"And obviously, I'm not perfect but I've been improving for our exams in case I need to use my light abilities." Hagakure said as she flailed her arms dramatically beside Midoriya, skipping beside the marked teen as they made their way towards the train station. "So, he's coming right at me and I just reacted, hand lit up as bright as a torch and he ended up running right over the stairs due to not being able to see."

It was finally Wednesday, and the two friends were walking together alone. Jirou had pulled Uraraka and Iida elsewhere so the magic teen and invisible girl could spend as much time as possible together. She'd been grinning at that part at the blush that had come over the greenette's face when he overheard.

Tooru had met him a few moments later, excitable ball of energy that she was, radiating joy, excitement and… some other emotion Izuku couldn't place at all, even when he tried to forcibly tap into his empathy.

All he knew was that it was warm and happy and something he was happy she was feeling, because it meant she was in a good mode presumably. Now that he thought about it, hadn't Jirou had a similar feeling to this once?

Ah well, that was something to shelf for later he supposed as the girl was now waiting for his reaction to her story from her time at her internships. Unable to help himself, he blurted out the first silly joke that came to mind. "Must have been an enlightening experience for him then."

Hagakure snorted, playfully hitting his arm as she skipped along and he grinned dumbly. It was nice to just feel normal for once. "You're terrible, Midori! Where do you even come up with these?"

"No idea, I guess you can say a light bulb in my head just… lights up?" he said, chuckling himself as the two climbed onto the train and sat either side of one another.

"Oh for… I know you can't see them, but my eyes are rolling so hard right now." She snickered, gently resting on his shoulder.

"Well technically I can, if I decided to use Dark Vision." He pointed out, before humming. "Though getting clearer detail might be a bit difficult."

"That and it would be an illegal quirk use." She pointed out, only for him to give a rare teasing grin.

"No one would know!"

The invisible girl let out an overly dramatic gasp, pushing his shoulder lightly. "You?! The paragon of rule following? I don't believe it."

Oh wow was her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"H-hey, I'm not that bad for rule breaking…"

"You know pretty much everyone with a brain worked out the full stain story and just don't have evidence right? And you've shown up literally with bullet wounds to me before." She pointed out a bit more seriously, before gently pushing away from him. He could HEAR her sudden grin when it split onto her face. "What I'm saying is… Would-be vigilante says what?"

"What?" He said, playing along with an eye roll of his own. "Besides, its not like-"

He suddenly stopped, smile dropping instantly as a wave of discomfort washed over him, his eyes instinctively followed to it's origin, only to see a mother and father glaring at him.

He quickly looked away confused. 'Where they looking at me?'

"Huh? Are you ok, Midori?" The invisible girl asked with quiet concern, and he waved it off.

"It's fine, probably just a coincidence." He waved away, even though he could still feel them staring. He felt another wave of discomfort as more passengers boarded and he sighed internally. 'Definitely not a coincidence.' "How close are we to your place by the way? Only been here once and uh… I kinda blacked a lot of it out."

Well, that wasn't false, necessarily.

"I don't live that far, just two more stops." She nodded, presumably frowning as her movements slowed a bit, a sign that she was concerned. The greenette tried not to let it get to him, he didn't want to ruin this-

His eyes widened, catching himself before he said date. 'Where did that come from?'

Deciding to just try to get back to the banter from before, he gently shoved Hagakure like she always did to him, surprised by how natural the movement actually felt. "Anyways, you know what I realized?"

"Hmm? What is it?" She asked, her shirt's creases suggesting she was tilting her head.

"Now I've got shadow walk we're a pair! You're light and I'm shadow!" He said with a small laugh, as the girl let out a more genuine gasp.

"Oh my god we are! That's so cool!" She said happily, as the train slowed down. She gently went back to resting on his shoulders, causing him to blush light but do nothing to stop it. She always had a habit of doing things like that, he just never got used to it.

Conversation didn't start up between them again, it didn't need to. No topic the magic teen could think of would be worth breaking this comfortable silence over.

