Shoto grunted as he hit the floor of the training room again. Usually, he much preferred combat practice to quirk training, but his father was in a foul mood. Shoto could guess why. He had been right there when Mikumo had gotten away. But he wasn't supposed to know that. He wasn't supposed to know that his father was a part of that case at all.

Shoto had left the convenience store in a hurry, careful to make sure he wasn't being followed. At the time, implying that he was also some sort of villain seemed like a good way to win Mikumo's favor. But he was starting to think it might have been his worst decision yet. Mikumo had offered to help him. To give him better connections into Japan's filthy underbelly. The thought of it sent a shiver up Shoto's spine.

But worse...Shoto had no idea how to go about finding him again. If he had been able to keep him there just a little longer...call the cops or something...he could have helped in the capture of a villain before even making it to UA.

But then there was the matter of his father. Of the questions that would follow. Would he be proud? Or would he be angry? It was too late now anyway. If Endeavor, or anyone for that matter, found out that he had not only seen Mikumo and not reported it, but helped him escape. If that got out, then it would be on his record forever, and he could kiss any chance of being a hero goodbye.

It was all he could do to hold on, and watch the case from the side lines, and pray to whoever was listening that if Mikumo did get caught, he wouldn't mention meeting Shoto.

Needless to say, Izuku did not sleep well that night.

Back in the convenience store, receiving word that Kurogiri would portal him back to Kamino had been a relief. Izuku hadn't been looking forward to facing the long walk back to the train station, keeping to the shadows in case Endeavor was still lurking about. And now that he knew he could be reported by civilians...it made things a little more complicated. As far he could tell his information hadn't been released to the general public. But it made since that word would be sent out to store owners, considering his recent string of robberies. He should have thought about that before leaving Kamino, come up with some kind of disguise. But it was just as well...if they hadn't known much about him...they did now. And now they could tie him to Musutafu, something that would definitely pull them closer to figuring out his past if they hadn't already.

He'd known of course that killing people out in the middle of the street would be a game changer. There was a difference between petty crime and straight up murder. Even if it had been self defense. The people looking for him weren't going to care. Especially once they took a look at the rest of his record.

It wasn't like this was the first time that he had been asked to put blood on his hands, but he had known he was going to do it beforehand. He had prepared, made himself untraceable, and had Shigaraki and the rest of the league to fall back on in case things got messy. But now things were out of control, and the cops were hot on his trail.

And then there was the matter of the boy he head met. At the time, Todoroki's presence had been a blessing, but now that he'd had time to think it over, Izuku had to admit that it was a little strange that the one person he had met just happened to be another villain. But then...what else could he have been? Not a normal civilian that was for sure. As far as he could tell, the public had yet to be given many details about his case yet, and even if they had. What kind of person would just walk up to someone that they knew was a killer?

He could have been some kind of double agent, working for the heroes. But he had only been Izuku's age, and he hadn't even tried to stop him from getting away. On the contrary he had helped him. But then how did he know about the bodies in Musutafu? And they way he had left...demanding that Izuku didn't follow him, or tell the language that they had met. It didn't make any sense. still...Izuku wouldn't mention him to Shigaraki. if the boy he had met wanted to stay off the radar, Izuku wouldn't be the one to draw attention to him, whether that be from the law or elsewhere.

But even after all that...after all of the day's confusion. After being told that he would have to leave the safety of the bar the day after the biggest mistake of his life, after discovering that the number two hero had been given the task of hunting him down. After coming inches away from getting caught with some random stranger, Kachan had seen him.

Kachan had seen him.

Izuku had known, of course, that they were near his house. But the chances that he would actually run into anyone he knew where one in a million. And the fact that it had been Kachan, out of all the people that could have seen him...it was just the icing on the cake of bad luck that had been shoved down his throat these last few days.

And not only had Kachan seen him, he had seen Kurogiri's portal too. Definitely a worse case scenario. Not only had Izuku been stupid enough to almost get caught by the cops, he had also basically ratted out the league to. Now the only question was whether or not Kachan was going to bother telling the police what he had seen. It had been a long time since Izuku had seen his friend last. There was no way for him to be sure what he was going to do, especially in a situation as strange as this.

At least one stroke of luck was Kurogiri hadn't noticed that Kachan was there. At least Izuku had been spared from explaining that little mishap, but that didn't mean that he was spared from talking at all. He would have to tell Shigaraki how close he had come to being Endeavor's next computer.

