To say that the last few weeks were hectic would've been the understatement of the century.

Musutafu as a whole had been shaken to its core by the damage and devastation that was left in its wake by Zeke and the unknown villains that used him for their schemes. Numerous heroes and sidekicks were currently incapacitated and out of commission due to the attack with Endeavor and Hawks being the most notable ones.

Standing on the edge of a building overlooking a darker part of the city, Aizawa was geared out and ready to begin the operation. Perched atop the edge of a building overlooking the darker part of the city, his eyes while tired had remained on alert awaiting his partner for the night.

"Where is he?" Aizawa thought. "We don't have all night and we need to move before they catch wind and evacuate."

Toshinori had reminded him that tonight was the night that his mentor was supposed to meet him in order to have their talk that had been plaguing Aizawa's mind non stop for the past few weeks. Aizawa in turn figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to test the man's skill and combat prowess to see just how good this man truly was.

Aizawa had already begun the investigation long before this incident occurred, but the attack on the city left him with no other option, but to take a pre-emptive strike on the group he was looking into. Looking at the small sheltered off building that looked far too upscale to be considered run down or abandoned, he frowned. "This is giving me a bad feeling already and the night has just gotten started." He irked to himself.

Midnight slowly began to approach and Aizawa thought about rescheduling the attack as the bad feeling in his gut had only grown larger in his waiting. "I don't want to go in alone, but there's no time to keep waiting. I'll just call Toshinori back and let him know the operation will be resche-,"

"Sorry I'm late, these old bones don't move as fast as they normally would've."

Looking behind him he saw a small man dressed in white and yellow costume with thick looking gloves and boots along with a domino mask. Aizawa couldn't believe what he was seeing. "This is the man who trained the current number one hero?"

"Unbelievable, he looks like he can barely move for God's sake!"

"Now what's that look on your face for? The man said with a sly grin. "Don't underestimate me just because I'm old. In my prime I'd be able to take all you youngsters with no sweat."

Nodding in understanding, Aizawa turned back to his objective and decided it was time to begin filling the man in on what was about to happen. "Sure, whatever you say. Although I do have a few questions for you if you don't mind," he finished with apathy and mild curiosity in his voice.

"How long have you been a pro hero and why have I never heard of you?"

"I've been a pro hero for decades and I never was one for the spotlight so I stayed low on people's radar until a certain goal of mine had been accomplished. Afterwards I retired, but stayed in the know thanks to Toshinori."

"Kind of glad he did if that man truly has returned from the grave." Walking closer to where Aizawa was perched, Torino removed his mask and looked directly into his eyes.

"Toshinori told me he filled you in on everything.." trailing off before continuing. "This man is unlike any villain you've faced in your lifetime, boy and if you aren't ready to sacrifice life and limb to fight against him then you'll be nothing but dead weight to us and especially me."

"As I'm sure you've been made aware, he's managed to kill every other user of One For All except Toshinori and even then, he left irreversible damage to his body," he stated with contempt rising in his voice.

"Are you sure, you're up for this?"

Aizawa steeled his gaze up to meet his eyes knowing he'd already made up his mind years ago when it came to dealing with threats like this. "I already promised someone that I'd always push forward as a hero and won't half ass anything. If I went back on my word now, I wouldn't be able to face him when we meet again."

As he said this a certain white haired teen popped into his head and filled his heart with sadness even if his calm and determined exterior didn't show it.

"...Well how about that." Torino said with another sly grin. "Alright you have my stamp of approval. Any man who talks like that has definitely seen his fair share of battles and heartache while also knowing when it's time to fight with your life on the line. You really are a hero worthy of my respect, Eraserhead."

Looking back towards their current target, Aizawa began to push his goggles down to eyes and activated his quirk as if to ready himself at any given moment for an attack or ambush.

"So, what exactly makes this place such a high priority on your list, Eraser?"

