Looking up at the sudden sound of something fast approaching their position, Mirio Togata activated Permeation in the top half of his body, even as he caught a brief glimpse of Shoto-kun ducking down. Rising back to his feet as soon as he could safely deactivate his Quirk, Mirio looked around, glancing down briefly at Izuku-kun, before catching sight of something extremely fast moving in the corner of his right eye. Turning his head, Mirio found that it was an old man – probably the retired Hero, given the costume he was wearing – then was forced to duck as the retired Pro darted over his head.

"That was a good reaction, zygote," the old Pro said, grinning widely at him in a way that couldn't help but remind him of every piece of All Might merchandise that Sir had in and around his office, and in the lobby of his Agency. "I'm starting to think this might not be a complete waste of my time."

"Grandpa Sora," Izuku-kun grumbled, sitting up and turning an annoyed expression on the shirt he'd been wearing. "You could have at least told me to wear something I didn't mind getting ketchup stains on."

Grinning, both to reassure Izuku-kun that things were going to be all right, and because this whole situation really was pretty funny, Mirio activated Permeation again as Izuku-kun's grandpa came charging at him again.

"That's some quick thinking, zygote," the old Hero said, grinning as widely as All Might as the pair of them faced off with each other.

Mirio found himself wondering, for the few breathless moments between the old Hero leaping off of the wall and him having to activate Permeation again to dodge, if this had been one of the people who had inspired All Might to become the Hero and Symbol of Peace that he'd been for so long. Glancing back at Shoto and Izuku-kun, Mirio found that Shoto had raised an ice-barrier to protect not only himself, but Izuku-kun as well. He was glad to know that the both of them would have at least some protection.

At least for long enough that the both of them would be able to get their feet back under them.

~MHA~

Narrowing his eyes, even as he felt himself grinning all the wider, Sorahiko kept moving; testing those two zygotes to determine just who was going to be the Ninth Holder was going to be a lot less interesting than he'd been hoping for, if all the mini-Todoroki was going to do was stare at him from behind that ice-barrier of his. Still, he'd at least try to give both of those zygotes a chance to impress him, even though the mini Todoroki didn't seem all that interested in the prospect, if the way he was acting was any indication.

Togata, who seemed to have been all but molded in Toshi's image by that stiff-necked fanboy of a former Sidekick of his, seemed to have a lot of skill with that phasing Quirk of his; not that he'd been expecting anything less, given just how driven that fanboy had proven himself to be over the years. Still, Sorahiko was hardly going to hold that kind of thing against him; that fanboy was the kind to try to cover all his bases.

And, Toshi did deserve the chance to retire before he took any major injuries, which was why he wasn't going to begrudge the appearance of either of these zygotes.

The tyke, still clearly huffy about that shirt of his, had gone off to the laundry room presumably to see if he would be able to get those ketchup stains he was so touchy about out of his shirt. Rolling his eyes, even as he continued clashing with Togata and the mini-Todoroki, Sorahiko put the tyke out of his mind. It was one of the bad habits he'd been trying to knock out of the tyke's head: he always did tend to think too much while he was fighting.

"All right, zygotes," he said, once Togata and the mini-Todoroki were sprawled out on the floor, each trying to catch their respective breaths. "That's enough for today. Let's get some grub."

"Thank you, sir!" Togata said, popping up from the floor, a grin to rival Toshi's in his prime stretching his face.

"Yeah, thanks," mini-Todoroki said, standing and making his own way to the kitchen.

Out of the corner of his right eye, he caught sight of the tyke making his way back in. There were a few lessons he wanted to impart to the tyke in particular, but that could wait until he'd finished putting the zygotes through their paces.

~MHA~

Once Grandpa Sorahiko had finished putting Togata-sempai and Todoroki-san through their paces and they were all able to rest for the night, Izuku sighed as he sat up in bed. Grandpa Sorahiko had seemed more than a little interested in the Quirk that he'd copied from Bambaa-chan, both in seeing Izuku take on the shape the Quirk turned him into when Izuku would pull it up from the depths of his own All For One, and also in something else; something that he didn't seem willing to talk about. He was trying not to think too much about the fact that he was essentially at Grandpa Sorahiko's mercy, waiting to find out just what the man was planning, before he would be able make his own plans to deal with… whatever was going to happen when Grandpa Sorahiko finally sprung whatever kind of new thing he'd thought up on him.

There were even times Izuku had found himself actually in the process of calling Dad, before he would think better of what he was doing and hang up again.

The next morning, once the three of them had gotten at least some rest, Izuku found himself bounced out of bed by an altogether too enthusiastic Grandpa Sorahiko.

