The back of her throat became rough and patchy. Her swallow ached on the way down. Her fingers vibrated on their own as she clutched her phone tightly. Shoto arched his neck over her to get a look. His eyes brightened with disturbed awe at her find.

"That's... the man who gave us the vaccines..."

"He's a fucking doctor?!" Kairi squeaked, twisting her hold on her phone. "Isn't there some code they're meant to follow about ethics?"

"Let's not jump to conclusions yet..." Shoto said, pressing two fingers to her shaking wrist, but his voice seemed less than confident as it faded into suspicion.

"Jump to... doesn't this seem a little too weird?" she posed.

"I'm saying perhaps we should wait until we receive all the facts," Shoto said. Kairi was immediately silencing his voice around her, focusing more on the contents of her cell phone.

Momo – look at this face. Who is this? [link] – Kairi

The text with the attached link to the twitter page sent. Shoto watched her carefully as the two of them walked, but her focus was hardened and situated against her phone. Shoto's own abdomen flopped with his own brand of dreaded regret. He ached with uncertainty. The distressed expression she wore broke against him, but reason forced back the nagging sensation to hide her away from all things that upset her. He swallowed and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Didn't he come to our school to do the vaccines? – Momo

YES. I am very STRONGLY suspicious that he is stealing our quirks! - Kairi

Maybe... are we overthinking this? – Momo

But doesn't it seem weird? Every quirk so far is a powerful quirk from 2-A. He came in to do the vaccines and then QuirKey opened up applications not long after that. – Kairi

I guess that is weird. It's at least enough that we can report them to the teachers and the Pro Heroes can investigate. – Momo

Kairi froze in her step. Shoto took three paces before he noticed the emptiness beside him and spun, to see her firmly knitted brow glaring at her phone. Her lips were so tight, she briefly appeared a mannequin. Fearful suspicion dropped through Shoto and he breathed heavily, before joining by her side once more.

"Riri," he said and it was enough to warrant a glimmer of pink that followed a rush of breath. She tore her gaze away from her phone and beheld him, eyes warming at the tenderly worried expression he held. "Let's enjoy the rest of the festival. There are a few attractions we have yet to see. I think I saw a stand selling potato and cheese dumplings. You love those, correct?" Tempted, the answer rested on her lips, begging for her to reply positively. She trembled with desperate need, and then sadly dropped her eyes.

"Shoto, we need to know what's going on. I can't enjoy myself when the potential of something diabolical is happening and I don't do anything about it," Kairi softly said, looking at her phone expectantly. The pulling want to just follow her words, go along with whatever she said, seeing the desperation as it watered her eyes.. it drove spikes through him. He kept his twitching arms at his sides. There was a protocol, he reminded himself. There were things heroes had to do. Determined to avoid the lure of her begging eyes, he glared at the ground again, kicking around a pebble in his path.

"I can't tell you how much I... how much that part of you... means to me..." He stumbled over his words, summoning a pink glare to illuminate his face. "That's the thing that drives you to be a hero. But Riri, there are reasons why there are steps and protocols to follow as well. You can't simply make decisions because certain coincidences line up or things are weird. I will give you that, it's weird. And I am not saying you're wrong. But this needs to be reported, and the Pro Heroes can investigate it."

"That's where you're wrong," Kairi bit, voice sharp. His response tore through her and left her gaping. His words were jagged and felt traitorous, angrily ripping at the threads she had tied around him. Clearly, he could see how suspicious this all was! How could he not notice what was right before his eyes. Amber eyes dotted with her offended tears. She rolled her shoulders back and tightened her own hold against her chest. "There's also circumstantial evidence, and you're allowed to do a check based on that."

"That's exactly why we let the Pro Heroes know," Shoto said, nodding. "So they can follow it through based on the circumstantial evidence."

