a few seconds?"

"Yeah. What's the play?"

"When she's fixed on us, Howard goes high, we go low. We hold her and make her choose which one to deal with."

"And come in and throw the grenade right on that shutoff panel." Grace raised her hand with her nail gun,and her eyes squinted as she glanced at him. "Seems like a plan we can work with."

"This guy is cool and smart huh? Guess I better show you what I'm made of then!" Anton slammed his fists as he grinned.

"THREAT... DETECTED... MUST-" Grendel's sensors blazed.

Izuku moved first, Blackwhip wrapped around a limb. "Now!"

Anton darted in low, running towards Grendel. He rammed his weight into her other side. "Come on, you oversized toaster!"

Grace scrambled up a stack of debris, grenade already in hand, angling toward the panel and threw it.

Grendel's sensor flared and she pivoted a barrel around and shot at the grenade, blowing it up before it reached her.

A hidden limb popped from Grendel's chest and caught Anton across the chest, sending him crashing into a pile of scrap.

Izuku's Blackwhip snapped. Grendel's arm came around and caught him across the chest, driving the air from his lungs. He hit the ground hard and rolled, gasping.

"Anton! Green guy!" Grace's voice cut through the ringing in his ears.

He pushed himself up. Grendel was already moving again-toward the fence, toward the fuel storage tanks beyond it.

'If she fires anywhere near those-'

"She's heading for the fence!" he shouted, forcing himself upright. "And the fuel storage!"

"That kid of yours really is a troublemaker," Anton called to Grace, getting back on his feet.

"Never said she was perfect!" Grace ran after them, tablet still gripped in one hand.

They chased her across the yard. A stray blast tore into a stack of rebar, sending the rods flying toward a group of workers who hadn't made it out yet.

"WATCH OUT!"

Izuku caught the largest one mid-air with Blackwhip, yanking it off course before it could reach them. The rest clattered down harmlessly.

Turned towards them. "You guys okay?"

"Y-yeah, we're good!" one of the workers stammered, already running. "Thanks!"

Another blast punched through a supply container.

Fuel began leaking from a ruptured line inside, spreading in a slow, dark puddle toward the open ground where Grendel's barrels kept firing.

Grace's face went pale. "Fuel leak! If she fires anywhere near that puddle-"

"Then we're not letting her get the chance!" Izuku ran faster, Blackwhip lashed for her leg to slow her down.

Grace dropped to one knee, fingers flying across the cracked screen. "Almost there-just need to-"

Grendel bucked, sending Izuku sliding across the dirt, and spun with both barrels glowing.

"GRACE, MOVE!" Anton yelled.

She dove clear as the blast scorched the ground where she'd been kneeling. Her tablet skidded loose across the gravel.

"No-" She scrambled after it, snatching it back just as another limb swung toward her.

Izuku caught the limb with Blackwhip and hauled it wide. "Finish it! We'll hold her!"

"Easy for you to say!" Grace's fingers moved fast over the cracked screen.

Anton charged again, drill roaring. "Over here, big girl!"

Grendel's arm caught him mid-charge and threw him back into the dirt. He didn't get up right away.

"Anton!" Grace's head snapped toward him.

"...still alive," he groaned, pushing up onto one elbow.

Izuku was alone against the machine again.

He ducked a limb, dodged another, Blackwhip lashing for her arm-too strong. The tendril snapped like a rubber band pulled past its limit.

She fired. He barely cleared the blast, heat scorching across his shoulder guard. His ribs ached with every breath, but he kept circling her, kept looking for the opening.

"Grace, how's that program?!"

"Almost-just a few more lines-"

"THREAT-DETECTED-MUST-NEUTRALIZE-" Grendel's sensors locked onto him again.

She charged.

Izuku braced himself, ready to meet her head on-

Then he felt it. A presence at the edge of his awareness, nothing like Danger Sense's usual warning. Something else. 'What is-?'

His focus broke for half a second.

Grendel's limb caught him full across the chest. He flew back, crashing through a stack of wooden pallets, debris raining down as his vision whited out.

He pushed himself up, gasping, dust thick in his throat. His whole body screamed at him to stay down.

The presence hadn't gone anywhere. If anything, it felt closer.

Izuku's head snapped toward it, eyes widening as it cut through the chaos, the screaming workers, the flickering lights.

His breath caught.

'What is he doing here...?'

 

[GhostJade45]

Traffic crawled along the main road as Wise guided the Random Play van through the late-afternoon crawl, one hand loose on the wheel, the other wrapped around the travel mug Belle had shoved into his palm before he left.

The city hummed around him. Horns, the distant grind of construction, the low electronic whine of Bangboo delivery carts weaving between lanes. Inside the cabin, the only sound was the engine's steady murmur and the soft clink of the mug against the cup holder each time he braked.

He took a sip. Still hot. Strong enough to keep the edges of the day sharp.

'Midoriya should be finishing up soon.'

The guy worked like someone who had something to prove and nowhere else to put the energy. Even in the short time he'd been at Belobog, Koleda had taken notice, if what Anton said this morning was true. That alone said enough. Around the store, he helped upstairs without being asked, cleaned things that didn't need cleaning, and never once wanted anything without trying to earn it first.

Wise's fingers tightened lightly on the wheel.

He still didn't know what sat behind those green eyes. This morning's drive had only made the question louder.

Midoriya had mentioned a dream he could no longer reach. Spoken quietly, carefully, like saying the words too clearly might make them real again. Whatever it was, it had left marks. The kind that didn't show on skin.

'He seems to be running from something. Or toward something. Maybe both.'

The van slowed for a red light. Wise watched a pair of Public Security officers cross the intersection, their conversation lost under the city noise. His gaze drifted back to the road.

Belle had already started treating Midoriya like a permanent fixture of Random Play. Leaving snacks where he'd find them. Arguing with Eighteen about whose turn it was to claim the couch. Smiling a little too brightly when Midoriya managed a full sentence that wasn't about work or repayment.

And Midoriya, for his part, looked at her sometimes with an expression Wise couldn't quite name. Something quiet and heavy that sat behind his eyes for half a second before he looked away. Like he was seeing something he wasn't allowed to want.

Wise wasn't sure how he felt about that either.

The light turned green. He eased the van forward, following the familiar route toward the Belobog site.

'Whatever he's carrying, he needs time. Pushing only makes people like him run faster.'

Wise already knew that much. He'd seen it enough times. In Hollows, on Inter-Knot boards, in the quiet moments after a commission went sideways. Some people only opened up when they decided the risk was worth it. Until then, all you could do was stay close enough to catch them if they fell.

The construction site came into view at the next turn. Workers in Belobog colors were already filtering out through the main gate, tool bags over shoulders, voices carrying in the cooling air. A few glanced at the van as it pulled up along the curb.

Wise turned off the engine and stepped out, coffee mug still in hand. The late sun caught the edge of the Hollow barrier farther north, turning the air above it a washed-out gold.

He scanned the growing crowd for a familiar head of messy green hair.

Nothing.

A low, metallic groan rolled out from deeper inside the site, followed by a sharp crack that made several of the departing workers flinch and look back.

Wise set the mug on the van's roof.

He walked toward the nearest worker, a man with a hard hat tucked under his arm and dust caked into the creases of his neck. "Excuse me. I'm here to pick someone up. Midoriya Izuku. Have you seen him?"

The worker shook his head. "Haven't spotted him. Not since all this started."

"What's happening?"

Another crash echoed from deeper in. Metal on metal, followed by shouting. The worker winced. "Grace's new prototype went haywire about twenty-five minutes ago. The big one. Anton and Grace are trying to contain it, but-"

He gestured vaguely toward the dust cloud rising above the half-framed structures. "It's not going great."

Wise's jaw tightened.

"Thanks," he said, and was already moving.

He broke into a run past the gate, the site opening up around him in uneven layers of scaffolding, stacked beams, and half-raised walls. Dust hung in the cooling air, catching the last orange light. His eye implants activated with a soft internal click, the world sharpening as gold light flickered across his vision.

Data overlays bloomed at the edges. Structural stress points. Residual Ether readings. Movement signatures. He filtered them down until only the largest heat and motion source remained.

There. Past a collapsed supply tent and a leaning crane, something massive moved with jerky, purposeful steps. Optical sensors strobed red. Secondary arms hung ready, barrels glowing faint orange.

Wise pushed harder, rounding a stack of rebar just as the machine's heavy frame slammed into a support column. Metal screamed. Sparks sprayed across the dirt.

Anton's jackhammer flashed in the low light as he drove it into one of the machine's legs, trying to lock the joint. Grace circled wide on the other side, tablet clutched in one hand, nail gun raised in the other, shouting something the machine's glitching speakers swallowed whole.

"Grace! Anton!" Wise shouted, closing the distance.

Both heads snapped toward him.

Anton blinked, pulling his drill back from the joint. "Wise?"

Grace's nail gun stayed trained on the machine even as she turned. "Manager?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Came to pick up Midoriya. Heard the commotion from the gate." His eyes were already tracking the machine's movements, the way its limbs twitched between targets. "Where are Koleda and Ben?"

"Gridlock. Twenty minutes out, minimum." Grace's voice was tight, her fingers still working the tablet between shots. "We've been handling it."

Anton pulled himself upright, blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. His grin was wide despite it. "Well, at least we've got company now. Are you here to actually help, or just stand there looking concerned?"

"I can't fight that thing head-on." Wise's implants were feeding him data now, trajectory lines and timing windows overlaying his vision. "But I can read its movements. My eyes track motion patterns, predict the next swing before it lands. You keep it occupied, I keep you out of its way."

Anton's grin widened. "That's more than we've got right now. Grace?"

"If he says he can predict her, I believe him." Grace reloaded her nail gun without looking. "He's never steered us wrong. Just don't get in my line of fire."

"B-BUILD... DEFEND... BUILD..." The machine's voice crackled from its speakers, distorted and looping. Its head swiveled, sensors sweeping across all three of them. "THREATS... MULTIPLE... MUST... DEFEND..."

"Then we move." Anton reset his stance, drill spinning up. "Together this time."

The three of them spread out. Wise fell back, putting distance between himself and the machine's reach, eyes glowing gold as the implants fed him a continuous stream of predictive data.

Every joint, every barrel, every flicker of Grendel's sensors became a data point, feeding into a model that raced ahead of the machine's actions.

"Grace, three seconds, it's firing left!"

Grace dove right. The blast scorched the ground where she'd been standing, turning gravel to glass.

A massive limb swung toward Anton. Wise tracked the arc before it was completed. "Anton, drop!"

Anton dropped. The limb passed over his head, close enough to ruffle his hair, and slammed into the dirt behind him. He came up swinging, drill biting into the machine's knee joint.

"Nice call, manager!"

Wise didn't respond. His eyes were scanning the wider area, tracking Grendel's likely next movements, the positions of the remaining workers still clearing the yard.

Then his gaze caught something.

Near a collapsed section of scaffolding to the east, a figure in dark green crouched by the debris. Worn fabric. A tattered cape. Green lightning flickering around its frame like static discharge.

A mask covered its face.

Wise's implants flagged it automatically. Unknown entity. No registered signature. Threat level: indeterminate.

'That lightning...'

He'd heard about a figure with green lightning on the Inter-Knot. Some Raiders posted about him stealing their commission. But he had dismissed it as them just making up a story after failing.

"B-BUILD... AND DEFEND... CANNOT... RESOLVE..." Grendel's voice shrieked, her barrels swinging toward the scaffolding where the figure crouched.

Wise opened his mouth to shout a warning, but the figure was already moving.

---

Izuku's fingers dug into the dirt as he pushed himself up from where Grendel's last hit had sent him. His ribs ached. His vision still swam at the edges.

And then he felt it again. That presence. The same one that had cut through his focus seconds before Grendel's limb caught him. Closer now. Clearer.

His head snapped toward the south side of the yard.

Wise. Standing twenty meters back, eyes glowing gold, calling out warnings to Ivanov and Howard.

'...Why is he here?'

The thought was immediate, panicked. Wise was supposed to be waiting for him by the van.

These two don't know him yet so he is glad they haven't figured it's him through his voice. Wise is someone he can't risk recognising him now.

But underneath the panic, something else nagged at him.

'This feeling coming off Wise...'

It wasn't Danger Sense, due to how there wasn't malice or anything threatening coming from it necessarily.

It was something else entirely. A low, steady hum of energy that prickled at the back of his skull in a way he'd only felt once before.

Inside a Hollow.

'And his eyes... they're glowing. That feeling coming from him...' Izuku's teeth gritted.

'What the hell is he? And why can I sense-'

Grendel's barrels swung toward him, orange light building in their depths.

Izuku moved. He threw himself sideways as the blast tore through the scaffolding where he'd been crouching, metal shrieking as supports buckled and collapsed.

Dirt kicked up around him as he rolled and came up running, putting distance between himself and the machine's line of fire.

'No time. Whatever he is, whatever that feeling is, I can't think about it right now.'

He circled back toward the fight, keeping low behind a row of stacked concrete barriers.

Ahead, Grendel was pivoting, her attention split between Anton's drill and Grace's nail gun. Her construction crane arm was folded against her back, but her secondary arms tracked targets independently, barrels swiveling with mechanical precision.

"UNKNOWN... ENTITY... DETECTED..." Her sensors locked onto Izuku as he broke from cover. "NEW... THREAT... MUST... NEUTRALIZE..."

She fired.

Izuku ducked behind a support pillar, feeling the heat of the blast pass inches from his shoulder. The concrete cracked behind him, chunks breaking loose.

He needed to get back in. Anton and Grace had been fighting this thing for twenty-five minutes already. They were tiring. He could see it in the way Anton's swings were a half-second slower, the way Grace's reloads had gotten fumbling.

He vaulted the pillar and ran at Grendel from her blind side, Blackwhip lashing out to wrap around her nearest barrel arm. He hauled it sideways, redirecting a blast that had been tracking toward a group of workers still near the western equipment bay.

The stream of Ether energy tore into empty dirt instead of flesh.

"Go!" Izuku's voice came out distorted through the respirator, rough and clipped. "Western gate! Move!"

The workers ran.

Grendel wrenched her arm free from Blackwhip's grip, sensors flaring. "OBSTRUCTION... REPEATED... MUST... DEFEND... SITE..."

She swung at him. Izuku dropped under the limb, feeling the displaced air ruffle his cape, and drove a fist into her knee joint. The impact jarred up his arm. She staggered but didn't fall.

"Hey!" Anton's voice cut through the noise. He was running in from the flank, drill spinning. "Green guy! You're back!"

"I never left." Izuku circled right, drawing Grendel's attention. "You two need a break."

"Speak for yourself!" Anton slammed his drill into her other leg, sparks showering the air. "I'm just getting warmed up!"

Grace jogged over from her firing position, breathing hard, her tablet still clutched in one hand. Her red-orange eyes swept over Izuku's costume, the worn fabric, the claw-like gloves, the way green lightning still crackled faintly around his shoulders.

"You're definitely persistent in helping. I'll give you that," she said.

"I'd appreciate it if your so-called child stopped throwing me around though." Izuku kept his eyes on Grendel, who was pivoting between all four of them now, sensors strobing. "Her blasts and hits sting more than I'd like."

Grace huffed. "I'm surprised your outfit hasn't fallen apart yet, despite how it seems and everything you've taken." She narrowed her eyes. "What exactly is it made of?"

Izuku's gaze flicked to her for half a second. "Questions can wait."

Grace opened her mouth but Anton cut in.

"Can we do this later?" He rolled his shoulders, drill humming. "I'm getting bored standing around."

Wise's voice came from behind them, calm and measured. "He's right. We can talk later." He'd closed the distance while they spoke, stopping a safe distance from Grendel's reach. His gold eyes were still active, tracking the machine's micro-movements. "And for what it's worth, whoever you are, you handle yourself well. That redirect with the tendrils was clean. You read the barrel's trajectory before it fired."

Izuku's shoulders tensed slightly. He didn't turn around. "Lucky guess."

"That wasn't luck." Wise's tone was flat, observational. "You shifted your weight a full second before the shot. You calculated where it was going."

Anton let out a low whistle. "The manager's got a point, green guy. Most people don't dodge until after the thing fires. You were moving before."

Izuku said nothing. His eyes stayed on Grendel.

"Are you sure you want to stay in this?" he asked, his distorted voice directed at Wise. "You don't look like a fighter."

Wise's eyes narrowed. For just a fraction of a second, something flickered across his face-something close to recognition, quickly suppressed. Then he shook it off. "I can predict her movements. And I can help Grace reach the shutoff. That's enough."

Izuku wanted to argue. And to tell him to go back to the van, to the gate, to anywhere that wasn't here where a stray blast could catch him.

But Anton was already nodding, and Grace's expression had shifted from suspicion to something more focused. They didn't question his presence and seemed to trust him like they'd done this before.

Arguing or asking questions would waste time and risk him exposing himself. So he had to move on for now.

"Fine." Izuku clenched his fists. "Then we end this."

Grendel's head swiveled, tracking all four of them. Her legs shifted, adjusting her stance. The construction crane arm on her back unfolded with a hydraulic hiss, extending outward.

"C-CANNOT... RESOLVE... BUILD... DEFEND... BOTH... MUST..." Her voice glitched, skipping. "THREATS... EVERYWHERE... SITE... DAMAGED... MUST... REPAIR... MUST... PROTECT..."

"She's getting more confused." Grace's fingers flew across her tablet. "The more targets she's tracking, the harder the conflict gets. She's going to start swinging wildly."

"Then we make her swing at us." Anton slammed his fists together. "Me and the green guy will take her front. Keep her focused. You and Wise go for the chassis."

"The reset program's ready." Grace pulled a slim device from her pouch-an electric grenade, small and cylindrical, its surface etched with circuitry. "Once I connect it physically, it should overwrite the conflict. But I need to get underneath her to reach the panel."

"How long do you need?" Wise asked.

"Thirty seconds. Maybe forty if the port's damaged."

Wise's implants fed him the data. Grendel's movement patterns. The timing of her swings. The gaps between her attacks. "I can calculate the angle for the grenade. If you throw it at the right moment, it'll hit the joint housing and stun her long enough for you to get underneath."

Grace looked at him. Then at the grenade. Then back at him. "You can do that? Calculate the exact angle?"

"My eyes can track the trajectory in real time. I'll call the timing."

She hesitated for half a second, then nodded. "Fine. But if you miss, I'm blaming you."

"I'd expect nothing less."

"BUILD... DEFEND... BUILD..." Grendel charged.

The ground shook under her weight. Her crane arm swung in a wide arc, clipping a stack of steel beams and sending them toppling.

Anton broke left, Izuku right, both drawing her attention as Grace and Wise fell back toward the rear.

"Over here, big girl!" Anton slammed his drill into her flank, sparks showering. "Come on! Is that all you got?"

Grendel pivoted toward him, a barrel arm rising. "THREAT... CLOSE RANGE... NEUTRALIZE..."

Izuku hit her from the other side, Blackwhip wrapping around her crane arm and hauling it off course before it could sweep through a cluster of equipment. "Keep her turning! Don't let her lock onto Howard!"

"Way ahead of you!" Anton ducked under a swing, came up driving his drill into her knee. The joint screeched but held.

Grendel bucked, throwing her weight sideways. A secondary limb caught Anton across the chest and sent him skidding through the dirt. He rolled, came up on one knee.

"Still standing!" he shouted, grinning through the red on his teeth. "You gotta do better than that!"

"Anton, focus!" Grace's voice came from behind Grendel. She was circling wide, grenade in hand, waiting.

Wise stood ten meters back, gold eyes locked on Grendel's rear leg joint. The implants fed him numbers. Angles. Timing windows. The machine's weight distribution shifted as she swung at Izuku, exposing the joint for a fraction of a second.

"Grace, now! Thirty-two degrees, hard throw. Three seconds."

Grace's arm came back. She threw.

The grenade arced through the air, spinning.

Grendel's sensors caught it, a barrel swinging to intercept, but Izuku was there, Blackwhip lashing out to wrap the barrel and yank it wide. The blast fired into the empty sky.

The grenade struck the rear leg joint. Electricity exploded outward in a web of blue-white arcs, crawling across Grendel's chassis. Her limbs seized. Her voice distorted into a long, grinding shriek.

"S-S-SYSTEM... OVERLOAD... C-CANNOT... B-BUILD... D-DEFEND..."

"She's locking up!" Grace was already running. "Hold her! Twenty seconds!"

Anton charged, driving his drill into her front leg to anchor it. Izuku hit the other side, Blackwhip wrapping around her crane arm and pulling it down, pinning it against the dirt.

Grendel thrashed, her limbs jerking against the electrical seizure, but the holds kept.

Grace slid underneath the chassis, tablet in one hand, fingers searching for the panel. "Almost... got it..."

A hidden limb popped from Grendel's underside, thin and fast, swinging toward Grace's head.

Wise moved fast.

He grabbed Grace's shoulder and hauled her sideways. The limb passed through the space where her head had been, close enough that the wind of it ruffled her hair.

Grace stumbled, caught herself, and dove back under. "Thanks!"

"Don't mention it." Wise's breathing was harder now. His arms ached from the grab.

He wasn't built for this. But his eyes were still tracking, still feeding him data. "You've got fifteen seconds before the stun wears off."

"Good thing I work fast!" Grace's fingers found the panel. She pried it open, jammed a cable from her tablet into the port. Code scrolled across the cracked screen. "Come on, kiddo. Come back to me..."

Grendel's thrashing intensified. The electrical arcs were fading. Her sensors flickered from strobing red to something uncertain, cycling between colors.

"M-MOTHER...?" Her voice came out small. Broken. "I... CANNOT... WHAT... AM I..."

Grace's hand pressed flat against the chassis. "You're mine. And you're going to sleep now. I'll fix this. I promise."

She hit the final command.

Grendel's limbs went slack. The crane arm dropped. The barrels dimmed. Her optical sensors faded from cycling colors to a soft, steady blue, then dimmed to nothing.

The machine settled into the dirt with a long, hydraulic sigh.

Silence fell over the yard.

For a long moment, nobody moved.

Then Anton dropped his drill arm to his side and let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "This is starting to be a monthly routine at this point..."

Grace crawled out from under the chassis, grease streaked across her face and arms. She stood, swayed slightly, then walked to Grendel's head and placed both hands on the cold metal plating.

"Don't worry, kiddo," she said quietly, her fingers tracing the seam of an optical sensor. "I'll make sure this doesn't happen again. I'll fix the protocol overlap. You won't have to choose between building and defending. You'll do both. Properly."

She patted the chassis twice, then straightened, wiping her hands on her pants. She turned to face the group, her expression shifting from tender to tired.

"Thank you. All of you." She looked at Anton. "Even you, you reckless idiot. You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt."

"Where's the fun in not putting yourself at risk at times?" Anton grinned, though he was favoring his left side.

Grace's eyes moved to Wise. "And Manager. You didn't have to come in here."

"I did." Wise's tone was simple. "You needed help and I can't wait around as you struggled. That's not acceptable."

Grace huffed, but something in her expression softened. She looked past him, toward the east side of the yard.

"Hey. Where'd the green guy go?"

They all turned.

The space where the vigilante had been standing was empty. A faint trail of disturbed dirt led toward the eastern fence. Beyond it, a dark figure was already scaling the chain-link, cape flapping in the evening wind.

"Hey!" Anton cupped his hands around his mouth. "You don't just get to leave! We haven't even said thanks!"

The figure didn't stop. Didn't look back. Green lightning flickered around his legs as he vaulted the top of the fence and dropped out of sight.

Grace's arms crossed. "We didn't even get to talk and ask him questions. After all he did I would be willing to pay him for his help."

"Guy's got a mask on for a reason." Anton shook his head, still grinning. "Probably wants to stay mysterious and cool. I respect it. Pretty sure I carried that fight, though."

Grace's head snapped toward him. "Your drill nearly hit me twice."

"Details."

"You nearly took off my ear."

Anton shrugged. "But I didn't."

Grace rolled her eyes.

Wise hadn't moved. His hand was in his jacket pocket, thumb pressing the shutter button on his phone.

He'd snapped the picture three seconds ago, while the vigilante was still in frame, still close enough that the camera caught the details. The worn fabric. The claw-like gloves. The way the green lightning clung to his frame.

He slid the phone back into his pocket.

"You two should check on the workers," he said. "See if anyone's hurt. Apologize for the mess."

Grace nodded, already pulling out her communicator. "The smart machines can handle the night rebuild. Should have this cleared by morning."

"And the temps?" Anton asked.

"Pay station's still open. They can collect and go home." Grace looked at Wise. "Are you heading back?"

"Yeah. I've still got Midoriya to pick up."

Anton clapped him on the shoulder. "Tell Belle we said hi. And that she still owes us movie night."

"I'll pass it along."

They split. Anton and Grace headed toward the western equipment bay where the last workers were gathering. Wise turned south, walking back toward the gate at a steady pace.

His hand stayed in his pocket, fingers resting on the phone.

'That voice of his...and his appearance here...could he be..'

He didn't have answers yet. But he had a picture. And that was enough for now.

---

The pay station was a folding table near the main gate, lit by a single halogen lamp that buzzed in the cooling air. A woman with a clipboard sat behind it, counting out Dennies into small stacks.

Anton stood in front of the remaining workers, maybe fifteen of them, most still dust-covered and nursing minor bruises. He'd wiped the blood from his forehead but left the cut uncovered.

"Alright, listen up." His voice carried easily. "First off, sorry about the whole... rampaging murder machine situation. Not exactly the Tuesday you signed up for."

A few workers laughed. One of them, the broad man with the permanent squint, shook his head. "It's fine, boss man. We've been here long enough to know Grace's kids throw tantrums."

"Monthly tradition at this point," another worker added. "It helps build character honestly."

Anton grinned. "That's the spirit. Temps, you can grab your day pay and head out. Full crew, we'll see you tomorrow. The smart machines will handle the rebuild tonight, so the site should be workable by morning."

He dismissed them with a wave and turned, scanning the crowd.

Izuku was near the back, still in his work clothes. Dust on his borrowed coat. Sweat at his temples. He looked like he'd been hiding behind a concrete barrier for twenty minutes, which, as far as anyone here knew, he had.

Anton jogged over, clapping him on the shoulder. "Midoriya! You good?"

"Yeah." Izuku rolled his neck, working out a kink. "That was... not quite the work experience I expected."

Anton laughed, loud and unbothered. "Yeah, well. Grace's prototypes have a habit of going sideways. You get used to it. Or you don't. Either way, you don't quit."

He studied Izuku's face. "You're not discouraged, are you? First week and you get a front-row seat to a machine trying to level the yard."

"It'll take more than that to scare me off." Izuku's voice was steady.

Anton's grin widened. He pointed a finger at him. "That's what I like to hear. See you tomorrow then. Or the day after. Whatever Koleda says."

"Will do."

Izuku collected his pay from the clipboard woman, folding the Dennies carefully into his wallet. He nodded to Anton, then turned and walked toward the gate.

The evening air hit him as he stepped outside the fencing. Cooler now. The sun was almost gone, leaving a thin line of orange along the horizon.

He walked toward the curb where the Random Play van sat waiting.

Wise leaned against the van's hood, arms crossed, watching the gate. His phone was back in his pocket. His coffee mug was still on the roof, cold now.

He saw Izuku before he saw him. The green hair catching the last light. The yellow backpack shifting on his shoulders. The way he walked with his head slightly down, shoulders drawn in, like he was trying to take up less space.

Izuku looked up. Stopped.

"Wise..." He came closer, adjusting his backpack strap. "You're still here."

"Said I'd pick you up." Wise pushed off the hood. "You alright? I saw the whole thing from inside the site. Grace's prototype really went crazy."

"Yeah..." Izuku stopped a few feet away, his hands finding his pockets. "I was... hiding with the other workers. Behind the barriers." He paused. "I saw you in there. Helping with the fight."

Wise raised an eyebrow.

"You were fast." Izuku's voice was careful, measured. "Faster than I expected. And your eyes were glowing. You were calling out its movements before they happened. Predicting where it would swing, where it would fire." He tilted his head slightly. "That's not something a video store owner does."

Wise held his gaze for a moment. Then he let out a short breath through his nose. "Well, me and Belle trained a few months back. Really helped with getting us more physically fit. We've been in more tight spots than I'd like to admit. You get capable, or you get hurt." He tapped the side of his eye. "And these help. Implants that help manipulate our Ether."

Izuku's eyes lingered on the faint gold ring still visible around Wise's irises. 'Then... Ether isn't just in Hollows or corruptive...'

"So you're not an Agent?"

"No." Wise opened the van's passenger door. "I'm a Proxy."

Izuku paused, his hand on the door frame. "A Proxy?"

Wise turned back towards him. "You don't know what a Proxy is?"

Izuku's eyes gazed slightly to his right. "Well... I'm from an area in the Outer Ring where we don't have or know most things from the city."

Wise squinted his eyes. While true that most people in the Outer Ring can lack enough basic knowledge of certain things well known in the city. A Proxy was definitely something you'd expect anyone to know no matter how isolated.

He couldn't question it for now so he just turned back forward. "You can think of it as... an independent contractor for Hollow-related work. We guide people through them, handle commissions, that sort of thing." Wise slid into the driver's seat. "Most Proxies aren't exactly combat-ready. I'm more capable than average because of the training. Belle too."

Izuku got in, setting his backpack between his feet. So they help people in their own way.

He pulled the door shut. "Seems like you guys really have been through a lot."

Wise started the engine. "Yeah, but it's kinda hard not to get used to." He pulled away from the curb, merging into the thinning traffic.

Izuku watched the streetlights flicker past through the window. "And the eye implants. Are those common? For Proxies?"

"Not common, really." Wise tapped his temple. "But that's enough for now. Let's just get home to Belle."

Izuku nodded slowly, filing it away. His fingers curled against his knee.

'Ether... I felt Ether coming from him when they activated.' The same energy that's blocking One For All. The same energy that fills Hollows. He stared at his reflection in the glass. 'But it didn't feel hostile. It felt... controlled. Like it was part of him.'

He didn't ask more. Couldn't. Not without revealing how much he'd actually felt, how much he'd seen from behind that mask.

They drove in silence for a while. The city shifted around them, industrial blocks giving way to the smaller shops and apartment buildings of Sixth Street.

Wise broke the quiet. "You handled yourself well today. Even just watching from the barriers. You didn't panic."

Izuku glanced at him. "I've seen worse."

Wise's eyes flicked to him for a half-second. Then back to the road.

Yeah, he thought softly. I'm starting to think you have.

---

The parking lot behind Random Play was dim, lit by a single overhead lamp that cast everything in flat yellow. Wise killed the engine and they both stepped out, the evening air cool against Izuku's sweat-damp neck.

He was reaching for his backpack when movement by the back gate caught his eye.

Belle crouched on the concrete, her jacket draped over her shoulders, a can of something in one hand. In front of her, a small black cat sat at the far edge of the lamplight, tail curled around its paws, watching her with flat, unimpressed eyes.

"Come on, Inky." Belle's voice was a coaxing whisper. "I have the good stuff. The tuna pâté. You like the pâté."

The cat blinked. Did not move.

Belle sighed, popped the lid fully, and set the can on the ground between them. She scooted back an inch. Then another.

The cat's nose twitched. It stood, stretched one leg with elaborate disinterest, and padded forward. It sniffed the can. Looked at Belle. Looked at the can again.

Then it ate.

Belle's face lit up. She reached forward, slow and careful, and her fingers brushed the top of the cat's head. Inky's ears flattened. He stopped eating. He looked up at her.

She froze.

He went back to eating.

She pet him. Gently. Two strokes along the skull, then pulling back like she'd touched something sacred.

"One day," she whispered, "you're going to let me take you inside. And you're going to sleep on the couch. And you're going to be mine."

Inky meowed. Short. Noncommittal.

Wise leaned against the van, watching. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Izuku stood beside him, his backpack in his hands. Something in his chest loosened at the sight. Belle, crouched on dirty concrete, negotiating with a stray cat like it was the most important conversation she'd ever had.

She looked up. Spotted them. Her face split into a grin.

"There you are!" She stood, wiping her hands on her shorts. "Welcome back!"

Belle bounced toward them, falling into step as they headed for the back door. "Dinner's upstairs. Eighteen and I ordered from the place on Lotus Street. The one with the good dumplings. I got extra because I figured you'd be starving after a full shift."

"You didn't have to-"

"I did. I wanted to. Those are different things." She held the door open, gesturing them through with a flourish. "Let's go upstairs and eat. You can't complain about nothing. It's the Random Play evening tradition."

Izuku sighed. But a small smile tugged his face. "Alright then."

He held his backpack by the straps as he walked behind her.

Wise locked the van and followed them in.

---

The living room was warm, lit by the overhead lamp and the soft glow of the flat-panel display playing something on mute.

The low table was already set with cardboard containers, chopsticks, and three cups of tea that Eighteen had arranged with military precision. The Bangboo himself sat on the counter nearby, screen displaying a proud, curved-eyed smile.

"Ehn-na!" He saluted as they entered.

"Good job, Eighteen." Belle ruffled his head as she passed, dropping onto a cushion and immediately pulling a container of dumplings toward her. "Sit, sit. Eat before I start without you."

Izuku set his backpack by the spare room door and took the cushion across from her. Wise settled in last, quieter, pulling a container of rice toward himself.

For a while, the only sound was chopsticks against cardboard and Belle narrating her day in rapid, tangential bursts.

A customer had tried to return a tape that was clearly recorded over with someone's wedding footage. Eighteen had judged the man silently from behind the counter until he left. A Bangboo delivery cart had gotten stuck in their doorway and required fifteen minutes of negotiation.

Izuku ate. The dumplings were hot and savory, the broth inside them scalding his tongue in a way that felt grounding. He listened more than he spoke, letting Belle's energy fill the space.

Eventually, she turned to him. "So anyway. How was work today?"

"It was..." Izuku swallowed, setting his chopsticks down. "Okay. Good, even. The crew's easy to work with in the new area I was placed by Anton." He paused. "Then the head mechanic's prototype malfunctioned. Went haywire. Started firing on the site."

Belle's eyebrows shot up. "Grace's kid? Again?"

"Apparently." Izuku kept his voice even. "Ivanov and Howard handled it, though. And Wise showed up to help. They got it shut down. No one was hurt thankfully."

He picked up another dumpling. Ate it and chewed slowly.

Wise's eyes turned towards him. Squinting as he chewed his food.

Belle frowned slightly. "Grace's machines keep doing this. I swear, one of these days she's going to build something that doesn't try to murder everyone."

"She'll get there." Wise's voice was mild. He was watching Izuku. Not obviously. Not staring. But his eyes lingered a half-second longer than casual.

"You missed the action, though." Belle pointed her chopsticks at Wise. "I'm bummed. I wanted to see a rogue smart machine up close."

"You would have run toward it."

"I would have run toward it with a camera. There's a difference."

Wise took a sip of tea. His eyes were still on Izuku, who was carefully folding the corner of a napkin into smaller and smaller squares.

The conversation moved on. Belle complained about inventory. Wise corrected a detail. She argued the detail was irrelevant. Eighteen beeped in agreement with Belle, earning a dry look from Wise.

Izuku finished eating. Gathered his container and cup. Carried them to the sink.

"I'm going to shower," he said, turning back. "Then to bed. I'm... pretty tired."

"Go." Belle waved him off. "You earned it. Don't let Wise keep you up talking about metadata."

"I would never." Wise's tone was flat.

Izuku nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. The door clicked shut. The shower started a moment later, water hissing through the pipes.

Belle stretched, arms overhead, and yawned. "Alright. I'm going to head to my room. Unless you need help with the dishes."

"Wait."

She stopped, halfway to standing. Turned back.

Wise was looking at her. His expression was calm, but something sat underneath it. Something measured.

"There's something else," he said. "From the site."

Belle lowered herself back onto the cushion. "What?"

Wise reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. He unlocked it, tapped twice, and held it out to her.

"There was someone else. During the fight. A fourth person. Showed up before I got there. Helped Anton and Grace hold the machine off, while saving workers."

Belle took the phone and looked at the screen.

The photo was slightly grainy, taken at a distance in failing light. But it was clear enough.

A figure in dark green, mid-stride, scaling a chain-link fence. A tattered cape whipping behind him. Claw-like gloves gripping the wire. A mask covering his face. And around his frame, faint but unmistakable, the crackle of green lightning.

Belle stared at it.

"He looks like he crawled out of a Hollow." Her voice was quiet. "Or hell. One of the two." She tilted the phone, squinting. "That costume is wrecked. Like, genuinely held-together-with-spite wrecked. And the mask... he looks terrifying."

"He was effective." Wise leaned back, arms crossed. "Anton said he'd been helping for twenty minutes before I arrived. Redirecting blasts. Pulling workers clear. Fighting the machine head-on."

Belle's thumb hovered over the screen. She zoomed in slightly. The green lightning was clearer now. Arcing around the figure's shoulders, his legs. Familiar.

Her breath caught.

"Hey, Wise."

"Hm?"

She looked up at him. Her eyes were wide. "The lightning. It's green."

"I know."

"It's the same color as..." She trailed off, looking back at the phone. At the figure's build. Broad shoulders. The way he moved in the photo, mid-vault, legs driving upward. "When he saved me. From the truck. There was green lightning around him. I saw it. Just for a second."

Wise nodded slowly.

Belle set the phone down on the table between them. Her hands were flat on her knees. "You think it's him."

"I think he always has that backpack with him." Wise's voice was low, measured. "I think he comes back from 'work' later than the shifts end. I think he guards that bag like it holds something he can't let anyone see. And I think today, a vigilante in a green costume showed up at the exact site where he works, within minutes of the machine going berserk."

Belle's fingers curled against her knees. "And he didn't mention it. At dinner. He said Anton and Grace handled it. He left out the fourth person entirely."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a moment. The shower ran behind the bathroom door. Water hissing. Pipes creaking.

"Why?" Belle's voice was small. "Why is he doing this? With that gear? It's falling apart. He's not... he's not equipped for this. Whatever 'this' is."

Wise was quiet for a long time. His eyes drifted toward the bathroom door, then back to the table.

"This morning," he said, "in the van. He told me he had a dream. Something he was training for. With people who believed in him. And he said he can't achieve it anymore. That it's gone."

Belle looked at him.

"I don't know what that means. Not fully. But I think..." Wise's fingers traced the edge of his tea cup. "I think whatever he lost, he's trying to replace it. Or prove it still exists. Even if it's hurting him physically or mentally."

Belle's jaw tightened. She started to stand. "I should go talk to him. Right now. Before he gets in bed. I should just ask him-"

"No."

She stopped. Turning to glance at him.

"We talked about this." Wise's voice was firm but quiet. "The night he came back late. If we push, he runs. You can tell you would. He'll pack that bag and be gone by morning, and we'll never see him again."

Belle's hands clenched at her sides. "So we just... watch?"

"We wait." Wise picked up his phone, sliding it back into his pocket. "I'll have Fairy increase the perimeter monitoring. Track his movements when he leaves at night. Not to stop him. Just to know he's alive. Just to know where he goes."

Belle exhaled. Long and shaky. She sank back onto the cushion.

"He's going to get himself killed," she said. "In that costume. With no support. No backup."

"Maybe." Wise didn't soften it. "But it's his choice. And right now, the only thing that keeps him here is that he thinks we don't know. The second that changes, he's gone."

Belle pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She stared at the bathroom door. The shower was still running.

"Okay," she said finally. "Okay. We wait."

Wise nodded. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder, brief and firm. Then he stood, gathering the empty containers.

"Go to bed," he said. "I'll handle the dishes."

Belle didn't argue. She stood, hugged her arms around herself, and padded toward her room. At the doorway, she stopped.

"Wise."

He gazed up.

"If he gets hurt... or comes back hurt and tries to hide it." Her voice was steady, but her eyes weren't. "I'm not going to be able to pretend I don't see it."

Wise held her gaze. "I know."

She disappeared into her room. The door clicked shut.

Wise stood alone in the living room, the shower still running behind the bathroom wall. He looked at the phone in his hand. At the photo on the screen.

The green lightning. The worn cape. The way the figure's shoulders were hunched even in motion, like he was carrying something too heavy to set down.

Wise locked the phone. Set it on the counter. Turned back to the dishes.

---

The shower ran for a while.

Izuku stood under the water, letting it wash the dust and sweat from his skin, watching it swirl down the drain in grey rivulets. His ribs ached where Grendel's limb had caught him. His shoulder throbbed from the blast he'd half-dodged.

He turned the water off. Dried himself. Pulled on a clean shirt and pants.

Back in the spare room, he closed the door and locked it. Sat on the edge of the futon. Stared at the wall.

The silence settled around him.

He thought about Howard. The way she'd talked to the machine. Called it her child. Patted its chassis while it powered down like she was soothing a fever. The way her voice had cracked when she shouted its name.

'She built it and gave it a voice. A mind. And it turned on everything she was trying to protect because two commands couldn't coexist.' He looked at his hands. The scars caught the moonlight from the high window. 'Hopefully she'll be able to fix it and make the protocols work together.'

'Anton seemed like a lot. He definitely fit in at Belobog though.' Fighting alongside him felt nice and reminded him of fighting alongside Kirishima at times.

He pressed his palm against his chest. Felt inward.

The Ether wall was still there. Black and purple, swirling. The golden spark still flickered at its center. But around the edges of his awareness, something else hummed. Faint. Persistent.

When Wise's eyes had activated, Izuku had felt it. A pulse of energy that wasn't malice, wasn't threat, wasn't the suffocating pressure of a Hollow's atmosphere. It was controlled.

He flexed his hand. Watched a faint spark of green lightning dance across his knuckles, weaker than it used to be.

'Does everyone here have that? Is it in their bodies the way quirks are in most people back home? Or is it just some people? Agents? Proxies?'

He didn't have answers. Just questions stacking on top of questions, each one opening into two more.

'Danger Sense shouldn't react to Ether... should it?' It's always been about threats. Malice. Intent to harm. 'But what I felt from Wise wasn't any of that.'

'Then why could I feel it?'

'Was it because of those eyes? Or...'

He looked down at his hand again. The faint spark of green had faded.

'...has something changed inside me?'

Anton's drill. Grace's nail gun, built for combat as much as construction. They fought like people who trained for it, who did it regularly. But they also worked at a construction site. Had a boss. Collected a paycheck.

'Seems Agents can have normal lives and jobs. They just... also fight.'

It was strange. And comforting, in a way he couldn't fully articulate. That this world had people who carried both.

He thought about Wise helping with Grendel.

He ran toward it. Without hesitation. A machine that could have killed him. Just because they needed help.

Izuku's throat tightened.

'He really is a good person. Both of them are. I'll remember that. When I leave. When I find a way back or a way forward. I'll remember that some people in this world were kind to me when they had no reason to be.'

He laid back on the futon. Pulled the blanket up. Stared at the ceiling.

The moonlight shifted through the window, painting a pale rectangle on the floor. Outside, the distant hum of traffic.

He closed his eyes.

Danger Sense spiked.

His eyes snapped open. The feeling was sharp, urgent, pulling at the base of his skull like a hook.

He sat up. Listened.

Sirens. Multiple. Layered over each other, getting louder in the distance.

Izuku was on his feet before the thought fully formed. He crossed to his backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out the costume. The worn green fabric. The mask. The respirator.

He changed fast. His sleeping clothes off, costume on. Gauntlets locked. Boots laced. Cape over his shoulders.

He opened the window. The night air rushed in, cool and sharp. The parking lot below was empty. The back gate was locked.

Izuku stepped onto the sill. Blackwhip shot from his wrist, catching the edge of the roof above. He pulled himself up, over, and onto the tiles.

From there, the city spread out. Lights. Movement. The distant flash of something orange, three blocks east.

He ran. Leapt from the roof to the fire escape. Down the ladder. Into the alley. Blackwhip caught a lamppost and swung him around the corner, onto the street, into the dark.

Behind him, the spare room window stayed open. The curtain shifted in the breeze.

 

[GhostJade45]

Rain-slicked asphalt gleamed under the streetlights as Izuku swung through the night, Blackwhip carrying him from ledge to ledge.

His muscles still ached from the earlier fight with Howard's prototype-a residual burn in his shoulders and a faint tremor in his legs refused to fade completely.

Sirens wailed somewhere ahead.

He landed on a fire escape, the metal groaning under his weight. Below, two black sedans screamed through an intersection, tires shrieking against wet pavement.

Civilians dove for cover. A woman carrying groceries stumbled-her bags burst, apples rolling across the street.

Izuku dropped.

He caught her around the waist before she hit the ground. His boots scraped concrete as he set her down.

"Stay back," he said through the respirator. "Get inside."

She stared at him, mouth open.

He was already gone.

Blackwhip caught a lamppost and swung him forward. The sedans were splitting-one heading east, the other cutting north with more erratic movement, the one that nearly clipped a delivery van.

He followed the northern car.

Through the rear window he caught a glimpse of movement. A figure in the back seat, bound wrists and orange hair.

A hostage.

Izuku pushed harder. Green lightning flickered around his legs as he closed the distance. The sedan's driver spotted him in the side mirror-tires squealed, the car swerving hard.

Danger Sense pulsed.

He dropped low, feeling the air displacement as a bullet passed where his head had been.

The rear window shattered. Another shot cracked past his shoulder.

'They're shooting at me through their own car.'

Blackwhip lashed out, tendrils wrapping around the sedan's rear axle. The metal groaned. The driver floored the gas, tires smoking against the asphalt.

Izuku planted his feet, Blackwhip straining, the tendril vibrating with tension. His arms burned with the effort.

"You're not going anywhere," he muttered through gritted teeth.

The engine whined. Coughed. Then died.

The sedan skidded to a halt, smoke curling from the hood. The second vehicle never slowed. It vanished down a side street, taillights disappearing into the rain.

Doors flew open. Three men spilled out, weapons raised. One of them-a thickset man with a scar across his jaw-leveled a pistol at Izuku's chest.

"Who the hell are you!?"

He didn't respond. Izuku just walked forward, slower than he would have liked. His legs still carried the earlier strain.

The gun fired.

He tilted his head just enough. The bullet passed his ear close enough to make the respirator rattle.

Another man shot. Izuku sidestepped, the round pinging off a dumpster behind him. Danger Sense kept the margins tight; he was not clean enough tonight for anything wider.

The thickset man's hands shook. "What-"

Izuku closed the distance in a short burst.

A palm strike to the wrist sent the pistol clattering. A sweep of his leg took the man's feet out from under him. He hit the ground hard. Blackwhip snapped around his wrists and ankles before he could rise.

The second gunman tried to run. Blackwhip caught his ankle and slammed him face-first into the pavement, binding him a moment later.

The third man dropped his weapon and raised both hands, shaking.

Izuku stepped past him without slowing and bound him as well, the tendrils tightening just enough to keep him from reaching for anything.

"I've had a long day already," Izuku rasped through the respirator, "so I prefer if you just stay down."

He moved to the open back door.

Inside, a woman with tear-streaked cheeks pressed herself against the far seat. Rope bound her wrists.

"Hey," Izuku said, softening his voice. The respirator still distorted it, but the gentleness came through. "I'm here to help. Hold still."

He crouched, reaching for the ropes. His gloves were rough, but his touch was careful. The fibers parted under the claws.

The woman's wide eyes tracked his every move. "Who... who are you?"

"I'm-"

Tires screeched around the corner.

Izuku's head snapped up.

A Public Security vehicle-sleek, armored, the words N.E.P.S. and PUBSEC stenciled in white on the blue sides-skidded into the intersection. Doors flew open before it fully stopped.

A tall woman with a black ponytail streaked with bright orange stepped out first, her custom handgun already drawn and leveled squarely at Izuku's chest. Her amber-red eyes were ice-cold, her posture rigid and perfect.

"Hands where I can see them," she commanded, voice clipped and authoritative. "I'm Captain Zhu Yuan of the Criminal Investigation Special Response Team. You're under arrest for obstruction of an official investigation."

Izuku slowly raised his hands, taking a step back. "I just saw they had a hostage. I was stopping them from hurting people and causing a crash."

Zhu Yuan's grip on her gun did not waver. "The second vehicle is already gone. We were deliberately hanging back. The woman you just 'rescued' is an undercover consultant with a tracker. We needed the criminals to believe they had lost us so they would lead us to the stash house. You stopped the only car we could still follow."

Izuku froze, head snapping back to the woman in the back seat.

She was stretching her wrists now, the terrified act completely gone. A smirk played on her lips as she stepped out of the car, brushing dust off her dark, form-fitting jacket.

"Jane Doe," she said, voice dropping into a smooth, teasing purr. "Criminal behavior specialist. And you're quite the unexpected individual to be trying to save a lady from capture."

A calm, almost melodic voice drifted from the vehicle.

