Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

When Inui barged into his office with blood stains hastily washed off his hands and told him that he was taking over Nezu's responsibilities, Aizawa didn't know what to think. He investigated everything himself. All footage of the incident was wiped clean, Nezu's doing for sure, and the only traces that remained of the incident were a few blood spatters on the telephone.

Nezu was gone, that much was clear, but he couldn't tell if Nezu was alive and wanted him to think he was dead or had died and wanted him to think he might still be alive. Times like these made Aizawa reconsider how logical it was to remain employed under someone who made a habit of keeping everyone guessing. With no evidence of what had happened, Aizawa had no choice but to keep Nezu's disappearance quiet.

Three days after the incident, Aizawa was running on caffeinated juice packs and spite. The new support course teacher had been vetted and thrown to the students, the year's budget had been finalized, he reviewed Midoriya's modified suit, and now, he had to take Midoriya to the provisional license exam.

When he overheard Nezu asking Snipe to get back in touch with the vigilante network, he knew that the surprise exam had Nezu wary. Unfortunately, the principal had neglected to share his plans with Aizawa before he took his surprise vacation, nor did he have any idea who this 'Stendhal' person was or what he was planning to do. He had no idea what to expect, but whatever happened, he would be ready.

"How does it fit?" Aizawa asked. "We can always postpone this if something feels wrong with the suit."

Midoriya shook his head. "It's fine. We should get going."

His hopes of rescheduling the exam dashed, Aizawa hopped into the driver seat while Midoriya sat shotgun. After a year of teaching him, Aizawa still had no idea what to make of his problem student. He had seemingly suicidal tendencies, but with his ability to see the future, it was impossible to tell how much of a death wish he had. Inui had been unhelpful in assessing him, as Midoriya had an uncanny ability to shut down any attempts to dig into his past or his feelings. His own attempts at prying into Midoriya's personal life during their training spars had been just as fruitless.

As much as he hated Nezu's approach of watching and waiting, now that he ran the school, Aizawa had to admit there was nothing else he could do. The frustration he felt wasn't logical, but he felt it all the same. Each time he had watched Midoriya throw himself in harm's way, it made him wonder why a child who could foresee everything happening to him would ever let himself get hurt so badly, and chastise himself for letting it happen. He wanted nothing more than to tell Midoriya everything and convince him to let him help, but he was afraid of how the teenager would respond. It would be too easy for Midoriya to disappear.

The venue for the provisional exam was a repurposed warehouse, frequented by heroes wanting to practice their indoor combat. Faulty equipment and piles of defective products donated from Japanese industries littered the storage portion, while narrow corridors, a cubicle farm, and small rooms emulated an office space. At the front desk, a man whose exhausted appearance made Aizawa wince in sympathy blearily greeted them.

"Ah… Midoriya and… Aizawa, I believe. I was expecting Nezu-san."

"Nezu went on vacation," Aizawa said. "Will that be a problem?"

"Not at all. Midoriya, head through the doors. The test will begin the moment you step inside. Aizawa-san, we have a viewing gallery on the upper floor. You may observe the exam from there."

Aizawa put a hand on Midoriya's shoulder. Other students might have been shaking from fear or excitement, or flinch at the sudden contact. Deku stood still as a statue, his heartbeat rock-steady under the teacher's fingers.

"Good luck out there."

"Thank you, Aizawa-sensei. I will be fine."

Midoriya always said that. Aizawa hoped it was confirmation that he foresaw everything ending well, but Aizawa had seen him in the thick of too many disasters to trust that. Failing all else, he could stop Hawks' Quirk in its tracks with a single glance.

Hawks took Midoriya through the standardized tests in a repurposed locker room. The scores were no surprise to Aizawa, but the A-rank agility got a low whistle from the Commission examiner.

With his baseline score registered, Midoriya walked into the warehouse proper with Hawks. Feathers twirled in the air as the battle began in earnest.

Aizawa felt his eyes burning, so worried that he'd blink and miss a sudden strike. The Quirk-resistant glass in front of him was no barrier against his Quirk, but with all the debris in the warehouse, a direct line of sight was unlikely. From his vantage point, all he could do was watch and wonder if he had done enough.

Hawks silently cursed the Commission as he let his feathers drift through the warehouse. Between the low, cramped ceiling and rack upon rack full of crates and pallets, the warehouse gave Deku plenty of points to swing from, lots of projectiles to hurl at him, and plenty of cover to hide from his feathers. Without windows or holes in the roof, Hawks couldn't fly out of reach of Deku's whips, and his feathers lacked room to maneuver in the tight corners. All in all, it was the worst place for him to pick a fight.