"There's so much red tape and paper work to get through that!" Kairi blurted, drawing the attention of the various festival attendees around her. She crippled her nervousness and dipped a little behind Shoto. Her fingers tapped against her leg. "If they have our quirks, they took them without our permission. Imagine how powerful our quirks are, especially in the hands of people who don't have the training to use them! God, what if Momo is right and that person did want to use my quirk for diabolical reasons? It's my worst fear. Someone else having mine... I was almost comforted with the hope I was just a rarity and maybe no one else had it. But now, not only is it possible for someone else to have it – multiple people could choose to have it, and they might do terrible things with it!" The trembling in her fingers had now begun its course, shuddering her whole form while she stood before him. Black streaked down her face as her tears caught the remainder of her makeup. Shoto shifted on his feet, discomfort swelling in him, paired with her own misery. "I can't just sit by and let that happen! Especially not when it's my quirk! And it was taken, without my knowledge or consent!"

"And that's important!" he said loudly. "Don't think for a minute I don't believe it isn't. But for god's sake, Kairi, your father is a cop! I haven't spent much time around him, but from what you've said, it sounds as if he is fixated on following the order or protocol, and following evidence rather than a hunch. If you respond to a situation purely based on things just seeming weird, couldn't you get in trouble for that?"

For the first time in her life, his voice was grating against her ears. She didn't want to hear him speak. Even though everything he said echoed true, and was in line with her father's words, her need for the truth was growing. Her mind was clouded by the prodding of urgency, curiosity throttling her so tight she was unable to release from it. Her ears stung. Kairi ripped her eyes from Shoto's pleading expression. She quickened her steps, moving along and slamming her fingers against the keyboard again.

"Yes, Shoto," she snarled. "However, when things seem weird you do a simple check. If someone were to call the police regarding a domestic disturbance, child endangerment, potential animal injury... if anything about a situation makes you uncomfortable, you make sure to do a check."

"Yes, but you don't take it upon yourself to do it. You call a professional to do!" Shoto shouted at her, running to catch up to her.

"We might not have time for professionals!" She growled, keeping her gaze away from him. "Shoto, if we involve the cops or the Pro Heroes, they will probably try to do things in an orderly fashion, come up with a plan. They may just try to get a warrant to search the premises, but the lab might have a plan for that. We waste time by doing that. I want my quirk back and away from those who could abuse it! The longer we wait, the more people could be getting extra quirks and misusing them!"

"If villains come about from them, they will catch them! However, if these volunteers are willing, they can't do anything about that because it's legal. Maybe they have our quirks, but the issue is, they already have them. It's not preventing anything from happening when they already have it," he rushed to say, quickening his steps to try and match her angry ones. "What even is your plan? Are you just going to break in?" Her eyes flicked in his direction for a moment – a moment enough to startle him. "Kairi, are you serious?"

"They have the potential to create a new League of Villains."

"Not everyone who wants a new quirk is evil!"

"I'm not wasting time, Shoto. You can choose if you want to come with or if you want to tell your Daddy where I'm going so he can stop me!"

I think we need to check it out. – Kairi

I don't think that's the best of ideas. We should find Mr. Aizawa and tell him – Momo

Not you too! We don't have time for that! – K

Me too? What do you mean by that? – M

Shoto's face twisted with hurt. He stopped his steps and looked aside, watching a tree dance with the gentle breeze. The impact of his dejected aura was strong enough that Kairi could feed from it, growing deeper in the heavy guilt. She slowed. Rushed apologies slammed against her and pleaded to flee, ready to grovel to Shoto. Seeing him like that damaged every particle of her being and her feet burned to run to him. Kairi imagined herself, wrapping him in a hug and sobbing out every plead to be forgiven. But the importance of this was flagged at the forefront of her brain. The complex decision pulled at her sorrow again, causing her to pause.

"I didn't even mention my father. There are other heroes," he mumbled.

"Well, are you just going to let me go, then?"

"This isn't what a hero does, Kairi. We analyze the evidence first and look at all angles and come up with a plan first. We don't just charge in."

"You do if it's life or death and action needs to be taken immediately or else someone is going to be hurt," she hissed. Fingers flew against her onscreen keyboard again.

"This isn't life or death. You want to go and check out a lab based on the possibility quirks were taken without permission."

"But it could be."