"Interesting costume."

A petite girl with dark green pigtails stepped out, casually sipping from a small thermos. She held a three-section staff that crackled with faint blue electricity.

Her green eyes moved over Izuku slowly-frayed cape, warped iron soles, scarred gloves, the faint green lightning still flickering around his arms, the black tendrils that had only just finished binding the three men.

She tilted her head, as if listening to something only she could hear.

"His appearance and that green lightning around him matches a prior report from an officer who observed an unidentified individual illegally inside a Hollow."

Her eyes squinted. "And an additional anonymous tip on the Inter-Knot claiming the same figure stole a Hollow Raider commission in a separate Hollow."

She took another sip of hot water.

"Captain. This figure has had multiple unregistered entries into a Hollow and is currently a masked unknown individual."

Seth Lowell stepped forward, silver-white hair damp from the rain, cat ears angled back, blue riot shield already raised and electric baton drawn. "So this guy has illegally entered Hollows more than once and just obstructed an official operation..."

His grip tightened around his baton. "He needs to be taken down!"

Zhu Yuan's expression hardened further. "You're coming in for questioning. Quietly."

Izuku's mind raced. He couldn't let them take him in. If he went to a Public Security station, his lack of an actual ID, his strange physiology, and the secrets he was hiding would unravel.

He'd be locked up, and Belle and Wise, plus those at Belobog would be dragged into the mess.

"I'm sorry. I genuinely thought she was in danger. I acted on instinct."

"Your instincts cost us weeks of work." Zhu Yuan took a step closer. "If you want to explain yourself you can do so at the station."

"I can't go with you," Izuku said, his voice low and steady. "I have too much to do."

Zhu Yuan's eyes narrowed. "Then you leave us no choice. Take him down."

Seth charged first, his shield raised. Izuku sidestepped his tackle, using a palm strike to push the shield off balance, and sprinted toward the alleyway.

"He's fleeing!" Seth yelled, recovering quickly and giving chase.

Izuku darted into the narrow space, but the air suddenly hummed with danger. Danger Sense screamed. He twisted his body, barely dodging a sweeping strike from a three-section staff. The wind of the weapon ruffled his cape.

He looked back. The small girl with the pigtails-Qingyi-was standing in his path, her stance impossibly grounded for her size. She swung again, and Izuku crossed his arms to block.

The staff connected, and a massive shock of electricity surged through his gauntlets, numbing his muscles and sending him skidding backward.

'She's so small, but that strength...' Izuku gritted his teeth, shaking out his arms.

He focused his hearing, trying to gauge her stamina, but his blood ran cold.

There was no heartbeat. No rush of blood. Just the faint, rhythmic whirring of servos and the smell of ozone and machine oil. 'Wait she's....'

Before he could process it, Zhu Yuan was there. She moved with terrifying speed, closing the distance in a heartbeat. Izuku raised his guard, but her kick bypassed it entirely, catching him squarely in the ribs.

The impact lifted him off his feet. Sending him flying backward, crashing through the side mirror of a parked car. And slammed into the brick wall of the alley.

He coughed, tasting copper as a sharp, agonizing pain flared in his chest. His ribs were definitely sore after that.

'Is she trying to break people's bones with those kicks?' he thought, struggling to push himself up.

Seth was closing in from the left, his baton sparking. Izuku forced himself to his feet, using Danger Sense to weave through the cat boy's clumsy but earnest strikes. He wasn't trying to hurt the guy; he just needed to create space.

He dodged a horizontal sweep, ducked under a thrust, and shoved Seth's shield away with a burst of Full Cowling.

"He's not attacking to injure...,'' Seth panted, stumbling back. "Captain, he's just trying to run!"

"Then don't give him the opening!" Zhu Yuan barked, raising her handgun. A suppressed shot rang out, the energy blast sparking off the metal guard on Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku scrambled up a fire escape, his muscles screaming in protest. He reached the rooftop, his chest heaving, and turned.

Blackwhip shot out and latched onto a distant ledge.

A blade flashed. The tendril severed cleanly and dissolved into the air.

Izuku stumbled back.

A sharp pain sliced across his cheek. Blood welled, warm and sticky.

He spun around.

Jane Doe stood on the edge of the roof, long scaly rat tail whipping behind her.

The metallic tip gleamed. She had dropped the last of the disguise; her outfit was now a sleek, edgy ensemble of cropped jacket and platform boots.

"Surprised?" She twirled a small blade in one hand, tail swaying. "You've got some interesting tricks. But so do we." She circled him, light on her feet.

"You're favoring your left side. The Captain's kick got you, didn't it?" She tilted her head. "And you're already exhausted. That's not a great combination, Mister Vigilante."

She got into a stance. "You really should just give up. You're outmatched and hurt."

Izuku wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of one glove. Green eyes narrowed behind the mask.

He reset his stance, shaking the remaining numbness from his arms. While also repeating the motion carefully.

'Just a little more...'

Zhu Yuan advanced onto the rooftop, gun trained on his center mass. Seth climbed up behind her. Qingyi appeared at the far edge, staff ready.

"Last warning," Zhu Yuan said. "Stand down, and this doesn't have to get worse."

Izuku looked at all four of them.

"Sorry," he said. "But that's never gonna happen."

He shifted his weight. Faint red energy gathered along his arms and legs-kinetic force he had been storing with every dodge, every block, every desperate movement since the alley.

He released it all at once, channeling the stored power straight into Smokescreen.

A massive, concussive eruption of thick crimson smoke exploded outward from his body.

The shockwave blew the haze across the entire rooftop, blinding optical sensors and masking every heat signature.

Using the cover, Izuku leaped over Jane's head, fired a fresh Blackwhip tendril at a distant gargoyle, and swung hard into the rain-soaked night.

The smoke cleared on the rooftop in slow, ragged drifts.

Zhu Yuan coughed once, waving the last of the crimson haze away from her face with a controlled motion.

Her ponytail had come slightly loose; she fixed it without looking, eyes already scanning every edge and shadow.

The vigilante was gone.

Seth lowered his shield, ears angled back, tail flicking once in frustration. "He got away."

Zhu Yuan holstered the Suppressor K22 with a precise click. Her jaw was tight. "He used a localized concussive burst to force the smoke outward. But I saw no canisters." She looked at Qingyi. "Did you sense anything?"

Qingyi took a slow sip from her thermos, green eyes half-lidded as if still replaying the data. "Whatever that red cloud was, it did not register as Ether. Neither did the black constructs. They formed without an emitter, held solid mass, then dissolved cleanly when severed. Energy shaped into physical matter, then released. It's not standard tech."

Jane leaned against the low wall at the edge of the roof, arms folded, one boot crossed over the other.

The tip of her tail tapped lightly against the concrete. "He's more interesting than the usual thugs we deal with."

Her gaze locked over to the side. "He didn't try to attack us in any serious way, never tried to force a path through me when he had the opening, and still walked out of a four-on-one with nothing worse than a cut."

Her finger tapped against her arm. "Plus that costume's falling apart, gear looks like it's been through a war, and yet everything still worked under pressure."

She tilted her head, a small, thoughtful smile curling at the edge of her mouth. "He came to help someone who he thought was endangered, and even knew to talk calmly and reassure the person he was helping so they'd cooperate."

"Plus his skills are cleaner than any random Hollow Raider I've seen. He acted like a trained officer more than anything."

Seth frowned, still breathing a little hard. "So he isn't just a random criminal...he didn't know our plan and only wanted to help people who were in trouble..."

"The report also noted he helped civilians against Ethereals." Qingyi said, putting away her thermos. "If he is trying to be a vigilante, he is committed to the role."

Zhu Yuan's gaze stayed on wherever the vigilante could have swung, but her eyes softened slightly but stayed sharp. "That does not change the facts."

She turned her head towards her team. "He has multiple illegal Hollow entries already on record. And he is an unregistered man with a mask."

Her fists curled as she took a few steps forward. "Now he has obstructed an official investigation and cost us both the tracked asset and the second vehicle. We needed them to believe they had lost us. Now we have neither visuals nor a tracker."

Qingyi put her hands on her hips. "The three men he bound are still secured downstairs. Their restraints dissolved when he left, but they have not moved. I suggest we call for a pickup unit before they decide to test the knots."

Zhu Yuan gave a short nod. "Do it. Have the responding officers begin interrogation immediately. Focus on the stash-house location and whatever resource they were moving. We will start our own search from the last known trajectory of the escaped sedan, this vigilante will be dealt with another time."

Seth straightened, shield settling against his back. "Understood, Captain."

Jane pushed off the wall, stretching her arms above her head with a languid roll of her shoulders. "I'll ride with the pickup team for a bit. See if our three new friends remember anything useful once the adrenaline wears off. "

Her blue eyes flicked once more toward the empty skyline. "It would be quite interesting if I could have gotten a crack at figuring out what exactly made that vigilante tick."

Zhu Yuan did not answer that. She simply turned and started down the fire escape, voice level and final.

"Move out. We are not finished tonight."

They followed her down into the rain, the rooftop empty again except for a single dark smear of blood on the wet concrete where the vigilante had stood.

-

---

Izuku dropped into a narrow alley three blocks from the rooftop, boots scraping wet brick as Blackwhip released him. He staggered once, caught himself against the wall, and pushed the respirator up far enough to breathe open air.

Rain traced cold lines down his face and mixed with the blood still seeping from the cut on his cheek.

He pressed the heel of his glove against the wound, hissing through his teeth. The ribs on his left side throbbed in a deep, steady pulse where the captain's kick had landed.

Residual numbness still crawled through his arms from the electric staff. Every muscle carried the earlier fight with Howard's machine plus the fresh damage. He was running on less than he wanted to admit.

'I messed it up.' The thought landed heavy.

He had seen a hostage and moved. Simple. Necessary. Except the hostage had been bait, the chase had been a carefully managed trail, and the second car was gone because of him.

Those officers were back at the start of a weeks-long operation because he could not stop himself from helping.

He slid down the wall until he was sitting, one knee drawn up, and let his head rest against the brick for a moment. The rain kept falling.

That captain with the orange-streaked ponytail and the specialized handgun had moved like someone who had never doubted a single decision in her life.

That kick had not been ordinary. Neither had the speed. She had introduced herself as captain of the Criminal Investigation Special Response Team.

'So they have different units for different threats. That's not like regular police back home-they're more like heroes working directly under the police.' A dedicated unit inside Public Security for higher-level cases, told him this city produced people dangerous enough to need specialists.

He wiped more blood from his cheek and stared at the dark smear on his glove.

The silver-haired one with the cat ears, tail and the big blue shield seemed earnest, almost straightforward to a fault. Strong, fast, but the easiest of the four to read.

He shifted his weight, testing the ribs again, and exhaled carefully.

The green-pigtail girl was the one that stayed with him. No heartbeat. Only the quiet whir of servos and the sharp scent of ozone and machine oil. She looked and sounded like a teenage girl.

She had even sipped from that thermos like any normal person taking a break.

'An android that looks completely human... That's not just advanced tech-that's something else entirely. Back home we had robots, but nothing that could pass for human this well. And she was drinking. Why does an android need to drink?'

Though it made sense why her strength was completely out of proportion to her size. He had blocked one swing and still been thrown across the alley.

His fingers flexed once, remembering the numbness.

And that rat-eared woman. She managed to get past his senses and cut his Blackwhip and cheek fast.

'Where did she get those blades of hers? And why is her tail spiked like that?' She used the bladed tip of her tail like it was just another limb.

She had read him while they fought and treated the whole thing like a game she was already winning. Clearly the most dangerous of the four in a way that had nothing to do with raw power.

'She wasn't even trying to hurt me. She was testing me. Reading me. That's worse than the others...'

Izuku let his head tip back against the wall.

Law enforcement here was not like back home. Those four had all operated at a level most pro heroes would respect.

People in this world clearly trained their bodies to superhuman levels the same way heroes without physical enhancing quirks did, and they relied on highly specialized personal weapons-just like the ones he had seen Howard and Ivanov use.

This world was truly becoming a bigger mystery to him. The list of things he did not understand kept growing.

'And now I'm on the radar of the worst possible team to run into....' He was already flagged for illegal Hollow entries. And he had just obstructed an official investigation. They would not forget him.

A faint tug at his wrist pulled him out of the thoughts.

One of the residual Blackwhip tendrils still clung loosely around his forearm.

Something small was caught in the last loop-a strip of heavy cloth wrapped around a sealed vial or ampoule, the fabric dark with residue. He pulled it free and brought it closer.

The scent hit him immediately. Sharp, chemical, layered with something almost metallic and a deeper industrial undertone. Not blood. Not ordinary fuel. Whatever the gang had been moving, this was saturated with it.

Izuku turned the object once in his fingers, then closed his eyes and drew a slow breath through his nose.

One For All sharpened his sense further. He filtered the rain, the alley rot, the distant traffic, the leftover ozone from the fight, until only that single strong signature remained.

Then he reached farther, searching for the largest concentration of the same scent in the surrounding districts.

His eyes opened.

He pushed himself upright, ribs protesting, and climbed the nearest fire escape.

Rooftops stretched ahead under the rain. He moved in short leaps, Blackwhip catching ledges when the gaps were too wide.

Once he used a brief pulse of Float to stay high for a few seconds, turning slowly until the scent locked in a clear direction-private enough to stay hidden, not so isolated that it would draw attention.

He followed it.

The building sat at the edge of a quieter commercial block, low and reinforced, loading doors closed, windows dark but not abandoned.

The scent was strongest here. Multiple overlapping traces moved inside. And his gaze spotted the sedan that got away parked below.

Izuku crouched on the opposite rooftop and watched for a long moment.

He could go in alone. Part of him wanted to finish what he had started and hand the whole group over clean.

'But that's what got me into this mess. I saw a problem and I acted without thinking. I didn't consider the bigger picture. I just... moved.'

He turned away from the hideout.

This had been those Pubsec officers' operations. He had already cost them the clean trail.

The least he could do was put them back on it.

Their scents were still faint on the wind-the particular mix of the captain's uniform and the cat-eared officer's gear, the machine-oil undercurrent of the android.

He locked onto the strongest remaining trail and started moving again, leaping from roof to roof through the rain, searching for the Public Security team.

-

The rain had thinned to a steady drizzle by the time Zhu Yuan's team swept the quieter commercial blocks east of the chase.

Streetlights reflected in long, broken streaks across the wet asphalt. Their vehicle sat idling at the curb while the four of them worked the grid on foot.

Jane walked with her arms raised up and hands dropped down. Her tail swayed lazily behind her. "Three grown men and not a single useful word between them. One of them actually asked if I was going to waterboard him with my thermos."

Seth glanced over, ears angled slightly back. "You didn't... actually threaten them, right?"

"Only a little." Jane's smile was mild. "Professionally."

Qingyi took a slow sip from her thermos, green eyes half-lidded as she scanned the side streets. "Cornered men rarely sing on the first verse. Patience is a virtue, or so the old texts claim. Though I notice the texts never had to fill out the after-action reports."

Zhu Yuan walked a half-step ahead, posture still perfect despite the hour. "Focus. The second sedan did not simply vanish. Someone moved it, or they already reached a secondary location. We expand the search radius by two blocks and re-check every abandoned loading bay with a reinforced door."

Seth nodded, adjusting the strap of his shield. "Yes, Captain."

They turned the next corner.

A figure dropped from the rooftop across the street and landed in the middle of the empty lane, boots splashing lightly in a shallow puddle.

Green lightning flickered once around his arms and faded. The frayed cape hung heavy with rain. The cut on his cheek had stopped bleeding but still stood out dark against the mask.

Zhu Yuan's hand was already on her weapon.

Seth brought the shield up.

Qingyi's staff unfolded with a soft metallic click.

Jane simply tilted her head, interested.

Izuku raised both hands, palms open, and stayed where he was.

"I'm not here to fight," he said through the respirator. The distortion made the words rougher than he intended. "I found what you're looking for."

Zhu Yuan did not lower the gun. "You fled lawful detention less than an hour ago. Now you reappear and claim you have something we want. Give me one reason not to finish the arrest."

Izuku held her gaze. "Because the second car is parked outside a low reinforced building six blocks from here. Multiple armed people inside. The same scent that was all over the men I stopped is strongest there. You can verify it yourselves."

A short silence stretched.

Qingyi's eyes narrowed slightly. "He is not running."

Jane's smile widened a fraction. "No. He came back. That's new."

Zhu Yuan's jaw tightened. She studied him for another three seconds, then gave a sharp nod. "Show us. Stay in front where we can see you. One wrong move and we drop you."

Izuku turned and started moving without another word. He stayed on the street level this time, pace steady but not slow. The team followed at a measured distance, weapons ready.

Seth muttered under his breath, "Why would he come back after getting away clean?"

"That," Jane answered quietly, "is the interesting part."

They reached the commercial block. Izuku stopped on the opposite sidewalk and simply pointed.

The building sat dark and low, loading doors closed, windows blacked out. The escaped sedan was parked in the narrow side alley, nose pointed toward a quick exit.

Zhu Yuan signaled. Qingyi stepped forward, eyes unfocused for a moment as she ran the sweep.

"Multiple heat signatures," she reported. "Armed. At least a dozen. Layout matches a short-term stash site. Reinforced rear exit."

Zhu Yuan exhaled once through her nose. "We move in. Standard entry. Seth on point with me. Qingyi left flank. Jane, watch the rear and the alley."

Izuku took a step back. "It's your operation. I'll stay out of it."

He dropped into the deeper shadow of a neighboring doorway and vanished from their immediate line of sight.

Zhu Yuan did not waste time looking for him. "Move."

They hit the building hard and clean.

The first wave of grunts went down fast-shield bashes, precise shots, staff strikes that left men twitching on the floor, Jane's blades flashing only long enough to disarm. The interior smelled of oil, metal, and the same chemical residue Izuku had tracked. Crates lined the walls. A few were already open.

The boss appeared from the back office as the last of the grunts fell-a heavy-set man with a scarred face and a modified rifle that hummed with unstable energy. He laid down covering fire, forced the team to scatter, and sprinted for the side exit where the sedan waited.

Zhu Yuan's next shot clipped his shoulder. He staggered but kept going, slamming a hand against a control panel on the wall. Warning lights flickered. Something in the nearest crate began to hiss.

Seth lunged to cut him off. The boss swung the rifle like a club, caught the edge of the shield, and nearly broke free.

A green streak dropped from the mezzanine.

Izuku's boot connected solidly with the side of the man's head. The impact dropped the boss cold before he reached the door. The rifle clattered away. The hissing from the crate stuttered and died.

Izuku landed in a low crouch, one hand braced against the floor, ribs protesting the landing.

He stayed there a moment, breathing carefully, then pushed himself upright.

The team closed in, weapons still raised but no longer pointed directly at his center mass.

Izuku looked at each of them in turn.

"Captain Zhu Yuan, Officer Qingyi, Officer Seth and Jane." His voice was quieter now, the respirator still distorting it but the sincerity clear. "I'm...sorry for the trouble I caused earlier. I genuinely thought someone was in danger and I acted without seeing the larger picture. I hope this makes up for it, at least a little."

A short silence followed.

Seth lowered his baton first, ears angling forward. "He... remembered our names."

Qingyi studied him over the rim of her thermos, expression unreadable. "And he came back to correct the mistake."

Jane's smile was slower this time, more assessing than teasing. "Selfless, apologetic, and still refusing to take the easy exit. You're making it very hard to put you in a simple category, mister vigilante."

Zhu Yuan holstered her weapon with deliberate care. Her face remained controlled, but something in her eyes had shifted-less pure hostility, more conflicted calculation.

"You obstructed an official investigation. You are still an unregistered, masked individual with multiple illegal Hollow entries on record. That does not disappear because you helped finish the job." She paused. "But you are not a common criminal. And you clearly do not intend harm to civilians."

Izuku gave a small nod. "I prefer to work alone. I won't get in your way again if I can help it."

He glanced past them. The boss on the floor groaned and started to stir.

"You should probably cuff him before he wakes up fully."

Zhu Yuan's head turned for half a second.

When she looked back, the space where the vigilante had stood was empty. Only the soft creak of a side window and the fading sound of rain marked his exit.

Seth stared at the open window. "He ran away again."

Jane laughed under her breath. "Of course he did."

Zhu Yuan exhaled slowly. She looked once toward the dark street beyond the window, expression unreadable.

'He may be a person taking justice into his own hands...but he is a good person.'

Her eyes softened. 'Why is he doing this in such a state? He helped us despite the fact we attacked him and even injured him.'

Wind blew into the room, making her hair flow. 'Who is that man? And why is he doing this alone?'

She shut the thought down and turned back to the room.

"Secure the site. Call in the transport units. I want every crate logged and every man in cuffs before the hour is out. We are not finished tonight."

They moved to obey. Outside, the rain kept falling, and the rooftops stayed empty.

-

Izuku swung the long way back, sticking to the higher rooftops and darker alleys until the familiar neon of Sixth Street finally came into view.

The rain had slowed to a fine mist. Every landing sent a dull spike through his ribs. The cut on his cheek had crusted over, but the skin pulled tight whenever he moved his jaw.

He dropped onto the narrow service ledge behind Random Play and crouched there for a long moment, listening.

Enhanced hearing stretched through the walls. Two steady, slow breathing patterns upstairs. Belle and Wise were both asleep. No light under the doors. No quiet conversation. Safe.

He slipped in through the window of his spare room and landed on the floor gently.

Only then did he let the respirator come off fully. The mask followed. He set both on the low table, then peeled the rest of the costume away piece by piece-gauntlets, scorched gloves, the frayed cape, the iron soles warped into something almost claw-like. Each layer hit the floor with a muted sound.

The futon looked better than it had any right to. He dropped onto it without ceremony, one arm folded under his head, the other resting carefully across his sore ribs. The ceiling was a blank, dark rectangle. Rain whispered against the window.

'Looks like I had a crazy day and night.'

Howard's machine. The car chase. The officers who hit harder and moved faster than most of the heroes he had trained with.

An android who drank hot water and fought like a veteran. A rat-eared woman who cut him and read him at the same time. And somewhere in the middle of it he had still managed to put the special response team back on their own trail.

But he was on their radar now. He needed to be more careful if he wanted to continue this.

Izuku closed his eyes. The residual burn in his shoulders, the deep ache in his ribs, the sting on his cheek-all of it settled into one heavy, exhausted weight. Sleep pulled at him hard.

'I'll survive...and I'll make sure I don't disappoint anyone back home....'

His consciousness drifted off to sleep completely. Low sounds of breathing filled the silence in the room.

---

In the quiet dark of the video store's main terminal, Fairy's interface glowed a soft, steady blue.

Street-camera feeds scrolled in neat windows-grainy, rain-streaked, timestamped. She had stitched most of the night together with only a few gaps where the vigilante had moved too high or too fast for the public network.

Green lightning. Black constructs that formed and dissolved without emitters. A concussive red smoke that registered as nothing she could classify. Multiple illegal Hollow entries already on record. And yet the same individual had stopped a civilian from being hit by a car, restrained three armed men without serious injury, and then returned to correct the operational damage he had caused.

Fairy's tone, when she finally spoke to the empty room, was dry and faintly superior.

"Master's new acquaintance is inefficient, unregistered, and entirely too willing to bleed for strangers. He also appears to be collecting high-level Public Security attention at an accelerated rate."

A short pause. Another camera still: the masked figure crouched on a rooftop opposite the stash house, rain running off the damaged cape.

"Conclusion: high-risk variable. Potentially useful. Definitely exhausting to monitor."

The feeds continued to scroll. Fairy logged the last of the night's data, marked the file for later review, and dimmed her interface back to standby.

Outside, the rain finally stopped.

 

[GhostJade45]

Morning light filtered through the front windows of Random Play in uneven stripes, catching dust motes that drifted lazily above the aisles.

Belle was behind the counter, one elbow propped on the register, chin resting in her palm, watching a customer browse the action section with the kind of slow deliberation that suggested they'd be there for another twenty minutes at least.

She tapped her fingers against the counter repeatedly.

"You're going to wear a hole in that surface," Wise said without looking up from the stack of tapes he was organizing on the shelf nearest the door.

"I'm not tapping that hard." Belle replied, leaning over.

"You're tapping exactly that hard." He slid a tape into its slot, checked the alignment, then reached for the next one. "And you're sighing every forty-seven seconds."

Belle opened her mouth to argue, then paused. "You counted?"

"I didn't need to count. It's that consistent."

She made a face at the back of his head. "Maybe I'm just bored. We haven't had a good, weird customer in days."

"Well that's probably good, since last week you called a customer a 'walking disaster' to his face." Wise said.

"He was a walking disaster. He tried to return a tape that had been through a flood, a fire, and what looked like a very personal disagreement with a blender."

Wise glanced over his shoulder. "You gave him store credit."

She rested her head on her hands. "Because I'm generous."

Wise raised an eyebrow. "You're a pushover."

"Nope, generous," she repeated, pointing a finger at him. "There's a difference."

The customer at the action section finally made a decision, pulling a tape from the shelf and walking toward the counter. Belle straightened, her demeanor shifting from bored to professionally bright in the space of a breath. "Find everything okay?"

"Yeah," the man said, sliding the tape across the counter. "Just looking for something mindless."

"Then you've come to the right place. Mindless is our specialty." She scanned the tape, processed the rental, and handed it back with a smile. "Enjoy. Try not to think too hard about the plot—it falls apart in the third act."

The man chuckled and headed for the door. The bell above it chimed as he left.

Belle leaned her elbows on the counter again. "See? I'm a delight."

"You're a menace," Wise said, but there was no heat in it. He finished with the shelf and walked toward the counter, wiping his hands on his pants. "Inventory's done. The new shipment is sorted. We're actually ahead of schedule for once."

"Hopefully we can sell all those extra tapes." Belle straightened as a notification chime sounded from her phone.

She pulled it from her pocket, glanced at the screen, and her eyebrows lifted. "Oh, looks like we got a commission request."

Wise moved around the counter to stand beside her as she unlocked the screen and opened the message. "From who?"

"Anonymous. Well, not anonymous—the client's using a registered proxy request channel. But the sender info is stripped. It's the standard format for people who don't want to broadcast what they're doing."

Wise frowned. "That's not unusual. But it's also not nothing."

Belle scrolled through the details. "Seems like it's a data retrieval. They want us to recover encrypted data from a crashed vehicle inside a Companion Hollow."

She paused to read more properly. "Apparently the vehicle belongs to them—a researcher. They were transporting something, got caught in the Hollow's expansion, and had to bail. They want the data chip before the Hollow shifts again and the vehicle gets swallowed."

"A companion Hollow huh..," Wise repeated, something in his tone shifting. "Which one?"

Belle checked the coordinates, then the Hollow's designation. "Looks like the one on the eastern edge of Janus Quarter. Smaller than most. Relatively low Ether density. The client says they have low aptitude themselves, otherwise they'd go retrieve it."

Wise was quiet for a moment. Then he moved toward the workspace room, gesturing for her to follow. "Let's check the data before we commit."

Belle pocketed her phone and followed. They passed through the beaded curtain that separated the store from their private space, past the cluttered shelves of spare parts and old monitors, until Wise punched in the code behind the movie poster on the far wall. The door to the Phaethon room clicked open.

—--

The workspace was dark save for the glow of multiple monitors. The H.D.D. system hummed in the corner, its lights pulsing in a slow, rhythmic pattern. Wise settled into the main chair, fingers already moving across the keyboard as he pulled up the commission details on the central screen.

Belle leaned over his shoulder, watching the data populate. "Ether activity in that Hollow has been stable for about a week. The client's story checks out—there's a record of a vehicle entering the area and not exiting."

"Seems like there is low Ether density," Wise murmured, scrolling through the readings. "But there's a spike near the northern quadrant where the vehicle is located. Could be the crash damaged something, causing a localized disturbance. Or it could be something else."

"Like what?" Belle questioned crossing her arms.

"Something like the client not being entirely honest." He turned to her. "We've had clients who 'forgot' to mention complications before."

Belle shrugged. "Then we plan for complications."

The interface on the side monitor flickered, and a familiar blue eye materialized on the screen—stylized, elegant, and unmistakably Fairy.

"Master Wise," Fairy said, her voice smooth and precisely modulated. "I have completed my independent analysis of the commission data. The Hollow's layout suggests that Eous alone would require approximately forty-three minutes to cover the search area efficiently."

She paused for a moment. "However, there is a 67% probability that the Ether fluctuation near the crash site will increase within that timeframe, potentially creating a density spike that would exceed Eous's operational tolerance."

Wise's fingers paused on the keyboard. "You're saying Eous can't do this alone."

"I am saying that a single unit covering the required distance would be suboptimal. The presence of a second synchronized agent would increase retrieval efficiency by approximately 34%. However, I note that both you and Master Belle are physically capable of entering the Hollow. I am simply presenting the most effective option."

Belle snorted. "That's not 'simply presenting.' That's you telling us to go ourselves."

"I am providing data. How you choose to interpret it is your prerogative." Fairy paused. "Though I would suggest that the path of least resistance is not always the path of least risk."

Wise sat back, one hand on his chin. He looked at the data again, at the projected search area, at the Ether readings. Then he looked at Belle.

"Fairy's right," he said. "If the Ether spikes while Eous is in there, we lose the window. If one of us is physically present with Eous, we can adapt faster. And the other can guide from here."

Belle crossed her arms. "You're volunteering to go in."

"I'm suggesting it's the better option. You're better at the H.D.D. interface than I am. I'm better at navigating on the ground." He paused. "Plus you already used your eyes three times this week. I can afford the strain more."

Belle frowned, but she didn't argue. She knew he wasn't wrong.

"Fine," she said. "But if you get stuck in there, I'm going to make you listen to me say 'I told you so' for an hour."

"I would expect nothing less."

He turned back to the screens, beginning the sync process with Eous. The Bangboo was docked in its charging station nearby, its screen dark.

Wise reached over and tapped its head. "Alright pal, it's time to get to work."

Eous's screen flickered to life, displaying a sleepy expression before shifting to alert interest. "Ehn-na!"

"Good morning." Wise pulled up the Hollow navigation data and began the sync. "We're going in together. You and me. Belle's going to guide from here."

"Ehn-ah-na!" Eous bounced on its dock, clearly enthusiastic.

Belle smiled despite herself. "At least someone's excited about this."

"Phaethon's professional reputation is built on adaptability," Fairy said, her tone dry. "Though I note that this particular commission involves retrieval of a single data chip. The margin of error is narrow. The client's story, while not entirely implausible, contains several logical gaps that I have flagged for your review."

Belle looked at the screen where Fairy had highlighted the inconsistencies. "The client claims the data is personal research, but they won't specify what field. They say they were transporting it for analysis, but there's no registered third-party lab in the area. And they're very specific about wanting the data chip recovered, not the vehicle itself, not any other equipment."

Wise studied the flagged points. "That's suspicious for sure."

"It is statistically significant." Fairy's voice remained neutral. "I would recommend proceeding with caution. The client may have omitted certain details regarding the nature of the data."

"Or they just don't want to share proprietary information," Belle countered.

"Possibly. I am merely noting the incongruities." Fairy paused. "Speaking of incongruous elements, I have been cataloguing a significant amount of data regarding the individual currently residing in the upstairs spare room."

Belle's expression shifted. "Not this again."

"I am simply reporting. Since his arrival, he has been tracked leaving the premises on multiple occasions during late-night hours. His movements correlate with several reported incidents involving an unidentified vigilante.

Fairy paused before adding. "Additionally, he has demonstrated the ability to perceive my optical sensors through a soundproofed, lead-lined vault door—a feat that should be physiologically impossible for any baseline human. This, combined with his complete absence from any public registry, creates a profile that is statistically anomalous."

Wise's hands had stilled on the keyboard. "Fairy, we've discussed this."

"I am not suggesting immediate action. I am simply noting that the probability of this individual posing a long-term risk to the premises and its occupants has increased from 14% to approximately 62% over the course of his stay. His intentions remain unverifiable. His capabilities are unquantified. And his presence continues to attract attention from Public Security, which—"

"Fairy." Belle's voice was firm. "He saved my life, saved people at a construction site and has been helping other people across the city. He's not here to hurt us."

"Intent and outcome are not always aligned." Fairy responded.

"He's lost," Belle said, her tone softening but not losing its edge. "He's got nowhere else to go. And he's trying to help people from what we can tell. I don't care what the statistics say. He's not a threat. We're fine."

Fairy was silent for a long moment. Then spoke. "Noted. I will log your assessment. I will also note that should the probability of danger increase beyond my operational thresholds, I may find it necessary to—"

"Fairy," Belle cut in. "He's staying. Period. You can keep watching if it makes you feel better, but you're not reporting him. And you're not doing anything that would make him run."

"I am a logical system. I am aware of the possible consequences of my actions." Another pause. "I will...monitor the situation. For now."

"That's all I'm asking."

Wise had been watching the exchange in silence. Now he leaned back in his chair, looking at his sister. "You're sure about this?"

Belle met his eyes. "I'm sure."

He held her gaze for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Then we move forward."

He turned back to the screens and began the final sync with Eous. Belle settled into the second chair, pulling up the H.D.D. interface. Fairy's eye remained on the side monitor, but she said nothing more.

"Alright," Wise said, standing and rolling his shoulders. "I'm heading out. Belle, you have the link?"

"Locked and loaded." She tapped the interface. "I'll have visual and audio through Eous the moment you're inside."

"Ehn-na!" Eous agreed, bouncing in place.

Wise grabbed his jacket from the hook by the door. "Keep the line open. If anything changes with the Ether readings, tell me immediately."

"I know how this works, Wise."

"I know you know. I'm saying it anyway."

She stuck her tongue out at him. He ignored it.

The door closed behind him, and Belle heard his footsteps moving through the back room, then the click of the door to the parking lot. She focused on the screens, pulling up the H.D.D. interface, waiting for the signal.

---

The Hollow's entrance was a shimmering barrier of distorted purple light, compressed between two buildings and sealed behind a faded chain-link fence.

Wise approached it with Eous at his side, the Bangboo's screen displaying a focused expression.

He met the client at the perimeter—a nervous-looking man with thinning hair and a briefcase clutched to his chest. He didn't offer a handshake.

"You're the Proxy?" the man asked, his voice slightly too high.

"I'm here to retrieve your data," Wise said. "The vehicle's last known coordinates are at the eastern edge of the Hollow. You'll receive confirmation when I have the chip."

"Good, good... That's—that's fine." The man was already backing away. "I'll be in contact when you're done."

Wise watched him go, something uncomfortable settling in his chest. The client hadn't asked about the Ether readings. Hadn't asked about the process. Hadn't asked about the risk. Just wanted the chip.

Wise's eyes narrowed.

"Ehn-nah?" Eous looked up at him.

"Probably nothing." But he made a mental note to be careful.

He stepped through the barrier.

A cold feeling passed through him as he passed through and stepped out onto the area inside.

His gaze wandered around.

He tapped his earpiece. "Belle. I'm in."

Her voice came through clear. "Reading you. Eous's signal is strong. I'm pulling up the Carrot now."

A moment later, the route data populated in his vision—golden trails overlaying the distorted landscape, marking the safest path through the Hollow. He followed them, Eous trotting beside him.

"The northern quadrant looks stable," Belle said. "But I'm getting a fluctuation near the vehicle's location. Could be nothing, but keep your eyes open."

"I'm always keeping my eyes open." Wise said, glancing around.

"You really want that to be your famous last words?" Belle replied.

He moved through the Hollow at a steady pace, using the Carrot to navigate the shifting terrain. The buildings around him seemed to be already starting to grow Ether minerals and crystals.

Eous beeped softly and pointed with one stubby arm. "Ehn-na!"

Wise followed the gesture. A vehicle was wedged between two collapsed structures, its front end crumpled, windows shattered, one door hanging open. Even from a distance, he could smell something chemical leaking from the engine.

"That should be the vehicle," he said into the earpiece.

"Copy that. I'm getting a reading from inside. The data chip should be in the console. The client said it's in a reinforced casing."

Wise approached carefully, his eyes scanning for movement. The Hollow was quiet. "Eous, stay close."

"Ehn!"

He reached the vehicle and peered inside. The interior was a mess—seat torn, dashboard cracked, wires hanging loose. But the central console was intact, and there, nestled in a specially fitted compartment, was a small black casing.

He reached for it—

The ground beneath him shifted.

Wise stumbled, catching himself on the vehicle's frame. The Hollow was moving, the walls rippling like water, the air pressure changing in a way that made his ears pop.

"Belle, I'm getting instability."

"Reading it. The Ether density just spiked—you need to move now."

He grabbed the casing and turned, already moving back toward the path he'd come from. But the route was changing, the golden trails flickering as the Hollow reconfigured itself.

"Belle, I need a new route."

"Working on it. There's a rift about forty meters east of your position—if you can reach it, you can skip past the worst of the fluctuation."

Wise ran, Eous bouncing beside him. The ground heaved again, and behind him, the vehicle was swallowed by a sudden collapse, the twisted metal disappearing into a void that hadn't been there a second ago.

"Ehn-na-na!" Eous chirped, urgent.

"Keep moving—"

A shape emerged from the shifting walls.

It was tall, its body a mass of jagged crystals and black matter, its core pulsing with that familiar sickly light. It didn't roar. It simply turned toward him, and it moved.

"Belle, I've got company." Wise said, stepping back.

"I see it. Can you avoid it?"

"Working on it."

He changed direction, the Carrot's new route flickering in his vision. The rift was still ahead—he could see its shimmering outline. But the Ethereal was faster than it looked, its limbs scraping against the ground as it closed the distance.

Wise grabbed Eous and vaulted over a collapsed wall, landing hard on the other side. The Ethereal's momentum carried it past him, and he used the opening to sprint toward the rift.

"Eous, now!"

The Bangboo didn't hesitate. Together, they dove through the rift's shimmering surface and emerged forty meters east, the landscape stabilizing around them.

Wise stopped, catching his breath. His eyes ached. He blinked, and the golden trails returned.

"Belle. I'm clear."

"Reading you. That was too close."

"Ehn-na-nah!" Eous agreed, bouncing with what might have been frustration.

Wise took a moment to steady himself, then started moving again. The path to the exit was shorter now, and the Hollow seemed to have settled. He made his way out without further incident, the exit barrier shimmering as he stepped through.

Outside, the air tasted clean. The client was nowhere to be seen.

"Of course," Wise muttered.

He made his way back to the van, Eous trailing behind him. The data chip was still in his hand.

---

Once arriving back at Random Play, Wise parked the van, pocketed the chip, and made his way inside.

The store was quiet, Bangboo 18 managing the counter with its usual efficiency.

18's screen displayed a cheerful expression. "Ehn-na!"

"Thanks, 18. Is Belle upstairs?"

"Ehn-ah! Ehn-ne-ah!"

Wise nodded and made his way up the stairs.

Belle was waiting in the living room, a cup of tea in her hands. She looked up as he entered. "You're okay?"

"I'm alright. And I got the chip." He took it out of his pocket and raised it up for her to see.

She put her cup of tea down on the low table. "Did you see the client?"

"No. He was gone by the time I got out."

She frowned. "That's..."

"Not surprising at this point." He sat down across from her, rubbing his temples. The headache was starting, a dull ache behind his eyes that he recognized all too well. "The job's done. We'll process the payment, hopefully send the chip to them and move on."

Belle put a hand gently on his shoulder. "You should rest."

"Don't worry, it's okay." He waved at her.

"Wise..." She leaned forward. "You're rubbing your eyes. You always do that when they're bothering you."

He stopped, letting his hands drop. "It's nothing. Just a headache."

"It's not nothing. You've been pushing them too hard."

"I've been doing the job. That's different."

Belle didn't look convinced. "The implants are—"

"I know what the implants are doing." His voice was sharper than he'd intended. He took a breath. "I know. But I can't just stop using them. There's too much that needs to be done."

Belle was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "We still can't go to Roscaelifer for more porcelloy. Velina and Norma said they're working on it, but it's going to take a while."

Wise leaned back, closing his eyes. "Yeah, I know."

Belle's eyes squinted as she leaned her head down. "If Remielle was right..."

"Then it's going to get worse." He opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. "The Porcelloy W-Engine helps. But it's not a permanent solution. If either of us keep using the implants at this rate, the fluctuations are going to get worse. And eventually, there won't be enough Porcelloy to stabilize them."

His head turned back towards her. "So we need more."

Belle was quiet again.

She rested her hand on her chin, tapping it with a finger.

"Hmmm… if we can't get it from Roscaelifer yet…" She leaned back onto the couch. "Then we could try finding some here for the time being."

Wise pondered for a moment. "It's not impossible but where do we get it? And who do we ask for help with getting it?"

"Let's see… if we want quick help and info not easily found."

She snapped her fingers and smiled. "We should reach out to Vivian. She's got connections and might know if there's any Porcelloy in the city we can get our hands on."

Wise considered it. Vivian was a known factor—a member of Mockingbird, skilled at information gathering, and motivated by her... unique affection for Phaethon. She'd help. But she'd also expect something in return.

"Or Lycaon," he said. "He's got more direct connections to the upper circles. If anyone knows about Porcelloy shipments, it would be him."

"Lycaon is reliable, but he's also expensive," Belle countered. "Vivian might do it for free."

"Vivian doesn't do anything for free."

"She'd do it for us."

Wise gave her a look.

"We're her favorites," Belle said, a hint of a smile on her face. "She's always saying so."

Wise shook his head, but he was already considering it. Vivian was the more practical option. Her connections were less formal, more flexible. Lycaon was reliable, but his services came with a certain... formality.

"Fine," he said. "We'll contact Vivian. But I'm doing the talking."

"Of course you are."

"I mean it."

"I know." Belle stood, stretching. "I'll message her through the Inter-Knot. She usually responds within a few hours."

She moved toward the stairs, then paused, looking back at him.

"Get some rest," she said. "You'll probably need it."

Wise didn't argue. He got up and went to his room.

—

Belle pulled out her phone as she climbed down the stairs.

She carefully typed out the message. Mentioning their need for help finding some porcelloy and if Mockingbird had any Intel on where to find some in New Eridu.

'This should be good. Now send.' Belle sent the message and walked to the workspace room.

Her phone buzzed on her hand. 'Huh? That was fast.'

Lifting it up to her, she saw Vivian almost immediately replied to their message and she read what was sent.

Vivian: MY LORD PHAETHONS HAS SUMMONED ME???
Vivian: say no more, i am ALREADY looking into this
Vivian: give me til tomorrow morning, i'll have something concrete
Vivian: meet me at the usual spot? 10am? i'll bring donuts

Belle huffed. She typed back a quick confirmation and pocketed the phone.

 

[GhostJade45]

Golden streaks of light spilled across Sixth Street, catching the edges of cafe awnings and the polished windows of storefronts.

The street was already coming alive-shopkeepers opening their doors, and the distant hum of traffic filtering through the morning air.

The cafe on the corner of Sixth and Lotus was a modest place, with wrought-iron tables and chairs arranged neatly on the sidewalk, shielded from the sun by a faded green awning.

A few early customers sat scattered about, nursing cups of coffee and scrolling through their phones.

At a table near the window, a woman with light purple wavy curly hair and pointed ears sat with her back to the glass, one leg crossed over the other.

Her dress was dark, white and elegant, the fabric rich with subtle embroidery, and her parasol-an ornate thing of dark purple silk and black leather-rested against the chair beside her.

She'd been there for seventeen minutes already, long enough to order, long enough to arrange the box of donuts on the table in a precise, almost ceremonial pattern.

She glanced at the door every few seconds.

When the bell above it chimed, her posture straightened. Her red eyes, with their distinctive slit pupils, fixed on the entrance.

Belle walked in first, already grinning. Wise followed a step behind, his expression more measured but not unwelcoming.

"Lord Phaethons!" Vivian's voice carried across the small café, bright and utterly unguarded. She was on her feet before either of them had fully cleared the doorway. "You came! I was so worried you might have gotten delayed-"

"Vivian." Belle held up a hand, still grinning. "We said ten. It's ten."

"Yes, but time is so terribly unreliable, isn't it? One moment it's there, the next it's slipped away, and then you're left wondering where it all went, and-" She stopped herself, took a breath, and gestured to the table. "Please. Sit. I ordered your usual coffee, Wise. And Belle, I got you that pastry you mentioned last time-the one with the cream filling?"

Belle's eyes lit up. "You remembered?"

"I remember everything Lord Phaethon tells me."

They settled into their seats. Vivian pushed the box of donuts toward them, watching with barely concealed anticipation as Belle reached for one.

"You're spoiling us," Wise said, picking up his coffee. He took a sip, and something in his shoulders relaxed. "This is... exactly right."

Vivian's expression softened, the sharp edges of her usual composure melting into something warmer. "Anything for my darling Lord Phaethons."

Belle bit into her pastry and made a small sound of approval. "Okay, this is amazing. Vivian, you're a lifesaver."

Wise raised an eyebrow. "You had breakfast two hours ago."

"Breakfast and donuts are different food groups." Belle grabbed another donut from the box Vivian had set on the table. "Don't question the system."

Vivian's red eyes softened as she watched Belle's enthusiasm. "I'm glad you like them, my lord. I'll bring more next time as well."

"Make sure they're different flavours!" Belle said through a mouthful of pastry.

"Belle," Wise said flatly.

"What? I'm expressing gratitude." Belle replied.

Vivian's pale cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked away, her fingers tightening around the handle of her parasol. 'Lord Belle's enthusiasm is... overwhelming,' she thought, a small smile tugging at her lips. 'I must remember to bring donuts more often.'

Wise set down his coffee cup, his expression shifting to something more serious. "So Vivian, about why we're here...did you manage to find something?"

Vivian's demeanor shifted instantly. The dreamy look in her eyes sharpened, her posture straightening as she reached into her bag, pulling out a small tablet. "Yes. I've been digging through Mockingbird's networks and other sources all night. It took some effort, but I found a lead."

She tapped the screen, then slid it across the table toward them. The display showed a grainy image of a truck-a transport vehicle bearing the insignia of Flint Workshop, its back doors torn open, its contents clearly looted.

"This truck from Flint Workshop was carrying a shipment of Porcelloy from Roscaelifer to New Eridu," Vivian explained, her voice low and even. "The gangs that took it didn't work together. They fought over the haul, split it up, sold pieces off, and used others for their own purposes. Tracking it all down would be impossible-PubSec tried and barely found anything."

Belle's smile faded. "So we're out of luck?"

"Not quite." Vivian swiped the screen, pulling up another image-this one showing a schematic of a small, egg-shaped device. "Recently, I caught wind of a gang operating in the western district. They've been using a Porcelloy object to regulate Ether flow in their hideout. A Core Stabilizer, specifically designed for industrial use. It's small, but it's packed with enough Porcelloy to make a difference."

Wise leaned forward, studying the schematic. "A Core Stabilizer. That's... not something you'd find in a typical gang hideout."

"The gang in question isn't typical." Vivian's eyes narrowed. "They're a splinter group-former raiders who decided to go independent. They've been running operations out of a Hollow on the western edge of the city. The Stabilizer is their most valuable asset."

Belle set down her donut, her expression turning serious. "You're saying this gang is using a Porcelloy device just to run their hideout? That's like using a diamond to hold down a tent flap."

"Indeed," Vivian agreed. "They likely don't fully understand what they have. To them, it's just a useful piece of tech. But to us..." She looked at Wise, her red eyes softening with genuine concern. "It could help stabilize the Ether fluctuations in your implants. At least temporarily."

Wise was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. "That's the best lead we've had in weeks."

Vivian's composure cracked, a flicker of pain crossing her face. "I hate that you're suffering, my lords. If I could take the pain myself, I would."

She looked down, her fingers tightening around her parasol. "That's why I wanted to find something concrete. I couldn't bear the thought of you hurting while I did nothing."

"Vivian..." Belle reached across the table, her hand brushing Vivian's. "We're okay. And you found a lead. That's more than we had before."

Vivian looked up, her eyes glistening. "I will always find a way to help you, my lord. Always."

Wise cleared his throat, redirecting the conversation. "What's the plan? Do we know where the hideout is exactly?"

Vivian straightened, her composure returning. "I have the coordinates. The hideout is inside a Hollow-small, relatively stable, but with tight security. The gang has the place locked down. Cameras, patrols, the works."

"Can you get in?" Belle asked.

Vivian's lips curved into a small, confident smile. "I am Mockingbird's finest, my lord. Getting in is the easy part. The challenge is getting out with the Stabilizer before they know it's gone."

Wise studied the schematic again. "We'll be in the van outside the Hollow. Belle and I will guide you through, using the H.D.D. system."

Vivian bowed her head. "I won't let you down, my lords. I swear it on my parasol."

Belle grinned. "That's a very specific oath."

