Chapter 8 Incident Zero by Ya Boy Guzma

There was only one thing to do when the world went to hell around you. Focus on what was right in front of you.

"AIR FORCE SMASH!"

In the weeks and months since the press conference with Endeavor and the Hero Commission had set the ideals at the core of Hero society in Japan ablaze, Izuku found that he was even more grateful that Tenko had found them the abandoned warehouse to train in. It had gone from being a home away from home for evenings after school, their own little dojo to work on their Quirk technique, to a safe haven. Within those four walls, the world outside almost didn't matter; within those four walls, they could pretend that all that mattered was their training, and that there was nothing in the world that could touch them, or stop them from achieving the bright future they wanted.

It was a little lie, that made the big sad truth of the world around them just a little more bearable.

Day by day, the world of Heroes found itself reeling from punch after punch. Within the first month, resignations came from far and wide; some hated the idea of selling out to a corporate sponsor in order to fund their Agency work almost as much as the idea of becoming tools for the Commission, of signing their freedom to work away. Crust was the first and perhaps the most alarming, citing the extreme dishonour of the Number One Hero Endeavor, and others closely followed. Names such as Fourth Kind, Majestic, Mr Brave; these were Heroes who may not have compared to the Top Ten but who still held good sway in the public eye before All Might died. They and others faded into obscurity, Heroes who couldn't take being forced to make what they saw to be an impossible choice.

One by one, capes were hung up and sunsets disappeared into. Among those who remained, the disparity of what happened to them was stark. Private Agencies weren't as rare as was first feared, and it seemed a number of Heroes had survived attempts by the Commission to bring them under their wing with the financial backing to stay independent, the likes of Best Jeanist and Edgeshot among them.

What was alarming, however, were the ones who had vanished. Rumours sprung up about what had happened to Heroes like Wash and Hawks, who had been brought into the ranks of the Commission to disappear from the public eye. Heroes who had publicly entered the ranks of the Commission were deployed at short notice on the turf of others, and caused nothing but further chaos. Just a week prior to this latest visit to the warehouse, Izuku had watched the news in angst, as a hostage situation in Kyushu had escalated into an all-out brawl between Mirko and Gang Orca for the Commission on the streets, with the villains escaping.

Even worse were the whispers of those on the take among other private Heroes, those who had taken lucrative deals only to disappear from their respective cities and let the Police fight the raging fires of crime and anarchy. Some Agencies had been bidding for contracts to exclusivity over certain regions, and outcry grew as more and more perceived their towns and cities to have been abandoned. As the corrupt withdrew support, the wretched came out to play, and despite supposed tougher penalties for crimes there were a lot more villains willing to come into the light and flex their muscles without fear.

The definition of "hero" left a lot to be desired these days.

Without All Might, they are nothing.

The rebellion of UA, and the fallout as the Commission and Endeavor reacted in anger, sent a ripple throughout society. Nezu had disappeared completely from public eye, and the rumours were that the Principal had been forced on the run; this only poured fuel onto the fire that was anti-Hero sentiment in Japanese society. Despite everything, despite hostile exchanges of words on the news and despite the opening of the new Support school, UA survived, and continued to teach as it always wanted to teach. They were the only school that remained totally as they had in the days of All Might, their most famous alumni, and as the other schools accepted Commission control or wound down operations, the trickle-down was affecting everyone.

Izuku found himself more and more sucked into his Hero Analysis notebooks of old, not because the Heroes were ubiquitous and because there were so many more to take note of. No, Izuku found them to be the only escape he would have from the depressing reality that their school was trying its best to ignore heroism as a potential career for its youngsters. Short of actively discouraging them to try to apply to Hero schools, their school and many others like it took every other step it could to passively end the interest of the next generation in this line of work.

Fend for yourself? Survival of the fittest? Leave those most in need to suffer and don't step in? All three were lessons Izuku refused to accept.

So all he and Tenko could do was keep their heads down, work hard, train harder, and hope that they could find it within themselves to achieve their goals. No matter what the world threw at them, he had his friend alongside him

He smiled at the strength of the wind blast he was able to summon up with his Quirk, and turned to the girl standing a way behind him. "I'm ready! Let's try it!"