"You're not thinking you'd get the chance to sleep the whole day away, did you, tyke?"

Not with you breathing down my neck, Izuku was careful not to say; that kind of sass would have only gotten him in trouble. Both by reminding Grandpa Sorahiko of Dad, and showing how similar the both of them truly were. That would only serve to make whatever kind of training Grandpa Sorahiko had in mind all the worse. So, with a sigh, Izuku made his way to the bathroom – one of the many, in the building that Grandpa Sorahiko operated in while he was working – so he could wash up and start the day properly. Once he'd finished cleaning up and getting ready for whatever they were going to be doing that morning, Izuku made his way down to the kitchen to get himself some food.

Standing in front of the refrigerator, hoping that Grandpa Sorahiko had gotten something besides taiyaki, Izuku pulled it open and started looking through the containers of food. Sighing in relief as he found a container of katsudon, Izuku smiled as he caught sight of the note taped to the bowl: In light of Sorahiko's request, I thought that you might enjoy having something besidestaiyaki to eat while you're staying with him. If you need anything else, Izuku, do let me know. Dad had signed the note with a flourish, drawing a little smiling, winking face under his name.

He'd either gotten too used to having emojis close at hand while he was on his phone, or he'd done it to annoy Grandpa Sorahiko; Dad did a lot of things to annoy Grandpa Sorahiko.

Jumping out of the way as Grandpa Sorahiko himself came crashing into the kitchen, hot on the trail of Togata-sempai, Izuku carefully make his way over to the table so he could settle down to eat in at least relative peace. Togata-sempai's shirt ended up on the floor as he was forced to use his Quirk again, and Izuku couldn't help but wonder just where Todoroki-san was. And how he was doing, since Grandpa Sorahiko seemed bound and determined to test the both of them, and Togata-sempai was the only one present at the moment.

~MHA~

He'd taken the precaution of barricading his door with ice so he could get some actual sleep; Father would have just melted through it, but the man he was training under – who truly was a retired Pro Hero, a man who'd gone by the name of Gran Torino, and who had once worked beside All Might when the both of them were younger – seemed to lack the kind of power that Father possessed. So Shoto had been able to get at least enough sleep that he felt refreshed rather than completely exhausted. Father would have been furious, of course, so when Shoto made his way down to the kitchen to have breakfast, he couldn't help the tension resonating through his entire frame.

He'd be keeping an eye on Midoriya, since he seemed to know Gran Torino better than either him or Togata-sempai, to see how his green-haired classmate reacted to the man; he'd build his own reactions off of that.

Settling down at the table with the other two who'd been invited alongside him, Shoto looked to Midoriya. He seemed calm, steady; nothing that seemed to indicate that Shoto should be expecting anything but training from the man who had invited them to this place. So, Shoto allowed himself down at least enough to have the first meal of their respective days alongside him.

When the three of them were all done with their respective meals, Shoto followed Midoriya and Togata-sempai into another room, and quickly found himself forced to fight Gran Torino once more. The old man was fast, leaping around and rebounding off of the ice-constructs that Shoto raised in an attempt to protect himself from being kicked in the head, and Shoto found himself on the defensive again. Keeping his head down as best as he could, something that he'd learned during his training sessions with Father, Shoto kept an eye out for Togata-sempai.

It was possible that Gran Torino would have the pair of them fighting each other, the same way that Father had tried to have him and Touya fight; one of the many things that had driven the eldest of his brothers to seek out Midoriya's father, one of the many things that had driven Touya away from Father, leading him to cut the man out of his life to the point where the pair of them would only speak by proxy.

The way that Gran Torino seemed to be keeping at least one eye on him at all times, even when he was launching attacks on Togata-sempai or giving advice to Midoriya, was unsettling in the same kind of way that finding Father's eye on him during those times when he would be forced to spar against Touya had been. He didn't know just what it was that Gran Torino wanted from him, however, since he hadn't yet found himself set directly against Togata-sempai, or even Midoriya, for that matter. Father would have done it without hesitation, given how obviously close the pair of them had been growing during the time they spent together.

It was the same reason that he and Touya had been forced to spar by Father, back when Touya had still been living with the rest of them.

~MHA~

He'd been watching mini-Todoroki while they'd all been sparring, and the more he'd seen, the less Sorahiko had liked it. The mini-Todoroki had been tense and on-edge during the whole first couple days those zygotes had been staying with him and the tyke, and now finding himself with some time to think about how he was going to proceed with the next phases of their respective training, Sorahiko was also finding himself coming to an unfortunate conclusion. He knew what he was going to need to do next, though he wasn't particularly pleased about it.