"My parasol has witnessed my greatest victories and my deepest failures," Vivian said, her voice soft but serious. "It is the only thing I trust as much as I trust Phaethon."

Wise glanced at Belle, then back at Vivian. "Alright let's go, we have our gear ready and we don't want to wait. We can discuss more on the way."

Vivian and Belle nodded. They all got up and headed out of the café.

-

The Hollow's entrance was tucked between two buildings, hidden behind a chain-link fence that had been cut and re-wired at least a dozen times. The purple shimmer of the barrier pulsed faintly, casting distorted reflections across the cracked pavement.

The Random Play van was parked a few blocks from the Hollow's entrance, tucked into a narrow alley that offered good cover and a clear view of the shimmering purple barrier.

Belle was in the back, on her lap was her laptop with the H.D.D. system's already up. The screens glowed with data-Ether readings, Hollow maps, real-time feeds from Eous's optics.

She was already connected to Eous, her fingers dancing across the keyboard as she ran diagnostics.

Wise was in the driver's seat, one hand on the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the Hollow's entrance through the windshield.

Vivian stood by the van's open side door, parasol resting against her shoulder.

Belle climbed out of the back with Eous tucked under one arm. The Bangboo's screen was still dark.

"Alright," Belle said, holding him out. "You're carrying him. I'll stay linked the whole time."

Vivian accepted Eous carefully, settling the small frame against her side the way she might carry a particularly important parcel. "I will keep him safe, my lord."

Belle gave a quick nod, then ducked back into the van. She dropped into the rear seat, laptop already open on her knees.

The H.D.D. interface bloomed across the screen in familiar blue light. Her fingers moved across the keys, and a soft chime confirmed the connection.

Eous's screen flickered to life against Vivian's side.

"Link's stable," Belle's voice came through the Bangboo, clear and close. "Audio and visual are both good. Are you reading me?"

Vivian tilted her head slightly toward the little screen. "Perfectly, my lord."

Wise leaned over from the driver's seat, checking the side mirrors one last time. "Ether readings on the outer edge are still low. Once you're past the barrier, stay on the marked path until Belle tells you otherwise. No improvising unless you have to."

"I understand." Vivian adjusted her grip on Eous and gave the parasol a small, practiced spin, letting it settle into her other hand. "I will be careful."

Belle's voice came again through Eous, a little softer. "We'll be right here. You get in trouble, you call it."

Vivian's red eyes curved slightly. "I would never dream of worrying you more than necessary."

She stepped away from the van. The purple shimmer of the Hollow entrance waited a short distance ahead, pulsing faintly between the two buildings. Vivian walked toward it at a steady pace, parasol angled just enough to keep the morning light off her face, Eous held securely against her side.

At the barrier she paused only long enough for Belle's quiet confirmation through the Bangboo.

"You're clear. Readings haven't shifted."

Vivian stepped through.

The air changed the moment she crossed-cooler, heavier, carrying that familiar faint static that always clung to the inside of a Hollow.

The distorted streets beyond stretched out in uneven lines, buildings half-swallowed by crystalline growths. Eous's screen cast a small, steady glow against the darker stretches.

"I'm in," Vivian said quietly.

"Got you," Belle answered through the Bangboo. "Path looks clean for the first hundred meters. Keep moving."

Vivian started forward, footsteps light on the fractured pavement, parasol held ready at her side.

The Hollow's interior stretched out in uneven corridors of cracked pavement and half-collapsed storefronts. Crystalline growths clung to the walls like frozen moss, catching the dim light that filtered through the distorted sky. Vivian moved at a measured pace, keeping close to the deeper shadows wherever she could.

Eous's screen glowed softly against her side.

"Thirty meters to the first checkpoint," Belle's voice came through the Bangboo, low and focused. "Two patrols on a rotating loop. You'll have a twelve-second window when they overlap on the far side."

Vivian's red eyes tracked the distant shapes moving between the ruined buildings. "Understood."

She waited, counting under her breath, then slipped forward the moment the two figures disappeared behind a collapsed awning.

Her steps made almost no sound. The parasol stayed angled low, ready to snap open if she needed cover or a sudden parry.

A low-grade Ether sensor hummed near a doorway ahead. Vivian slowed, studying the faint pulse of light along its edge.

"Can you disable it from there?" she asked quietly.

"Already working on it," Belle answered. A soft series of clicks came through Eous's speakers. The sensor's light stuttered once, then went dark. "You're clear. Keep going."

Vivian continued deeper. The air grew heavier the farther she moved from the entrance, carrying that familiar static that clung to the inside of any Hollow.

She passed a row of abandoned vehicles, their windows clouded with crystalline film, and turned down a narrower passage Belle marked on the map.

"Hideout should be just ahead," Belle said. "Looks like they converted an old storage facility. The main entrance is covered. There's a side access through the loading bay-fewer cameras."

Vivian adjusted her path without comment. The loading bay doors came into view a short distance later, half-open and poorly maintained. She slipped inside, letting her eyes adjust to the dimmer light.

The interior was a mix of scavenged furniture, stacked crates, and makeshift barricades. A low hum of machinery filled the space.

At the far end of the main room, set into a reinforced metal case that looked far newer than everything around it, sat the Core Stabilizer-small, egg-shaped, and faintly luminous with the distinctive sheen of concentrated Porcelloy.

Vivian's grip on Eous tightened just slightly.

"I see it," she murmured.

"I see it too," Belle replied. "No one in the immediate room. Two guards in the hallway beyond the far door. You've got maybe forty seconds before one of them loops back for a visual check."

Vivian crossed the room in near silence. She reached the case, studied the simple locking mechanism, and drew a thin tool from inside her sleeve.

A few precise movements later the lid released with a soft click. She lifted the Stabilizer free, feeling the faint, cool weight of it in her palm, then slipped it into an inner pocket of her dress.

"I have it."

"Good. Start heading back the way you came. Same route. I'll watch the patrols."

Vivian turned, already moving toward the loading bay exit-

A metallic clatter echoed from the hallway.

One of the guards had returned early.

Vivian froze for half a second, then melted back against the nearest stack of crates, parasol held close, Eous pressed securely against her side. The guard's footsteps grew louder. A flashlight beam swept across the far wall.

Belle's voice came through the Bangboo in a tight whisper. "He's coming into the room."

The guard stepped into the main room, flashlight sweeping in lazy arcs.

"Hey. Anyone in here?" His voice was rough, bored. "Boss said no one touches the shiny egg without him. If you're messing around again, I'm-"

He stopped. The beam of his light had caught the open case.

"What the-?"

Vivian moved before he could finish the sentence.

She crossed the distance in three light steps, parasol snapping open as she closed in.

The reinforced canopy caught the man's wrist with a sharp crack, sending the flashlight spinning across the floor. He stumbled back with a startled curse.

"Who the hell are you?!"

Vivian's expression remained cool, almost bored. "Someone who doesn't have time for this."

A second guard burst through the hallway door, weapon already half-raised. "Jace? What's going on in-"

He saw her and froze for half a second too long.

Vivian spun, the parasol's edge slicing a shallow line across his forearm. He yelped and dropped his gun. She followed with a precise kick that sent him staggering into the nearest crate stack.

"Intruder!" the first guard shouted, scrambling for the radio on his belt. "We've got an intruder in the storage room-someone's after the-"

Vivian's parasol snapped shut, then drove forward like a spear.

The tip struck the radio and knocked it from his hand before he could finish. She followed with a spinning strike that caught him across the shoulder and put him on the floor.

Eous's screen flickered against her side.

"Vivian, more coming from the east corridor," Belle's voice came through, tight. "At least four. You need to move."

"I am aware, my lord."

Boots thundered from the hallway. Two more men rounded the corner, one already shouting.

"There she is! Grab her!"

"She's got the stabilizer-don't let her leave with it!"

Vivian exhaled softly through her nose, the sound almost disdainful. "How tiresome."

She opened the parasol fully and leapt, using the slight buoyancy to carry herself up and over the nearest man.

The canopy spun as she landed behind them, striking the second across the back of the knee. He went down hard.

The first turned, swinging wildly; she caught the blow on the parasol's reinforced frame, redirected it, and answered with a sharp upward strike that sent him crashing into the wall.

More voices echoed from deeper in the facility.

"She's in the main bay!"

"Cut her off at the loading doors!"

"Don't let that bitch get outside!"

Vivian's red eyes narrowed. She adjusted her grip on Eous and started moving toward the exit at a swift, controlled pace, parasol held ready.

A third wave spilled into the room-five this time, more organized, weapons raised.

One of them, broader than the others, pointed directly at her. "Drop the package and maybe we won't break your legs."

Vivian regarded him with cool indifference. "You are welcome to try."

She did not wait for a response. The parasol spun open again as she advanced, using its canopy to deflect a poorly aimed shot, then closing the distance in a blur of dark fabric and precise motion. She struck, pivoted, struck again-each movement clean and economical, never lingering longer than necessary.

One man went down clutching his ribs. Another staggered back with a bleeding cut along his temple.

But the numbers were starting to press in.

A baton caught the edge of her parasol hard enough to jolt her arm.

Someone grabbed for Eous. Vivian twisted sharply, driving an elbow into the offender's sternum, but the brief tangle cost her momentum. More footsteps pounded from both corridors now.

Belle's voice cut through the noise. "Vivian, you're getting surrounded. Get out of there."

Vivian's jaw tightened. She leapt again, using a fallen crate as a springboard, and landed closer to the loading bay doors. A quick glance showed the path outside was still clear-for the moment.

She looked back at the advancing group, expression cold.

"You are all very loud," she said, almost conversationally. "And very much in my way."

Then she turned and ran.

Vivian sprinted through the loading bay doors and into the distorted street beyond. The Core Stabilizer sat secure in the inner pocket of her dress, its faint weight a constant reminder against her side. Eous bounced slightly with each step, screen still lit.

"They're right behind you," Belle's voice came through the Bangboo, sharp with urgency. "At least six. Two more cutting around the east side. You won't make the original path."

"Then give me another," Vivian answered, already angling left between two half-collapsed storefronts.

A shot cracked against the wall near her shoulder, spraying crystalline dust. She didn't look back. The parasol snapped open just long enough to catch a second shot, the reinforced canopy shuddering under the impact before she collapsed it again and kept moving.

Behind her, voices shouted over one another.

"She's heading for the barrier!"

"Cut her off-don't let her reach the exit!"

"I want that stabilizer back, you hear me?!"

Vivian vaulted a fallen beam, landed cleanly, and kept running. The Hollow's uneven ground worked against her now; every jagged patch of pavement threatened to slow her down. She could hear the pursuit closing in.

Belle's voice returned, tighter than before. "Vivian, you're going to hit a dead end if you keep that line. I'm coming out. Be ready."

"My lord-"

"No arguing."

At the van, Belle shoved the laptop aside and threw the side door open. Wise was already turning the engine over, eyes locked on the Hollow entrance through the windshield.

"Belle-"

"I'll be fast." She was already moving, boots hitting the pavement as she sprinted toward the shimmering barrier. "Keep the van running."

Inside the Hollow, Vivian broke into a wider street just as three of the gang members spilled out of a side alley ahead of her, blocking the most direct route to the exit. She skidded to a halt, parasol rising.

The broad-shouldered one from earlier leveled a scavenged rifle at her. "End of the line. Drop it."

Vivian's expression remained cool, though her breathing had grown sharper. "You are persistent. I'll grant you that."

Before either side could move, a sharp metallic clatter echoed from the opposite direction-followed by the sudden, blaring wail of a portable alarm beacon. The sound bounced off the distorted walls, loud and disorienting.

The gang members flinched, heads turning toward the noise.

Belle stood near the barrier's edge, one arm still raised from throwing the beacon. Eous's connection still linked her voice into the Hollow even as she stood outside it.

"Vivian! Now!"

Vivian didn't waste the opening. She surged forward, parasol sweeping one man's weapon aside, then slipped past the others in a blur of dark fabric and precise footwork. A hand grabbed for her arm; she twisted free and kept going.

Belle was already backing toward the van as Vivian burst through the barrier. The sudden shift from Hollow air to open street hit like a change in pressure. Vivian's momentum carried her several steps before she adjusted.

Behind them, angry shouts spilled out of the Hollow entrance.

"Go," Vivian said, catching Belle by the wrist. "They're right behind us."

They ran the remaining distance together. Belle was slower on foot, and Vivian matched her pace without comment, parasol still in one hand, Eous secured against her side.

Wise had the side door wide open. They piled in-Belle first, then Vivian-just as the first of the pursuers appeared at the barrier.

Wise didn't wait for the door to close. The van lurched forward, tires biting into the pavement, and accelerated down the narrow street.

A couple of wild shots sparked off the rear bumper, but none found their mark. Within seconds the Hollow entrance, and the men spilling out of it, disappeared behind a turn.

For a long moment the only sounds inside the van were the engine, the rush of air through the open door, and three people catching their breath.

Belle shoved the side door shut and slumped back against the seat, one hand pressed to her chest. "Okay. That was closer than I wanted."

Vivian remained upright, though her grip on the parasol had tightened. She reached into her dress, withdrew the Core Stabilizer, and held it out on her open palm. The small device caught the light, its surface still faintly luminous.

"I have it," she said simply.

Wise glanced at them through the rearview mirror, then back at the road. "Anyone hurt?"

"No," Vivian answered. After a beat she added, quieter, "Thank you for the distraction, my lord. It was... well-timed."

Belle let out a breathless little laugh and pushed a hand through her hair. "Don't mention it. Just... maybe next time we plan the exit a little better."

Vivian's red eyes softened as she looked down at the Stabilizer in her hand. "Next time, I will not require rescuing."

Belle managed a tired grin. "I'll hold you to that."

Outside, Sixth Street traffic began to close around them again, ordinary and unremarkable.

The van blended in, and the Hollow, along with the men still shouting at its edge, fell farther behind with every block.

-

They pulled up with the van along the curb a short distance from Random Play, the afternoon light softening into gold.

Wise cut the engine and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Belle stretched her arms overhead with a quiet groan. "Finally, home."

Vivian carefully returned the Core Stabilizer to the inner pocket of her dress, then stepped out onto the sidewalk, Eous still held securely against her side. She waited until Belle and Wise joined her before offering the Bangboo back.

"Thank you for entrusting him to me, my lords."

Belle took Eous with a small smile. "You did good. We got what we needed."

They started toward the storefront at an unhurried pace. The street was its usual mix of late-afternoon foot traffic and the low hum of passing vehicles.

Vivian walked a half-step closer than strictly necessary, parasol resting against her shoulder.

"You should call on me more often," she said after a moment, voice lighter now that the danger had passed. "I am always available for my Lord Phaethons. It... bothers me, sometimes, how many other people seem to occupy your time."

Belle glanced at her, amused. "Jealous?"

Vivian's pale cheeks colored faintly. "I am simply stating a fact."

Wise kept his eyes on the storefront ahead. "We've been busy. That's all."

Belle's grin turned a little sharper. "Busy with a lot of different people. Especially you, Wise."

Wise shot her a look. "That's not-"

He stopped and just straightened himself. "We just hangout, that's all Belle."

Vivian's red eyes flicked between them, a small pout forming.

She gazed down and poked her index fingers together in front of her.

Her face grew a small blush on each cheek.

"I only mean... I would like it if you remembered to make time for me as well. Properly." She gazed up back at them. "Not only when you need something retrieved from a Hollow."

Belle's expression softened. She reached over and gave Vivian's arm a light squeeze. "We will. Promise."

Wise nodded once. "You're not an afterthought, Vivian."

The simple reassurance drew a small, genuine smile from her. "Thank you, my lords."

They were nearly at the door when a familiar figure turned the corner at the end of the block.

Izuku slowed as he approached, his yellow bag slung over one shoulder, the usual faint tiredness of a Belobog shift sitting in the line of his posture.

He had been walking toward the storefront-and then his gaze caught on the third person standing with Belle and Wise.

He stopped a few meters away.

'What is she?' His eyes scanned the stunning woman next to them carefully.

She had long curly wavy light purple hair with some white, pointed ears and pale skin. Her red eyes were with slit pupils and had some purple around them that caught the afternoon light like polished gems.

A dark, ornate dress that looked like it belonged in an old painting, complete with lace trim and silver accents. Black-painted nails resting on the handle of a parasol that seemed more decorative than practical.

'Is she... a Lolita vampire?' It was hard to not think considering her appearance and choice of outfit. But the fact she was out while the sun was still out and she had no fangs said it probably wasn't the case.

'Thirens seem to mostly be people with animal traits, so I guess she's something else this world has.' Her presence and posture gave off an elegant and graceful feel.

But something else...was coming off her.

For a split second, something flickered at the edge of his vision. Tiny black sparks. There and gone.

He blinked. 'Did I imagine that?'

His hand tightened slightly on the strap of his bag. Whatever she was, she clearly knew Belle and Wise. And they seemed comfortable around her. That was enough. For now.

He forced himself forward.

Belle noticed him first, her expression brightening. "Izuku. Perfect timing."

Wise offered a small nod of greeting.

Vivian's attention sharpened immediately, red eyes assessing the newcomer with open curiosity.

Izuku stopped a polite distance away, gaze moving briefly between the three of them. "Afternoon. Am I interrupting?"

"No," Belle said. "We just got back."

She raised her and held it by Vivian. "This is Vivian. She's a close friend. Helps us out with Proxy work sometimes."

Vivian inclined her head with practiced grace. "Vivian Banshee. And you are...?"

'So she isn't an ordinary person if she helps them with that.' His eyes narrowed. 'Probably means she's an Agent...but if so..her outfit doesn't really seem practical for that...'

"Midoriya Izuku." He shifted the bag on his shoulder. "It's...uhm...nice to meet you."

He raised his hand. Reaching out for a hand shake.

Izuku held his hand out a little longer than felt natural.

Vivian's red eyes flicked down to it, noticing the scars on it. Then she gazed back up to his face.

After a brief pause she extended her own hand-cool fingers, black nails, a grip that was light but precise.

"Midoriya Izuku...," she repeated, testing the name. "I see. Another one of my lords'... associates."

Belle cut in quickly, still smiling. "Well yeah, he's been staying with us for a while."

Vivian's expression did not change much, but something sharp moved behind her eyes. The hand withdrew. "This man is staying with you...?"

"Yeah," Belle said, tone easy. "Things just... happened. We couldn't exactly leave him to figure out a place on his own."

Wise added, quieter, "It's temporary. But he's here."

Vivian's gaze drifted over Izuku again-yellow bag, the faint tired set of his shoulders, the way he stood half a step back as if ready to leave the moment the conversation allowed it.

Her lips pressed together for a second. Then she exhaled through her nose and looked away.

"Well," she said, voice carefully level. "It cannot be helped, I suppose."

The jealousy was still there, tightly folded under the politeness. She did not bother hiding the brief glare she sent in Izuku's direction before smoothing it away.

Belle, sensing the shift, clapped her hands lightly. "Anyway. We should head in. Vivian, thank you again-seriously. You saved us a lot of time."

"Anytime, my lords." Vivian's voice softened again the moment she turned back to them. "Please remember what I said. Call me more often. Not only when you need something retrieved."

"We will," Wise said.

Belle nodded. "Promise."

They started toward the storefront. Belle and Wise went first.

Izuku stood for a moment. 'What exactly is their situation? Why is she calling them her lords?'

He walked forward, following them.

A hand settled on his shoulder-light, but firm enough to stop him.

He turned.

Vivian stood close, her red eyes steady on his face. Sharper and cooler than it was before.

"You," she said quietly. "Do not cause trouble for my Lord Phaethons. They have enough to carry without adding more."

Izuku held her gaze, but they widened slightly.

'She really cares about them...' For a moment, something flickered in his expression.

'Of course they have friends they can rely on. All I can bring is trouble for them.' He glanced down.

'They let me stay. I should be just working harder to repay them.' His hand slowly curled slowly at his side.

He met her eyes again. "You don't have to worry." The words came out low and steady. "I won't be a problem for them. Not for too long... hopefully."

He paused. Then added, quieter: "Sorry if I upset you, Banshee-san."

He turned and walked into the store without waiting for an answer.

Vivian remained where she was, hand still half-raised where his shoulder had been.

The street noise continued around her-footsteps, a distant scooter, the ordinary hum of Sixth Street-but for a moment none of it registered.

That expression. That tone.

She had expected defensiveness. Or indifference. Or the usual empty reassurances people offered when they wanted someone to leave them alone. She had not expected the quiet certainty that he would remove himself before he became a burden.

Vivian lowered her hand. The parasol rested against her shoulder again.

'Who exactly is this man...?'

She turned away from Random Play and began walking, already deciding she would dig into every available record the moment she returned to her own network.

A man who lived with her lords, who carried that strange, restrained weight in his eyes, and who spoke of himself as temporary. And didn't care how coldly she looked and spoke to him.

She would find out.

---

Inside, the store was quiet. Bangboo 18 offered a cheerful wave from the counter as they went past him. They went upstairs without much conversation.

In the living room Wise set the Core Stabilizer on the low table. The small egg-shaped device still carried a faint internal glow, the concentrated Porcelloy catching the light in soft gold-and-violet sheens.

Belle dropped onto the couch with a long breath.

Wise sat opposite her, rolling his shoulders once. The headache that had been building behind his eyes all day had sharpened during the drive back; he could feel the familiar pressure behind the implants.

He reached for the Stabilizer, turned it carefully in his hands, then activated the small interface along its side.

A low, steady hum filled the room. The device's glow evened out.

Wise closed his eyes.

The pressure eased almost immediately-first a softening at the edges, then a gradual cooling of the sharpest points.

The fluctuations that had been scraping against the implants settled into something closer to manageable. Not gone. But quieter.

He exhaled.

Belle watched him. "Better?"

"Yeah." He opened his eyes. The residual ache was still there, but it no longer felt like it was trying to drill outward. "It's working."

She leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "How long do you think this one will last?"

Wise turned the Stabilizer again, studying the readings on its small display. "Hard to say. It's industrial-grade, denser than the fragments we've been using. Maybe a few weeks if we're careful. Maybe less if we keep pushing the implants the way we have been."

Belle's expression tightened. "We still can't get into Roscaelifer yet. Velina and Norma are working on it, but..."

"But it's going to take time." Wise set the device down carefully. "And we can't burn the Porcelloy W-Engine for this. Once that charge is gone, the engine stops functioning entirely. We might need it later for something that actually requires a full W-Engine."

Belle nodded, quiet for a moment. "So we use this. And we keep looking for more pieces. Or wait until we can go to the source."

"That's the plan."

She glanced toward the hallway that led to the spare room. Izuku's door was closed.

Belle's voice dropped. "He looked... different just now. Outside. With Vivian."

Wise followed her gaze for a second, then looked away. "He's been different since he got here. We're just starting to notice the shape of it."

Belle didn't argue. She reached over and rested her hand briefly on the Stabilizer's cool surface, feeling the steady hum under her palm.

"Well," she said after a while, "at least we bought ourselves some time, let's hope things work out going forward."

Wise gave a short nod.

Outside the window the light over Sixth Street continued to fade into evening. The Core Stabilizer glowed softly on the table between them, a temporary answer to a problem that was still far from solved.

For now, it would have to be enough.

 

[Alchto]

I don't want to read all of this, can someone that did tell me if he can use ofa or something? I've read the description but it would be dumb to just put bum teacher midoriya in zzz

 

[Craven Yeager]

Nice once ao3 comes back I'll look you up ver there I'm enjoying it so far.

 

[GhostJade45]

Noise of construction rang through the Hollow's interior. Dust hung suspended in the distorted light, catching the glow of work lamps mounted on scaffolding.

Smart machines rumbled past, their yellow-and-black chassis gleaming with fresh welds, optical sensors pulsing steady blue.

At the far end of the site, a worker paused to wipe sweat from his brow. He nudged his companion with an elbow.

"Check the new guy. He's been at it since we started."

The companion followed his gaze.

Izuku Midoriya moved between stacks of rebar and half-framed structures. His work coat had gone dark with sweat.

A bundle of brackets balanced against one shoulder. He set them down, turned, and walked back for another load without pausing. Dust clung to his forearms. His breathing was steady but shallow.

"Did he even stop for water?"

"Not once."

He lifted a fresh bundle and started walking. His legs carried him through the familiar path-between two idle smart machines, past the concrete mixer, toward the eastern frame where the crew was waiting.

Workers called out to him as he passed.

He nodded without meeting their eyes.

A woman with a hard hat and smudged goggles stepped into his path. "Hey, Midoriya. You alright? You look like death warmed over."

"I'm fine." The words came flat. He sidestepped and kept moving.

She watched him go, then exchanged a glance with the worker beside her. Neither said anything.

The beam slot clicked into place with a dull thud. He straightened, rolling his shoulders, and turned back toward the material pile.

His muscles ached in that familiar, distant way-the kind of fatigue that had become background noise over the past year.

'I've saved enough,' he thought, stepping around a puddle of murky water. 'Almost enough to pay them back completely. A few more weeks, maybe less, and I'll have what I need for supplies.'

He picked up another bundle. The weight settled across his shoulders, familiar and grounding.

'If the Outer Ring is like what people are saying, then if I go in unprepared, I won't last a week.' He started walking again, his gaze fixed ahead.

'I've stayed long enough with Belle and Wise. Every day I'm there, I'm putting them at risk. Belle, Wise... they have friends who care about them. People like that woman, and whoever else they've helped over the years. They'll be fine without me.'

His jaw tightened.

'I'm just a stranger who showed up and took advantage of their kindness. They don't owe me anything. And I-'

His fist curled at his side.

'What do I even have to go back to? Everyone I left behind is probably better off without me dragging them down....'

He stopped walking.

'All Might, Mom, the others... they're moving forward hopefully....'

His eyes closed. An ache started forming in his chest.

The wind blew, making his hair flow. His teeth gritted. 'I'm just... a nobody who doesn't have anything....'

He opened his eyes, and his gaze drifted to the wall beside him. The crystals had grown.

They'd been small this morning-faint patches of violet-black clinging to the concrete like frost. Now they stretched across the surface in jagged veins, pulsing with a dark, rhythmic glow that matched the beat of his heart.

His breath caught.

A sharp spike drove through his skull.

Izuku's knees buckled. The bundle slipped from his grip, clattering against the ground, and he caught himself against a nearby support column. His vision swam-black spots dancing at the edges, then spreading inward like ink in water.

'Wha-?'

Pressure built behind his eyes. Hot and wrong. Something clawing its way out from inside his skull. He pressed a palm against his forehead, but the pressure only grew.

Across the back of his hand, black lightning with a green glow crawled. It spread up his wrist, thin tendrils of shadow threading through his veins like roots finding soil.

His breath came in ragged gasps. "T-This again...!?"

He tried to push himself upright. His legs wouldn't cooperate. The ground tilted beneath him, and he sagged against the column, one hand braced against the cold metal.

'What's causing it? What's happening to me?'

The crystals on the nearest wall pulsed faster-slow at first, then quickening. The violet-black glow deepened, shifting to something darker. New growths sprouted at the edges, thin jagged veins spreading across the concrete like cracks in ice.

Izuku's gaze locked onto them. 'The Ether... it's reacting to me...it's absorbing into me-'

A groan escaped his throat. His hand trembled against the column. The black lightning climbed higher, crawling up his neck, and his vision flickered-dimming at the edges like a dying light.

A spark of gold, small and distant, flared somewhere deep in his chest. It pushed against the pressure, against the weight crushing his skull, and the black lightning retreated by a fraction.

He gasped, dragging air into his lungs.

'...K-Keep fighting...'

He knew that voice. Faint and fractured, barely audible beneath the hum of machinery.

'Y-Yoichi..?'

'...You ...c-can't let... it t-take you.'

Another voice-softer, fighting to reach him. Nana.

Kudo's voice cut through, clipped and strained: 'W-We can't hold it back forever. But you-'

Static swallowed the words.

Hikage followed, distant but steady: 'Don't stop fighting... We're still here, but you have to do the work. You have to find-'

The golden warmth spread, pushing the darkness back. The pressure receded, leaving only a dull ache behind his eyes. He blinked, and the black lightning was gone.

He was alone again.

His hand still trembled against the column. He pulled it away, staring at his palm. No trace of the black lightning remained. But the memory of it crawling through his veins lingered-cold and wrong.

'How long until it doesn't go away?'

He forced his hand steady, pushing himself upright. His legs felt unsteady, but they held.

'The vestiges...' He huffed, stumbling as he straightened. 'They're struggling to hold back the Ether...'

He swallowed. His throat felt raw. 'If I don't find a way to deal with this, I'm going to lose myself completely.'

His gaze drifted upward, past the distorted sky, to the jagged silhouette of the Hollow's barrier.

The moon wasn't visible from here, but he knew what it looked like beyond the shimmering curtain-half-eaten by that violet-black patch, wrong in ways that still made his stomach twist.

'How long do I have? A month? A week? I don't even know.'

His fist clenched at his side.

'I have to move faster. I can't wait until I've saved enough-I need to get to the Outer Ring, find a Hollow that might lead me home, or hope the Outer Ring won't be as bad. If I stay here, I'm just waiting to become a danger to everyone around me.'

He pushed off the column and walked back toward the bundle he'd dropped. His legs still felt unsteady, but he forced them to carry him.

He bent down, picked up the materials, and started walking again.

---

The work alarm sounded two hours earlier than usual.

Izuku looked up from the frame he was securing, blinking. Around him, workers were already stopping, setting down their tools, and heading toward the equipment bay.

A few of them looked relieved. One of them-the woman who'd asked if he was alright earlier-caught his eye and jerked her head toward the gate.

"If you're wondering, there's an Ether fluctuation spike. The site's being cleared as a precaution. Come on."

He hesitated for half a second.

Then set down his wrench and followed the flow of workers.

The crowd carried him through the site-past the half-framed structures, past the smart machines that had powered down, past the equipment bay where the foreman was shouting instructions. A few workers murmured to each other as they walked.

"Didn't expect to knock off this early."

"The boss said it's a fluctuation spike. Honestly I could use the early time off."

"Same here."

Izuku walked past them without slowing.

He collected his pay at the gate. His fingers moved on autopilot-folding the Dennies, tucking them into his wallet. 'At least I have more from today.'

He closed the wallet and pocketed it.

His head hung low as he walked toward the exit.

Ahead, his sight caught someone.

Koleda stood by the gate with her arms crossed, one boot tapping against the cracked pavement. Her single visible eye swept across the departing workers.

When Izuku reached the gate she pushed off the fence and walked toward him. "Yo, Midoriya."

He gazed down at her. "Oh... Hey President Koleda."

She stopped a few feet away, looking up at him. Her expression was unreadable for a moment.

Then her eye narrowed. "You look like hell."

His thumb pressed against the scarred ridges of his palm. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

"Bullshit." She stepped closer, jabbing a finger toward his chest-she had to reach up to do it, but the gesture carried weight. "I've had workers collapse on my site before. They always said they were 'fine' right up until they hit the ground. I'm not letting that happen again."

His gaze dropped to her boots. "I'm not going to collapse."

"You're pale. You've been working twice as hard as anyone else for three days straight, and I've had three separate workers come to me saying you looked 'off.'" She tilted her head. "So I'm asking you once. Are you okay?"

He opened his mouth. Then closed it.

'I can't tell her the truth. But she's not going to let this go unless I give her something.'

"I've just been... slightly stressed." The words came out rough, scraped. "It's nothing serious."

Koleda studied him for a long moment. Her eye tracked the way he held himself-shoulders tight, weight shifted slightly to one side, like he was bracing for something.

She exhaled through her nose.

"Okay, I'll let you off. But if you feel even slightly off tomorrow, you tell someone. You don't try to push through it. You don't act like you have something to prove." She pointed at him again.

"And if I catch you working this hard again without taking a proper break, I'll bench you myself. Understand?"

His eyes drifted to the side as he tilted his head a bit. "Understood."

Her gaze lingered on him for a moment longer. 'How do the managers deal with someone this stubborn?'

She'd met enough stubborn people in her line of work-and Belle and Wise had dealt with far worse than a stressed temp worker. 'Hopefully they've got it handled.'

Koleda sighed, then turned around and started walking away. "I'll see ya then." She said, waving while she walked.

"Yeah..."

He stood there for a moment, watching her go.

Then he pivoted and exited the gate.

The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the pavement. His feet carried him forward, but his gaze drifted back toward the Hollow. The entrance shimmered in the distance-that familiar violet-black distortion.

He looked away and kept walking.

Workers from the site drifted past him in small groups, their voices carrying.

'One more week,' he thought, picking up his pace. 'One more week, and I'll have enough to pay them back. Then I can leave without dragging anyone else into this.'

The thought sat heavy in his chest. He didn't let himself examine it too closely-didn't let himself wonder what it would feel like to walk away from Random Play, from Belle's easy smile, from Wise's quiet steadiness.

He couldn't afford to wonder.

If he did, he might not be able to leave at all.

His hand drifted to his pocket.

'I'll need more than just supplies. I'll need transport. A vehicle, or enough Dennies to pay for a ride.'

He'd heard mentions of cargo transports heading out to the Outer Ring. Some were legitimate. Others weren't. Either option required money.

His eye twitched.

'And I can't keep working in the city while living out there. Too much risk of getting pulled back in. Too much risk of-'

He stopped the thought before it could finish.

Sighing, he just kept walking.

---—----------------------------------------------------------

The Janus Quarter was a sprawling district, its streets a maze of residential blocks and commercial strips.

He'd walked these streets before-learning the layout, memorizing landmarks, building a mental map of the area around Sixth Street.

But he'd never ventured this far south.

The buildings here were older, the signs less polished. Shops with faded awnings and handwritten advertisements.

A hardware store. A laundromat. A small grocery with vegetables displayed in wooden crates outside.

He passed them all, his gaze scanning for something specific.

A phone store.

He'd been putting it off. His old phone still worked-barely-but it couldn't connect to this world's networks. Couldn't access the information he needed or help him plan.

He'd need a new one. Something that could connect to the local networks, access the Inter-Knot, let him research the Outer Ring without asking questions that would mark him as an outsider.

It took nearly forty minutes before he spotted a storefront with a faded sign advertising electronics and repairs.

The window display was cluttered with devices he didn't recognize-sleek screens, angular casings, components that hummed with faint blue light.

He pushed open the door.

A bell chimed above his head. The interior was cramped but organized, shelves lined with phones and tablets and accessories he couldn't name.

The air smelled of solder and plastic.

He moved through the aisles slowly, scanning prices, doing mental math. Most of the devices were out of his range-too expensive, too flashy, too much.

A store worker approached-a young woman with a nametag and a practiced smile. "Can I help you find something?"

He hesitated. "I need a new phone. Something functional. Not too expensive."

She nodded, gesturing toward a display case. "We've got a range of models. What are you looking for specifically?"

"Just something that works," he said. "I'm not picky, but...."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his old phone. The screen was cracked, the casing worn. "Is there any chance this could be repaired? Or reworked to connect better?"

The worker took the phone, turning it over in her hands. Her brow furrowed. "This is... an unusual model. I'm not sure we have parts for it."

She called over a colleague-an Intelligent Construct with a shiny silver body and optical sensors that shifted focus as they studied the device. "Can you take a look at this?"

The Construct accepted the phone, turning it over with precise, methodical movements. Their optical sensors flickered, scanning the device.

"The materials aren't standard," they said, their voice carrying a faint harmonic quality. "The architecture is completely different from anything I've seen. This isn't a model I recognize."

Izuku's shoulders tensed. "Can you do anything with it?"

A pause. The Construct set the phone down and picked up a scanning device, running it over the surface. Data flickered across a nearby screen.

"It's not impossible," they said after a long moment. "But I'd have to replace significant internal components. The storage would need to be wiped. The operating system-"

"Wiped?" His voice came out sharper than he intended.

The Construct's optical sensors shifted toward him. "The data is stored in a format I don't recognize. Adding new components would require translation. The photos, the videos-they might not survive the process."

His hand tightened around the edge of the counter.

The photos. The videos. His mother was standing outside their apartment, her hand raised to shield her eyes from the sun. All Might in his muscle form, laughing at a barbecue. Class A in the common room, caught mid-laugh, mid-argument, mid-life.

He couldn't lose them. They were all he had left.

"That's... not an option," he said, his voice rougher than he intended. "I'll just buy a new one."

He turned to the display case, scanning the models with new urgency. Something functional. Something that would let him access the Inter-Knot. Something that wouldn't drain his savings entirely.

He picked up a dark gray model. It wasn't flashy.

"How much?"

The worker quoted a price. He did the math in his head-it would leave him with enough to finish the week, but not much more.

Izuku reached into one of the pockets where he stored his saved money and took out the required amount.

He then handed over the Dennies with slight hesitation.

The Construct's optical sensors shifted toward him as he pocketed the new phone. "Do you want to attempt a transfer of your old data?"

His body flinched. "You said it might not work."

"I said some files might not survive if I added new components to the old one. A wired transfer could work-the port is physically compatible. But the protocols are different. There's no guarantee everything will come through."

He stared at his old phone. At the cracked screen. At the memories he couldn't replace.

"Do it."

The Construct nodded and connected the cables.

Twenty minutes later, the transfer was complete.

He scrolled through the new phone's gallery. Most of the photos had survived. A few were corrupted-fragments of color and light that no longer resembled anything recognizable.

But the important ones were there. His mother. All Might. His friends.

He closed the gallery and pocketed the phone.

"Thank you," he said. "For trying."

The Construct inclined their head. "You're welcome to come but for help again any time."

He left the store without looking back.

---—----------------------------------------------------------

The evening air was cooler now. He walked without a destination, his new phone in his hand, his thumb scrolling through the unfamiliar interface.

He needed to get online research of the Outer Ring.

But he didn't have a connection.

'There should be a place with some free WiFi here.'

His eyes drifted around.

Catching a sign ahead. A cafè was there and seemed quiet, the tables mostly empty.

He could see an outlet near the back, a corner booth with a view of the door.

'Seems like a good spot.'

He pushed open the door and found a seat in the corner, his back to the wall, his new phone on the table before him.

The menu was propped against the napkin holder. He ordered coffee-something cheap, something that would justify him taking up space.

The barista brought it over. He nodded his thanks and waited until she was gone.

Then he opened his phone, connected to the WiFi and started searching.

--—----------------------------------------------------------

The glow of three open screens painted a small apartment in cold blue light. Outside the window the city had gone quiet-only the distant hum of late traffic reached the third-floor room.

Vivian sat perfectly still in the high-backed chair, one black-nailed hand resting on the edge of the desk, the other frozen above the keyboard.

Her teeth gritted hard. 'I've been searching for three hours. And still nothing....'

She scrolled up. Seeing the same results that stared back at her-empty, useless, incomplete.

Name: Izuku Midoriya.
Origin: Unknown.
History: None.

No birth records. No school records. No Agent registration. No registration of any kind. He existed in exactly one place.

She opened the hospital file again. The one she'd had to hack three separate firewalls to access. The internal version-not the public-facing one, not the sanitized report that would have been released to anyone asking.

Admission Date: [REDACTED]

Patient Name (near-victim): Belle
Incident: Unidentified male intercepted runaway vehicle that nearly struck the above-named individual. Patient sustained impact, loss of consciousness, suspected Hollow contamination.

Notes: No fractures or internal bleeding. Elevated Ether aptitude. Scars on hands and forearms indicate prior physical trauma. Patient declined full examination. Claimed origin: Outer Ring. No identification on file. No emergency contacts.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the desk. Seeing the name Belle here really made her heart ache.

'One of my Lord Phaethons had nearly gotten extremely hurt or died...' Her head had hung low.

'...and this stranger had stepped in front of the truck to save her...' That was why they had let him stay. Of course it was.

She remembered the way he'd looked at her outside Random Play. The quiet acceptance in his eyes when she warned him not to cause trouble. No anger. No defensiveness. Just that tired resignation, like he'd expected nothing else.

She'd been colder than necessary.

'He saved my Lord Phaethon... And I treated him like a threat.' Her nails pressed against her palm.

The sting grounded her mind.

A soft knock sounded against the open doorframe.

"Hey, little bird." His voice carried from the doorway-light, theatrical, unmistakable. "Still chasing ghosts?"

Her fingers stilled over the keyboard. "I asked for your help. Not your commentary."

"And you received both." Footsteps crossed the floor.

She heard the soft thud of his briefcase being set down, the rustle of fabric as he leaned against the desk. When she finally looked up, Hugo Vlad was watching her with that familiar half-smile, his mismatched eyes catching the monitor's glow.

He was tall and slim, his golden blonde hair pulled back in a low ponytail, one strand escaping to stick up at an angle-the ahoge he never seemed to notice or care about.

The jacket draped over his left arm was immaculate, dark fabric with light blue insides, the right side left open in that deliberate asymmetry he favored. A faint smile played at his lips, sharp fangs just visible beneath the curve. The beauty mark beneath his red eye caught the light.

"Still nothing?" he asked.

"Unfortunately...yes..." She turned the laptop toward him. "He doesn't seem to exist before two weeks ago.., Hugo. I've checked everything."

He leaned forward, scanning the hospital file. His expression didn't change, but something shifted behind his eyes.

"Ah. So that's why the siblings took him in." He straightened, tapping a finger against the screen. "Sentimental of them."

He scrolled through the other open tabs. "But this man appeared in New Eridu with no history or trail. And with an Outer Ring claim that doesn't hold up under even mild scrutiny. You're right to be bothered."

She looked at him. "You found something."

"I found the same things you did." He pulled a slim tablet from his jacket and set it on the desk. "And then I found some things that are quite interesting."

He tapped the screen. An Inter-Knot thread opened-anonymous, timestamped three days ago.

A grainy photo filled half the display: a smart machine was laid down on the floor.

In the corner of the frame, almost cut off, stood a figure in a tattered dark-green jumpsuit and a frayed yellow cape, mask covering his face, with green lightning around his body.

"A worker posted this likely," Hugo said. "Seems a prototype went haywire. And this mysterious fellow stepped in, and helped stop it, and disappeared before anyone could thank him."

He pointed at a specific part of the image. "Seems like one of your precious Phaethons was there, helping with the situation."

Vivian's breath caught as she leaned closer to the tablet.

The figure in the image was unmistakable. Dark green fabric, darkened with sweat and grime and age, the material worn thin at the seams.

A frayed yellow cape hung from his shoulders-what had once been a proud garment now reduced to tattered strips.

His mask covered his face entirely, and his eyes glowed through the shadows by eye holes in his mask, a faint green light that seemed almost unnatural.

'He looks like he's been fighting for years,' she thought, her gaze lingering. 'And his gear is falling apart. How is it even still functional?'

She pulled up the photo, zooming in on his hands. Even through the distortion of the grainy image, she could make out the shape of his gauntlets-scratched, scarred, the metal worn down in places.

His stance was low, balanced, one arm raised to deflect, the other coiled for a strike.

"He has an interesting choice of attire," Hugo said, settling into the chair across from her. "You'd think someone with that much capability would invest in better equipment."

"Maybe he can't afford better." Her voice came out quieter than she'd intended. "Or maybe he doesn't care about his own safety."

Hugo's smile sharpened. "Could be so considering his actions."

His eyes flicked back to the tablet. "The worker who posted this described him as 'a monster in green.' But when she elaborated, she said he spoke softly to the workers he pulled from the debris. Reassured them. Made sure they were clear before he moved on."

Vivian's fingers traced the edge of the tablet. "He saved people. And then he left."

"As he apparently does often." Hugo swiped the screen, pulling up a new thread. "I found several posts from over the past two weeks. Nighttime sightings, mostly. People reporting a figure in green appearing during fights or accidents. Then vanishing before anyone could thank him."

He scrolled down. "One post mentioned he asked if someone was okay. Talked to them like they were the only person in the world. Then disappeared into the dark before they could ask his name."

Vivian's eyes narrowed. "The way he moves... he's trained. This isn't random. He knows what he's doing."

"Agreed." Hugo tapped the screen again. "But here's where it gets interesting."

Another thread opened-this one anonymous, posted to the Inter-Knot. A Raider complaining about a stolen commission. The post described a figure in green interrupting a fight, claiming to help, then disappearing with the credit for the kill.

"A Raider's account of him stealing their commission," Hugo said. "But look at the details."

She scanned the post. The Raider claimed the vigilante had appeared during an Ethereal fight-one they'd been losing. The figure had stepped in, taken down the Ethereal, and left. They accused him of stealing their pay.

"You see it, don't you?" Hugo leaned back, folding his arms. "The Raider's lying. They were overwhelmed. He saved them. They framed it as theft."

Vivian read through the post again. "He could have taken the credit. He could have demanded payment. But he just... left."

"Exactly. He helps without reward. He doesn't ask for anything in return." Hugo's mismatched eyes glinted. "Which brings us to the next piece."

He pulled up a third screen-this one bearing the official insignia of New Eridu Public Security.

"A wanted listing?" Vivian's voice was flat. "So Public Security is now hunting him."

"Not aggressively. But yes. He's been flagged for multiple illegal Hollow entries. Obstruction of an investigation. Operating without registration." Hugo's smile was thin. "The Green Shroud-that's what some people have started calling him-has attracted the wrong kind of attention."

She sat back, letting the name settle. "Green Shroud..."

"A shroud," Hugo said, "is a cloth that covers or protects. It hides what's underneath. Fitting, don't you think?"

Vivian didn't answer. Her gaze drifted back to the image on the tablet. The tattered cape. The worn gear. The way he stood-like someone who'd been fighting alone for a long time.

"People have started noticing," she said slowly. "He's been seen in specific areas around Janus Quarter. The sightings cluster near Sixth Street and the construction site."

Her eyes widened. 'The construction site-the one where Izuku works...'

She pulled up the Belobog post again, studying the background. The smart machine, the scaffolding, the angle of the light. It matched the layout of the site she'd seen in Izuku's work clothes.

"Look at this," she said, pointing at the edge of the frame. "That's the northern scaffold. He's standing near the Hollow perimeter. The same Hollow Izuku works near."

She scrolled through the nighttime posts, mapping the locations in her head. Sixth Street. The construction site. The alleyways and residential blocks between them.

"The sightings cluster between the shop and the site," she said. "Every time he appears, it's either near Sixth Street or that Belobog site."

Hugo watched her with quiet interest. "You're building a map."

"Someone has to." She pulled up the hospital file again. "The report about him saving Lord Phaethon. The Belobog incident. The night sightings. It's all connected to the same person."

She paused, letting the pieces settle.

'It's him. It has to be him. The scarred hands, his green lightning, how he moves like someone who's been doing this for years.'

She looked at Hugo, her expression unreadable. "He's the vigilante."

Hugo's smile widened-slow, deliberate, like he'd been waiting for her to say it. "I was wondering how long it would take you."

"So you already knew?"

"I suspected it." He leaned closer.

"When you first told me about him, I found it curious that a man with no history would appear at the same time a vigilante started operating in the same area." He shrugged. "And the green lightning was a rather obvious clue."

Vivian turned back to the tablet, studying the image again. "What's his motive? He's not getting paid or building a reputation. The only thing he seems to be doing is risking his life for strangers."

"Perhaps that's the point." Hugo's voice had dropped some of its theatrical edge. "Some people don't need a reason to help others. They just... do it."

"People like that don't exist," Vivian said.

"They do." His mismatched eyes met hers. "They're just rare."

She went silent. Her gaze flicked to the image of the Green Shroud.

The figure in green was framed by the flickering light of a smart machine's optical sensors. One hand was extended, black tendrils curling from his wrist, wrapping around debris that had been about to fall on a group of workers. His posture was strained, but his grip was steady.

'He's not a monster. He's someone who can't stop protecting others, even when it's costing him-even when it's costing him everything.'

"He doesn't seem to care about his own safety," she said. "His gear is falling apart. He's been flagged by Public Security. And he keeps going out night after night, helping people who can't even thank him."

"Is it safe to leave someone like that to his own devices?" Vivian's voice had gone quiet. "I know he saved my Lord Phaethons, but he's clearly going to keep endangering himself until he collapses. They care about him, I could see it in their eyes. Even if he's temporary-if something happens to him..."

She let the thought hang, unfinished.

Hugo was quiet for a long moment.

Then he leaned forward, planting his hands on the desk. "My advice, little bird? Leave him be. For now."

She looked at him, startled. "You can't be serious."

"I'm entirely serious." His voice was calm, measured. "He's not a threat to our operations. He's not causing trouble for your precious Phaethons. And according to what you've told me, he's planning to leave soon anyway."

"Leaving doesn't mean-"

"It means he'll be out of their lives. Out of our way. And if he wants to keep playing hero, that's his choice." Hugo's mismatched eyes glittered with something she couldn't read. "Some people aren't meant to be saved, Vivian. And some people don't want to be."

'I know that.' Her jaw tightened. 'But I can't just stand by and watch.'