"You got it, green bean!"

He had taken his mother's advice to heart after he had taken the Quirk off of the Yakuza, and had accepted he would need to try to pass it off as another part of his own Quirk. As much as he had been reluctant to admit it at first, Inko had been right that he should talk to herin particular; his cousin had helped him come on in leaps and bounds.

Setsuna Tokage was the same age as him, with dazzling green hair and a permanent smirk on her face. While Izuku would admit he was quite shy and easily flustered, Setsuna was almost exactly the opposite- confident bordering on cocky, forthright and never embarrassed. Like him she could be reckless, and her dinosaur obsession rivalled his Hero fixation, but Izuku could see from the time they spent properly training together that she had spent years working on her Lizard Tail Splitter Quirk to get the most out of it. It split her body into pieces, after all; she needed absolute control, and had it.

Given that her Quirk involved an element of telekinetic control by splitting pieces off of her body and floating them around, she was just the right person to help practice with, so that he could effectively pass off his second Quirk as a technique he had been developing. Just as she had to pull parts of her body towards her, so Izuku had to pull towards him if he wanted to 'Steal' anything. He had given up trying to argue with Tenko about calling it Steal, who insisted it was his best name to date, and instead focused on getting his own mental control up to scratch. Having his cousin around was much easier to mentor him on getting the most use out of it. She was a godsend.

Even if he wished she would stop flirting with Tenko in front of him. It was just uncomfortable at this point and he'd much preferred it when she took her head off and made him scream (winning him his bet with Tenko).

Setsuna flashed him a wide grin with her wicked-sharp teeth inherited from her father. She splayed out the fingers on her right hand, detached it at the wrist using her Quirk, and held it out in front of her left hand in a flourish. "Combo move, coming right up!"

In his head, as he stretched his hand out towards her offered hand, he felt the tug of Steal and flexed his fingers ever so slightly. Setsuna's disembodied hand flew towards him, and as it did he let his mind focus on building up a ball of air using Air Force in his palm. Nearly, nearly...

"CATAPULT!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, and as Setsuna's right hand landed in his palm he pushed out the blast of air, launching the hand at high speed to bury its fingers into a mattress he and Setsuna had dragged up against the wall.

As the fingers met their target and punctured into the mattress, Setsuna crowed out a cheer and punched the air with her remaining hand. "Woohoo! Nicely done, cuz!"

Izuku grinned and nodded at her. "Alright! We found a way we can both use our Quirks together."

"Yeah, yeah, well done both of you." Tenko, who had been quiet up until then, started clapping slowly and sarcastically from his seat on a concrete slab behind both Izuku and Setsuna. "Great job."

Setsuna put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes at Tenko. "What's this Ten-Ten? Jealous you can't do something as cool with your Quirk?"

Tenko stopped his clapping and ran a hand through his hair, before making a funny noise. "That move wouldn't work. You're doing it wrong."

Izuku wiped the sweat off his face with his T-shirt and shook his head at Tenko, who looked completely bemused. "I don't see you offering to help."

"This is me helping." Tenko picked at a loose corner of the slab and seemed to smirk in satisfaction as it crumbled away even without using his Quirk. "You're trying to be too showy with your Quirks."

"It's a combo move! Aren't they supposed to be a little flashy?"

Izuku and Tenko both turned to look at the third member of their little party, who had floated her hand back to her and was fixing it back on at the wrist, and Tenko sighed. "Flashy doesn't mean much if you're telegraphing, Setsuna."

"Telegraphing?" Izuku had a notebook out now, never one to miss a learning opportunity. "What do you mean?"

"You can use AOE air blasts with your Quirk, but to do that move you're using a single direction attack, meaning the target needs to be in front of you." Tenko stood up, flicking some dust off of his shoulder and spinning around on the spot. "If you're turning back to Setsuna to Steal something to use as ammo, you're turning away from the target. If that's a villain, it's game over to give them an opening like that."

"Very elegant twirl there, Ten."

