The hours passed in a mundane way, leaving Uraraka feeling as though she was in the middle of cramming for her finals, exhausted. They had found little to no information on what Katsuki was or who had attacked him. And on top of that, she had found herself opening several books that were actually prison worlds in which Todoroki had to dart into the library only to slam them back into the book before the prisoner was able to become coherent of their situation. After he had separated the books, explaining how he categorized the room, embarrassingly glancing towards Katuski explaining that he might have more of a grip on the organization of the room due to the fact that he typically would toss the prison world over and say be his guest if he decided that, that supernatural creature would be dinner for tonight. Also, by the pure chance that Katsuki was able to explore the household due to his sunlight containment.

Uraraka took a breath, steadying herself as she shoved her own books into her backpack, moving towards the door, "I'm going to head to class. Tsuyu is going to meet me halfway, so if you two want to keep pouring through these books, I have human books to pour through myself."

Katsuki and Todoroki glanced at each other, "I think that would work. If it's her family…." Todoroki's eyes darted like trying to decide between trust issues and if it was safe enough to let her walk with Tsuyu, "She should be strong enough for anyone unruly to pick a random fight." Todoroki's eyes darted towards the desk.

"Just admit you like walking with her." Katsuki snorted from behind the desk pulling another book down, catching the one's that shuffled down with it in his other hand.

Todoroki blushed, opening his mouth, but his voice cracking instead of forming words.

"It's okay if you want to walk with me." She whispered as Todoroki glanced towards Katsuki.

"The murderer has been running loose for two years without the bodies piling up, I'm sure one of us doing the research instead of three is okay for a spare hour."

Todoroki nodded, shuffling from his spot to Uraraka, "I'll be back in thirty minutes."

Katsuki rolled his eyes, "Don't need a babysitter."

Todoroki shut the door behind himself, "I don't think he's a vampire, but that bothers me more. I don't know how to help him if he isn't…." Todoroki glanced in the distance, "And if he isn't a vampire, my research to help him….it starts over. Two years of wasted time-"

Uraraka placed a hand on his arm, "It's not wasted time, you were busy trying to help your friend. Trying to help someone, even if you don't get any results, isn't a waste of time."

Todoroki nodded trying to feel more reassured then he had previously. He had to find a way to help him. One way or another.

Uraraka paused, glancing towards the stars that illuminated the morning sky, the wind rustling in her hair, and cotton-candy painting the sky behind her, "Do you think he wants to be a human again? Did you two ever sit down and talk about it?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I think he does, but at the same time, he needs someone to talk to about it. From a different perspective, not just a human one."

Todoroki sighed, "I know, but I'm still human."

"You are," she took his hand, "And you're not…just like him. Reassure him. We need to make him feel like you make me feel." The words slipped Uraraka's mouth, slipping her hands out of his to hide her darkening face but unable to disguise her quickening heart rate.

A smirk played on the corner of his lips as he leaned closer towards her, "And how is that?" doing his best to let his voice roll from the back of his throat knowing he was struggling with it.

Uraraka's eyes popped out from behind her fingers, "Like he belongs. We're a family now. An odd one, but it's what we've got."

Todoroki glanced towards the candy-colored sky, "How am I supposed to do that when I'm struggling to accept myself at the same time."

She smiled, fist-pumping the air, "Rely on each other, we've got this. And this first thing we're going to do as a family activity is take down a serial killer."

An irresistible puff of laughter escaped him, "Doesn't sound very family game-night friendly."

"Oh, we can do that right after!" She smiled already calculating who to invite over, the conversation melting into random small talk and various topics. The topics were random and chaotic, they showed Uraraka's nature to him and he knew he could relax around her, but most of all they felt safe.

All too soon he could see Tsuyu's silhouette over the horizon and hear her heartbeat, "I better let you go, she's here."

"You can walk us the rest of the way if you want to. I'm sure Tsuyu has a different opinion of you two than her family does."

Todoroki shook his head, "I don't want to get mixed up in hunter business. They get confused too easily and too fast in these situations, especially since I have so many supernatural creatures under my protection, and territory. And if anything were to happen to any of us they wouldn't realize the full scale of the problems they are about to cause. It's not because I don't like her, but I'm protecting not only her, but ourselves by keeping my distance. It's better that her family doesn't even know I'm in the area."

"But haven't you been in charge of this territory for a while?"

"Something like that, but humans, even the one's that know about supernatural variety, typically don't know about supernaturals territories and when they do find out about them….there's typically a large problem in both communities with high numbers of casualties."

