A/N: Hello! just wanted to say that if you haven't yet, you can either read (or skim over) part one [The things we misunderstood] if you wanted or needed a better understanding of the story. i hope you enjoy this.

I don't own My Hero Academia and this is AU, OOC :)

"Kasumi-Chan! Come on, wake up!"

"Why? What's happening?"

"You said that you would help me with my homework"

"huh?...uh...ok…"

Two sixteen-year-old students stood in front of what must have been the tallest tree in Musutafu. The young girl with pastel blue hair in a long plait looked up at it, then turning towards her friend in apprehension.

"You want me to climb that?" She pointed at it in disbelief "What half-baked plan did you decide on when they were handing out homework!?"

"well…. It-it was that I decided I wanted to do it based upon on basic rescue. The number of people that get stuck in trees due to various reasons –"

"That's CATS Toshi-Kun! Although…..there are people with feline quirks so it could be plausible uh – but still! This is reckless!"

"You said you would help out…"

Her face burned red as she turned her head away from him. It was bad enough that he had grown taller and more buff as time passed, but when he was acting all fearless and resolute – she couldn't help but crack a yielding grin.

"Fine, fine. So I climb up there with a stopwatch, give you five minutes to get me down…..though I'm not sure how you'd do that exactly and if you don't then I Jump and you catch me – is that right?!"

The young man nodded so eagerly, his blonde raggedy bangs appeared to have a life of their own, twitching about like antennas. At the peak of his enthusiasm, he yelled out the 'Plus Ultra!' along with the fist pump in the air. Kasumi could only face fault and manage a quiet jubilant 'yaaay'. After all, she was climbing a huge ass tree so that Toshinori could tick off another job-well-done.

'Is everyone in the Hero Department just like him or is he the only one? At least my class in General Department is calmer…' She mused as she began her climb. It was a good thing that she can regenerate although, she didn't want to end up headless (that would render her quirk null and void). The blunette paled a little when she got three-quarters of the way.

Her friend on the other hand, was shouting out words of encouragement.

"Don't worry Kasumi-Chan! I'll rescue you regardless!" She saw Toshinori smile widely, giving her the thumbs up as she looked over her shoulder.

I woke up to the sound of heavy knocking of my holding room, snapping out of my dream. According to the scratches on the wall, I made with the suppression bracelets - I must've been here for about four or five weeks now. It was like being back in my room at the Bureau only this place as a window at least. Since the botched job which has caused my fellow Interrogators to go missing, I have had my quirk repressed unless it was needed. They had been using my quirk to create vials of purulent biohazards for All for One to use as extortion leverage in the black market of the underground to add more funds to the Nomu Project as well as have further political status in the underworld (how this is possible considering is beyond me giving he is at the top).

The only funny thing that came out of this so far was when Toga tried to use my blood to transform into me when she slashed my arm, only to vomit profusely and become bodily ill as she swallowed quarter of a cup full.

"Just because these tungsten bands repress my quirks – doesn't make it inactive." rebuking her whilst doing my best not to laugh hysterically. It's because of Kurogiri being the diplomatic devil's advocate that I'm still in one piece and not lying in a puddle of blood! I must've tried to escape at least once a week so now they've resorted to using warp gates to get me from point A to B. You can only say so much before you learn the hard way that there are boundaries you just don't cross for each induvial.

what doesn't help is that All For One has been warping & filling that that man-child (whom I've learnt is Tomura) head with blatant lies we're siblings of some sort. He forgot to mention the crucial details that due to billions upon billions of people with quirks, there are going to be some out there that have similar quirks – but are off-shoots.

Like Kirashima and Tetsutetsu's hardening quirk – similar but very different. I also know that my parents only had me because it was a precarious time to bring up children during the 'reign' of All for One.

As well as having a regeneration quirk (courtesy of my old man), I also inherited my mother's (who was an Interrogator in her younger years and Nana Shimura's informant) Necrotic quirk.

If heroes are one side of the coin and villains the other, I guess Interrogators are in a way, the edge of the coin itself. The Bureau monitors, assist with the police's enquiries and take down targets by any means necessary– regardless of their standing in society. It came about since the beginning of the Age of All Might. Only because the ordinary person was worried that if a powerful Hero like that decided to go turn villainous – they would be left vulnerable and incapable of defending themselves.