Tenko pointedly ignored Setsuna's teasing comment. "Plus you've gotta think about how useful it really is. Sure it looks cool to combo up, but Setsuna can chunk bits off herself and make them float anyway. If she can launch them at an opponent anyway, why do you need to combine Air Force with them when such a strong blast ?"

Izuku chuckled nervously. "I guess you're right. Not the best use of both of our Quirks."

"Possibly not." Tenko walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Izu. We've got a strong party here, and you two have good synergy, but that doesn't always make for a perfect finishing move. Especially with a dumb name like that."

"Hey! I thought Catapult was a cool name!" Setsuna pouted. "He wanted to name it some new kind of Smash!"

"What's wrong with calling it a Smash?"

"Do you want all the villains to know you're an All Might fanboy?"

"Uhhh..."

Tenko facepalmed. "This is why you leave this sort of stuff to me to plan."

"And here I thought you'd be happy for us." Setsuna stuck her tongue out at Tenko. "You're a game nerd, and we just tried to impress you with a special move!"

Tenko gave them both a dry look. "Trust me, I know what a good combo move is and which buttons to press. This one just looks like you're button mashing and praying for a good hit."

Izuku shook his head, but deep down he realised that Tenko had a point. "Sorry Tenko. We kind of wasted that afternoon, huh?"

"Nah, you two had fun. Just don't try that move again or you might end up blasting bits of your cousin over a villain."

Izuku groaned, embarrassed. "Tenko..."

"I'm just messing with you. Come on, let's go home." Tenko stood up and held out Izuku's backpack for Izuku to pull into his hand with Steal, as they made their way out of their warehouse training ground. "We should probably limit how much we work on our combo moves before the Hard-to-Kill Reptile does any lasting damage to either of you. I don't have any revives over here."

"You're calling me that?!" Izuku watched his cousin's eyes light up as her head snapped around backwards on her neck to stare at Tenko in awe. "Aw, you read the stories I sent you-"

"Of course I did." Tenko smirked. "Dark shit on the Internet? Sign me up."

Setsuna turned to Izuku with a mock-accusatory look. "See? At least one of you is a man of culture."

"Speaking of dark shit..." Tenko had his phone out and was looking more serious now. "While you two dorks were messing about, I was reading the news. The Hero Killer struck again."

"Really?" Setsuna let out a low whistle. "It's been a while since we saw anything about him, I thought he'd gone into hiding after the whole Endeavor press conference. Who did he get this time?"

"Uwabami? Says here she's-"

"The Snake Hero," Izuku interrupted, encyclopaedic knowledge kicking in. "She's... based in Tokyo, I think. He's getting closer to here."

"I think I know her?" Setsuna said aloud. "She does loads of modelling and commercial work outside of her Hero work."

"And that's apparently why he went for her," Tenko said, scrolling through the article he found. "She's still alive, but he cut the snakes off of her head completely-" Setsuna grimaced at the thought of violence against reptiles. "- and... damn. She's apparently been branded by him. He didn't like that she put her Hero work behind her modelling as a priority. Can't say I blame him for thinking that."

"That's no reason for him to hurt her," Izuku said, his voice hardening. "Tenko, that isn't right. Surely you don't agree with him doing that?"

"Not with doing that. I dunno though..." Tenko looked into the distance, as if lost in thought. "This world gets crazier and crazier the more we look. I... can't disagree with him being angry at her. She's a Hero, she's supposed to save people, and yet she's wrapped up in money and fame. She's the sort of person who survived all that crazy shit Endeavor pulled, while real Heroes who do it for the right reasons vanished. It doesn't seem fair..."

"I..." Izuku faltered, but only for a second. "I know. We lost All Might, and now for some reason we're willing to give up on Heroes who were honest and worked hard. But we do the best with what we've got. We train ourselves to become Heroes in future and work as hard as we can to make a better world, we support the Heroes we have left for now, and we don't support those methods. There's always a better way to clean up the world than that."

"Tch." Tenko rolled his eyes, but there was a faint smile. "I wish I had your optimism, Zu."