At least it made an excellent place to discreetly kill someone.

He'd be lying to himself if he said it didn't bother him that he was about to kill a fellow hero, but he had long ago resigned himself to following the whims of his Commission caretakers. They owned him. They made him. When they said that he had to do everything he could to get cozy with the Meta Liberation Army, he obeyed, conscience be damned. Hawks wondered if he would go to hell for his handlers' sins, and thought meh, probably.

Didn't change what he had to do.

"So, Midoriya-kun, gotta say, I'm a bit hurt you didn't take me up on my internship."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

His voice was about as bland as cup ramen, with a face to match. His overall appearance was easy enough on the eyes, but he had the emotional range of a toaster. Hawks wondered if that was Nezu's doing, and if so, would he be doing the kid a favor by sliding a sharpened feather between his ribs.

"Well, I got Tokoyami-kun, so I'm not too sore about it. He's a bit too broody for my tastes, but that shadow of his can crack a few jokes. Tell ya what, get me a bucket of chicken sometime, and I'll call it even, okay?"

"Sure, that's fine."

Kid couldn't take a joke either. It was a wonder he had such a thriving social media presence, but that was likely Nezu's handiwork as well.

No, he wasn't getting sentimental because Deku was just as much a tool for Nezu as he was for the Commission. He had a job to do.

"Better idea. Get your license, and I'll treat you. I'd feel bad if I put you through the wringer and made you buy lunch afterwards."

"That's fine, you don't need to."

Kid was impossible to read. No flicker of his eyes, no twitches in his stance. Hawks watched him like his namesake, ready to pounce at the slightest movement. When no opening presented itself, he struck. The pinion feather he held in his hand, a foot long and sharp enough to shave with, sliced through the air. Deku's foot rose to meet it. Thin metal plates on Deku's feet blocked the sharp edge, letting Deku push the feather away.

With a feather in each hand, Hawks advanced, slicing at Deku's chest. A couple dozen of his other feathers hovered in the air, stock still and sensitive to every vibration in the air. Hawks could feel each passing wind current through them.

With an eye on the viewing platform, Hawks pushed the battle deeper into the warehouse. A single glance from those Quirk-stopping eyes would leave him half-blind and with a much-reduced arsenal, not ideal when he was already on the ropes in close quarters. Deku wove around his attacks and put the racks between them at every opportunity, but he never struck back. Even when Hawks feigned a few openings, Deku didn't take them.

"Villains aren't going to arrest themselves, Deku. Fight back a little!"

At that command, Deku grappled him by the face and yanked him forward. Two feathers swooped down, slicing the wire and blocking Deku's kick.

"Good form, and nice response time. Shame those wires of yours are easy to cut."

Hawks pressed forward, hoping Deku would commit more to the attack, but Deku went back to his defensive style. Out of curiosity, Hawks flung a feather at Deku's back. Deku whirled and kicked it out of the air, then turned aside Hawks' stab with his forearm.

Backing off, Hawks re-examined Deku. He had been watching for those feathers the whole time, but his eyes had never strayed from him. How had he known the feather was coming? And how much had Nezu told him about his Quirk? The finer details of his Quirk were classified information the Commission had been careful to bury under redactions and red tape, but he wasn't naive enough to believe that Nezu knew anything less about his Quirk than he did.

Hawks glanced back at the warehouse entrance. The viewing platform was out of sight. Feathers drifted off his back by the dozens.

"That's enough of a warm-up. Let's see what you can really do."

Hawks sent feathers in pairs. Izuku dodged and kicked them away, while Hawks watched for an opening. More feathers joined the fray, assaulting Deku from every direction, yet not a single one grazed him. Every time he thought a feather would find a blind spot, Deku turned at the last second, and the feather sped right past him. For all his control, the faster Hawks' feathers traveled, the wider the turns they needed. They were either too slow to chase after him, or too fast to hone in on him.

Well, Deku could dodge one or two, but could he dodge ten?

Hawks gathered a bundle of feathers behind Deku and fired them all at once. Deku leapt high over them, flipped himself up-side-down, and fired his wire at the center of the group. Black threads pinned seven feathers to the floor. Deku fired again, lining up the hovering feathers, and shot three more out of the air, anchoring the wire to a heavy pallet.

Hawks pulled on the trapped feathers. The wires held them fast. He didn't know how many wires Deku had, but he was willing to bet it was at least what his last suit had. Twenty wires. Ten feathers each. Hawks would run out of feathers at that rate.