"The moment the attack went off downtown, the underworld was set ablaze in a sense with copycats attempting to steal the credit and make a name for themselves. Because of this I've been investigating nonstop for the past few weeks and along the way, turned up something peculiar."

"There has been a group that has been a constant name in everyone's mouth since the attack even if most weren't willing to give up the information."

"They call themselves the Meta Liberation Army or M.L.A. and as of right now, we know next to nothing about them."

"Any time I get close enough to somebody who has connections to them, they clam up and refuse to say more. It's like they fear something greater than themselves and I have a feeling that they may be connected to this All For One character." He finished still not looking away from his goal.

"Wait, so you think the man has assembled an army?!" Panic rising in his voice. "We need to go after him immediately!"

"No, I still don't have the greenlight from the commission and All Might himself is still skeptical on the whole idea too. At least for right now."

"The only thing I have clearance for is a midnight raid and interrogation of a small time band of criminals that have ties to them if my information is correct and they plan on moving tonight due to somehow information getting leaked from someone we believe is feeding them information."

Torino grew wide eyes before sighing, "You think we have a mole huh."

"Are you positive it's the only way they could've known about the investigation?"

"There's absolutely no possible way, they know about us looking into them without someone on the inside feeding them info. Since we can't be too sure who the mole actually is, we decided to keep it between us meaning, Me, you, Toshinori, Tsukauchi and a few others who aren't important at the moment as they were injured in the attack."

"Damn, this has AFO written all over it." Torino thought to himself bitterly. "That asshole just can't seem to stay dead."

"This place we're standing in front of is a storage facility that I've seen a few of them come and go from time to time carrying goods and other paraphernalia. I have no idea what's inside of it as it's normally guarded at all times of the day and night, but I took out a few of their guards near the rear exit about an hour ago so we have a straight shot into the building."

"How many enemies do you think we're dealing with here, Eraser? There are only two of us here after all." Torino asked.

"Twenty...no maybe thirty at the maximum. From my observations, there has never been more than thirty people in this unit at any given time. Unless your old age has slowed you down, we should be able to take them no problem."

"If not I can always call Toshinori back and let him know you can't handle it." Aizawa said with a hint of teasing.

"You brats get cockier and cockier each generation." He mumbled. "Don't worry, I didn't plan on slowing you down. If anything, I thought even in my old age I'd still be able to out pace most of you youngsters."

"Oh yeah, mind giving me a rundown of you quirk before we head in? I want to be aware of anything that might put you in danger so I can plan ahead as we move. Toshinori said it had something to do with air boosting, but I'd rather hear how it works from the source himself."

"My quirk 'Jet' grants me the ability to expel air from open holes on the soles of my feet. This allows me to fly around a limited range as well as move faster than the eye can follow, even on the ground." Boosting himself off the ground in a zigzag motion to demonstrate first hand how it works.

"Don't let this small demonstration fool you. In a real fight, I'd almost be impossible to see and catch unless you're high level enough."

"Alright I think we can begin the operation, if you're ready, Torino." Aizawa said readying himself to jump off the building. "We only get one shot at this."

Nodding to the man in front of him, both men leaped off the building and began making their way towards the base in front of them.

Stuck in the hospital bed with not much to do had been extremely boring and as Zeke soon realized that he was being detained to a degree limiting his freedom, he became highly agitated whenever left alone for extended periods of time. "Man, this sucks."

"Mr. Aizawa is out on his nightly patrols and anyone else remotely interesting is busy too. What the hell am I supposed to do when I can't even leave the room I'm in?"

Hearing the door to his room begin to open, he noticed a familiar skeletal man with blond hair and a kind warming aura filled the room once again.

"There's that aura again." He happily thought. "Feels good."

"Hello again, young Zeke. How have you been?" Toshinori said while closing the door behind him.

"Mr. Toshinori, I didn't think I'd see you again so soon. What are you doing here?"

"I've honestly been meaning to come and check up on you, but things have gotten quite busy these past few weeks."