It was almost perfect. Almost, because he could feel another flash of disdain and more eyes on him. Even a mutter here or there that sounded suspiciously like they were making mention of him.

He squirmed a little in his seat but did his best not to disturb the peace Hagakure had found.

A couple uneasy moments for him and blissful ones for the invisible girl passed.

"-Eah, from that video. The stain one…" He heard someone mutter, making him sigh. 'Of course.'

Huh? A flash of irritation showed up much closer than any of the other emotions so far. Wait was it coming from… "Hagakure?"

"Hm?" She asked, pushing away again and turning to the windows. "Oh, we're here!"

'Probably just remembering something annoying?' Midoriya guessed, as he felt the train begin to slow down and the two got up, moving to the doors. Once they train finally stopped, they quietly got down onto the platform, Midoriya giving the girl a helping hand across.

They pulled their bags on tighter, turning and moving into the crowd….

And there was no way it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, as he felt a large amount of piercing gazes fall upon him. This time however, Hagakure definitely took notice as well, quickly grabbing onto his arm in what he presumed to be a comforting act.

"Ignore them." She said simply, pulling him alone. Her voice definitely had the irritation she had felt before in it now as they moved along, some of the eyes following him. "Sadly some of them are stupid enough to listen to what the abbey says, now with the video."

Ah. So she heard as well then.

They quickly hurried out into the streets, walking with their arms interlinked still. Normally the greenette would be flustered but considering this place was feeling like he was about to be attacked at any moment… yeah he was glad for the company.

It wasn't this hostile last time right?

"-ook! It's that monster from the stain video." Someone, a burly man said loudly, pointing right at him. He gritted his teeth, looking away fully ready to ignore it but….

"Excuse you?!" Hagkure asked, voicing turning dangerously low as she suddenly turned to them. "He was going to be killed, and was doing his best alone just to survive! Do you think you could of done better under that pressure?!"

"Hagakure..." Midoriya moaned quietly, facing blushing crimson. "Please don't-"

"And you have the nerve to call him a monster?! You-" Before she could say anything more, Midoriya grabbed her by the waist and suddenly the two disappeared down the street in a flash of green. Midoriya's full cowling. "M-Midori?! What are you doing, you could get in serious trouble!"

"So can you!" He said back with a frown, holding onto her arms. "L-look I appreciate it, but please… I don't know them like you guys, it isn't worth it."

"It's still not right! You could have been killed there and everyone around here is acting like the Abbey are right about you all of a sudden." She complained, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "It's not fair."

"Neither is life, sadly." Midoriya shrugged, before flashing her a more genuine smile. "Thank you for coming to my defence though, even if you didn't need to. So now what do you say we get to your house and forget about this, huh?"

"…I'd like that." She nodded, as the two set off on their way once more. "Hopefully no one comes after you for your quirk use."

"Unlikely, in my experience. If they don't catch them in the moment, and they didn't commit a more serious crime, pro's don't tend to go after minor quirk use." Midoriya pointed out, and the invisible girl let out a hum as they came out into a familiar street. "Ah, I remember now, that's your house right there, right?"

"Yup. Now you get to see it without dropping blood all over it." Hagakure said, her more usual light-hearted tone creeping back into her voice. The greenette just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

They came up to the door and the girl pulled out a key, quickly unlocking it. "Mom! I'm home, and I brought that friend I told you about!"

"Oh! Hang on just a moment!" A bubbly feminine voice called, and a pink dress and some equally pink shoes came around a moment later. Midoriya bowed as soon as she appeared. "Ah, it's you!"

"Yes miss Hagakure. Now that I'm not bleeding out, I'd like to introduce myself. Izuku Midoriya, I apologize for the state I last appeared to you in." He said, body stiff and tone formal. He wasn't used to interacting with other people's parents at the best of times.

"Oh, i-it's quite alright." The older invisible woman said, brushing it off but her voice and emotions betrayed a sense of… worry? "After all, it wasn't your fault. I'm j-just glad you are ok."