"Besides," Hugo added, straightening, "I would have loved to approach him. Ask if he wanted to join Mockingbird. He'd make a fine apprentice-his abilities, his instincts, his willingness to act would have been perfect for us.'

He exhaled through his nose. "But he's too good and selfless. He wouldn't accept what we do, and I wouldn't want to drag someone like him into this world."

He walked toward the door, his footsteps echoing in the quiet room. "Ah. I almost forgot. I have a mission for you."

Vivian looked up. "Now? I'm not-"

"You are." Hugo's voice was light, but she saw the edge in his mismatched eyes. "It's a distraction. Something to clear your head. You've been spiraling for three hours, and it's not helping anyone."

He set a slim drive on the desk. "There's a building in Lumina Square. The owner's been laundering money through fake Hollow commissions. He's got a private server with all the evidence. I need you to get in, download it, and get out."

She stared at the drive. "Hugo, I don't have time for-"

"You do." He smiled-soft, not sharp. "Consider it a favor. For me. And maybe a favor for yourself. You've been obsessing over this mystery long enough."

He turned and walked away.

She was left standing in the dark, her breath shallow, her hands trembling around the drive.

Vivian sighed and pocketed the drive, her decision made. 'If the mission will help me stop thinking about it for a few hours, maybe it's worth it. And I'll be doing Hugo a favor.'

She started walking, heading to get ready for the mission.

But the image of the Green Shroud lingered in her mind-the tattered cape, the steady stance, the way he'd reached out to protect people who couldn't protect themselves.

She didn't know why he did it.

But she was starting to wonder if she'd be able to ever let such a figure stay with her Lord Phaethons a second longer.

 

[GhostJade45]

Lights from cars on the street flickered past as the evening got darker. Izuku sat in the corner of the cafe, his new phone propped against a sugar dispenser, the screen casting pale light across his face.

He'd been here for nearly two hours.

The café was quiet-only a few customers scattered at tables, a barista wiping the same spot on the counter, the low hum of a refrigerator.

His thumb scrolled through a downloaded map of the Outer Ring. Looking at all the available current information about roads, settlements and Hollow boundaries.

He'd found a few leads. A transport company that ran cargo runs to the edge of the city.

A settlement called Blazewood that seemed to take in outsiders. Nothing solid, nothing guaranteed-but it was more than he'd had this morning.

His eyes drifted to the corner of the screen. A photo of his mother was there, she was standing outside their apartment, hand raised to shield her eyes from the sun.

Eyelids lowered as he stared at the photo. He closed the gallery and pocketed the phone.

His third coffee of the day had gone cold. He pushed it aside, pulled out his wallet, and counted the Dennies inside.

Then placed the right amount on the table.

Izuku stood, and grabbed his yellow backpack. Putting the straps over his shoulder, he walked out of the café.

Janus Quarter at night was quite different from below. Storefronts shuttered, streetlights flickering, the occasional Bangboo scurrying past with their owners.

Izuku kept his head down, hands in his pockets, walking aimlessly for the time.

His eyes closed. 'I only planned on finding out about the Outer Ring...I didn't think I'd find such things about this world while searching...'

Earlier while he had been searching, he ended up taking the opportunity to research about this world generally. He didn't really know enough generally.

There were far more questions that needed answering for him and he'd need to know in order to blend in.

But who would have expected...that this current world was actually an after effect of an apocalypse.

The planet, which he now knows is also called Earth, was covered in these Hollows. New Eridu and a floating city were the only places left with a living population on the planet.

Not only that, but New Eridu itself is a surviving part of a city from before. The Old Capital, or just Eridu, was the city before this one.

'To think just eleven years ago, a Hollow big enough to wipe out almost an entire city and most of its population was expanding.' His hand curled in his pockets.

They had to blow up fourteen Shiyu Pillars to stop it. Destroying even more of the city they tried to save, leaving a huge chasm.

The world back home took many losses from the dawn of quirks and the recent war had devastated Japan. Many cities were flattened and destroyed by Gigantomachia, escapees and Shigaraki with All For One.

But this...he couldn't comprehend a loss of almost the entire planet and only two or three general areas have life, and had been forced to use the very cause of their problems as a power source.

His eyes opened, darting around.

A few people walked through the streets lit up by street lights, cars drove by and many sounds from the district echoed.

'This is literally the only place with people on the planet...' Chatter from people going home from work caught his ear from across the street. 'Yet...everyone is acting so normal...'

Though based on the research he found, this was the case for hundreds of years. People couldn't let that stop them from living.

He looked up into the sky. Clouds filled the starry sky in many places.

But through a gap his eye caught the sight of the moon.

The circular rock half covered by Ether or a very large Hollow or multiple ones, stood in vision. A reflection of it appearing in his emerald eyes.

It was clear Hollows covering a whole planet, and corrupting it was not impossible to be true.

Ether was truly a dangerous substance. And he would be becoming something truly dangerous if he lets it take him over.

Izuku long suspected this from what he had seen, but searching about helped him confirm it.

He was getting corrupted by Ether...

It made sense, his body isn't from this world so wasn't made to have any natural resistance to Ether. People in this world have natural Ether in their bodies it seems which seems different at least in affects from Hollow Ether.

Ether aptitude was how someone resisted Ether corruption, keeping them from becoming an Ethereal, but for a time depending on how high it is.

And One For All for him was acting as his Ether aptitude, but it isn't a natural counter and his body is soaking up far more Ether because of its lack of normal resistance.

'The vestiges are already struggling to keep it from affecting me, and I'm getting more for them to deal with just existing..' Taking his hand out his pocket, he dropped his head down to stare at it.

A pained expression appeared on his face. 'If I became an Ethereal...I'd be an unbelievable problem for this city more than its small time saviour..'

Medication for corruption existed, but it cost money and it only slowed down the process for most. He isn't sure he'd get rid off the Ether or stop it from constantly entering his body.

Things would only go back to square one instantly. His body is even taking in Ether in the air outside Hollows and strong individuals with Ether.

His fist clenched hard. Belle and Wise were people who dealt with this stuff probably often.

After finding out what a Proxy was. He couldn't believe that they were illegal individuals who aren't approved by H.I.A. and N.E.P.S. but after seeing how Belle and Wise are.

Plus the fact that generally Proxies are helping guide people through these dangerous Hollows when officials can't. It's hard to see them as anything bad. Especially after seeing Wise in action, and plus Belle's general vibe and smile...

His head shook and he lowered his hand. And started moving forward again.

'They may be proxies but they can't help me with this...I'll be a danger even for them if I stay more than before.' His eyes narrowed. It seemed like just going to the Outer Ring was not the only step he had to take.

'Looks like I have to go further out...beyond the entire area and see...what happens..' A cold chill ran down his back as the thought of what he would do if his corruption reached a certain point.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket. Turning it on he looked at a photo with All Might, his mom, Bakugo, Shoto the others and Uraraka.

Izuku gazed at it with sorrow in his green eyes. His head leaned down slightly. 'I-I'm sorry...' The grip on his phone got tighter as his hand shook and his bangs covered his eyes.

'I can't survive...I can't let anyone in this world get hurt because of m-me...' A tear streamed down his cheek as his voice cracked slightly. 'P-Please everyone...don't ever let my loss affect you...I have to go knowing...that you're all smiling happily till the end..'

Belle and Wise's faces appeared in his mind as well. His teeth gritted hard. 'I'm not someone they need to worry...they'll forget me once I'm gone...'

A faint spark of black, appeared around his face, before disappearing.

Leaning over further he clutched his head with his free hand. He took deep breaths through his nose and let them out his mouth.

He repeated this a beat as wind blew past him, his dark green hair flowed in the wind.

Rubbing his eyes with the back of his forearm, he straightened himself. The sound of the city suddenly became noticeable again for him.

But he stood there for a beat. Eyes look void of light.

Then he took a step forward and kept moving through the streets. Not ready to return to Random Play yet.

--—----------------------------------------------------------

More time passed as he slugged through the streets. He turned by an alleyway, trying to find a faster path back.

His footsteps echoed off brick walls. A cat darted across his path and disappeared into a gap between dumpsters.

A cold wind cut through the alleyway. He pulled his work coat tighter.

Somewhere ahead, a car engine idled.

Then a distinct sound echoed above.

Footsteps on stone. Too deliberate for a stray cat. Too quiet for a civilian.

Izuku stopped walking. His head tilted, ear angled toward the sound. He activated the barest whisper of One For All-a flicker of green at his temples, and let his hearing sharpen.

Boot soles scraping against a rooftop edge. The soft thud of a landing. A quick, shuffling step.

He looked up.

A figure moved across the roofline of the building ahead, silhouetted against the night sky. They reached a window on the far side, paused long enough to check the frame, then slipped through.

Izuku stared at the empty window. His fingers curled inside his jacket pockets.

'Someone's breaking into that building..' Despite the situation, Izuku hesitated for a moment.

After all he had decided, it felt almost like stopping a crime didn't matter and he didn't risk himself for everything.

But his chest ached at the simple thought of that. He bent forward and clutched his chest. 'I shouldn't have to deal with every crime...but...ignoring an act like this happening in front of me would be impossible.'

He wasn't a hero like in his old world. Helping or stopping incidents here would keep him from moving on to the Outer Ring and further, but he couldn't stop trying to be someone who helped when it was needed or not at times.

His hand drifted to the strap of his backpack.

Izuku ducked into a shadowed alcove, unzipped his backpack, and pulled out his costume.

---—----------------------------------------------------------

Darkness was all that filled the office as Vivian slipped through the window.

She landed silently on the hardwood floor, her parasol still clutched in one hand, the other reaching back to close the window behind her.

The latch clicked into place with barely a sound. She waited, listening, counting the seconds of silence.

No alarms, footsteps and voices were heard.

She straightened and surveyed the room. A large desk dominated the center, its surface cluttered with papers and a sleek terminal.

Filing cabinets lined the far wall. The air smelled of leather and old cologne.

Vivian crossed to the desk, her heels making no sound against the wood. She set her parasol against the chair, pulled a slim drive from her dress, and sat down in front of the terminal.

Her fingers moved across the keyboard. The screen glowed to life, casting pale light across her face.

'Three firewalls,' she thought, her lips curving slightly. 'Hugo didn't mention that.'

She bypassed the first two in under a minute. The owner's system was older than it looked-layered security that had taken longer than she liked, but nothing she could not break.

The system opened. She found the encrypted files, started the transfer, and watched the progress bar crawl across the screen.

The transfer reached ninety percent.

She tapped her fingers against the desk.

The last of the financial records, the private messages, and the transaction logs finished transferring.

She pulled the drive free the moment the bar hit full, slipped it into the pocket of her dress, and shut the computer down with a clean keystroke.

Silence settled over the room. The only light left was the thin spill of street neon through the half-drawn blinds.

She straightened, parasol already in hand, and turned toward the door.

Her gaze rose up, and she froze from the sight ahead.

A figure stood in the doorway.

Dark green costume, full mask, the unmistakable silhouette of the Vigilante who had been moving through Janus Quarter for weeks. He was frozen mid-step, staring straight at her.

For a second neither of them moved.

Vivian's eyes widened behind her fringe. The Vigilante's posture stiffened with clear recognition.

"...You," he said, voice low and filtered through the mask.

Vivian recovered first. Her expression smoothed into something cool and unreadable, though her grip on the parasol tightened just enough to show.

"The Green Shroud," she answered evenly. "I didn't expect to find you here."

Izuku stepped fully into the office, the door swinging shut behind him with a soft click.

His eyes stayed locked on her through the darkness of his mask.

The shock had not left him. Of all the people he might have caught breaking into a building, Vivian had never been on the list.

"What are you doing?" he asked. The words came out sharper than he intended.

His gaze dropped briefly to the desk, the powered-down computer, the way she guarded a side by her dress. "You stole some data here didn't you?"

Vivian tilted her head. "I have no business explaining myself to you."

Izuku's eyes narrowed behind the mask.

He had seen her with Belle and Wise. He had watched the way she looked at them, the quiet care she never quite hid.

They had even mentioned, in passing, that she helped with their Proxy work.

That knowledge sat uncomfortably against the clear evidence of theft in front of him.

He forced the thought down and focused.

"I can't just let you walk out with whatever you took," he said. "Put it back. Do that, and maybe this ends here."

Even as he spoke the words he knew they were incomplete. Letting her leave tonight did not mean she would stop. People who broke into private offices rarely stopped at one.

Vivian's mouth curved in a thin, humourless smile. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I stop you."

She shifted her weight, the parasol rising slightly in her hands. The movement was graceful, almost casual, but there was nothing casual about the readiness in her stance.

"I have no reason to listen to you," she said. "If you will not move aside, then I will go through you."

Izuku hesitated. The image of Belle and Wise surfaced unbidden-Vivian sitting with them, the easy way she fit into their orbit. He did not want to fight her.

Across from him, Vivian's own hesitation was smaller, harder to see. She knew that this was likely Midoriya, meaning her lords trusted this man and he currently only wanted to stop her because she was seemingly committing a crime.

But she couldn't let herself falter, just yet.

Sparks ran around Izuku as he dashed in towards her.

He closed the distance in a short burst, hand reaching for the pocket where she had hidden the drive.

Vivian twisted aside with fluid precision, the parasol snapping forward in a sharp thrust aimed at his midsection. He leaned back, the tip of the parasol slicing past his ribs, and flipped clear to put space between them again.

She pivoted quickly for the open window, dress flaring behind her.

Izuku recovered and ran after her.

He caught up to her in the hallway outside the office.

Vivian spun the moment she heard his footsteps, her parasol sweeping in a wide arc.

He ducked under it, Black Whip flickering into existence at his wrist as he reached for her pocket.

The tendril snapped forward-only for the tip of the parasol to flash across its path and sever it cleanly. The severed length dissolved into sparks of green-black energy.

"Stop," Izuku ordered, already forming another tendril. "Just put it back. This doesn't have to-"

"I already told you." Vivian's voice stayed measured even as she darted sideways, using the narrow corridor to her advantage. "I have no reason to obey you."

She came at him again, faster than her clothing suggested. The parasol struck like a spear, then flipped into a defensive spin when he tried to close in.

Every movement was precise, elegant, and frustratingly effective.

Izuku blocked one thrust with his forearm, the impact jarring up to his shoulder, and answered with a low sweep of Black Whip that forced her to leap back.

"You're stealing," he said, pressing forward. "I can't walk away from that."

"And you have no business acting like Public Security." Vivian's eyes narrowed. "Or some kind of hero."

She twisted past another grab, the parasol cracking against the wall hard enough to leave a mark. "What I'm doing isn't mere thievery. That man keeps ledgers of bribes, blackmail, and the quiet removal of anyone who threatens his profits. People disappear because of him. I'm taking the proof."

Izuku hesitated for half a step. His enhanced hearing caught the steady, unhurried rhythm of her heartbeat. No spike of deception. The conviction in her voice matched what he heard under the surface. She believed every word.

"Helping or stopping people this way... is still not the right thing to do..," he said, but the certainty in his tone had thinned.

Vivian's expression cooled further. "You're not exactly working on the side of the law yourself, Midoriya."

Izuku froze. The second Black Whip tendril he had been forming dissolved mid-air. "How-?"

Vivian's eyes sharpened with confirmation. The way he had locked up told her everything she needed. The Vigilante was exactly who she had suspected.

Danger Sense screamed across the back of Izuku's skull.

He moved on pure instinct, shoving Vivian sideways as the first shots punched through the hallway wall.

Plaster and wood splintered. More rounds followed in a disciplined burst. Figures in dark tactical gear flooded the far end of the corridor-private security, heavily armed, and already locking onto both of them.

"Move!" Izuku barked.

Vivian needed no further prompting. They ran together, bullets cracking past them as they sprinted toward the nearest office with an exterior window.

Izuku hit the glass first with a controlled burst of Full Cowling, shattering it outward. Cold night air rushed in. He grabbed Vivian's wrist without thinking and pulled them both through.

Vivian snapped her parasol open, the canopy catching the air, and landed beside him with a soft thud.

They were on a building adjacent to the first one.

Behind them, shouts and more gunfire spilled from the broken window. A few of the security team were already climbing out after them.

"Come on," he said, sprinting forward.

She hesitated, her eyes looking at him with slight shock but she quickly followed.

They ran across the rooftop, leaping gaps and scaling vents. Vivian kept pace, her parasol tucked under her arm. 'This isn't how I expected tonight to go.'

Two of the security team dropped onto the same rooftop behind them, raising up their weapons.

More figures appeared on the adjoining building ahead, cutting off the straight path across the skyline.

Muzzle flashes lit the night. Rounds sparked off concrete and metal vents.

Izuku's breathing was sharp. Vivian's eyes darted between the threats.

'We can't talk our way out of this,' he thought. 'We have to fight through.'

Izuku and Vivian split without a word.

He cut left, Black Whip lashing out to yank one shooter off balance and slam him into a rooftop AC unit.

Vivian went right, parasol spinning open to deflect a burst of fire before she closed the distance in three quick steps and drove the reinforced tip into the man's midsection hard enough to fold him.

Another tried to flank her; she pivoted, used the parasol as a vaulting pole, and kicked him clean off the edge onto a lower terrace.

Izuku caught a third with a short burst of Full Cowling, fist cracking against the man's chest plate and sending him sliding across the gravel.

A fourth opened fire from cover behind a stairwell housing. Black Whip snapped around the rifle and wrenched it away; then followed-up with a kick, putting the shooter down.

More kept coming.

'Tch, this man definitely doesn't want his secrets exposed if he has this much security.' Vivian thought, getting into a stance.

Izuku just narrowed his eyes and got himself ready, then charged at them.

They fought back to back for a stretch of seconds that felt longer.

Vivian's movements stayed precise and economical even under pressure-every strike of the parasol counted, every dodge used the rooftop clutter to her advantage.

Izuku stayed mobile, tendrils and controlled bursts of power keeping the heavier threats off her while she handled the closer ones.

A security bot clanked into view, its arm unfolding into a rotary weapon. Izuku hit it with enough force to cave the casing; Vivian finished the sensors with a sharp thrust that sparked and killed the optics.

The last of the immediate group went down in a heap near the far ledge.

For half a breath the rooftop was quiet except for their breathing and the distant wail of a sirens.

Then Danger Sense spiked white-hot across Izuku's mind.

He dropped and rolled as a high-velocity round cracked through the space where his head had been. The shot punched a neat hole in a metal vent behind him.

Vivian's parasol snapped open an instant later, the second shot ringing off its reinforced canopy with a sharp metallic note.

Izuku's eyes flicked across the higher rooftops. He pushed a fraction more power into his vision. A dark shape resolved on a distant water tower-prone, rifle steady, and adjusting for the next shot.

"Sniper," Izuku breathed.

They both moved for cover behind a cluster of ventilation units. Another round sparked off the metal near their heads.

Somewhere closer, one of the downed security men groaned and pushed himself up on an elbow.

His free hand came out of a pouch holding a compact grenade. He thumbed the primer with a grimace of effort.

"Let's see how well they can hide from this!" the man shouted, and threw.

Izuku's Danger Sense flared and he pivoted to look over and saw the Grenade heading there way.

Quickly, Blackwhip shot from his wrist, the tendril arcing through the air. It caught the grenade mid-flight, the momentum carrying it toward the edge of the building.

It clanked once, then exploded.

The blast took out a chunk of the rooftop's edge, sending debris-concrete, rebar, twisted metal-raining down toward the street below.

Izuku's heart stopped.

'NO-!' He got up and ran to the edge of the building.

Green lightning surged around him as he reached the broken edge, looking down at the falling debris. Three large pieces, and multiple smaller ones were heading down.

There was a parked car with its driver inside and a couple walking their dog on the street.

Izuku gritted his teeth, and Blackwhip exploded from his body-more tendrils came out than his current level of the quirk allowed.

They shot downward, wrapping around each piece of debris, arresting their fall inches above the street.

His body strained hard.

Pain exploded through his skull. The Ether in his body surged violently, black lightning crawling across his arms, his chest, his face. Green sparks mixed with the darkness, fighting for dominance. His vision flickered, and a groan tore from his throat.

"Come on-" he gritted out, his muscles screaming. "Come on-"

He held and the debris stopped falling. The people below scrambled out of the way, staring up at the masked figure.

Izuku's entire body shook. Black lightning with a green hue pulsed around him, crawling up his neck, his jaw.

She stared. Her breath caught.

'What is that? That's not just normal Ether corruption...'

A bullet cracked the air near Izuku's head.

Vivian's focus snapped back to the sniper.

She saw the rifle's muzzle flash, and the trajectory line in her mind. He was lining up another shot-this one would hit.

She instantly started moving towards him.

Her hand came up, and from the hidden mechanism in her parasol, a small Ether projectile shot out-a burst of concentrated energy that streaked across the rooftops, heading towards the sniper.

The sniper saw it and quickly rolled to the side out the way, the shot hitting where he had been.

"Now!" Vivian shouted. "Let go of the debris and move!"

Izuku gritted his teeth. With one final surge of strength, he swung the debris away from the street, depositing it in an empty lot. The Blackwhip tendrils dissolved, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping.

Vivian was at his side in an instant, pulling him up. "We have to go. Now."

He nodded, too exhausted to speak.

He stood up and leapt with her onto the next building building and they continued on.

—----------------------------------------------------------

They didn't stop until they'd put ten blocks between themselves and the guards.

Izuku slumped against a brick wall in a narrow alley, his breathing ragged. His body felt like it had been wrung out, every muscle screaming in protest. The black lightning was gone, but the memory of it lingered.

He reached up and pulled off his mask. Then the respirator. The air tasted clean, and he gulped it down.

Vivian stood a few feet away, watching him. Her expression was unreadable.

He could feel her eyes on him.

"What was that?" she asked quietly. "That black lightning... That wasn't just Ether. That was-"

"I don't know." His voice was rough. "It started happening recently. When I push too hard, or when I'm..." He paused, searching for the word. "...stressed."

She was silent for a moment. Then she said, "You're being corrupted."

Izuku's jaw tightened. "Yes."

Vivian took a step closer. "You're aware that you can't just-"

"I know what it means...." His voice was sharper than he intended. He swallowed. "I know ...what I'm risking."

"Do you?" She was closer now, her red eyes boring into his. "You're staying with Belle and Wise. You're living in their home. And you're slowly turning into something that could-"

"Don't-." His voice cracked. "...don't you think I know that?"

He looked away, his hands curling into fists at his sides. His shoulders hunched.

"I know they could get hurt because of me. I know I'm a danger to them, and that I should leave." His voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I'm planning to. Once I have enough money to pay them back-once I know they won't try to stop me-I'm going to disappear."

Vivian stared at him. The weight of his words settled between them like something solid.

"Disappear where?" She asked.

"The Outer Ring. Then beyond." He shook his head. "I can't stay. I can't-" He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. "I can't bear to see their faces when they find out what I am. What I'm becoming..."

Vivian opened her mouth. Closed it. She'd never seen anything like this before-not in the files, not in the rumors. The Green Shroud, the faceless vigilante who helped without reward, was a broken man. A man who had already accepted his end.

"Where... did you come from?" she asked softly. "I searched every record. Every database. There's nothing. You appeared two weeks ago with no history or anything..."

Izuku's shoulders tensed. The quiet confirmation that she had dug into him settled cold in his chest. He stayed silent for a moment, then let out a slow breath and turned his head just enough to look at her.

"...Thanks," he said. The word came out rough. "For earlier. For stopping that shot." He looked away again, voice dropping. "And you were right. I'm not Public Security, or... a hero either. I have no right to judge you or stop you...especially with how I'm operating.."

Vivian watched him. Her guilt rose from deep within her.

"You weren't exactly completely wrong... while I do help people," she said after a beat. "But I don't only for them. I steal and dig into places I shouldn't. I do it for myself and for the people I answer to as well."

Her head hung low. "I am still a criminal..."

Izuku's eyes shifted back to her. He saw the way her gaze had lowered, the faint tightness at the corner of her mouth. He turned slightly toward her.

"As long as you're not taking from people who don't deserve it... or hurting them... it's not an issue." His voice was quieter now. "What you did tonight-keeping those people from getting crushed by covering me when I couldn't move-that showed me enough. You're a good person Banshee."

Vivian's eyes widened a fraction. For a second she simply stared at him.

"...Thank you," she said, and meant it.

Izuku gave a small nod, then pushed off the wall and started walking. The alley stretched ahead, darker where the streetlights did not reach.

Vivian raised her hand. "Wait!"

He continued walking.

Vivian moved after him. "I still can't let you leave without answers. Where you came from. What you are. Why there's nothing on you anywhere." She closed the distance and reached out, fingers brushing toward his arm.

Izuku's jaw tightened.

"You wouldn't believe me," he said, not looking at her.

"You don't know that." Her voice stayed steady. "Let me hear it. Then deci-"

Black lightning flickered across the back of his hand and up into his eyes, thin threads of green twisting through the dark.

He twisted sharply, knocked her reaching hand aside hard.

"I CAN'T TELL YOU!! SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!" His voice yelled out rougher, and layered with something that wasn't ordinary.

Vivian flinched back a step, eyes wide, the faint crackle of that black-green energy still hanging in the air between them.

Izuku's breath caught. The lightning vanished as quickly as it had come. He stared at her hand, then at her face, and the horror of what he had just done landed all at once.

"I-I'm sorry..." He took a half-step back. "I'm sorry. Please... don't tell Belle and Wise. Not about me. Not about any of this. Not until I've paid them back. Please..."

Pivoting around he pulled his mask back on, the respirator clicked into place, and Black Whip snapped up to the fire escape above.

In the next second he was gone, swinging hard into the dark between the buildings.

Vivian stood alone in the alley, watching him disappear into the night.

Her hand still tingled faintly where he had struck it.

The drive was still in her pocket. The evidence of corruption, of injustice, of everything she'd fought to expose.

But she could barely feel it.

Whatever that black lightning had been... whatever he was becoming... it was no longer something she could simply report and walk away from.

She looked up at the stars, obscured by the city's glow. Her throat tightened.

"I need to talk to my lords. I can't keep this from them. They deserve to know who they've been housing. What he's been doing." She exhaled slowly. "Even if he hates me for it."

She turned around and slowly started walking. The wind blew through her purple hair making it flow as he opened her parasol and leaped up into the night.

Random Play was quiet except for the soft clack of controller buttons and the low murmur of the television.

Belle sat cross-legged on the couch, leaning forward, eyes locked on the screen. Wise was beside her, equally focused, the two of them deep in whatever late-night match they had started. The usual clutter of snack bags and half-empty cans sat on the low table.

Footsteps echoed from the stairs.

Both of them glanced over.

Izuku stepped from the stairs. His head was down, dark green hair falling across his eyes. He did not look at them as he went for his spare room. The yellow backpack hung heavy off one shoulder.

"Welcome back," Wise said.

Belle paused the game. "Hey. You were gone a while this time. Is everything okay?"

Izuku kept walking. "Yeah... Just... got distracted. Had to buy a new phone and get it set up."

They caught the tone of his voice and how he acted seemed stranger than usual. Belle and Wise exchanged a quick look.

"Midoriya...?" Belle's voice softened. She set the controller down and stood. "You sure? You seem-"

"I'm fine." He did not stop. "Nothing's wrong."

He inched closer to his spare room.

Belle moved faster, stepping into his path before he could pass.

"If something's bothering you... you can tell us. We want to help." She said with a careful tone.

Izuku finally lifted his head.

For a fraction of a second Belle thought she saw something wrong with his eyes-darker than they should have been, the green almost swallowed. Then he looked away again.

"I don't need you to worry about me anymore." The words were quiet, but the cold edge in them was new.

He stepped around her, opened the door to his room, and closed it behind him. The lock clicked.

Belle stood frozen in the hallway. Wise had risen from the couch and come to stand beside her. Neither spoke for a moment.

"...Did you see that?" Belle asked under her breath.

Wise frowned. "See what?"

"His eyes. Just for a second, they looked-" She touched the side of her face near the implant. A dull ache had started behind it. "I don't know...darker. And this... hurts a little."

Wise glanced at the closed door, then back at her. "Something happened tonight..."

Belle nodded slowly. Worry started growing in her chest.

A soft chime cut through the quiet.

Both of them turned toward the phone on the table. The screen lit up with a new message, seeing it was from Vivian.

Belle picked it up. Her eyes moved across the short text once, then again.

"She's coming by in the morning," she said. "Says she needs to talk to us. That it's important."

Wise read the message over her shoulder. The two of them stood there in the dim living room, the paused game still glowing on the television.

They looked at each other. Faint sounds ran through the room as they glanced at the spare room door.

 

[GhostJade45]

Izuku placed his feet on the cool floor as he stretched his arms overhead.

He pulled on his pants, followed by a grey t-shirt that Wise lent him, after that he reached for a jacket and put it on. His red shoes slipped, worn by the extensive use before standing up.

Reaching, he grabbed his yellow back and pulled it over his shoulder before opening the door to his room and stepping into the main living space, Belle was standing by the kitchenette counter, both hands wrapped around a mug of mocha coffee wearing her usual dark vest and shorts and hair slightly messy but mostly tamed.

The Blue haired girl turned to see him after hearing the door open, and her face broke into her trademark wide, effortless smile she always seemed to have ready for him each time she saw Izuku.

"Morning! Coffee's fresh. Well, Wise made it, so it's actually drinkable today. I'm still trying to figure out how he does it to make it so frothy" Belle responded by giving Izuku a green mug with a bunny on it.

Izuku gazed at her for a moment before replying. "Thanks…." He moved toward the counter, taking the mug somewhat reluctantly.

Wise appeared at the top of the stairs, silver-gray hair neatly combed, jacket already on and he gave Izuku a calm nod. "Did you sleep okay?" The silver haired young man asked Midoriya.

"Yeah..." Izuku poured himself coffee without looking directly to avoid eye contact. "I slept fine.." Izuku wasn't a fan of lying in the face of people but it's something he had to do in order to put more people in danger.

Belle leaned against the counter, watching him. Her smile was warm but her eyes tracked him a little too carefully

"You've been quiet lately," she said. "More than usual, I mean." she added before taking a sip of her coffee, but Izuku already have a counter to that

"You know that I'm always trying to be quiet," he meekly replied, taking a sip trying to avoid raising any suspicions, but Wise already caught up on that.

"You are," Wise agreed, settling into the chair by the low table. "But Belle's right. You've been pulling back more lately" Wise said, sitting on a nearby chair looking at Izuku with a serious, but also concerned gaze.

Izuku set the mug down. "I'm fine... Just a little stressed from work." Izuku replied, trying to excuse his work on the Belobog building site.

Belle's smile dimmed a fraction. "You always say that." She crossed her arms and gave him a more serious look "but not even Grace looks that tired, and she spends a lot of time working, and here you are, looking barely better than a walking corpse" she scolded Midoriya.

"Because it's true, I'm actually trying to be as useful as possible" He turned toward the stairs. "Look, I should get going now. Don't want to be late, or president Belobog is going to give me an eardrum for 'wasting the daylight'. " Izuku replied, trying to keep a smile to hide his exhaustion.

"Midoriya.." Belle's voice was softer now. She set her own mug down and stepped toward him. "Listen, if there's something going on… you know that you can tell us, right? We're not going to judge you. We just want to help you." Belle tried to convince him to talk, but it was no use.

Izuku stopped but he still had his back to Belle. "Nothing's…going on. I appreciate your help, but everything's fine, you have nothing to worry about," he said before continuing his way to the exit.

"You don't have to carry everything by yourself, you know that?" Wise added from behind. His voice was calm, measured, the way it always was. "Whatever it is, we've probably dealt with worse things in comparison," Wise said, trying to convince Izuku to stay a little bit more.

Izuku's grip tightened on the mug. "I appreciate that….really, but there's nothing to talk about." He took another step toward the stairs and the exit.

Belle moved faster, stepping into his path. Her teal-aqua eyes searched his face with an intensity that made his chest tighten. "Please. Just tell us what's wrong. We've been sick and worried about you. You come home late, you look exhausted, you barely eat anymore—"

"Belle." His voice came out harder than he intended. "I said I'm fine." He put his hands into his pockets and kept walking.

"Wait!" Wise crossed the room. He reached out and placed his hand on Izuku's arm firmly. "Midoriya. We're asking you to trust us, just give us a chance, and we'll listen to you, just consider it," Wise said now with a more worried tone and his calm demeanor sliding a little.

Wise's fingers tightened harder around Izuku's arm. The pressure dug into his forearm.

"Isn't he being too–?' A white glow from the windows deepened into something sour, a pale sickly yellow that washed the color from everything it touched, the hum of the refrigerator stretched and distorted, dropping in pitch until it was a low, throbbing drone that vibrated in his teeth.

"Even in another world, you're pushing away those who care about you. How typical of you Izuku Midoriya. But that routine is slowly starting to get repetitive." A slow and deliberate voice came from behind him.

Izuku's blood went cold, his eyes widened.

He turned his head slowly.

Wise's hand was still on his arm, but the fingers were different now—longer, the skin pale and scarred, the nails dark.

Wise's face was shifting. The silver-gray hair darkened, thickened, receded. The neat composure melted away, replaced by something raw and ruined. The skin scarred over, crisscrossed with deep, ancient tissue damage that had never healed properly.

His smile spread across his ruined face like a crack in glass, wide and patient and genuinely delighted.

Izuku saw in horror how Wise's face morphed into the face of a villain he thought he would never see again, the demon of Japan, the scourge of heroes, and a name that infused fear of whoever heard it.

All For One looked back at him through Wise's body.

"That's much better," AFO said, his voice warm and theatrical. "I've always found conversation so much more pleasant when both parties are being honest, don't you think?" Izuku couldn't move. His muscles had locked, every nerve firing danger signals so loud they drowned out coherent thought. His mouth opened but nothing came out.

AFO tilted his head, studying Izuku's face with the casual interest of a collector examining a new specimen. "What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost." A soft, amused breath. "Well. I suppose you have, in a manner of speaking." AFO said amusingly while walking around the ninth wielder of OFA.

"How—" Izuku's voice cracked. "HOW ARE YOU HERE!?" Izuku asked in exasperation as every single instinct of him went into high alert. AFO didn't answer immediately.

He released Izuku's arm and stepped back, folding his hands behind his back in that familiar, unhurried posture.

He looked around the living room of Random Play with the expression of someone touring a modest but interesting museum.

"What a charming little home," the villain said. "A video store. A spare room upstairs. Two kind strangers who took in a lost boy without asking too many questions." His gaze drifted back to Izuku. "It's almost poetic, isn't it? After everything you went through, after all the running and the fighting and the loneliness… you ended up right back where you started. Being mothered."

Izuku's jaw tightened. "You're not real. You can't be—" Izuku replied, trying to make sense of what was going on.

"Real?" AFO raised a brow, and the scarred skin around it pulled in ways that should have been painful but clearly weren't. "Oh, Midoriya. You of all people should know that the most dangerous things are often the ones you can't see by first glance. The things that live inside you."

He tapped a finger against his own temple. "Or inside them." He gestured vaguely toward the kitchenette. Izuku followed the gesture.

Belle was still there, still standing where she'd been, but she wasn't moving. Her smile was frozen in place, wide and fixed, her eyes unblinking.

She looked like a photograph of herself—perfect, pleasant, and completely hollow. The wrongness of it hit him like a fist to the stomach.

Gathering enough courage to ask, he decided to reach the bottom of the matter "Where am I?" Izuku breathed still in shock from the situation, but decided to know what was going on right now.

"You're exactly where you've always been in Midoriya" AFO replied. "Trapped inside your own head, running from the same thing you've been running from since you were a quirkless child on a rooftop, watching someone else do what you couldn't."

He paused, letting the words settle. "The only difference is that now, the thing chasing you isn't me. It's you."

Izuku's hands curled into fists. "Shut up!" he replied as he took a combat stance. "YOU'RE NOT EVEN REAL, YOU'RE NOT EVEN HERE!" He yelled at the top of his lungs trying to convince himself.

AFO smiled wider as apparently he was achieving what he was planning to do "Still being so persistent and determined to handle everything by yourself."

He began to pace slowly, his footsteps making no sound against the floor. "Let me paint you a picture, Izuku. Because I think you've lost sight of the pattern, and patterns are such beautiful things." He stopped by the window, the sickly light casting deep shadows across his ruined features.

"You find kind people willing to help you out, you let them feed you, house you, worry over you. And then, the moment they get close enough to actually see you—the real you, the broken thing underneath the polite smiles and the scarred hands—you leave. And without saying goodbye nonetheless." He turned back.

"Your mother. All Might. Those classmates and friends you pushed away for an entire year. And now these two strays." The word landed like a slap. Izuku's teeth clenched hard enough to ache.

"These two you've chosen to cling to," AFO continued, his voice dropping into something more intimate, more cutting. "They're not even lawful citizens, Izuku. They're Proxies. Lawbreaking hackers who violate this world's ordinances for profit, skulking through Hollows that would dissolve lesser men. And their little friend? A thief in an expensive dress, stealing through windows in the dark." He tilted his head, and the smile took on a knowing edge. "You seem drawn to villains, don't you? First that HPSC rogue assassin, and now this collection of digital miscreants."

"Stop talking!" Izuku's voice was low and trembling with an uncharacteristic threatening growl as green lightning started to appear on his fists and hair.

AFO noticed and decided to continue with a smug grin. "That woman—Lady Nagant—had every opportunity and chance to end you. Multiple times, if I recall correctly. She chose not to. And you called that redemption."

That one last part was said on a more humoristic approach, like if the villain heard a bad joke. AFO let the word hang in the air, rolling it around like a marble in his mouth. "How many criminals do you need to befriend before you realize you're simply collecting people who can't judge you? People whose own sins are heavy enough that they can't afford to weigh yours?"

Izuku's breathing was ragged. His nails dug into his palms. "Belle and Wise are not criminals. They let me stay when I had nowhere else to go. They were kind to me when they had every reason not to be. Wise helped stop that machine at Belobog without being asked. Their work as proxies involves helping people who can't get out of Hollows on their own."

His voice rose, cracking at the edges. "They're good people. And I won't let anyone—especially you—say otherwise!" Izuku emphasized that with a firm voice.

AFO regarded him with an expression of pure, genuine delight, as though Izuku had just performed a particularly entertaining trick. "Charming," he said softly.

"You found one criminal who chose not to murder you, and you've built an entire philosophy around it. But tell me, Izuku—do you know what these two have done in their past? Every person they've guided through a Hollow, every law they've broken, every consequence they've left in their wake?"

He spread his hands. "You don't. You've simply decided they're good because they were kind to you. How self-centered." he said with a mocking scoff.

"And the thief?" AFO continued, pacing again. "You've seen her steal with your own eyes. You tried to stop her. And then… you thanked her. Accepted her." A soft, delighted laugh. "How easy it is for you to forgive criminality when it comes with a pretty face and some kind words."

"YOU BASTARD!!" Izuku grabbed AFO by the throat and slammed him back into the wall. The impact cracked the plaster.

AFO's head bounced off the surface, and for a fraction of a second, the scarred face contorted in surprise.

Izuku's arm was locked, his fingers digging into the ruined skin of AFO's neck. His entire body shook with rage. His teeth were bared. A vein pulsed visibly at his temple.

"Lady Nagant had the chance to kill me multiple times!" he shouted. "She didn't! And I was able to help her see the light and give her a second chance! Being a villain doesn't make someone evil! I know that now!"

His grip tightened. AFO's face got more red but his smile never left his face. If anything, it widened.

"I may not know everything they've done as proxies," Izuku continued, his voice dropping to a raw, shaking whisper. "And I may not know everything that woman has stolen. But I can tell they're not scum like you. They're nothing like you, AFO. And I won't let you insult them."

AFO stared at him. His eyeless face shimmered with something that might have been pride.

"There it is," he whispered, his voice strained under Izuku's grip but still warm, still amused. "That fire…and stubborn, foolish, beautiful conviction."

He reached up and placed his hand over Izuku's, the gesture almost gentle. "But conviction doesn't change what's happening to you, does it? Your ghosts can't protect you here. I can feel them struggling, you know. That faint gold light pushing against the dark."

Izuku's breath caught.

"They're losing," AFO said. "And when they're gone… when that last spark of something-other finally burns out…" He leaned closer, his ruined face inches from Izuku's.

"What's left won't be a hero. It won't even be a person. It'll be a thing. A thing with your power, your stubbornness, and none of your restraint. And these people you love so much—these good, kind, criminal strays—"

A fist smashed into All For One's face, cracking the wall behind him further. "I'M NOT GONNA LISTEN TO ANY OF YOUR CRAP ANYMORE!"

He cocked his arm back and sent it forward. Punching AFO in the face repeatedly.

"W-What…are you doing ..?" A voice came from behind him. Small. Horrified.

Izuku froze, his head turned.

Belle stood by the counter at the kitchenette. Her hands were pressed over her mouth, with her teal-aqua eyes open wide, as her body shook.

Izuku glanced back at the wall, and his eyes widened.

He was holding Wise by the throat.

His face was swollen on one side, blood running from a split in his lip and a gash above his eyebrow. His jacket was torn at the collar. A bruise was already blooming across his jaw in deep, ugly shades of purple.

Izuku's hand released Wise, as he stumbled backward, his heel catching the edge of a rug, and his back hit the opposite wall.

His legs gave out and he slid to the floor.

"No—" His voice came out as a croak. "No, no, I didn't—I didn't know—I thought—"

Belle moved and dropped to her knees beside Wise, her hands hovering over him, shaking, not sure where to touch. "Wise! Wise, are you—"

Wise coughed. A wet, ugly sound. He curled forward, one hand pressing against his ribs. Blood dripped from his lip onto the floor.

He looked up at Izuku, with a cold glare.

"G-Get away from us..." His words came out quiet.

Belle's face crumbled. She looked at Izuku, tears streaming down her cheeks. "H-How could you?" she whispered. "We took you in… trusted you…and this is what you do?..."

"I—I didn't—" Izuku's voice broke. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't know it was—"

His chest seized. Something inside him snapped.

Black lightning erupted from his body. It crawled up his arms, his chest, his neck, his face—jagged arcs of darkness threaded with that sickly green glow, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.

The air in the room dropped several degrees. The sickly yellow light turned to deep violet.

Blackwhip exploded outward. Each tendril was wild, formless, and lashing in every direction like living things.

They slammed into walls, wrapped around furniture, shattered the coffee table and sent pieces spinning across the floor.

Two tendrils shot toward Belle and Wise.

"NO!" Izuku screamed. He tried to pull them back, tried to claw at the energy with his own hands, but it wouldn't listen. It had never listened when he was like this. "STOP! DON'T TOUCH THEM!"

The black whips coiled around Belle's waist, around Wise's arm. They didn't squeeze—not yet—but they held, and they spread, crawling up their bodies like vines.

Belle gasped, her hands clawing at the dark tendrils. "Izuku, stop! Please!"

Wise grunted, trying to pull free. His implants flared gold, but the black energy swallowed the light.

Izuku staggered to his feet, clutching his head. "I can't—it won't STOP—"

AFO's voice came from everywhere. From the walls, from the ceiling, from inside his own skull.

"Look at what you're doing."

Izuku spun. AFO stood behind him, hands folded behind his back, watching the chaos with the expression of a man enjoying theater.

"Look at what you're becoming." AFO's voice was warm, almost fatherly. "This is what happens to heroes who carry too much, Izuku. Who pushes too hard. Who refused to let anyone share the weight. Eventually, the weight breaks them. And what's left—"

He stepped closer, his ruined face inches from Izuku's.

"—is the very thing this world has to fear. A monster with your power, your stubbornness, and none of your restraint. No one will be able to stop you. Not these strays. Not their police. Not anyone."

Izuku stared at him. Tears streamed down his face.

"No..," he whispered. "I'll never let that happen. I won't—I won't let myself become a problem for anyone—"

He tried to pull the Blackwhip back. It wouldn't obey. More tendrils wrapped around Belle and Wise, covering them, swallowing them in darkness.

"STOP!" he screamed at his own power. "WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN!?"

AFO watched, his smile widening with each failure. "They can't hear you, Izuku. The vestiges are barely holding on. There's no one left to help you control it."

The black whips wrapped around Izuku's own legs. His arms. His chest. They climbed higher, tightening, covering him.

He reached out, his hand stretching toward Belle and Wise as they disappeared beneath the dark coils.

"ALL FOR OOONNE!!"

The name tore from his throat as the darkness swallowed everything.

---

Izuku's eyes snapped open.

His back was pressed against the futon. The blanket was twisted around his legs, soaked with sweat. His chest heaved, each breath ragged and shallow, his heart hammering so hard against his ribs he could feel it in his teeth.

The ceiling of the spare room stared back at him.

He laid there for a long time, chest rising and falling.

Pivoting his head, his ears sparked to listen.

Nothing was heard but the faint hum of the refrigerator, a distant sound of traffic on Sixth Street, and soft, steady breathing of two people asleep in their rooms.

'A nightmate…. It was just a nightmare.'

Izuku pressed both hands against his face and held them there until the shaking stopped.

His skin was clammy. His hair was plastered to his forehead.

He lowered his hands.

Something caught the faint moonlight filtering through the high window.

His right forearm. The sleeve of his shirt had ridden up during the night, exposing the skin from wrist to elbow.

Small jagged growths clung to his skin. Violet-black, crystalline, no larger than fragments of gravel, they emerged from his flesh like frost forming on glass.

Three of them clustered near the vein that ran along the inside of his forearm. Around them, faint traces of black lightning with a green glow flickered once, twice, then faded.

Izuku stared at them. His hand shopped shaking

He reached over with his other hand and touched one of the crystals. It was smooth and cold against his fingertip. 'So it wasn't just a nightmare, then…'

He sat up slowly. The blanket fell away from his lap. The room was dark except for the thin rectangle of moonlight from the window, and in that darkness, the crystals on his arm caught the light and held it, glinting faintly.

Izuku looked at them for a long time. Then he pulled his sleeve down, covering them.

He turned his head toward the window. The sky outside was deep black, touched with the faintest suggestion of pre-dawn grey at the edges.

The moon sat where it always sat—wrong, half-eaten, a constant reminder of where he was and how far he was from where he belonged.

He pressed his palms against his eyes. 'What I saw wasn't real.., but the corruption is going to take me over eventually…?'

He lowered his hands and stared at the wall.

He reached for the wall inside himself—the vestige space. The black and purple barrier was still there, swirling, pressing.

The golden spark at its center flickered faintly, weaker than the last time he'd checked. Or maybe that was his imagination. He couldn't tell anymore.

'Yoichi. Nana. Kudo. En. Hikage. Bruce. Banjo.' He reached for them the way a drowning man reaches for a surface he can't see. 'You're all still there… still fighting. I know you are….'

His head dropped low.

'I'm sorry…I keep failing you.'

He pulled his hand away from his chest and looked down at his lap.

Then he reached for his wallet on the floor beside the futon and opened it.

The Dennies inside were the sum of nearly two weeks of construction work, minus the cost of the new phone and a few meals. He counted them twice, carefully, laying each bill out on the futon beside him.

Hospital bill. Food. Shelter. The charger cable. Every Denny he could account for, arranged in a neat stack.

It wasn't enough to cover everything—not exactly. But it was everything he had.

He set the stack on the center of the futon, weighted down with the phone he'd bought two days ago. Then he stood.

His backpack was by the door. He'd kept it packed, always, out of habit—the costume inside, folded neatly, the iron soles and gauntlets wrapped in the cape. He pulled on his dark hoodie, his red shoes, and shrugged the backpack over his shoulders.

He went to open the spare room window. The night air rushed in, cool and sharp, carrying the distant hum of a city that never fully slept.

Izuku stepped onto the sill. The moonlight caught his face for a moment—dark circles under green eyes that held no light of their own.

He looked back once. 'I hope you guys can understand and forget me..'

Then he dropped from the sill, landed silently in the parking lot, and disappeared into the dark.

---

Belle woke to grey light and the residue of a bad night's sleep.

She laid in bed for a long time, staring at the ceiling. Her eye implants ached dully, a faint pressure behind the teal-aqua irises that hadn't fully gone away since last night.

She sat up, rubbing her face. Then pushed her tangled dark blue hair out of her eyes with both hands and held it there for a moment, breathing.

She got up, pulled on her shorts and a loose shirt, and padded into the main room.

Everything was quiet. Bangboo 18 was dormant in its charging station by the counter making noises that mimicked a low electronic snore.

Wise was in the kitchenette, standing at the counter with a mug in his hand, staring at nothing. His silver-gray hair was messier than usual.

He looked up when she came in. "Hey…Morning."

"Morning…." She reached for a mug. "You sleep well?"

"Not really." He took a sip. "You?"

