Happy new year!

-At Izumi and Grey's apartment-

"Finally!" Izumi's back rested on the living room couch, she was utterly exhausted. She shucked off her boots and left them lying on the floor. She'll just pick them up later. Right now she wanted to rest her eyes. "I think i'll skip dinner tonight. Too tired." she said.

Grey hummed as he placed a radio on the kitchen counter, turning it on.

(song played on radio: SLANDER - Love Is Gone ft. Dylan Matthew (Acoustic))

Izumi stared at Grey, frowning as his back was still facing her. He hadn't said a word to her after they left the school building. "Grey…?" she called. He didn't respond, which was rare. He finally turned to walk in her direction, and sat wordless on the couch next to her. Izumi sat up when she realized he still didn't look at her. "You okay? Your eyes look haunted."

He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when no words came out. He sighed heavily, running his fingers through his dark blue hair. Izumi flinched when he suddenly let his body lie on the couch, his head now resting on her lap. His strong arms hugged her torso as his face was buried on her belly.

"Grey?"

"I should've been there…" he whispered in a hushed voice.

Oh.

He still blamed himself for that.

She shook her head to argue. "Grey, none of us saw this coming. It's not your fault you weren't there for me—"

"Did you forget what happened 2 years ago?" She flinched. "You were hurt, you were captured and tested on… because i failed to protect you."

Izumi took a breath. "...No one blamed you for that."

Grey didn't reply, or say anything for sometime. He continued to stay in that position, his arms wrapped around her body tighter, never letting go, as though this was the last time they would see each other. Izumi ran her fingers through his hair, gently stroking his scalp to comfort him.

After a while, Grey got up. " You should get some rest." He said, not looking at her. "goodnight."

"Grey," Izumi said, but he left her there, and the shut door of his room. She sighed heavily. There were rare moments when Grey behaved like this. Insecure, shaken, wordless, scared— and Grey would usually act like this if he believes he failed something. Or in this case, failed to protect her.

But it wasn't like that to Izumi.

Still, he felt guilty.

And what happened 2 years ago during her second year at middle school—

Izumi shook her head, refusing herself to remember those horrible 3 days and nights being held captive. She wouldn't let herself be brought down by those terrible memories and experiences. What she went through was a lesson. Even today's villain attack was a lesson.

She had to become stronger without relying on Grey.

—next day, apartment—

RIIIIINNNNGGGGG!

Izumi groaned, waking up when her phone started ringing. Who was calling her so early in the morning? School had temporarily shut down due to yesterday's villain attack, and her uncle wanted her to rest at home and take it easy today. She picked up the call anyway, and answered with a slurred voice. "Hello?"

"Izumi! Hey, it's me!"

The green haired girl sat up immediately hearing that voice. "Tensei-San!" She cried, surprised. That had made her fully awake. "It's been awhile. What's going on?"

"Well before I get to that—congratulations on getting into U.A! I know it's late, but my schedule has been pretty hectic for the past couple of months that we haven't been in touch. Sorry."

"Ah," she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you. It's alright. I had my hands full, too, with studies, work and training."

A pause. "Work? You're still working that cop job?"

"Yeah, and this time we are getting paid."

"Isn't it a little too… Troubling and hectic?"

"We've always managed. Don't worry. Ah, by the way, I met your younger brother, and he is in the same class as me in the Hero course!"

"Tenya is?! Wow, that's something. Wait, does he know—?"

"None of the students know. Principal Nezu and my uncle made it clear to keep it tight-lipped given that U. A now has a lot of journalists and media right outside the school gates. The only people aware about our jobs are the staff and teachers."

"Geh… sounds like things are getting pretty troublesome over there."

"Tell me about it." Izumi chuckled as she got out of the bed. She stretched an arm and yawned. "Grey and I are just teleporting to school these days."

Izumi left the room, wanting to brew some herbal tea in the kitchen. It was still too early for Grey to be up yet, given they got a couple of days off from school and work. Not to mention, after what happened last night…. she figured he needed some space to collect his thoughts.

Tensei Iida hummed in response, then stayed quiet for sometime. "...Actually there's a reason why i called you. Yesterday I heard that the villains attacked students from class-1A in USJ. It's all over the news now. some of the details were vague, but there was one student who sustained injuries while others were unharmed…"

Izumi was about to pour water in her mug, but froze in place. Ah.