But as of late, more and more Interrogators are defecting over to the league of villains or Yakuza. I wasn't sure why or how exactly. Well, 60% of us were on the hit list of being recruited, some torn from families and friends alike. so, most were drafted into the Bureau either by hero recommendation or reconditioning/rehabilitation. I was still worrying about where Jin had got to. If he wasn't in the warehouse then where had he been the whole time?

And what happened to Maki and Logi also? It posed too many questions.

I miss being a Teacher Assistant – I was still learning how to successfully interact socially and I had not long mastered the art of small talk that didn't involve the best method of getting a confession from a target. I'm also beginning to trust more, but I still don't know if it's a good thing or not.

Hmmmm…it's been awfully quiet today. I tip-toed towards the cold iron bars at the front of my holding room, trying to crane my head as much as I could so I could see any movement. Only to have some new clothes shunted to me from a warp gate.

"You're nauseating to look at. This would be more befitting of you…."

"Th-thank you, brother, you are too generous to me"

I can't argue with him because he'll kill me without a trace of thought nor morale.

"You don't sound grateful…"

"Oh! I am!" My voice cracked, holding up the tattered shorts and bloodstained t-shirt "Just speechless at your munificence!"

He went to grab me through the bar, making me flinch in terror. Seeing me do this would make him laugh with sadistic joy. Mother always said to never trust a person whose face you can't see, but judging the expression of his eyes, he was taking pleasure in the act of intimidating me.

He retracted his hand slowly, purposefully with his fingers jerking. I guess…..in some ways All for One is doing me a favour through this lie of his – means I get to live for another day.

"I wouldn't Kill you yet…..unless you persist on escaping that is…."

I continued to look down at the floor, not meeting his callous gaze.

"No….. I won't…."

"Good. Your brother is going to be busy this afternoon with a potential new player."

"Could I…can I least know who it is?"

I never got an answer from him. As soon as he left through the warp gate I slumped to my knees, gasping a sigh of relief. I whispered low so that no one could overhear myself rambling as I drew my friend's face on the dusty floor. It was my way of keeping cabin fever at bay.

"I'm doing my best to save you the trouble of rescuing me All Might but I'm running out of ideas. Would you believe that I even tried to escape by climbing into the air ducts– only I ended up crashing into their main office. I know, but I had to do something! you'd be laughing your ass off at my hare-brained ideas…..I guess in a way, you rubbed off on me…"

I quickly brushed away the crude drawing so that no one would make the connection should they barge in.

Hours must have passed until I heard a commotion from upstairs followed by what sounded like…...explosions? I shot up from my dilapidated bed and over to where the bars were to try and see if I could hear better.

"Can't stand morons like you who can't get to the damned point! Basically you're saying, 'we wanna cause trouble, be our pal!' What a joke! I've always admired All Might's triumphs. No matter what any of you jerks say... Nothing's ever gonna change that!"

"B-BA-BAKUGO! BAKUGO I'm down here! Come on you angry ferret can't you hear me?!" I knew that voice and that voice alone could only leave me elated because I knew deep down that it wouldn't be long until a certain person was about to make an appearance – at least that's what I'm hoping.

My lungs burned as I hollered until my throat was raw with adrenaline induced cries; gripping and shaking the bars frantically.

There was brief silence and some shuffling across the floor – crap! What if he comes down here? Hang on, what's that low rumbling sound? The brickwork is beginning to crumble away.

"SMASSH!"

Great, I'm stuck down here and at risk of being buried alive under rubble and he's up there playing demolition Derby! Just a second…..

Ahahahahahaaaaa! All Might! And by the sounds of it, there's a few more pro-heroes up there also…. they're…they're storming the place! Grabbing the nearest object (which happened to be a metal wash sink which I ripped out of the wall) I began hammering away at the hinges of the cell door.

"come on….Come ON! I haven't got much of a window here! Ha! That's one pin knocked out! – now for the other one…."

Thundering footsteps continued to storm the place until it spilled down to where I was. A commander began barking down his walkie-talkie.

"We have a survivor here Naomasa…..huh? It's blue…..just a second. Miss Show me your hands! NOW! …..Sir? Yes they're badly scarred and it looks like the keloid scarring goes just past her wrists. Really? O-o-ok"

He commanded some of his subordinates to tear the cell door down, their medic checking me over as soon as they escorted me through the building's emergency exit. We had to get out far, far away from the battle scene as All Might began his assault with All For One.