"Nope..." They stood in silence for a moment.

The coffee maker hissed softly between them.

"So we're gonna be meeting with Vivian right?" Belle asked, pouring herself a cup.

"Yeah, she said she'll arrive early so we better be ready." Wise set his mug down.

Belle leaned against the counter, wrapping both hands around the warm ceramic.

Her gaze went to the spare room door, looking at it for a moment.

Wise followed her gaze, staring along with her.

She exhaled out her nose and turned away. "Let's go."

They both went to get ready, or Belle was as Wise had already showered and gotten dressed.

Once she was done, they both went down stairs to their workspace room, settling into the familiar glow of monitors and the low hum of the H.D.D. system.

He pulled up routine data feeds—Hollow activity, client messages, inventory status—but his eyes kept drifting to the side monitor where Fairy's interface pulsed in slow standby.

Belle dropped into the second chair, pulling her knees up to her chest. Her gaze was fixed on a wall.

"Hey…, Wise."

"Hm?"

"Do you think he went to work early?" She turned her head toward him. "I haven't heard anything from his room."

Wise was quiet for a moment. Then he shook his head slowly. "He didn't leave."

"How do you know?"

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "When I got up this morning, I walked past his door. It was closed, but I felt something." He paused, choosing his words. "That same feeling I get when my implants are active. That Ether pressure. But it wasn't coming from me."

Belle's brow furrowed. "You felt Ether from his room?"

"Faint. But it was there." His jaw tightened. "And it didn't feel like standard Ether. Not like the ambient stuff in Hollows either. It was…heavier..."

Belle's hand drifted up to touch the side of her face, near her implant. The dull ache from last night pulsed faintly. "That's what I felt. When he looked at me. My implant reacted to something."

Wise nodded slowly. "Something happened to him last night. Something worse than the nights before."

Belle pulled her knees tighter against her chest. "And Vivian's text came right after."

They looked at each other.

"Let's wait," Wise said. "She'll be here soon."

Belle nodded. But her eyes kept drifting back toward the wall.

---

Vivian arrived at Random Play forty minutes later.

Belle heard the back door open and close, followed by the soft click of heels on the shop floor.

She stood from her chair and moved toward the workspace door, Wise close behind.

Vivian opened the metal door, entering inside.

Her purple hair was neatly styled, her dress immaculate as always, parasol resting against her shoulder.

But her red eyes were dimmer than usual, the slit pupils slightly contracted, and her mouth was set in a line that wasn't quite neutral—it was the careful expression of someone working very hard to keep their face under control.

Vivian's eyes moved from Belle to Wise and back. "My lords... Good morning."

"Good morning." Wise gestured toward the workspace. "Come in. Let's sit."

Vivian inclined her head. She stood for a moment in the glow of the monitors, parasol held in front of her with both hands, her thumbs tracing the handle in slow, repetitive circles.

Belle sat in her chair. Wise leaned against the desk. Neither spoke. They waited.

Vivian's gaze dropped to the floor. She took a breath. Then another.

Belle leaned forward. "Hey, Vivian... Are you okay?"

"The issue isn't with me..," she said quietly. "It's with your guest."

Belle's stomach tightened. Wise's expression didn't change, but his arms crossed a fraction tighter.

"What about him?" Wise asked.

Vivian was silent for a long moment. Her fingers tightened around the parasol handle. Then she reached into a pocket of her dress and pulled out her phone.

She tapped the screen twice, turned it around, and held it out.

The photo was grainy, taken from an Inter-Knot post. A figure in a dark green costume, mid-stride on a rooftop, cape whipping behind him. Green lightning crackling around his frame. A mask covering his face.

"This figure," Vivian said, her voice careful and measured, "who you may have heard of on the Inter-Knot or from others. Known as the Green Shroud. The vigilante who has been operating in Janus Quarter for the past two weeks."

She paused. Her jaw tightened.

"He and Izuku Midoriya are the same person, Izuku Midoriya is The Green Shroud."

Belle's breath caught. She looked at Wise. His eyes had narrowed, but the expression on his face wasn't a surprise—it was confirmation.

"We know," Wise said quietly.

Vivian blinked. Her composure cracked for a fraction of a second—genuine surprise breaking through the careful mask. "You… already know?"

"We suspected that for a while now," Belle said, her voice tight. "The Photos at the Belobog site. The green lightning, the build, the way he moved, everything. Wise even managed to take a photo of him."

She glanced at Wise. He pulled out his phone and showed her the image he'd captured that night—the vigilante scaling the chain-link fence, cape trailing behind him.

Vivian stared at the photo. Then at them. And then down at the floor.

"He didn't want me telling you," she said after a moment. "He thought you didn't know. He asked me not to say anything until he paid you back his debts" Her voice dropped. "But I couldn't keep this from you. Not from my Lord Phaethons. Not when—"

She stopped. Her hand—the one that had been holding the phone—curled into a fist at her side.

"Wait, you ran into him while he was on vigilante work!?" Belle pressed gently.

Vivian nodded her head. "Yes, last night actually."

Wise straightened.

"It was during a Mockingbird job. While I was… retrieving data from a private office in Lumina Square. He spotted me entering the building and followed me inside." She opened her eyes. "He tried to stop me."

Wise's eyes sharpened. "You fought him?"

"It wasn't much of a fight. He tried to grab the drive I'd taken, but I refused to give it back." She shook her head. "Before things could escalate further, security arrived. Private guards, heavily armed. And even a sniper was shooting at us on a nearby rooftop."

Belle's eyes widened. "A sniper?"

"Things escalated even further after that." Vivian's voice steadied as she fell into the rhythm of the report, her training taking over. "We were forced to work together to get out of that predicament. He fought alongside me. He even protected me. Saved me when I was vulnerable, even though he didn't agree with what I was doing."

She paused again. Her fingers found the parasol handle and gripped it.

"After we escaped, we talked. He thanked me for covering him when he couldn't move. And he accepted my line of work." She looked up at Belle and Wise. "He said that as long as I wasn't taking from people who didn't deserve it or hurting them, it wasn't an issue. He called me a good person. A Good Person….." Vivian repeated that last word with a thoughtful gaze to the ground.

Belle's chest tightened. She exchanged a glance with Wise. His expression had softened a fraction—the same thought passing through both their minds.

That sounded exactly like him.

"Vivian," Wise said carefully. "That's not everything, is it?"

Vivian's composure cracked again, wider this time. Her shoulders dropped a fraction. Her gaze fell to the floor.

"No," she said quietly. "It isn't." She was silent for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was lower, stripped of its usual elegance.

"During the fight, he pushed himself too hard. He caught falling debris with those black tendrils of his, stopping it from crushing civilians on the street below. But the effort…" She swallowed.

"His Ether went out of control. Black lightning with a green glow, crawling across his entire body. His eyes went dark. And the energy felt… wrong. Different from standard Ether. Heavier. More corruptive, like a plague that became harder to contain the more it spreads."

Belle's hand flew to the side of her face. The dull ache behind her implant flared sharply at the words, as if the memory alone was enough to trigger a response.

"That's what I felt," Belle said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Last night. When he came home. I tried to talk to him and his eyes—" She paused, swallowing. "They went dark. Just for a second. And my implant ached. Like a pressure building behind it."

Vivian's head snapped up. "He came home like that? Did he hurt you?"

"No," Belle said quickly. "He didn't hurt us. He just… he said he didn't need us to worry about him anymore…." Her voice cracked slightly. "Then he locked himself in his room."

Vivian's hand moved to her other hand. She clutched it hard, her knuckles whitening around the fingers.

Wise noticed. His eyes tracked the gesture, narrowing slightly.

"Vivian. Your hand."

She looked down at it as though she'd forgotten it was there. Her grip tightened.

"When I tried to ask him about his past, about where he came from," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "his Ether spiked again. Black lightning. And he struck my hand. Hard." She looked up. "He didn't mean to. I could see it in his face the moment after he did it—the horror. He apologized immediately. But at that moment, he wasn't entirely himself."

The room fell silent. The monitors hummed. Fairy's interface pulsed in standby.

Wise uncrossed his arms and placed both hands on the desk, leaning forward. "His Ether spikes with his emotions."

Vivian nodded. "And it affects his mind. When corruption surges, he's not fully in control."

Belle stood abruptly. Her chair rolled back and hit the wall. She paced three steps toward the door, stopped, turned, paced back.

"Ether Corruption doesn't work like that," she said, her voice tight. "Corruption is determined by exposure time and aptitude. You enter a Hollow, you stay too long, the Ether saturates your body, and eventually you turn into an Ethereal. It doesn't spike because you're upset or because you have a bad day."

"In most cases, yes," Wise said, his tone measured. "But emotional states can affect Ether output in some individuals. Strong emotions can amplify Ether responses. We've seen it in Agents under extreme stress." He rubbed his chin. "But corruption itself shouldn't fluctuate with mood. If his corruption is spiking with his emotions, then something else is going on."

"Another factor is at play then," Vivian added quietly.

"And the black lightning," Belle said, turning back to face them. "I've never heard of corruption manifesting as black lightning with a green glow. That's not standard Ether. That's not even standard corruption. This is something else entirely." Belle concluded with a concerned look as she tried to piece everything together.

Wise turned to the monitors. "Fairy."

The blue eye materialized on the side monitor, rotating to life with its usual mechanical precision. "Yes, Master Wise."

"Report on the current Ether readings from the spare room."

Fairy was silent for exactly two seconds—an unusually long pause for a system that typically responded in milliseconds.

"I'm working on it…..request, completed, I have been monitoring the spare room since 3:47 AM, when a significant spike in Ether output triggered my perimeter alerts." Fairy paused before continuing.

"The readings are extremely abnormal. The Ether signature emanating from the room does not match standard Hollow Ether profiles. Its density is 46.29 % in comparison to normal Ether, explosive capabilities increased to 60.93%."

She paused again.

"Additionally, the Ether is mixed with an unidentified energy that I first detected eleven days ago during my initial assessment of the subject. At the time, I flagged the individual as a potential risk variable. My assessment was dismissed."

Another pause. Shorter this time, but pointed.

"I note for the record that the current situation aligns with the 62% probability escalation I projected at that time."

Belle's jaw tightened. "Fairy, not now."

"I am simply providing context, Master Belle. The subject's Ether output has increased by 340% since his arrival. The foreign energy component has grown proportionally. If this trajectory continues, the subject's stabilization threshold will be exceeded within—"

"We get it," Wise cut in. "He's getting worse. What else?"

Fairy's eye contracted slightly—a gesture that might have been irritation. "The foreign energy is an anomalous factor. It does not conform to any known Ether classification. It is not cybernetic in origin, not technological, and not biological in any standard sense. It registers as an intrinsic property of the subject's body that was integrated at a fundamental level."

Belle and Wise exchanged a look.

"What exactly does that mean?" Wise asked.

"Unclear, but I can assure it is an active energy type that operates independently of standard Ether dynamics." Fairy's eye expanded slightly.

"I would compare it to a second Ether system running parallel to the first, except that the two systems are now interacting in ways I cannot fully model. The black lightning with green luminescence that Master Belle and Master Vivian described is consistent with the visible manifestation of this interaction."

Wise pushed back from the desk and stood. He walked to the far wall, turned, walked back. His hand rose to his chin, fingers tapping.

"Okay," he said. "Let's go through everything we know about what he can do. Not what we assume—what we've actually seen."

He pulled up a blank document on the center monitor and started typing.

"Green lightning," he said. "It appears around his body when he moves or fights. We've seen it at the truck rescue, at the Belobog site, and in every image of the Green Shroud. It seems to enhance his physical strength and speed significantly."

"Most people can use Ether to enhance their base physicals," Belle added, pacing again. "But it doesn't normally manifest visibly on the body like that. You don't see lightning arcs around someone when they're using Ether enhancement."

"Correct," Fairy confirmed. "Standard Ether enhancement is an internal process. The visible manifestation of energy around the subject's body is atypical."

Wise typed. "Those black tendrils. He uses them constantly—grappling, restraining, redirecting, pulling himself through the air. Both Vivian and I have seen them in combat." He glanced at Vivian.

Vivian nodded. "They function like extensions of his body. They form from his wrists, hold solid mass, and dissolve when severed or when he wills them away. They are not technological—there is no emitter, no device, no visible mechanism. They emerge directly from his skin."

He typed again. "Then there's this red energy, some posts and images show it. It appears around his arms and legs during combat, building up through repeated movement. When released, it significantly boosts his strikes."

"That is consistent with kinetic energy storage and release," Fairy noted. "I have analyzed footage from a fight against an Ethereal. The subject performs repetitive limb movements—arms and legs moving in specific patterns—that build stored energy over approximately fifteen to twenty seconds. The energy is then discharged in a single concentrated strike, producing force output that exceeds his baseline."

"And there's one more thing," Wise said, typing slowly. He paused, frowning. "He reacts before things happen."

Belle stopped pacing. "What do you mean?"

"At the Belobog site, I watched him fight the prototype. Multiple times, he moved before the machine fired. Not after—he shifted his weight, changed position, or dodged a full second before the barrel was aimed at him. Before the attack was launched. He could predict attacks before they happen and counter them or dodge them with ease."

Vivian's eyes narrowed. "I noticed that too. During the rooftop fight, he shoved me sideways before the first shots came through the wall. He knew they were coming."

"It's not just combat," Wise said. "The day Belle was almost hit by the truck—he got to her impossibly fast. Faster than someone who simply saw the truck coming should have been able to react."

"So has some kind of precognition..," Belle said quietly.

"That would be the logical classification," Fairy confirmed. "However, I have been unable to identify any Ether-based mechanism that would produce precognitive effects. Standard Ether sensitivity can enhance spatial awareness and reaction time, but the subject's responses occur outside the parameters of even enhanced reaction. He is reacting to stimuli that have not yet occurred."

Wise stared at the list on the monitor. Four entries. Green lightning. Black tendrils. Red kinetic energy. Precognition.

"All of these come directly from his body," he said. "We've seen him fight without any equipment beyond his costume, and the costume itself is clearly just fabric and metal—the iron soles and gauntlets are mechanical, not energy-based."

"Which leaves one conclusion," Belle said, crossing her arms.

"Cybernetic enhancements," Wise said. "He must have some form of advanced cybernetic implants or body modifications that produce these effects. It would explain the visible energy manifestation, the non-standard Ether readings, and the fact that everything originates from his body rather than external equipment."

"That would be the most logical explanation within known parameters," Fairy agreed. "However—"

"However?" Wise prompted.

"I have run multiple deep scans on the subject since his arrival. At no point have I detected any cybernetic signatures, implant interfaces, or modification markers. His body does not register any foreign materials beyond standard biological composition and the Ether contamination."

The room was quiet for a moment.

"That's not possible," Belle said. "If he has cybernetic enhancements, they'd show up on scans. Even the most advanced, custom-built implants leave some kind of energy or heat signature."

"Which would suggest one of two things," Fairy replied. "Either the subject possesses cybernetic technology so advanced that it is completely undetectable by my current scanning capabilities, which is statistically improbable given the thoroughness of my analysis. Or the subject's abilities are not cybernetic in origin."

Wise rubbed his forehead. "Then what are they?"

"I do not have an answer, Master Wise. I am simply noting that the cybernetic hypothesis does not fully account for the available data."

Wise stared at the monitor for a long moment. Then he exhaled and shook his head.

"Custom work, then. Non-standard. Maybe something from outside the city, experimental tech from the Outer Ring or beyond." He turned to Belle and Vivian. "Either way, the conclusion is the same—his abilities are intrinsic to his body. They're part of him."

Belle uncrossed her arms and leaned against the desk. "Which means his past is the key to understanding what's happening to him. And we still don't know anything about his past."

Wise typed Izuku Midoriya on the search bar. Only a few results came from these past weeks. "Fairy ran every database we have access to, and then some we don't but nothing was found…where is he from?"

"He said he said he is from the Outer Ring…but that doesn't hold up too well," Wise spoke. "Even the most isolated settlements maintain some data exchange with the city. And he's ignorant of things that even the most remote Outer Ring residents would know."

"And he told me he'd leave for the Outer Ring once he paid you back," Vivian added. "But the way he said it…" She frowned, searching for the right words. "It didn't sound like someone going home. It sounded like someone going there for the first time. Like it was a destination, not a return."

Wise's eyes narrowed. "That's consistent with what we've seen. He doesn't act like someone from the Outer Ring. He acts like—"

"Like a soldier," Belle finished quietly.

Wise nodded. "Or an officer. Someone who's been in combat extensively. Who's lost people he cares about, who's been trained to operate alone and doesn't know how to stop."

"He throws himself at danger without hesitation," Vivian said. "He doesn't care what happens to him as long as others are safe. And he won't accept help. Won't share what he's carrying. He just pushes forward and expects to break eventually, and he already accepted that as the truth."

Belle's throat tightened. She stared at the floor.

"He reminds me of someone," she said after a moment. Her voice was quiet, almost tentative. "You know how Promeia was, when she first showed up? That same look. Like they're waiting for permission to stop punishing themselves for something they did no matter how small or inconsequential it was."

Wise glanced at her. He didn't respond immediately, but something in his expression shifted—a brief flicker of recognition.

The room fell silent again. The monitors hummed. Fairy's eye pulsed on the side screen, but she said nothing.

Belle stared at the list on the center monitor for a few seconds.

Then she stood up. "I'm done waiting."

Wise looked at her. "Belle—"

"No! I'm done speculating." Her voice was firm, steady in a way that left no room for argument. "We can't sit here listing everything we don't know about him. We've been doing that for two weeks and it did nothing to help him. We need to find out from him. We need to go talk to him. Right now. Not later, not when he's ready. Now." Belle stated firmly with a conviction that she rarely shows.

Wise stood up and stared at her.

"You're right," he said.

Belle's eyes widened. "Wait, you're acctually agreeing with me?"

"Waiting could make things worse. His mindset it's too self-destructive right now. Mentally unstable, physically compromised, and it's getting worse each day that passes. If we don't intervene now we have the chance, it might be the last one we have"

Belle blinked. Then she nodded, her expression hardening with resolve.

"He won't tell us easily," Wise continued. "And if we confront him directly, he'll run."

"Then we don't give him the chance to run," Vivian said. She straightened, her parasol shifting in her grip. "I have seen his capabilities. His speed, his strength, those tendrils. restraining him would be difficult, but it is possible." She paused. "If he resists."

"We might need more than the three of us," Wise said carefully. "If he panics, if the corruption spikes again, we need someone who can handle the fallout."

Belle met his eyes. "Who are you thinking?"

Wise pulled out his phone. "Let me make a call. You two go ahead to his room. Try talking first. If he cooperates, great. If not…" He trailed off. "Stall him."

Belle nodded. She turned toward the door, Vivian falling into step behind her.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked toward the spare room, seeing the door still closed.

Belle stopped in front of the door. She raised her hand and knocked.

"Midoriya? Hey. Can we talk?"

Silence.

She knocked again, harder. "Izuku. Please. We know something's wrong. Just let us talk with you."

Nothing.

Belle looked at Vivian. Then at the door handle.

She tried it. Locked.

Vivian stepped forward without a word. Reaching into her sleeve, a thin tool appeared—slim, precise. She inserted it, worked it with two careful movements, and the lock clicked open.

Belle pushed the door.

Looking inside, they saw the room was empty.

The futon was neatly made, blanket folded. A borrowed jacket sat folded on the chair by the desk. The window above was open, the curtain shifting lazily in the morning breeze.

And on the center of the futon, weighted down by nothing, sat a stack of Dennies.

Belle stared at it. She walked forward slowly, as though approaching something that might shatter if she moved too fast. She looked down at the stack.

"It's everything," she said, her voice barely audible. "Everything he earned…"

Vivian stood in the doorway, her face pale. Her hand went to her mouth.

"He's gone," Belle whispered.

Wise appeared at the door behind Vivian. He took one look at the room, the open window, the money on the futon, and his expression went flat.

"How long?"

Vivian's voice was strained. "The air in the room is cold. He left early—hours ago, probably."

Wise's fist clenched at his side.

"Damn it, Midoriya," he said under his breath.

Belle's hands were shaking. She pressed them flat against her thighs.

"He left the money because… that's all he thought he was to us… A debt. Something to pay back and walk away from." Her voice cracked. "He didn't even say goodbye."

"He couldn't," Vivian said quietly. Both of them looked at her. "If he said goodbye, he would have had to see your faces. And he couldn't—" She swallowed. "He couldn't bear that. He told me he couldn't bear to see what you'd think of him when you found out what he was becoming."

Belle's eyes stung. She turned away from the futon and walked to the window, looking out at the parking lot below. The gate was closed. The street beyond was quiet.

"We need to find him, but the Outer Ring is vast," Wise said. "He could be heading anywhere. We need to narrow it down."

He turned and headed back toward the workspace room, taking the stairs two at a time. Belle followed, then Vivian.

In the workspace, Wise dropped into his chair and pulled up the tracking interface.

"Fairy. Track Izuku Midoriya's phone. He bought a new one. See if you can ping it."

"Already attempting, Master Wise. The subject's new device registered on the local network at 6:23 PM yesterday evening. I am triangulating its last known position."

A map appeared on the center monitor. A single dot pulsed on the western edge of the city—moving, slow but steady, along a road that led toward the Outer Ring boundary.

"He's still in the city," Belle said, leaning over Wise's shoulder. "But he's moving west."

"Can we track his Ether signature as well?" Wise asked. "The unique readings you've been cataloguing?"

"Yes. The foreign energy component acts as a distinctive marker. I can track it within a radius of approximately fifteen kilometers, depending on density and interference." A second overlay appeared on the map—a faint trail of anomalous readings, heading in the same direction as the phone.

"He's heading for the western exit," Vivian said. "There's a transport road that leads out to the Outer Ring settlements. If he reaches it before we do—"

"He won't," Belle said. She was already moving toward the door.

"Belle." Wise stood. "We need to be smart about this. If we find him and he doesn't want to be found—"

"Then we make him listen." She turned in the doorway. Her teal-aqua eyes were bright, fierce, the dull ache from her implants forgotten. "He saved my life and has been doing his best to pay us back. I am not letting him disappear into the Outer Ring to die alone because he's too stubborn to let anyone help him."

Wise held her gaze for a moment. Then he grabbed his jacket from the hook and pulled it on.

"Let's go."

They ran downstairs, through the back room, and out into the parking lot. Vivian was right behind them, parasol in hand.

Wise unlocked the van and they piled in—Belle in the driver's seat, Wise in the passenger side, Vivian in the back. The engine rumbled to life.

Belle pulled out of the lot and onto Sixth Street, merging into traffic. The van lurched as she accelerated harder than necessary.

Wise had his laptop open on his knees before they'd gone two blocks, the tracking interface pulled up and glowing.

"Fairy, keep the trace active. Update his position every ten seconds."

"Understood. Subject is currently 4.7 kilometers northwest, moving at approximately 6 kilometers per hour on foot. Estimated time to Outer Ring boundary: 47 minutes at current pace."

Belle pressed harder on the accelerator. The van surged forward, weaving between a delivery truck and a Bangboo cart.

Wise's phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen—an incoming call. He answered, listened for three seconds, and said, "Thanks. We're on our way. Westbound on Commercial Route 7. If you can intercept, do it."

He hung up and set the phone down.

Belle glanced at him. "Who did you call?"

Wise looked at the laptop screen, watching the pulsing dot that represented Izuku moving steadily westward.

"Backup," he said.

Belle held his gaze for a beat, then turned back to the road. The van accelerated again, the buildings of Sixth Street blurring past the windows.

On the laptop screen, the dot kept moving. West. Away from them. Away from everything.

Belle's hands tightened on the wheel. She wasn't going to let it get far.

The van turned onto the western arterial road and disappeared into the morning traffic, leaving Random Play and Sixth Street behind.

---

 

[GhostJade45]

The city thinned out as Izuku moved west.

Towering residential blocks gave way to industrial compounds, then to low-slung warehouses with corrugated roofs and faded signage that had been bleached by years of exposure.

Streetlights around the area seemed to be spaced further apart, leaving wide pools of dark between each circle of amber glow, and the hum of traffic behind him faded into something distant.

He swung from a fire escape, caught a lamppost with Blackwhip, and launched himself onto the roof of a decommissioned power relay station.

His boots scraped the gravel as he landed, and he kept moving—running across the flat rooftop before leaping to the next building, the gap between them swallowed by a burst of flickering green lightning that carried him just far enough.

The air was different here.

He'd noticed it ten minutes ago. A heaviness that clung to the back of his throat, thicker than the ambient Ether in Janus Quarter had ever been.

The taste of copper sat on his tongue like a coin held too long, and each breath carried a faint chemical edge that made his lungs feel like they were processing something they weren't built to handle.

'The Outer Ring is closer,' he thought, adjusting his mask as the wind picked up. His cape whipped behind him, the frayed edges catching the air. 'The Ether density looks to be higher out here, even outside the Hollows…'

A low, persistent feeling hummed beneath his skin, like a current.

The crystals on his forearm under his mid-gauntlets pulsed faintly, three small violet-black growths that had emerged from his flesh overnight, clinging to the skin like frost forming on glass.

Each one caught the distant streetlight when he compressed the gauntlets, glinting with that sickly inner glow.

His eyes narrowed as he pulled the mid-gauntlets back down over his arm.

He reached inward as he ran, pressing his consciousness against the black and purple wall inside his mind. The barrier was thicker now.

The golden spark at its center was barely visible—a pinprick of light in an ocean of dark, flickering like a candle in a draft. He couldn't reach the vestiges.

He'd tried every few minutes since leaving Random Play, pressing against the wall with everything he had, and each time the wall was thicker, the silence deeper, the golden spark dimmer.

'I'm sorry…, everyone..' His eyes closed. 'I know you'd tell me to keep fighting… But I can't keep dealing with this alone. And I can't drag anyone else into it either….'

He opened his eyes and looked toward the horizon. The Outer Ring lay ahead—a sprawling, lawless expanse of settlements, Hollows, and danger.

'Belle... Wise... I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye properly. But this is better this way. You'll forget about me eventually. You have your own lives, your own problems to deal with.'

His jaw tightened as images flashed through his mind—Belle's bright smile, Wise's steady presence, the warmth of the small room they'd given him.

'You don't need someone like me dragging you down…. I'm just a stranger who showed up in your lives, caused nothing but trouble, and now I'm leaving before I cause even more.'

He stood, pulling his mask down over his face. The respirator clicked into place, filtering the morning air.

'At least this way…., no one gets hurt because of me….'

He leaped off the rooftop, Blackwhip catching a distant ledge as he swung forward into the district. Dropping down, he landed near the beginning of the highway—it was a cracked, multi-lane road that stretched westward into the darker expanse of the Outer Ring. Streetlights here were sparse.

The concrete was stained with old oil marks and patched with uneven asphalt. Weeds grew through the cracks, and the few vehicles that passed were older, heavier, built for cargo rather than comfort.

To his left, a Hollow barrier shimmered—a faint, distorted dome of purple light clinging to the skeleton of a collapsed overpass.

Getting up, he started running again. His Full Cowling flickered around his body. The road curved ahead, and beyond it, the terrain shifted—scrubbier, wilder, less maintained.

A rusted sign read: OUTER RING BOUNDARY — CAUTION: INCREASED ETHER ACTIVITY.

He pushed the thought aside and refocused on the physical world. The road stretched out ahead, cracked and empty.

Then a sharp, electric jolt at the base of his skull made his teeth clench and his stride falter.

He caught himself, adjusted his footing, and scanned the overpass above. His eyes caught movement. Someone was up there.

A figure dropped from the overpass. Boots hit asphalt with a solid thud, and the impact kicked up a small ring of dust and gravel.

The figure straightened. Izuku's eyes scanned the tall man, noting the classic black biker jacket with gold spikes, the distinctive red scarf, and the golden gauntlet humming on his right arm.

The man held a plain metal lighter in his left hand. He flipped it open. The spark caught. He snapped it shut.

"Tattered cape, beaten-up gear, and that look in your eyes," the man said, his voice casual and unhurried. "You've been fighting in battles that ended a long time ago, haven't you?"

Izuku's breathing grew sharper, controlled through the respirator. "Who are you?"

"Name's Lighter." The man cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders. "Champion of the Sons of Calydon."

Izuku's fingers curled. 'Just my luck to run into the champion.'

Lighter flipped the lighter again. *Click. Shut.* "Got a call from a friend. Said I might find someone matching your description heading this way." He pulled out a phone with his free hand, tapped the screen, and held it up briefly. "Found him. Industrial district, near the old warehouse road. Yeah, he's here. I'll keep him occupied. Hurry."

A voice came through the phone's speaker—distant, distorted by the connection, but unmistakable. Izuku's breath caught.

Belle's voice. Urgent. Desperate.

"We're on our way! Don't let him get away! Please!"

The words hit him like a fist to the sternum. 'Belle…? She managed to get the Sons of Calydon involved?!'

Lighter pocketed the phone. "You know they're worried about you, considering they asked us for help," he said, his voice dropping the casual edge for something quieter. "And when Belle and Wise ask for help, we listen."

He rolled his gauntlet-wrist, the engine inside it purring louder for a moment. "Now, I know what it's like to carry guilt. To think you don't deserve help." He paused, flipping the lighter. Click. Shut.

Izuku's chest tightened. The Ether pressed him inside, cold and heavy. "I can't go back," Izuku said, the words strained and scraped raw. "I have to keep moving."

Lighter sighed. He pocketed the lighter. "Well, it looks like I have no choice but to knock some sense into you then and force you back." He dropped into a fighting stance, his weight shifting to his back foot, his gauntlet arm drawing back slightly. "Sorry about this, pal."

Izuku charged to the side, a burst of flickering green lightning carrying him sideways, angling for the gap between the overpass supports.

Lighter cut him off, angling his body to block the path.

Izuku pivoted toward the opposite shoulder of the road.

Lighter mirrored the movement, his sunglasses catching the light. "You're fast," Lighter murmured, bouncing lightly on his heels. "But speed doesn't help if every door's locked. Come on, pal. Don't make me do this the hard way."

Izuku's jaw tightened. Green lightning flickered around his fists. "I'm sorry," he rasped. "But I have no other choice."

He rushed forward and threw a straight right aimed at Lighter's center mass.

Lighter caught it. The asphalt beneath his boots cracked, thin lines spider-webbing outward from the impact. His hand stayed raised, Izuku's fist caught firmly in his grasp.

Izuku twisted, ripping his arm free, and threw a left hook.

Lighter ducked under the blow, the punch whistling past his ear, and came up with a sharp jab aimed at Izuku's ribs.

Izuku pivoted, taking the blow on his side, and answered with a kick that forced Lighter to hop back.

"Got good instincts," Lighter noted, resetting his stance. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"Nowhere you'd know." Izuku pressed forward, throwing a combination—straight, hook, straight.

Lighter weaved through the first two, blocked the third with his bare left hand. The impact pushed him back an inch.

He aimed a kick towards Izuku's knee.

Izuku lifted his leg, the kick passing underneath, and drove his fist into Lighter's shoulder.

The blow connected solidly, and Lighter slid back a step, his boots scraping against the asphalt.

"Not bad," Lighter chuckled, rolling his shoulders. "This might actually be a fun warm-up."

He rushed forward, his gauntlet engine roaring as he threw a haymaker.

Izuku slipped under the heavy arm, dropped low, and leaped up to deliver an uppercut that caught Lighter under the chin.

Lighter's head snapped back. He stumbled, rubbing his jaw, and laughed. He dropped into a proper boxing stance, doing light jumps on his toes, and signaled for Izuku to come at him.

Izuku's fingers curled into tight fists. A low growl vibrated in his throat. 'He's playing with me.'

Surges of darker green lightning crackled around his shoulders. The crystals under his mid-gauntlets throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

He dashed in, destroying the dirt with each step.

Lighter's gauntlet flared, flames licking from the exhaust vents as he threw a rapid combination—jab, cross, hook.

Izuku blocked the first two with his forearms, then took the third on his shoulder. The fiery impact sent a shockwave up his arm, and he gritted his teeth against the searing heat.

He pushed through the pain and sent a fist surging with black-tinged lightning, catching Lighter squarely in the chest.

Lighter staggered back, coughing.

Izuku followed up, Blackwhip lashing out to wrap around Lighter's ankle. He yanked hard, pulling the champion's feet out from under him.

Lighter hit the ground, rolled, and came up in a crouch. He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose with his free hand.

"You've got some kick to you, kid!" Lighter called out, shaking out his golden fist. A genuine grin broke through his casual facade. "Let me see what else you got!"

Izuku surged forward. They traded blows in a blur of motion. Izuku threw a heavy hook; Lighter slipped under it and fired an explosive uppercut. Izuku twisted, taking the hit on his shoulder, and drove his knee toward Lighter's ribs.

Lighter brought his knee up to block. Bone clacked against metal.

They locked hands, muscles straining. Izuku kicked off the hood of an abandoned car, using the momentum to wrench Lighter off balance.

Lighter fired his gauntlet's exhausts, jetting backward to create distance, then dashed forward again through the smoke.

"You worked hard for that strength, didn't you?" Lighter murmured, his voice carrying over the hum of his gauntlet. He threw a swift kick aimed at Izuku's head. "I can feel it in every hit!"

Izuku ducked under the kick, the wind of it ruffling his hair, and drove a palm strike into Lighter's chest.

The champion slid back, his boots carving trenches in the dirt.

Blackwhip shot from Izuku's wrist, wrapping tightly around Lighter's ankle.

Izuku spun, using the momentum to hurl the champion through the air.

Lighter crashed through the windshield of a wrecked sedan, glass shattering around him.

"I get it," Lighter said, pulling himself from the wrecked sedan, wiping a trickle of blood from his lip. He adjusted his shades. "You think you're protecting them. That's what this is about, isn't it? You think you're too dangerous to be around them."

Izuku's breathing grew ragged.

"You're not the first person I've met who's tried to run away to keep people safe," Lighter continued, flipping his lighter open. Click. Shut. "And you won't be the last. But you can forge a different path."

"I have no other choice." Izuku's voice scraped raw against the respirator. "You don't understand me or what I'm—"

"Then make me understand." Lighter spread his hands. "I'm right here, pal. I've got time."

A shockwave of dark, violent energy erupted from his body, blowing the dust away in a perfect circle. "I DON'T DESERVE ANYONE'S HELP, SO JUST LET ME DISAPPEAR, DAMN IT!"

Huge chunks of rock tore from the ground as Izuku launched himself forward.

Lighter's eyes widened behind his shades. He cocked his arm back, the gauntlet surging and roaring.

Fire shot from the exhausts, wrapping around the golden metal and his clenched fist.

Izuku wound up his arm, Full Cowling crawling up his limb in jagged, dark arcs.

Their fists collided.

A shockwave rippled outward, cracking the asphalt beneath them and shattering the windows of every abandoned car within fifty yards.

They pushed against each other, muscles straining, sparks flying from their fists.

Lighter's knee came up. Izuku blocked with his own knee. The impact shuddered through both of them.

"You—" Lighter grunted, pushing harder, his boots sliding back an inch. "—are one stubborn—"

Izuku screamed, a sound layered with a dark, distorted echo, and threw Lighter off with a massive burst of green lightning.

Lighter flew backward, slammed into the side of an abandoned sedan, and crumpled the roof with the impact.

He slid off the hood, landing crouched on the pavement, and shook his head.

He raised his right hand, curling his fist near his face. "He… overpowered my punch..." His one uncovered eye glanced up at Izuku, who stood perfectly still, chest heaving, dark lightning arcing off his shoulders.

"Just leave me be, Lighter," Izuku rasped, his eyes glowing a sickly, feral green in the shadows of his mask. "Unless you want me to smash you into the ground."

A gust of wind blew through the interchange.

Lighter's left hand dug into the asphalt. His teeth gritted, and he grabbed the red scarf around his neck.

The wind made the loose part of the scarf flow. A gloved hand held the fabric tightly, the silver tags underneath shaking.

He pushed himself up onto his feet, standing straight. His right hand reached into his pocket, pulling out his lighter.

"Sorry, but…" He flicked the wheel. The flame burned slightly bigger than the previous attempts, held steady as he kept it lit. "I'm not gonna be able to let you go. I have to help bring you back to close friends, and now keep my pride—"

Lighter stared down at Izuku, the casual champion entirely gone, replaced by the hardened mercenary. "Plus a promise to uphold."

He spun the lighter in his hand and dropped into a low, proper boxing stance. The loose part of the scarf billowed, and the tattered edge caught the flame from the lighter, blazing wildly.

"Come on, let's really go at it." A sharp smirk spread across his face. "Let's really see whose fists are stronger."

Izuku shot forward, green lightning crackling around him in jagged arcs.

Lighter met him head-on, his gauntlet flaring as he threw a quick combination—jab, cross, hook.

Izuku weaved through the first two, blocked the third, and answered with a punch that caught Lighter in the ribs.

Lighter grunted but didn't slow. He pivoted, swinging a kick at Izuku's thigh.

Izuku took it on his leg and grabbed Lighter's ankle, yanking him off balance.

Lighter twisted mid-fall, using the momentum to swing his gauntlet fist toward Izuku's face.

Izuku ducked under it and drove his shoulder into Lighter's chest.

They both went tumbling across the asphalt, rolling, scrambling back to their feet.

Lighter came up first, his gauntlet already roaring, and threw a haymaker.

Izuku caught it with both hands, the impact jarring up his arms.

His green eyes sparked with darker lightning. 'Seems he is actually trying now.'

Lighter grinned, his sunglasses cracked but still in place.

Izuku shoved him back and lunged forward again.

Lighter feinted low, then went high. His fist caught Izuku's temple.

Izuku's vision swam for a second, and his teeth clenched. A darker surge of Full Cowling exploded from his body, and he threw a wild punch that Lighter barely avoided.

"Getting sloppy," Lighter observed, dancing back. " That's not good for—"

Izuku flipped over him, his body twisting in the air.

He tried to land a spinning heel kick aimed at Lighter's head.

Lighter raised his gauntlet, blocking the strike, but the force of it drove him to his knees.

Izuku landed, breathing hard. His eyes were glowing a darker green now. The black lightning was starting to show at the edges of his sparks.

Lighter pushed himself up. "Not bad, pal. Not bad at all."

Izuku dashed to him, and drove a fist into Lighter's guard.

Lighter slid back, hitting a wall of a nearby building, and the concrete cracked behind him. The impact sent a shudder through the structure.

Lighter grabbed Izuku's arm and threw him through the wall.

Izuku crashed into the building, rolling through shattered glass and debris.

He came up in a crouched position. The building was an old warehouse, empty and crumbling, with rusted machinery scattered across the floor.

Lighter stepped through the hole in the wall, cracking his neck. "You know, most people would have given up by now. But you're still standing. You're a real tough cookie that's for sure."

Izuku's fingers curled beside him. 'I won't lose to him and be brought back I have to—'

The black lightning surged. It crawled up his arms, his chest, his neck. His vision flickered.

He sprinted forward.

Lighter met him head-on. They crashed through rusted machinery and toppled support beams, the building groaning around them.

Izuku threw a faster punch towards his face.

Lighter took a hit to the jaw. And quickly answered with a punch to Izuku's chest that sent him through a stack of crates.

Izuku instantly got back on his feet before the dust settled, Blackwhip lashed and went to wrap around Lighter's arm.

He pulled. Lighter stumbled forward, and Izuku drove his knee into Lighter's stomach.

Lighter doubled over, gasping. His sunglasses slipped further down his nose.

Izuku raised his arms and locked them together and threw them down for an overhead—

'No..' His hand stopped mid-swing. 'What am I doing? I shouldn't be fighting him, I should be runni—'

Black lightning flickered, receding slightly. Izuku's eyes cleared for a moment.

Lighter straightened slowly, wiping blood from his split lip. "You almost had me there, pal. You're holding back?"

"I don't have time for this and… ." Izuku's voice was rough, strained. "I don't want to hurt anyone…."

Lighter's expression softened. "Then don't. Come back with me. Let us help you."

Izuku's jaw tightened. 'But…if I do…I'd still be..'

The black lightning surged again. "NO, JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

He screamed and rushed forward, throwing a punch that Lighter barely blocked.

The force of it sent Lighter crashing through the building's floor, dropping into the lower level.

Izuku followed, dropping through the hole, landing hard on the concrete below.

Lighter threw a punch. Izuku caught it. Their hands locked.

Izuku pulled Lighter in and headbutted him.

Lighter's vision blurred. He stumbled back.

Izuku kicked him in the face. Lighter flipped backward, landing hard on his back.

Izuku turned to run.

Lighter was on his feet in an instant, intercepting him.

Lighter kicked a table into Izuku's path, but Izuku shattered it with a sweeping kick and closed the distance.

Lighter pulled back a punch.

Izuku drove his fist forward, putting his full weight behind the blow.

They both threw a straight right at the exact same time.

Their fists connected with their faces.

The resulting shockwave blew the roof off the building and collapsed the remaining walls.

Izuku and Lighter used their momentum to backflip out of the falling debris, landing in a crouch on the highway outside, surrounded by dust and rubble.

Rushing through the dust, Izuku came in with a punch aimed towards Lighter's face.

He grabbed Izuku's arm, and they locked hands again—pushing against each other, muscles straining.

Izuku tried to headbutt him again. But Lighter responded with his own headbutt. Their foreheads collided, and neither gave way.

They stood there, foreheads pressed together, both shaking with exhaustion.

"You—" Lighter gritted out. "—can't—run—forever—"

"Watch me!" Izuku's Blackwhip lashed out, wrapping around Lighter's waist. He pulled and threw him.

Lighter crashed into the wall. The concrete cracked. His sunglasses flew off, clattering to the ground.

He slid down the wall, groaning. His hand went to his forehead, and his fingers came away red.

He stared at the blood on his fingertips. His eyes widened and his face went pale.

"Oh no..." Lighter collapsed onto the floor.

Izuku stood frozen, breathing hard, staring at the unconscious champion. 'Wh—what just happened? He saw his own blood and… passed out?'

A growling engine cut through the silence.

Izuku turned.

A motorcycle roared around the corner, its headlight cutting through the early morning gloom.

It skidded to a halt, and the rider leaped off mid-motion—a blur of grey-turquoise hair and black leather.

She landed in front of Lighter's prone form, sword already drawn, shield raised. Her golden eyes locked onto Izuku with an intensity that made his Danger Sense scream.

She was tall, with a lean, athletic build that was visible even under her fur-trimmed jacket. Long grey-turquoise hair flowed behind her in a ponytail that reached past her hip. Two small black horns curved from her forehead. A "KING" necklace hung around her throat.

Her left arm was mechanical—a gleaming prosthetic that hummed with a low, steady energy.

She pointed her sword at him. "Are you the one who did this to Lighter?"

Izuku's eyes widened. "I—he was fine until he saw his own blood—I didn't—"

She glanced down at Lighter, then back at Izuku. Her expression shifted—from fury to confusion to something like reluctant understanding.

"Right…, he always forgets to warn people." She sheathed her sword and knelt beside Lighter, checking his pulse. "He's fine. Just unconscious. He'll be embarrassed when he wakes up though."

She stood, turning to face Izuku fully. Her golden eyes studied him—his worn costume, his cracked gauntlets, the green lightning still flickering around his frame.

"So you're the one Belle and Wise have been so worried about." Her voice was firm, commanding. "I see why. You look like you've been through hell."

Izuku's jaw tightened. "I'm…fine."

"You're not fine." She stepped closer. "You're trying to run away from them when they're trying to help you."

His body tensed. 'This presence …' "Who exactly are you?"

Her hands went to her hips and a grin spread across her face. "I'm Caesar King," she said. "Leader of the Sons of Calydon and Overlord of the Outer Ring."

She drew her sword out again. "The proxies wanted my gang to deliver you back to them, so we're going to do just that." Caesar raised her sword towards him.

"Stand down. Let us take you back to them. They seemed genuinely worried about you. They don't want you disappearing."

Izuku's teeth clenched. "It's not simple…" His fist tightened more. "I have no other choice but to leave so I'm not a danger to them."

Caesar studied him, her gaze sharp and analytical. She noted the feral glow of his eyes, the way his muscles twitched with unstable energy. "The Outer Ring doesn't care about your past story, greenie," she said, her tone firm but laced with a strange, theatrical empathy.

"If you've got the skills, you forge your own path. But running from the people who actually give a damn about you? That's just stupid. Belle and Wise asked for my help, which means you're coming with us. Whether you like it or not."

Izuku stared at her. His chest heaved. They were close friends with Belle and Wise. They wanted to help him.
'I can't let them drag me down,' he thought.

"I can't go back," Izuku rasped, his voice layered with a dark, distorted echo. "I'm too dangerous. I'm too far gone."

Izuku charged forward.

Caesar met him head-on.

Her sword clashed against his mid-gauntlets.

The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the air. "The Proxies have dealt with a lot as well, so I know they wouldn't be easily overwhelmed by you being corrupted, so you're just being an idiot for running from them greenie!"

A groan escaped Izuku's mouth and quickly he slid back, his boots scraping against the asphalt.

She swung her sword.

Izuku ducked, the sword passing over his head, and answered with a punch that caught her in the side.

She grunted but didn't slow.

He charged.

Black lightning surged violently, cracking the ground beneath his feet. His left arm expanded, the violet-black crystals growing thicker, sharper, tearing through the fabric of his sleeve.

His eyes turned a pitch-dark, feral green, and his canines elongated into sharp points.

He swung his crystallized arm, generating a massive wave of force that blew the dust away.

Caesar swung Veni in a horizontal arc.

Izuku ducked under the blade, the wind of it ruffling his hair. He closed the distance, driving a kick toward her side.

Caesar brought up her shield, Vidi, catching the blow. She pivoted, throwing the shield like a boomerang.

Izuku dropped flat. The shield sliced through a concrete pillar behind him, shearing it in half, before returning to Caesar's prosthetic hand.

He lunged again, palm striking toward her chest. Caesar caught his wrist with her mechanical hand, the servos whining in protest, and palm-pushed him with her organic hand.

The explosive force launched Izuku backward. He crashed through the drywall of an abandoned gas station, tumbling through shelves of dusty, expired merchandise, and slammed into the back wall.

Dust choked the air. Izuku pushed himself up, his eyes glowing fiercely in the gloom. His vision tunneled.

She closed the distance while he was distracted, her sword swinging in a wide arc.

He blocked it with both arms, and the force of the blow drove him to his knees.

"Just let me bring you back! You can find a way to deal with this with the proxies!" She kicked him away.

He skidded across the ground, rolled, and came up in a crouch.

"I can't go back," he said, his voice raw. "I can't—"

The black lightning surged.

It erupted from his body—jagged arcs of darkness threaded with that sickly green glow, crawling up his arms, chest and neck.

His eyes flared a darker green. His teeth sharpened.

He sprinted at her.

Caesar raised her shield to block, but his fist drove into her guard with enough force to send her skidding back. Her boots dug furrows into the asphalt. 'They weren't kidding about his corruption being slightly different than usual ones.'

Her head turned towards Lighter. "Lighter! Get up!" she shouted.

Lighter groaned. He was stirring, shaking his head, pushing himself up. "What—"

"He's losing control," Caesar said. "We need to—"

Izuku's Blackwhip lashed out. Caesar deflected the first tendril with her sword.

A second wrapped around her shield arm. And a third caught Lighter's ankle as he tried to stand.

"Hey—!" Lighter pulled against the tendril, but more coiled around his arms, his chest.

Izuku's vision was blurring again. The black lightning surged, and he could feel the Ether pressing against his mind, cold and heavy.

'No. No, I can't—I can't let this happen—'

He tried to pull the Blackwhip back. It wouldn't obey.

"STOP!" he screamed. The tendrils tightened.

Caesar grunted, straining against the Blackwhip wrapped around her shield arm. "Greenie! Snap out of it!"

Lighter was struggling too, his gauntlet flaring as he tried to burn through the tendrils. "Pal—whatever's happening—you're not yourself—!"

Izuku's head pounded. The voices of the vestiges were faint, fractured, barely audible beneath the roar of the corruption.

'—hold on—'

'—don't let it take you—'

'I-I can't—I can't stop it—'

A crack of gunfire split the air.

A bullet struck the Blackwhip tendril wrapped around Caesar's shield arm. It dissolved, and a second shot caught the one around Lighter's ankle.

Izuku's head snapped toward the source.

A feline Thiren stood on a nearby rooftop, dual revolvers raised. Yellow-gold fur, short messy blonde hair, tufted cat ears. A dark metallic mask covered her lower face. Her green eyes were sharp, focused.

"Pulchra!" Caesar called out.

"Had to help out, Boss." Pulchra's voice was flat, pragmatic. "Looked like you were having trouble."