Sighing as he dialed a familiar number, Sorahiko settled back into his seat.

"Midoriya," he said, before the brat could pull him back into one of their usual back-and-forths that went nowhere but where the brat wanted them to.

"This sounds serious," the brat said, clearly having heard the tone of his voice and actually responded to it, for once. "However, given the fact that you've been training Shoto-kun, I suppose I might be able to guess just what it was that you contacted me about."

"Yeah," he muttered, pleased that he wouldn't have to explain something like that; with the kind of suspicions he was having, Sorahiko knew he'd be needing all the support he could gain, even from someone like the brat. "He's been tense, flinching every time I tried to engage him, but he also seemed to be forcing himself to fight through all that."

"And, while normally you would be all in favor of pushing someone beyond their limits, seeing the way Shoto-kun reacted to you, you realized that there was far more to Shoto-kun's reaction than you had been thinking, when you first met up with him and Mirio-chan."

"That's it," he said, nodding; for all that Midoriya acted like a brat, he was older than Sorahiko himself, and while it was rare that he acted like it, the brat could actually act his age when it came down to it. "It seems as though Todoroki hasn't been treating his family the way a Hero should."

"Given the way Shoto-kun reacted to me, I would have to agree with such an assessment," the brat said, a subtle sort of anger in his tone.

Time would tell what they'd be able to dig up about what Todoroki was actually doing, but he'd make sure to keep an eye on the mini-Todoroki while they were all training. Even if there wasn't anything he could do at the moment, Sorahiko knew that there was at least one other person whose input he could solicit in this particular case. If they were going to start building a case against Enji Todoroki, after all, the best person to consult would be his eldest son, Touya.

Either that or his wife, but as a retired Hero it would be a great deal simpler for him to make contact with Flashfire than it would be to look up a civilian woman.

~MHA~

Finding himself asked to remain in the form that Bambaa-chan's Quirk granted to him for as long as he could, Izuku had ended up asking Bambaa-chan if he could borrow a pair of her shoes, and then calling up Warp Gate so that he could grab them out of her room. Grandpa Sorahiko would blindfold him as soon as he'd finished the transformation, leaving him to gradually adjust to the new senses – as well as the ones that were simply enhanced – that same transformation granted him. Getting used to the sense of touch that his whiskers granted him was the strangest thing, since it almost felt like he was touching the air itself.

Before, he'd only spent long enough in his version of Bambaa-chan's form to run the last heat of the obstacle race, or to settle down those kids at the Provisional License Exam. And back then, he hadn't really been able to focus any of his attention on the senses of the form he was borrowing. Finding himself completely confronted with just how differently Bambaa-chan perceived the world around her, there was one thing that really stood out: Bambaa-chan's color-vision was just the worst.

He could barely tell that there even were colors, and even though the edges of objects were more than a little fuzzy, it was the almost complete lack of color that really got to him; it really did explain why she didn't really share his interest in Hero costumes, since she couldn't get the full, intended effect of any of them.

Still, in addition to finding out how completely differently Bambaa-chan perceived the world around her, Izuku was also trying to keep an eye on Todoroki-san. He didn't seem to be doing all that well, flinching whenever Grandpa Sorahiko would try to spar with him. Izuku had been doing whatever he could to help Todoroki-san feel better, explaining as best as he could just what Grandpa Sorahiko was trying to do, as well as what kind of person he was. He didn't quite know if he was really getting through to Todoroki-san, though, since there had always been a sort of reserve about Todoroki-san.

An icy one, appropriately enough, but nonetheless a sort of reserve that seemed to stand between Todoroki-san and the world as a whole.

~MHA~

He'd long since decided upon the next course of action he was going to take, and had been undertaking preparations to depart for the mission that he had assigned himself; his rescue of the child that he had failed, as well as the one whose suffering he hadn't considered but should have. As he laid out the clothes, weapons, and the rudimentary armor that would serve him for the duration of this new mission of his, Chizome caught sight of the armor or the Pro Hero Stendhal. It almost seemed as though his alter ego as watching over him, in a sense.

He could hardly have explained it to anyone who might have thought to ask, and yet that was what he felt.

Narrowing his eyes as he returned his attention to the task he had set before himself, Chizome began dressing in the black, semi-loose pants, dark-blue long-sleeved shirt, and the deep black, hooded sweat-shirt that would serve to further conceal his identity while he was searching. Once he was fully attired, Chizome began strapping on the armored knuckle-dusters that he'd purchased from a gray-market vendor. The kind who didn't ask questions, but who also operated somewhat legally.