He let his body operate on autopilot, slashing and jabbing at Deku, while he reviewed his options. Single attacks were too easy to evade, and group attacks could be pinned. Either he had to use every feather in his arsenal at once, which would make a mess he couldn't explain away, or he could make an opening.

Luckily for him, he had an opening in his back pocket.

With the press of a button on the remote his handler gave him, every light in the warehouse flickered and died. In the looming darkness, Hawks closed his eyes and felt the feathers around him. Every breath Deku took, every whisper of wind that accompanied the movements of his arms and legs, painted a vivid picture in Hawks' mind. With his stationary feathers acting like sonar, Hawks could see Deku perfectly, and more importantly, Deku and his teacher would never see the fatal strike coming. He could claim it had been an accident in the dark.

Hawks lunged, his feather aimed at Deku's femoral artery. The sharp edge passed through empty air. He felt Deku dance back at the last possible second. Hawks struck again, and missed. Shock flashed through Hawks' mind. Deku must have heard his footsteps. Two feathers silently swooped down. Deku slapped them both out of the air with a kick that went full circle into Hawks' shoulder.

Reeling, Hawks fell back, mind racing to piece together how Deku had known where his feathers were. Had it really been sound, or did Deku have some sort of night vision with his support gear? Either way, the darkness was more a hindrance than a help. The U.A. staff would get suspicious if it lasted too long and call off the test. He had to finish this, by whatever means necessary, and quickly.

He turned on the lights as he readied every feather he had. He couldn't aim in the dark without stationary feathers to pinpoint Deku's location, nor could he dodge a surprise attack. In the light, the teacher might see him unleash his most devastating hero move, but he was out of time and options.

As his eyes adjusted, he saw Deku's wire whip out at the side of him. He paid it no mind as he formed a cloud of crimson feathers, ready to bombard the area in front of him. Just before he struck, the wire grabbed his shoulder and yanked him sideways. He looked to the side and saw that the wire had bent around the shelving framework. The sudden stumble startled him, but it wouldn't be enough to stop his attack.

A cold, sharp blade pierced Hawks' back, just underneath his right shoulder. The edge left a deep gash against his ribcage. Eyes widening, Hawks whirled and saw a chipped katana, dripping with his own blood, and the filthy, scarred hand that clutched it.

Out from between two crates, Stain leapt and swung the katana at Hawks' neck. Two feathers swooped down from the cloud to block it. Hawks brought his feathers in front of him as a shield while he considered the new threat.

"He was about to turn you into mincemeat, and you still saved his life," the Hero Killer said in a rasping voice. "You have shit taste for heroes, Deku."

Hawks flung a clump of feathers at Stain while he had two more form a makeshift bandage on his side. He winced as the feathers pressed into the wound, but it stemmed the blood flow. All the while, panicked thoughts hopped up on adrenaline darted through him.

He had planned for a teacher intervening, at which point he'd call off the exam and try again next week. A villain, well, that hadn't seemed like a possibility. The facility had tight security, as many heroes trained there. Someone had to have given Stain access and told him exactly when the exam would be. That same someone also probably told him his Quirk's weaknesses, if the timing of Stain's attack was an indication. He had waited until every feather was in motion before making his ambush, when he would be blind to everything else around him. If Deku hadn't pulled him aside, that sword would have gone straight through his spine.

As Deku lunged at Stain, the villain licked the blood on his blade. Hawks crumpled to the floor and groaned as the sudden impact shook his wound. Feathers fell like rain, covering the floor in a red carpet. Stain threw two knives to finish him off, but Deku knocked them out of the air with a flick of his wire and kicked at the hero killer.

In the precious moments Deku bought for him, Hawks reached out to his fallen feathers. Whatever had paralyzed his body didn't affect his Quirk. He worked the feathers into his suit, covering his back and sides like a second skin. When he lifted on them, the feathers raised him to his feet. He felt clumsy pushing himself around, it cut his arsenal in half, and each movement stretched his wound, but the makeshift support gear kept him from taking a stray throwing knife to the chest.

As the battle unfolded, Hawks watched and considered which side he should join. Stain struggled to keep up as Deku's punches and kicks, faster with his lighter suit, darted past any guard he put up. Hawks still needed to kill Deku, but siding with Stain would be difficult to explain. No, it was perfect. Kill Deku, blame Stain, and he'd get off scot free. He just had to be subtle about it.