Another shot rang out. This one hit Izuku square in the shoulder. He staggered, the black lightning flickering as his concentration broke.

More vehicles arrived.

A pickup truck skidded to a halt. A petite woman with a huge axe jumped out—blonde hair in a high bun, green eyes, an engine-powered axe humming in her hands. "Well now, ain't this a sight. All that power and still runnin' from your problems."

A second vehicle pulled up—a custom bike. A woman with twin pigtails hopped off, fuel tank on her back, red eyes gleaming. "Wow! Look at him! All that green lightning and those black tendrils—so cool! Can we keep him, Caesar?"

A third figure strode forward—short, blonde side ponytail, pickelhaube helmet, a spiked baseball bat resting on her shoulder. "You think you can just run from people who care about you? Stop causing problems for the Proxies!"

Izuku stood surrounded.

Lighter was back on his feet, brushing off dust.

Caesar had recovered. Pulchra had him in her sights. The others had blocked every path.

His darker emerald eyes scanned around, looking at each of them.

"Last chance," Caesar said. "Stand down. Let us take you back."

Izuku's fists clenched. The black lightning flickered.

"Not happening..," he said, his voice cracking. "I'm—" He looked at his hands. At the crystals growing from his skin. "I'm becoming something worse than anything this world has seen."

"Then let us help you stop it." Caesar's voice was quieter now, but no less firm. "The Sons of Calydon don't abandon people who need help."

Izuku curled his fingers. "You don't know me."

"I don't need to." She stepped closer, her sword lowered. "I know Belle and Wise. And they care about you. That's enough for me."

Izuku's breath caught. His eyes burned.

The black lightning began to fade. His shoulders dropped.

'I can't fight them all… I need to get away...'

He looked at Caesar. At Lighter. At the others—strangers who had come to stop him, who didn't even know him, who had no reason to care.

"Why..." His voice cracked. "Why would you do this for me?"

Caesar held his gaze. "Because you clearly need people to help guide you back to a better path."

Caesar lowered her sword and extended her hand.

"Take it," she said. "We're getting you out of here."

Izuku stared at the open palm. Then at her steady golden eyes.

His hand moved. Started to reach out.

Then the screech of tires cut through the air.

Izuku's head snapped toward the sound. A familiar boxy van skidded around the corner—black and yellow, the Random Play logo barely visible through the dust.

The driver's side door was open. Belle was leaning out, one hand gripping the frame, her teal-aqua eyes wide.

"IZUKU!"

His name tore through the air.

His hand stopped moving. His eyes went wide.

'Belle... she's here...'

Something cracked inside his chest. The almost-acceptance shattered. All he could think was: 'She can't see this…. She can't see what I'm becoming.'

His hand shot out to grab Caesar's arm.

Caesar's eyes widened. "What are you—"

He spun her. Hard. Used her momentum against her.

She flew toward Lucy, who braced herself and caught Caesar with a grunt, the impact driving them both back a few feet.

Izuku dropped low. Green lightning flared around him—and then exploded outward in a concussive burst of thick, blinding crimson smoke.

The cloud billowed across the highway, swallowing everything.

Through the haze, a Blackwhip tendril shot upward, latching onto the edge of a crumbling overpass support.

Izuku yanked himself into the air, swinging hard toward the Outer Ring.

When the smoke cleared, he was already a hundred meters away. Swinging. Running. Disappearing into the broken skyline.

Caesar straightened, brushing herself off. Her jaw was tight.

"He threw me. That little—"

Lucy had her bat raised. "He's getting away!"

Lighter was already moving. "Then we go after him!"

Pulchra fired a few shots into the distance—just to make him keep his head down.

Burnice revved her bike. "I'll cut him off! Piper—"

"I'm already on it," Piper said, climbing into Steeltusk's cab. "Hold on tight, everyone."

The engines roared to life.

Belle's van pulled up alongside them. She leaned out again, her face pale, her hands gripping the doorframe.

"Don't lose him!" she shouted. "We gotta save him!"

Caesar met her eyes through the dust. "We won't."

They chased.

Ahead of them, Izuku swung from building to building, his vision blurring, his breath ragged. The black lightning crawled up his arms again, and he pushed it down.

'I can't let them catch me. I can't—'

Belle's face flashed in his mind. Her voice. The way she'd screamed his name.

His eyes burned. 'I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry. But this is the only way. I won't drag you into this. I won't—'

He swung around a water tower and vanished into the industrial sprawl.

Behind him, the roar of engines grew louder.

 

[GhostJade45]

The distorted crystalline landscape of the Hollow blurred past Izuku as he swung from a jagged outcropping of Ether-mineralized concrete.

His breath came in ragged, burning gasps. The air inside the Hollow was thick, tasting of copper and ozone, and it sat in his lungs with a physical weight.

'Every breath I take in this is affecting my Ether..,' Izuku thought, his lungs burning as he pushed himself to run faster. His mid-gauntlets dug into his arms, the crystals beneath them pulsing with each heartbeat. 'But it doesn't matter. I will turn eventually so I have to finish myself off quickly before that happens.'

He vaulted over a collapsed vehicle, the twisted metal groaning under his weight. 'Every time I let myself feel anything, it spreads.'

Images of Belle's bright smile and Wise's steady presence flashed through his mind. He pushed them down, hard. 'Why are they chasing!? They don't need a walking disaster like me.'

But even as he thought it, the words rang hollow. He'd seen the look in Belle's eyes when she'd called out to him. He'd heard the desperation in her voice. They weren't going to forget.

The crystals beneath his mid-gauntlets pulsed violently, spreading thin violet veins up toward his elbow. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder.

Behind him, the roar of engines sputtered and whined.

The Sons of Calydon's heavy bikes and truck were struggling to navigate the uneven terrain of the Hollow's interior. But the Random Play van was keeping pace.

Inside the cabin, Wise's eye implants flared with a sharp, golden light. Data streams cascaded across his vision, highlighting the safest paths and, more importantly, the spatial anomalies—small breaches in the Hollow's fabric.

"Belle, hold the wheel steady!" Wise shouted over the engine's roar. "I'm routing us through a breach!"

Belle gripped the steering wheel, her teal-aqua eyes fierce. "Just don't crash us into a wall!"

"I found one—two hundred meters ahead, on the left. It'll drop us right on top of his trajectory." Wise slammed his hand onto the dashboard console, syncing the H.D.D. with his implants.

The van surged forward, hitting a shimmering spatial breach. The world outside the windshield twisted into a vortex of violet light. Gravity inverted for a split second, and then the van spat out onto a crumbling overpass three hundred meters ahead of Izuku.

Wise grabbed the radio. "Piper, Pulchra, take the next breach on your left. It drops you right on top of his trajectory. Funnel him into the narrow corridor."

"Copy that, Proxy," Pulchra's flat voice crackled back.

"We're on it, sweetheart!" Piper added, her old trucker drawl thick. "Ol' Steeltusk's been through worse ruts than this. We'll get your boy corralled."

Lighter's voice came through next. "Burnice, Lucy, you're with me. We'll push him toward the warehouse district. Caesar can take point from the east."

"Roger that!" Burnice's voice was bright and enthusiastic. "I've got a Burnice special all ready for him! He'll be so toasty and relaxed, he won't want to run anywhere!"

Izuku's Danger Sense screamed. He twisted in mid-air, firing a Blackwhip tendril to arrest his momentum, but a sharp crack echoed from the ledge above.

A bullet sparked off the concrete inches from his face. Pulchra stood on the edge, her dual Bladeguns smoking.

"Tch," Pulchra muttered, her feline eyes narrowing. "Target is erratic. Adjusting fire."

Izuku cursed and flipped backward, landing hard on his feet.

A high-pitched mechanical whine filled the air. Piper came spinning toward him like a beyblade, her engine-powered axe blurring into a disc of death.

"You can outrun the road, young-un," Piper drawled, her voice carrying over the whine of the engine, "but you can't outrun the rust! It always catches up to the chassis. Just like it's gonna catch up to you, boy."

"I have something else that's already catching up with me, and I need to deal with it before it's too late!" Izuku's darker eyes tracked the rotation. He could see the rhythm in it—the way the engine revved at peak spin, the slight dip as the weight shifted.

He waited for the exact millisecond the axe's momentum peaked, stepped inside the guard, and drove his fist straight down onto the flat of the blade.

The axe buried itself deep into the cracked asphalt.

Izuku used the embedded weapon as a springboard, vaulting high into the air.

Bang! Bang!

Pulchra fired again. The shots clipped his shoulder and thigh, throwing off his landing.

He crashed into the dirt, skidding to a halt. Gritting his sharp teeth, he pushed himself up. 'That cat Thiren woman is starting to be an annoyance.'

Danger Sense flared.

Pulchra dropped from the ledge, her Bladeguns drawn.

Izuku raised his forearms, his mid-gauntlets catching the heavy steel of her revolvers with a shower of sparks.

"Stand down," Pulchra demanded, her voice muffled behind her metallic mask. "I don't enjoy chasing strays."

"Not happening!" Izuku shoved her back, but a shadow fell over him.

Lucy dropped from the rusted skeleton of a streetlight, her spiked baseball bat swinging down in a lethal arc. "I don't have time for your games! Just stop already! You're wasting everyone's time, especially mine!"

Izuku swept Pulchra's legs out from under her, spun on his heel, and kicked Lucy's bat upward, sending the smaller girl stumbling back. 'Why are they relentless? Every time I break through, there's another one.'

He dashed forward, but a motorcycle roared around the corner.

Caesar came down with an overhead strike, her chainsaw sword, Veni, screaming.

'She's leading with the sword—no, she's changing angle—' Izuku's eyes widened as Caesar's shield, Vidi, slammed into his ribs with the force of a battering ram. The air exploded from his lungs.

Izuku flew backward, gasping as he hit the ground and rolled.

A jet of flame propelled Lighter forward. The champion slid across the asphalt, his golden K.O. Glove connecting with Izuku's spine and launching him straight through the crumbling brick wall of an abandoned warehouse.

The Sons of Calydon swarmed the building. They found a massive hole in the back wall.

Izuku burst through the opposite side, coughing up dust. He barely had time to brace himself before a wall of intense heat pushed him back.

Burnice hopped out from behind a rusted truck, her dual flamethrowers, Mixer and Shaker, humming with eager energy. Her red eyes gleamed with manic enthusiasm.

"Whoa there, stray!" Burnice called out, planting her hands on her hips. "You look like you need a good home and a hot meal! Why don't you just come with us? I've got a nitro fuel special that'll warm you right up! It's my secret recipe—one taste and you'll forget all about running!"

"I don't need your help!" Izuku snarled, his voice layered with a dark, distorted echo. 'Why won't they just let me go?'

He surged forward, but his Danger Sense spiked violently. He threw himself to the side, dodging a simultaneous strike from Piper's recovered axe and Pulchra's spinning blade.

He flipped away, landing in a crouch, but a heavy, reinforced parasol struck his shoulder, driving him into the dirt.

Vivian stood over him, her red slit-pupils narrowed.

"Why are you here?!" Izuku yelled, scrambling to his feet, his fists trembling with black-tinged lightning. "You're the one who told them about this!"

"They already knew you were the Green Shroud," Vivian said, her voice steady, though her grip on her parasol tightened. "I only told them about last night. Because you needed help."

His eyes widened. 'They…already knew?'

The exhaustion in his bones threatened to pull him under. But the Ether in the air was too thick, the stress too high. The corruption surged back, violent and cold.

"No," Izuku whispered. His eyes flared a sickly, feral green.

He thrust his hands forward. Blackwhip tendrils exploded from his wrists, wrapping around the chassis of three abandoned cars.

With a guttural scream, he hurled them at the group.

Vivian leapt gracefully out of the way, while Lighter and Caesar smashed the vehicles aside with explosive force.

Using the distraction, Izuku activated Float.

He anchored a massive Blackwhip tendril to a distant, towering structure, preparing to slingshot himself toward the swirling breach of a deeper Hollow at the edge of the district.

He launched himself into the air. The wind rushed past him.

'Almost there. Just a little farther.'

"He's going for the breach!" Wise shouted. "Everyone, stop him!"

Belle's voice came through the radio, desperate. "Izuku! Please, don't do this!"

Caesar's motorcycle roared to life, but she was too far back. Lighter fired his gauntlet, but the blast fell short. Pulchra's shots pinged off the concrete at his feet.

Vivian's parasol snapped open as she tried to vault after him, but she wasn't fast enough.

"Stop him!" Belle screamed.

A motorcycle engine roared, deafeningly loud—coming from above him.

Izuku's eyes widened. 'What—'

The bike slammed into him mid-flight. The impact drove him through the brick facade of a three-story building, skipping across the floorboards before crashing into the far wall. Debris rained down on him as he groaned, rubbing his head.

'Who...did that?'

Through the settling dust, a figure stepped off the motorcycle. Glowing yellow eyes pierced the gloom. Spiky white hair caught the ambient light, and two black horns curved from his forehead.

A red scarf billowed dramatically in the wind. In his hand, he held a single, massive custom revolver.

Izuku's breath hitched. 'So they have an intelligent construct as a member as well... And he seems like a tough one.'

Instantly he got to his feet and took a fighting stance, the crystals on his arm pulsing with renewed urgency. The black lightning flickered at the edges of his vision.

Billy holstered his revolver with a dramatic flourish. He threw his arms out wide, striking an exaggerated pose.

"Halt, fallen Starlight Knight!" Billy declared, his voice booming with theatrical flair. "I have heard the tales! A fallen hero seeking to depart from his team, considering himself a danger to the world! As a Starlight Knight, I will not let that happen! Such a hero who has helped many souls in New Eridu shall not perish on my watch!"

Izuku blinked, his aggressive stance faltering. '...Is he... acting? Is he trying to act like a hero from a show?'

Then Billy's voice shifted, and Izuku's eyes widened.

'Wait… That voice.' His voice was warm and ridiculous, but unmistakable. 'He... He kinda sounds like Kacchan.'

Billy's posture dropped. The goofy theatricality vanished, replaced by a somber, piercing seriousness. His glowing yellow eyes locked onto Izuku's feral green ones.

"A Starlight Knight who goes to deal with everything by himself never survives," Billy said, his voice quiet but carrying absolute weight. "I don't know what you're thinking, but you shouldn't be abandoning the Proxies who have gone to these lengths to have you saved. It means you matter. Don't throw that away."

Izuku's body got less tense for a moment. The black lightning flickered, dimming. 'Even an intelligent construct… is trying to help me…. And one with so much personality and life...'

The cognitive dissonance left him momentarily frozen.

"Gotcha!"

Caesar came in from behind and tackled him. Her prosthetic arm locked around his chest while her organic hand pinned his arms to his sides. She sat on his back, restraining him completely.

"I—let me go!" Izuku yelled, his voice muffled against the floor.

"Not a chance, greenie," Caesar said, keeping her weight on him.

She looked up, her expression brightening. "Hey, little bro, nice timing!"

"I'm always ready to arrive at the right moment, big sis!" Billy replied, walking over and striking a thumbs-up.

The rest of the Sons of Calydon filed into the ruined building. Lighter clapped Billy on the shoulder. "Brother. Good to see you, surprised you showed up as well."

"Likewise," Billy said. He looked around at the group. "I've got a lot of free time right now. Nicole is still hiding with the rest of the Cunning Hares to escape her debts."

Lucy scoffed, resting her spiked bat on her shoulder. "That woman still hasn't paid off her debt? I'd almost pay it off for her, but then she'd just ask me to pay for everything she gets herself into."

"Exactly," Billy agreed, shaking his head.

The screech of tires echoed outside. The Random Play van skidded to a halt. Belle and Wise burst out of the doors, running toward the ruined building.

Izuku stopped struggling. He looked up at them, his chest heaving. "You shouldn't have come for me," he rasped, his voice cracking. "You wasted your time. And their time."

"We didn't waste anything," Wise said firmly, stepping over the rubble.

"You were gonna do something stupid," Belle added, her teal-aqua eyes shining with unshed tears.

"You don't understand!" Izuku shouted, the black lightning flaring again. "I was going out as a vigilante! I would be bringing so many things towards you! I already ran into Public Security and dealt with too many criminals. I put a target on my back! I would have eventually caused problems for you by bringing all that with me while I stayed!"

Belle stepped forward, her voice rising. "Who do you think we are!?"

Izuku looked up at them with wide eyes.

Wise placed a hand on her shoulder, his gaze steady. "We're Proxies. The Legendary Proxy Phaethon. We've dealt with many risks, including PubSec and dangers that nearly threatened a whole part of the city. Do you think we couldn't handle whatever you brought?"

He paused, his voice softening. "Besides, you ran before we really got to know you. We've been waiting for you to open up."

Izuku grunted, a harsh, broken sound. He looked away, his shoulders slumping. "Why do you care? I'm just a stranger who stumbled into your lives." He looked around at the Sons of Calydon, at Billy, at Vivian. "You have plenty of friends who seem to deeply care about you."

He looked down at his scarred hands. The violet-black crystals pulsed beneath his skin.

"I don't matter," he whispered. "I have no friends. No family. No place here. No one who should care about me. So I might as well disappear... Especially while I'm an active danger. I'm starting to get really corrupted."

Everything fell silent.

"And you don't understand," Izuku continued, his voice hollow. "Medications to stop corruption... won't work. Not the way it would for anyone else."

Lucy stepped forward, her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Izuku looked up, his dark green eyes meeting hers. "My body isn't naturally resistant, what's keeping my corruption at bay is failing…." He held up his arm, showing the crystals. "Every second I'm absorbing Ether. Even outside Hollows. Even in the air I breathe... The medication might slow it down, but it won't stop it. And every time I use my powers, every time I get upset, it spreads faster…"

He looked down at his hands again. "I'm not just getting corrupted. I'm actively becoming something this world was never meant to contain…. One day what's keeping this at bay is going to fail. And when it does I'll..."

He didn't finish the sentence.

Lucy's expression softened. She stepped closer, her arrogant demeanor replaced by something gentler. "So what?" she said. "If you can only slow it down, then slow it down. That's still more time. Time to find another way. Time to figure out who you are in this world. You're trying to disappear when you have ways to at least delay it and live as long as you can."

Caesar's grip on Izuku's arm tightened. "Lucy's right. If you can't stop it completely, then you fight it for as long as you can. That's what we do in the Outer Ring. You don't give up just because the road ahead is rough. You keep going until you can't anymore."

Wise stepped forward, his voice calm but carrying weight. "And the medication will buy you time. Time we can use to find a more permanent solution."

"He's right," Belle added, her voice fierce. "You don't get to decide that it's hopeless without giving us a chance to prove you wrong."

Vivian watched Izuku from a few feet away, her red eyes unreadable. She had seen many people break—criminals, victims, Hollow Raiders who pushed too far. But she had rarely seen someone break and still try to protect everyone around them from the fallout.

"I will find a way to help you," she said quietly. "For my Lord Phaethons. And for you. Because you tried to help me, even when you had no reason to."

Caesar's grip on his arm tightened again. "You're also a real idiot, you know that?!" she yelled, her voice echoing off the broken walls.

He turned to look up at her.

"Don't you realize that you have people who care about you here?! Belle and Wise clearly care and want to know more about you. If you lost what you used to have, then you shouldn't be trying to erase yourself. You should be trying to make new friends and family!"

Lighter adjusted his cracked sunglasses, offering a small, easy smile. "After our fight, and hearing a little bit about you... I can't help but want to get to know you as well. Help you through this, and maybe we could be real pals after."

Billy stepped up, his yellow eyes glowing warmly. "You could join me in my performances as a Starlight Knight in front of kids as well!"

Pulchra elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Right," Billy muttered, rubbing his side. "Not the time, sorry."

Vivian lowered her parasol, her red eyes filled with a quiet, fierce devotion. "I am grateful you saved one of my Lord Phaethons," she said softly. "And I am sorry for what I said to you before. I want to make up for that."

Izuku stared at them. The static in his head, the cold, heavy pressure of the Ether, began to recede.

Belle walked forward. She knelt down in the dust beside him, reaching out to hold his cheek gently. Her thumb brushed away a streak of dirt and dried blood.

"Well," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "Will you accept us? Let us help you, and become our friend?"

Izuku's eyes widened. He didn't think people in this world could care so much about him. Especially ones he had just met. Ones he had tried so hard to push away.

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, spilling over and cutting clean tracks through the grime on his face. He looked up at everyone—Belle, Wise, Caesar, Lighter, Billy, Vivian.

"Alright," he choked out, his voice breaking. "I'll... I'll accept your help. And see if I can deal with this with you. And... become a friend."

Everyone smiled. The tension in the air shattered, replaced by a collective, profound relief.

"Okay then," Belle said, her own tears finally falling as she smiled brightly. "Let's get you back."

Caesar stood up, offering her hand to pull him to his feet. "Come on, greenie. Let's go home."

Izuku reached out, his fingers brushing her prosthetic hand.

The ground trembled.

A deep, guttural roar shook the dust from the ceiling. The air pressure dropped violently, making everyone's ears pop.

From the shadows of the collapsed wall, an Ethereal emerged. It was massive, its body a twisted mass of jagged black crystals and glitching, violet light.

Its core pulsed with a sickly, dense energy that made the air taste like ash.

Everyone instantly shifted into combat stances. Weapons were drawn. Engines flared.

"Form up!" Caesar shouted, raising her shield. "Surround it!"

Izuku's jaw tightened. Anger flared in his chest. He wanted to deal with it. He wanted to protect the people who had just reached out to him.

But his emotions were a spark in a powder keg. The corruption surged, violent and uncontrolled.

The Ethereal's dense Ether resonated with the foreign energy in his blood, amplifying the reaction a hundredfold.

Belle and Wise gasped, clutching their heads as their eye implants flared with blinding, agonizing light.

"No," Izuku whispered.

His Ether burst out in a massive, concussive wave.

Black lightning with a sickly green glow exploded from his body, knocking Billy, Vivian, and the others off their feet. Blackwhip tendrils lashed out wildly, shredding the remaining walls.

Piper swung her axe, severing a thick tendril that was about to strike Belle and Wise.

Burnice fired a blast of fire, incinerating another, but the tendrils just regenerated, growing thicker, darker.

"Stop!" Izuku screamed, clutching his head. "Please, stop!"

He tried to pull it back. He tried to force the energy down. But the dam had broken.

A huge bolt of black lightning erupted from his chest, striking the Ethereal dead in its core.

The monster didn't dissolve. It absorbed the bolt. Its body expanded, the crystals growing larger, sharper. Its core shifted from violet to a blinding, toxic black-green.

Belle and Wise checked their scanners, their faces pale. "Ether readings are skyrocketing!" Wise shouted over the deafening hum of the mutated monster.

The bolt dissipated. The mutated Ethereal threw its head back and roared, a sound that cracked the concrete beneath their feet.

The mutated Ethereal threw its head back and roared, a sound that cracked the concrete beneath their feet.

Its crystals pulsed with a sickly black-green light, and the air around it warped with barely contained energy.

Izuku fell to his knees, his hands trembling violently as he stared at the monster he had just empowered. "What... what have I done?"

Caesar stepped forward, her sword raised, her shield ready. "Everyone, get ready! We're taking this thing down together!"

Lighter's gauntlet flared to life. "I've fought worse. This is just another challenger."

Billy twirled his revolver and dropped into a stance. "A Starlight Knight never backs down from a monster!"

Belle and Wise exchanged a look, their eye implants flaring as they scanned the creature. "Its Ether readings are off the charts," Wise said, his voice strained. "It's not just mutated—it fed on something. Something inside Izuku."

Izuku stared at his hands. The crystals were spreading faster now, crawling up his neck. 'This is my fault. Everything that happens next... it's all my fault.'

The Ethereal charged.

"Izuku!" Belle shouted. "Get up!"

Pressure built around him as his Ether circled around him. His Blackwhip tendrils whipped around wildly.

Dark green eyes glanced at everyone, then landed on Belle. Seeing her worried despite what he has caused made his body ache. "Belle…I'm sorry for this…"

 

[GhostJade45]

The highway stretched west in a long, grey ribbon, the city's edge thinning into industrial sprawl and finally into the scrubland that marked the Outer Ring's beginning. Streetlights grew sparser, leaving longer stretches of darkness between each amber pool.

Zhu Yuan's hands were steady on the wheel, but her jaw was tight.

"You're certain this is where he's heading?" Zhu Yuan asked, flicking her gaze to the rearview mirror.

Qingyi sat in the passenger seat, one elbow resting against the door frame, her thermos of hot water cradled in her other hand. Her green eyes were half-lidded, but her sensors were running at full capacity.

"Civilian reports from the early morning placed him moving west at an accelerated pace," Qingyi said, her voice carrying that calm, melodic quality it always did.

"Multiple sightings. It seems he wasn't hiding his path." She took a sip from her thermos. "And my own sensors are detecting traces of his unique energy signature. The same one we picked up when we faced him."

Zhu Yuan's grip tightened on the wheel. "Why would he go all the way out here? Everything we've gathered on him suggests he's been operating exclusively in Janus Quarter. Helping people and stopping crimes. He never left that area."

"Until now." Qingyi tilted her head, watching the road ahead. "Something must have changed. The reports describe him as moving with urgency—not like someone scouting or investigating, but like someone fleeing."

"Fleeing from what?"

Qingyi was quiet for a moment. "That," she said finally, "is what we need to find out."

Zhu Yuan exhaled slowly through her nose. The Green Shroud had been a puzzle since the moment they'd encountered him. A vigilante with no registration, no history, no apparent motive beyond helping strangers.

He'd disrupted their operation, yes—but he'd also come back to fix his mistake. He'd helped them take down the stash house, apologized for the trouble he'd caused, and disappeared into the night without asking for anything in return.

She couldn't let that continue. He was operating outside the law, unregistered, unchecked. But—

But he's not a criminal, a voice in her head whispered. He's someone who needs help.

She pushed the thought aside and reached for her phone.

"I'm calling Cissia," she said, pressing a contact. "She needs to be here for this."

The line rang twice before a groggy voice answered. "...Hello?"

"Cissia. Where are you?"

A long pause. Then: "...I'm trying my best to get there, okay? These roads are terrible. And do you really expect me to deal with that scary-looking green lightning guy? You couldn't catch him with four of you!"

Zhu Yuan closed her eyes and counted to three. "Commander Severian Lowell personally assigned this investigation. We have a lead on his location. You're required to assist in the apprehension."

"Ugh..." The sound of rustling fabric, like someone rolling over in bed. "But he escaped you guys. What am I supposed to do that you couldn't?"

"You'll be compensated," Zhu Yuan said, her tone flattening. "This is interrupting your paid leave. You'll receive additional pay for the call-out."

A beat of silence. Then: "...How much?"

"Standard overtime rate plus hazard differential."

"...Fine." The word came out with exaggerated reluctance. "I'll get there as fast as I can. But we're dealing with this guy quick, okay? I want to get back to my egg rolls."

Zhu Yuan allowed herself a small, almost imperceptible sigh of relief. "We'll see you soon."

She hung up and set the phone down.

Qingyi took another sip of hot water. "She's quite a handful."

Zhu Yuan shook her head, but the tension in her shoulders eased a fraction. "She's capable when she wants to be. And we'll need her skills if we're going to take the Green Shroud in—especially if he resists."

"If he resists….," Qingyi repeated, her tone thoughtful. "You still intend to arrest him?"

"He's operating illegally. Unregistered vigilante activity is a violation of—"

"I know the regulations, Captain." Qingyi's voice was gentle, not challenging. "I'm asking if that's what you want to do."

Zhu Yuan was silent for a long moment.

"He helped us," she said finally, her voice quieter. "After he messed up our operation. He came back and pointed us to the stash house, then apologized after." She paused. "And everything we've found suggests he's been helping people genuinely, with no payment or recognition. Just… helping."

Qingyi nodded slowly. "So he's not a typical criminal."

"No." Zhu Yuan's hands tightened on the wheel again. "But he can't keep doing this alone. Unregistered, unsupported, no backup. If something happens to him out here—if he gets hurt or worse—there's no record of who he is. No one to notify. No one to hold accountable."

She met Qingyi's gaze briefly. "I want to bring him in, but not to punish him. To give him a choice. To see if he'd be willing to work with us instead of against us."

Qingyi's smile widened slightly. "That's surprisingly compassionate of you, Captain."

"Don't tell anyone." Zhu Yuan turned her attention back to the road. "I have a reputation to maintain."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Zhu Yuan merged onto the cracked highway leading deeper into the wasteland. "Hopefully Jane and Seth will arrive in time as well."

Qingyi nodded, lifting her thermos to her lips once more. The cruiser sped onward, kicking up a trail of pale dust toward the horizon.

—

Deep within a Hollow, the air tasted of ash and oxidized copper. A mutated Ethereal towered over the ruined warehouse district, its core pulsing with a toxic, black-green luminescence.

Billy spun his revolver on his finger, the Starlight Knight striking a wide stance amidst the rubble. "A true hero never yields to mere monsters!" he declared, thumbing the hammer back.

The Ethereal's roar shook the crumbling warehouse district, its crystalline body pulsing with that sickly black-green luminescence.

Billy fired three rapid shots, the bullets sparking against its armored knee joint. The beast staggered, black ichor dripping from the fresh craters, but its mass absorbed the impact.

"Tough customer!" Billy called out, dodging a sweeping limb. "I like a challenge!"

He vaulted onto his motorcycle, the engine roaring, and charged directly at the Ethereal's legs. The impact sent the creature stumbling, and Billy used the momentum to launch himself into the air—

"Starlight Knight—FLYING KICK!"

His boot slammed into the Ethereal's core. A shockwave rippled outward. The creature roared, staggering back, but it didn't fall.

Billy landed in a crouch, frowning. "Okay, that usually works."

"Billy, watch out!" Caesar's voice cut through the chaos.

The Ethereal's arm came down in a devastating arc. Billy rolled clear, the impact cratering the ground where he'd been standing.

"Thanks, big sis!" he called, already reloading.

Caesar swung her sword, the heavy blade cleaving into the creature's flank. The Ethereal roared, backhanding the air and sending a shockwave that forced Caesar to slide backward, her boots carving trenches into the concrete.

Across the battlefield, the others were fighting with everything they had.

Burnice's flamethrowers painted arcs of orange and red across the creature's body. "Come on, darlin!~ I've got a Burnice special with your name on it!" She unleashed another torrent, but the flames seemed to barely slow it. "Ugh, why won't you just TOAST?!"

"Maybe try aiming for something other than the parts that are ALREADY ON FIRE!" Lucy shouted, swinging her spiked bat at a crystalline protrusion. The impact cracked it, but the creature barely flinched. "This thing's like a brick wall with anger issues!"

"Then we hit it like one!" Piper's axe spun in a deadly arc, carving deep gouges into the Ethereal's side. "Steeltusk's been through worse scrapes than this. We just gotta keep hammering!"

Lighter drove his gauntlet into its knee joint, sparks flying. The Ethereal backhanded him away with contemptuous ease. He crashed through a crumbling brick wall, coughing up dust. "Okay... that one actually hurt."

"Lighter!" Pulchra fired a volley from her revolvers, targeting the creature's eye to draw its attention. "Get up! It's not done with you yet!"

"Thanks for the concern, Pulchra. Really feeling the love." He pushed himself up, shaking off debris. "Alright, time for round two, big guy." Flames ignited along his forearms from his gauntlet. He launched himself off a pile of rebar, delivering a blazing haymaker to the creature's jaw.

The Ethereal barely registered the blow before swatting him out of the air again.

"Guess today isn't my day huh?" Lighter groaned from the rubble.

Vivian darted beneath a sweeping claw, her parasol snapping open to deflect a spray of corrosive ether.

She landed in a crouch, her eyes darting toward the center of the arena—where a cyclone of black ether raged around Izuku.

Her grip on her parasol tightened. 'He's getting worse... and Belle and Wise are trying to reach him. I need to help them.'

A massive fist plummeted toward her distracted form.

"VIVIAN!" Caesar lunged, interposing her sword, Vidi. The strike hammered against the steel, driving her to one knee. Her arms trembled under the sheer tonnage. "A little help would be nice!"

"Cover her!" Pulchra shouted, her pistols barking in unison. Each round found its mark on the Ethereal's face, staggering it.

Billy joined the volley. "Hey, ugly! Over here!" His shots pinged off its core, drawing its aggro. The Ethereal flinched, giving Caesar the split second needed to roll out from under the shadow of its fist.

"Thanks," Caesar panted, rolling her shoulder.

"Don't mention it, big sis!" Billy twirled his revolver. "Just doing my Starlight Knight duty!"

The Ethereal's chest cavity split open, revealing a jagged, glowing maw. It raised a hand, the palm cracking apart to form a makeshift cannon.

"EVERYONE, MOVE!" Lucy screamed.

A concentrated stream of volatile ether erupted from the creature's palm.

Lucy slammed her bat into the ground, a massive chunk of asphalt tearing upward to form a makeshift barricade. Piper and Burnice dove behind it just as the beam scorched the earth, melting the edges of their rock cover into glowing slag.

"That was CLOSE!" Burnice peeked over the edge, her eyes wide.

Piper grabbed her arm. "We need a better plan!"

Billy revved his motorcycle, the engine screaming. "Leave the planning to me!" He popped a wheelie, spun the chassis in a tight arc, and hurled the entire vehicle at the Ethereal's legs.

The heavy steel frame collided with a resounding crunch. The beast staggered, its balance compromised for a crucial second.

"Did that do it?!" Billy skidded to a stop.

The Ethereal looked down, raising a foot to crush the android.

"BILLY!" Caesar shouted.

Billy slid beneath the descending heel, grabbing his bike's handlebars and yanking it free just as the concrete shattered where he had stood. "Okay, that was TOO close!"

The Ethereal threw its head back and unleashed a deafening roar. Its glowing eyes snapped toward the raging ether storm at the center of the arena—where Izuku was still struggling, his corruption feeding the cyclone.

"It's going for him!" Vivian's voice cracked with alarm.

The creature took a heavy, thunderous step toward the storm.

"Don't let it NEAR him!" Caesar ordered, charging forward.

Burnice unleashed a torrent of white-hot flames across its path. "Slow down, big guy! We're not letting you mess with our stray!"

Lighter and Piper flanked from the rear, their combined strikes biting into its spine. Lighter's gauntlet flared as he drove his fist into its back. "Get back here, you oversized statue!"

Caesar and Lucy slammed into its knees, pushing with all their might to halt its advance. "We're not letting you past!" Lucy growled, her boots digging trenches into the concrete.

The Ethereal roared and swung wildly, forcing them to scatter.

Vivian glanced over her shoulder at the cyclone. Belle and Wise were struggling against the outer edges, dodging wild Blackwhip tendrils.

Her heart clenched. 'They're still trying to reach him. If I don't help them, they'll get hurt. But if I leave the fight…'

"Vivian, GO!" Caesar shouted, reading her hesitation. "We've got this! Help the Proxies!"

"But—"

"WE'VE GOT THIS!" Lighter echoed, delivering another punch. "Go help them!"

Vivian gritted her teeth and made her decision. She turned and sprinted toward the cyclone.

"Vivian, wait—!" Pulchra called out.

"She's going after the Proxies!" Billy said, firing another shot at the Ethereal. "We hold the line!"

The Ethereal roared, but the Sons of Calydon closed ranks.

"We won't let you get past us!" Caesar declared.

—

Belle dodged another wild Blackwhip tendril, her breath ragged. The storm was suffocating—every breath tasted of ash and ozone, and the pressure against her skin made her feel like she was underwater.

"Belle, we need to fall back!" Wise shouted, deflecting a tendril with a burst of Ether. "We can't get through this alone!"

"I don't care!" Belle pushed forward. "He needs us! We just got him to accept our help—I'm not giving up now!"

"Belle—!" Wise reached for her arm, but she was already moving.

Another tendril whipped toward her. She ducked, rolled, and kept going.

The wind hit Vivian the moment she stepped past the last collapsed wall separating her from the storm, a wall of pressure so heavy it nearly drove her back onto her heels.

She planted her feet, angled her parasol into the gale, and pushed forward anyway.

Blackwhip tore past her shoulder close enough that she felt the heat of it against her skin.

She twisted aside, letting it pass, and had barely straightened before a second tendril lashed in from the opposite direction. She cut through that one clean, the severed length dissolving into a scatter of black-green sparks before another rose to take its place.

"This is worse than before," she muttered, more to herself than anyone who could hear her over the roar.

She kept moving. Ahead, through the haze, she could make out Belle and Wise still fighting for every step, the wind tearing at their clothes, Wise's arm thrown up to shield his eyes from the grit whipping through the air.

Vivian's parasol sliced through another tendril. "My lords!"

"Huh, Vivian?!" Belle's eyes widened. "What are you doing here?!"

"The others are holding the creature off. I came to help you." Vivian deflected another tendril, positioning herself between Belle and the storm. "You can't reach him alone. Let me clear the path."

"Vivian, you don't have to—"

"I DO." Vivian's voice was fierce, her eyes blazing with conviction. "He saved one of my Lord Phaethons. He risked everything to help others. I will NOT let him destroy himself now."

She turned and stepped forward, her parasol slicing through the tendrils. "Follow me!"

The three of them pressed forward together after that, Vivian in the lead, her parasol slicing through tendril after tendril while Belle and Wise followed in the narrow wake she cleared.

Every step took more out of them than the last. The pressure alone was enough to make Belle's ears ache, and she could feel the Ether crawling across her exposed skin like something with intent behind it, cold and searching.

Her eye implants flickered, the golden light behind them stuttering once before steadying.

"The Ether seems to be getting worse," she said, teeth gritted against the wind.

Wise's gaze had already gone distant, data scrolling faintly behind his eyes. "The density's still climbing," he said. "If it keeps rising at this rate, the Hollow itself could start expanding if this doesn't stop soon."

Belle's jaw tightened. "Then we don't have time to be careful." She shoved forward, past the edge of Vivian's cleared path, cupping both hands around her mouth. "Izuku!"

The wind swallowed the name whole.

She tried again, louder, until her throat ached with it. "Izuku, can you hear me!"

For one instant, the wind shifted, and they saw him.

He stood at the dead center of the cyclone, black-green lightning crawling over every inch of him, the crystals beneath his skin spreading further up his arms and along the side of his neck than they had before.

Blackwhip lashed around him in wild, restless arcs, more animal than weapon now, striking out at nothing and everything in equal measure.

His eyes were barely visible through the haze, and what little Belle could see of them looked wrong — both too bright, and dark, at once.

"Belle..." His voice came out strained, barely holding together.

She took another step toward him. "We're here for you."

"G-G..et aw-away…." The words cracked in the middle, splitting into something closer to a plea. "P-Please..."

She kept walking. Wise stayed at her shoulder, and Vivian held the line just ahead of them both, cutting down another tendril before it could reach.

"I-I c-can't…control it," Izuku said, and the wind around him surged in answer, like his own fear was feeding it directly. "I…tried… to pull it back, but it's only getting worse. Every second I stand here, it's spreading."

"Then we'll help you stop it," Belle said.

"You can't."

"You don't know that."

"I DO!"

The force behind the shout sent the storm rippling outward in a visible shockwave. Belle stumbled, catching herself against Wise's arm as Vivian jammed her parasol into the ground and held her footing through the worst of it.

Izuku's face twisted, fear plain across every line of it. "Go..," he said, softer now, almost begging. "I don't want any of you getting hurt…because of me."

"You already told us that." Belle pushed forward again, undeterred.

"Then listen this time!"

"We can't—"

"I can't d-do this!" His voice broke entirely, the black lightning surging brighter across his chest. "I'm losing my own head. I can barely think straight anymore." He looked at her, and for a moment something almost lucid flickered behind the wrongness in his eyes. "The corruption's spreading. I can feel it."

A tendril lashed toward the three of them without warning. Vivian intercepted it, parasol snapping up to deflect the strike, but before she could recover her stance a second one came from the opposite side.

She twisted and blocked that one too, though the force of it sent her sliding several feet back across the cracked ground.

"Vivian!" Belle called.

"I am fine!" Vivian shouted back, already resetting her footing.

A third tendril slammed into the ground directly between them, and the shockwave threw both Vivian and Wise several feet clear, boots skidding, bodies crumpling into a rough landing against a slab of broken concrete.

"Wise!" Belle spun toward them.

Both were already struggling upright, but the distance between them and her had widened in an instant.

"Belle, stop!" Wise's voice cracked with effort as he pushed himself to his knees.

"Do not go any farther!" Vivian called, reaching a hand toward her, useless from this distance.

Belle ignored them both. She turned back toward Izuku and kept walking, alone now, the storm closing in tighter around her with every step.

Izuku stared at her with his dark emerald eyes, a look of horror crossed his face. "W-Why?" His voice had dropped to barely more than a whisper. "Why are you still trying to help me…?"

"Because you're still there," Belle said simply.

"I'll end up hurting you…"

"Then we'll deal with it." Belle's steps slowed, as she got closer to him.

Izuku's expression crumpled entirely. "Please..." His voice broke on the single word. "Just—give up on me."

She stopped where she stood.

He looked away from her, jaw working like he was trying to force something out that his own body didn't want to say. "I-If you can't save me…," he managed, "then tell them… to finish me off. Before I become something worse than this."

Belle's eyes went wide.

For one long moment, the only sound left in the world was the roar of the Ether around them.

Then she started walking again.

"No…," she said.

Izuku's head snapped up.

"You don't get to ask me to do that." Another step. Her voice, quiet at first, gathered strength with every word. "We finally got you to accept our help. You finally admitted you wanted to be our friend." Her eyes began to glow, gold bleeding through green-flecked hazel until there was nothing left but light. "And I am not letting you take that back just because you're scared."

Thin golden markings crawled up along her forearm, pulsing bright in time with something Izuku couldn't name.

'What... is that?' The thought barely held together in his head.

The gold kept spreading. For one disorienting second, something moved behind her — a shape standing within the light itself, feminine in outline, calm in a way that felt entirely wrong for the middle of a storm like this. It felt like Belle, some deeper current running underneath her, but it was not the same thing wearing her face.

The figure was gone before he could fix his eyes on it.

'There's…. something in her?'

Belle kept walking, raising one hand as golden Ether curled and flowed between her fingers.

"I don't know what you're going to become," she said, closer now, close enough that he could hear the effort behind every word. "I don't know why your corruption is acting like this, or what that energy inside you even is." A faint, exhausted smile broke through despite everything. "But I know you."

Izuku's breath caught somewhere in his chest.

"You've spent this whole time trying to protect everyone else." She took another step, near enough now to reach him. "So let us protect you. Just this once."

His eyes trembled. "I don't know if I can..."

"You don't have to know." She closed the last of the distance between them. "You just have to trust us."

She wrapped both arms around him.

Izuku froze entirely, the storm still screaming around the two of them, and for several seconds neither of them moved at all.

Then his whole body started shaking. "B-Belle..."

"I'm here." She replied.

"I don't want to become a monster…."

"I know..."

"I don't want to die either…" The words came out smaller than anything he had said yet, almost childlike in how bare they were.

Belle tightened her arms around him instead of answering right away. "Then don't," she said finally.

Izuku's eyes went wide.

Golden light began spreading across his skin where her arms held him, and she pressed her palm flat against his chest. "Let me help you."

The Ether inside him surged violently in response, and he screamed — not in pain exactly, but in the shock of something enormous trying to move through a space too small to hold it.

Golden lightning erupted from his body in every direction, colliding with the corrupted black-green storm in a shockwave that staggered even Belle where she stood.

She held on anyway.

The markings along her arm blazed brighter, and the storm fought back harder for it, black-green energy rushing toward them both like the corruption itself understood it was losing ground.

"Izuku!" Belle's voice cracked, but her grip never loosened.

He screamed again as something else surged through him, and this time the golden lightning shifted — not just light anymore, but shapes within it. Faces.

People he half recognized through the haze, gathered around him the way they had once gathered around something far older and far more familiar.

Voices reached him next.

The vestiges.

He knew them instantly, faint and nearly transparent as they were, golden silhouettes pressing close against the pressure of the storm. One by one, they reached toward him.

'They're.. here.'

Something shifted in his chest at the realization, a pressure he recognized from a hundred training sessions and a hundred desperate fights, except it did not feel the way One For All usually felt. It was not simply power waiting to be used.

It felt like the vestiges themselves were bracing against the corruption from the inside, physically holding a line, trying to drag him back toward himself.

A laugh echoed inside him. Quiet and amused, in a way that made his skin crawl even through everything else happening to it.

Izuku went still.

"...Interesting," the voice said, from somewhere he could not locate, somewhere that felt closer to the inside of his own skull than anywhere external. "This is quite an interesting turn of events."

'That isn't any of vestiges…who–?.' He tried to look around, uselessly, since there was nothing here to look at — no shape, no source, just the vestiges' familiar light and Belle's arms still holding him upright.

The voice was wrong in a way he could not immediately place. And yet buried somewhere underneath the wrongness of it was something disturbingly close to his own voice, warped just enough to feel like a stranger wearing it.

"Who are you?" he managed.

The voice only laughed again, softer this time, already fading. "I suppose we'll see how things turn out."

And then it was gone.

Izuku stared into the dark behind his own eyes for another second, chest heaving. 'What was that?'

"Who are you talking to?" Belle's voice pulled him back, sharp with concern.

He looked down at her, and whatever answer he might have given caught somewhere in his throat. "Nothing….," he said instead.

He was not entirely sure why he lied. Maybe because there was no way to explain something he did not understand himself.

Maybe because the storm was still raging around them and there was no room left for anything but staying upright. Or maybe simply because Belle was standing there with her arms around him, risking everything she had to save him, and he could not bring himself to hand her one more thing to worry about right now.

Belle studied his face for a moment longer than felt comfortable, like she knew he had not told her the whole truth, but let it go.

"You're still blaming yourself…," she said instead.

Izuku looked away. "I caused this…."

"Maybe." She did not flinch from the word, did not soften it or take it back. "You lost control, and the Ethereal fed off what came out of you. That's true. That happened because of you."

His chest tightened at hearing it stated so plainly.

"But that doesn't mean everything that happens next has to be your fault too." Her hand pressed flatter against his chest, right over where the golden light still pulsed beneath his ribs. "You don't have to forgive yourself right now. You don't have to decide everything you've done is suddenly okay. You don't even have to believe you're worth saving yet."

His eyes started to burn.

"But you trusted us enough to let us in." Her voice dropped, quieter, steadier. "So trust us now. Stop trying to carry this by yourself."

Izuku closed his eyes.

Belle's voice from earlier came back to him first — asking if he would let them help him, let them be his friends. Then Wise, telling him plainly that they were not going to abandon him.

Caesar calling him an idiot with more warmth in it than the word should have carried.

Lighter, offering something like real friendship after nearly beating each other bloody in the street.

Billy, telling him he mattered simply because people had gone this far for him. Vivian, promising to make things right after everything she had said to him before.

He had spent an entire year convinced that protecting people meant keeping every single one of them as far from him as possible.

'Maybe that was the part I got wrong.'

The thought hurt in a way he had not expected. Not the same sharp, familiar pain he had been carrying for months, though.

Something different, that did not feel like it was actively crushing his ribs from the inside for once.

'Maybe…. I don't have to do this alone or blame myself…'

The black-green Ether around them began to weaken, visibly retreating as Belle's gold spread further into the space it had occupied.

The vestiges brightened in answer, and gold lightning surged through every inch of him, chasing the last of the corruption back toward wherever it had come from. The crystals along his arms cracked, one after another, and broke apart into fine violet dust that scattered on the dying wind.

The storm began to shrink.

Belle held on until the very last violent wave of Ether passed through them both, and then, all at once, there was silence.

Izuku sagged against her, and she caught his full weight without complaint.

"Izuku?"

He forced a breath through his lungs. "I'm …here."

Wise and Vivian reached them at nearly the same moment, both moving faster than their bruised bodies probably wanted to allow.

"Are you two okay?" Wise asked, eyes flicking between them.

"Yeah," Belle said, and then looked down at Izuku still leaning heavily against her. "And you?"

Izuku stared at the broken crystal dust scattered around his own feet for a long moment before he answered. "Yeah," he said finally, voice worn thin. "For now…"

Vivian stepped in and helped brace his other side, easing him upright. "You have done enough," she said, something gentler than usual in her tone. "You may rest now."

A roar tore through the Hollow before he had the chance to.

Every head turned at once.

The mutated Ethereal stood several dozen meters off, and the Sons of Calydon lay scattered in various states of ruin around it.

Caesar was down on one knee, sword planted in the ground for support.

Lighter leaned heavily against a half-collapsed wall.

Piper struggled just to get her feet back under her. Lucy's bat had slipped from her grip entirely.

Burnice lay sprawled behind a shattered slab of concrete, and Billy was flat on his back beside his motorcycle, dazed but conscious.