Looking down at his hands gripping the sheets, he was once again hesitant in what he should say in the matter. "Sorry."

"If only I hadn't shown up, so many people wouldn't have gotten hurt that day." Zeke dejectedly stated while not looking the man in the eyes.

"My memory still shows no signs of coming back and from what I've been told by Mr. Tsukauchi and Mr. Aizawa, there's no records of me existing in any parts of Germany or any other part of the world. I speak German yet I seemingly don't exist there either," Rubbing his temples before another headache sets in, he continued, "It's honestly really frustrating."

"Now don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. The doctors managed to examine me and found nothing wrong with me. They said I'm a healthy twelve year old boy whose only issue is memory loss."

"It's just.." Finally looking Toshinori in the eyes, "I want answers that I know won't be coming anytime soon."

Seeing the plight of this the boy began to set Toshinori's heart ablaze and he quickly made his way over to his bedside.

"Do not worry, I'm sure in due time your memory shall return," he said with another warm smile, "These things take time and you can't rush these things."

"Also your Japanese is much better than Aizawa led me to believe. It's almost like you're a native speaker if I'm being honest, Zeke." Hearing Toshinori praise him gave rise to a faint blush on the boy's cheeks.

"Well, it's not much to do all day other than study and watch tv. Not being able to understand any of the cartoons or other shows on the air was a pretty big motivation for me," He mumbled ever so slightly, but Toshinori had heard it anyway.

"No matter the reason, I'm glad you went above and beyond with your short term goal in mind and the progress you made in such a short amount of time is commendable."

Feeling a smile come onto his face after seeing the young man's worries melt away, he placed a hand on Zeke's shoulder as a show of support. "Even if he refuses I have to see it again."

"Um.." Zeke began very nervously, "Do you mind if I look at your aura again with my quirk?"

The question certainly caught him off guard even if his face didn't show it. "Why do you want to if you don't mind me asking? I'm quirkless and other than my relation to All Might, I'm nothing special.

"That's not true at all sir. You have the kindest and warmest aura I've ever seen." Zeke said with confidence.

"I just-" Blushing again he continued, "I just want to be able to feel it again, that's all."

"It makes me feel safe and I can't understand why."

The real reason, Toshinori had stayed away from the boy and was so put off from visiting him wasn't due to being busy with villains, it was due to the quirk Zeke possessed and it terrified him to no end. "The boy is harmless, but his quirk is dangerous to me since he can see right through my persona."

"He probably doesn't even realize how valuable his ability can be if he put his mind to it. One For All always did have residual traces of past users within it so my aura being mixed isn't surprising."

"Zeke sensing the comparison between All Might and myself is and if I'm not careful, I could endanger both of us if he were to figure out my identity…" Looking at the boy next to him, he saw no logical way out of the boy's wishes without arousing suspicion.

"Alright, I'll allow you to view my aura," Zeke could already feel a "but" coming along, "But on the condition that you tell nobody about what you see and feel from me. Are we clear young Zeke?

"Crystal sir." he said with another happy smile directed towards the man.

Activating his quirk, the markings around his eyes returned and he could finally see the beautiful aura this man possessed once again. The golden tone that was surrounded by a rainbow of other colors made themselves known and it made his entire being cheerful.

"It hasn't changed a bit, Mr. Toshinori."

"Ugh.."

"Wait a minute, what am I feeling here?" Grabbing his head, he attempted to make sense of the rush of information that was flooding into his head. "Damn it."

"I'm hearing so much and it's all so jumbled up." Unable to process what is happening, the only thing he can do is focus as much as he can for anything that can give him some sign of what's happening.

"Dedicate your heart."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"Young man are you ok?" Snapped back to reality, he was looking at a very worried Toshinori who had nothing but concern for him after he spaced out.

"It was like you zoned out there. I had to shake you a bit before you snapped out of whatever was happening."

"Has this ever happened to you while using your quirk on Aizawa or Tsukauchi?" He asked with his voice laced with concern.

