Nezuko had heard the window open, and she had heard Izuku jump out, ready for the hunt. She did not call out to him, for she knew that he would have gone anyway, and she was the one who had set him on that path.

It might have been coincidence that he had become her student, in that one moment where he had begged her to be and she, weak after hundreds of years of isolation, had accepted, but she was proud of him. He was a person with a good heart, even if he could not live up to the ideal that she had made her brother out to be.

She supposed it was ironic, with how her brother taught her and she taught Izuku, seeing so much of her brother in the young boy who swung a sword around like it was second nature to him after his body was conditioned properly. While it might have been him imitating what he called the rhythm, and her brother would call the smell, it was nonetheless impressive just what leaps and bounds he made whenever pushed into a corner.

Something was off, however.

A noise outside made her twitch. She looked out of the window. A lone figure in the shadows of the unlit streets.

She stood up from the couch of the living room, giving one last glance at the clock before stepping out of the door.

Stain sat on the roof across the street. Nezuko glanced up to him, and he glared back. With a leap she was above him, and with a soft fall she landed next to him. He was not unarmed, of course, but he did not pull his sword. Either he was confident she would not attack, or he knew that if she was going to there was no sword in the world that could defeat her.

"You don't look like him at all," Nezuko said, tilting her head at him. He glared up at her. "No, I suppose the eyes are rather similar."

"If you mean my esteemed ancestor, I'm afraid that all these years make for a rather miserable genetic makeup to look anywhere close to him," Stain said, pursing his lips. "You don't need to worry about Overhaul anymore."

Nezuko raised an eyebrow. "Did you kill him?"

"No," Stain said. "To the victor the spoils. Kagura beat him when I was bleeding out, Overhaul's running scared. If he decides to go back into the business, I'll see about the funeral arrangements."

"There was a point where I had wished that Izuku was quicker to draw his sword, not unlike you," she said, her nose scrunched up slightly at the thought. "More thoughtful, of course, but I suppose if he were anything like you, I wouldn't have taught him."

"Tough shit," Stain said, his eyes dancing up and down her form. The way she held herself. He knew that she was never unprepared. "I'm afraid that's not really your choice, is it?"

"It is not," Nezuko confirmed, nodding. She sat down as well, graceful and without worry about the roof. The people under them were still sleeping soundly. "I can merely guide him, and the path he takes will be one of his own choosing. It is the same for you, is it not?"

"Once you knew who I was," Stain said, looking away and glancing back at her house "Did you ask around?"

"Of course," Nezuko said, nodding. "After the great war I have lost many contacts to those they left behind, but once I figured out that you were Giyuu's and Shinobu's descendant, I was too curious to just leave it alone."

"I guess being immortal bores you enough to look into the tragic backstory of some punk with a sword," Stain said, shrugging. "Anyway, it's kinda the same for me. In spite of all my efforts, I can't hate that little shit you've raised. I'm not even sure I can beat him right now if we were going all out, and I can't wait for the inevitable showdown where he'll try to arrest me."

"You seem happy about the thought," she said, her hands in her lap. "Is that really something admirable?"

"It's what I fucking deserve, isn't it?"

"That's not what your family would have wanted."

"I don't appreciate platitudes, Hashira," Stain said, his mouth twisting with contempt. "Nor do I blame you for my family's early demise. And fucked if I blame you for that hypocrisy you throw at my feet here, I imagine that's a really fucking long time, huh?"

"It has been," Nezuko said, nodding. "But the days have been more happy now, the people who rely on me are growing older by the minute, and now I am not so sad anymore to see them do so."

"Same for me," Stain said. Nezuko resisted the urge to smile at the positive influence of Izuku affecting a revenge driven murderer like Stain. "I fully expected to fight until I die, now I kinda want to live on and have my showdown."

"I hope you get your wish," Nezuko said, nodding. "I genuinely do."

Silence reigned.

And a minute later, Stain stood up, turning to leave. Nezuko could hear his phone vibrate. "She's doing fine, right?"

"Smiling every day," Nezuko said, nodding. A child he was able to save and protect, who looked up to him like a hero, she imagined that was something he wasn't quite used to. "You should visit her."

"No," Stain said, a deep breath gathering in his lungs as he bent his knees for a jump. "A stain like me would just ruin her happily ever after."

Nezuko would have disagreed had he given her the chance. With a solid jump he was two houses away, his stride increasing until he was nothing more than a speck in the dark night. Nezuko stood again, brushing the kimono off around her legs and making her way back home, jumping off the roof onto the street.