"Mom? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Hagakure suddenly piped up, not waitng for an answer as she gestured to a nearby door. "Midoriya, please just wait for me in the back garden if you don't mind."

"Uh, right!" He nodded, going on his way like the girl asked. Just as he closed the door behind him, he heard mention of the word 'video' and scowled.

He was never going to live that damn thing down, was he?

He silently sat upon the swing that hanged from a nearby tree, waiting quietly for his friend to come out. It took a couple moments but eventually she did, quickly skipping over to him. "So? What do we do now?"

"You know… to be honest, I have no idea. Never been to anyone's house before, aside from Bakugou." He revealed, only for Hagakure to let out a dramatic gasp.

"What?! No one's!?"

"Nope."

"Ok, then we are making up for that right now!" She said determinedly, before letting out a giggle. "Actually, perfect! I know what we can do! Hide and seek!"

"…eh? Aren't we a little old for that?" Midoriya asked with a tilted head, only for Hagakure to throw an arm around his neck.

"Don't be silly Midori! You're never to old to play games with your friends, besides it's like totally perfect for both of us! We're both got a lot of stealth focus." She pointed out, patting him on the back. "It's like perfect training for us at the same time!"

"Y-yeah I guess that makes sense!" Midoriya nodded, a more genuine smile coming onto his face, even as he blushed. "Going naked is cheating though."

"Because you won't be able to stop staring?"

"H-HAGAKURE!"

"Haha!" She giggled, at his bright crimson face. "You're too easy sometimes. Same to you though, Dark Vision and Shadow Walk are cheating as well."

"Ok. No full invisibility, no Shadow Walk and no Dark Vision. Fine by me!" Midoriya nodded, hoping his face would cool down soon.

"Great! Dibs on first go at hiding!"

"Oh dang it."

And so the two began their game, feeling more like little kids than the supposedly mature heroes-in-training they were. Midoriya didn't care though, because for the first time in a while he wasn't focused on anything but having fun, and by god did he need that.

They did end up breaking all their rules in the end. Neither called the other out on it.

"Hagakure, I'll be fine!" Midoriya assured his invisible friend for the other time, as she clung onto him tightly. They had spent hours playing together and just having fun, taking a break for the last hour to just chill out for a while.

The sky had gotten dark and finally, it was time for Midoriya to get on with his mission. Just one small hitch…

"I still think I should walk back with you! I mean with how everyone around here is lately…" She frowned (presumably) and Midoriya sighed, gently prying her off.

"I promise I'll be fine, ok? I understand why your worried but you can't try to protect me 24/7." He said, but still smiling all the while. As annoying as it could be at times, it was nice to have someone who genuinely cared.

"You better keep that promise mister. I'll see you at school tomorrow then I guess." Hagakure sighed, walking back to her doorway. "You also better text me when you get back, or you won't here the end of it!"

"Yes, mom!" he called back sarcastically, and he didn't need dark vision to guess she was sticking her tongue out at him. "I will. See ya soon!"

With that he turned, hurrying off towards the city, smile quickly dropping as he neared the taller buildings. He ducked into an alleyway as soon as he was able, hiding from a few glares and more importantly finding a fire escape he could use Far Reach to quickly clamber up.

Soon enough he was on top of the roof, and could see the abbey building not to far in the distance. He took a calming breathe, before using Full Cowling to quickly and hopefully quietly leap between a few buildings until he was only a street away from the outpost.

He took a calming breathe, as the world became coated in a sepia tone and he quickly found who he could in the building. His eyes settled on one overseer in a window just one floor above where his eye level was.

"Three…"

He called upon Far Reach, and let One for All flow through him.

"Two…."

He got into position, quickly judging the best way to make the jump.

"One!"

He leapt into the air and shot out Far Reach. He grabbed onto a wall and the tentacle landed, pulling him forward.

'No backing out now. Time to infiltrate the abbey.'

CRASH!