Uraraka nodded, glancing towards Tsuyu already over the hill, waving towards them. Todoroki waved towards her before turning to Uraraka, saying good-bye and disappearing.

"We're going to be late if you just stand there all day."

"I know, I'm coming." She darted towards Tsuyu, wishing her heavy backpack didn't bounce with every step that she took. She glanced towards Uraraka thoughts of a different time coming back to her, the soft whispers of one of the villains they were hunting threatening Katsuki by attacking Tsuyu because of the similarity between her and his childhood friend. "Hey, what-have you been okay lately?"

Tsuyu sent her a bemused look, "Yeah. Why do you ask?"

Todoroki's warning muttered through her head but keeping her friend safe didn't have anything to do with the territories, this was a warning about the serial killer, a just-in-case. Uraraka swallowed, "We found the person that murdered Katsuki."

Tsuyu glanced towards her, her mouth agape, "We were supposed to solve how he died, not who killed him."

Uraraka nodded, "I know, I know, but listen. It's not something that can go into our project."

Tsuyu glanced over her shoulder, "Are you sure it's safe to go to class today?"

"Yeah, I don't think they would've let me leave the house if it wasn't for you though, they're such worrywarts."

Tsuyu nodded, "So, what do they look like? Can they not go out during the moonlight like Katsuki?"

Uraraka took a breath this was going to be a whole lot of explaining, maybe they shouldn't have gone to class today, but instead they should've just invited Tsuyu over for more manpower. "We don't think Katsuki's a vampire."

Tsuyu drew back, "He drinks blood and is weak to the moonlight. What else would he be?"

Uraraka shrugged, "We don't know. The person who broke into the house last night-"

"Wait! Someone broke in and you didn't think to tell me?"

"Todoroki and Katsuki were there, it was fine."

"You mean the serial killer broke into the house and was looking for something….or someone….which was likely Katsuki…and you stumbled onto new information."

"They can possess people…but not people…whoever-what ever it was they sent to our house, when I killed it…..It wasn't naturally it foamed so badly." Uraraka attempted to suppress the shaking in her voice. She had always told herself she wanted to help people, but she had never discussed with herself if she was driven to the corner where she had to decide to kill to help someone would she. She just did. "Tsuyu, I killed them. Todoroki won't say it, but I know…from the look on their face they were innocent." Her voice shook as she glanced towards Tsuyu, "I took one look and grabbed a knife. I just did it." Uraraka took a breath steadying her breathing, "They first appeared as the officer I was supposed to interview, but after I met them on the street and Katsuki was out and we barely escaped, that officer showed up dead. The reports are confusing because the autopsy says months before. Todoroki burned the second corpse that showed up later. We don't know who their possessing or how many they can possess at a time, or what they are or what they look like."

Tsuyu nodded, taking a breath, "But we do know that they were there at the time of Officer Jenkins actual death and the person Todoroki gave an arbitrary funeral too."

Uraraka nodded, "We just have to find that too. If they went for them themselves or send a corpse."

Tsuyu nodded, "If we consider the fact that Katsuki's….well, alive-ish right now we can assume they went themselves for him."

Uraraka nodded, that was a good sign hopefully they would make some progress and soon in their investigation. She glanced towards the girl entering the class before them, her eyes likely run dry and still wearing black. Uraraka swallowed. It was the girl in their group. She likely needed to attend her boyfriend's funeral soon. Tsuyu sighed, glancing the girl over likely thinking about how she would never truly know how her boyfriend died. Or what killed him. Uraraka took a breath, patting Tsuyu on the back before following her into the class. She nodded at Professor Bakugo, before sliding into her regular desk and glancing towards Emily, "Hey, are you okay?"

Emily nodded, "I guess the case just got personal is all…." Her eyes slid to across the room but not as if she was really looking there, "I just keep thinking what if Jasper…what if he found out something? Something too much and was on the case and well…." She paused taking a breath, her hand scratching the opposing arm, "I haven't told the police…but you know, it's personal…"

Uraraka nodded, it made sense, but that could put Emily herself in danger. The human police could get in their way at the same time….her eyes slid over to Tsuyu likely pondering the same things over. Emily had the right to attempt to avenge her lover if she was going to go for it, but not at the cost of her own life. Tsuyu glanced towards her, likely thinking over the same thing. "I think it would be okay to tell them. Just as a precautionary measure to protect yourself. You don't know if they hunted him down for a different reason."