When she stepped in, she could hear the snoozing Inko, who was not doing as well as Eri had been once freed from the shackles that bound her. Inko's life was full of worries, and she spent a lot of it sleeping now, trying to make up for all the nights that she could not. While she woke up every morning for breakfast and watched a bit of TV with Eri, she ended up falling asleep on the couch again not longer after. Eri didn't mind, sitting closer to the TV and putting the volume as low as she could.

Eri herself, however, seemed to be awake. Nezuko sat down on the couch, waiting for the inevitable appearance of the little girl. When she appeared, she did so with a small peek from the hallway into the living room, her hair falling down to reveal her still stubby horn as she leaned into the door.

"Come in," Nezuko said. It was rare for Eri to wake up this early, though she did wake up early enough for the usual breakfast with Izuku. She used to at the start, of course, woken up by nightmares and often unable to go back to sleep, but nowadays she would tire herself out over the entire day until she slept through the night. "Did you hear me step out for a moment?"

Eri nodded, walking into the living room. She was still tired, and despite her sleepy swaying and rubbing of her eyes, she looked up at Nezuko's face, frowning. "You don't sleep, right?"

"I do not," Nezuko confirmed. They have had this talk often. "I don't need it."

"So you don't dream?" Eri asked, the eternal curiosity of a child shining through. "That's what you said to Izuku-nii."

"Even if I lie down to sleep, all it will do is cause time to pass," Nezuko said, nodding. "I have not dreamt in many years."

"What do you do all night then? Read books?"

Nezuko blinked. She used to read, but after a while all the books seemed to be so similar to each other that it took all the enjoyment out of it. Those strange trends of people dying and waking up in strange worlds two hundred years or so ago took a lot of luster from youth novels, and the western novels fetishizing immortality were not very fun.

"I watch the clock," Nezuko said. It was very calming in a way, to watch time slip by, to lose yourself in a moment and not notice how the minutes and hours have suddenly jumped ahead over half the clock. Eri looked doubtful.

"Just the clock?" Eri asked, walking up to her and raising her arms. Nezuko lifted her up, putting her in her lap. Eri followed her gaze to the clock above the TV, showing the time. Three forty AM. "Doesn't that get boring?"

"Of course not," Nezuko said, brushing her fingers through Eri's hair. "I'm keeping time until the world is safe for you."

Izuku tried not to let the surprise show on his face, though he was hard pressed. Momo stood there as well, on the top of a roof of a tall building framed perfectly in front of the starless sky. Her usual costume had been replaced by something that looked a lot closer to his, though with a mask around her eyes that reminded him of Yoroi Musha's. She was still wearing the scarf, however, hiding most of her face, leaving her distinctly voluminous hair and her heavy heartbeat as the only real features to recognize her by.

It was merely the gloves she had left at home, she needed to feel the chain for most of her techniques, after all.

The haori that hung over her shoulders had a distinct pattern of harshly calligraphed black kanji on top of dark red fabric.

Izuku noted the strange stitch around the sleeves, but thought nothing more of it.

With a breath, he was leaping up the building until he found himself next to her. She turned to him, and Izuku could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke.

"Hello, Izuku," she said. She sounded calmer than this morning, but it wasn't sleep between then and now that caused it. Nothing in the way she held herself made him think she had a minute of rest.

"Hello," he said, blinking. "Did Tenkai call you too?"

"He called my parents," Momo said. Izuku raised an eyebrow, causing her to shrug. "Apparently he wanted to ask if they could spare any weapon that they could give a hero to deal with a demon, and I overheard them."

She flashed her provisional license. The one that had to be forced on him was the same, but hers was held as a point of pride. A deal she had struck with Tenkai using her training with Nezuko to end up in the same place as Izuku.

He couldn't deny it to her, he wasn't her keeper, and even as a worried boyfriend he would not disrespect her decisions out of that worry.

"I guess this is the first time we're actually fighting together," Izuku said, nodding. He stepped up to her, and she made the first move, wrapping her arms around him, trying to hide her hands behind his back. Izuku wasn't sure where to put his own hands considering her flail and axe were wrapped around her back. He settled on raising his hand to her cheek, rubbing against the fabric of the scarf.

A glow on her hands revealed another mask when she let go of him and stepped away, handing it over. While his outfit was not unknown, and his swords and his style were obviously clear to anyone who knew about him, the amount of heroes helping with the investigation were not all in the know.

It might be better not to draw too much attention. Maybe he should get himself another uniform for extracurricular activities.

Izuku gave an appreciative nod, taking the featureless mask and putting it on. It fit like a glove.