Five feathers darted in from the side. One made a token pass at Stain, while the other four swung at Izuku's neck. Izuku flowed past all four projectiles and landed a solid punch on Stain's jaw.

Stain's gaze darted at Hawks. "Are you still trying to kill the kid?"

Hawks shrugged. "It's hard to aim like this, and the blood loss is making me woozy. Sue me."

Stain snorted and said, "Like I'd believe anything a fake like you would say. I thought Endeavor was the worst of you, but even he wouldn't stoop so low."

Hawks threw three more feathers. Deku leapt aside, and Stain took a small gash on his thigh. "I'm just doing my job."

"That's the problem," Stain shot back as he hacked at Deku's head. "Heroism isn't a job. It's a duty and a burden."

"Can't it be both? There's definitely days when I feel like this job's weighing me down. It'd be nice to fly free for once, you know?"

Hawks thought that maybe the blood loss really was getting to him. It wasn't like him to get sentimental.

Even with Hawks tripping Deku up with his feathers, the high schooler outpaced the hardened serial killer. His blows staggered Stain, and a wire wrapped completely around his chest to bind his left arm in place. Wielding his sword one-handed, Stain backpedaled as he lashed out.

Hawks figured that Deku was about to win, when the teen paused. The sword was flying straight towards his neck, and for a single heartbeat, Deku relaxed. Hawks watched, amazed, as his work was about to be done for him. At the last possible second, Deku yelled like a wounded animal and bent over backwards. The blade left a long scratch from his cheek to his nose.

As Deku bent towards Hawks, their eyes met. For the first time that day, Hawks saw emotion in his eyes. Panic, terror, fear, expressions he saw regularly as a hero. The emotion vanished as quickly as it came. That reaction practically screamed of mental conditioning, but it didn't fit. If turning him into an emotionless husk was supposed to make him a better fighter, why did it prompt him to accept a blade to the neck? What the hell did Nezu do to the kid?

Stain raised the blade to his mouth. Izuku's foot lashed out, clipping Stain on the chin. A wire followed it, covering Stain's mouth. The other end was fired at his chest, and the tension forced Stain to bend his head forward. Stain tugged at the wires, but he couldn't make an opening to slip his tongue out.

Hawks was getting light-headed, and a heavy pounding at the locked warehouse door gave him a ticking clock for killing Deku. Deku was losing blood, but he was losing it faster, and he couldn't count on Stain to finish off the kid. He needed to do something, fast.

Hawks looked up at the shelving units around them. They were bolted to the walls, but with some digging from his feathers, they came undone. When he had a whole section cut loose, he put every feather he had behind the flimsy steel structure and pushed it forwards. As it tipped, he moved himself in the path of an empty section.

Deku grappled out of there, but Hawks sliced through the wires. As Deku fell, cloth billowed out from between his arms, and he glided the rest of the way to safety. Stain, stuck in the path of the makeshift avalanche, ducked behind the next row of shelves. That first shelf slammed into the next, and the sheer weight snapped the few bolts holding it in place. The other rows fell like dominos, one after the next, all the way to the far wall. Pallets and cases tumbled to the ground, spilling packets of hygiene products and expired canned goods.

When the dust settled, Stain was gone. Eraserhead clambered over the fallen wreckage and found Hawks in his little nook. He sprinted over, capture scarf loose and drifting around him, ready to strike at the slightest movement.

"Where is Midoriya?"

"Over here, Aizawa-sensei."

Deku walked nimbly over the precarious wreckage. His face was smeared with blood, but none of the pain showed in his face. Whatever had jolted him out of his trance hadn't lasted. Hawks smothered any thoughts of pity. He had a job to do. He had never failed before, and he wasn't about to start now. He just had to find…

The room spun around him. Midoriya ran to catch him. As Hawks blacked out, he thought to himself that if he could just raise his arm high enough, he could slice an artery.

Whether it was because he couldn't or wouldn't find the strength to kill the kid that had saved his life, Hawks was too tired to know.

Izuku took deep breaths as he carried Hawks out of the training room. Despite the calmness his Quirk forced over him, his chest wanted to hyperventilate. For that peaceful, horrifying moment, Izuku stood there and watched that blade creep closer to his neck. He had known that moment was coming, but the ghost of events beyond it, as though he saw and felt everything through a gossamer blanket, had tricked him into thinking he would survive somehow. As best he could tell, it was as though he had two futures overlapping. As that sword had been the sole difference, those overlapping visions had been blurry enough that he never realized what was happening.