Emily sighed, nodding, an arm tightening around the other, "I just keep thinking maybe if I went with him, you know how it is all these maybe scenarios where you figure out how you could've saved them or what you could've done in your head, knowing full-well you'd never get the chanc-" Emily glanced up behind Uraraka causing her to spin around.

"Professor Bakugo, we're sorry we'll get started soon-"

He held his hand up, "Actually, Uraraka, I wanted to see you out in the hall."

Uraraka shuffled through her books, doing her best not to let the fluster of questioning why show on her face, "I'll be right back, Tsuyu can you-"

Tsuyu nodded, already setting up the presentation and their theories to explain their research to Emily, each lacking the true supernatural aspects. Uraraka nodded, following Professor Bakugo to the hallway, letting him shut the door behind himself, before pulling out his phone tapping at it.

"Um, prof-"

"Uraraka, I know you're a good student and a rather good person, but I'm going to need you to answer this honestly. I need to know," He flipped his phone, revealing a photo of her and Katsuki talking in the kitchen, time-stamp of only two days previous glowing at the bottom, "What have you done with my son?"

Her mouth ran dry, she couldn't possibly say that was faked, she didn't know Katsuki before his death. So, that also eliminated the confusion of her knowing him beforehand as a secret girlfriend since not only was it in the professor's phone, but also, she wasn't around Katsuki before he went missing. "I haven't done anything to him."

"Please, Uraraka."

"I haven't done anything to him."

"Uraraka, you may not know this, but Katsuki is my son and I need to know how you know him or why you two were apparently at my home and why I don't remember any of it."

"Katsuki doesn't breathe professor. Please, please stop looking."

The professor squinted at her, seeming to think something over, before glancing at the long cascading hallway, it seemed longer than she had ever considered it before. "Is he at least happy?"

"Who could be in that state?"

"At least you're not lying." The professor ran a hand through his hair, looking very similar to Katsuki in that moment, "If he did breathe, I think he would've liked you very much." A soft smile came to the professor as if he understands how much he truly understood. And that he shouldn't go looking for Katsuki. Professor Bakugo turned his hand on the doorknob, "If by some form of supernatural mistake, if you meet my son, even for a moment, can you tell him I was-no, I am proud of him. Always will be."

"If such an occasion did exist I certainly would."

Professor Bakugo nodded, as if saying I know you would, even if I didn't ask, before silently heading back into the classroom.

Uraraka slid into the seat next to Tsuyu, glancing over the project. The lies carefully constructed and displayed on a PowerPoint in a way that the rest of the class would deem plausible and likely mistakenly nod in agreement at. Emily nodded, fixing the last image into place on her own laptop, before glancing towards them, "So, for the presentation, we're going with the fact that it's likely the work of a serial killer. We don't think they were caught, but caught the eyes of a different victim and moved onto a different territory," Emily presented various other imagery with similar circumstance, "And since it's not famous it's likely not a copy-cat killer, but the same killer moving about as each victim catches their eyes."

Tsuyu nodded, "I think that will help, that's what we'll go with for the presentation on Wednesday."

Uraraka nodded, right now it was better than the truth. Most of the time she was sure that the truth and being straight-forwards with most people would solve most of the problems between them, but reciting that there's a supernatural killer running around creating other supernatural creatures and killing as they pleased wasn't a very scientific theory, or information that would typically be listed in a professional environment. Especially one where everyone else wasn't a supernatural themselves. They shuffled quietly looking at each other, before stuffing everything away, "So, I need to go talk to my family, I'll see you guys around" They nodded at Emily, before her and Tsuyu left the room, Tsuyu clinging to her arm as if she was afraid of losing her.

"Ochako, you know….you've been under a lot of really strenuous supernatural circumstances lately, did you want to come over to my place for now?"

Uraraka glanced down, genuine concern glowing in her friend's eyes, if she knew what was happening lately the concern likely would've only grown stronger. She resisted the urge to sigh, Tsuyu would've been a massive help in the research for helping Katsuki and finding the killer, but she couldn't risk worrying her any more than she already was.

"You know you can rely on me for anything you need…" She paused, glancing away, "Even if it's problems with the guys, I promise to not try to kill them again."

Uraraka let a laugh escape her, "It's not that, we've all been busy with rather stressful things, but I appreciate it." She smiled, placing a hand on Tsuyu's that rested on her arm. She didn't want to worry her more than she already was. "I appreciate you being around, and also that I can talk to you about anything."

Tsuyu nodded, "Just don't get too headstrong, you can rely on me."