"...Was that student—"

"It wasn't Iid— I mean, it wasn't your brother." She quickly said. "Don't worry. In fact, if it were not for him getting help ASAP, we wouldn't even be here. " she smiled. "You should be proud. We owe him a big one."

"I see. Thanks. My family wasn't picking up my calls yet so I was worried something happened. How's the condition of that injured classmate?" She froze again. " Is it serious?"

"Um… you worry too much. I'm completely fine now."

A pause. " eh? Can you repeat that?"

She silently sighed heavily, forcing a smile. "I was that injured student. But it's okay, my legs have been fixe—"

"WHHAAA!" She pulled the phone out her ear as she flinched. "Are you okay?! How do you feel now!? Where was Grey—"

"Tensei-San!" She quickly said, trying to calm him down. "Recovery Girl healed me, so I'm able to walk fine now. And as for Grey… " she hesitated, her head turned to the door of his room. "Grey is in Class—1B, so he wasn't there when the villain's attacked. No one in U.A knew until the last minute."

"Ah… I see…" a pause. She heard someone interrupting him from the background. "Sorry, Izumi, i have to go soon. It was nice talking to you after a while."

"Yes. I hope we can meet up soon , too."

"Ah, and one more thing…"

"Yes?"

" … About Tenya… can you do me a favor and look out for him?"

She smiled. "Sure. It's a promise. I'll see you in a while."

"See ya. Bye," the call cut.

However, she didn't know that this simple promise between Iida's older brother and Izumi would have been taken seriously in the near future.

—Late at night, U.a, teacher's conference room—

Despite being a day off for the students. There was still one more thing Izumi and Grey needed to do regarding yesterday's villain attack.

Wearing their work attires to the meeting, Izumi and Grey were behind Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, who stood at the center of the room, as the older man began his monologue, "The police have investigated the group calling themselves, "The League of Villains", and there does not appear to be anyone registered with the name 'Shigaraki', in his 20s or 30s, with a quirk that lets him disintegrate whatever he touches. The same goes for the villain called 'Kurogiri' with the warp gate. They are probably not citizens and are using false names.

"In other words, they are people with unregistered quirks who are part of society's underbelly."

Vlad king crossed his arms, his brows furrowed as he felt unsettled. "You mean, we don't know anything."

"We must hurry," Snipe urged. "Once their ringleader's gun wounds heal, they'll definitely try again. It'll be a pain."

"Their ringleader, Huh." Toshinori Yagi mused, contemplating. "It was a bold attack that normal people wouldn't carry out even if they thought of it. To suddenly go on and on with his wild statements like that … Although he didn't reveal his own quirk, he bragged about Nomu's quirk… And when things didn't go the way he wanted, he was visibly upset." Toshinori rested his back to the chair, touching his ceiling as he looked up with wonder. "Well, the incident with the quirk was also to force my hand, but… "

"Even so, it was foolish to throw away the advantage of having unknown quirks when fighting against heroes." Nezu added, smiling as he always did.

The detectives nodded their heads in agreement.

Toshinori went on, "He made immature, wild statements with a straight face. He bragged about his possessions. He thought everything would simply go his way. Adding that to what I saw of him when he carried out the attack, the picture I get of Shigaraki is someone who hasn't gotten rid of his sense of omnipotence— a man-child."

"A child with power!?" Vlad seemed alarmed by this statement

"Could it be that he never received the quirk counseling every child gets in elementary school?" Midnight questioned with awe.

"Well, What does that have to do with anything?" Snipe asked Toshinori.

"There were 72 villains arrested, the other say at USJ." Izumi started to explain, stepping forward, reading her notes. "They were all small-timers that lurked in the back alleys. But the problem is how they all agreed with the man-child and followed him. In the current environment saturated with heroes, villainous people who have been oppressed may be drawn to that kind of simple-minded evil."

"There are plenty of people who don't know what to do with their quirks." Grey huffed to himself as he narrowed his eyes. His bright yellow eyes darkened for a heartbeat. Then he smiled at the teachers brightly in a silly way. "Like me, for instance, as I nearly set half of my classmates to their early graves! Teehee~"

"DON'T BE SO PROUD, BRAT!" Vlad exploded, getting up and pointing his finger at Grey. The other teachers sweat dropped and gave a flabbergasted expression when the serious atmosphere broke. "Before Endeavor showed, you gave us a hard time!"

"Sorry~" Grey stuck his tongue out playfully. "But thanks for beating me into the right track of my life! GEH!" Grey felt immeasurable pain when Izumi stamped on his toes with her heel boot. The heels!

