Izuku took a deep breath before stepping past the threshold and back into the real world, expecting a horde of faculty berating him with questions, but instead, upon exiting the Red Gate and emerging back onto the somewhat destroyed grassy field of the arena, he was met by an empty stadium. Well, empty except for…

"Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu hug-tackled him, "I was worried when you didn't exit after the others!"

Izuku paused for a moment as his brain caught up with the situation and his arms lingered in midair before finally relaxing to hug her back. "I… uh, yeah, sorry. Where is everyone?"

"They finally managed to force all the spectators out and the teachers ran off to escort everyone else to Recovery Girl."

That did plenty to set Izuku's mind at ease. While Recovery Girl wasn't an S-Rank in healing, she was an A-Rank and as long as her patient was still alive, she could heal them and regrow their limbs. In addition, the lack of people and the chaos gave Izuku the slightest hope that the four S-Ranks who had entered the Gate after him wouldn't have noticed his substantial increase in power. Unfortunately however, his Shadow Extraction skill was out in the open. There was no way all seven of the students, plus the S-Ranks, missed him pulling Summons out of the corpses of a couple dozen High Orcs.

"So… What should we-" Izuku cut off as he felt an S-Rank aura quickly falling towards them from the sky. Slightly on edge and not sure what to expect, Tusk, Hyo, Igris, Smokey, and Tank emerged around him.

The figure, whatever it was, landed as a blur, cracking the earth and kicking up an explosion of dust.

"Are you joking?" A deep, yet feminine voice asked, "I hear something about a special Gate opening at the UA Sport's Festival, and arrive just in time to see it close."

Izuku's fist clenched, activating Dominator's Touch and sweeping aside the cloud of dust, revealing a short teenage girl around eighteen. She had long white hair, perfectly tanned skin, and the feature that stood out most, two fluffy rabbit ears. Izuku knew without a doubt who this was.

"The current Number 8 Hero, Miruko. The youngest S-Rank Hero to ascend the Hero Rankings, just barely beating out Hawks."

She fixed him with something in between a smirk and a scowl, "And who're you?" Miruko strutted up to him, standing at least a full foot shorter than him.

"I'm-" His body tensed up as Miruko's eyes narrowed and she leaned her head closer to his chest, "H-Hey!"

Her nose twitched and a slight smile of delight spread across her face, "Huh… you smell good."

"Thank… you?"

Yaoyorozu, much to Izuku's surprise, got in between the two, pushing Miruko away, "What do you think you're doing?" Izuku tilted his head and looked back to his Shadows, Igris and Hyo were shaking their heads, as if they knew exactly what was going on.

Miruko still had the same smirk on as she practically allowed herself to be moved backwards. After all, she was an S-Rank and Yaoyorozu was an A-Rank. Miruko's smugness was palpable despite being six inches shorter than Yaoyorozu. It was almost a comical exchange, "I smell Mana, kid. Aside from him, every Hero I walk by smells like trash, including you."

Yaoyorozu somehow ignored the comment about her smell altogether and stuttered out, "K-Kid?! How old are you?"

Crossing her arms, Miruko's ears twitched as she responded, "Eighteen. I may be short, but I can still kick your ass seven ways from sunday."

Flustered by the sudden "competition" Yaoyorozu blurted out, "What does that even mean?"

Miruko rolled her eyes and leaned to the side, looking past her and towards Izuku and his Shadows, "So you wanna go a few rounds?!"

"Excuse me?"

"What? Are you scared?" She asked with a glint in her eyes, "With those Summons of yours and your Mana, I'd say you're around an S-Rank, there's no way you're scared of a little girl like me." She continued goading him, but Izuku simply mirrored her crossed arms and called his Shadows back into himself.

"It's already been a long day, maybe another time." He took Yaoyorozu by the hand and pulled her away from the crazy rabbit Hero. Though it was just out of the corner of her eyes, Miruko could see Yaoyorozu smiling in success.

But Miruko wasn't about to shy away so easily and as Izuku turned to leave for one of the arena tunnels she appeared in front of him once more, "Sorry, but I'm not letting you leave without at least giving me a name."

Izuku heaved a tired sigh, "Izuku Midoriya."

Miruko's bunny ears flopped forwards, pressing against her head as she cheered inwardly. "Wait… Why do I care so much about just getting his name?" Izuku gave her an odd look, as if he was waiting for permission to leave. She hmphed, "I'll wait for next time to get your number."

Yaoyorozu fixed her with a glare as Izuku's eyes seemed to glaze over, as if he couldn't fully comprehend her declaration. In truth, something in her bright red iris had caught his eyes and for just a moment, he felt like he was staring right into her soul. Noticing this, Yaoyorozu gave his hand a squeeze and he snapped back into reality.

"We'll see about that," He finally said, walking away, hand in hand with Yaoyorozu.

Of course, even as they reached the tunnel's to exit the arena, Miruko's enhanced hearing could catch the sound waves of their conversation.

"What was that about?"

"I-I don't know. Something about her eyes… they seemed… familiar."

To the shock of no one, the Sport's Festival was canceled and school was even put on hold for a week as the staff consulted each other about the new threat of inexplicably appearing portals.

"Endeavor, Ryukyu, and Dabi all agreed to do their best to locate this Kurogiri and imprison him, or kill him if the former is impossible," All Might said, leaning forwards onto the horseshoe-shaped table, his body notably less bulky.

"I can't believe those two agreed to take on the same task."

"Well they both care about Shoto, Midnight… in their own ways, of course, but they still were upset by the interruption of what was supposed to be his day."