Uraraka smiled, pushing the backdoor open to where Tsuyu's car was parked, they were leaving later than most, so most people had already cleared the campus or were currently in another class. Only a person lingered in the outskirts of the campus. She glanced down at Tsuyu happy that they were practically done with their project and almost ready to present, but feeling unsteady knowing that she would have to move forward with the real case without her. She couldn't put this burden on-Uraraka's eyes shifted back towards the person in the outskirts, staring the two of them down. Uraraka took Tsuyu's arm, not letting her let go.

"Ochako?" Tsuyu whispered.

Uraraka took a breath, ushering up the least suspicious voice and carefree voice she could, "Hey, how about you let me come over to your place tonight? I heard the guys were making killer pancakes."

"They don't-" Tsuyu nodded, slowing seeming to understand, "Actually yeah, I thought I saw that they just left, but they must've meant that they left to get the ingredients."

The person watching them approached them carefully, almost in front of them even with Uraraka's efforts to move to the side of them to carefully walk by, keeping Tsuyu on the side away from them.

"I've been looking for you." The man laughed.

Uraraka took a breath, "Must've had the wrong person, sorry." Before pushing Tsuyu forwards hoping she wouldn't look.

"Not you." The man smiled, glancing down towards Tsuyu.

"Didn't you ever wonder what happened to the last one the little green-haired one you tried protecting?" He scoffed, "I honestly, thought about grabbing that green-haired girl off the streets, I thought it'd be fun to do it all over again with similar circumstances-"

Uraraka scrambled for her phone, shifting it from her pocket, pressing the dial button as fast as she could, Tsuyu's presence directly behind her, she hadn't started running. And likely she wouldn't either, she likely could tell that she wouldn't be able to outrun the danger they were facing. Her heart was pounding, and she was sure that any supernatural could hear it in a five-kilometer radius, Uraraka swallowed glaring them down, "Stay back." She pressed her back against Tsuyu, half-hoping to shield her, half-hoping Tsuyu would realize that there was the outline of a knife hidden in the back pocket.

"You know, I thought it would be fun to drag the green-haired one to Katsuki, you know see a re-enactment. Watch him make the same mistakes all over again, just cuz of the minor resemblance. But after being in that house, I'm starting to think I've got the wrong target. Maybe I'll see something better this time with you." The man reached for her hair, Tsuyu pulling the knife out of the back of the backpack, before pushing herself in front of Uraraka pushing her back and swinging.

"Hello?"

Tsuyu ran towards the man, before he swung sending Tsuyu's form tumbling through the air and slamming into the wall, she slid down the wall, hitting the ground, unconscious and blood leaking from her mouth.

"Tsuyu!" Uraraka darted between the two, her phone rattling, "We're at the college! Stay there I've got it!"

The man grabbed her arm as she couldn't resist a gasp of panic escaping from her. Uraraka glanced towards the movement of the doors leading to the outside from the college; Professor Bakugo stuffing his paperwork hastily into his bag as he headed out for the day.

"Professor! Stay back!" Uraraka shouted, the next thing she knew, she was being thrown the professor's widening eyes as he darted towards the perpetrator yelling at them for attacking his students being one of the last things she saw, slamming against the building, she slid down it. Uraraka glanced towards Tsuyu, then towards her phone practically vibrating with Todoroki's and Bakugo's reassurance that they would be right there. Uraraka could feel her unconscious fading, but she needed to do something fast, or Bakugo's father would be that man's next meal. Uraraka took a breath, moving in front of Tsuyu with the last of her strength, she reached for her bracelet snapping it into little pieces as it exploded across the courtyard.

Power welled up inside her as if this time instead of being suppressed it was building, stacking latent power, she didn't know how she knew it but she knew, she had the power of a volcano coursing through her; raw, deadly, and indiscriminatory. She was a force of nature. Uraraka took a breath, soft wind ripping Professor Bakugo from the man's clutches, and then without a second to spare ripping the walls off of the university building, Uraraka pulled attempting to resist the urge to barf knowing that if she fainted any moment now the vomit would not be a good place to land. The building collapsed on the man, leaving no traces, he would have to be unburied. And hopefully, they would find something there. Uraraka pushed herself up, stumbling to move forward, ignoring how drained she felt. Todoroki was half-way across town and moving rapidly towards them, he would be here soon. Her shoulders relaxed, as black blurred through her vision, she needed to know they were underneath that pile of rubbage, but her feet tripped, and she was going down. The last thing she heard was the buzzing of her phone with Bakugo's voice in an attempt of reassurance.