"S-Someone has to, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so..." Tenko turned. "What do you think Set-"

Setsuna had levitated her head over to Tenko and popped it down onto his shoulder so that she could read the article he was looking at. "Ooh, that's pretty graphic."

"Tch-! Get off me you weirdo-"

"Way to spoil the moment, Tenko, you heartbreaker!" She stuck her tongue out at him as he swatted her head away like an overgrown fly, and floated it back onto her body. "A pretty girl comes to nuzzle her head against yours and you're turning her down?"

"It would be alright if the rest of her was attached at the time!" Tenko burst out, before realising what he said and making a strangled noise unlike anything Izuku had ever heard from him. "U-Um, I- That wasn't what I-"

Setsuna's smirk was devilish. "Oh? You want my body, is that what this is?"

Izuku went bright red at the scene in front of him, and he could have sworn he'd started steaming like a kettle; he couldn't help get embarrassed on his best friend's behalf at his cousin's antics. "G-G-Guys! Come on, stop f-flirting-"

"I'm not doing anything!" Tenko cried, as Setsuna began to howl with laughter. "Izu help me out here-"

"You know, all you had to do was ask, Tenko~"

"STOP THIS PLEASE!"

The howls of embarrassment from the two boys, and the delighted cackle of the girl wildly enjoying their struggles with absolutely no shame at all, echoed around the alleyways on their way home. Strangers otherwise keeping their heads down and going about their business in peace looked up at the sight, and for a brief moment those who saw them forgot the woes of the rest of the world. Three teenagers, full of youth and hope for a better future, having fun without a care in the world.

The joys of youth.

(***)

Izuku realised that something was up the second he walked through their front door.

Setsuna had left them shortly before they got home, so that she could get to the train station and get home without her parents worrying about her. He and Tenko had chatted more about what Tenko described as "party synergy", and how the three of them could be useful in a rescue scenario. Nothing had alarmed him until he stepped through the front door and saw his mother fiddling with her thumbs nervously.

"Mom?" he asked, uncertain, placing his bag down on the floor as Tenko followed in behind him. "I-Is everything okay?"

She fidgeted, and her eyes flickered towards Tenko behind, who looked concerned all of a sudden. "Um... I think we may need to sit down and have a talk."

"I can go if-" Tenko started.

"No, no, I... I think this needs you to be here."

Inko's interruption set Izuku on edge slightly, but it was clear his mother wasn't going to say anything further without them sitting down for this. Gesturing for Tenko to follow, he set himself down on the couch in the living room and looked over to his mother, who had slumped into her chair. "Mom... What happened?"

Inko glanced towards the door, glanced at Izuku, glanced at Tenko, who had just hung up his favourite tattered hoodie and slouched onto the sofa besides Izuku. "I... I got a call from the school."

"Huh?" Izuku paused. "I haven't done anything, what could they-"

"It... wasn't about you sweetie." Inko swallowed, clearly uneasy, and looked at his best friend. "It was about you, Tenko."

The blue-haired boy stiffened immediately, shoulders raised, uneasy. "... What did they say?"

Inko glanced to the side nervously before she continued. "It was about your family. They asked about the Shimura family." Tenko froze. "They called me asking for your parent's phone number to talk about something that happened in class the other day. I gave the one you gave me and they said that number was no longer in service."

He couldn't look at her, his fists clenching. "Please..."

"They tried other numbers they had on the system but nothing connected at all." Inko gulped. "They... they sent a teacher by the address you gave... and found no one."

His eyes squeezed shut, head bowed. "Dammit..."

Izuku's eyes were wide, his jaw trying not to hit the floor. "Tenko... do you not have a family?"

There was no response from his friend, whose shoulders were shaking by now, his face scrunched up and fists balled. Instead, he stood slowly and started for the door, the pain written over his face for all to see. "I... I don't want to talk about it."

"Please!" Izuku jumped up and followed him out, and as Tenko moved to grab his hoodie and leave he put his hand on Tenko's arm. "Tenko, it's okay-"

"How can you say that?" Tenko cried, grabbing the hand which had touched him with a shaking gloved hand. "You don't know a damn thing about it and you wanna tell me everything is alright-"

"Because you're my best friend!" Izuku said, voice wavering in fear, as Inko slowly followed and watched after them from the doorway to the living room with worried eyes. "Because you're my partner and the only person I trust with secrets I'm terrified of the rest of the world knowing-"

"And you wouldn't think that about me if you knew!"