They took a moment and then jumped back down. Tenkai had arrived, a few policemen with him. The heroes were not quite lined up, but turned towards him and listened as he spoke up.

"As you have been briefed," Tenkai said, mostly for Izuku to hear what the cover story was. Izuku nodded at the man. "The target is a villain who has been enhanced by what we believe to be the fruits of the RS-9 research. From the files we were able to gather of the incident this means the following."

One of the policemen handed him a file. He frowned as he looked down at it, shaking his head after a moment so short that it might have been a trick of light.

"Enhanced senses and strength, shapeshifting, extremely powerful regeneration, a weakness to sunlight," Tenkai listed. "These villains have been designated so dangerous that they require specific equipment to keep down. They show a weakness to a specific metal which is incredibly rare, which is why we have two experts on the matter."

Izuku sighed. So much for keeping a low profile during the investigation. He stepped up with Momo, and while the assorted heroes were trying not to stare, it was quite obvious that they were skeptical. Izuku recognized some of them from his patrols, In particular, he recognized Ingenium, Iida's brother. The man recognized him as well, giving him an appreciative nod that made Izuku feel self conscious.

"They're kids," one of the heroes said. Turbo something or other. "You can't seriously have kids fight a serial killer."

"They're prodigies," Tenkai lied. Izuku frowned, perhaps not a lie. Tenkai genuinely believed his words. Glancing over to Momo, whose masked appearance gave away nothing, Izuku simply received a nod in return. "And they're specifically trained to fight villains such as this. Their weapons were made with the metal I've mentioned."

"That sounds sketchy," Turbo… Force. That was his name. A sidekick of Ingenium that recently opened his own agency, wasn't it? Izuku nodded, though the man seemed to take that as confirmation. "We have half a dozen pro heroes here, why do we need children to do our work?"

"Because these children have already fought an RS-9 enhanced villain," Tenkai said. Momo hadn't, but that was a minor detail. She was just as trained as him, if a bit more inexperienced overall due to her lack of life or death battles. "And they know what to look out for. This might sound a bit unorthodox, but we need two people to be ready to evacuate the injured out, as well as four people to aid them rather than engage with the villain directly."

The assorted heroes began to say some unkind things, though their words were quickly cut off when Ingenium clapped his hands together, his quirk around his arm used for momentum to give the noise the right pop.

"I've met the boy," Ingenium said. "If the hero public safety committee believes in him enough to grant him a provisional license, we shouldn't disrespect his efforts. I'll help with the evacuation."

"Me too," a woman said. Platformer, if Izuku remembered right. Her quirk would be good to carry out anyone injured. "This is just an investigation, right? Or are we expecting the villain to be still around?"

"We don't know," Tenkai said. "It's supposed to be an investigation, but if we find the villain we will have to deal with it swiftly. If you're unable to keep them from regenerating, you have to call for Kagura and Creati."

Izuku took a deep breath. Why did he even bother with the mask? He'd have some words with Tenkai later.

"If they're taken out of the fight," Tenkai said, his tone shifting to make it clear that he wasn't joking around. "You have to keep them pinned until the sun rises."

Platformer and Ingenium gave a nod. Turbo Force did as well, as did the other three heroes. Izuku's ears twitched. He was certain the demon was still around, something about the wind was uncomfortable to hear.

It was about an hour later.

Turbo Force, Kido, Death Arms and X-Less were taking the lead in the investigation, if it could be called that. It reminded him much more of a patrol. While Tenkai has ended up leaving for what he called 'mission control', leaving Izuku with an earbud that nobody else received, Izuku and Momo were trailing behind Turbo Force and Kido after Death Arms and X-Less left to patrol to the west of the train station.

Ingenium was on the rooftops, scouting ahead with Platformer, and Turbo Force still seemed less than happy about the orders. Izuku heard him talk, not aware of the demon slayer's good hearing.

"Kids," Turbo Force muttered. "Babysitting a bunch of kids, what are those? Second years? The girl's tall enough to be one but the boy's just—"

"Come on," Kido said, shrugging. "You say that like you were never a kid, how long has it been since you graduated? You know there are some kids with huge potential."

"Yeah, but we don't usually have those on serial killer villain investigations," Turbo Force said. He glanced back, where Izuku and Momo were giving their best impression of not listening in. "They're the kids who got messed up by that new villain princess, right? Himiko something."

"So what?" Kido said. Izuku blinked. He hadn't expected to be defended by… an Endeavor sidekick, he was sure. Kido was wrapped up in bandages from head to toe, giving him a rather mean appearance of a mummy with the scary eyes to match, but he was soft spoken and polite even in the disagreement. "You don't have any scars you're not proud of?"