"Do you not hear what you saying right now and how ridiculous it sounds?" But the desperation was pulling at Shoto. The want was growing, the itching titillation of needing to know. Anger was flourishing as he considered the possibility that seemed to grow with every second – their quirks were stolen. An untrained person with any or both of his quirks, and someone who may have had nefarious reasons for wanting them. No training, no control. It could be disastrous. His stomach flipped with intensity and despite what he said, it was becoming less ridiculous sounding. Words once rough were now beginning to mellow into something a siren call, their sweetness making them easier to digest. And the look on her face was tugging at his core, needy and desperate. Becoming putty before her, he rolled his fingers into a fist as the will to resist slowly slipped from him.

"I can deal with the consequences when they happen," she said. Fear strained at her face. That invisible cage wound around her abdomen, wringing her out as it pushed every piece of grief in her tears. Panic darted through the crevices of her mind as her chest burst. His eyes were softened and that same gentle patter for him became audible once more. Flesh crinkled with bumps and she felt small again, unable to hold his eyes. "I... I know this isn't ideal. I can't let it go, Shoto. It's all I can think about and my body just.. just wants to move. To do something, I can't... There is a need to... That is I... I just need to move! To do it. I can't let it go, it's swirling around in my mind and infecting me and it's my fixation and... this is a violation of me, of my friends, of you..." As words tumbled out of her mouth quickly, Shoto stepped forward. Her explanation grew more wild and frantic as her panic set in deeper. His hands shot forward, searching for a way to soothe her, in whatever way possible. A palm pressed against her arm, tightening its hold against her skin. She gasped at the touch, words fading when he pressed against her. Breaths quickened, before they mellowed against. He met with the golden light in her amber eyes, keeping them still.

"We can head down to the lab," he explained. "We see if anyone will speak to us. If we have reason to suspect, then we can react on that. But we cannot go in basing only on assumptions. I'll go with you, Kairi... and we'll see." She nodded, and then looked down at her phone, reading the thread of messages in her exchange. She held it away from Shoto, pushing away guilt as hard as she could.

I know I'm the last person you want to talk to but I think you need to know what's going. [link] I think QuirKey has taken our quirks, yours included. I think it comes back to the man who gave us "vaccines". – Kairi

Yeah? How does this relate to me? It's not like it's unheard of for quirks to be similar! Besides, they may have just created a synthetic quirk based on mine! We ARE a famous class and were on TV, in case you've forgotten, Hoshino! – Bakugo

Except they've already done things for ice powers, I heard someone talking about going through them for a creation quirk, I heard someone else talking about an emotional manipulation quirk, and awhile ago someone was given a quirk exactly like yours through them. Read through these articles [link] [link] [link] – Kairi

You expect me to read through all that, nerd? Yeah, right. But I have to admit, you might have a point. – Bakugo

I'm trying to head there right now, check out the situation. – Kairi

You idiot! You think you can take them with that lame mood change of yours? – B

Why do you think I'm texting you? I thought you would jump at the chance to take down someone who stole your quirk. – K

You're taking me over IcyHot? That's surprising! -B

He's not thrilled about jumping into action about things. – K

Yeah. I'll be there. Festival's lame anyway. You just better not be making me feel weird things again! – B

She gulped, reading over her recent exchange. She shook her head and kept on going, moving to another text chain.

Shoto and I are going to check it out. [link] Here's the address. – Kairi

I'm not sure that's a good idea, Kairi... – Momo

Then don't come. – K

She breathed, and then continued. She repeated a lot of what she said in a new text thread and then continued to type away.

Therefore, I am convinced QuirKey has our quirks. Shoto and I are going to see if we can talk to them but I doubt we are going to get far. This whole thing has felt fishy from the beginning and I can't just let it be going on. Something needs to be done. It needs to be checked out. There's no reports regarding anything similar to your quirk yet but considering a lot of people will probably be wanting something like All Might's and your quirk is basically All Might's... they might be using yours too, Izuku – Kairi

She sighed with reluctance as she sent off the last text.

"We should stop by the locker rooms and get our costumes," Kairi said. Shoto clapped her shoulder.

"We're just checking them out, remember?"

"I-" she began, but he looked at her expectantly. She nodded, sighing. "Yeah... just checking." Her fingers twitched.