"Apart from a little dehydration, you appear to be fine Grim. We can take the bracelets off as soon as we get into the hospital's biohazard room. We don't know how long your quirk's been held in for so for safety sake…."

"What about All Might? And the others? We really should assist!"

"No it's alright, he insisted that we rescue the boy and any survivors in the building. We had also been trying to track you down for some time also. we only had your letter and your uncle to go by"

I turned to look out into the distance. I couldn't shout out to All Might because it might of distract him. I've seen him angry but not like that. My goodness, I guess All for One enraged him for taking Bakugo! I admitted it did unnerve me and for once, I could see where the average citizen was coming from. The fight itself was intense with each shockwave created by All Might's punches reverberated through the air.

I couldn't watch the fight in the end – knowing me I would've jumped in to keep an old promise we made as Kids.

'As your friend, I'll make sure no one lays a finger on you'

well…it's more developed since then. For starters, he wasn't quirkless now – and we were more than 'just' friends now (I haven't quite pinpointed it yet – then again I'm ridiculously new at this thanks to spending a good long ass time in The Bureau). But I had to trust him with this. If All For One was defeated, then we could all sleep at night with both eyes closed knowing that we wouldn't be spirited away in the night.

I imagine my mother would be crying in sheer relief that her nightmare would almost be over now. My father would be bawling like a baby knowing that my mother had promised All Might me if he could make that happen. I turned to the medic.

"If anything happens to him I'll take a metal baseball bat and individually beat your ancestors out you!"

"Grim I don't think that would be necessary! And I don't think All Might would approve of it! Do you want me to take the Quirk suppressant bracelets off?"

My face flushed a timid crimson because the way my hands were now, I could use this opportunity to do something I had been wanting to do for such a long time.

"N-No….not yet…" I squeaked, briefly burying my face in my hands.

The medic chuckled at me warmly, adjusting his helmet.

"That bad huh? That Explains a lot."

"hmmm? What exactly?"

"No….I swore I wouldn't say"

"you do realise I'm an interrogator…..right?"

"Yes, and you do realise that if I told you the conversation All Might had with Naomasa….."

I began to grin ear to ear devilishly, causing the medic to stop in his tracks.

"Ohhhh nonononoooo Let the rest of the pro heroes go and round up the rest of the survivors, we're sending you to the hospital! Got that? We need to clear the area now otherwise All Might can't do his job properly"

"Fine, fine…."

Climbing into the helicopter, I could just manage to steal a small glimpse of him before ushered inside. They were all fighting, giving it their all but as soon as the medic confirmed I was safe, they tucked me away between two guards, going as far as putting a blindfold on.

"we can't have you being reckless miss. Sorry. And Naomasa requested that we do this – just until we get to your destination"

I managed a slow, acknowledging nod (I was feeling airsick from the constant tremors), only to be followed by garbled static over the airways. An irate voice grumbled

"What the heck? Turn that off!"

"I'm trying to sir but it's – sir…..Sir she's convulsing! What's that purulent green liquid coming from her mouth?"

"Dammit it's those suppression bracelets! Get her to quarantine stat and have them removed!"

I can't quite recall, just constantly coughing through the violent expulsion of air from my lungs and tasting gangrenous liquid which wasn't exactly smooth as silk. I was overloading.

As soon as they got me into quarantine they hacked off the bracelets – and that was after they shunted my arms into a specialised sealed vacuumed box. When they did remove the blindfold my arms were horrendous to look at! It was something out of a saw movie!

"Yikes!" I sputtered, coughing the last of disgusting liquid into a biohazard waste bucket. Even the person behind the quarantine screen felt queasy seeing how badly split they had become, new tears erupted from various places on my palms and forearms. But my regeneration was quicker than before – but it this was going to take a while before it settles down and stabilises again to just the hand area again.

It wasn't till 2-3 days after being drained that I was allowed out of quarantine. I still had to stay in the hospital to receive specialised antibiotics through I.V. and no one came to visit. It was only that I overheard some staff about Toshinori in a sideward that I powerwalked over.

Scanning the names on each door frantically until I saw his last name. why was he here? was he beat up badly? No one had told me a thing since I was admitted.