Turbo Force sighed. Izuku wasn't sure if it was really an issue with having 'kids' here or if it was an issue with having them here. Izuku knew that the city's heroes received a bit of criticism over letting two U.A. students get kidnapped, and some took it more personally than others, but the main target of the criticism was the school itself. Turbo Force must've been an alumni.

Izuku's ears twitched. Something was in the shadows.

"I've got something," Izuku said, speaking loudly. The shadows were rumbling. The lights of Akihabara's closed stores were flickering. Turbo Force, despite his skepticism, stopped and measured Izuku up. Momo bent down, touching the ground with her bare hands. "East?"

"North East," she said, nodding. "Not moving underground, could be limited teleportation."

"I can't hear anything," Turbo Force said. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Izuku said with confidence. Turbo Force nodded, looking towards the direction Momo had indicated. Tapping the earbud, Izuku continued. "Villain might be north east from here, I'd hope there are no retirement homes."

"No," Tenkai said, his voice crackling slightly as it came through the earbud. "But there's a post office with janitorial staff that might be the age that the demon is looking for. You take the lead, Kagura."

"What's he saying, young master?" Turbo Force asked, taking his own communication device out. "Should we call the others back?"

"Yes," Izuku said, nodding. "He said I should take the lead. If nothing else we might be able to capture the villain and be done with it quickly."

"Alright," Turbo Force said. Izuku and Momo breathed.

And they were off. Turbo Force spoke into his own device, calling X-Less and Death Arms to them before following up. Kido and Turbo Force used their quirks to keep up, the latter ending up much faster than them.

He stopped when they did, though he was a solid hundred meters ahead, taking a few seconds to come to a halt.

They walked to meet each other halfway, but Momo raised her hand.

"Move!" Momo shouted suddenly, pointing at Kido. Kido did, using his quirk to shove himself away from his spot and near a wall. A hand reached out of the shadows. Before Kido could move off the wall, another hand appeared and grabbed him by the neck.

"This sucks," Kido said, being pulled into the wall. Momo's flail cracked into it, sending bits and pieces of the wall crumbling down. While Kido was no longer being forced in, his body was stuck halfway. Death Arms and X-Less caught up.

"A six versus one," Turbo Force said. "Looks like the villain isn't that smart."

"It is," Izuku said. He could catch glimpses of it. The form was distinctly feminine, the face was twisted in a not quite human expression, like a facsimile of mourning. The wails he kept hearing sounded so fake it grated on his nerves. "She has a habit of going for a specific organ, the liver. She's strong and sneaky, if she had wanted to take Kido out she could have done it with a single attack, but she wants to keep him alive."

The idea was disgusting. Extraction of the liver, keeping him alive to let him die from that alone—

He could've sworn he'd heard a Greek myth about that before.

Death Arms was slowly walking towards Kido, ready to free him from the wall as Momo pulled the chain back. Ingenium and Platformer were still on the rooftops, ready to evacuate rather than join the fight and risk being taken out. Standing on a platform rather than the rooftops proper gave them less to worry about, the demon seemed to prefer grounded targets.

Turbo Force kicked the ground under him and accelerated towards X-Less. Izuku took a step towards Momo when he heard the cracking of fingers, his own sword drawn. The black blade shone in the moonlight…

Momo's foot slammed down onto the demon's fingers as it reached out under her. The wailing increased, Death Arms punched the wall and freed Kido, but was left vulnerable as the demon's arms were increasing.

Kido pushed himself and Death Arms apart. X-Less shot a laser from his eye at one of the arms, though another came up and tripped him. Platformer called out.

"Up here!" she shouted, creating a second platform. Death Arms lifted Kido and threw him onto it, Kido's quirk doing the same to him.

Izuku and Momo stayed on the ground. The former leaped over dozens of arms that were sprouting from the ground like flowers and reached X-Less who was being pulled underground. He wasn't fast enough, but Turbo Force was near him to pull him up faster. Platformer looked tired.

"Get up!" Platformer ordered. Izuku looked up, shaking his head.

"We got this," Izuku assured, drawing his blunt sword as well and crouching into his stance. Momo did the same, holding the axe not unlike he held his sharp sword.

The Howling Wind ripped around him, and he carved a path through the arms. The wailing echoed through the entire street, Izuku could hear a car alarm go off in the distance as it shook windows and eardrums.

Momo swung her axe with wild abandon, carving her own area, denying the arms any quarter.

