Izuku stepped into his father's laboratory. His padded shoes made barely a sound as he stepped on the cold stone. "You wanted to see me Father?" He stood in familiar respect, his hands behind his back and his back straight.

"Yes," Kai mused, slowly dripping a glistening mixture into a vial of water: the liquids fizzled and bubbled upon contact. "Are you still leaving your doors open at night?"

"Yes. I like listening to the animals, and it's never been a problem: aside from maybe the odd bird or two." Izuku prayed this conversation was not going where he thought it was. Hearing the outside world fascinated him, prompting his imagination to create impossible fantasy lands as he drifted to sleep.

Kai rubbed his forehead, trying to be tactful. "I am going to have to ask you to begin closing it at night." Izuku's heart sank. "I'm fine with it open during the day, but at night it must be closed. I've had an uneasy feeling these past few months, as if someone is watching the house." Izuku stilled in fright. Watching? Who could be watching the Eighth? And why? Kai sensed Izuku's jolt of worry and continued. "Our home is very secure, but it is not invulnerable. None of us could bear it if..."

Kai didn't finish his sentence.

Izuku nodded. "I will, Father." The boy could imagine a small, reassured smile behind the imposing bird mask.

"Thank you. That's all I had. How are your studies coming?"

"Very well. I'm nearing the end of that Geometry book, and I've begun working on creating my own piece of music."

Kai raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Oh really? How is that going?"

Izuku rubbed a hand along one forearm, an idleness habit he had picked up from watching the Eight. "It was going well for a while, but I've hit a road block. I was hoping you would listen to it maybe? Give me some pointers?"

"Perhaps later," Kai nodded with a gesture to his filled worktable. "I'm on the edge of finishing this right now."

The child nodded, bid farewell, and left with a bounce in his step. Kai watched his adopted son leave: he'd only had the boy close to him for a year, and only really known how precious boy's existence was for half a year to that. And yet it felt as though they had been in this companionship their whole lives. Izuku had been tender and moldable to Kai's teaching. He truly loved his new life and he gave new joy to those who loved him.

Kai couldn't bear it if he lost the boy. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Inko would be devastated.

Kai shook himself from those thoughts, turning back to his unfinished work.

Izuku walked briskly down the hall, back to his room. He was glad he had memorized every inch of the Mansion and no longer got lost at every turn. With a gentle click, the door to his room swung open. The first thing to grab the gaze of any who entered was the wide balcony on the far end of the room: thick darker teal drapes billowed out from the breeze that came through the open accordion glass doors. Bird song echoed in with a rustling harmony from the trees. Izuku sighed and turned to his bed on the right: it too was grand: a four-post king size, with it's own charcoal drapes tied to the post real covers to match the windows. Izuku made up his thick covers and rifled around his bed-side desk.

Emerging with what he had been searching for, Izuku turned to what lay behind him: near the door was a proper desk cluttered with notebook and papers, a wardrobe to the back right and a grand piano between the two. If Izuku had the function to, he would have smiled at the sight of it.

Trotting over to his beloved instrument, Izuku pulled on the padded gloves he took from the desk: the fingerpads had an extra layer of thick fabric to keep his metallic and porcelain fingers from clacking on the ivory teeth. Delicately, Izuku began to play his piece from memory.

It held an ethereal atmosphere to it, beginning slow and mystical: suddenly it descended to something quick and excited, building in emotion and passion. He played with vigor, investing in his work, right up until...

He hit his road block. Izuku held still, waiting for a miracle note to present itself and clear his mental obstruction. When it did not come, he slouched forward and drummed his fingers on the wood of his piano seat with a low growl. He needed to finish this piece: it was supposed to be a gift for his mother.

With a sigh he stood and walked to his desk by the door. Perhaps plotting down the notes would help him. Just then, there was a tiny knock at the door.

"Sweetie?" Izuku leapt to his feet as his mother leaned around the door. As she hugged him, Inko asked, "what was that piece you were playing? It was beautiful!"

Izuku rubbed his arm again. "Oh... you heard that? It was supposed to be a surprise, but I'm having trouble progressing it..." At her prompting, Izuku played his piece again and again found himself stuck.

"It sounds like a story to me," Inko said, sitting by his side on the bench. "The beginning has our imaginary protagonist struggling, then he or she receives hope in some form. If you're really stuck, maybe try imagining the next part of your story?"

Izuku leaned back and thought. His mother was right, now that he thought about the music, it did feel like a story line. There was the beginning and inciting incident (he believed, he was never good with plotting storylines,) so he just needed rising tension and a crisis. Odd thing to wish for.

Unfortunately his mother had to leave then, called away by some duty within the castle: Kai had offered to her that (given her son was now his son which made her effectively the Lady of the mansion,) she could retire and live comfortably; but Inko had refused as she was accustomed to a busy life. Work was a comfort to her. Besides, she couldn't justly sit back when under the hospitality and grace of her landlord.

Alone now, Izuku sat and stared blankly out the windows, trying to think of a suitable way to incorporate an element of rising tension to his masterpiece. He hoped Father Chisaki would come: Izuku could distantly hear the sounds of clinking glass, and knew Chisaki was still busy. Without a fuss, the boy stood and began to walk the halls.

He found himself in the same room he had officially met Kai in a year and a half ago: known simply as the Hall of Remembrance, it didn't receive many travelers. Izuku walked up to Eri's grave. "Hey Sis," he muttered, tucking some pink flowers in a glass vase at the end of her tomb. "Sorry I haven't come to talk in a while: Dad's been working me to the bone."

Sliding down the marble to sit on the floor with his back against the counter, Izuku talked for a solid two hours to his adopted sister. He rambled from subject to subject, not really putting any weight into any one subject but lightly touching on them all in hope she could somehow hear and would be comforted. He watched the grand windows filter in the last of the sunlight until the only illumination was the fireplace. His head felt very heavy. It was a test of strength for Izuku to push himself off of the floor.