He almost hadn't dodged. He almost didn't want to. For a moment, he felt the blade bite into his neck, a sharp, stinging sensation that faded to numbness when it hit his spine, an almost giddy, weightless sensation as his brain starved for oxygen, then nothing. He had known that nothing his whole life, but never had it seemed so liberating. All those bottled-up feelings, gnawing at his insides, gone. His helplessness, in the face of the death and suffering that surrounded him, gone. Mina's face, as he had last seen it, hints of tears in her eyes as she brought his world crashing down around him, gone.

That last thought had shaken him out of his stupor. For the first time in ten years, Izuku fought back against his Quirk. He pushed against the vision of death, dreading the pain it would bring, but the vision vanished without resistance. Yelling himself hoarse, Izuku bent backwards, blade skimming his face as the future he had half-seen unveiled itself.

Now, in the wake of that moment, Izuku felt terrified inside the cocoon of his Quirk. He had always assumed that his Quirk showed him exactly what had to happen, but for the first time, it seemed as though it had given him a choice. The only other time he had felt that vagueness in his future was the first day of school, before Aizawa had erased his Quirk and flipped his whole life on its head. Had he made some kind of choice there as well? How much control did he have over his Quirk? Had he lived his entire ten years doing nothing, when he could have taken the reins and actually helped people?

The more Izuku thought about his Quirk, the more he realized how little he knew. He had never bothered turning his own Quirk analysis inward, never bothered to understand the seemingly insurmountable force that had governed every facet of his life.

As he passed Hawks off to a paramedic and left for U.A. with Aizawa, Izuku racked his brain for answers, already knowing he wouldn't find any. All he knew was that the spring retreat had the same vague haziness about it, except where he had two outcomes, he could only imagine there were thousands, piled on top of each other until his perception was an incomprehensible smear.

The countless outcomes only horrified Izuku.

Stain coughed and sputtered as he pried the sticky strands off his face. Dust covered him from head to toe, and his head throbbed where Deku had kicked him. He slipped into a nearby alley and found himself face to face with a masked man.

"From that scowl, I'm guessing Hawks survived."

"Nearly had him," Stain grumbled. "Stupid kid got in the way."

"And Deku?"

"Fine. Put a scratch on him, but he'll live." Stain sauntered up to the man and pressed a knife against his chest. "I did you a favor for old time's sake, but now I want answers. Why the hell are there so many people after that kid? And why did you set me up to save him?"

Snipe's gun shifted subtly, showing Stain that it was aimed at his heart. "There's a faction looking to overthrow the Hero Commission. As much as you hate heroes, these guys are worse." The pistol slowly dropped to his side, but Stain didn't let up with the knife. "If you're interested, we could use your help."

Stain thought back, to the ice-wielder spouting Quirk supremacy propaganda with his dying breaths. The heroes needed to die, but it wouldn't matter if something worse took their place.

Stain sheathed his knife. "Cross me, and I will kill you."

"Same to you, pard'ner."

A/N: nothing much to report this week either, except my third technician has officially moved shifts. I really hope a replacement comes soon, otherwise I'll be in for a very interesting few months. At least said technician is happier on the shift they're currently on, remarkable given it's third shift. I swear she's a vampire. Worked at a blood donation clinic (also 3rd shift), had bats in her house on a regular basis, and she's a ginger that sunburns very easily. Need I go on?

It's late, I'm tired. On with the reviews.

Actually, before that, just hit 2,200 followers on the dot. Woohoo! 1,765 faves as well. Gimme more please.

And that concludes our PSA. Now, reviews!

To LOTRFOREVER, Bakugo is far from done with his rehabilitation, but progress is progress. I don't like overnight changes either, and I originally wanted his internship to be a couple months long. One month was about as long as I could push it.

Para Demonknight-24, porque no puedo resistir de responder en español, simplemente diré que tengo razón para decir que Bakugo será persona importante en este cuento.

To Sara9730, you're not the first person to wonder that, and no, I haven't read Worm. Definitely curious though.

To tiwari2041 and Fanforger, I'm glad that the scene resonated with you, given that I've never had the dubious honor of going through a break-up. Relationships I went through either died a slow and ignominious death with no definitive cut-off or never took off in the first place. /shrugs

To pippothehippo, appreciated, but a little late for this story to follow a canonical timeline. Will think about it next time around.

To say, assuming there is even the tiniest probability of success, odds are Izuku would eventually find it.

Wow, lots of reviews this time around. Keep them coming, and see you all next week!