The demon appeared, finally. She slipped out of the ground, tears streaming down her face. She felt wrong. Like she wasn't just a demon, like she wasn't just a human who was turned with the help of the MZ-cells, like she was something more, something not unlike that monster that Himiko Toga brought to the USJ.

Izuku felt a sense of disgust that he had to keep down to avoid throwing up. Momo could feel it too. She shivered, her face pale.

The blunt sword put away, Izuku held the sharp sword in one hand and stepped forward quickly. Kagutsuchi's Burden carried the tip of his sword from the top of her head down to her hip, but she dodged it.

So he did the same that he did to Dabi, the sword swinging from the left to right at a speed which nobody should be able to dodge so easily.

And yet she did.

Her body sunk into the ground partially, and then she jumped back up again, grabbing his arm. Izuku kicked her, but she didn't even flinch. Momo's axe came around, forcing the demon to let go of him, and the chain to wrap around his own chest. As Momo pulled him back, Izuku could hear it. The rhythm of battle was shifting whenever someone swung a weapon.

His eyes widened when Turbo Force bent down for his own attack. The man's quirk let him become absurdly fast, though changing directions took a bit. It spoke of his experience that he didn't hit a single building on the way here, and yet—

"Wind!" Izuku shouted as a warning. Turbo Force couldn't stop fast enough. "It's feeling the wind to dodge and attack!"

Turbo Force's momentum carried him forward. He twisted around in the air, spinning heavily with his leg out to deliver what would usually be a devastating kick. The demon dodged it, then punched.

But of course, it couldn't be left at that.

The demon's arm looked more like a spear, now piercing through the abdomen of Turbo Force. Her grieving face was twisted in agony, as if it was her own abdomen that was being ripped apart. Izuku was on her, the sharp blade cutting towards the arm.

Instead of letting the Nichirin steel touch her, however, the Liver Demon just lost her arm. It detached much like that of a doll, leaving a wide gap between Izuku's blade and the demon's flesh.

The spear-like appendage suddenly shot off at a speed that would kill Turbo Force once it hit something. He couldn't follow up on his attack, the demon knew that. While it tried to trip him up and attack as he ran after Turbo Force, he easily jumped over its sweeping foot.

Momo's chain forced the demon's pursuit to end right there. She crashed onto the streets with a force that left craters. Every step she took shook the earth. She gave Izuku a nod as she pulled the chain.

Izuku breathed.

Three and a half seconds. From the leap forward that became an inhuman sprint, to the quick turn around with his blunt blade drawn to block the spear tip and force the movement to slow down enough to use his bare hands. Grabbing the tip, he pushed harshly, trying to ignore Turbo Force's scream of pain for a moment.

He hit the wall of a maid café with a thud, but managed to avoid the spear burying itself into the wall. With great effort, he lowered the spear slowly, letting Turbo Force lean against the wall. He couldn't pull it out, the man would bleed. Touching the earbud, he called for backup.

"Turbo Force is out of action, bad abdomen wound, spear can't be pulled out without internal damage and lethal bleeding," Izuku announced. A few seconds later he had his answer.

"Ingenium will get him out, focus on the fight." Tenkai's order sounded more like a prayer. Said hero was already jumping down and using his quirk to run towards him. "I thought demons were supposed to grow more powerful with age."

"These are villains," Izuku said, thinking of his father and All For One. "They cheat."

Izuku rushed back in. Momo was fighting the demon off by wrapping her body in her chain, turning what would be piercing attacks into blunt force which she was able to shrug off much more easily. The demon was good in dealing with distance and close quarters. At that distance, X-Less couldn't fire without accidentally hitting Momo, and both Death Arms and Kido wouldn't be very helpful.

"Momo!" Izuku shouted. Her eyes glanced towards him and lit up in understanding. The next hit of the demon's already regrown spear-like arm, she jumped, letting its pure strength send her backwards. Before it could follow up, Izuku had already jumped in.

When the demon screamed in an approximation of a wailing sound, Izuku cut upwards. It stepped to the side. Izanagi's Ascent, dodged.

The followup, which would take its legs much like it had ripped into Overhaul's, was jumped over. Izuku was glad he was wearing a mask, because he was sure that there was a massive grin on his face right now. The demon seemed to notice something was wrong.

It raised both its arms in defense as Momo's flail hit it with the force of a falling asteroid, not just from her own strength but also from Kido's quirk helping out. It crushed the arms into bits and pieces. Momo gave a thumbs up to the man on the platform. Ingenium had already run away with the injured Turbo Force.