"No, not at all. I'm not even sure what made me zone out sir."

Toshinori knew all too well that he might not understand what's happening, but even he knows when a quirk is in dire need of development and training.

"As long as you are ok, then I won't press further on your quirk, but I would advise you to talk with Aizawa when he gets back. He may be able to help you with the difficulties your quirk gives you."

"Yes sir, I'll let him know about what happened as soon as I see him again."

"Also do you know how long he'll be gone? He's only been gone for half a day and I'm already bored again." While he said this with confidence, he couldn't help but worry as he was skeptical of him fighting crime at night anyway. "He could get ambushed plus no wonder he's always so damn tired."

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure that Aizawa has a good reason for being gone so long. Just have faith in him. He is a dedicated Pro Hero after all," finishing with yet another warm smile that had a calming effect on Zeke.

"You're right. I'll have faith until he comes back."

"I'm sure they are fine, young Zeke."

"They?"

"Good job, Toshinori. You almost blew it," he thought quickly to himself.

Realizing his massive slip up, he hurriedly attempted to salvage the situation at hand. "Y-Yes, Aizawa sometimes works in groups during his shifts in order to complete them more efficiently."

Zeke didn't even need to use his quirk to realize he was being lied to again. "He's definitely lying. Where are you Mr. Aizawa."

"That makes sense I guess. I hope he comes back soon." He stated going along with the obvious lie that is being presented to him.

An awkward silence filled the room before Toshinori broke it by beginning to leave the room. "I'm sorry about this, but I have to take an important phone call. I'll be right outside if you need me ok."

Nodding to the man in understanding, Toshinori walked out the door before closing it behind him. Looking at his phone, he began to worry as something was stopping his call from being pushed through to Torino or Eraser.

"Where are you two?" He thought before closing his phone. "I hope they're ok and unharmed."

Making their way to the back entrance, Aizawa and Torino had begun making their way to the inside of the building and as there wasn't a sign of anyone near the exit, it had been smooth sailing so far.

"This isn't right, where the hell is everyone?" Aizawa said. "It's far too quiet for this to be the meeting spot."

"Stop moving for a minute and tell me what you smell. I've got the feeling we're walking into something entirely different than what we may have been expecting." Torino stated

Sniffing the air, Aizawa came to the conclusion that something foul had unfortunately happened here. "Blood." he said.

"And there's far too much of it in the air to be old," Torino added. "We should hurry to the main room."

Nodding, both men picked up the pace on their way to the center of the building and as they continued to get closer, the smell became stronger and stronger.

"This is bad…" Aizawa thought grimly, "Expecting no casualties was far too optimistic."

Reaching the main area and pushing open the double doors, both men were absolutely horrified by what they saw. Dozens of bodies sliced and scattered along the floor as if someone had held them in place while killing them.

"What the hell happened here!?" Torino exclaimed.

"I'm honestly not sure, but whatever did this may still be here so watch your back," He finished saying while his quirk had begun to activate. "I get the feeling that we are not alone right now."

As if on cue, Aizawa noticed out of the corner of his eye a figure that had slowly begun to stalk them almost like a predator watching his prey. "Torino he's-" he started.

Moving at a blinding speed the masked man had propelled himself through the air with a sword attempting to slash both men at once. He missed Eraser, but Torino caught a deep slash in his left arm unable to propel himself out of the way in time. "Damn it, he got me."

"Fakes."

"You are all unworthy and for that you must die."

Aizawa began readying his capture gear knowing a fight was about to begin as he looked at the masked man with his gaze and noticed he was covered head to toe in blood.

"I take it, you killed these people here?" Aizawa asked.

"They were monsters who served an unjust master. They got what they deserved."

"And who are you to play judge, jury and executioner?" Torino asked in anger.

Lifting his blade to his mouth, the man stuck his tongue out and licked some of the blood that was dripping off of it from his slash against Torino. "W-What!"