"The 'Symbol of peace is dead'. The embers inside me have vanished"

Those words struck suddenly - like a rusty blade into me as I overheard the conversation from the other side of the door. I was about to knock but….part of me wanted to listen to more of their conversation. It transpired that my mother's confidante was that sadist's grandmother. I wish I hadn't listened in now. My growing need to track him down and ensure that none of his schemes worked was getting the better of me.

I did play Shogi with Tomura after all – resulting in a stalemate. That was frustrating - especially when he would wryly grin at me.

A Doctor loomed over me, making me shrink back as if I was caught with chocolate around my mouth.

"And what do you think you're doing out of bed Miss Yakota? You should be in bed resting"

"Ah….I was seeing a friend of mine –"

"Another day Miss Yakota, Mr Yagi is very tired and had sustained some injuries so if you don't mind….."

In defiance, I knocked loudly on his door, looking up at the doctor and shrugged at him as I did it. Not that the good doctor was happy about that but heck I'm rebelling here!

"Toshinori Yagi are you awake let alone alive?" My voice stern, but also concerned.

I can hear him say 'shit! She said my whole name!' behind the door.

"I am, I am Kasumi-Chan! Let yourself in!"

walking in I saw Naomasa and Gran Torino, although relieved to see that I was up and about, they doing their best to hide their smirks. Gran Torino was first to leave along with Naomasa.

"I'll leave you two to …. catch up. Good to see you're well Kasumi"

"Thanks, Naomasa. Glad you guys are ok too"

I could see Toshinori looking at him knowingly, but at the same time twiddling his thumbs, thinking of what to say.

As soon as we were left on our own he was the first to speak out.

"Now before you say anything –"

"what in Superman's tights happened to you? You look ready for Halloween!"

"I won….but….."

"your days as the number 1 hero are, so to speak, over."

He just nodded, looking at his bandaged hands. my once, hard-hearted gaze began to crumble away, murmuring and scolding myself for being harsh on him as I plonked down on a space on his bed.

"But I still have things I need to do. The young boy Midoriya will need my guidance into becoming –"

"And he will Toshi-Kun. As his mentor, I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"How are you holding up? Sorry I couldn't get to you sooner but we had to make the plan airtight"

"Ohh….I almost escaped three times whilst I waited to be rescued, been in quarantine with a biohazard level six tape around my side ward for the past- "

"Level six!?" His eyes wide open, shocked.

"yeah – didn't think you could reach that level but because my quirk was repressed for so long it caused a biohazard overload. So there goes any hope of me actually knowing what your hands and face feel like. That sucks."

" I think that's the least of your worries Kasumi-Chan, we've still got the rest of the summer and there's festival at Yuuei. And The Bureau...and there's the League of Villians still to contend with..."

"ohhhh just you wait! Chief is going to need to answer some questions from yours truly! Sending us out there on a botched mission. I'll need to do my own kind of investigation so I can track down my comrades. Especially my mentor Jin – he wasn't there that night so I need to know where he is. if I can find him I can get some answers from him at least. well I hope I can"

"I'll help you in any way I can - despite my handicap"

"You're not handicapped. If anything you're sort of... retired I guess…Hey! I know it's random but since you mentioned that festival at Yuuei and that reminds me – You can teach me to dance!"

"Wait….what? I can't dance Kasumi-chan!"

"yes you can! I've seen you practice with a mop several times in the past! You're very light on your feet from what I've seen"

"How have we've gone from finding your teammates to dancing? And I was struggling to change the head on the mop"

"So the slow, romantic music in the background was just to encourage you to change the head on the mop then? Is that what sixteen-year-old boys did back then?"

I could see him burn redder and redder as he tried to explain his actions before conceding to teach me. All this serious talk can wait a little bit longer. After what we've been through we could do with some form of normality - until we leave the hospital that is. Gently we leaned against one another, the side our heads lightly touching. Looking out to a familiar sight outside the window.

"glad you're alright though, who else is going to catch me falling from that tree in under two minutes flat?"

Toshinori draped an arm around my shoulder, asserting himself "well…I don't know about now…"

"Don't worry, if you get stuck in a tree I'll return the favour" My cheeks became a dusty pink.

He must have laughed for a good minute because we both recalled that when It was my turn, we had to call the fire brigade because we both got stuck as he got caught in branch on the way down by his shirt and I was so afraid of heights at the time, I clung to the other branch, bawling out apologies to him.

A/N: On to chapter two! hope you have enjoyed this little introduction to this second part! Take care!