It continued, of course. The demon was sent flying backwards not unlike Momo had earlier.

Unlike her, the demon didn't expect it. She crashed into the street and was sent skidding over it. Izuku could see the regeneration already start, in spite of the Nichirin steel hitting it with all the momentum of a disciple of the Breath of Stone.

"Bind it," Izuku found himself ordering. "I'll take its head."

"No," Momo said, her voice right behind him. Izuku saw the flail in the carved path, using the scar inside the street to attach itself. Momo was flying towards it, using it as an anchor to swing through the air with the axe around her. "I will!"

She sounded so sure of it, too. Her axe came down on the still regenerating demon, cutting one of its broken arms off, halting the regeneration slightly. Before she could finish it off, the demon sunk away into the shadows, leaving Momo's frustrated swing to hit nothing but the ground, splitting the earth.

"Momo!" Izuku called out. She wasn't listening. The beating of her heart was rumbling in her ears and shutting him out. She seemed almost too desperate about it, carving more and more of the broadwalk apart as if the demon was hiding underground rather than using its strange powers to vanish and appear wherever it wanted. A motion to his right. It could dodge and sink into the ground, but it was limited with how fast it could do the latter. Aiming at the legs worked, he just had to continue.

Izuku sheathed the sword as he bowed under a wide swing. The demon's knee came up, the bone underneath turning into a spike. The mourning prayer met it with sparks, cutting halfway into the leg. The arm was already back, stabbing down at him.

Momo once again helped out. While he had his blunt sword out already to block the hit, her own flail came from above. Izuku could see her stomp onto the chain, sending the axe right after from the back of the demon.

The rhythm shifted once more. Izuku hit its leg with a quick stab, and the demon stumbled.

The flail was spinning into it. Like a drill, it carved into the demon's abdomen and gave it a wound not unlike the one it had just given Turbo Force. The drill ended up hitting the ground and staying solid. Izuku prepared his mourning prayer.

But the demon prayed faster. Its hands came together, the air shifted. A quirk, rather than demonic ability? Or perhaps it was the other way around. When Izuku's sword came out to decapitate it, its upper body fell backwards, detaching itself from the hole. The legs began crumbling to dust.

"I'm not weak," Izuku heard Momo whisper. "I'm better than this."

The demon's upper body sunk into the ground, falling off the chain and leaving Izuku's blade to taste nothing but air.

"Platformer is at her limit," Tenkai announced through the earbud. Izuku glanced up. The woman's platforms were strong, perhaps as strong as the shields of Crust, but the weight on them must put a strain on her not unlike Uraraka's own quirk. "Do you need them to come back down?"

"No," Izuku said. "Get them out, they'd just be in the way."

With Momo's display of increasing bloodlust it might end up with something she would regret.

No, he already knew she would regret it either way.

When the demon appeared once more, it was already fully regenerated. It sunk away again, glaring upwards through bloodshot eyes.

Platformer must've received the order. The platform moved away slowly, and Kido was ready to jump down had Death Arms not stopped him. The latter was shouting something about reckless and rowdy kids, but the thumbs up he gave them was enough of an encouragement. Momo's swings became wider.

Izuku breathed a visible breath. The demon slayer mark was itching something fierce. He jumped up over a chain and watched the surrounding territory with a critical eye.

And thus he came down with the autumn rain. The sword pierced the demon when it tried to catch him out of the air. Instead of leaving him enough space to slash out of it, the demon acted smart. One of its arms was behind it, turned into a spear again, stopping Izuku from cutting through and not leaving him any momentum to do so.

So Izuku did the thing that Aizawa hated him for. He let go of his swords and clapped his hands together. The loud noise shattered windows. The demon flinched.

He clapped again, and again, and again, announcing himself in front of countless gods at a shrine of his own making. The demon grabbed its head, wailing loudly. It hurt in his ears, he wanted it to stop, but he couldn't stop himself. A massive gust of wind gathered around them as sound met sound.

Momo's scarf was being blown away by the strong wind. Izuku saw a grin on her face that could only be described as feral. Angry and with something to prove. Unkind eyes which reflected the light of the street lamps in a way that made Izuku feel uncomfortable. He saw something in them that he didn't like.

Something that reminded him of his own struggles to come to terms with his anger.

However, just being angry didn't mean that she was wrong.

It just meant that she was angry.

"Breath of Stone!" she announced, swinging the chains around her arms before sending the axe forward in a move that he hadn't seen before. "Bladesmith's Prayer."

