Old Lady Kato was quick to retrieve Izuku from the front door where he stood, staring quietly after Ito-san. Her tone was no-nonsense and stern, but Izuku was grateful for the distraction since he couldn't quite place what he was feeling after Ito-san left. His stomach felt cold and he could still feel the warmth from her hug on his cheek. He forced himself to turn away from the door.

"Are those your things?" The woman made eye contact with him, her eyes a steely blue that bore into his own as she gestured down at his meager belongings.

"Yes ma'am." Izuku nodded.

"Very well. I will take you to the children's building."

"You mean this isn't where I am staying?"

"No, indeed not. This is the main building of the Kibonoshi estate. The only person who lives here is Kibonoshi-sama, even the staff have their own private housing on the grounds. You will be with the other boys at Koei house, the smallest building on the estate."

"Oh."

She looked down at him. "Normally, children are brought here via Fuhai-sama. They typically report directly to Koei house, so it is odd for you to be brought by your previous social worker." She peered at him, and Izuku felt the distinct sensation that she was looking at him as if he were a very interesting bug.

"The family I was staying with before was close enough that Ito-san wanted to bring me, but far enough that Akui-san didn't want to go out of his way if he didn't have to..." He trailed off, nearly uncertain as to why he had begun explaining in the first place seeing as it really wasn't any of this woman's business.

She hummed in acknowledgment as they walked through the ornate halls of the Kibonoshi estate. "Most of the children here have a variety of issues since we are generally a 'last stop' before moving them into a juvenile facility. I haven't received your paperwork yet though so I am mostly unaware of your situation. As it is, you likely won't be seeing very much of me."

"What do you mean?" Even though he was interested in the answer, it was significantly less interesting than his surroundings. Every winding hallway they turn through revealed more elaborate finery. Compared to the stark modernity embedded into the compound he has spent most of his life, the Kibonoshi Estate oozed refinement, excess, and superiority.

He felt small despite himself, his sweaty fingertips gripping even tighter into the trash bag containing his meager possessions.

"I am in charge of managing the estate. Not the children. There are several people you will be spending time with more directly." She explained, her pace once again leaving him nearly four feet behind her, distinctly struggling to listen and respond properly. "As I said before, there are currently three other children living on the facility grounds. There are also two staff members as well who will handle any issues that may arise as well as your educational activities. Most of your schooling will therefore be self-directed although they will monitor your progress. I also mentioned the part-time work on the estate when speaking to your previous social worker."

Izuku nodded.

"Technically, you are allowed to refuse participation in that work. In practice, your position within the facility is dependent upon it. You will, however, be learning more regarding that subject later. It is more important right now for me to inform you of the rules you will have to abide by."

Izuku stared at her back as she walked slightly faster than his shorter legs could move. Fortunately, by that point, they had made their way through much of the main manor building of the estate and into what could only technically be referred to as a backyard. He shivered despite himself, the cold wind chilling him near immediately.

The entire estate was surrounded by trees that towered high, high above Izuku's head, and in between the buildings and the trees that dotted the outer perimeter of the estate, smaller varieties of trees had been planted against a network of hedging that ran parallel to stone footpaths that Old Lady Kayo led him down confidently. It was too cold for flowers - Izuku knew that - but even without them, the image of the expansive gardens flowering to life was almost enough to bring a grin to his face.

"You will be assigned your own room." She stated firmly as the two strode down the winding path. "It will be your responsibility to keep it neat and tidy. Although Koei house is smaller than most of the buildings on the estate, it is big enough not to require shared quarters. The room will be regarded - as many things are within the confines of the estate - as a privilege."

Izuku could still barely keep up with the swift pace the woman maintained, and he had to actively prevent his trash bag full of possessions from dragging harshly against the rough footpath. Instead it bounced heavily against the back of his knees as he jogged to keep up, the crinkling of the plastic nearly distracting him. It didn't seem to matter though since the older woman continued speaking even without his acknowledgment.

"Privileges being revoked are the primary means of punishment within Koei house." She explained. "You will not be beaten. No one in the estate should attempt to physically harm you at any point. If such an action is taken against your person, you are to inform me or of the other employees. If it is an employee who has done so, I am to be notified immediately. This applies to you as well." At this point, she did look back at him for a moment. "Physical violence perpetrated by any resident of the facility is treated very harshly. The first provable incident will have any allotted privileges revoked and will increase the number of hours you will work for the estate permanently. The second occurrence will have you remanded to a juvenile facility. It is preferable that you simply inform someone that you would like to remove yourself from the facility rather than cause fights with the other children. Do you understand?"

Izuku swallowed, his throat felt very dry. He very much did not understand. Still, Old Lady Kato seemed to accept his reticence to answer as agreement and instead continued explaining the assortment of rules he would be responsible for following. "Meals will be served promptly, breakfast at seven a.m., lunch at noon, and dinner at six p.m. You are allowed to refrain from any meal, however, alternates will not be provided. I recommend you arrive early as the employees in the facility have a tendency to lock the doors on the minute. When we arrive, after you leave your possessions in the bedroom provided to you, I will escort you to the common room to meet your new foster siblings."