"Eraser…" Torino yelped. "I can't move."

The man left Eraser no time to react to this comment as he leapt to them with his blinding speed and sword in hand ready to slash them again. "Don't get cut, if you do then you get paralyzed once he licks it." Torino exclaimed, still unable to move.

"What the hell kind of quirk is that?"

"Great now I've gotta protect him and fight. This is ridiculous." Aizawa pondered before readying himself to move.

Leaping off the ground with his quirk still active, he attempted to turn his quirk off and have Torino grab and hold him down to subdue him. The man was already hard to see with his speed and it was extremely dark inside of the building so it was already a struggle just attempting to dodge. "I can't even see where he's moving in order for me to turn his quirk off." He thought.

Dodging yet another sword slash, he made an attempt to punch him and deploy his gear to restrain him manually. The masked man saw through this and began slashing erratically, cutting pieces of the gear off little by little. "I've gotta pull back before he destroys it completely!" Aizawa thought to himself.

"Where is All Might? Only he is worthy to face me." The masked man asked in annoyance.

Still in hot pursuit of Aizawa, the man increased his speed once again to aim a slash at his head only to be met with a knee to the face along with Aizawa diving at him with his gear being deployed as well. He managed to finally snag his right arm, but completely missed the army knife being held in his left hand as it came crashing down into the same knee that had hit him.

"Fuck, that hurt." He grimiced, but continued deploying his gear until said man was fully wrapped on the floor incapacitated.

Finally getting a chance to see him clearly, he activated his quirk and turned off whatever the hell had paralyzed Torino. "Who are you and what are you doing here tonight?" Aizawa asked.

The masked man by this point had almost been completely wrapped head to toe in his deployment gear and had stopped struggling. Instead he sat up and kept his gaze towards the floor, almost like he was watching and waiting for something.

"My name is Stain and the reason these fools are dead here today is due to my own hand causing their downfall. They went around masquerading as the perpetrators of the attack weeks ago, but we both know that isn't true."

"What are you talking about, brat?" Torino asked.

"We both know that the cause of that destruction wasn't villains. Instead I remember seeing a child in the center of it all." Still looking down at the floor the only thing that could be heard in the silence that followed was the blood dripping from Aizawa's knee.

"Someone like that cannot be allowed to live. The danger to the civilians is far too great and you even coerced All Might into helping you save that monster. He'd have been better off being killed by me had you heroes not hid him away afterwards."

Hearing enough of this nonsense, Torino spoke up, "You won't be killing anyone anymore. Tartarus welcomes criminals like you with open arms."

"You..You can't stop me! You WON'T stop me! That child is as good as dead once I escape from here and the only person worthy enough to end me is ALL MIGHT!" Diving on the floor he quickly licked the blood near Aizawa paralyzing him and moving out of his line of sight once again before his quirk could cancel it out again.

"Damn it, why didn't I realize that's why he kept looking away from me. He was waiting until the blood puddle was big enough." He thought angrily.

Moving again to hide himself along the shadows, Torino had already begun boosting him and Aizawa towards the nearest window attempting to break through and escape before more harm could come to them. "He's got both of our blood and this Stain is basically too much for us to handle right now." Torino stated.

"Overall, I'd say the two of us could take him right now, but his quirk leaves little room for error and combine that with your knee being compromised, I'd rather you be at 100% when fighting someone like this."

Breaking through the window with ease thanks to his boosting ability, Torino began propelling himself even faster than normal attempting to put as much space between the two as possible. It didn't do much as a knife was flung from inside the building at such a speed it didn't leave much time to react to.

"Torino, look out!" Aizawa exclaimed before maneuvering his body to take the blow for him so as to not slow him down.

"Eraser, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, just don't slow down or we'll be in even deeper shit than we already are." He said while pulling the knife out of his shoulder.

Landing on a rooftop a few buildings away, Torino attempted to call Toshinori for back up only to get static from the other end. "Signal's blocked."