It didn't sound like a prayer at all. Sparks flew around her arm as each link of the chain was filled with blades of various sizes, from katanas to daggers to a few knives that Izuku knew were inspired by Himiko Toga's own. The axe flew forward, but it was a distraction. The demon dodged to the left, almost losing its balance. It was enough time for Momo to do what had to be done.

It was the way she did it that made him sick in the stomach.

A short twist of her wrist sent the chain around the dodging demon, a few of the longer swords cutting into it, some breaking as it tried to block. The chain wrapped around it entirely, and for a single moment it looked exactly like she did. Wounded from so many places you couldn't even count the gashes. The demon wailed, and for the first time this night it sounded like genuine pain.

Izuku closed his eyes when Momo pulled on the chain, the Nichirin steel carving a path into the afterlife.

Momo's breath was heavy. Much heavier than it should be. Her arms were trembling, as if the image of the demon's death had shown her something she hadn't wanted to see. While Izuku had hesitated until the very last moment, causing injury to both himself and Aizawa, Momo had not shown an ounce of restraint.

He would say it was admirable, if she didn't look shaken by it. He walked up to her, reaching out. Just like that time at the hospital, she flinched away. Unlike that time, he couldn't keep a hold of her. She let go of the heavy weapon, the chain rattling loudly, and pushed him away.

Momo was someone with a lot of strength. Her quirk synergized well with the Breath, even if the actual use of it was rather difficult, she had overcome that with weeks of training. She also had, as Mirko had taught her, a lot of restraint to avoid hurting anyone with that strength.

For the first time, Izuku felt that strength that was needed to swing a chain around like a child would a stick. The push sent him flying, forcing him to adjust how he landed and skidding across the street for a few meters more until his backwards walking saw his back hit a crumbled wall.

For a moment, it looked like she would run.

Until she knelt, her arms exploded into red beads that formed chain after chain. She bowed her head onto her fingers, and kept murmuring. Izuku couldn't hear any words with meaning, no prayers he had studied, no gods he knew the names of. It wasn't a prayer, after all.

She was meditating, trying to calm herself down, like she had been taught by someone who could help her in ways that he hadn't. The Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, had given her the words of advice that the Hashira he had met were not willing to grant him.

Izuku approached again, the beads became more and more plentiful. Each murmur was accompanied by more of those chains gathering around her like she was trying to seal away some untold evil.

When Izuku reached out once more, she did not flinch back. Instead, she opened her eyes, raising her head, and staring at him with something akin to awe.

A sense of wonder.

"How did you do it?" she asked. There it was, the divide. The idea of killing a demon and the actual deed. The difference between the mourning prayer that killed with kindness and the almost savage destruction of the physical form by using chains. "You were right, I shouldn't have—"

Izuku wrapped his hands around hers. They felt cold, and slightly thin from the overuse of her quirk. He squeezed, putting his forehead against her fingers which were still touching. "I wasn't right at all."

"I killed her like she wasn't a person before," Momo said. "I ignored you and it almost got away, I'm not—"

"You're not kind," Izuku whispered. Momo shut up. "But that doesn't mean you're unfit to do this. It just means that you have to keep going and find your center."

"My center is a mess," Momo said, her body shivering along with her voice. "I didn't see who I was fighting anymore, she just looked like Himiko Toga there, I wanted it to be Toga there."

"If you need to see what I did to Toga, I'll find you someone who can share memories between us," Izuku said, only half-joking. "You can't get hung up on behavior like this, you have to keep moving forward. If your judgement call was not to listen to me, then that's what it is, I'm not the person to order you around."

"You're my boyfriend," she said, sounding more and more upset. "You trust me to have your back, and I should trust you to have mine."

Izuku tried not to be frustrated himself. He opened his mouth and closed it again, sighing through clenched teeth as his hands moved from her hands down to her elbows, grabbing her firm arms. "Pray."

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

"You said you'll trust me to have your back," Izuku said, taking off the mask to show her a smile he hoped would convey his feelings properly. "Every night, even if I'm not actually much of a believer, even if I don't know if the gods are listening, I pray for Yugiri, the snake demon. If you think you did wrong, don't pray for forgiveness, pray for her soul instead."

"What kind of prayer?" she asked, her studious attitude showing. "What words, in what order? What gods?"

"Any," Izuku said, still smiling even as his voice was taking on a serious edge. "Whatever you prefer, anything you know, from a TV show, from a book, fiction or not. The Breaths, to me they were always prayers, created by people who were mourning uncountable losses. All life is priceless, Momo, unless all life is the cost. Even if your way of doing it was enough to shake your heart, what you did saved hundreds."