"Oh." His stomach flipped suddenly. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Not for now. You will likely learn everything else necessary while living here."

The rest of the walk was nearly silent where Izuku stumbled behind her quietly, trying to keep his possessions from spilling out of the quickly degrading bag that contained them. Eventually, the building bloomed into view as they exited the thick hedging. The most prominent feature of the building that greeted them was the extensive wrought iron fence wrapping around every side of his new home, reaching out approximately thirty feet from the barren four corners of the building. The footpath led through the iron gates, snaking through an immaculate lawn. The building itself was stark, open windows peeking out at him as he followed inside.

Unlike the main Kibonoshi building, where gaping rooms felt near empty, the foyer walls of Koei house seemed closer than they actually were, crowding him. He shivered.

The walk to his rooms was short, which Izuku was beginning to appreciate given the sheer distance there had been between this building and the other. His legs had begun to ache as he had been forced to keep up with the older woman. Unfortunately for his quickly tiring legs, the stop was short. He barely had a few minutes to deposit his possessions before he was being whisked firmly back downstairs towards the common area.

Izuku tried to take note of the way toward the rooms connected to each other, the way they joined each hallway and how to make his way back to his own room, but before they had taken three turns, he had managed to lose his sense of direction in his foriegn environment. Fortunately, Old Lady Kato seemed to know the way quite well and before long they were standing at the outer most edge of the room.

"It's late enough that they are having some free time, so you will be able to meet everyone. Come along."

Izuku nodded though he was fairly certain that the gesture was once again ignored. Instead he found himself led firmly into the room where three people were apparently trying to wind down. He blinked at them.

Once. Twice. A third time.

The eldest boy in the corner bolted upright upon noticing him and the older woman who had led him downstairs.

"Shit!" He dropped whatever he had had in his hands, his green eyes flashing black suddenly as the object - was that a marble? - suddenly phased through the floor. "Sorry! Sorry! I wasn't expecting ya'll to barge in like that!"

The woman who escorted him cleared her throat in obvious remonstration. "Izuku, meet Chouka Hikari. He is our eldest resident currently. And, apparently, he is someone who wants to get himself into trouble, considering there isn't anyone currently monitoring his quirk usage."

"I was approved for practice on the marbles!" The older boy protested quickly. The older woman hummed deeply, probably disbelieving him.

"I'll overlook it for now, I have better things to do than chase down minor quirk violations - that said, don't let me catch you at this again. Anyway, Chouka, this is Midoriya Izuku. Our newest addition to Koei house.

The noise they had made had apparently brought the attention of the other two children in the room although only one decided to emerge from where they had stationed themselves. The girl who approached him had bright fuschia hair that nearly gave Izuku pause for a moment as she introduced herself.

"Ei Eiko, squirt." She peered at him with blue eyes that Izuku could barely believe existed.

He flushed when he realized he had been staring at her for a minute, "Sorry. Midoriya Izuku."

She laughed at him. "Not a problem, not a problem. I just hope you're more entertaining than the last shrimp we got here."

"Shrimp?"

Eiko and Hikari grinned at him before one nodded to the only other person in the room who had, for all that Izuku could see, ensconced himself in a deep pile of blankets. "Well, three weeks ago, another kid your age transferred in-"

The older woman who had led him here cleared her throat. "If you are all settled, Midoriya, I will take my leave." She shot the two older children a look before heading out of the room, "Do not be too rough on the boy, please. And please make certain he can find his way back to his bedroom."

Eiko ignored the look quite easily and continued on from where she had been interrupted. "As I was saying-"

"Oi, you bonehead, as I was saying," Hikari interjected and was summarily ignored.

"He's not allowed to talk." She spit out over the boy, rolling her eyes. "Probably something to do with his quirk. Anyway, Dr. Kibonoshi has been keeping him muzzled to prevent him from talking to anyone."

"Muzzled?"

"Yup, with a bit and everything. Hence why we don't have more than his name to work with. Shinsou Hitoshi. The Old Lady won't say anything about any of our pasts - says its a breach of privacy-"

"Well it is," Hikari said loudly.

"- so we've been speculating on how bad he's had it in the system to refuse to leave."

"What do you mean by that?"

The two shot looks back and forth that Izuku was unable to distinguish before Eiko seemed to come to a decision, "How long have you been in the system, kid?"

"About two days."

Both Eiko and Hikari's eyes grew larger with surprise before Hikari spoke, "Jeez kid! No wonder you don't seem to know anything. You really don't know nothing. Alright. I'll start at the beginning then. I suppose you got taken away from your parents by the government-"

"I wasn't."

The older boy paused again. "Alright then, how did you end up here?"

Izuku frowned. Honestly he wasn't quite certain how much he should tell these two. He finally decided on a very bare bones version of what had happened. "I was wandering around outside and it was getting cold so I went into a store and they called the police who took me to a family, and then I was brought here."

Eiko pursed her lips, "So, you weren't in the system already. That's really strange. Most kids who come through are either last chance system cases or involuntary enrollment cases. Did you have an extremely violent quirk episode?"

"No. I'm quirkless." Izuku lied easily.