"Knew what?" Izuku took a step forward towards his friend. "What do you think could ever change my view of you-"

"Stop." Tenko's voice was low, almost hollow. "You would hate me. You would be afraid, you'd run-"

"I'm not going anywhere! I'm not afraid of you! And I don't wanna lose you!"

"I'm sorry, Izuku."

"Tenko, NO!" Izuku reached out with both hands now to touch his friend's face, realising just how much the older boy was trembling. "I don't know what I'd do without you as a friend! All I'm asking is to let me in!"

Understand.

As both of Izuku's hands cupped Tenko's cheeks, a single tear shed by the bluenette, his hands both flashed with the black and red sparks he was accustomed to as a side effect from using his Quirk. This time, though, was different- red sparks surrounded both of his hands, before sharp pain lanced through Izuku's skull like a lightning strike and his vision exploded into black. Before he could even open his mouth to say anything, images flashed before his eyes that he was powerless to control, shaking and in sepia like an old-fashioned film.

A cut on his lips, disoriented, blurry vision. Blood dripped from his face into little puddles on the floor.

"Your fault..." the trembling voice of Father, beside himself with grief and wrath. His little head looked up, seeing the half decayed corpse on the floor.

Open rib cage, corroded internal organs that were flaking into dust before his eyes. Blood pooled onto the floor, more than he thought a body could hold, as her muscle and skin rotted and flaked away into dust, into nothingness. Mother's body... turning to ash before his eyes.

"Why couldn't you have had a different quirk than your worthless brother..." Strong hands gripped his throat, picking him up and slamming him into the wall. There he saw Father's face, bloodshot eyes and wearing the look of a man who's mind had been swallowed in darkness. "THIS WAS YOUR FAULT! YOU KILLED HER!"

Strong hands threatened to crush his windpipe, slamming his spine and the back of his skull repeatedly into the wall. Things started to go black, panic set in, and little hands encased in a ratty hoodie reached for his father's face. When the rot set in, the hands gripped harder, then his little hands grabbed Father's wrists. The hands around his neck turned to dust, and his own little body fell to the floor as he gasped and gagged for air.

Bloody stumps cracked and flakes and disappeared themselves, and the skin covering the muscle of Father's face slid off. It sounded like the cracking of eggs, skin spilling onto the hardwood floor as the muscle and eyes started melting too. When his jaw rotted through at the bone and fell off, tongue hanging out uselessly, the screaming turned to gurgling and Father fell to his knees...

Then little Tenko screamed, and bolted for the door.

A jolt seemed to force the boys apart, the sparks dying from Izuku's hands as he slid to the floor. His heart was racing, adrenaline coursing through his veins, and the shock at the sudden ability to do something he never could was replaced by sadness as his brain caught up to what he had just seen. Forcing his eyes to open again, he saw the horrified look on Tenko's face. Somehow, through that vision, whatever that was, he knew that he'd seen it too. He and Izuku had seen the same thing.

Reaching a hand toward his friend, Izuku's voice wasn't much more than a whisper. "Tenko..."

"So..." Tenko sounded defeated, almost completely devoid of emotion. "Guess that's another Quirk of yours, huh? Forced cutscenes?"

"T-T-Tenko, I-"

"I know you didn't mean that." There was no malice in the older boy's tone. "There go my secrets, huh?"

"Izuku..." Inko spoke up from the doorframe, eyes wide. "What was that?"

"I-I..." He nearly swallowed his tongue trying to compose himself. "I just saw in Tenko's head. I saw a memory... I guess-"

"We can work it out later," his mother said, before her anxious son sent himself down a Quirk analysis rabbit hole. "Are you both-"

Tenko sighed, and his shoulders slumped down as if completely defeated. "I'm... gonna go."