Still, even with the promise of a tedious conversation looming over him, Izuku couldn't help but feel himself relax a bit as he stepped into the portal. His feet lifted off from the dirty alleyway in Musutafu, and fell down on the grease polished wood of the bar in Kamino. There was a split second when he would still hear Kachan's breathing behind him, still feel the cool air of his home town, and then the portal closed behind him, cutting it all of like the closing of the door, snapping him back into his real life as the path to his childhood closed behind him.

Even though Izuku had been desperate to return to Musutafu, he had also been desperate to leave it. It had been a mistake to go there, he knew now, but it was over. He was back where he belonged.

"How did it go?"

Shigaraki's sandpaper voice pulled Izuku out of his revelry. This might be where he belonged, but that didn't mean that it was home. He had to earn his keep just like everyone else. And that meant confessing to all of the mistakes that he had made while he was away. Well...most of them anyway.

"Could have been better." Izuku said, throwing himself down into a booth and trying to sound disinterested, "it would have been a lot safer if you hadn't kicked me out."

"We didn't kick you out," Shigaraki argued.

Izuku gave a noncommittal shrug, not wanting to start a fight right before giving bad news. If sure felt like it, he thought.

"It's not like anything bad happened anyway," Shigaraki said, turning back toward the bar, and Kurogiri beyond it who was pretending not to be listening in on them. There was something in his voice that was unfamiliar to Izuku. A kind of hitch. It made him wonder now, for the first time, if something had happened at the bar while he'd been a way. Rather than ask, he hoped to drop the bomb before the opportunity slipped away.

"Endeavor is after me." he said.

"So I've heard."

Izuku felt his stomach flip, in disgust or anger he couldn't tell, "You knew?"

"It was on the news," Shigaraki shrugged.

Izuku knew that he would regret not watching...but still..the idea of all those people talking about the bodies, the possibility of seeing them again. Even the idea of it sent a shiver down his back.

"You knew that the number two hero was on the case," Izuku said, forcing himself to speak slowly, "and you still sent me out there?"

"We sent you out of town," Shigaraki corrected, "if Endeavor could still find you in Musutafu, then that's your fault, not mine."

He was right of course. The only reason that he had been in that situation in the bathroom was because he had been seen but that convenience store worker. but it only made Izuku more angry, not at Shigaraki specifically, though he was the closest thing to take it out on.

"If I hadn't needed to find some place to hide it wouldn't have been an issue at all!"

Usually when he raised his voice he at least got some kind of reaction out of Shigaraki, but this time there was nothing. It was almost like the man was too worried about other things to even care. Like Izuku didn't even matter, "What the hell were you doing that was so important I had to leave."

At this even Kurogiri stiffened.

"Who says what it wasn't just to punish you?" Shigaraki said carefully.

"The look on your face."

Shigaraki swallowed, then turned away, perhaps to hide his expression now that he knew it could betray him.. But Izuku had been right at least. There was something going on. Something that they didn't want to tell him. And that was just as well. Not all of the League's business was his. He'd done plenty of tasks for them without knowing why. But this time it had almost got him killed.

"The only thing that you need to know about it," Shigaraki said, his back still turned, "is that we're going to need some more money. I want it by Monday."

"Are you stupid?" Izuku asked. "I just told you that they're after me I can't just-"

"You can and you will." Shigaraki turned back to him, his face as a mask of barely controlled anger. Izuku realized then, as if for the first time, how much taller the other man was, especially when he was standing so close. "You'll do whatever we tell you because that's your job. Don't want to do it? Fine, you can leave. See how else you fare against the heroes without us."

Izuku's desire to scream and cause a scene closed in on itself, becoming a stone in his heart, pulling him down, giving him the urge to throw up or punch something.

"You can lay low for a day," Shigaraki said, tuning away now that Izuku was sufficiently intimidated. "Then you'll go get the cash, and go out of town this time, how about Musutafu since you love it so much."

Izuku took a deep breath, and swallowed hard. "I'll do it." he said, sounding less content than he had wanted to.

"That's what I thought." Shigaraki said, "Mow run along. The grown ups have things to talk about."

Izuku didn't need to be told twice. He turned on the spot and ran for the door and his little bed room beyond it. He had only just escaped Musutafu. Only just escaped the town that held Kachan, that held Todoroki. And he was going to have to return there in only a few short days.

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