Hikari gaped openly, "No fucking way!"He exchanged a glance with the girl beside him, who looked equally startled, before continuing, "Dude, this shit doesn't just happen! Most of the kids who end up here have issues with issues! Either kids who haven't legally broken any law but are too wild to handle or people who have had crazy violent quirk episodes. People don't just get dumped in cushy gigs like this for no reason."

"Cushy gig?" Eiko snorted loudly from where she perched herself on a nearby couch. "I suppose it's better than prison. And at least I ain't getting pimped out by my dad like I was before the government got their hands on me."

Izuku stared at her startled and she laughed a high tinkling sound.

"I was an involuntary enrollment case. Mostly it's the same as regular foster care admission, but unless I commit an actual crime I can't be removed from the estate. It's either here or prison for me." She explained briefly.

Hikari snorted loudly. "Ignore her, she's a fucking drama queen. What did the Old Lady tell you about 'work', shrimp? They must've told you something before sticking you here of all places."

"Not much."

"Figures. They like to leave the important shit to lifers like us. Besides it's not like the Attendants are gonna tell him anything useful." Hikari groaned at the girl beside him. "Anyway, whether you got snapped up by the quirk police or thrown out by the foster system, you've ended up at the end of the line. Congrats. Hope you aren't wishing for someone to swoop in and adopt you either. That shit don't fly. You've got three options here."

"Shut up, Hikari." Eiko snarled her expression contorting suddenly from its previous equiminity. "Ignore him, Izuku-"

"What? Are you gonna pretend running away isn't an option. We all know it's possible."

"Tell a seven year old to run away? Jesus, Hikari, I was pissed enough that you were encouraging Aka to run off - especially since the moron actually ran off and did it. Starting this up will get all of us punished. Again."

"Lay off, I was saying it was an option, because it is an option! I'm not gonna start lying to the kid for no reason." He focused his attention back on Izuku who was at this point staring at the two much older teenagers with wide eyes.

"Who is Aka?"

"Ah, shit." Hikari glared at Eiko again, "Now look who is breaking rules." He sighed while the girl pouted for a moment. "Aka doesn't matter, shrimp. He's just a kid who ran off back in October. It's a nickname we gave the idiot. He wasn't a big fan of his last name and he didn't want us using his first." Hikari ran his hand through his hair, "Just do us a favor and don't mention him. Especially in front of the Attendants. They'll wanna know where you heard the name, and that'll make trouble for us since we aren't supposed to talk about him. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

Eiko chimed in, her voice sickly sweet, "Weren't we discussing the terrible things someone must've done to Shinsou to get him to live here while wearing a fucking muzzle?"

Hikari scoffed, "You can be such a bitch, Eiko." He refocused his attention on Izuku. "Right. Your options. Number one, as Eiko has so generously suggested, is trying to run away." He gave Izuku a once over. "You're what? Seven? I totally wouldn't recommend this route. You probably won't last very long before getting dumped back in the system, and with the record of a cushy dig like this on you, you'll probably get dumped directly into juvie, and trust me Mr. Quirkless, you probably won't do very well there."

Izuku swallowed, his mouth suddenly very dry at the doom Hikari had managed to inject into his voice.

"Next, option two," the older boy continued. "Stay put. Work for the assholes in charge. Do your time quietly for Dr. Kibonoshi and the rest of the patented assholes at this facility. Turn eighteen and get the hell out. It's what I'm doing." The older boy shuddered lightly. "It won't be easy and your going to have to learn to put up with some stuff that you probably don't want to, but it's the safest most realistic way of getting out."

"Not to mention," Eiko chimed in suddenly, "after you age out, they give you a huge indemnity payment after you're finally old enough to legally be able to sign those NDAs." At Izuku's look of confusion she explained, "Non-disclosure agreement. It'll cover your entire stay here. Means you can't say anything to anybody about anything you've seen here. They're no joke too. For someone like you, it would be the best way for you to get a nest egg together."

"Yeah, yeah." Hikari waved off her addition. "Those are just a rumor, Eiko. You can't just say shit that isn't true and act like it's something to seriously consider." The boy shook his head before once again refocusing on Izuku who had, for most of this conversation, been quietly shifting his weight back and forth between his increasingly tired legs. "Your last option, then. Ask for juvie. They will immediately remove you from the program. Like seriously. Immediately. Last guy who did it as a joke was pulled from the facility within twenty-four hours. You cannot take it back either. Anyway. See previous argument regarding the reasons you should avoid this."

Izuku wasn't quite certain how to react to this influx of information to be perfectly frank. His head was spinning with everything that Hikari and Eiko had told him, and he was getting increasingly concerned about this work that everyone was talking about, but it wasn't as if he had anywhere specific he wanted to go. Although, Koei house was a bit intimidating, Izuku had spent years learning to survive within his father's orbit. He could - would - handle whatever this place could throw at him.

"I want to stay." His voice is firm, and for right now, Izuku really means it. He may not know everything about whatever is going on here, from whatever oddity work is to the strange kid who apparently wanders around with a muzzle on, but he wants to be more than a dirty secret hidden away by his father.

And one day, whether he knows it right now or not, Izuku is going to be more than anyone ever thought he could be.