At that moment, Izuku did the only thing he could do, the only thing to get his point across properly. Wrapping both arms around Tenko and throwing himself into the taller boy's chest, he hugged him tighter than he ever had before, realising for the first time just how skinny and boney his older friend was. "I'm not going anywhere, Tenko."

His friend stiffened. "Huh?"

"That... memory I saw. Your family... they..."

"Died because of my Quirk?" Tenko said, and if Izuku had looked up he would have seen the look of deep-rooted pain which he shot at Inko. "... Yeah."

"Tenko..." Inko's voice was laden with concern. "Do you mind me asking what happened?"

For a long moment, Izuku was acutely aware of the silence as Tenko made up his mind. "... Alright. I... I guess enough of it is out of the bag by now."

Izuku looked up at his friend with tears in his eyes, and saw how Tenko scratched his neck nervously even while he was wrapped around him. "When did it-"

"Incident Zero. The day All Might died..." Tenko paused. "I... hadn't had my Quirk until that day. We all gathered at home with All Might fighting that villain, and there was debris flying everywhere, like a bomb went off. Mother, she... she tried to hug me in close because I was so scared. We had a car come through our front window into the kitchen, I was terrified."

"And then... it kicked in. I didn't know I had it back then, so-" He gestured with a gloved hand. "Didn't have these. My Quirk kicked in and I couldn't stop it, and then Hana was gone, then Mother, and then Father, h-he-"

"H-Hey..." Izuku's voice wobbled but he squeezed his friend even tighter as he felt Tenko shudder in sadness. "It's okay, you don't have to say anymore than you don't want to. I just... I can't believe you've been on your own since then."

"I haven't... been alone." Tenko nudged him. "The day after, when I was at my lowest... some kid I never met sent me a party invite. Best decision I've made. And that's kinda why I didn't say anything. I figured I might lose you if you knew what I'd done-"

"I'm staying right here." Izuku broke the hug and stepped back, but met Tenko's gaze with his own. "So many people lost family and loved ones on that day, including you. You lost yours in an accident you never saw coming. Why would I ever blame you or think bad of you for what you've been through?"

"You mean that?"

"One hundred percent. You're my best friend, Tenko. Nothing will change that." He held out a hand. "I'm not going anywhere."

A ghost of a smile flickered on his best friend's face, as he reached out and clasped the outstretched hand. "... I don't deserve you. Thanks, Izu."

"Trust me when I say you deserve him, Tenko."

Izuku looked over at his mother in awe in the doorway as she said that, and Tenko was clearly taken aback. "I-Inko-"

She looked concerned. "You've been moving around from place to place since you lost your parents, I take it?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to end up in an orphanage so I... kinda cheated and moved around some of the empty houses on the other side of town. Folks abandoned them after All Might died, so I didn't get disturbed that way."

Inko shook her head. "You don't have to do that anymore. Tenko, I don't know what I have to do to do this, but I'm sure Izuku will agree with me when I say this- I want you to move in with us."

Despite all of the sadness that had come from Tenko's trip down memory lane, Izuku's eyes widened in sheer joy at what his mother was saying. "You mean that mom?"

"Without a doubt. Even if I have to sign adoption papers and make you a Midoriya, so help me I'm giving you a home Tenko."

"Y-You.. For me?" Tenko looked genuinely stunned. "Why-"

"When you first met Izuku, I worried about the kind of person he'd brought home with him; you were older, unknown, unpredictable, and you looked like you'd seen darkness, I just wasn't sure what kind. I was afraid he'd let another Katsuki into his life, that my sweet boy was going to be taken for a ride once again, but you... you showed me the truth about you. About what you are to my son."

Inko walked over and placed a hand on Tenko's shoulder, at the same time reaching down to give Izuku's hand a squeeze. "Tenko, it isn't your pain, or the things you've been through that have managed to define you or what you do with your life. It's your sense of loyalty and kindness that has."

"Loyalty to my son, to stand by him while no others would and push him to his dreams. Kindness by protecting him, helping him, finding ways to try to help achieve his goals. As a mother, I couldn't wish for more for my son."