Aizawa sighed and rubbed at his temples. "All of this on top of the Jeju Island activity… is there any chance it's correlated?"

"The problem with this situation lies within your question," Nezu said, smiling despite the incidents, "We don't know enough about either situation to make any conclusions."

"What about Tsukauchi?" Snipe asked, looking towards All Might, who was not only a part time teacher, but the head of the Agency Association, meaning Tsukauchi was one of his employees.

Unfortunately, All Might shook his head, "I haven't been able to contact him since the other day. It's like he dropped off the map."

"He was investigating Thirteen's death before all of this. Do you think he found something while looking?"

"It's possible," Midnight said, "After all, there's no one I know in all of Hero history who's ever managed to force open a Red Gate. All Might, you know him best, any ideas?"

All Might paused for a moment, as if he was considering something, but quickly shook his head, "No… there's nothing." He neglected to comment on his announcement on the birth of the second ruler, they hadn't heard it. "And for now, there's no reason for them to know."

"Then the next solution is Izuku Midoriya."

All Might shook himself out of his thoughts, "What? How?"

"You told us yourself," Vlad growled, "He pulled some sort of living Shadow out of the Villain's corpses. What if he can do that with Thirteen? We could know everything she knew."

"That is the next logical step," Nezu admitted, "Aizawa, you and Toshinori should go talk to him, if he can do such a thing, then request it of him, even if you have to beg."

The faculty blanched at such a proposal, Nezu never acted so seriously. Whatever this situation was, it was fiercely important.

"So… should we just knock?"

Aizawa gave All Might a tired glare, "What else would we do? Break the door down?"

All Might said nothing and simply rapped his massive knuckles against the door, which was opened almost immediately to a girl with straight black hair and a beautiful face.

"Oh! Miss Yaoyorozu! I apologize! Principal Nezu must've given us the wrong address."

But Yaoyorozu simply smiled and bowed to them, "I assume you're looking for Midoriya?"

"Huh? Oh, well yes."

"Then you have the right address." She opened the door wider, inviting them inside. As they took a seat on the ratty couch, Yaoyorozu asked, "Would you like some tea?"

All Might raised his hand like a school boy and Aizawa nodded gratefully. The kitchen was just next to the living room, so they could hear each other perfectly, "Do you two live together?" Aizawa asked bluntly, causing Yaoyorozu to blush slightly.

"Not yet! I mean… no!"

"I keep telling her she should just move in and stop denying it," A younger voice said as Sakura creeped around the corner, "It's funny, they haven't even kissed yet and she already wants to move in with him."

"Sakura!" Yaoyorozu scolded, "Don't be rude."

Seemingly remembering her manners, Sakura bowed to the teachers and introduced herself. "She's just here because Izuku asked her to look after me while he was away, which is totally unnecessary by the way, Yaomomo!"

"Your brother asked me to stay with you and I'm going to stay with you!"

Sakura smirked, "Admit it, you just like sleeping in his bed!"

Yaoyorozu froze, realizing that her teachers were watching the back and forth, "Um… please forgive her. You know how kids are these days."

"I'm not that much younger than-"

Aizawa interrupted as he was handed his tea, "You said Izuku was away. Where is that?"

"I… wouldn't know. But it's likely that he's out tackling Dungeons to pay for his living expenses."

"And out mother's medical bills." Sakura chimed in, as if it was a necessary tidbit.

"Well, if he trusts you with his sister and his bed," Aizawa said with a hint of teasing in his voice, "Then I assume you're aware of his ability to call upon the dead and use them as his warriors?"

"He can do what?!" Sakura blurted out. She had been escorted from the snowy Red Gate before she could see Izuku resurrect Hyo.

Yaoyorozu nodded, "Yes, I've been aware of his ability since before we started our first day of school."

"Do you know if it's possible for him to do it to humans?"

"Hu- You want him to bring back Thirteen, don't you?"

"Yes, so it is imperative that we learn of his current location! We must unravel the secrets of Thirteen! Whatever they are!"

Yaoyorozu had to stifle a small giggle at All Might's dramatics, but Sakura let rip a full laugh and Yaoyorozu finally managed to push her out of the room, back to her bedroom.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I wasn't lying to cover for him earlier. He really didn't tell me where he planned on going. He asked for my help and I trusted him enough not to push further for answers."

"Then… we're gonna need a bigger search party," Aizawa said to All Might, "After all, he could be in any of the dozens of Dungeons throughout Tokyo."

Izuku looked up at the perfectly sculpted barred gates in front of him. "The gates guarding a Heavenly Palace, huh?" He retrieved the key dropped by the Angel guardians from the last time he had been there and inspected it, "I waited to come back here until I was slightly stronger, but I've grown so much that I wonder if this place will even be a challenge for me… probably shouldn't have said that. I'll end up jinxing myself." He shrugged to himself and inserted the key, turning it and for some reason, completely shattering the gates in front of him like glass. "Well, I've still got a Hearthstone… so if things get dicey, I can always run."

The environment past the gates seemed to suddenly build themselves, like a video game level rendering. It was a simple white hall, with marble pillars and a red carpet. If anything it reminded Izuku of his encounter with Igris, just brighter.

"Well, without further ado. Come Forth."

Thanks for reading! The next chapter I write should be for Class 1-C: Enigma, so make sure you go check that out, me and my friends spent a good deal of time thinking up everything for it! See you next time and don't forget, I have a discord server! discord . gg/DeFqz5F (Sorry about the spaces, Fanfiction doesn't really like links!)