The Ethereal raised one arm, Ether gathering thick and violet in its open palm.

Belle's eyes went wide. "Oh no, it's gonna fire! Everyone move!"

The blast fired before the warning finished leaving her mouth.

Izuku moved before he had time to think about it.

Belle barely registered him slipping out of her grip before he was already gone, golden and green lightning trailing behind him like a comet's tail.

"Eh, Izuku?!"

He reappeared directly between the Ethereal and the others, boots skidding hard into the cracked ground as the full force of the blast slammed into his raised arms.

"He's blocking it—" Belle's voice caught in her throat.

"Izuku what are you doing?!" Wise's shout barely carried over the roar of the impact.

The blast kept coming, and Izuku's whole body screamed under the strain of it, the crystal fragments still clinging to his skin pulsing violently. But the gold lightning kept crawling up his arms too, brighter with every passing second, refusing to let the black-green pressure win.

He thought of all of them. Belle. Wise. Vivian. Caesar. Billy. Lighter. Piper. Lucy. Burnice. Every single one of them had come after him — had fought for him, argued with him, refused every single time to just let him go.

'They're my friends.' His jaw set, teeth grinding through the pain. 'I'm not letting them get hurt because of something I caused!'

His gold and green lightning exploded outward all at once, and he pushed straight through the last of the blast, the Ethereal recoiling from the sheer force of it.

He leaped, rising higher than the wreckage around them, fist pulling back as the light around him surged brighter still.

The vestiges flared into view behind him one more time, and for one suspended moment he felt something he had not felt in longer than he could remember — the strength he used to know, except different now. Not simply One For All anymore. Something new, built from everything currently living inside him.

"Detroit—" His eyes narrowed on the Ethereal's glowing core.

The creature's chest lit up in answer, bracing for an impact it could not have understood was coming.

"—SMASH!"

His fist connected dead center.

The core shattered on impact, cracks spreading through the Ethereal's entire body in an instant, and then the whole creature detonated outward into a storm of raw Ether.

The released energy collided head-on with the gold and green lightning still surrounding Izuku, and a tornado tore into being between them, green and gold spiraling together in a violent double helix that climbed straight up toward the Hollow's ceiling.

The structure shook. Cracks split across its surface, spreading wider with every passing second, until the ceiling finally gave way entirely and the tornado punched clean through it.

For the first time in longer than anyone standing below could guess, actual sky became visible overhead, gold and green lightning threading up into it like something reaching for the world outside.

---

Zhu Yuan slammed on the brakes hard enough that both of them jolted forward against their seatbelts.

"What—" Qingyi's eyes had already gone wide, fixed on the horizon.

A massive column of twisting light had torn into being in the near distance, green and gold lightning coiling around its center as it climbed higher than anything Zhu Yuan had ever seen come out of a Hollow. The ground beneath the Hollow itself looked like it was visibly destabilizing, chunks of its outer shell crumbling away even from here.

Qingyi's sensors flared to life, data scrolling rapidly behind her eyes. "That is not normal," she said quietly.

Zhu Yuan pushed the door open and stepped out without answering, staring up at the spiraling light. Qingyi followed a beat later, standing at her side.

"What are you detecting?" Zhu Yuan asked.

"Multiple Ether fluctuations, overlapping." Qingyi's brow furrowed, the readings clearly not settling into anything she recognized cleanly. "One of them matches the Green Shroud's signature."

Zhu Yuan's eyes widened. "So that's… being caused by him?"

"I believe so..." Qingyi hesitated, studying the numbers a moment longer. "But there is a second energy source intertwined with his. The readings are difficult to separate cleanly, and the combined density is extraordinarily high. Higher than anything I've catalogued from him before."

Zhu Yuan stared at the widening breach in the Hollow, the scale of it settling into something she could not quite reconcile with the file she had built on a vigilante.

---

The tornado began to weaken.

Inside the Hollow, Izuku felt himself falling before he registered he had stopped moving at all, and he barely felt the ground rushing up to meet him before someone caught him first.

"Got him," Lighter said, one arm braced beneath his shoulders.

Belle was already there. "Izuku!"

Piper pushed herself upright despite the ache clearly written across her whole body and pressed two fingers to his throat. "He's breathing," she said after a beat, and Belle let out a breath she had been holding since the moment he vanished from her arms.

"Thank goodness."

Caesar's gaze had already drifted upward, toward the massive tear still glowing faintly at its edges, slowly beginning to contract but nowhere near closed. "What the hell was that," she muttered.

Billy sat up slowly, following her gaze. "I have absolutely no idea," he admitted, and for once there was no theatrical flourish in it at all.

Lucy retrieved her bat from where it had fallen, brushing dust off the spikes. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone punch an Ethereal hard enough to tear a hole clean through a Hollow," she said, half-impressed despite everything.

Burnice, still flat on her back, stared straight up at the opening with something close to reverence. "That was beautiful," she said.

Piper glanced at her. "Beautiful?"

"Terrifyingly beautiful," Burnice amended, grinning even through her exhaustion.

Wise crouched beside Izuku, studying him with the same narrow focus he usually reserved for a piece of malfunctioning tech.

"Whatever it was," Belle said, "we'll figure it out later." She looked toward the enormous opening overhead, sunlight now pouring weakly through the settling dust. "Right now we need to leave."

"She's right," Caesar said, already pushing herself up.

Wise followed her gaze upward. "There's no way nobody outside didn't see that."

"Exactly." Belle looked down at Izuku, unconscious in Lighter's arms. "Anyone close enough to the Outer Ring will know something happened out here." She swallowed. "PubSec could already be on their way."

Caesar turned toward Lighter. "You know what to do."

He sighed, adjusting his grip on Izuku's weight. "I know."

Billy climbed to his feet and hauled his motorcycle upright, running a quick hand over the frame. "Everyone still in one piece?" he called out.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Define one piece."

Piper groaned as she straightened her back. "Save the jokes for later."

"Fair enough," Billy said, already swinging a leg over his bike.

"Move!" Caesar barked, and the group scattered toward their vehicles in a ragged, limping rush. Belle and Wise fell in behind them, Vivian close at Belle's side the whole way.

As they reached the van, Belle glanced back one last time. The Hollow was shrinking steadily now, but the wound torn through its ceiling remained open, sky still visible through it in a way it should never have been. Izuku hung limp in Lighter's arms a few feet ahead of her, utterly spent.

'We finally got him to come home,' she thought.

She looked down at her own arm, where faint traces of gold still lingered beneath her skin, and for just a moment she thought she felt something stir there — something that had always been present, technically, but had never once felt this close to the surface before.

A presence.

Her expression clouded over.

'What exactly happened to us in there?'

She did not have an answer.

The vehicles peeled out one after another, vanishing into the haze of the Outer Ring, and behind them the wounded Hollow kept shrinking under the weight of its own collapse, the massive scar torn through its surface still visible beneath the pale morning sky.

—-

Zhu Yuan and Qingyi watched the last traces of golden light fade from the sky. The Hollow in the distance was still visible — its barrier flickering, unstable, a gaping hole in its ceiling that hadn't closed.

"It's a Companion Hollow," Qingyi said. "Relatively small. But someone being able to single-handedly breach its structure..." She tilted her head. "That is impressive. And concerning."

Zhu Yuan stared at the damaged Hollow. Her jaw was tight. Her hand was on her weapon, her instincts were telling her the situation had just escalated beyond what she could handle alone.

"We might not be able to handle this ourselves anymore."

She pulled out her phone. Scrolled past names — Seth, Jane, Cissia — and stopped.

"We need to escalate. If the Green Shroud can do that..." She looked at the sky where golden light had been. "...he isn't something we can deal with alone."

She pressed the call button.

"This is Captain Zhu Yuan, Criminal Investigation Special Response Team. I'm requesting escalation of the Subject: the Green Shroud." She paused. Looked at the distant, wounded Hollow. "Classification recommendation..."

The words sat in her mouth for a moment. Heavy. Final.

"...Potential Void-Hunter Level Threat."

Qingyi took a slow sip from her thermos. She said nothing. But her green eyes lingered on the distant Hollow, and the data scrolling across her internal displays told her everything she needed to know.

Whatever the Green Shroud was, they were going to need a lot more than a PubSec response team to deal with him.

 

[GhostJade45]

A low hum reached Izuku before anything else.




It was a steady frequency vibrating at the edge of his hearing. It seemed to pass through his ears and settle somewhere behind his ribs, resonating with something deep inside his body.




His eyes fluttered open. He rubbed them with the back of his hand, waiting for his vision to clear. The blanket over him slipped down to his waist as he sat up.




'Where…am I?' He looked around.




On his right there was a desk with computers on it. Next to it was a bookshelf and four lockers next to that.




His emerald eyes gazed further ahead, to the right, and he could see a yellow bike placed high close to the door.




Glancing to the front he noticed a grey couch with a big house plant behind it. There were two posters on the wall, and below them a TV, speaker, and many other things sat there. 'This layout…' He had only seen it in glimpses when passing by and catching the door open, but he was sure this was it.




'So I'm in Wise's room, huh…' They'd brought him back to Random Play and carried him up here, put him in Wise's bed, and—




Izuku lifted his arm, examining it carefully.




He flexed his fingers, turned his wrist, checked the places where the violet-black crystals had been growing. He touched his neck, jaw, face, and any other part of his body.




His teeth—the canines that had elongated during the corruption—had mostly receded, though they were still sharper than his normal ones.




No strange feeling in his eyes was present, so the dark, feral glow was gone as well.




Nothing so far felt out of place.




'It's really gone… the corruption didn't grow back either..'




He exhaled slowly. 'But for how long?'




He reached inward, pressing his consciousness against the space where One For All lived.




Gazing deep within, he saw that the wall was still there—that black and purple barrier of Ether that had been blocking him from the vestiges since his arrival. But it felt different now. Thinner, perhaps. Less aggressive.




He could sense the vestiges on the other side. Faint, distant, but present. They were still there, still fighting, still holding back the corruption that had been trying to consume him.




His head leaned down. The events that unfolded in that Hollow came back to him. That pure gold Ether Belle had generated. And when she had hugged him, he had felt something inside her.




A presence, warm and alive, similar to what he had felt from Wise back at the construction site.




'Do they both have something inside them? Was that the same kind of thing? Another entity? Something living inside them?'




He remembered the voice he had heard during the purification. The laugh. It had sounded disturbingly close to his own voice, warped and amused.




'What was that? A new vestige? What caused it to form?'




His eyes glanced back up at the wall of Ether.




'Belle didn't completely remove the Ether. She purified the active corruption.'




Izuku raised his hand and tested One For All. A flicker of green lightning sparked at his fingertips, sputtering and weak.




'That Detroit Smash I pulled off must have been a temporary window caused by Belle getting rid of the corruption, letting me use the higher percentages of One For All again.' His hand clenched at his side. 'But only what was mainly affecting me physically was removed…so I'm not completely cured.'




He opened his eyes. 'But I'm alive. And I'm not being actively corrupted. That's what matters.'




Belle and Wise had risked themselves and their friends for him. He needed to thank them. All of them. And apologize for everything.




Izuku pushed the blanket off and planted his feet on the floor. His ears picked up that frequency again, and he looked toward the counter.




A round, silver object sat there. Baseball-sized, with a smooth surface and a faint internal glow.




Izuku stood and walked over to it. He picked it up carefully, turning it over in his hands.




It was warm to the touch, like it had been sitting in sunlight for hours. The metal was unlike anything he'd seen before—smooth, almost organic, with a subtle pattern that seemed to shift when he moved it.




'So this is a W-Engine?' He'd researched them during his late-night cafe session, trying to understand this world's technology and more.




They were devices that interacted with Ether through resonance, helping Agents control, then boost their Ether and the ambient Ether in the environment, mainly in Hollows.




Most were designed for fighting, but some had specialized effects and uses. This one felt different. Denser. More focused.




'Did Belle and Wise put one here to help with my Ether?'




He brought it closer to his face, examining the surface. The glow was faint but steady, pulsing in time with something he couldn't quite identify. And beneath the Ether and resonance, there was another scent.




Metallic. Warm. Almost like—




'Blood…?' Izuku frowned, bringing the W-Engine closer to his nose. There was definitely something there. Not fresh. Old. Embedded in the metal itself.




'Why would a metal device smell like blood?'




He didn't understand it. But then again, there was a lot about this world he didn't understand yet.




Footsteps in the hallway pulled him from his thoughts. The door opened, and Wise stepped inside, carrying a tray with breakfast and hot tea. Steam rose from the cup, carrying the scent of something warm and herbal.




Wise stopped mid-step, his eyes widening a bit.




He blinked for a moment, then a small smile crossed his face. "Oh. Good morning. I'm glad you're up."




"Good morning…," Izuku replied, setting the W-Engine back on the counter.




Wise walked over and set the tray on the desk, his movements careful and deliberate. He glanced at Izuku. "Did you sleep well?"




"I… think so," Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I feel surprisingly okay."




"That's good." Wise pulled the chair from the desk and sat down, gesturing for Izuku to sit on the bed. "You didn't wake up at all yesterday. It's the next morning now."




Izuku sat back down on the edge of the bed. "I slept for a whole day?"




"Yeah. You were out cold." Wise nodded toward the silver device on the counter. "Thankfully, it seems like the Porcelloy W-Engine is working well."




"Porcelloy W-Engine?" Izuku questioned.




"You probably wouldn't know this," Wise said. "You know what W-engines are right?"




Izuku inclined his head.




He nodded toward the device. " Well, this one is different. It's made of Porcelloy—a rare material with unusually strong Ether-stabilizing properties and corruption resistance. We've been using it to help with the fluctuations in our eye implants."




Izuku's fingers curled up. "Wait—so you're using a special W-Engine for me? One you need for yourselves?"




"Don't worry. We have another Porcelloy piece we're using for our fluctuations," Wise said. "We were saving it for something else. But after what happened to you, this was more urgent."




"So you chose to use it on me," Izuku said quietly.




"Yeah." Wise simply replied.




Izuku looked down.




Wise continued, "You weren't seriously hurt, and the corruption was dealt with, so we didn't feel the need to take you to the hospital. It would have led to complications—you got lucky last time with your identification."




Izuku's eyes narrowed. 'Right…. They know, I have no history and that…I'm the Green Shroud.'




He let out a long breath and rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture felt familiar, grounding.




"I'm..." He paused, searching for the right words. "I'm thankful. That you managed to stop me from making a huge mistake."




Wise said nothing, just waited.




"I didn't want to burden people with my issues," Izuku continued, his voice quieter now. "Or my existence. I figured no one would care for a stranger like me. I had nothing to lose, so I didn't see why I should stick around." He looked away, toward the window. "I was wrong."




He turned back to face Wise. "You proved me wrong. All of you. By coming to get me after I left without a word, by showing me that I did have people who cared. Who wants to know more about me more."




A small, tentative smile crossed his face. "I'm grateful. To have people like you and Belle."




Wise's expression softened. He stepped closer and placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder.




"You're welcome," he said quietly. "And for what it's worth—you're someone we owe a little as well. You saved Belle's life. You helped people in this city, asked for nothing in return. We grew to care about you. We want to know more about you."




He paused. "You're clearly going through something. We want to help you get through it."




Izuku's throat tightened. He swallowed hard.




"I think…," he said slowly, "it's time I finally explained myself fully. After everything you've done, it's only fair."




Wise studied him for a moment. "Are you sure? We want to know, but we don't want to rush you."




"No..." Izuku shook his head. "But It's fine. It'll be bad if I hold back for too much longer." He let out a breath. "Honestly... it might help relieve something inside me."




Wise nodded slowly. "Alright. If you're sure."




Izuku looked toward the window. The morning light streamed through, catching dust motes in lazy spirals.




"Could you call the Sons of Calydon?" he asked. "And Vivian. And that intelligent construct—I think I heard you guys call him Billy? I want to thank them and apologize as well. After everything they did for me, they deserve to hear it from me directly."




"Already planning on it," Wise said. "They were going to show up to check on you anyway. But I can tell them to come sooner, now that they know you're awake."




Izuku nodded. Then he hesitated. "Where's Belle?"




Wise's lips curved slightly. "Downstairs. She's been trying to distract herself while waiting for you to wake up."




Izuku's chest tightened. "I should probably talk to her too. She's the one who really pushed to help me and managed to stop my corruption. I need to show my thanks, especially to her."




Wise nodded. "You probably should. But first"—he gestured to the tray—"eat something. Drink the tea. You need it."




Izuku looked at the tray. The bread was still warm, steam rising from the tea. His stomach chose that moment to announce its emptiness with a low rumble.




"Right," he said, a touch embarrassed. "Of course."




He sat back on the bed, took the tray, and began to eat.




The food was warm. The tea was good. He ate more slowly than before, measured and present.




—




Downstairs, Belle was putting movies into the wrong sections.




She stared at a tape she had just placed in the horror aisle. It was an action movie. She sighed, pulled it out, and walked it over to the correct shelf.




Bangboo 18 watched her, his screen displaying worried, half-circle eyes. "Uhn... ehn-nah, ehn-nah-da?"




"I'm fine, Eighteen. Just... thinking," she muttered. She finished sorting and started walking toward the counter.




"Uhn! Ehn-nah-da?" 18 pressed, his screen shifting to a more concerned expression.




"I said I'm fine." Belle's voice was sharper than she intended. She winced, then softened. "Sorry, 18. I didn't mean to snap. I'm just—" She stopped, running a hand through her hair. "I'm just worried. About him."




"Uhn... ehn-nah," 18 said, nodding sagely. His screen displayed a reassuring smile.




Belle managed a small smile back. "Yeah. I know. He's in good hands." She picked up another tape, but her hands didn't move to organize it. "Still. I can't help but—"




Footsteps on the stairs caught her attention. She turned. "Wise, is Izuku—"




She stopped. Her eyes widened.




Izuku was walking down the stairs behind Wise. He raised his hand. "Hey, Belle—"




Belle rushed forward and threw her arms around him, hugging him so tightly that he let out a small grunt of surprise before he could finish his sentence, the impact pushing him back half a step.




He froze, his face warming. His arms hovered awkwardly for a second before he returned the hug.




Belle looked up at him, still holding on tight. "You made me really worried…."




Izuku composed himself, relaxing into the embrace. "I'm sorry….I didn't think I'd cause this much trouble by trying to disappear."




Belle pulled back just enough to look up at him. Her teal-aqua eyes were bright with unshed tears, but her expression was fierce. "Stop making yourself sound like a problem. But don't do anything like that again."




Izuku laughed awkwardly. "I... hopefully won't."




Wise cleared his throat softly from nearby. "I hate to interrupt, but we should probably have our conversation somewhere more private."




They both turned to see a couple of customers staring at them from the action section, eyebrows raised. Bangboo 18 had his screen covered with one stubby arm, as if shielding his eyes from something embarrassing.




Belle and Izuku pulled apart simultaneously, both flushing. Belle fiddled with a strand of her hair, looking anywhere but at him. Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, his face still red.




"Right…," Belle said, clearing her throat. "We probably should."




Wise turned to Bangboo 18. "Eighteen, handle the store while we're busy. And when everyone arrives, tell them we're in the workspace."




"Uhn! Ehn-nah-da, ehn-neh-nah!" Eighteen saluted crisply, his screen now displaying a cheerful expression.




They turned and walked towards the metal door of the room. Wise pulled it open and they all went inside.




Izuku stepped inside and immediately paused, his eyes widening as he took in the space.




A wall of monitors displayed data feeds, Hollow maps, and system diagnostics. Computers, a laptop, and cables lined the table.




To his left, a comfortable couch faced a large television. To his right, a row of lockers stood against the wall.




'So this is where they do their Proxy work. They mentioned they were the Legendary Proxy Phaethon. It makes sense they'd have a setup like this.'




Belle stepped in behind him, watching his reaction. "We've never really shown you this place before," she said, turning to him. "What do you think?"




"It's impressive. Shows your skills and resources," Izuku said.




A small, warm weight pressed against his leg.




He looked down. Bangboo 6 was there, his screen displaying a joyful expression, his little arms wrapped around Izuku's calf as far as they could reach.




"Uhn! Ehn-nah!" 6 chirped. "Uhn! Ehn-nah-da, ehn-neh-nah!"




Izuku blinked. Then a small smile tugged at his lips. He reached down and patted 6's head gently. "Hey there, Six. Were you worried about me too?"




6 nodded vigorously, his screen shifting to a more emphatic expression. "Uhn! Ehn-na-nuh!"




Belle watched from the couch, a soft smile on her face. "He says yeah, and he would have dragged you back himself if he could."




Izuku chuckled. "I guess I'm lucky they got to me first."




He gently extracted himself from 6's grip and moved to the couch.




They settled onto the cushions—Izuku in the middle, Belle on one side, Wise on the other. The monitors hummed quietly in the background.




Izuku turned to Belle, his expression serious.




"Belle…I want to properly thank you," he said. "For everything. You and Wise have done so much for me since we met. You gave me a place to stay, real support, and you never forced anything on me or tried to pry too much—even after you found out I had no history."




He paused, his voice dropping slightly. "And you—you spearheaded the effort to help me. You brought me back after you stopped my corruption. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."




He met her eyes, a warm smile crossing his face. "So thank you. Truly. I'm happy to be able to be with you again."




Belle waved a hand, her cheeks slightly pink. "It was no biggie. We couldn't just lose you with so little we actually know about you. And you saved my life, remember? You've been kind and helpful since the beginning." She paused for a moment. "Now that everything's settled... hopefully we can grow closer."




Izuku nodded. "Yeah… I'd like that."




The door to the workspace room opened. They all turned towards it.




Caesar King strode in first, her mechanical arm gleaming in the monitor light. "Hey!" she called out, her golden eyes shining bright. "Glad to see greenie's up and about. Are you doing okay?"




He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," Izuku said.




She put her hands on her hips. "Good."




Lighter followed close behind, adjusting his sunglasses. "Good to hear, pal."




Billy bounded in after him, his yellow eyes glowing with enthusiasm. "You're awake! I was so worried! After what I saw you do, I couldn't wait to see you and get to know you better!"




Vivian entered, her parasol held gracefully in one hand. She approached the couch with measured steps, her red slit-pupils soft. "I'm relieved to see you well, Midoriya. Our efforts didn't go to waste."




Lucy was last. She crossed her arms and looked him up and down, then looked away. "At least you don't look like you're about to cause another disaster."




Wise looked around. "Where are the others?"




Caesar waved a hand. "They're busy. They stopped what they were doing to help with the chase, so they had to get back to it now that greenie's been brought back."




Izuku straightened. "They helped too. I wanted to thank them and apologize."




Lucy snorted. "Don't worry about it. We'll tell them what you said." She turned her gaze back towards him. "But honestly, you caused us a lot of trouble, so you definitely should be apologizing."




"This isn't the time, Lucy," Lighter said.




Lucy raised an eyebrow but didn't argue.




Lighter turned his attention back to Izuku. "You didn't call us here just for a thanks and an apology, though, did you?"




Izuku gripped his pants. His jaw tightened.




"Yes," he said, gazing at each of them. "While I definitely need to thank you and apologize, I also have to tell you about myself. Finally explain my situation."




"Really?" Billy clapped his hands. "I'd love to hear it!"




"Are you sure?" Caesar asked, stepping closer, her expression turning serious. "We saved your hide, but we're still technically strangers. Most people don't tell deep secrets after just meeting."




"Yeah," Lighter agreed. "Whatever you're dealing with isn't an easy thing to let off. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to keep hiding things a bit longer. We'd understand."




Lucy shrugged. "Honestly, it's better if you just tell the Proxies."




Izuku shook his head. "It's really fine. You deserve to know after everything you did. And it's better if I let this off now."




He looked at each of them in turn—Caesar, Lighter, Lucy, Billy, Vivian. His expression was serious, determined.




Vivian inclined her head. "If you truly believe so, then we can't argue with you."




Everyone settled in. Some sat on the couch, others leaned against the walls or lockers.




He started off by thanking them, giving them each an apology, which they all welcomed, though Lucy was more reluctant.




Izuku then took a breath in. Out. He looked down. "You might find this hard to believe. It's crazy when I really think about it... but I'm not from New Eridu."




"What do you mean?" Belle asked. "Like, you're really from the Outer Ring or—"




"No," Izuku cut her off. "I'm not from this world at all. I'm from another world entirely. It's also called Earth, but it's vastly different from yours."




Silence hung in the room.




"...Eh?" Billy tilted his head.




"...Huh?" Caesar blinked.




"Another world?" Lucy scoffed, her arms tightening across her chest. "You can't be serious. How can we possibly believe something like that?"




Izuku looked to the side. "I know it's hard to believe without proof. But I really am from another world."




"Wait, really!?" Billy's eyes lit up.




"Is he for real?" Caesar asked, staring at him. "He came from another world, like in those isekai manga Billy showed me before?"




Izuku smiled awkwardly. "Kinda... yeah."




Lighter adjusted his sunglasses, remaining silent. He looked measured, analyzing the claim without dismissing it.




Vivian's red eyes narrowed slightly. She watched him carefully, waiting for more information before committing to a judgment.




"That's quite the story to hear!" Billy said, leaning forward.




"Huh. So that explains it," Wise said calmly.




Izuku turned to him.




"We had a feeling you weren't from here," Wise explained. "Your abilities—while technically possible to explain away—were a bit too mysterious. Too different in some aspects to be normal. You had no real history anywhere. It felt like you just... appeared. Plus, you not knowing certain things everyone else knows makes sense now."




"I thought you seemed almost like a being from another world," Belle added. "We've spent time with you and been through a lot. We know you can't be lying."




"That doesn't mean—" Lucy started.




"It's understandable you'd all have your doubts," Izuku interrupted. "It's an easy thing to doubt." He pulled his phone from his pocket. "But I can show you proof."




He opened the gallery and began scrolling through the photos that had survived the transfer from his old phone. "I wouldn't believe me either. So I'll show you."




Wise and Belle leaned in. Everyone else gathered closer. Izuku swiped through photos showing many areas in Musutafu, with heroes in a couple of them.




"I don't recognize any of these buildings," Wise said.




"Me neither," Belle murmured.




"We live in the Outer Ring," Caesar said, crossing her arms. "We don't explore every corner of the city when we come in. But these don't look like anything I've seen."




Vivian stared at the screen. "I've done extensive research on New Eridu's mapping and locations. None of these match any documented area."




Billy pointed at one of the images. "What's with all the pictures of these cool heroes?"




Caesar's eyes lit up. "Yeah, they look like people I'd see in a comic book." She jabbed a finger at All Might. "Especially this guy."




Lighter whistled. "Man, that guy must have really worked out to be that huge and muscular."




"He must be a really strong hero!" Billy exclaimed. "Something about that smile kinda makes me feel something."




"They look real, but why are there so many images of heroes?" Lucy asked, her skepticism still evident. "These could just be people cosplaying. This guy"—she pointed at Izuku—"could just be a hero fan."




"I am a hero fan," Izuku said. "But these are actual heroes who exist in my world."




"It's hard to see how anyone could cosplay most of these," Wise pointed out, scrolling to an image of a man with a cement-like body.




Belle studied an image of a big orca-looking man in a white suit. "This one could be a beast Thiren, but…I've never seen an orca one before."




Wise continued scrolling. He paused on a class photo. "That guy has extra appendages that seem webbed together."




Caesar leaned in closer. "And this purple-haired girl—those earphone jacks look like they're part of her ears, not attachments."




"And this brown-haired girl," Belle added, pointing. "She has pads on her fingers and a permanent blush. They look weirdly natural."




Lighter tilted his head. "Is that a Thiren thing?"




"I don't think so," Vivian said quietly, studying an image of what appeared to be floating clothes, though in another photo a girl with wild light green hair appeared translucent. "This girl seems completely invisible in some images or just translucent."




The room fell into a thoughtful silence.




Wise turned toward the monitors. "Fairy."




A sleek blue eye materialized on the main screen, rotating to life with mechanical precision. "Yes, Master Wise?"




"Fairy, can you analyze the images on Izuku's phone?" Wise asked. "Check if any of the locations or people match anything in New Eridu's or Eridu's databases. And verify whether the images are authentic."




The eye swiveled toward Izuku. "Processing," Fairy said. Data streams cascaded across the screens.




Izuku blinked. "Uhh… what is that?"




Belle waved a hand at the screen. "Oh, that's Fairy. Our AI assistant."




"She helps us with Proxy work," Wise added. "General searching, data analysis, sometimes hacking."




"She also has a bit of an attitude," Belle muttered.




"I heard that, Second Assistant," Fairy said, her voice carrying a distinct note of superiority.




Belle shot Izuku a look. "See what I mean?"




Izuku nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the glowing eye. 'Is this the presence I felt watching me at times? Whenever I passed the door to this room? I felt watched even when I was out sometimes…'




A few minutes passed in silence. Izuku held his breath.




"Analysis complete," Fairy reported. "After careful searching and repeated scanning of the images and all visual data contained therein: I could not identify any of the locations shown. While some architectural elements bear superficial similarity to structures in New Eridu or Eridu, they do not match any documented locations. I could not identify any of the individuals in costumes or the students in uniforms."




"Really?" Lucy asked, her arms loosening slightly.




"The images are definitively not digitally altered or fabricated," Fairy continued. "The metadata indicates dates and locations that do not correspond to any known coordinate system. The uniforms do not match any registered educational institution in New Eridu or the Outer Ring. Additionally, the file format and data architecture of the subject's phone do not match any known device or operating system."




Fairy paused. "Furthermore, the subject has demonstrated no technical capability or access to resources that would enable the creation of convincing forgeries of this quantity and quality. Conclusion: the images are authentic. Despite the logical implausibility of interdimensional origin, the evidence supports the subject's claim."




"Fairy," Belle warned.




"I am simply being thorough," Fairy replied smoothly.




Lighter adjusted his sunglasses. "Well. Hard to deny it after that."




Vivian leaned closer to the screen. "I've forged many photos myself. Quite convincing ones. But no one could be good enough to forge this many that look this real."




"Yeah!" Billy agreed. "My optics are pretty good, and I couldn't see anything that suggested these were fake from the start."




"So..." Izuku looked around at all of them. "Do you believe me?"




Caesar grinned. "Yeah. Hard to refuse that kind of evidence."




Lucy let out a slow breath, her arms finally uncrossing. "...Okay. I believe you."




"It's a first for me," Lighter said. "But the evidence speaks for itself."




"I believe you," Vivian said softly.




"I believed you from the start!" Billy cheered. "The evidence is just a bonus!"




Izuku stared at them, stunned. 'They believe me. All of them. I expected laughter. Dismissal. I expected to fight for every inch of credibility. But they just... believed me.'




He looked at Belle and Wise. They had believed him from the start. Before the photos. Before the evidence. They had just known.




'I really did meet the right people.'




Caesar leaned forward, her eyes bright with curiosity. "Now I REALLY want to hear this. You're literally from a whole other world. Based on everything we've seen, your world has a lot that's different from ours."




"That's certainly so," Izuku said. He took another breath. "I'll tell you about it—and how I got here in the first place."




Everyone resettled. Some sat straighter, others leaned against walls. Ready.




Billy clapped his hands together. "I'm ready!"




Izuku closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He opened them.




"My world is also called Earth like yours, but the planet still has people all around it—continents, countries, oceans, billions of people. Normal civilization."




He paused. "We also don't have Hollows. Or Ether. Or Ethereals."




The room went completely silent.




"So your civilization developed without Ether?" Lucy asked, her voice quiet.




"Yes."




"And Hollows never appeared?"




"No."




The weight of that statement settled over the room.




"I lived in a city called Musutafu," Izuku continued. "It's in a country called Japan. Have you... ever heard of a place called Japan?"




Wise frowned slightly. "Japan... I feel like I've seen that word somewhere. Old records, maybe. Pre-Old Capital archives." He shook his head. "I can't confirm it."




Belle shook her head. "I don't think I've heard that name."




"Can't say I have," Caesar said.




"Nope," Lighter added.




Izuku nodded slowly. It was possible Japan had existed before whatever cataclysm reshaped this world, but records from that far back were lost or fragmented.




"Since you guys don't have Hollows or Ether, then what do you have?" Lucy asksd, looking at him carefully. "You clearly have something, based on what you've shown."




"Well what we have," Izuku continued, "are superpowers called Quirks. About 80% of the population worldwide is born with Quirks."




"EIGHTY PERCENT?!" Caesar exploded.




"Wait, so almost everybody has superpowers?!" Billy shouted. "But they're called quirks? Does that mean most people in your world is quirky?"




Izuku chuckled. "Kinda… but I get why you'd think that."




"And the remaining twenty percent don't?" Lucy clarified, her eyes wide.




"Right," Izuku nodded. "Usually, a person is born with one Quirk. Quirks can vary wildly. Some can be an amazing fire Quirk, though most manifest differently—producing fire anywhere on their body, through their hair, or breathing it out. But most normal people have something simple."




"Like what?" Belle asked.




"Someone who can make small objects float. Someone with slightly enhanced flexibility. Someone who can produce small sparks from their fingertips. Someone whose hair grows unusually fast. Someone who can emit a faint light."




Caesar stared. "Wait. People can be born with superpowers and get one that just makes their hair grow faster?"




"Yep. It's really a spectrum." Izuku replied.




"That's amazing!" Billy said.




"How is that amazing?" Lucy shot back.




Billy pivoted to her. "It's still a superpower!"




"Most people live normal lives even if they have a good Quirk—they can train," Izuku spoke. "But many decide to use their Quirks to become heroes."




"How exactly does being a hero work in your world if most of the population is born with these Quirks?" Vivian asked.




"Being a hero is sort of like a profession. Since Quirks manifested, not everyone decided to use them for good. Crime rose to an all-time high as villains started appearing."




"With people being born with powers, it only makes sense that not everyone would use them for good," Wise noted.




"Yeah. Heroes formed to stop villains and help and save people in need. Each country has its own heroes, and they're all ranked. They actually train to become Pro Heroes.I was a hero in training."




"So those uniforms—you and your classmates were wearing them for your hero school?" Lucy asked.




"That's pretty... I don't know, lame?" Billy scratched his head. "Going to school to become a hero?"




"Quiet, Billy," Lucy snapped. "Obviously you'd need proper education and training to be efficient as a hero and use your Quirks well, right?"




Izuku nodded. "Heroes are taught not to cause property damage—or too much of it—with their Quirks," Izuku explained. "They need proper training to use their Quirks effectively and not hurt themselves or others."




He paused. "But to act as a hero in public, you need a hero license. Using your Quirk in public without authorization can get you in serious trouble."




Lucy's eyes narrowed. "So let me get this straight. Most people are born with supernatural abilities, but ordinary people aren't allowed to freely use them?"




"Well, there are laws—"




"So you need government permission to use the power you're born with." Lucy cut in. "Even if you're using it to help someone?"




Izuku hesitated. "There are exceptions, but generally... yes."




"That sounds incredibly restrictive," Lucy said flatly.




Wise leaned forward slightly. "So a person born with a powerful Quirk who isn't a licensed hero is legally restricted from using their own ability. Even in an emergency."




"The idea is to prevent untrained people from causing damage or hurting others," Izuku said, though his voice lacked conviction.




"The result is that only state-approved individuals are allowed to use their own bodies' abilities," Wise replied. "That's a significant amount of control."




Izuku opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. '...They're right…it's not like I haven't really had issues with this system, I've already broken it before I got my license.'




Lucy wasn't finished. "And you rank people whose job is supposed to save lives?"




"It's partly based on effectiveness, public recognition, and achievements," Izuku said.




"So fame is part of it," Lucy said.




"...Yes."




"That doesn't mean turning rescue work into a popularity contest," Lucy said.




Izuku had no response to that. The seed of recognition planted itself in his chest.




Wise continued quietly, "So using your abilities to help people without a license is illegal in your world."




"Yeah..," Izuku said.




"What you've been doing here—the Green Shroud—that's exactly what would get you arrested in your world," Wise pointed out.




Izuku stared at him. The realization hit like a physical blow. 'In my world my license still worked and I was still technically working with the other pro's even if I wwas doing my thing…' His fist clenched harder. 'But here I'm a complete vigilante who's actively going against the law to help people…I guess I really can't help myself..'




Before he could dwell on it, Billy spoke up. "So you were going to a school to become a licensed hero? That's basically being a pro-hero!"




"I didn't finish," Izuku said quickly. "I was still a student—"




"You fought that thing in the Hollow," Caesar said, grinning. "You saved people across the city. You punched a hole through a Hollow ceiling." She crossed her arms. "That sounds like a hero to me."




"It's... complicated," Izuku muttered, his face warming.




"It sounds AWESOME," Billy declared.




Belle jumped back in. "What about those photos showing people who looked kinda weird or unexpected?"




"I'm pretty sure I noticed a guy with a spray bottle for a head in some of the images," Lighter said.




"I noticed that too," Belle said. "Also, what's with the little guy with purple balls as hair?"




Izuku laughed softly. "Ah well there are three categories of Quirks: Emitter, Transformation, and Mutant. Emitter is the most common—it involves someone being able to control or produce something with their Quirk. Transformation involves a Quirk that transforms their body in some way for a period of time. Mutants are more permanently active Quirks that physically alter someone without them needing to activate their Quirks."




He pulled up the photo of Shoji. "Remember the guy with extra appendages? That's Shoji. His Quirk is called Dupli-Arms. Those extra appendages are permanent, but he grow more and other body parts, like eyes, ears, mouths, hands."




"That sounds like it could be pretty inconvenient at times," Caesar said.




"It honestly is," Izuku sighed. "People with mutation Quirks are called Heteromorphs. Sometimes people with mutation Quirks don't actually manifest these mutations because of their Quirks—they can just be born this way, as Quirks are inherited and have dominant and recessive genes."




He showed a picture of Mina. "My friend Mina has pink skin and horns. Her pink skin is associated with her Acid Quirk, while her horns are a permanent physical trait. Some physical mutations can be inherited independently of the ability they're associated with."




"That's quite interesting," Wise said.




Billy was nodding along, though his expression was slightly glazed. Caesar looked similarly overwhelmed.




"So most people are born looking like that?" Belle asked.




"Not necessarily. You actually manifest your Quirk around age 4 or 5 usually. Though the first ever recorded awakening of a Quirk was a newborn baby who started glowing. And some people today can still manifest one as a baby—like my teacher Present Mic—and many can manifest them later than what's normal."




"I sort of get the gist of things," Lighter said, leaning forward. "But what's up with you exactly?"




"What do you mean?" Izuku asked.




"Well, we noticed you seem to have more than one ability or Quirk," Lucy said sharply. "And from what you just told us, it can't be some mutation Quirk or one Quirk being used differently each time."




Izuku looked down. "Well... my Quirk isn't exactly normal. In actuality... I wasn't really born with a Quirk."




"Eh?" everyone said in unison.




"What do you mean?" Belle asked.




"Twenty percent of the population don't have Quirks. Even if you have parents with Quirks, it's still possible to be Quirkless. I was one of the people born Quirkless—I didn't manifest either of my parents' Quirks or a combination."




He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. The room had gone very quiet.




Vivian looked at him, her eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay?"




Belle put her hand on his shoulder, leaning closer. "Did being Quirkless cause issues?"




"Yes," Izuku admitted. "I wanted to be a hero like every kid. I was inspired to be one like All Might—the muscular blonde-haired man you saw in the images. He is—was—the greatest and strongest hero in the whole world. He won every fight he was in and saved everyone he could with a smile on his face. He was hailed as the Symbol of Peace."




He paused, the memories stinging. "I wanted to be just like him. But my Quirk never came. When I was 4, I went to see if I had one... and I was Quirkless. Soon after, I started getting bullied by other kids who did have Quirks. Even my friend Kacchan started bullying me. This continued until I was 14."




The room was heavy with sympathy.




"Those kids were idiots," Caesar said quietly.




"Cruel idiots," Lucy added.




"I'd have shot them," Billy said flatly.




Everyone looked at him.




"What? I'm trying to be supportive!"




Izuku let out a small, genuine laugh. "But I obviously have a Quirk now."




"Yeah, what gives with that?" Caesar asked.




"Is it the thing you mentioned about some manifesting later than normal?" Billy asked.




"Not quite. But it's certainly something I used as a cover," Izuku said. "You see, my Quirk isn't a normal one. It's actually a Quirk I was given."




"Given?" Wise raised an eyebrow.




"It's called One For All. It's been passed down through generations, user to user. It's a Quirk that grows stronger the more it is passed on—it stockpiles power. The reason I have multiple Quirks is that One For All retains the Quirk factors of the previous users. The stockpiled power affects those Quirks, boosting them beyond what they previously could do."




He took a breath. "They also come along with the vestiges of the previous users."




"Vestiges?" Lighter asked.




"Essentially the ghosts of the previous users," Izuku clarified.




"So you have ghosts living inside you?" Billy's eyes were wide. "That's so cool and kinda creepy."




"Everything you've said about Quirks so far sounded pretty scientific and biological—though I'm not sure how natural having a spray bottle head is—but a power that gets stronger as it's passed on and has ghosts of all its users is pretty supernatural," Belle said.




"Though not too weird for us," Wise said slowly. "We have a friend with something similar in some aspects—mainly how it has the souls of the previous users and how it has a lot of power, and is passed down."




Izuku blinked. 'A friend with something similar? With souls inside them?' He wanted to ask, but he held back. He had his own story to finish.




"One For All is sort of an outlier Quirk in my world," Izuku continued. "Though my encounter with All For One sort of suggests a Quirk having a vestige is normal."




"All For One? One For All?" Lucy frowned. "You guys aren't subtle with your naming aren't you?"




"What is All For One?" Caesar asked.




Izuku hesitated. "It's both a Quirk and a person. All For One is a man with a Quirk called All For One. He can take and give any Quirk he can get his hands on, and he can take as many as he wants and store them in the Quirk, completely making them his."




He explained the history—how One For All was created to rid the world of All For One, the eight wielders before him, and how he was chosen as the ninth successor by All Might himself.




"So the strongest hero in your world passed his power to you?" Caesar asked, her eyes wide.




"That's a hell of a legacy," Lighter said.




"I trained hard to be able to handle this power," Izuku said, rubbing his right arm. "It was actually too strong for anyone without a tough enough body to handle. Someone could literally explode from it. After receiving it, I didn't really know how to use it effectively. I used 100% of the power at first, and that resulted in me breaking my bones in the limbs I used my Quirk in."




He looked at his scarred hands. "The scars I have are caused by me repeatedly using my full power while my body couldn't handle it. I eventually learned to use a percentage of power I could safely handle. The green lightning is the excess energy of OFA leaking out when I use it as Full Cowling. I trained hard and eventually reached 75% of OFA, though it wasn't something I could safely maintain."




"So you basically had a weapon your body couldn't survive using," Lighter said.




"At first," Izuku agreed.




"And you kept using it anyway," Lighter added.




"...Yes." Izuku let out s breath through his nose. "During my third year at U.A., we were called in to help with a war," Izuku said.




Everyone went still.




Izuku explained the League of Villains, formed by All For One and his successor Tomura Shigaraki. He explained how Shigaraki defeated Re-Destro and the Meta Liberation Army, and how the two groups merged into the Paranormal Liberation Front. He explained the body modifications, the resources, and the plan to take over and destroy Japan.




"Thanks to a double agent pro hero, we were informed beforehand and could prepare," Izuku said. "We tried to strike a surprise attack against the villains. We evacuated the main city. The war broke out at their hideout."




He swallowed hard. "It wasn't enough. Shigaraki woke up earlier than expected. His Quirk... destroyed almost everything around him. He decayed an almost an entire city."




"Almost an entire city?" Caesar's face paled. "Just... gone?"




"Unfortunately yeah….," Izuku confirmed, his voice heavy. "Gigantomachia stomped through multiple cities trying to reach him. Hundreds of people died or were extremely in injured..."




His voice became quieter. "And after that... Japan stopped being the place I remembered."




He told them about Tartarus. About AFO's escape. The mass prison breaks. The heroes dying. The civilians fleeing. The cities collapsing. The public losing faith in heroes.




"I couldn't sit around and wait," Izuku said, his hands curling into fists. "I left U.A. hoping to draw AFO away from my friends and family. I wanted to find him and take him and Shigaraki down while they were still weak and recovering. For an entire year, I hunted him. Dealing with everything he threw at me. Following every hint…."




His hands shook slightly. "But that cunning, slippery bastard was always able to get away before I could get to him…."




A stray spark of green lightning flickered across his knuckles. He didn't seem to notice it.




Lighter noticed. He watched the sparks with a quiet, recognizing gaze.




Caesar looked at Izuku. "So you left everyone behind to handle it by yourself."




Izuku paused. "I had to. AFO would have—"




"I'm not judging," Lighter said.




Caesar's eyes narrowed slightly. "So this isn't new for you, huh. Disappearing alone to protect everyone."




Izuku lowered his head.




He swallowed and continued. "Finally, I got information on where he was. I knew it was a trap. I went anyway. I fought Shigaraki. AFO had been controlling his body." He stopped. "After I difficult fight…I defeated him."




His eyes closed and his head hung lower as he turned his head. "Then…I killed him.."




The room was dead silent.




"I thought that meant I had finally done it. The biggest threat was gone. All that was left was the real AFO and his remaining forces. With me there, we could have defeated them within days. Japan could have recovered."




His fists tightened. "But the real AFO showed up. He knew he wasn't going to win, so he pulled a move even risky for him. Knowing everything I know now... it seems like All For One somehow got his hands on Ether."




Izuku raised his head slightly. "I don't know how it ended up in my world or how he learned to manipulate it. But he used it to open a rift."




He looked at the floor. "He blasted me into it. My body immediately got corrupted by Ether, but thankfully the vestiges blocked the worst of it. It caused OFA to be weakened. I landed in a Hollow in this world. And things unfolded from there."




Nobody spoke for a long time.




"I didn't think you'd dealt with so much and been carrying such a burden," Belle finally whispered.




"Suddenly being thrust into a war you lost, and having the burden to bring it all back to how it was..." Lighter said. "That's quite a lot for anyone to deal with."




"This definitely isn't like the isekai stories I've read," Caesar said, her voice came out soft. "Getting sent to a whole new world right when you had a chance to fix everything..."




Izuku was looking down. The weight of everything he had just said was pressing on his chest. "I won…. But I lost any chance to be with my friends and mom again."




His eyes squinted hard. "Seeing how AFO was before I left... I'm sure they probably managed to defeat him and his army. They hopefully brought peace back to Japan and are smiling happily now."




His voice cracked. "It's… been two weeks and a few days since I arrived here. I don't know if they'd still be wondering where I am and looking for me... or think I died... or just that wherever I was sent, they can't find me..."




He started shaking. A tear formed in his eye and traced a path down his cheek. "I can believe my friends can manage to move on. But my mom is a different story…. Just the thought of her crying face is too much for me..."




He gripped his pants hard, his knuckles turning white. More tears fell.




The room was filled with a heavy, suffocating silence.




Belle shifted closer, placing a hand gently on his cheek.




Izuku turned to look at her, his vision blurred.




"I'm sorry to hear that," Belle said softly. "We can actually understand the feeling of having someone you care about suddenly be far out of reach and being unable to know how they are."




Her eyes narrowed. "We actually lost our own teacher, Carole Arna. She was taken by a mysterious giant hand the day the old capital fell."




"It's been years and we still haven't found her, we became proxies to find her and clear her name as she was framed for causing the fall of the Old Capital," Belle continued. "But we didn't let that loss stop us from doing other things and enjoying life generally."




Izuku's eyes widened. He remembered Wise mentioning a goal they had.




"Our situations aren't exactly the same," Wise added. "Everyone you care about is in an entirely different world. But you know they're at least alive."




Caesar knelt closer to him. "My old man disappeared when I was young. My mom died when I was young too. Big Daddy was the one who raised me, took care of me like I was his own daughter. I spent a long time wondering where my father could be. But I managed to get past it because I had someone there for me. I still had people here."




Lighter reached up and held the silver tags beneath his red scarf. "I had a bunch of friends—squad mates—I worked with. I lost them after a mistake I made." He paused, his jaw tightened.




"I couldn't really accept that I was the cause of why they're all gone. And got into some rough stuff because of it. But thanks to someone, I didn't fall too far down." He pulled out a box of lemon candies and popped one into his mouth. "Managed to pick myself up and become something again."




Vivian lowered her gaze. "There was a time when I believed I had nowhere to go. I was in a very dark place, despairing, with nothing to live for. Then Lord Phaethon gave me something I didn't have before—hope. And later, Lord Hugo took me in, giving me a new purpose to strive for."




Lucy, who had been silent for most of the emotional exchange, finally spoke.