"Well, it's late. I've really got to get to bed... I suppose."

Izuku waited a moment, deep in concentration. Slowly, a milk chocolate square materialized in his palm: it had caramel dizzle over the top and specks of sea salt. Izuku laid it beside the vase of flowers. He nodded, smiled internally, and walked back to his room. He walked into the ghost residents cleaning his bedroom from floor to ceiling with meticulous care. The ladies excused themselves and left in a hurry.

The boy, drained of energy for no good reason, skipped dressing for bed. He closed his window doors, locking them forlornly: it was some comfort to him that he could still lightly hear some sounds, even if it was lightly. He restrained from drawing the curtains in fear that the thick fabric would swallow the rest of the sound; and after all, curtains wouldn't stop someone from breaking in, but the lock would. Satisfied, he crawled into bed.

Izuku was just falling asleep when he heard it: the most ethereal bird song he could have ever imagined. He sat up in bed, entranced. Without thinking, he padded over to his accordion glass doors and undid the lock to slide the glass back just a crack and hear the song more clearly.

To his surprise, it wasn't bird song at all. This was the voice of sentient people, as though a chorus singing to him and him alone. Harp chords were being strung in perfect harmony with the impossible voice.

Before Izuku could even think to shut the door and call, to warn of an intruder, the music took its hold on him. He relaxed, gears clicking. He pushed the door open more fully.

"Some people bottle their lives, whisper their words, sharpening their knives," sang the voice, luring the mechanical boy out. "In sorrow bound by her keep, feeling my way: who is ever really free? One word, so clear- now it's all that I want to hear: come show your face! Oh mechanical angel!"

Izuku stumbled forward, his actions out of his control. He needed to see that voice, know who could sing so wonderously. It was all he could do.

"Inside this wearing machine, ten thousand lies and nothing to be seen. Cold hands are turning the wheel. Spin me a name, all I ever really feel... One voice, so clear- now it's all that I want to hear: come show your face! Oh mechanical angel!"

Izuku looked over the stone balcony, finally seeing the source of the beautiful voice. Two figures were there below him: one tall and hooded, holding his hands up to the boy longingly: the other was small, a child, plucking at his harp and whispering as he kept his hooded head bowed low.

"One word, one voice," the man sung. Izuku, enchanted, felt a tug on his heart.

"So clear," Izuku's leg was lifting, swiveling his body over the railing.

"Now it's all that I want to hear," the man fought to keep his eagerness out of his voice. He was so close!

"Come show your face," Izuku was only holding on by by his hand now, leaning treacherously over the edge. The boy playing his harp choked back a sob, bowing his head even further.

"My invisible angel!"

Izuku's fingers slipped. He fell limply, no longer even properly conscious. As the man caught the mechanical child, Izuku caught a glimpse of his face: it was twisted, without irises and with his nose chopped cleanly off; and he was grinning widely and eagerly at his caught prey. A jolt of fear shot through Izuku, snapping him out of the magic induced haze.

He would have screamed, but his captor let out a breath of blood-red mist. Izuku's vision went black, his scream diying before it could manifest. He went limp in the hunter's arms, dead to the world.

The harp player choked again, his sob escaping him. The man snapped to the boy. "Be silent!" He hissed, his voice now deprived of his inborn magic. The child gasped and shuddered, desperate to cut off his sorrow before his tormentor got mad again. With a trembling chin, the boy raised his head and looked at the poor soul he had helped capture.

The man snorted, adjusting Izuku in his grip and turning to the wall. "Quit your sniveling, brat. You did well."

The boy lowered his purple gaze. He did not want praise. He did not want to be helping this monster.

But he didn't dare to try to reach the families of the victims. Not after the first and only time. That would just make the man mad again.

The harp player tied his instrument to his back and climbed the wall. He could imagine the boy's adopted father, rushing into the room at the early hours of the morning: he could hear Izuku's mother wailing to find her son gone. He could only hope that this family would hunt him and his tormentor down.

'Please,' he prayed, to whom he did not know. 'Please end this. I don't want to keep doing this.'


A/N

Evil laughter*

Oh this was fun.

Ok, so a couple of things. In the last chapter, I made a mistake and said 'pupil-less eyes', instead of 'iris-less eyes'. I went back and fixed that, and brought it back up again in this chapter. So, CadB, that means that your guesses based on pupil-less are both incorrect and my fault. So! Blame me. Second, the song used here is not mine, and is "Mechanical Angel" by Sunday Driver(?). Beautiful song, go check it out.

So one more chapter and these two will be revealed and several more people will be introduced! I dropped several hints (I think so anyway) as to who they are and am excited for more guesses! Everyone important does exist in the canon universe, so know I'm not throwing any OCs at y'all. I'll give you a hint, the boy is not a villain. And has purple eyes, but I said that in chapter.

Comments! I already addressed CadB, so BP! Thanks for clearing up Inosuke, and yeah that is exactly what I was trying to aim for with Rappa. By 'the doctor', I am not sure if you mean the 'doctor' as in the doctor working for AFO, or as in Doctor Who. It's not Doctor Who, btw. ;p

And I suppose I'll drop that I'm not planning on using AFO in this fic. There's this main villain, and then a second antagonist at the end of the story, neither of who is AFO. However, some members of the League will be coming up (we've had Shig and Dabi already so...)

I do belive that this is all! So long Lovies!

Charmer

Race

Characters: ?, ?

Defining qualities: half vampire, half human, elongated lives, very mild sensitivity to light, has a charming voice or talent for an instrument or both that compels people to fall under their command, max amount of people under command differs from each Charmer