"I apologize on his behalf." Izumi bowed her head respectfully, shoving Grey's head down, too, with a free hand. "His mannerism clearly needs to be corrected. He never had a great father figure after his mother failed her role."

"That's not, true, Kitty." He lifted his head to look up and smiled like a fiend. "I had lots of father figures."

"If you're saying the men in the movies you watch are your inspirations, then clearly you need better education." She let him go. "Seriously, how did you get into an Elite middle school with that kind of behavior, anyway?"

"You'd be surprised,"

"...Actually, i'd rather not know." After noticing the gaping and incredulous looks from the teachers, Izumi cleared her throat and got back to the main subject, speaking formally again. "Anyway, as for finding our John Doe villain, whose alias is used as Shigaraki— Looks are not the only method we have to identify him with."

"We also have behavior." They snapped their attention to a smug Grey.

"You think you can identify him through behavior?" Vlad questioned, sitting back down.

Izumi removed the black stud diamond shaped earring that was only pierced at the right side and moved to a laptop that was connected to a projector. "If fortune favors us, then yes. But I cannot promise you a 100%. I was lucky Nakamura-San switched my clothes on that day particularly—" she glared at Grey because it was true, the tan boy smiled insufferably "—because I happened to capture the entire event."

After the connection was made with the device earring, the projector showed the footage of the entire fight from Izumi's perspective. The villain's arrival; Kurogiri using his quirk to separate her from her classmates; Aizawa's fight with Nomu and Shigaraki. Some of the teachers grimaced and were horrified by the way the underground hero was manhandled and brutally treated.

"See here," she paused the video. "At the beginning it seemed like his behavior was composed and calm. However, in Aizawa-San's case, there definitely was no need for Shigaraki to fight the hero personally as he already had his trump card. Nomu could take the hero down in a hitch. So why did he take action?"

Grey continued for her as he took a step. "It's simple," he said, his voice no longer showing any element of amusement, but seriousness. "He's compulsive. He has a pathological need to validate. At first, Shigaraki bided his time while observing and analyzing Aizawa-san's quirk and fighting style, but then he soon couldn't resist himself to test out his theory of, "I wonder what would happen if I did this to the hero.""

The teachers were uneasy about this.

Izumi went on with her findings. "However, as soon as the number one hero arrived, his demeanor changed drastically. Showing various shades of his personality other than his resentment towards All MIght—so we know a little more now.

"He is a show-off, a game player with an exceptionally high I.Q. But, it's not smart enough to be part of high I.Q society, like Mensa or Prometheus given how immature and rash he acted at the last minute. And just like All Might said, this guy is a man-child—a very temperamental and undisciplined person. He became inconsistent in the end when things did not go his way—making him dangerously unpredictable, but his decisions were also rash and illogical."

"This is a pretty wide net." Midnight said, amazed by the two teens. "Does the police usually use this method to find unidentifiable villains?"

Both Izumi and Grey shared an awkward look. "Uh, no." Grey said, "not exactly. We usually just follow the evidence trail. What we did here was what, Uh, high intelligence agencies use when tracking crazy anonymous psychopaths."

She frowned. "When you mean high intelligence agencies… are you talking about… the C.I.A?"

"... My uncle… used to work in their field," Izumi nibbled her lips. "...and we just learned some tricks from him…" she cleared her throat. "Anyway, we will expand our search network and continue to assist in arresting the perpetrators. We already showed this footage to the other precincts and alerted uniforms to patrol shady alleys. Hopefully, we can get something and learn more about this villain organization."

Nezu nodded to them. "Thank you, detectives. Especially you, Midoriya. You were just discharged from the hospital after going into such a crisis with the villains. Kudos to you for protecting our students."

"Thank you, sir. I am flattered." She bowed to him. "Nakamura-san and I will take our leave now." The principal nodded, and the two teens left.

" are those two really kids?" All Might questioned.

Nezu chuckled. "Well, given the fact that it was Ookami Daiki who trained them personally, I'd say they really are a unique pair. Of monsters."

"EH!?" They snapped their heads at him. "Monsters, you say?"

"You'll see their true capability during the upcoming sports festival." He hopped off his chair. "How insane the devil can be, and how terrifying The power of the angel is."

Midnight raised her brow. "Are you talking about them, or yourself?"

"Ho, ho,ho…" he laughed.