He hardly wished to outright become a Villain, but it seemed as though his nature as a Vigilante – the Stendhal that he had once been – would not allow him to stand aside, even though the strictures that he operated under as a Pro Hero would not allow for this kind of action.

~MHA~

The sound of someone else coming into the kitchen with him drew Niseko's attention, mostly because whoever it was seemed to be sounded like they were running from something. Turning, Niseko saw the girl he'd been trying to talk to – and failing every time, since Chisaki-san always seemed to be close enough to stop him – running away from one of the other men who either lived or worked in this place. Wherever this place was; he hadn't seen much of it, besides the high-walled garden, the room he'd been confined in, and the room that Chisaki-san had taken him to.

When the girl – whose name he hadn't managed to learn, even after asking Chisaki-san about her – ran past him, dodging around a shelf filled with dishes, Niseko made his way over to the shelf. Grabbing it, just as the girl ran past him, Niseko yanked it sharply to the right, tipping it and sending the dishes on it crashing to the ground with the sounds of the sharp, sustained shattering of all the dishes. He caught the girl's red eyes as she turned around, and nodded her to leave.

At least one of them should be able to get out of this place.

Shuddering as he caught sight of Chisaki-san, looming over the right shoulder of the man who'd been following the girl he'd been trying to meet for such a long time, Niseko closed his eyes as the blond man with the scruffy beard reared back like he was going to slap Niseko's face. The horrible sound of Chisaki-san's Quirk going to work on the man he'd just seen was almost worse than actually seeing it happen, but Niseko still clenched his eyes shut and tried not to think about that. The blond man probably hadn't been than good of a person, but no one deserved to die like that.

Niseko shuddered as he felt Chisaki-san's hand on his left cheek, tensing as Chisaki-san lifted his chin, the same way he always seemed to do when he wanted to talk.

"Niseko-chan, it's all right. I know the falling shelf had to have startled you, but there's no reason for you to worry about what happened here. I'll take care of you; I'll take care of everything."

As Chisaki-san's hand closed tightly around his right wrist, Niseko could only hope that the girl he'd just helped to escape would be all right; he could only hope that she'd be able to find someone to help her, now that he couldn't anymore.

~MHA~

Looking over at Hisashi, dressed in the full regalia of Sensei – the updated costume; the one that he'd modeled after a character from that old, British television program that he seemed bound and determined to introduce everyone who tried to make friends with him to – Toshinori chuckled softly.

"First of all, thank you for agreeing to this interview," the man who'd come into the media room with them said, smiling widely as the three of them all settled down at the large table.

"Of course, Tokuda-san," Hisashi said, an amused smirk curling across his face. "It's simpler than having people accosting me in the streets, after all."

Tokuda-san laughed. "I guess you are the kind of person who likes to keep his home life separate from his work life."

As the pair of them fell into conversation, discussing Hisashi's tenure as a Councilman, and just why it was that he'd chosen first to become an Underground Hero, and then to reveal himself and take his place as a Pro, Toshinori found himself thinking back. This reporter – Taneo Tokuda, who worked as a freelancer – seemed more than a little familiar to him. Still, he'd met a lot of people during the course of his work as All Might, so this man could easily be one of them. Still, when he'd first come up to the gates of U.A., a smile on his face and his press badge in his hand, Toshinori had gotten the feeling that the man was enamored with him in particular.

When Hisashi and Tokuda-san moved onto the subject of Izuku, who'd been seen more than a few times around the Might Agency, back when he was a baby, and sometimes when he was a toddler, back when he'd volunteered to look after the boy while Hisashi was at work.

"So, I suppose you came up with the nickname Little Koala due to Izuku's habit of climbing on you when he was young," Tokuda-san asked, a gentle smile on his face as he looked down at the notes he'd presumably taken before he'd come to U.A. in the first place.

Toshinori laughed, remembering back to when Izuku was a tiny, climby little toddler. "Yeah, he really did enjoy using me as his own personal jungle gym, back then."

"It makes sense that the both of you would be so familiar with each other, considering Sensei's line of work," Tokuda-san said, smiling gently. "Both of them, in fact."

"All Might-kun was always more than happy to look after Izuku-chan," Hisashi said, smiling in that cheerfully amused way he always seemed to do.

Smiling more widely for the fond, nostalgic feelings that Tokuda-san's latest line of questioning had brought out for him, Toshinori found himself wondering how Izuku was actually doing. He'd gone back to Sir's Agency, of course, since Sir had basically made him a standing offer, but Toshinori still found himself wondering what the boy he'd raised almost as his own was actually up to.