She glanced down at the chain, then back up into his eyes. Izuku took off his gloves, showing the red marked hands as he wrapped them around her scarred fingers once more. She closed her eyes, just like that effort to meditate and find peace, and spoke nothing.

He didn't know whether or not she was actually praying. Sometimes he wished it were as simple as letting some morning glow touch your face and claim that you felt the blessing of Amaterasu, or that you were more powerful at night after praying to Tsukuyomi.

In the end, to Izuku it was not about the gods being real or not, it was about the stories that were told of them. Their emotions, their mistakes, if the gods were never expected to be perfect, then why should they be too?

Momo's breathing calmed down, her heart began to beat slower, and her shaking subsided. What felt like an eternity later, but could not have been more than a few minutes, she opened her eyes and nodded at him.

She promptly fell onto him, not sleeping, but exhausted. Izuku patted her back, trying to let her find comfort as he reached up to the earpiece. It buzzed for a moment.

"The demon is eliminated," Izuku said. Momo did not react to the words. He wasn't sure if that was good yet. "We're near the post office, no serious injuries. How's Turbo?"

"Stable, thanks to you," Tenkai said. "Were you… able to learn anything?"

"Unfortunately not, but this demon was a lot less… sentient, I suppose would be the right word," Izuku said. He lifted Momo to her feet, helping her gather up the axe and flail as she wrapped the chain around. "It was also much more powerful, if inexperienced with its powers. It's hard telling if it was a quirk or a… blood demon art."

The word sounded strange on his lips. Quirks unique to demons which made them distinct from each other.

"Of course," Tenkai said. Izuku was certain the man wanted to curse, but held himself back. "Still, I have to thank you. Though our work relationship has started rocky, I am truly grateful for your good work."

"Same to you," Izuku said. He actually meant it, too. He imagined that there were worse 'handlers', if the word was appropriate. Someone who had the confidence to stretch his neck out for them so far. "Any cover story? Clean up?"

"The official story is that the RS-9 files that were made public are being used to produce a new version of Trigger," Tenkai said. Momo put the weapon onto her back, looking around for her scarf. When she couldn't find it, she made another one, stumbling as the quirk overuse was getting to her. Izuku put a hand on her arm to keep her from falling down. "It's not something you can easily disprove."

"Wouldn't that make the investigation harder?" Izuku asked. "People don't know what to look for."

"Nobody does what to actually look for," Tenkai said, sounding frustrated by the fact as well. "We can't even confidently say whether we have a demon or just a regular serial killer on our hands."

"You can call me for either," Izuku said, pursing his lips. "Or I'll check with a few people if there's a way to confirm."

If nothing else, his mother might know what to look for. Demons didn't have a specific energy signature like some quirks did, but—

Izuku rubbed the bridge of his nose, putting Momo's arm around his shoulder and starting to walk further out. Maybe something that scans for MZ-cells in populated areas, he knew that remote DNA scanners were not entirely perfect, but they were better than nothing.

"We're tired and it's a school night," Izuku said. "Can you get us a car home?"

"Already on its way," Tenkai said. "Once again, thank you."

"Get me a nice appointment in a really fancy restaurant for a date and that's all the thanks I need," Izuku murmured. The sarcasm in his voice was obvious, but Tenkai's end of the line made a crackling noise as if the man nodded. Momo coughed, her ears slightly red. Good. If she had calmed down enough to react like that, that was good.

He was glad that she still had some appointments at the counsellor. She was much stronger than she thought she was, she just needed a push in the right direction. One he couldn't give her in the same way that Aizawa, All Might and those in the transparent world had given him.

"Stupid," Momo said, her voice low. Her ears were still red by the time the car arrived to pick them up.

Chapter 36, upcoming:

The Blood We Don't Share

"I don't like fighting," Tenko said. Izuku frowned. "But if I have to, I'll fight."

"I wouldn't force you," Izuku said. Tenko shook his head. "Tenko—"

"No," Tenko said, raising his hand in front of Izuku for a moment. His fingers curled in a claw, keeping the tips away from his self-proclaimed brother. "That's the problem, nobody can force me to do shit, but every time I make a decision for myself you all try to take all the credit for it. I don't like fighting, I don't want to fight."

"Then why are you forcing yourself to?" Izuku asked. Tenko's fist clenched in front of him.

"Because you're my brother," Tenko repeated, raising his fist at Izuku. "And because brothers bleed together."

This time Izuku didn't raise his fist to bump it against that of his brother. He stepped up to the young man and wrapped an arm around his back, nodding into the taller boy's shoulder.