"You, Tenko Shimura, through this have proven to be as good as family to Izuku... so that's how I want to treat you. I'm not going to leave you on your own after this." Inko looked at the pair of them, a soft smile reached her face, and a tear slid down her cheek. "If you'd like a place to stay with us, then you're part of the family too. I'll even do the papers if I have to, but I want to make sure that you're safe, for your sake and my son's."

The only response she got from both boys was to hold on tight to her for a hug and begin to bawl their eyes out. Tenko, usually so against hugs, buried himself into her shoulder and choked out 'thank you' after 'thank you' as he cried, while Izuku wrapped an arm around his friend and his mother as the tears streamed down his freckled cheeks.

Izuku's heart finally began to slow down after the tension of the few minutes previous, as he wrapped himself in that hug and focused on the two most important people in his life. He had never seen Tenko so vulnerable or so afraid before, and he swore in his head that he would never let his best friend feel he was so utterly alone ever again. There was a cast-iron bond between them now, a bond of memories and secrets and the complete joy of their friendship, and with everything he had he knew he would make sure that bond never broke.

This was his family. And he would protect them.

(***)

Izuku and Tenko. Aged: 14 and 16.

(***)

"... And there are the keys." Kimura, a bird-headed man who had had enough of Musutafu and wanted to escape for the country, popped the keys into the open palm of the man buying his house. "You think you can take it from here?"

"I'm positive."

"Say, what's with the scarf mister? You unwell? That why your face is covered?"

The man paused, a tattered red scarf covering the bottom of his face and a long trench coat covering the rest of his body. Kimura was intrigued. "I'm... a Mutant-type. Other people tend to get a little on edge when they see my face."

The bird-headed man nodded, understanding. A kindred spirit. "Don't I know that feeling. It's got a lot worse since All Might died, huh?"

"Tell me about it." The younger man accompanying the buyer, a lizard-like man with spiky purple hair, clenched a fist. "Some people just can't help themselves, and the Heroes don't seem to want to stand up for us anytime soon."

"Don't get me started on them, young man." Kimura clapped a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Sure as hell makes you wish there were some real Heroes around, right?"

The scarfed man nodded fervently. "I couldn't agree more. Thank you for providing for us."

"No sweat, thank you for paying! Just keep an eye on that noisy fridge and this place will keep you right as rain." Kimura made a show of opening the front door, turning and bowing to the young lady with the blonde buns, the youngest of the motley trio on his former doorstep. "Your palace awaits, Lady."

She giggled, a noise which set his teeth on edge a bit, and flashed him a fanged grin. "Thank you, Birdman!"

"Ha!" He straightened up and turned to the purchaser, nodding. "I'll head to the bus station now, but call me if you need anything, Mister Akaguro."

"Thank you."

"See you around, guys."

The red-scarfed man said nothing more until Kimura was out of earshot and out of sight, before lowering the scarf around his neck again and breathing out. "Well now, he was a kind man."

"Nice place he's given us," Spinner said, stepping through the porch and looking around appraisingly. "When you said we were settling down into a base, I didn't think you'd bought a house, boss."

Stain smirked, giving the insides of the house a once-over as he walked in. "The benefits of your real name being unknown to those hunting for you. Why waste time trying to hide a secret base away from the Police and fake Heroes, when they won't bat an eyelid about Mister Akaguro buying a house in the neighbourhood?"

"Pretty smart plan, Mister Stainy!"

Stain turned to look at Himiko Toga, who was still stood outside, and arched an eyebrow. "Double training, for that one." He paused, as she made a face at him. "Thank you for agreeing to come back here and join us moving in here. I appreciate that you have bad memories of this place."

"Hey, the bad memories were long before I met you and Big Bro Shuichi!" She seemed chipper, bouncing on her heels. "Now that I'm here with you both, I'm safe, right? And besides, you said you had a mission for me here!"

"Indeed I do." Stain removed the coat he had been wearing carefully, the clinking noise the only giveaway as to the number of blades he had concealed within its pockets, and hung it on a hook by the door. "Get the bags in, and then we can talk about it properly."

"I'm sending you out on your own for the first time, Himiko.