Realizing what this meant, both men felt a surge of anger and annoyance in themselves for walking into a deadzone. "That man planned for this to happen." Aizawa stated.

"I think you're right, Eraser. The signal's probably been blocked since our talk on the rooftop as well."

Thinking back to Stain's words while fighting, Aizawa remembered something that made his stomach drop. "Didn't he mention something about going after the kid?"

"..."

Not wasting any more time, Torino hastily grabbed Aizawa and propelled himself off the building in the direction towards the hospital Zeke was currently located in. "I still can't get anyone on the other line. I think the signal is being jammed in this entire area. This isn't a deadzone, they've hacked into the network and blocked us entirely!"

"Don't worry, I'm still much faster than that maniac so we should still beat him back to the hospital with time to spare."

"I hope you're right."

A few blocks down from the warehouse, Stain had made his way to his new "allies" in his quest to continue his mission. "Hurry up and do your thing before those two can make it to the hospital and alert their friends."

"Kurogiri, open up a warp gate for our new comrade."

"Do not mistake this makeshift temporary alliance for true comradery. Once I'm through killing these fakes along with the boy, you people are next." Stain said with venom.

"Don't worry, we hate heroes just as much as you so as long as you do your job, we'll help anyway we can."

The man in front of him began scratching his neck rapidly, almost like he was trying to get rid of something out of his control. "How sickening." Stain thought before his mind trailed elsewhere.

"You put on quite the show for us, Hero Killer. Try not to get a game over while you're on hard mode. It'd be no fun if you ended up having to restart the game after having made so much progress." The blue haired man said with a grin hidden amongst the hand that covered his face.

"Hmph… we will meet again and I will kill you." Stain said.

Stepping through the portal Kurogiri had opened took him to the hospital, Zeke was being held and the moment he did a sickening aura filled the boy's sense with fear and a sense of death.

"What the-!" Zeke had no idea why he was terrified, but was sure that if he didn't get out of this bed right now, he'd be killed.

"Mr. Toshinori, where are you?" He yelled. "Damn, why isn't he answering?"

Getting up out of bed, he made his way to the door to open it and find Toshinori before finding someone crumpled at his feet. "Mr Toshinori!"

"Wake up, I think somethings wrong here. We're in danger and we've gotta get help!" Nudging the man did nothing as he was seemingly unconscious, he noticed the guards assigned to him we're out cold as well.

"Don't breathe it in." Not really sure why his brain was telling him this he took a deeper look and saw that the entire area had been surrounded by a thick purple gas that had just shown signs of finishing its use.

"It's sleeping gas. What the hell is going on?" He thought before covering his nose and mouth with his shirt before running back to the room and shutting the door tight behind him.

"Ok this is bad and anyone worth their salt is knocked out. Why is this happening?"

A knife soon pierced its way through his hospital window and landed near his head and into a wall. Along the broken window stood a man, ducked out in a dark combat suit, plated with metal armor across his body. "We meet at last, boy."

"My name is Stain and tonight will be the day you die. I don't feel any pleasure in what's about to happen," Sliding his sword off his back he took a few steps towards Zeke and the boy's heart just about dropped out of his chest. "Take solace in the fact that your death will bring many others peace."

For the first time he could remember since being here, Zeke understood what true fear and terror looked like.

"He'll kill me. He's really going to kill me." Panicking he wondered what he should do. "Maybe if I talk with him he'll let me go."

"He's freaking insane of course that won't work."

"Am I gonna die here?" A voice breathed new life into his resolve before the despair could truly set in.

"Fight."

"Fight."

"Fight."

Standing up to meet this "Stain" person eye to eye, he immediately thought of that word with fire and determination filling his soul.

"Fine." Zeke muttered to himself with a desire to fight back and protect himself. "If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get asshole."

"If I don't fight then I die, so I'll beat you and live."

"That's a promise." And with his declaration to this assassin, their fight to the death had begun.