Her arms were crossed, and she was looking down and to the side. She sighed. "You know what I think the point is?"




Everyone looked at her.




"None of us got back exactly what we lost."




She paused. "But we found something else."




The words hung in the air.




"We all were separated from something we used to care about," Wise said quietly. "But we managed to move on and find something new in life thanks to someone. We didn't stop caring, but we couldn't let it weigh us down all the time."




"You don't have to choose between caring about the people you left behind and caring about the people you've met here," Belle added.




Caesar looked at Izuku, her golden eye fierce. "I want to spend time with you. Maybe get a few spars in. You seemed like a good fighter, and I'd love to hear about those heroes from your world in more detail."




"Same here!" Billy said, raising his hand. "I'm not exactly sure I can be the best friend you need, but I'll make sure I can be the bestest friend you have!"




"I can't let that loss I took from you go," Lighter said, smirking. "It'll ruin my reputation as the champion. So I'd love a rematch. And I'd like to see what a man like you is like out and about."




Lucy sighed again, her arms still crossed. "I'm not really sure if we could get along... but I wouldn't mind spending time with you too. I won't be your closest friend or anything... but just a decent enough friend."




"I would be honored to spend more time with you as well," Vivian said gently. "You have shown yourself to be a person of great character. I would like to repay the kindness you showed me."




Izuku stared at them all, stunned. They had said they would be his friends in the Hollow, when they had pinned him down. But hearing them double down, actually wanting to be part of his new life...




Tears formed in Izuku's eyes again—happier ones this time. He shook slightly. "Thank you... all of you. I'm truly blessed to have met you."




Belle pulled him into a hug. Izuku froze for a second, then melted into it. Caesar jumped up and joined them.




"Group hug!" Billy yelled, throwing himself onto the pile.




"Absolutely not," Lucy protested, but she was already being pulled in by Caesar.




"You're outnumbered," Lighter said, stepping closer.




"...Damn it."




Vivian quietly joined, and Wise eventually did too.




For the first time in over a year, Izuku felt like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.




After a while, the group pulled apart. Izuku wiped his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Well... that's everything."




"Yeah," Belle said softly. "It was certainly a lot to take in, but we understood it for the most part. You can tell us more clearly in due time if we ever want to learn."




"I certainly will be asking a ton," Billy said.




"Well... what do we do now?" Lucy asked.




"We should head back," Caesar said, stretching. "Izuku probably still needs time to recover a bit—physically and mentally—before we do anything."




"Is that okay?" Wise asked, looking at Izuku.




"Yeah... I'll need time to adjust first," Izuku agreed.




Belle clapped her hands. "Well, we should probably go back to managing the store. Izuku, you can go rest on Wise's bed again for now."




"Eh? Are you sure? You left me there before, but I'm up now and pretty okay physically. I can just rest on my futon," Izuku protested.




Belle pointed at him. "There he goes again, not wanting to accept our kindness because he thinks it's troubling us."




Izuku leaned back. "Well... it's not exactly something I can suddenly stop doing easily..."




"Well, you better stop soon. We plan to get you your own bed and other stuff for your room. You will officially be staying with us," Belle declared.




"I can sleep on the couch if you want the bed to yourself," Wise offered.




Izuku blinked and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well... if you're sure, I can't complain."




"Good."




Lucy scoffed. "He's certainly going to be a handful, seeing how he is."




"I don't mind," Caesar said, grinning. "Greenie's ours now." She turned and waved. "Well, it's about time we leave. See ya later, Proxies."




"I'll text you and see when you'll be okay and ready to hang out!" Billy said, following her out.




Vivian bowed. "I'll check up on my Lords and Izuku soon. We can find an opportunity to do something together. I'll see you then."




Wise, Belle, and Izuku said their goodbyes as the Sons of Calydon and Vivian filed out of the room. The door clicked shut behind them.




Izuku sighed, stretching his arms over his head. Belle stretched beside him.




'I came to this world with nothing,' Izuku thought, looking around the workspace. 'I was alone, scared, and convinced I didn't deserve help. But these people didn't give up on me. They chased me across a city, fought a mutated Ethereal, and refused to let me disappear.'




'I don't know what the future holds. I don't know if I'll ever see my mom or All Might or my friends again.'




He looked at Belle and Wise.




Belle was yawning, wiping a stray tear from her eye. Wise was already walking toward the monitors to check on something.




'But for the first time in a long time... I think I might be okay.'




'Because I'm not alone anymore.'

 

[GhostJade45]

Bright morning light shone through the blinds of Random Play's upper floor, casting pale stripes across the low table where two mugs of coffee sat steaming.

Izuku Midoriya sat cross-legged on a cushion, both hands wrapped around his cup, watching the steam curl upward in lazy spirals.

Across from him, Wise leaned back against the couch, his own mug resting on his knee, a faint, contented expression on his face.

It was strange, Izuku thought, how normal this felt. Almost three weeks ago, he'd arrived in this world, certain he would be alone—surviving until he met his end one way or another.

Now he was drinking coffee with a man who had helped save his life, in a video rental store that doubled as a secret Proxy operation, and somehow… he wasn't panicking about it.

Well. Not entirely.

He glanced at his phone, sitting face-up on the table. The screen showed the time: 8:47 AM. His thumb tapped against the ceramic mug.

"I'm late," he said quietly.

Wise looked up from his coffee, one eyebrow arching. "Late for what?"

"Work. At Belobog." Izuku shifted on the cushion, suddenly restless. "I've been going almost every day since I started. If I just… stop showing up, they'll think something happened. Or worse, they'll think I quit."

Wise took a slow sip of his coffee, unbothered. "You agreed to rest. Doctor's orders—well, mine and Belle's, which are basically the same thing around here."

Izuku opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. His shoulders sagged. "I know. I just… I don't want to be a burden. And I still need money. The Dennies I saved—"

"Are still sitting on your futon, untouched," Wise finished. "We told you, Midoriya. We're not taking that money."

"But—"

"No buts." Wise set his mug down on the table, his green eyes steady. "You saved Belle's life. You've been helping us, helping the city. That money is yours. Use it for something you need."

Izuku's jaw tightened. He knew arguing was pointless—Wise had that calm, immovable quality that made it clear he wasn't going to budge on this. But the thought of just accepting their generosity still made his stomach twist.

"Even if I use it," he said slowly, "it'll only last so long. I need to work. And honestly…" He paused, searching for the right words. "I liked working at Belobog. The crew's good. Koleda's… intense, but fair. And I don't want to just disappear on them without an explanation."

Wise studied him for a long moment. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Then call her," he said simply.

Izuku blinked. "What?"

"Koleda. I have her number." Wise unlocked the screen and navigated to his contacts. "You can call her, explain the situation—or at least, whatever version of it you're comfortable sharing—and see if you still have a job."

Izuku stared at the offered phone like it might bite him. "I… I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Why not?" Wise asked.

"Because I've been gone for three days. I didn't call or message them. I just…" He gestured vaguely. "Stopped showing up. If I were her, I'd fire me."

Wise's expression didn't change. "Koleda's not the type to fire someone without hearing them out. She's blunt, but she's fair. And she's been through enough herself to recognize when someone's going through something."

Izuku hesitated. His hand hovered over the phone. 'He has a point. And if I don't call, she's going to assume the worst.'

'Besides… I need to face this. I can't keep running.'

"Alright," he said, taking the phone. "I'll call her."

Wise nodded and leaned back, giving him space.

Izuku navigated to Koleda's contact—a simple entry with her name and number—and typed it into his own phone, saving it under his contacts. Then he stood up, walked toward the window, and pressed the call button.

It rang twice before a sharp voice answered. "Hello? Who is this?"

Izuku's throat tightened. "Hey, Koleda. It's… it's Izuku. Midoriya."

A beat of silence. Then—

"HUH?! Izuku?! Where the hell have you been!?"

Izuku winced and pulled the phone away from his ear, waiting for the ringing to stop before bringing it back. "Yeah, sorry, I… some stuff happened. I got… sick. With Ether corruption."

Another pause. When Koleda spoke again, her voice had dropped, the anger replaced by something sharper. "Wait, really!? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am now." Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. "It's something I've been dealing with for a while, and it got worse recently. I got treated for it in a… pretty unique way, but I'm still recovering."

Silence on the other end. Izuku could almost hear her thinking.

"I see." Koleda's voice slowed, thoughtful. "This isn't related to you working at the Hollow site, is it? I thought you had a high Ether aptitude—I wouldn't have expected corruption to catch you like that. If Anton's the reason you were out there in the first place, then that's on me to answer for. I let it go through without question."

"No, no, no, it's fine, really—" Izuku's free hand came up, as if she could see the gesture. "It's not your fault or anyone's fault. It's just… me. Something about me." He paused. "I know that doesn't make sense, but I promise I'll explain everything when I can. There's stuff about me you need to know. Things I should have told you from the start."

The line went quiet for a long moment.

Koleda didn't answer right away. When she did, her voice had softened. "Alright. If you're sure. I'm curious what you've got to say, but there's no rush."

Izuku let out a slow breath. "So… am I still employed? Or—"

"What? Why would you even ask that like I'd just fire you out of nowhere?" A short laugh, more exasperated than amused. "You didn't look great the last time you were here, and now you're telling me it was corruption. I know you well enough to know you're not making excuses. I can't exactly fire someone for being gone a few days after something like that."

Izuku's chest tightened. "I… thank you. Really."

"Don't thank me yet. You're still taking time off. Rest. Recover. Come back when you're ready—and when you come back, we're having that talk you mentioned." Her tone sharpened slightly. "You owe me an explanation."

"I know." Izuku nodded. "I will."

"Good. See you around, Midoriya."

The line clicked. Izuku stared at his phone for a moment, then let out a slow breath.

Wise's voice came from behind him. "Sounds like it went well."

Izuku turned. Wise was still on the couch, watching him with a faint, knowing smile.

"Yeah." Izuku walked back and sat down, setting his phone on the table. "She's… she's something."

"She's a good person." Wise picked up his mug again. "Stubborn, loud, prone to throwing things when she's frustrated—but good."

Izuku huffed a quiet laugh. "That tracks."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment. Then Izuku glanced at Wise. "You said you and Belle are close with them. The Belobog crew."

Wise nodded. "We've worked with them before. Proxies and construction crews tend to cross paths in this city."

"Then I guess it's safe to tell them…," he said quietly. "About me. Where I'm really from."

Wise looked at him, surprised. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Izuku nodded slowly. "They were kind to me and fair. They gave me a chance when I had nothing. I don't want to keep lying to them—even by omission." He paused. "And you said it yourself. They're close with you and Belle. If I can trust you two with the truth, I can trust them."

Wise studied him for a long moment. Then his lips curved into a small smile. "If you think it's the right call, go for it. The Belobog crew will listen. They won't spread it around." He paused, then added, "Though you should probably prepare yourself for Grace's questions. Once she knows you're from another world, she's going to want to run tests."

Izuku groaned. "I figured."

"Anton will probably want to spar."

"That's… less intimidating, actually."

Wise chuckled. "Give it time."

Izuku smiled despite himself. Then he remembered something. "Hey—could you send me the contacts for the Sons and Vivian? And Billy, too. I forgot to ask. They probably did too, with everything that happened."

"Of course." Wise pulled his phone back out, tapping through his contacts before turning the screen toward him. "I'll also send you a few messaging apps they use, with usernames."

Izuku got to setting his phone up to receive the contacts and necessary apps. He installed them, properly set each contact, and created a username, typing down each of their handles.

Wise scrolled his phone and showed him all he needed to know about the apps and how to contact each member.

"That should be everyone," Wise said finally.

Izuku stared down at his own contact list, and saw how much longer it had become.

Then he turned back to Wise's phone, and saw all the contacts on his phone as he was scrolling through them. "…Huh."

Wise turned towards him. "What?"

"Nothing, just—" He rested his arm on his thigh, leaning down. "I noticed a lot of your contacts… are women."

Wise's expression didn't shift, but something in his posture went very slightly stiff. "We've made a lot of unexpected friends over the past two years… They just happened to have been mostly women."

Izuku's eyes narrowed, scanning further down the list. Three names stood out immediately—each one saved with a specific emoji, a specific nickname, nothing that read like a casual acquaintance.

He looked up at Wise's teal-green eyes and a smirk appeared on his face. "…Is 'friends' really all some of these women are?"

Wise's face flushed. Where did this come from? He coughed quickly and turned away. "W-We should probably move on now."

Izuku leaned back, crossing his arms. 'Guess Wise is more than I thought he was.'

His emerald eyes observed him. His smirk went into a small grin, showing his slightly sharp canines. "Okay, sure."

Wise cleared his throat once more, visibly recovering his composure. "Since you can't go back to work yet, and you probably shouldn't be doing much of anything strenuous—maybe use the time to learn more about New Eridu. I'm sure there's plenty you still don't know."

"That's true." Izuku nodded. "I've looked into the basics myself, but I'd take more detailed information. Maybe a documentary, if there's anything like that."

Wise's eyes lit up so fast. "You're in luck." He was on his feet before he finished the sentence, crossing to a shelf and pulling down a box that rattled with the weight of dozens of tapes. He set it down on the low table between them with a thud.

Izuku blinked at the sheer volume of it. "That's… a lot of tapes."

"I've been collecting for years." Wise's expression was more enthusiastic. "History of the Old Capital. The formation of New Eridu. Ether classification. Hollow types. Bangboo development." Wise was already sorting through them, his usual measured calm replaced by something almost boyish. "I've got introductory ones and deep dives both."

Izuku watched him dig through the box, a small smile tugging at his mouth. 'There's another side of him I wasn't expecting either.'

"Thankfully I've got the time and the interest to get through all of it," Izuku said.

"Perfect." Wise pulled one free with a satisfied noise and crossed to the tape player mounted below the TV, sliding it in. He grabbed the remote, switched the screen on, and dropped back onto the couch beside him. "This one's a good starting point. Covers the fall of the Old Capital and how New Eridu came out of it."

The screen flickered to life. A narrator's voice, calm and measured, rolled in over sweeping footage of towering spires and crowded streets.

"Before the fall, Eridu was the crown jewel of human achievement…"

The image shifted—chaos, rubble, streets swallowed in violet light.

"…within a single day, nearly eighty percent of the city's population was lost."

Izuku's eyes didn't leave the screen. He knew what loss looked like. But this was a scale he hadn't fully reckoned with yet, and something in his chest tightened at the sheer size of the number.

"That's the part most people fixate on," Wise said quietly, eyes still on the footage. "The scale of it. The horror. But the actual cost was everything that came after—the people who had to figure out how to build something from what was left."

Izuku glanced at him, then back at the screen. "Yeah…," he said softly. "I get that."

The documentary rolled on, and Wise leaned forward every so often to point something out—an old landmark, a detail the narration glossed over, a piece of context he clearly found more interesting than he wanted to admit.

Izuku found himself pulled in despite the early hour, the quiet morning settling into something almost peaceful.

He was halfway through when footsteps sounded on the stairs.

Belle appeared in the doorway, her hair still tangled from sleep, a mug of coffee clutched in both hands.

She blinked at the TV, then at Izuku and Wise on the couch.

"You two are watching documentaries?" She shuffled over and dropped onto the couch beside Izuku, her shoulder brushing his. "Without me?"

"You were sleeping," Wise said.

"I was resting my eyes." Belle took a sip of her coffee. "What are we learning?"

"New Eridu's history," Izuku said. "The Old Capital, the Hollow disasters, the reconstruction."

Belle hummed. "Fun stuff. Very uplifting."

"It's…" Izuku paused, searching for the right word. "Sobering. But I need to know it. If I'm going to live here, I should understand what this place has been through."

Belle's expression softened. She nudged his shoulder with hers. "You're really trying to fit in, huh?"

"I'm trying…." Izuku blushed slightly and glanced at her. "I don't know if I'll ever really belong here. But I want to understand."

Belle smiled—that bright, easy smile that always seemed to catch him off guard. "That's more than most people do. You'll figure it out."

Izuku didn't know what to say to that. He looked back at the screen, but he could still feel her warmth beside him, steady and reassuring.

They all sat in silence for a moment, and Izuku absorbed everything he could.

—-------------------------------------------------------

Lumina Square never slept. Even in the early morning hours, the district hummed with life—Bangboo delivery carts weaving between pedestrians, storefronts flickering to life, the distant rumble of the Metro beneath the streets.

It was the heart of New Eridu, a monument to everything the city had rebuilt after the fall.

A Public Security building stood at the edge of the square, a stark monument of glass and steel that seemed to reject the warmth of the city around it.

Inside, the halls were quiet, the kind of quiet that had nothing to do with peace and everything to do with purpose.

On the fifth floor, in a conference room with blinds drawn against the morning light, it was too quiet.

Zhu Yuan stood at the head of the table, her posture rigid, her hands clasped behind her back.

A screen on the wall displayed a frozen image—the Green Shroud, mid-swing, green lightning crackling around his body.

Across the table, Seth Lowell sat with his tail curled tightly around his chair leg. His ears were angled back, and his fingers tapped an uneven rhythm against his knee.

Jane Doe leaned against the wall, arms crossed, her expression unreadable. Her tail swayed slowly behind her, the bladed tip catching the light.

Qingyi stood beside Zhu Yuan, her thermos in one hand, her green eyes scanning the room with mechanical precision.

And at the far end of the table, a man sat with a slightly shadowed face, arms crossed.

Severian Lowell—HQ Senior Commissioner, from the Metropolitan Order Division, he's Zhu Yuan's superior, and Seth's older brother— and had the kind of presence that made the room feel smaller.

He was tall, with cat ears that stood straight on his head and some of his long gray hair pulled back into a low tail, with the rest reaching down to his lynx tail. His black suit was immaculate, the gold necktie catching the light in the room.

His Public Security badge gleamed on his lapel, a silent declaration of his authority.

His long gray hair was swept back from a sharp, angular face, and his gold eyes—cool and calculating—were fixed on the screen with unsettling focus.

"Play it again," he said.

Zhu Yuan nodded and tapped her tablet. The image came to life—a video feed captured from a distance, grainy but unmistakable. The Hollow's barrier shimmered. Then a column of green and gold light tore through its ceiling, spiraling upward like a tornado given form.

Seth flinched as the footage played. His tail tightened around the chair leg.

Jane's tail stopped moving entirely.

Severian watched it in silence, expression unreadable, until it ended.

Then he turned to face the room fully. "Situation report. Now."

"The individual known as the Green Shroud caused a significant Ether disturbance in a Companion Hollow near the Outer Ring boundary two days ago," Qingyi said, pulling the report up on a second screen. "His signature is confirmed present at the scene, but the readings show a second, distinct energy source intertwined with his own. I haven't been able to isolate or identify it."

"A second source," Severian repeated.

"Possibly an amplification method. Possibly something else entirely." Qingyi's tone stayed flat, clinical. "The combined density at the moment of the breach was higher than anything I've catalogued from him previously."

Jane crossed her arms. "We fought him a week or two before this happened. He didn't show anything close to this."

"Then something changed in a very short window." Severian's gaze didn't waver from the screen. "What triggered the incident?"

"We investigated the Hollow itself," Qingyi continued. "Signs suggest a powerful Ethereal was present. Our working theory is that the Green Shroud needed to draw on considerably more power than usual specifically to deal with it."

"Given what we know about him," Jane added, "the kind of person he seems to be—it's unlikely he'd bring that kind of force to bear against us. He'd probably just run."

"Yeah, he has been helping people and even helped with our previous operation after messing it up," Seth said. "We can't assume he'll do terrible things with this power after everything he has shown and done so far."

"As that may be true," Severian leaned forward slightly, his arms on the table and linking his fingers together. "We don't know for certain he can keep this power in check, and there's no telling what he could do if he went against his usual acts."

Seth gazed towards him. His blue eyes narrowed.

"Which means we plan for the worst case regardless of what seems likely." He turned back towards the monitor. "Status on locating him?"

"Nothing since the incident," Zhu Yuan said. "No sightings, no signature detections. He's gone quiet."

"Then we widen the search." Severian's tone didn't rise or sharpen—it simply carried, filling the room without effort. "This changes his threat classification. Which means it also changes who else is paying attention."

Qingyi nodded, pulling up a third file. "Civilian reports from the Outer Ring and the city's edge already connect the tornado to him directly—the green lightning made it an easy link for anyone paying attention, plus other witnesses saw him heading in that direction before. That includes T.O.P.S., H.A.N.D., and H.I.A."

Jane's tail flicked sharply. "TOPS… that certainly isn't good."

"They've already dispatched Krampus operatives." Qingyi didn't look up from the file. "Confirmed field activity, as of this morning."

Jane's arms tightened across her chest. "It certainly won't be a small search if they're involved."

"I'm aware," Severian said, before she could go further.

"If they get their hands on him first—" Seth started.

"We don't know what they'd do with him." Severian cut him off, calm and immovable. "But we can assume it wouldn't serve his interests. Or ours."

He turned to Zhu Yuan. "I've already requested assistance from H.S.O. Section 6, given the scale of this. We need people capable of matching whatever he's shown he can do."

Seth's ears perked, some of the earlier stiffness draining out of him at the shift in subject. "Section 6? Guess this is a case worth calling in Special Officers."

Severian's gaze cut to him briefly. "If the Green Shroud is operating at this level, we need that kind of capability involved."

Jane uncrossed her arms. "And if TOPS gets to him before we do?"

"Then we have a serious problem." Severian's expression didn't change, but something in his tone sharpened just slightly at the edges. "Which is precisely why we move now, not later."

He locked his golden eyes on all of them again. "This is not a kill order. This is an apprehension. We find him, we bring him in, we question him. Is that understood?"

"Understood," they said, nearly in unison.

"Good." He stood up and quickly adjusted his golden tie. Pivoting, he headed towards the door, then paused. "Captain Zhu Yuan. A word, if you please."

The others filed out without needing to be told twice.

Seth lingered a half-second at the door, glancing between his brother and Zhu Yuan, before following Jane and Qingyi out into the hall.

Severian waited until the door clicked shut.

"Your squad performed well during the last operation," he said, without preamble. "But you moved in without waiting for backup. That was reckless."

"We contained the situation," Zhu Yuan said evenly.

"You could have been killed." The words carried no heat, no accusation—just fact, stated plainly. "I don't want a repeat of that. Not with a target at this threat level."

"Understood, Commissioner."

He studied her for a moment longer, something almost imperceptible easing in his posture. "Good. Keep me updated, and be sure to make sure Cissia is helping in this operation. Her tracking could be useful in finding him." He turned and left without another word.

Zhu Yuan exhaled once the door shut behind him, some of the tension leaving her shoulders now that she was alone.

The phone call with her father came two hours later.

Zhu Yuan sat at her desk, the screen filled with case files and surveillance photos. Her comm device chimed—a personal call, routed through her private line. She glanced at the screen. 'Dad….'

She picked up. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey, Zhu Yuan." His voice was warm, familiar. "Are you busy?"

"Always." She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you had time to come home. Your mother's been asking. She wants to try out a new recipe, and you know how she gets."

Zhu Yuan smiled despite herself. "I know."

There was a pause. Then her father spoke again, his tone more careful. "I heard about… what's happening. You're dealing with a case involving that vigilante, right?"

Zhu Yuan's smile faded. "Yeah… It's… a big case."

"Sounds like it." Another pause. "If you need to focus on that, we understand. Your mother and I—we know how important your work is."

Zhu Yuan hesitated. "I could still come. Maybe—"

"Zhu Yuan." Her father's voice was gentle but firm. "It's okay. Really. Take care of your case. We'll be here when you're done."

She swallowed. "Are you sure?"

"We're sure." A soft chuckle. "Besides, your mother's already planning the next dinner."

Zhu Yuan closed her eyes. "Okay. I'll… I'll try. Maybe I can bring my signature dish next time."

"Good. Good." He paused again for a moment. "Well, take care of yourself, Zhu Yuan. Don't work too hard."

Zhu Yuan smiled slightly. "I'll certainly try, Dad."

He chuckled lightly. "Alright, then goodbye for now."

Zhu Yuan nodded. "Hm. Goodbye."

She ended the call and set the phone down on her desk. For a long moment, she just stared at it.

'They always do this… letting me off the hook.' She exhaled through her nose.

She knew why. They didn't want to add to her stress. They didn't want her to feel torn between work and family.

But the guilt was still there, a dull ache in her chest.

'I'll make it up to them after this case. I hope things won't go awry.'

She turned back to her computer and kept working.

—-------------------------------------------------------

Air in the Waifei Peninsula was thick with the metallic tang of the Lemnian Hollow and the dust of the mines.

Roads wounded past the industrial sprawl of Failume Heights, where the clang of machinery never seemed to stop, and finally crested a hill.

A building stood, that wasn't the tallest, but dominated the landscape. A brutalist block of dark, unreflective glass and reinforced concrete, it sat on a cliff overlooking the Hollow, like a predator watching its territory. There were no corporate logos, no welcoming signs.

Just a single, sprawling structure that seemed designed to absorb the sunlight, not reflect it.

The only way in was through a checkpoint manned by figures in sleek, dark uniforms that moved with the efficiency of people who didn't ask twice. Their eyes, hidden behind visors, scanned everything.

To the left, the ground was littered with broken machinery and the skeletal remains of what might have been a mining rig—a testament to what happened when you crossed the wrong people.

To the right, the Porcelume refinery hummed, its pipelines glowing with a faint, ethereal blue light.

You are expected here, but not welcomed. The doors slide open with a soft hiss, revealing a lobby that is all polished stone and cold, ambient lighting. The air is recycled, sterile. There are no chairs, no magazines. Just a single, silent elevator, waiting to take you up.

The elevator doors slid open onto a floor of gleaming black tile, and the sound of heels against it echoed down the corridor long before the woman wearing them came into view.

She was tall, dressed in a long, dark coat that hung open over a fitted top bearing her midriff, a circular emblem catching the light at her chest.

Her hair was a dark purple, cropped short at the front, with bangs covering her right eye, and one long braided length trailing down her back and bound at intervals with silver rings.

Her wrists—bound together behind her by a metal cuff and a short length of chain—didn't slow her stride in the slightest. Thigh-high boots, white and navy, tapered to a sharp, blade-like point at the front of each one, clicked against the tile with every step.

Two guards straightened as she passed. Neither spoke. Neither needed to.

Promeia reached a door at the end of the hall, and it slid open before her hand ever touched it.

Inside, a large desk sat angled away from the room, its occupant turned toward the window, chair facing out toward the skyline. A gloved hand rested on the desk, fingers tapping once, twice against the polished surface.

Two other figures were already seated inside.

Dialyn sat cross-legged on a small couch against the left wall, her vintage black telephone receiver pressed to her ear—though no call was connected.

She fiddled with the coiled teal phone cord winding around her forearm, her gold eyes with their green star-shaped pupils studying the ceiling with idle interest.

Her two-tone hair—black on the right, white on the left—was styled into two looped buns with braided pigtails trailing down to her hips, each tied with panda-motif ornaments.

Her pink-and-green painted nails tapped against the telephone receiver in a rhythm only she could hear. Her outfit—white with black, gold, and teal accents—made her look like she belonged at a customer service desk, not in a TOPS enforcement briefing. The large gold-and-navy chakram leaned against the couch beside her.

Zhao sat on a chair to the right, her small frame barely covering most of the furniture. Her light pink fur covered every inch of visible skin. Her short, rounded rabbit ears twitched—the mechanical orange-and-silver ear cups clipped near their bases picking up ambient sound.

Her long pink twin braids, decorated with small orange berry-shaped charms, draped over her shoulders and past the black apron-vest bearing the "MOON" logo and rabbit-paw print.

Her oversized paw-like feet rested flat on the floor, the black ankle straps creaking as she shifted her weight. Her large red-handled, heavy grey blade—leaned against the wall behind her, within easy reach.

"I'm glad you could make it here on time," a feminine voice behind the chair said, evenly and unhurried.

"Of course." Promeia stopped in the center of the room. "I wouldn't dare waste any of your time."

"Good." The Boss of Krampus adjusted herself on her chair. "Then we can get to business."

"Well, what are we needed for?" Dialyn swung her legs off the couch, lowering the telephone receiver from her ear. Her tone was light, almost sing-song.

"A specific task." The chair turned, just enough for a gloved hand to reach a remote sitting on the desk. A press of a button, and a monitor mounted on the far wall flickered to life.

All three turned to look.

It started showing images and grainy video footage of a figure in a dark green costume.

Zhao leaned forward, her red-orange eyes narrowing. "That's quite the interesting-looking fellow there."

"I'll say." Dialyn tilted her head, her gold-and-green eyes scanning the screen. "He could really use an update in wardrobe."

Promeia studied the images carefully. Her visible violet eye traced every detail—the torn cape, the scarred gauntlets, the iron soles warped into talon shapes, the mask and respirator. 'This person had been wearing that gear for a long time. Long enough for it to fall apart.'

"This individual is a vigilante operating in New Eridu," the Boss said. "Sources say he appeared about three weeks ago. He's currently being called the Green Shroud."

"Oooh," Dialyn said, nodding. "I've heard about this guy."

"Same here," Zhao said, her rabbit ears twitching. "Quite a few rumors are floating around. Apparently this person has been helping and saving people without asking for a reward or recognition. Though I thought it was some fake rumor. I doubt someone actually goes around helping others when gaining nothing in return."

"Yeah." Dialyn twirled the phone cord around her finger. "While we know two specific people who fit that bill, it's not exactly something we expect to be common."

The Boss continued: "It would appear this vigilante is actually doing just that. Many posts and people have commented on how he's stopped Ethereals, criminals, and saved civilians—all without asking for anything. Consistently."

She paused. "He's certainly a man wasting his time and skills. Despite the sorry state of his outfit and gear, he is surprisingly quite skilled. And he seems to—"

"He's showing quite a unique array of tech or abilities," Promeia finished, her violet eye still fixed on the screen.

"Yes." The Boss pressed another button.

New images appeared. Black tendrils erupting from the figure's arms—dark, thick, moving with organic fluidity. Green lightning crackling around his body. A thick smokescreen billowing from his hands. And several clips of him dodging attacks from angles he shouldn't have been able to see.

"He seems to have green electricity around his body that enhances physical capabilities," Promeia said, analyzing each ability with clinical precision. "Enhanced strength, speed, agility. The electricity appears to be a byproduct of the enhancement rather than a separate offensive tool."

"And those black tendrils coming out of his arms," Zhao said, her paw-like hands gripping her knees. "They don't look like wires or anything normal. They move on their own."

"They're kind of unsettling," Dialyn said, her usual playfulness dimming slightly. "They move like they're alive."

"It appears he shows a precognitive ability as well," Promeia continued. "Too many posts here mention him dodging attacks he couldn't possibly see before they hit. Many clips show him doing so." Her eyes narrowed. "He's also shown some form of smoke generation and what appears to be kinetic energy buildup—his attacks carry disproportionate force for his apparent size."

The Boss watched them analyze, then spoke: "This Green Shroud is a seemingly selfless man, seeking to help others in need despite the state he's in. And he has many unique abilities—none of which seem to be coming from any tech on him."

"Yeah, I did notice that," Dialyn said, lowering the phone receiver entirely. Her expression shifted—the playful customer-service mask thinning. "He doesn't have anything that could be producing these. No W-Engine, no visible equipment, no projectors. These seem to be coming directly from his body."

"These are likely just Ether abilities," Promeia said, "but it's unusual to see someone with seemingly multiple ones, and ones that manifest like his. Even gifted Ether users typically display one core ability with variations. He's displaying at least four distinct capabilities."

The Boss let the silence stretch for a moment before she spoke again.

"He is a variable we cannot ignore. A man with this much power, operating outside our oversight, is a threat to the order we maintain. But he is also... an opportunity."

She pressed another button on the remote. The screen shifted to show the Hollow breach footage again—the tornado, the green and gold lightning, the massive hole torn through the ceiling.

"This was two days ago. He single-handedly affected the structure of a Hollow. That is a capability we have only ever seen from Void Hunters."

Zhao's ears flattened slightly. "So he could be a Void Hunter level threat."

"Potentially." The Boss's voice remained calm. "Which is precisely why we are handling this personally. Not the Three Pacts. Not their hired guns. Us."

She turned her chair fully to face them, her silhouette framed by the window behind her.

"You will track him. You will negotiate with him. And you will determine his judgment."

She looked at each of them in turn.

"Dialyn. You will be his judge. Your talent for hearing the truth in the voices of the dying will serve you well—you will understand what he truly seeks, what he truly fears. Determine if he is a threat to our order, or a potential asset."

Dialyn's playful demeanor faded. Her gold-and-green eyes met the Boss's. 'A judge is supposed to be impartial. But how can I be impartial when I already know he's going to be judged guilty if he doesn't cooperate?' She tucked the receiver into her belt and nodded. "Understood."

"Zhao. You will be his jury. You have walked among the masses. You understand what drives people to act against their own interests. Decide if his actions serve or threaten TOPS."

Zhao's rabbit ears twitched. She didn't respond immediately. 'I've judged people before and been their jury. But this isn't a criminal. This is someone who helps people. How do I judge someone for being too good?' When she did speak, her voice was quieter than before. "Understood."

"Promeia. You will be his executioner. If the judgement and jury find him to be a threat to TOPs, you will end him."

Promeia's handcuffs rattled as she shifted. She didn't speak. She only bowed her head.

"But know this—we are not butchers. We do not execute on whim. You will try to bring him into the fold. Repeatedly. Patiently. One of you will approach at a time, earn his trust. Only if he refuses every hand we extend—only if he actively works against TOPS—will judgment fall."

She paused.

"Banyue will be called if needed. He is... uniquely suited to convincing people. His school has turned many wayward souls toward productive paths. But I suspect this vigilante will not be easily swayed by words alone. If Banyue fails, Phoenix will be dispatched to exhaust him. She is the fire that'll burn him out eventually."

Her gloved hand tapped the remote again, and the screen went dark.

"You have one month. Track him, observe him, and make your judgment. If he proves willing to work with us, we gain a powerful asset. If not..."

She let the sentence hang.

"We will not waste him. His body alone could be of use or be better in Krampus's hand than Mosseints. He'd surely use it for his current foolish attempts to gain dominion over Roscaelifer." Her eyes narrowed. "But I would prefer he live. A willing tool is worth ten broken ones."

She rose from her chair—tall, imposing, her presence filling the room even without a raised voice.

"Remember what we are. We are the ones who set the price of tomorrow's order. We do not chase profit like the Three Pacts. We do not squabble over scraps like the corporations. We ensure that order exists. That is our purpose. That is our oath."

She looked at each of them one final time.

"I hope the Green Shroud makes a wise decision. So that our judgment may be fair."

---

They left the office in silence.

Zhao's paw-like feet padded softly against the black tile.

Dialyn's chakram was slung over her shoulder, her phone receiver now tucked away.

Promeia walked behind them, her heels clicking, her handcuffs rattling with each step.

They reached the end of the corridor before Zhao stopped.

"Promeia."

Promeia paused, turning slightly.

"You're quiet." Zhao's rabbit ears twitched. "More than usual."

"I am always quiet."

"Not like this." Zhao's red-orange eyes studied her. "You recognized something in that footage. The way you looked at him."

Promeia didn't answer.

Dialyn twirled a strand of her braided pigtail around her finger. "Ghosts are usually people who can't let go of something. Or people who won't let go of them."

Promeia's handcuffs rattled once.

"We have a mission," she said. "Let's focus."

She walked past them, heading for the exit.

Zhao and Dialyn exchanged a look.

They watched her go, their expressions troubled.

Dialyn broke the silence first, her voice lighter than the moment warranted. "A month… That's a long time for a judgment."

"Long enough to know someone," Zhao said. She resumed walking, her paw-like feet padding softly against the tile. "Long enough to figure out what makes a ghost like him keep going."

"Ghosts don't keep going," Dialyn said. "They linger. They haunt. They stay in one place and replay the same moment over and over." She twirled the phone cord around her finger. "But this one moves. He helps people. He saves strangers. He fights things that would kill most people." Her gold-and-green eyes narrowed. "That's not a ghost. That's someone running."

"Running from what?" Zhao asked.

"From whatever made him this way." Dialyn tucked the receiver into her belt. "I want to know what that is. I want to dial into that head of his and see what makes him tick. Why does he keep answering calls he doesn't have to? Why does he help people who can't pay him back? Why doesn't he stop?"

Zhao was quiet for a moment. "Belle and Wise are selfless people. But even they still take commissions. They still look after themselves. They know when to rest." She shook her head. "This guy doesn't. He's been wearing the same torn costume for three weeks. His gear is falling apart. He's probably not eating enough. He's probably not sleeping enough." Her rabbit ears flattened. "He's a lost ghost who doesn't know how to stop."

They walked in silence for a moment.

"Do you think we'll have to..." Dialyn didn't finish the sentence.

"I hope not." Zhao's voice was firm. "That's why we're being given time. To judge him fairly. To give him a chance." She paused. "The Boss isn't like the Three Pacts. She wants to understand him. That's more than Mosseint would do."

"Still." Dialyn's fingers drummed against her chakram. "A month of watching him? Following him? Talking to him? That's a lot of time to get attached."

"Then we don't get attached."

"Can you do that?"

Zhao didn't answer immediately. When she did, her voice was quieter than before.

"I don't know."

—-

Promeia stepped out of the building and into the pale morning light.

The wind carried the metallic taste of the Hollow, mixing with the dust of the mines. She looked up at the sky—a washed-out blue, streaked with thin clouds.

'A month…'

She began walking, her heels clicking against the pavement.

'He fights for strangers while he fades. A fool. A moth drawn to a flame that will consume him.'

She thought of the footage. The torn cape. The scarred hands. The way he moved—always forward, never stopping, even when he had nothing left to give.

'I know that path. I walked it once. I was a Sweeper. I ended the lives of those who had fallen to corruption. I believed it was mercy.' Her purple eyes squinted.

'But I was wrong. I was a tool for someone else's judgment. And I didn't ask the right questions.' Her cuffs rattled as she walked.

'I hope he makes the wise choice. Not for TOPS. Not for the Boss. For himself.'

'Because if he doesn't…'

She stopped walking, staring at the horizon. 'I don't want to be his executioner.'

She stood there for a long moment, the wind blowing through her hair. Then she started walking again, her expression set, her resolve hardening.

'But if I must, I will.'

—-------------------------------------------------------

The Throne Quarter was the beating heart of New Eridu's Hollow operations.

H.A.N.D. Headquarters dominated the district, a sprawling complex of glass and steel that housed the analysts, researchers, and field agents responsible for keeping the city safe from the disasters that lurked beyond its walls.

Even now, in the mid-morning lull, the building hummed with activity—data streams flowing across wall-mounted displays, agents moving between departments with the focused urgency of people who knew their work mattered.

The upper floors were quieter. Past the security checkpoints, past the reinforced doors, the offices of Hollow Special Operations Section 6 sat in a kind of suspended stillness.

The chaos of the main floors faded here, replaced by something more controlled—more dangerous.

Inside, the scene was familiar.

Soukaku sat at her desk in the corner, a half-eaten box of snacks beside her, a mountain of paperwork in front of her.

Her blue skin stood out against the stark white of the forms, her short white spikey hair falling into her eyes as she squinted at the documents with the intensity of someone defusing a bomb. Her two black tipped horns curved back from her forehead, and her blue tail with its black arrow tip twitched behind her in irritation.

"I don't understand," she muttered, holding up two papers. "These look exactly the same. Why are they different forms?"

She dropped them both on the pile and grabbed another, her red eyes scanning the text with visible effort.

Her pointy ears flattened slightly against her head. "This one has a stamp. This one doesn't. Is that important? Why is it important?"

She reached for a rice cracker from the box beside her, crunching it loudly as she stared at the incomprehensible paperwork.

Crumbs scattered across the forms, and she brushed them away with a blue-skinned hand, only managing to smear them further.

Across the room, Harumasa was, as usual, asleep.

His desk was barely visible beneath the pile of paperwork he'd ostensibly been working on. His navy blue hair was a mess, the yellow headband askew, and his face was half-buried in his folded arms.

One gloved hand—the yellow one—rested on top of the stack, as if he'd intended to work and simply... stopped. A faint snore escaped him, soft and rhythmic.

The bow that served as his weapon leaned against the wall behind him, untouched.

Near the window, where the afternoon light streamed in through the blinds, Miyabi sat at her desk.

She was still. Not the stillness of sleep, but the stillness of deep concentration. Her long dark hair spilled over her shoulders, cascading down her back like a river of ink.

Her red eyes moved steadily across the pages of the book in her hands—a combat manual she'd read a dozen times before.

Her turquoise haori hung loosely over her shoulders, the fabric catching the light, and beneath it, a white shirt and black tie were immaculate.

Her large, fluffy fox ears were angled slightly forward, tracking sounds even as she read. She did not have a tail—a detail that often surprised those who met her for the first time. But the ears were unmistakably those of a fox Thiren, and they twitched occasionally as she processed the words on the page.

But her focus was not on the book.

Her mind had drifted, as it sometimes did during these quiet moments. She thought about the state of the city—the ever-present threat of Hollows, the delicate balance between the factions that governed New Eridu, the weight of the sword that rested beside her desk.

Tailless.

The sword was more than a weapon. It was a legacy. A responsibility. And lately, it had been... idle.

Miyabi turned a page she had not read.

The door opened.

Yanagi stepped inside, a file held close to her chest. Her pale cherry-blossom pink hair was swept back, bangs parted to expose her forehead, and her purple eyes behind her under-rim glasses were calm and focused.

She wore an office-style outfit—ruffled blouse, fitted skirt, sheer tights—but the massive oni shoulder pad on her right shoulder was a reminder that she was not merely an administrator.

Her spear leaned against the wall outside, too large to bring into the office.

"Chief Miyabi," Yanagi said, approaching the desk.

Miyabi blinked, the book lowering slightly. She had not turned the page in several minutes. "Yanagi." She marked her place with a slender ribbon and closed the book. "What is it?"

Yanagi placed the file on the desk. "I have something for you. Something that requires your attention."

Miyabi's eyes flicked to the file, then back to Yanagi. "Go on."

Yanagi took a breath. "There's a vigilante operating in New Eridu. He appeared almost three weeks ago." She explained, tucking her arms under her chest.

"At first, many assumed he was simply a criminal seeking fame or recognition. But after a certain number of incidents, it became clear that he was genuinely helping people."

She opened the file, revealing a series of reports and photographs. "He's stopped Ethereals and Hollow Raiders. Saved people from accidents. Even helped during a rogue prototype incident at Belobog Heavy Industries. In every case, he acted without asking for reward or recognition."

Miyabi picked up one of the photographs—a grainy image of a figure in a dark green costume, green lightning crackling around his frame. The costume was worn, the cape frayed, the gauntlets scarred. Whoever this was, they had been fighting for a long time.

"Interesting," she murmured.

"Public Security has been trying to apprehend him," Yanagi continued. "They don't allow vigilantism, and he's been operating outside the law. But he's managed to evade them so far."

Miyabi set the photograph down. "He sounds skilled. Capable. But why bring this to us? He doesn't seem like someone who requires Section 6's attention."

Yanagi pulled another document from the file—a detailed analysis of the vigilante's abilities. "It's not just his actions that are unusual. It's his abilities. Public Security has confirmed no clear signs of any equipment or technology that could be producing these effects. It seems like everything he does comes from within himself."

Miyabi's eyes narrowed slightly. She took the document, scanning the details.

Black tendrils. Green lightning. Enhanced physical capabilities. Precognition.

"His abilities are unlike anything we've catalogued," Yanagi said. "And he's displayed a level of combat skill that suggests extensive training. He's not just a random civilian who decided to play hero. He's something else entirely."

Miyabi set the document down. "And the recent development?"

Yanagi's expression grew more serious. She pulled out the final piece—a photograph of the Hollow, its ceiling torn open, the sky visible beyond. Beside it was an image of the tornado.

"Two days ago, he was involved in an incident in a Companion Hollow on the edge of the city. He was fighting a powerful Ethereal. And during that fight..." She paused. "He tore a hole through the Hollow's ceiling."

Miyabi's eyes widened slightly. She reached for the photograph, studying it with new intensity. The shattered Hollow. The spiraling column of green and gold light. The sheer scale of destruction.

"The energy required to do something like that is on a level we've only ever seen from Void Hunters. The Green Shroud may be operating at a level beyond anything we initially estimated."

"Who is he?" Miyabi murmured.

"We don't know. He has no history, no registration, no identifiable background. He appeared in the city three weeks ago and has been operating in secret ever since."

Miyabi was silent for a moment. Then she nodded slowly.

"Very well. I'll take the case."

Yanagi's expression flickered with something like relief—but also concern. "Chief, I should remind you that this isn't just a training opportunity. This is a real threat. The Green Shroud's abilities are unpredictable, and his motivations are unclear."

Miyabi smiled—a small, almost imperceptible curve of her lips. "I'm aware."

She stood, her movements fluid. The turquoise haori shifted with her, the fabric settling over her shoulders. She reached for Tailless, her fingers brushing against the hilt. The sword hummed faintly at her touch.

"I'll do my best to apprehend him. But first..." She lifted the sword from its stand. "I need to understand him."

She walked toward the door.

"Chief?" Yanagi called after her. "Where are you going?"

"To find him." Miyabi paused at the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder. Her red eyes were calm, but there was something beneath the surface—a flicker of anticipation. "Better to start now."

She left the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

Yanagi stared at the closed door for a long moment. Then she sighed, pressing her fingers to her forehead.

"Honestly," she muttered. "Hopefully things will work out."

From the corner, there was a crunch of a rice cracker.

Yanagi glanced over. Soukaku looked up from her paperwork, a half-eaten cracker in her hand. "Did the Chief just leave?"

"Yes."

"Was it something important?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." Soukaku shrugged and went back to her paperwork, crumbs falling onto the forms. "Okay."

Harumasa continued to sleep, oblivious to everything. His snore hitched for a moment, then resumed its steady rhythm.

Yanagi looked at him, then at the mountain of paperwork on his desk, then at the ceiling.

"Honestly," she repeated, and went to help with Harumasa's and Soukaku's paperwork.

---

The elevator descended smoothly, the soft hum of machinery filling the small space.

Miyabi stood in the center, her reflection visible in the polished metal doors. The turquoise haori. The dark hair. The fox ears that are angled forward. The red eyes, calm and focused.

She unsheathed Tailless slightly, studying the gleaming edge of the blade. The metal caught the light, and for a moment, she saw her own reflection on its surface.

It had been a while since she'd faced a challenge that truly tested her.

The recent missions had been... routine. Necessary, but routine. She'd dispatched enemies with efficiency, completed objectives with precision, but there had been no real test of her skills. No opponent who pushed her to her limits. No fight that made her feel truly alive.

This vigilante—this Green Shroud—was something different.

She thought about the images Yanagi had shown her. The torn Hollow. The tornado. The figure in the worn green costume, green lightning crackling around his frame.

'Who are you?' she wondered. 'What happened to you to make you this way?'

She sheathed Tailless, her expression hardening with determination.

She would find him. She would bring him in. And she would understand what he was.

The elevator doors opened.

Miyabi stepped out into the morning light, the Throne Quarter bustling around her. Agents and analysts moved through the halls, data streams flickered on wall displays, and somewhere in the distance, a Bangboo chirped.

She walked forward, her footsteps steady.

The hunt had begun.

—-------------------------------------------------------

Belle was scrolling through her phone, sprawled across the couch with one leg dangling over the armrest.

Izuku sat on a cushion nearby, a book open in his lap—a history of Eridu's founding that Wise had pulled from his collection.

The afternoon light slanted through the windows, warm and golden.

Izuku's eyes moved across the page, absorbing details about the city's early days, the first Hollow barriers, the establishment of the Bangboo. It was interesting—genuinely interesting—and he found himself actually relaxing.

Then his head snapped toward the window.

A sharp, cold sensation jabbed at the base of his skull. Danger Sense spiked—not the usual warning of immediate threat, but something broader. A pressure. Like the air before a thunderstorm.

His hand twitched. The book slipped.

"Hey—you okay?" Belle looked up from her phone.

Izuku didn't answer immediately. He was staring at the window, eyes narrowed.

"I'm not sure..." he said slowly. "I thought I just felt... a storm approaching."

Belle blinked. "A storm? Can you sense storms or something?"

Izuku hesitated. The feeling was fading now, but it had been real.

"It's nothing," he said, shaking his head. "Just... imagining things."

Belle looked at him for a moment longer, her expression unconvinced. Then she shrugged and went back to her phone.

Izuku looked back at the window.

'That amount of Ether... it was enormous and moving…. What is it?' His fingers curled against his knee.

'This doesn't feel good at all.'

He looked down at his hands, watching a faint flicker of green lightning dance across his knuckles before fading.